OK you have a right to your opinion... and so do we. Several of us have seen PB Protected Games get hacked through like a hot knife through butter. Sure PB will work on low level cheating, but you think the main abusers/speedhackers/scriptors don't already have people working on PB Hacks? There are websites littering the internet with them... and next time I suggest you acyually RESEARCH, not just look up some keywords I typed. Look through some of the sites listed when you search and see for yourself (I DID unlike you apparently). Some of the sites may be hackers looking to hack your PC, not a game, by having you DL there proggies sure, but there are a ton of real hack programs out there that make PB worthless in many of our opinions. And quite honestly I would actually laugh my self to death if I found out of a UO Hacker-Would-Be get their PC destroyed in the process of Downloading such hacks... can you say Karma?
"It doesn't work" is very subjective. Define to me what does work? 100% cheat free? 90%? 80? PB is a company solely dedicated to stopping cheats. Yes there are those dedicated to out-flanking it.. as they are dedicated to cheating against any entity that would try to stop them. Yes I know it gets hacked. I believe you. All of us would be naive to think otherwise.
But currently in UO, anyone who was even slightly curious about automating their toon could have a script up and running by the end of the day and run these cheats with little or no worry about any action against them.
While your out researching what doesn't work, try looking around for what does work. Tell me any current popular online game that is completely rid of all cheating and what single solution they have that works. Oh... I'll save you the time. There isn't one. I know this and I didn't even look.
PB is a partial solution. It isn't 100%. But as they build a wider client base and take on more staff to do their job effectively, the ratio of hack to honest play gets better and better. PB nets would catch lots of little fish. Mythic won't ban them (at first) they don't want to loose the income. But PB won't let them play either so they (the little fish) must chose:
1) stop being bad little fish and start being good little fish
2) stop being bad little fish and start being bad big fish
3) quit
Why I am such a fan of a centralized company focusing on cheating:
Cost - (theoretical numbers to illustrate a point)
10 (good) engineers dedicated to 8 hours+/day to stopping exploits would carry a combined annual salary of roughly 1 million once you added in the overhead.
10 companies subscribing to a service that that employs these engineers pays 200k/year for the service.
PB makes 2 million - 1 million in cost netting 1 million in profit
All companies subscribing to the service save 800k/year from employing these resources themselves.
Productivity -
A single company employing resources to stop cheating are exposed mainly to hacks used in their game. This reduces their ability to fight the latest and greatest hacks as they(hacks) rotate from game to game and adapt. There will reach a point of saturation where these resources sit idle as they are un-aware of new hacks going on in their game.
A central company selling a service is exposed to a wider variety of cheats and can implement solutions across the board that stops cheats from getting into other games before they have a chance to propagate. Experience compounds excellence.
Accountability -
PB
has to deliver results. If it doesn't then no one would pay for the service. Just like the trial scan of an AV demo has to prove it can find viruses and before you actually buy. If you buy AV software... and still get viruses regularly, you aren't going to keep paying for it (are you?). There will reporting before and after implementation. There will be players that will report discrepancies in detail to be addressed. If it doesn't work we will know. It will be obvious.
Out-sourcing resources for this also makes the game more pure. No interdepartmental bickering over who isn't doing their job. If PB doesn't work it will be Mythic raising hell with them. Not jabbering internally because so and so didn't do his part. No blaming the dev team for writing code that was easy to hack. The line is drawn and clear: Mythic makes games, PB polices hackers.
Dedication -
It's a two way street here. Once there is a signature on the line that is dotted. Then that's it. While Mythic can probably get out of the contract if PB fails to deliver, Mythic can't get out of the contract to save a buck. The general terms are usually written for three years. If so, that's three years of PB (if it meets the designed goals). No moving PB engineers to other projects inside of EA and no moving EA engineers to PB. Dedicated resources to stop cheating and nothing else for the life of the contract.
Punishment - (my favorite)
My number one reason to do this. Right now there are very few drawbacks to cheating. Those that script for profit can reap mass amounts of wealth while only worrying about getting banned. Very rarely would there ever be any legal repercussions to their mis-deeds. I say that's just fine. I'd rather the police spend their time finding killers and rapists anyway.
Of the highest penalty PB abusers can win a global ban from attempting to connect to any game using their service. So not only will they be banned from a single game, but if they abuse it hard enough they won't be playing any PB protected games. I really like this. It ups the ante for what a hacker is willing to loose. All companies producing online games need to come together to stop cheating. And right now PB is the only kid on the block that can do it for them.