glider
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Global Agenda takes aim at bots, aimbots specifically
There are beasts out there that are far worse than a simple macro auto-pilot program, a la Glider. In the FPS community, beasts like the notorious aim bot, capable of auto-targeting your enemies in a game of shooting skill, exist to ruin everyone's fun. And when you cross your MMORTS with the battles of an FPS... well you start getting people using the latter program. Global Agenda finally has one such program out for it, and yes, it does work. Snipers are accurately killing people from across the map, assaults are using chainguns that never miss, and all other types of havoc are being let loose. However, we don't recommend that you use any of these programs, unless you want to be targeted by Hi-Rez Studios.
Captain Piccard unveils Solar Impulse HB-SIA solar-powered plane
You might have seen solar-powered planes before, but few of them come with as much world-changing ambition as the Solar Impulse. Launched in 2003, the project aims to demonstrate the viability of renewable energy sources by being the first to perform a manned flight around the globe using only solar power. The technology is nothing to scoff at, as the 200-foot wingspan features 12,000 photovoltaic solar cells bringing power to four electric motors. Captain Bertrand Piccard, one of the key men behind this project, is best known as one half of the first team to circumnavigate the world in a balloon in 1999. He hopes, together with partner André Borschberg, to repeat that achievement in Solar Impulse's next iteration, the HB-SIB, in 2012. Make it so, guys.[Via Gizmag]
Jade Dynasty goes into open beta, supplies new trailer
Perfect World Entertainment's new flagship game, Jade Dynasty, has pulled itself out of closed beta right on time and has jumped into open beta, swords and magic at the ready.If you're looking to check out this new free-to-play MMO, or at least judge some of the controversial game options for yourself, you can head right on over to the Jade Dynasty website, sign up for Perfect World Entertainment's portal, and jump into the game with no beta key required.With the release of the open beta client comes a new trailer, and we here at Massively have cleverly embedded the video after the break. If you want to see some high flying combat, just hit continue reading and enjoy the video!
Anti-Aliased: My first 30 levels with AFK... er... Jade Dynasty
So I learned a few things since last week. One, writing an opinion column on how much I like Final Fantasy XIV can push people into a frothing internet rage, and two, people apparently forgot that I write an opinion column.Therefore, because my column may induce emotional states similar to some drugs, I've been asked by the FDA to include a legible warning prior to each of my column topics.The FDA would like me to tell you that reading Anti-Aliased can, in rare cases, cause extreme emotional upset, eye strain, monitor punching syndrome, a feeling of discomfort around Mithra, itchyness, nausea, resurrection sickness, paralysis of the eyelids, and carpal tunnel syndrome. You should stop reading Anti-Aliased and consult with a World of Warcraft priest should you develop any one of these symptoms while reading.With that legalese out of the way, let's talk about Jade Dynasty -- dubbed by the illustrious James Egan as AFK Dynasty as it's the one MMO where you pay microtransactions to not play it. Yes, you heard me, it's more beneficial to not play Jade Dynasty than it is to play Jade Dynasty. EVE players, there is finally a game that puts your skill training system to shame.
Anti-Aliased: My first 30 levels with AFK... er... Jade Dynasty pt. 2
So that's why it's called AFK Dynasty...When I finally found a new area to level in as my awesome level 30 self, I actually found that the quests had surprisingly become more tedious. Now it was kill 30 of a monster, or collect 10 to 15 of an item that would only drop once every 7 monsters. This is when I began to make crazy use of the invigorate feature, where I'd press the "kill stuff" button and my character would go off killing whatever she pleased.Was I worried about dying? Pfft, no! Using my wonderous cash shop gold I got a health and mana battery! These two items carried 700,000 HP and 700,000 SP inside of them, and would use enough of their charges to bring my character back up to full HP and SP when I dropped below 10% in a category. I had absolutely nothing to fear now all because my character was basically on a potion IV drip. Everything in my path was easily slaughtered, and I didn't have to be present for any of it.It scared me.Is this what an MMO is?Other games try to hide it with cutscenes, story, diversions, and other tactics. Jade Dynasty is the full, unabashed version of what a MMO is -- grindy grindy grind. But when the game becomes so advanced that it can play itself, then I need to ask an important question What the heck is the point? "Jade Dynasty is the full, unabashed version of what a MMO is -- grindy grindy grind." A better designer than I once said, "Making video games for a living comes down to one cold, hard truth -- you're making pushing buttons fun. Your job is making an extremely mundane task into an experience with impact." The fact that a game like Jade Dynasty exists is a scary proposition for our industry as a whole. It means we're walking the path of making timesinks, not games. It's like one of those old addages -- "How can we have fun playing a game when we're not playing the game?" I sound like a broken record, but this is a very strong reason why I preach about the necessity of storyline and impact in a game. While gameplay is very, very important, any repetitive activity will become boring unless it is spiced up with enough change to keep it engaging. We use to have a strong grasp of making worlds with engaging content. That grasp, however, has diminished since the dawn of the EverQuest and the rise of "kill X to level" quests. How do I know that we've lost our path regarding storyline? Well because Bioware is touting storyline as a new feature in The Old Republic. When we've gotten to the point that storyline is a "on-the-box" feature for a game, then we've done something horribly wrong in our designing. Our original designs focused on the adventure in the world, not the quick grind sessions to max level and the repetition of raids. I wish we could re-find those designs.My final note to you all for this week: if you want to play a game of numbers without playing the game, I have a recommendation for you. It's a "game" that runs on anyone's computer thanks to low graphical requirements and provides all of the same action and features that Jade Dynasty provides. It's called Progress Quest, it's equivolent to Jade Dynasty, and it's 100% free. Try it, you'll love it. Colin Brennan is the weekly writer of Anti-Aliased who is totally level 45 in Jade Dynasty by only playing it for an hour. When he's not writing here for Massively, he's rambling on his personal blog, The Experience Curve. If you want to message him, send him an e-mail at colin.brennan AT weblogsinc DOT com. You can also follow him on Twitter through Massively, or through his personal feed.
GDC09: How to avoid new legal pitfalls in virtual world design and policy
At last week's Game Developers Conference 2009, we got the chance to sit in on Mark Methenitis' talk on How to avoid new legal pitfalls in virtual world design and policy. You may have noticed the sheer quantity of legal cases, rulings and issues surrounding virtual environments and MMOGs that have direct impacts on users and players lately. We found the talk to be an engaging and interesting one, which certainly went a long way towards clarifying some of the past, present and future problems and we've got a tasty summary of the highlights for you.
Glider down for the count
We knew this would happen after that last big Glider decision, but the judge's ruling has turned into action, and Glider has suspended their sales and operations. They're still hoping to bring it back up at some point -- there's still an appeals process to go through -- but that seems unlikely. Keep in mind that using Glider or any other botting software like it is a breach of Blizzard's terms of service and will most likely get you banned from the game.The company also has a FAQ up (which includes a PDF link to the latest ruling), and they sound hopeful there as well, saying that they'll know in a little while whether they'll be "back within a month or... gone for at least a year." Just in case you have (against Blizzard's rules) purchased and used Glider and are concerned that your information is being passed on to Blizzard, worry not -- they say that the ruling doesn't require them to give up any sales information, just shut down their operations and sales of the program.As Blizzard posted last month, they see this as a clear victory for both the company and players of the game -- Glider undermined both the wishes of the designers and the experience of other players in the game. Blizzard apparently feels the battle is over, while we're sure Glider is planning to continue the legal fight for as long as it takes. It seems unlikely that we'll see this software (or any bot software) back up for sale legitimately again, but if we do, we'll let you know.Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
Breakfast Topic: No ifs or bots.
It's not even a question, really. Botting is against the game's TOS. If you're caught doing it, you're going to get banned. In case you hadn't already heard, Blizzard recently dealt the botting program Glider a killing blow in the courts, which should lead to the demise of the program. Whatever your views on it, Blizzard frowns on botting and even here at WoW Insider, most if not all of us are strongly against it.That said, yesterday's 15 Minutes of Fame was an eye-opener for me. I guess because I'd never viewed botters with much regard I often dismissed them. I've even reported one or two over the past years. But Daedren's interview was actually something to mull over.If you did bot, what would you bot? All of us have experienced horrible, senseless grinds in the game. Whether it's farming for mats, grinding Honor, completing long quest chains... at some point in playing the World of Warcraft, we've all felt the tedium that can sometimes lead to unsavory (and TOS-breaking) thoughts of hassle-free automation. I'd never do it, but if I did, I'd probably have used it to level from 1-80 -- something I don't particularly enjoy. How about you? Hypothetically, what would you have botted? Or does the thought of bots make you feel all dirty inside?
WoW botter tells all part 2
"I never thought of playing WoW like that!" neither did we, until we talked with these players. Check out a whole year's worth of player profiles in our "15 Minutes of Fame: Where are they now?"
15 Minutes of Fame: WoW botter tells all
15 Minutes of Fame is our look at World of Warcraft players of all shapes and sizes – from the renowned to the relatively anonymous, the remarkable to the player next door. Tip us off to players you'd like to hear more about.Daedren (not his former WoW character's name) ruffled more than a few feathers with an internet "confessional" (was it, really?) last week about his experiences botting in World of Warcraft. (To "bot," a term that comes from the word "robot," is to use a third-party program to play the game for you.) He initially declined an interview with 15 Minutes of Fame but was back in touch a few days later, after the comments and reaction began piling on.With a measured, reasonable approach (somewhat at odds with the abrasive tone he takes with commenters on his blog), Daedren visits with us about botting. Is botting a blot on the soul of gaming humanity or a benign, time-saving technique for busy gamers? Read Daedren's post to learn what his botted characters were up to in WoW, then join us after the break to learn why his botting post was actually a farewell "ode to WoW."
Blizzard responds to the Glider decision
Blizzard (via Nethaera) has released a nice long statement on the Glider outcome over on the forums. She basically runs through the history of the case and why Blizzard is against what Glider is doing, and why going through the courts was the only route left to them. She says that Warden (though called only "security measures") was enabled in response to player concerns about bots, and that when the MDY/Glider people circumvented Warden, their only recourse was to seek an injunction through the courts, which, as we've reported recently, they plan to have soon.She does say that Blizzard won based on the judge's decision that MDY did violate the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, but Neth doesn't go any further into the issue, and doesn't elaborate at all on what might happen if this case is used as a precedent against other types of Terms of Use violations. As you might expect from an official Blizzard telling of the tale, the case is seen as a victory for Blizzard and their players -- for them, it's all about keeping bots out of Azeroth, and this decision will definitely help them do that.And that's obviously not a bad thing -- most players will agree that MDY was allowing players to cheat (by letting the game play automatically without them in control), and thus preventing the client from being used in-game is a good thing. It's just that DMCA issue that might be a nagging problem -- we'll have to see what happens with that in the future.
The Glider outcome and copyright law
Well, as you may have heard, Blizzard has all but finished off Glider -- pending one more appeal (which doesn't seem likely to win), Glider is getting shut down for good next week. Good news for Blizzard, but not so good for copyfighters? Blizzard used a controversial argument for copyright in its case -- they claimed that by circumventing the ToS, the Glider folks were actually breaking copyright law, and an interest group called Public Knowledge didn't take kindly to that. They argued that a decision for Blizzard would mean that any software developer could then prevent any customer from doing anything they didn't want to do, just by calling it a copyright infrigement. Blizzard responded that "buying" your WoW software was actually "licensing" it, but of course that didn't settle anyone down.And now, Glider has lost -- so what next?
Glider loses again, shutdown imminent
In the latest ruling in the Blizzard v. Glider case, the Honorable David G. Campbell (U.S. District Judge for the District of Arizona) ruled essentially that MDY Industries (the makers of Glider) has to present him with arguments why Glider should not be shut down during what will be a lengthy future appeals process. The arguments must be presented to the court by February 13th, 2009.The Judge will then decide if the arguments hold merit and justify the continued operation of Glider.If MDY Industries is not successful in their persuasion of the Judge Campbell, and MDY Industries CEO Michael Donnelly believes they will not be (according to posts made on the Glider forums), then they will have to cease and desist selling Glider. The shutdown of Glider will happen quickly after the February 13th date.Campbell's full ruling on the matter is available in PDF format for your viewing. We'll have more on this as it develops in the next couple weeks. In the mean time, check out our previous coverage of Glider and its resultsThanks to everyone who sent this in! And while I don't know what Judge David Campbell looks like, I prefer to think of him as pictured in the article.
Famed felon seeks to join MDY vs Blizzard
If you've been keeping up, you already know of the court battle between Blizzard and MDY over the Glider automation software used with World of Warcraft. Another amicus brief has been filed in the case, and this one is a real attention-getter. An amicus brief (often formally named amicus curiae -- friend of the court) is usually (but not always) where a concerned party submits additional information to the court, often to inform it of a wider impact or implication of certain outcomes beyond the fundamental interests of the direct parties to the case, or to provide other information which the court may be lacking. This isn't uncommon in particularly controversial, far-reaching or complex legal cases. That can go a little further, however, to what is called Intervention, where a third-party seeks to become a party to the case already in progress. The filer of the Intervention is Jonathan Lee Riches, who is incontestably our favorite US Federal Prison inmate. Riches has previously sued "Adolf Hitler's National Socialist Party", "13 tribes of Israel", Plato, Nostradamus, Che Guevarra, Jimmy Hoffa, the Lincoln Memorial, the Eiffel Tower, the Garden of Eden, the Roman Empire, the Appalachian Trail, Three Mile Island (the island, not just the power-plant), Rockstar Games, George W Bush, Steve Jobs, Perez Hilton, Britney Spears, and hundreds more. Now he's suing Blizzard because of World of Warcraft, and ... well, let's take a look at why ...
The best of WoW Insider: September 30-October 7, 2008
BlizzCon is almost upon us -- this weekend, thousands will descend on Anaheim to celebrate Blizzard and its games, and Blizzard developers will share their wisdom with us about Wrath of the Lich King, Diablo 3, and Starcraft II. And WoW Insider will be there: if you're going, make sure to come by our big reader meetup on Thursday night at The Lost Bar, and if you're not going, stay tuned to the site all weekend long for live-on-the-scene coverage. News Raids rebalanced for patch 3.0.2Even Burning Crusade raids are getting a facelift, considering how much is changing in the upcoming expansion. Patch 3.0.2 release date revealed (probably)Set your calendars for October 14th -- that's when you'll get to try out all the new talents and skills. BlizzCon schedule and interactive mapBlizzard announces what's going down at their third BlizzCon event in Anaheim, CA. Blizzard wins $6 million in court case against GliderThe botting company loses big time in the ongoing lawsuit. Tigole confirms dual specs are still in the worksPlayers are still begging for a way to switch specs more easily, and we might just get it. Features Tips for new Death Knights from a fellow melee, part 1Trying out the new Death Knight class? Here's a quick review on how to stab things. Don't Panic: Paladin changes in beta build 9014Pally developments in the latest Wrath of the Lich King beta build. Ask a Beta Tester: Soundtracks, trinkets and travelOne of our beta testers answers all your questions about what's going down in the beta version of Northrend. Tenacious D discovered Northrend firstThink the frozen wastes came from the mind of Chris Metzen? There's a secret to be told. Spiritual Guidance: Everything you ever wanted to know about raid healing at level 80And then some -- our priest blogger Matticus lays down the facts on what's up in the Wrath raids.
Blizzard awarded $6 million in Glider suit
Blizzard has been awarded $6 million in damages from its suit against "bot" maker MDY Industries, the same suit it won back in July. MDY makes the World of Warcraft Glider software, allowing players to automate their avatars while they're AFK. The BBC reports that the Glider program cost $25 and it's believed the company sold around 100,000 copies.Not that Blizzard is done yet. The company originally wanted double or triple the damages awarded. The case actually goes back into litigation this January and Blizzard will push on some remaining issues, like whether MDY violated the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act and whether the Glider programmer will have to pay damages out of his own pocket.[Via Massively]
Blizzard wins $6 million in court case with MMO Glider
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/Blizzard_wins_6_million_in_court_case_with_MMO_Glider'; Another chapter of the Blizzard versus Glider story has come to a close. Blizzard and MDY Industries have been going at it over Glider since 2006, in a battle that's been rather important. Not only has it been about Glider doing something wrong, it's been about how well an EULA will hold up in court. That's something the entire gaming industry, especially MMOs, have their eyes on. If Blizzard had lost, it would have had a negative impact across the entire industry.Blizzard is most certainly not losing. According to BBC News (among other sources), they just won $6 million from MDY Industries, which is less than what was expected of them. This isn't their first victory in the war, but it's the first involving money. Blizzard could still appeal the ruling, so it may not necessarily be over, though I personally think the point has been made as far as damages. There are still further chapters in the story that await, because they'll be in court again in January of 2009 to resolve further issues.
Blizzard awarded large payout in 'WoW Glider' case
The BBC is reporting that the WoW Glider case (MDY vs. Blizzard) is moving closer to resolution. If you'll recall, the court found in favor of Blizzard Entertainnment back in July, awarding them victory in their long-running feud with 'botting' software. WoW Glider is the best known 'bot software packages, allowing World of Warcraft players to automate their AFK play. Now a damages reward has been awarded to the software developer, to the tune of $US 6 million. The article notes that damages could have been even greater had MDY not won some legal arguments during the court battle.The piece continues, "The damages award could be delayed if Blizzard appeals against the judgement which threw out its claim to double or triple the cash settlement. The case is due to go to court again in January 2009 when the remaining issues in the legal conflict look likely to be settled." Massively will continue to follow this case as it moves (slowly) towards conclusion.
Blizzard and the hidden population of disabled players
A Dwarf Priest has a nice long post up about the relationship between Blizzard and one of the more hidden (and yet surprisingly large) groups within their population: disabled gamers. It's no secret to anyone who's played WoW for a while that a lot of disabled gamers have found a lot of solace in a social game where you can be almost completely anonymous and play a character at whatever pace you want to play. Even if you go with the lowest of estimations, there are about 525,000 people playing the game with some kind of disability in real life. That's a much bigger number than I expected, and it's a significant number of people paying Blizzard every month.Fortunately, Dwarf Priest found that accessibility is relatively good in Blizzard's game -- most of the work is actually done with third-party addons, but the UI and display is so customizable that even with the default interface, many people without a full range of controls or movement can figure out how to play the game. For their part, Blizzard has agreed that a customizable UI is the best way to make a game accessible -- J. Allen Brack says that's a priority in this interview with Able Gamers.Dwarf Priest has lots more, including a quick comparison with accessibility in Warhammer Online, and even a weird wrinkle in the Glider lawsuit (the botting program's creators are apparently claiming it helps disabled players play their characters). It's a very well-written post about a subject that doesn't get covered much, and there's lots of extra reading to dig into at the bottom as well.
Blizzard against open-sourcing Glider code
It ain't over yet. Blizzard Entertainment, who won a lawsuit against MDY, the makers of the infamous Glider bot program, has asked the ruling court for a permanent injunction that would functionally eliminate the program from WoW. Blizzard has also issued an unconventional request preventing the open-sourcing of the MMO Glider (formerly known as WoW Glider) code and prohibiting MDY from helping other people develop World of Warcraft automation software.Blizzard's case against MDY has already sparked some debate, and this latest request may catch the attention of open source and digital rights advocates. Blizzard has always taken a hardline stance against users of the program, even banning countless users back in May. Automation is clearly against the EULA, so players who flirt with bot programs such as MMO Glider should proceed at their own risk. A complete coverage of the case between Blizzard and MDY can be found over at Virtually Blind.
