onlyamom...
There's no threat at all from playing the game itself, on
any system. Though there has been some hysteria circulating
recently about a program called "The Warden" which runs on
the World of Warcraft (WOW) server, it doesn't actually
pose a threat to your system's security.
As Peter Cohen, Senior Editor for MacCentral Game Room
columnist, Macworld notes in this post on Macworld:
"Warden doesn't collect personal information...Warden
checks processes to make sure you're not running anything
that is used to hack World of Warcraft to enable you to
cheat against the thousands of other WoW players that
are running the game legimitately.
[...]
"...calling this "spyware" is disingenous. Spyware gathers
user information, typically for advertising purposes,
then transmits that data over the Internet -- this doesn't
gather information, it monitors what you're doing when
you're playing the game to make sure you're not abusing
the game."
http://www.macworld.com/forums/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=UBB22&Number=362366&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1
If, prior to putting the game on your Mac, you didn't have
DSL hooked up, then hooking up DSL to it does pose a threat,
in that any computer that's hooked up to 24/7 connection and
has a relatively stable IP address assigned by your provider
is more at risk of being compromised.
That said, Macs in general are far less vulnerable to security
threats than Windows systems, and anyone with a high speed
connection should always take certain security precautions,
whether you're playing a game online or not. The connection
constitutes the threat, not the game.
Standard precautions include a firewall and an antivirus
program. An additional advantage exists for those who use
some common programs, available free on the internet, that
sniff out adware and other malware.
These standard precautions are discussed on this page from
the Blizzard World of Warcraft Community site:
http://www.blizzard.com/support/wow/?id=asi0462p
I've also written an extensive guide to a "bulletproof"
Windows system in this previous question. The general
guidelines are the same for Mac systems:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=568868
Please do not rate this answer until you are satisfied that
the answer cannot be improved upon by way of a dialog
established through the "Request for Clarification" process.
A user's guide on this topic is on skermit-ga's site, here:
http://www.christopherwu.net/google_answers/answer_guide.html#how_clarify
sublime1-ga
Additional information may be found from an exploration of
the links resulting from the Google searches outlined below.
Searches done, via Google:
"world of warcraft" security mac
://www.google.com/search?q=%22world+of+warcraft%22+security+mac |
Clarification of Answer by
sublime1-ga
on
24 Nov 2005 13:28 PST
onlyamom...
You asked:
"...will it harm our system, and will it slow down our system,
either by A: picking up something bad online, or B: from the
load the software itself puts on."
The game itself will not harm your system, assuming that
your system meets or exceeds the requirements for running
the game on a Mac, as given on this page from Amazon.com:
- OS X 10.3.5
- 933 MHz or higher G4 or G5 processor
- 512 MB RAM or higher; DDR RAM recommended
- ATI or NVIDIA video hardware with 32 MB VRAM or more
- 4 GB or more of available hard drive space
- 56k or higher modem with an Internet connection
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/detail/-/videogames/B000067FDW/tech-data/103-3743093-9955814
If your system meets or exceeds these requirements,
it is designed to handle the processing needed by
the game's software, and it won't, of itself, slow
or damage your computer.
Your system will, of course, be so busy while the
game is in progress that, during that time, you
would not want to use it for multi-tasking. You
would see that your computer might be slower in
responding to the work you tried to perform in a
spreadsheet if the game was running simultaneously.
Once the game is ended and closed, your system's
full resources would once again be available for
any other program you might want to use.
Any heavy activity, such as this game, can cause
fragmentation of the files on your hard drive, and
can eventually result in slowing your system down.
The use of a good defragmentation program can speed
things up again. My research indicates that iDefrag
is one of the best utilities for accomplishing this:
http://www.coriolis-systems.com/iDefrag.php
You can read some of the confusion and controversy
that surrounds the topic of defragmenting on this
page from the renowned Experts Exchange bulletin
board:
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Operating_Systems/Macintosh/Q_20426892.html
As for "picking up something bad online", again,
this is not so much an issue with visiting the
gaming website itself as it is an issue for any
24/7 DSL or Cable connection. I consider it a
requirement to have antivirus protection and a
firewall in both cases, and also recommend a
few other anti-malware programs, as noted in the
answer I gave previously about a "bulletproof"
system.
sublime1-ga
Searches done, via Google:
"world of warcraft" "system requirements"
://www.google.com/search?q=%22world+of+warcraft%22+%22system+requirements%22
defragment mac
://www.google.com/search?q=defragment+mac
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