Do any games "reveal" passwords like this?

[MJN SEIFER]

During a game, your character may find something, like a computer for example, that is password protected, but needs to look at it in the game for some reason. The game will contain an item (like a document) which reveals the actual password.

However, in real life that would be less likely - if there is a document containing the password, it's more likely to be only on the computer itself. To add a bit more realism (even if it's an unrealistic game) they could just hint to the password, through dialogue and things relating to whoever created the password.

For example; it could be mentioned that whoever created the password is "a fan of a book" (it could be real or fictional) and "identifies with a character" - so the player (who hasn't just given up and looked at a walkthrough) will be left to determine that the password must be that character's name, or something. That's just one example.

[Pike]

Interesting idea, I think it would be dropped from most games for being too opaque though. Ultimately the gameplay and how smoothly the player can be moved through the storyline is more important than realism.

[Del Murder]

This happens in games and movies all the time and it really amuses me. Someone sits at the computer and within minutes is able to figure out the password based on deduction or objects around the room. Who's actually passwords could be guessed in this way?

[Jinx]

"password"

[DMKA]

I like when they hit every key on the keyboard and then magically the computer does something.

[CimminyCricket]

"password"

P@s$w0rd

[Raistlin]

This happens in games and movies all the time and it really amuses me. Someone sits at the computer and within minutes is able to figure out the password based on deduction or objects around the room. Who's actually passwords could be guessed in this way?

This does happen all the time in movies and never fails to bug me. I'm not even some rich corporate genius or evil mastermind and my passwords would take more than a glance around my office and a couple guesses to crack.

It's an interesting concept, but I doubt it would be pulled off effectively to make it any less ridiculous than finding it written on a piece of paper somewhere (which is actually more likely to happen in real life).

[Vyk]

Social engineering for the (not so) win?

[Skyblade]

I like when they hit every key on the keyboard and then magically the computer does something.

I should lock my computer with the Sys Req key. It would keep it perfectly safe, because nobody even remembers that key anymore, let alone realizes that it might actually have a use.

[Masamunemaster]

Metal gear solid meryls codec?

[Madame Adequate]

IRL if you want to get someone's password what you do is call them up pretending to be tech support and needing their password.

But I doubt a "convince people over the phone" game would be all that hot a craze.

[Iceglow]

It is actually fairly common practice especially with businesses where an account is communal for example a shared login to an email system for the password to be written down. Sometimes it's even written on the actual case of the monitor itself or attached to it in the form of a post-it note or the like. However more secure passwords are likely to be harder to crack. Though when new starters begin in a job it would be fairly common practice for them to write down such things as passwords they are given initially which in some cases these will never change.

Once a password has been personalised however, forget it. You could find out that my password for EoFF for example is a quote from William Shakespeare but which one, I could have it set to something from my favourite play of his (that would be Macbeth) but would I necessarily use something obvious? Even if I did how about the various ways I could corrupt the spelling of such a quote to make a password strong, numerals for letters, punctuation marks in random places, shifting case letters. As an example here are 4 corruptions of 'To be or not to be' from Macbeth; '2bornot2b', 'ToB.0r.Not2b?', 'To.be.0r.n0t.to.be?' '280rn0728?' all are valid passwords and would trigger most password systems to rate the password as strong. In the end, unless your password system to begin with is pretty basic only allowing letters and there is a character limit in place, the chances of cracking it would be impossible without dedicated software to do it for you.

Now before y'all go running off and experiment trying to crack my password with quotes from Macbeth, I'm not a fool. That was just an example of what my password could be using the original post's rules. I think more games ought to include software hacking tools such as electronic cracking programs rather than the 'Hey here's the password to the system' documents that we see but then how can a game developer include features which encourage exploration and yet somewhat artificially increase the length of the game by having you hunt for half an hour around a location for a password.

[Pete for President]

140.15

[Aulayna]

During a game, your character may find something, like a computer for example, that is password protected, but needs to look at it in the game for some reason. The game will contain an item (like a document) which reveals the actual password.

However, in real life that would be less likely - if there is a document containing the password, it's more likely to be only on the computer itself. To add a bit more realism (even if it's an unrealistic game) they could just hint to the password, through dialogue and things relating to whoever created the password.

For example; it could be mentioned that whoever created the password is "a fan of a book" (it could be real or fictional) and "identifies with a character" - so the player (who hasn't just given up and looked at a walkthrough) will be left to determine that the password must be that character's name, or something. That's just one example.

The Secret World

[Spuuky]

Once a password has been personalised however, forget it. You could find out that my password for EoFF for example is a quote from William Shakespeare but which one, I could have it set to something from my favourite play of his (that would be Macbeth) but would I necessarily use something obvious? Even if I did how about the various ways I could corrupt the spelling of such a quote to make a password strong, numerals for letters, punctuation marks in random places, shifting case letters. As an example here are 4 corruptions of 'To be or not to be' from Macbeth; '2bornot2b', 'ToB.0r.Not2b?', 'To.be.0r.n0t.to.be?' '280rn0728?' all are valid passwords and would trigger most password systems to rate the password as strong. In the end, unless your password system to begin with is pretty basic only allowing letters and there is a character limit in place, the chances of cracking it would be impossible without dedicated software to do it for you.

Now before y'all go running off and experiment trying to crack my password with quotes from Macbeth, I'm not a fool.

Of course, it becomes much harder when you mix up your Shakespeare and attribute a quote from Hamlet to Macbeth. "My favorite Final Fantasy is FF6, so my password is S3ph1r0th!"

Anyway I manage a network for a living, and people's passwords are almost ALL some variation of the name of the company, their pet, their child, and a year of some significance to them. With 25 guesses and a cursory knowledge of an individual whose login I am responsible for I have a reasonable shot at guessing their password.

I never have to guess, though, since they do usually have it written down, and/or I can just ask whoever sits near them.