WoW bans/closes 76,000 accounts

[TheKnight]

Yeah he lost like 2 60 characters and a 40, plus a few other asorded guys.

[TheWizza]

Originally Posted by Pirotess

Im completely against any type of spyware software being used regardless of how well intentioned the company putting it there is. I'd like to see them put more effort into securing their systems so hacks/bots/cheats cant be used from the client instead of figuring out how to invade my machine.

exactly, Warden is a cheap, easy, quick, system that makes catching cheaters easy... because it looks into everything running on your pc and then checks its hash against the known cheats list (and if you can find it they have found it).

If they had taken more time and money (and if they had cared about their customers just a little bit) they could easily have designed the game to flag macroers (and to a lesser degree "botters" because they dont repeat a cycle but are usually flagged by players anyways for the GMs) by noticing repeating cycles. I helped write a system like this for a MUD once years ago. It was not difficult to have the game check character files for usage stats and flag them for inspection. We automatically took samples from people logged in for more than 5 hours that day and checked the the actions, times, movements, and any chat and it logged it if it met the cheat, hacking, botting criteria.

[dprundle]

Hell yes I'd mind if they wanted to put a process sniffer on my computer. I wouldn't let them put a camera in my house to monitor me nor would I want them sniffing around on my computer where I keep my SS#, CC#'s, etc etc. Blizzard has no right for this. Why should I be monitored because their servers weren't coded well enough to stop the cheaters?

[Fyrestrom]

Originally Posted by dprundle

Hell yes I'd mind if they wanted to put a process sniffer on my computer. I wouldn't let them put a camera in my house to monitor me nor would I want them sniffing around on my computer where I keep my SS#, CC#'s, etc etc. Blizzard has no right for this. Why should I be monitored because their servers weren't coded well enough to stop the cheaters?

But people have no problem pumping in their personal information to pay for the game they play. Credit Card number, address, phone number, email address. Have you read the privacy policies? Who has time to read all that when all they want is to get into the game? I understand some people don't pay by credit, but maybe they bought the game card on a debit card. Somewhere out there, your numbers are floating around. How paranoid do you want to be?

[Tombstone]

I'm against cheating (Bots, buying gold, etc.) so yes, I'm happy that WoW killed all those accounts. I wouldn't have a problem with Vanguard doing it..

[larscw]

I would mind Vanguard doing this, I think they would be more then able to just monitor players activity on the server. if a player has unnatural high level gain, online times, income, just name it they could check into this and see where it came from.

Sure this would take more effort and I think Blizzard really went the easy way by accessing the pc's themselves. Can't say i like the thought of any company doing such thing though.

Wouldn't it for example be a sollution if the game would use a port and while the game run the rest would be locked off that wouldn't be needed for gameplay?

If this would be a sollution then, sure doing anything else then playing the game wouldn't be possible but atleast things like privacy would remain guarrenteed. Then if some program would open a port then game would either shut down, after mentioning this or through giving the game admin rights just refusing access.

[tehgeek]

Originally Posted by larscw

Wouldn't it for example be a sollution if the game would use a port and while the game run the rest would be locked off that wouldn't be needed for gameplay?

If this would be a sollution then, sure doing anything else then playing the game wouldn't be possible but atleast things like privacy would remain guarrenteed. Then if some program would open a port then game would either shut down, after mentioning this or through giving the game admin rights just refusing access.

Some of these "cheat" programs don't open ports though. I agree with what you said in the first two paragraphs though. I for one would cancel my subscription after being treated like a cheater (spyware to monitor me/my computer). If you want to catch cheaters, do it server side with all that data you get/store.

[Shinto]

If your computer is connected to the internet, even through a standard firewall, chances are that you have already been scanned by someone. That said, while I do not like the idea of someone routinely scanning my data, I would rather it be Sigil than some random hacker. If they ever bring me up on a false positive, I'll likely delete the game and break the disks, but until then, as much as I may dislike it, I would continue to play even with such scanners.