Stupidly obvious online safety and parenting tips from NCsoft
by Blake Snow 
{ Sep 6th 2006 at 1:00AM }
We know that companies can never assume anything about their customers for corporate legal purposes, but that still doesn't keep the stupidly obvious from being funny. Enter NCsoft's newly released tips and suggestions for their "PlaySmart" program. Here are some of our favorites:- Parents should review ratings of games to ensure they are age-appropriate (Eureka!)
- Never give out your credit card information
- Never give out personal information such as name or address
- Do not give out passwords or account information
[Thanks, cringer8]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
BLACK INFIDEL @ Oct 4th 2006 5:27AM
They are just trying to do whatever they can to avoid the feds getting involved in this arena. The electronic software industry is low on government oversight, and for good reason. The feds do a good job of mucking things up and creating stupid and unnecessary regulation which raises costs and drives down profits. Now everyone in the industry is trying to be as parent friendly as they can so they can keep self-regulating. I personally think they have been doing a pretty good job so far, and that the ESRB does a pretty good job of representing product. The public issue with video games are a media and politician created phenomenon. Because of that, NCSoft has to suck up a little to the parents.
Ritz @ Sep 6th 2006 1:19AM
My credit card number is 7548... I live at 2 Ritz London Way, London, United Kingdom, and my login information is user: default, password: password.
Hack me, plz.
LaughingTarget @ Sep 6th 2006 1:26AM
I find it comical how they presented the never give out credit card information part. Does that mean they don't want us paying for their monthly games?
fahmi @ Sep 6th 2006 1:50AM
aaah.. maybe there are people that stupid. for example, falling on nigerian scam?
Twist @ Sep 6th 2006 1:35AM
At least you password isn't love, secret, sex, or god ;)
Jonathan @ Sep 6th 2006 1:38AM
We may think it's stupid but tons of people fall for ploys for credit card information, and username/password stuff. My friends used to scam people out of that stuff, and you'd be pretty surprised.
Strike Man @ Sep 6th 2006 1:41AM
"My credit card number is 5764... I live at 1 Joystiq Way, Mushroom Kingdom, and my login information is user: admin, password: 1234."
1234? That's amazing! I've got the same combination on my luggage!
limerick @ Sep 6th 2006 1:50AM
*scratch*
I tried the username/password. Why doesn't it work?
cringer8 @ Sep 6th 2006 2:35AM
Nice "Space Balls" reference, Strike Man. Very few opportunities to use it and you nailed it with superb subtlety.
ill trooper @ Sep 6th 2006 3:22AM
Always new kids and youngsters coming online - never too much warning can be given, in my eyes. Yes it's obvious to most, but why not reiterate it for the new and uninformed?
Eih'Beir @ Sep 6th 2006 4:13AM
Username: GabeNewell Password: gaben
Eih'Beir @ Sep 13th 2006 2:28PM
My username is: GabeNewell password: gaben
Red Viking @ Sep 6th 2006 4:42AM
I agree with ill trooper.
Just because it seems ridiculously stupid to us doesn‘t mean it‘s useless information. Hell, Joystiq, you‘re forgetting that we savvy Internet veterans aren‘t the ones those tips are targeting. People are introduced to the Internet for the first time everyday so what seems like common sense to us may not be for others.
SoL @ Sep 6th 2006 5:22AM
"Nice "Space Balls" reference, Strike Man. Very few opportunities to use it and you nailed it with superb subtlety."
I prefer Twist's Hackers reference, bravo my friend, bravo.
BPM? @ Sep 6th 2006 5:21AM
[isert sign saying "You need to be as smart as this stick to use the Internet" here]
My credit card number is 6464... I live at 42 Kakariko Way, Hyrule Kingdom, and my login information is user: user, password: [none, just press enter].
Dave @ Sep 6th 2006 6:31AM
"Username: GabeNewell Password: gaben"
Yes! Brilliance!
Joe @ Sep 6th 2006 8:13AM
You accidently posted your password! Now I'm going to hax0r your mainframe!!!1
OtakuCODE @ Sep 6th 2006 9:22AM
They never actual useful tips. How about: No, you didn't win an Xbox 360/PSP/iPod and you can't get one for free. Several of my friends have kids that have gotten into hot water thanks to those tricky ads. A recent study revealed the most dangerous search you can perform on the Internet was 'free screensaver'. Kids and anyone else new to the online game need to be taught the difference between Good Free and Bad Free.
This goes doubly as much for porn-related content. Most people just don't want their kids to look at porn, so they don't bother even mentioning how to surf such high-risk (risk as in getting you loaded up with dialing programs, spyware, etc) sites safely. It's like not teaching sex ed in schools because you don't want kids having sex. It's a naive approach and you gain much by teaching them how to be safe.
If you've got a kid, I'd say put Linux on their PC and drill into their head that if they ever give out their address, phone number, etc to any website (too many parents only say not to give it to people in chat rooms and such... online predators are 1 in a million, scam sites that will send you a bill are infinitely more common) that they'll be grounded forever. Chuck out the net nanny or whatever and let them know you'll answer any questions they have - ANY questions.
Joel Anderson @ Sep 6th 2006 11:43AM
This one time a long time ago, my friend and I figured out Peer's password from IGN. I don't know if Peer's still there or not, but it was great. We could open up whole new forums and access everything. Then he changed it, because we were to scared to change it for him, plus I'm sure they could have overridden it.
ign-peer
faust
Bugmenot @ Sep 6th 2006 2:09PM
Username: Bugmenot
Password: Bugnot
littleredcaboose @ Sep 8th 2006 11:08PM
Doesn't anyone remember what's happening in Korea/NCsoft concerning ID theft? Google up "NcSoft identity theft"--NcSoft Korea is in big trouble, and may be facing millions of angry plaintiffs whose IDs were stolen (equivalent to our SS#s) so that the thieves could play and farm on Lineage. It's a real hoot to see this exec think he's playing Daddy Protector.