Well to be honest I prefer "script driven" single player FPS games and RTS PC (only) games to multiplayer/online games. I've always been concerned about security.

Some of my favourite SP games like the COD, MOHand DF series have strong online communities and I have dabbled playing the various games ... mainly deathmatch it seems. I had no "problems" playing these games apart from getting shot by my more experienced opponents. That's fine.

The game I'm currently immersed in, Men of Valor, is a great, if somewhat underappreciated Vietnam game (see my review ... it IS a very good SP game). Anyway come early December 2008 I'm playing this game online in team deathmatch mode in the city of Hue when suddenly I hear the Mission Impossible theme and the sound or rapid keystrokes coming out of my computer. The next thing I hear is Chinese (I know Chinese when I hear it) talking and music coming from my speakers. Is this part of the game? No it isn't. So I exit the game. Chinese audio continues for a while but stops. So my computer's OK right? Wrong!

I then decide to play MOHPA offline and I'm wandering through a steamy jungle on Guadalcanal and it's that damned Chinese audio again. I exit the game but the Chinese audio continues. I restart the computer the Chinese audio starts up and IE (based on Windows Task Manager graphs) is sending and receiving data like crazy and my 4 CPUs are at almost 100% ... yet I'm doing nothing. I check my IE logs ... a lot of Chinese websites I've never visited/heard of are showing. I scan, rescan and rescan again my PC ... nothing shows up!

I contact Norton ... they acknowledge the problem and try to identify suspect files and a few are rempotely deleted by their technicians but the Chinese audio resumes with each restart. Norton recommends disconnecting the PC from the internet router and advise they will contact in 2 days. OK. Meanwhile I connect my laptop and start investigating the problem as best as I can. I notice a file called "taskmagr.exe" (note the extra "a") and start googling it ... seems it is a trojan ... I then google "taskmagr.exe chinese" and find several similar reports of the problem I have on different computer forums.

I patiently wait for Norton to call back 2 days pass, then 3 ... I finally decide to get my PC reformatted and programs reinstalled by my PC supplier. This costs $180 and the Norton remote assistance service cost $140 ... you can buy a lot of games for that! Anyway while my computer was at the store Norton rings back after 4 days and says that the problem is the "taskmagr.exe" and that they are ready to solve my problem. I said I was aware of that ... obviously Norton were busy with the Microsoft IE exploit that was concurrent with my "problem".

Well ... perhaps I should have waited longer for Norton to get back to me (if it happens again I will) ... but fears of others having access to my bank account and other personal information plus what seemed to be happening with my PC as a node along some information freeway with data travelling in/out of my PC I felt I had to act.

So now I have resolved to avoid online play (perhaps not forever, but for a while anyway) ... the server I played MOV on when I first noticed the problem was called "Necro ...." something or other, there were always a few players on there and I had played there without trouble before ... but you just never know. So if you find yourself playing any online FPS games and you see another player called "Perth2008" it's not likely to be me! Not for a while anyway. My pre-Christmas online experience was not a good one ...

What some have suggested, which may not be practical for all of us, is to use a separate computer for gaming and general internet browsing and another for online banking, eBay, PayPal, etc. My PC is used for all these things as well as work from home ... hence my perhaps overcaution. Either way make regular backups of you key data (including saved game files, of course) just in case the bugs are unleashed on your computer!

Hopefully 2009 will be virus/hack/hijack free! I was fine for 5 years but you just never know!