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PSA: You [probably] won't be banned for playing MW3 early - we think
At this point, you'd be forgiven for not knowing up from down with regards to early copies of next week's Modern Warfare 3. Is it safe to play online? Will you be banned? Where could you even find a copy of Modern Warfare 3 early? We can't blame you. Even we haven't even been sure – after some vaguely foreboding comments from Xbox Live's Stephen Toulouse earlier today, we felt compelled to warn you all that maybe, just maybe you should put that $1700, three-day early copy of Modern Warfare 3 on the shelf until Tuesday. But, in the event your neck isn't sore from all the back and forth over the last 36 hours, we've got the final definitive word from Activision itself... we hope: "We value and appreciate the community's support. We have no interest in banning legitimate copies in these last few days. We just ask for everyone to wait for Tuesday when everybody can play the game together." So, we guess you can play Modern Warfare 3 – assuming you've committed the dark retail magic necessary to acquire it early that it. Us? We'll be over here in the corner, where we don't have to look right or left for a while.
RuneScape dev panel highlights incredible success of bot bans
Over the past few weeks, we've heard a great deal about browser MMO RuneScape's struggle against botting and RMT. The bot problem has become progressively worse over the past year, with bot makers countering every change developers made to stop their bots from working. This week developer Jagex celebrated bot-nuking day as it deployed a massive update designed to permanently stop all of the popular reflection and injection bots from working. At this year's annual RuneFest event, Jagex CEO Mark Gerhard presented a fantastic insider panel on the facts and figures behind bot-nuking day. Mark explained the company's position -- that normal players botting to speed up gameplay was counter to the goals of RuneScape. "We don't want your computer to play with our computer," he told attendees, "we want you to have fun with our community." Before delving into facts and figures, Mark reminded attendees of the element of unfairness that bots create. "I want to know that if I'm putting in 30 minutes this evening, that that 30 minutes is equal to everyone else's 30 minutes." Want to know how many million accounts were banned since bot-nuking day? Read on for a summary of the facts and figures from the talk and to watch the full video in HD.
Blizzard responds to Swifty ban incident
As you might have heard, Razer WoW gamer Swifty, along with numerous other players, were banned due to server disruption violations during one of Swifty's live streams that crashed a server. While Swifty acknowledged that he never intended to crash the server, Bashiok responded to the bans by stating that even if no one intended to crash servers or disrupt gameplay, the emote spamming and influx of players brought down many servers. Swifty livestreams events with his guild on occasion and even hosts parts of the stream himself. Being the WoW gamer celebrity that he is, his stream attracts a good number of viewers. His own YouTube video response to his ban acknowledges between 4,000 and 5,000 people were watching his livestream. People flocked to the server, and the disruptions began. A number of players, including Swifty, were banned. Over the course of the day, Blizzard reviewed the information and decided to unban Swifty.
Blizzard: Use StarCraft 2 trainers 'at your own risk'
Big Blizzard is always watching! Earlier this week, Cheat Happens reported one of its users was banned in StarCraft 2 after utilizing trainers in single player. Blizzard apparently had suspended his account for 14 days over "exploitative activity." The idea is that even though these trainers are being used in single player and against AI opponents, the effects of earning achievements alters the "prestige" of a player's online persona, a supposed Blizzard rep responded via an alleged email. We contacted Blizzard ourselves for a bit of clarification on the matter and were given a statement, which you can read past the break.
Bungie resets credits on 15K Halo: Reach cheaters
On top of announcing an earlier than expected playlist update (coming this Tuesday), Bungie revealed last night that it has reset the credits and ranks of "approximately" 15,000 Halo: Reach accounts. The studio also applied a one day credit earning ban on affected players, less for punishment than to "ensure that recipients receive an in-game notification of the action taken." The resets were handled last evening and specifically targeted folks who employed "an exploit that allowed players to complete a Challenge 20+ times via itentional network manipulation (i.e., disconnects.)." Bungie will also be completing a "more comprehensive pass" later this week, after the studio is confident enough in its automated banning system. We're taking this move as further proof of the age old adage -- cheaters never win.
Saudi Arabia beats UAE to the punch, BlackBerry service to be ceased by Friday
Folks in the United Arab Emirates may have until October to enjoy BBM, but neighbor Saudi Arabia isn't the patient type. According to state news agency SPA, the Communications and Information Technology Commission for the country has ordered all BlackBerry services in the country to be halted by this Friday. The reason apparently has to do with "not meet[ing] regulatory requirements," which echoes what UAE and India have said before. We probably wouldn't place bets on a regional launch for the new Torch anytime soon.
[1. Local]: Chariots and cheats
Reader comments -- ahh, yes, the juicy goodness following a meaty post. [1.Local] ducks past the swinging doors to see what readers have been chatting about in the back room over the past week. Dominic Hobbs, our warlock columnist, speculated about flying mounts for warlocks in this week's Blood Pact. He found the following suggestion the best one from the readers (though there were many): Tidelord: Dear Hobbs, While I agree with your idea of Metamorphosis or sprouting wings, I find the thought of being carried by my shoulders by a Doomguard to be utterly demeaning, and if you have seen the model for Invincible and the new "Sparkle Pony," you would see that while the wings are ingenious, the steed itself has legs stumpier than a dwarf's! No, my dear friend. For a warlock, the only mount suitable for us masters of shadow and fire is nothing else than an enormous, obsidian-black chariot with wheels made of the bones and skulls of magi, pulled by a pack of at least ten or twelve fel-green hellhounds. The animation would be so full of demonic splendor and top-of-the-line graphics that it would cause the video card of any cowardly mage to explode violently. Grow In Shadows- Caneyn Ravenshield, Future Worgen Warlock Continue reading for an in-depth discussion of cheating -- and what's this about breeding WoW.com staff?
Blizzard bans 320,000 WarCraft III and Diablo II players
Blizzard appears to be cleaning house in preparation for its StarCraft II release as well as its Battle.net revamp. In a recent announcement on the service's forums, Blizzard rep Bashiok revealed that over 300,000 accounts were punished for violations of the terms of service for Warcraft III and Diablo II for using hacks and illegal third-party tools (which are essentially hacks). For those of you who have had past experience with Battle.net, these numbers probably don't surprise you. The network has had a long reputation of being fairly easy on people using hacks as Blizzard tends to save up over a long period of time in order to do a massive batch of bans at once. This means that those who are using hacks have a long period of time to abuse the system before anything is done about it. The hacks for some games were rampant enough that other players began using hacks that detect other hacks. Regardless of the reason behind using a hack, it is still against the terms of service and means if you get caught, you're out.
EVE Online devblog discusses account security
Every MMO suffers the horrors of gold spammers and EVE Online is no different. The RMT (Real Money Trading) industry is massive and EVE's developers CCP have waged a constant war against it in recent years. The PLEX initiative gave players a way to safely buy ISK for cash while at the same time helping players who couldn't afford their subscriptions pay with ISK. The result was a dramatic hit to the RMT market, who had to drop their prices to compete with a legitimate service replacing their own. As part of Operation Unholy Rage in August of last year, EVE GMs also banned over 6200 accounts belonging to farmers known to be supplying the RMT industry. The effect on the market was instant, with the population in farmed mission systems like Ingunn disappearing overnight. Almost immediately, the farmers reacted with a spate of account hackings to claw back some ISK.
Wizard101 is no friend of cheaters
You might think that Wizard101 is just a kid's game, which wouldn't be totally incorrect. But if you thought that meant they would just let you do whatever you want... well, nope, not in this playground. KingsIsle Entertainment is demonstrating that they are more than willing to step in and take the reigns when they're aware of an exploit. In this instance, it looks as if an exploit was found regarding the new wings available in the game's cash shop that work as a mount. Players had found a way to purchase their wings via gold alone, getting an unfair advantage on those buying them legitimately. So the game is clipping their wings -- clipping them off entirely, as it were. The wings will be removed from the player's account, all gold spent will be refunded to the player, and they will be reminded that exploiting the game client will lead to a permanent ban from the game. It's not the harshest penalty, but it comes as a stern reminder that no matter how fluffy the exterior might be, Wizard101 still takes cheating very seriously. So it's a bit more like school than you might have thought.
Microsoft: 'The Pro' Xbox Live moderator 'followed protocol'
A video, depicting an Xbox Live moderator (Gamertag: The Pro) banning an Xbox Live gamer during an online match of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, has caught the attention of Microsoft since its posting on YouTube yesterday. Entitled "The Pro : XBOX Live Moderator Abuses His Power," the carefully edited video, which can be viewed after the break, attempts to portray a "corrupt" moderator mercilessly wielding his banhammer and perhaps abusing his authority. Microsoft's Major Nelson quickly made note of the production on his Twitter account, and passed the video off to Stephen Toulouse, director of Xbox Live policy and enforcement, who tweeted several comments of his own. Toulouse noted that The Pro was "policing" Modern Warfare 2 modding, which can result in an Xbox Live Gold account suspension (banning a user from online play) or a complete console ban (rendering Xbox Live inaccessible). In a statement to Joystiq, Toulouse said, "The player behavior in question and subsequent interaction with the moderator violated the Xbox Live Terms of Use and Code of Conduct. The Xbox Live moderator followed protocol and, while he regrets his tone, the video was heavily edited to omit the inappropriate behavior and we fully support the moderator's decision to take action against the offending players." It should be noted that iTzLuPo, the YouTube user who originally uploaded the video, admits that he is a modder in his user bio, stating, "I am now part of one of the best Glitching/modding clans there is on Xbox LIVE." He also lists "Glitching/Modding/tutorials" as so-called hobbies.
Ensidia temporarily banned for exploits
It looks like Ensidia's 25-man world first on the Lich King will go down with an asterisk next to it, because they've all just received a three-day ban for "Abuse of in-game mechanics or glitches with intent to exploit or cheat in World of Warcraft." The Ensidia blog post reporting this is down as of this writing due to traffic, but you can still view the Google cache. The story is that Ensidia made use of Saronite Bombs to "bypass The Lich King fight mechanics" (Saronite Bombs and similar items were disabled in a hotfix last night). In addition to the temporary ban, all items and achievements they gained from downing Arthas have been revoked. Before the ban (but after the hotfix), Ensidia put up a post claiming that they didn't think the bombs were an exploit; Blizzard obviously isn't buying it. Meanwhile, Muqq, the Ensidia player who posted about the ban, has taken this as an opportunity to quit WoW (and rant a bit at Blizzard about "half-assed encounters"), saying "to ban people when they do not know what's causing the bugs is just a [expletive] joke." Update: It's worth a mention that the language Muqq used at the end of his post is identical (save places and names) to this post by Tigole (scroll to the bottom -- it's the last thing on the page), written of EverQuest in 2002. Be warned, neither of these are safe for work.
So long, 2500 Modern Warfare 2 Steam cheaters
digg_url = 'http://www.joystiq.com/2009/11/30/so-long-2500-modern-warfare-2-steam-cheaters/'; Employing Steam's built-in VAC anti-cheating system, Infinity Ward has dropped the ban hammer on its first round of Modern Warfare 2 cheaters – 2,500 PC gamers, more specifically. In responding to a question on Twitter last Friday, community man Robert Bowling said, "The Steam ban hammer is coming down on about 2,500 confirmed #MW2 cheaters on PC today." We contacted Bowling to find out how frequently the bans will be taking place and have yet to hear back. We'll keep you updated when we have more info, but for now we're going to get back into these hacked private servers to do some superhuman jumping and grenade spamming. You know how much we love our grenade spamming. [Via Big Download]
NCsoft bans 16,000 Aion accounts
One of the continued complaints we hear from Aion players is that bots litter the game's digital landscape, severely reducing the enjoyment of actual flesh-n-bones players. So we feel inclined to shout, "Good news, everybody!" at today's announcement by NCsoft that nearly 16,000 accounts have been banned during a recent unscheduled server reboot. That's a huge number and certainly nothing to scoff about. This should hopefully alleviate much of the problem, at least temporarily -- and then future banhammers will likely come crashing down. We hope nobody was caught in the crossfire with today's bans, but if you do find yourself without an Aion account to play and are 100% sure of your innocence, you can create a support ticket. Obviously, this isn't ideal if you're suddenly without your account, so with any luck there aren't any cases of mistakenly banned players.
EVE Online's anti RMT operation Unholy Rage bans over 6200 accounts
Last week, Massively explained a bit about the war on real money trading (RMT) in EVE Online. The game's developer, CCP Games, has approached the problem from a few different angles. Central to their strategy of combating sellers of the game's currency called ISK (Interstellar Kredits) is to offer another way for players to exchange real world currency for the virtual in EVE Online -- "PLEX", or the 30 Day Pilot License Extension. PLEX is an in-game item that represents gameplay time and can be bought, sold, or traded on the open market in-game. PLEX has been integral in combating the numerous shady ISK selling websites in operation and CCP's dev blog last week showed how the playerbase is starting to embrace this system. After all, if this practice of outright buying in-game assets with real world cash is going to happen in EVE, as with most MMOs (and regardless of what the developers try to do to curb this) it might as well be via a system the devs can regulate. It's a slippery slope, and CCP's approach to the problem does have some critics, but thus far it's been successful. PLEX has only been one facet of their battle against the ISK spammers, sellers, and the virtual armies of macro-using operations, though. CCP's operation "Unholy Rage" is a major offensive against the RMT operations exploiting the game, and is the subject of a dev blog from EVE Online's GM Grimmi.
The fight against RMT in EVE Online
It's an unfortunate reality that most any massively multiplayer online game running has to cope with outside influences on an in-game economy because of real money trading (RMT). Game developers tackle the problem in different ways. For instance, Final Fantasy XI has an anti-RMT task force and Warhammer Online has a zero-tolerance name-and-shame approach to RMT. Other companies grab the bull by its horns and base their game around a virtual item trade they can regulate. The problem of RMT has affected EVE Online just as it has other MMO titles, if not moreso given how its player-driven economy and the Interstellar Kredit (ISK) currency is central to the game. Beyond the potential revenue lost to the black market when players pay real cash for their ships and modules or buy huge sums of ISK outright, there are also issues with players getting their accounts cleaned out by the shady companies (ostensibly) selling the ISK. When that cleverly-named player "ajakdsk" links you to his ISK selling site in a chat channel, following that link could infect your computer with a keylogger, resulting in a fire sale on whatever they find in your account. EVE Online's creators CCP Games have taken a two-prong approach to handling these issues.
Square-Enix cracks down on gardeners, sends out bans
If you've got a green thumb, you probably now have a sore thumb thanks to the Square-Enix banhammer. Gardeners across Final Fantasy XI have been complaining on fan forums that they've recently lost their accounts, only now tying the cause of their bans to their gardening activities.Community site Pet Food Alpha has reported that Square-Enix is specifically targeting players who own more than one character for the explicit reason of gardening. Any level character can garden -- even right from the start of the game -- but no character can have more than 10 flowerpots at a time in their house. This has sparked players to purchase more character slots to simply expand their gardening enterprises, a common practice that has been done by players for over six years.Players are unclear if these bans have been handed our by individuals on the RMT Task Force, or if they bans were created by one of Square-Enix's new automated tools. We'll keep our eyes on this story and update as new information comes in.
EVE Online's largest player-run bank rocked by embezzlement
We've just gotten word that EBANK, a player-run bank in EVE Online self-described as "the largest financial entity ever seen in EVE" has been rocked by embezzlement from its own CEO, Ricdic. The former CEO stole roughly 200 billion ISK from EBANK, which is roughly 8.6% of the entire 2.3 trillion ISK that EVE's playerbase has deposited. EBANK chairman Hexxx has issued a statement on the game's official forums, stating that Ricdic has been banned by CCP Games for engaging in RMT, also adding that the former CEO "has scammed." The loss of nearly 9% of EBANK's deposits is a serious blow to the player-run institution, perhaps as much to investor confidence in the bank as it is to their funds, but Hexxx says their liquidity is still between 400 billion and 500 billion ISK. A June 6th news item on the EBANK site written by bank auditor LaVista Vista states, "We are currently experiencing some technical problems. Therefore, we ask that people do not deposit any ISK, until we have solved the problem." EBANK's director and head teller Athre has now assumed the role of interim CEO, as the EBANK staff determines the best way forward from here.
The Martin Fury scandal: Karatechop reveals all
Over the last week the Martin Fury scandal has rocked the world ... of Warcraft. I got the chance to sit down with Karatechop, the player at the centre of the scandal, to hear his side of the story.WoW Insider: Who are you?Karatechop: I'm Karatechop, the Guild Leader of The Marvel Family on Vek'nilash-US.There are postings on the net where someone purporting to be Karatechop says they work for Blizzard. I'm assuming this is not the case?I'm not an employee of Blizzard. I'm not a hacker, I'm just a person who had a pretty tight regular group of people who liked playing WoW.How did this whole thing start? One of my guild members, Leroyspeltz, had his account hacked back in December. He was an Officer at the time and whoever hacked his account ravaged the guild bank, which happens. Once Blizzard was able to rescue his account, he noticed several of his toons were gone.
Anti-Aliased: Don't make roleplaying servers if you can't handle it
For those of you who don't know, I'm super in to roleplaying. No, I'm not a Shakespearean nutjob who spouts "I shall put my sword betwixt thine evil heart!" No, nothing like that. I'm just a guy who likes getting into the setting of game. When you go into Naxxramas and see Anub'Rekhan, you see a boss where I see a commander of Anub'arak, the traitor king.It's because I know the lore so well that I like to play around with it, involve my character in it, and really keep the fantasy of the world intact around me. But I've learned something over my course of 12 years of MMOs. It's something that happens in every single game that I've played and a problem that I've found insurmountable when it comes to roleplaying.It's really hard to roleplay when a thirteen-year-old is thrusting his virtual crotch in my face, screaming "LULZ GUYS! LULZ! Lolololololol!!!!11oneeleven"
