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Hearthstone bot-generator site closes down after bans
Blizzard's recent round of bans in Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft have forced the closure of Crawlerbots, a site that provided automated gameplay options to Hearthstone and WoW players. Last week, Blizzard announced that it had banned "several thousand" accounts associated with third-party programs that automate actions in Hearthstone. The accounts were banned until 2015. The Crawlerbots website now carries the following message: "This is our last official announcement. The recent ban wave in Hearthstone hit a lot of users. After discussing this with Blizzard, it's clear we have to take off our services/products now. Please note that we're not going to be commenting further on this. Thank you all for being part of our community. We are very sad about this but you also know botting is against the rules and we all knew that the day when our products doesn't work anymore would come. With tears in our eyes we have to say bye." When Blizzard announced the bans, it said, "As we've stated, fair play is at the core of the Hearthstone experience, and cheating and botting will not be tolerated." In September, Blizzard revealed that Hearthstone had 20 million players worldwide.
Blizzard mass-bans Hearthstone cheaters
Last night, Blizzard announced that it's brought the banhammer down on cheaters in its MMOTCG, Hearthstone. "Several thousand" botter accounts have been banned for the next two months, though the studio warns it won't be so lenient next time: We've recently banned several thousand Hearthstone accounts that were associated with the use of third-party programs that automate gameplay, otherwise known as "bots" or "botting." These accounts will be banned until 2015. As we've stated, fair play is at the core of the Hearthstone experience, and cheating and botting will not be tolerated. We're committed to creating a fun and rewarding environment for our players, and we will continue to closely monitor activities within Hearthstone and take appropriate action against cheating in any form, as outlined in our Terms of Use. From this point on, accounts found to be cheating will be permanently closed without warning. Blizzard encourages players who encounter exploits to contact the hacks team; those who believe they've been wrongly banned can appeal their ban through the customer service department. [We've corrected our original story, which directed folks to the hacks team for all issues.]
ArcheAge boasts two million registered players
ArcheAge's local launch has gone pretty well, according to producer Scott Hartsman. A recent letter to the players confirms last week's whispers that over two million players have registered for the game, which certainly goes a long way to explaining those launch queues. Between North America and Europe, the game currently has 21 active servers in total, and Hartsman stated that character creation restrictions are being rolled back as the populations begin to stabilize. The letter goes on to address the issue of bots, many of which have already been unceremoniously ejected from the game. The game's most recent patch restricts chatting in several channels (Faction, Trade, Nation, Shout, and Need Party) to characters who are level 15 or higher, and a learning anti-spam feature is on track to be integrated into the base game. There's also discussion about catching up with holiday content and the like, so those two million registered players should have plenty of stuff to do.
Twitter shows how its bots keep your timeline spam-free
Have you noticed that you're getting a lot less spam on Twitter these days? You may have to thank a bot for that. Twitter has just shed light on BotMaker, a recently developed system that (as the name suggests) lets the social network create anti-spam bot code with very little effort. Within a few seconds, engineers can set up rules that automatically take down and track spammers, in some cases before they've even managed to post anything. Besides barring known spam links, the bots can flag suspicious behavior -- if a lot of people block an account after it sends a tweet, it's going to be watched very closely. BotMaker will also look at long-term behavior, so spammers that slip through the cracks aren't necessarily safe.
Up to 23 million active Twitter accounts are bots (updated)
Twitter's said its active user base is growing, but not every account that's active is necessarily a flesh-and-blood human. Alongside those verified accounts of the stars, there are all kinds of bots that use the service to deliver completely stupid nonsense, sudden (urgent!) sale news and even earthquake reports -- well, some have their uses. Twitter's now disclosed some specific numbers, noting that bot accounts total up to 8.5 percent of its active user count at the end of June. That's roughly 23 million tweeters that aren't human - and probably aren't going to be clicking on that ad for Innovative Cloud Storage Solutions any time soon. Update: Twitter reached out to Engadget and Quartz to clarify: this 8.5 percent are accounts that have "automatically contacted our servers for regular updates", which could also include our own Twitter feed. Twitter's SEC filing does go into particularly deep specifics on this, however.
APB update pwns cheaters and creates quicker matchups
APB: Reloaded has moved beyond merely shaking a fist at cheaters to waging war on them. Today, Reloaded Games released its Open Conflict patch that contains the much-vaunted "FairFight" technology that monitors for illicit behavior and nips it in the bud on the spot. This system also publicly shames hackers and botters as they are banned so that the entire server can witness their downfall. Open Conflict also contains cloud saves for character settings and a new matchmaking mode that lumps people together based on availability instead of skill. [Source: Reloaded Games press release]
WildStar bans thousands of botters
Carbine Executive Producer Jeremy Gaffney informed the WildStar community last night that the team is waging a serious fight against botters, having suspended 7,300 accounts in the last few days. "Obviously 7,300 is a tiny fraction of the overall player base, but it's a noticeable chunk of the current bots," Gaffney wrote. He pointed out that over half of those accounts were regular players who had their accounts hijacked and urged players to use two-factor authentication as a preventative measure. To aid in the war against bots, the team will be improving the reporting process and tuning its automated bot detection. Gaffney said that the studio will be unrelenting in its prosecution of such accounts: "We're attacking this with a full-spectrum approach as a placeholder until we get to the better tools that should help in the short-medium term. We acknowledge it sucks when you see obvious cheaters, and we're working to eliminate it."
Elder Scrolls Online lowers the banhammer
Elder Scrolls Online cheaters beware! ZeniMax is taking aim at your head with its mighty banhammer. Community Manager Jessica Fulsom posted an announcement today of the studio's opening shots against evil-doers: "Today, we made our first major strike against those who choose to cheat in ESO, permanently banning thousands. This is only the beginning of our ongoing efforts to keep the game free from botters, speed hackers, and gold spammers. We want to thank everyone who has sent in-game reports about these individuals in ESO -- your reports helped us identify many of the accounts we banned today."
Japanese robot gets better at not running into people
Hitachi is taking Asimov's I Robot law about not harming humans more seriously with new tweaks to its wheeled Emiew 2 bot. The 30-pound humanoid now packs a sensor that'll measure walking speeds (in an office, for instance) and generate mapping data to predict where someone might pop up unexpectedly. It'll then avoid those areas or slow down so as not to roll into your kneecaps. Given Emiew's 31-inch frame and 4 mph speed, we weren't too worried anyway -- there are other, decidedly more terrifying robots to avoid.
Massively's hands-on with WildStar's Engineer
It must have been serendipity that got me into the WildStar beta the week after the Engineer was announced (well, that or a PR push, but what are the odds?). As my friends, my family, and those who come within shouting distance of my voice know, I am always drawn to Engineers in video games. Whether the game be Team Fortress 2, Guild Wars 2, or Warhammer Online, if I have a big wrench, turrets, guns, pets, and/or lots of gadgets, I'm a pretty satisfied human being. WildStar's Engineer almost sounded too good to be true to me: a heavy armor-wearing ranged class that could DPS or tank while fielding combat robots. There might have been mention of a mech suit as well, but by that point I was twitching on the floor after suffering a happiness seizure. But would this perfect match on paper meet up to the cold, colorful reality when I got into the game? There was only one way to find out. Honey, take the kids out for the next two days, for I have space clobbering to do!
Eyes-on with Cornell University's laser tag dunebots (video)
Cornell University may be the host of the Cornell Cup competition, but that doesn't mean it can't bring its own robots to join in on the fun. This year, students brought along a few bots, dubbed dunebots, outfitted with all-terrain wheels and equipped with laser tag turrets. The rugged rig features a pair of cameras, a dustproof and water resistant chassis, air intakes capped with filters, and other components for suspension and steering. Not only does the team plan on releasing code and documentation for the project, but the hardware was designed with modularity in mind, so others can build their own modified versions. Taking the robot into battle requires two pilots armed with Xbox 360 controllers: one directing where it travels, and another aiming the turret and firing. Driving the buggy over the web is also possible, though it takes a few seconds for it to react. The group also baked in voice controls, to boot. If you're not watching the car duke it out in person, you can even tune in over the web and watch a live video stream from one of its onboard cams. Its top speeds haven't been firmly nailed down, but the team says the bot was running at approximately 35 percent of its full potential, since it was deemed too fast for conference attendees. Hit the jump to catch us talk with the effort's Computer Science lead Mike Dezube, and to see a dunebot in action.%Gallery-187525%
Trion tackles holiday RIFT botters
RIFT's come under siege as of late, but instead of that siege being the "vicious creatures from another planar dimension" variety, it's been the players themselves. Trion Worlds has posted that the game became infested with botters over the recent holidays, so the team has taken action. "As of today, we've already shut down a few thousand accounts over the recent rise in fishing botting, and we've begun removing gains from others in places of extreme bot use. A good number of these botters were brought in, as is often the case, on stolen credit cards and fraudulent RIFT purchases," the development team wrote. The studio said that while the situation is being dealt with, disabled gamers who use keyboard-assistance software are advised not to use these programs (but aren't forbidden from doing so, either). Trion has plans for "a more creative content solution" for the botting issue that will come in the future.
Blizzard bans thousands of bots from Diablo III
Diablo III is a few thousand players lighter today, as Blizzard announced that it had culled the unfaithful (read: botters) from its fold. Community Manager Lylirra issued the grim proclamation: "We've recently issued account bans to several thousand Diablo III players who were found to be using botting programs while playing. In addition to undermining the spirit of fair play, botting, hacking, and other forms of cheating can also cause technical problems with the game as well as contribute to performance issues with the Battle.net service." Lylirra also said that the Diablo III team is working to add a feature that will allow players to directly report naughty bots through the game itself.
Blizzard lowers the boom on Diablo III cheaters
Blizzard's had all it can stands, and it can stands no more. The studio is taking aggressive action against botters and cheaters in Diablo III, reporting that it's gone through "several rounds of account bans" against such players. The studio also used the ban announcement as an excuse to clarify its position on hacks and third-party software. If you're curious about what steps over the line that Blizzard has in mind, wonder no longer. Beyond allowing some players to get away with an unfair advantage over others, cheat programs reportedly cause instability and performance issues with client software and Battle.net at large. "We strongly recommend that you avoid using any third-party software which interacts with Diablo III," Blizzard posted, "even if you are accessing that software from a reputable third-party site-as doing so can result in permanent ban from the game."
RuneScape puts bots on trial
Jagex has nuked them from orbit, and now, the MMO studio is going to put RuneScape's bots on trial. Coming soon to RuneScape is a brand-new area called Botany Bay. It's here that players can be the judge, jury, and executioner for convicted bots, voting on their ultimate punishment. Jagex gives two warnings to botters, after which the player is ejected from the game and his or her avatar is sent to Botany Bay for final judgment. Botters' avatars may be smooshed by a dragon, vaporized, or pelted with rotten fruit. Lead Designer Mark Ogilvie hopes this will deter players from naughty behavior: "We have wanted to do this for some time and we hope that by bringing the actions of those who cheat to the attention of the wider community, we can make a massive step towards eliminating botting from the game." You can watch a trailer for the new Botany Bay area after the jump. [Source: Jagex press release]
Open source mini sub appeals to our inner Steve Zissou
Quadrocopters haven't exactly opened the skies for DIY exploration so much as they have for acrobatic feats, but the OpenROV project is hoping to make the briny depths friendlier for aspiring explorers and educators alike. The open source rover, spearheaded by NASA engineer and researcher Eric Stackpole, sinks to depths of up to 300 feet (100 meters), runs on eight C-cell batteries for approximately 1.5 hours and can clip by at three feet (one meter) per second. Within the laser-cut acrylic frame, a sealed cylinder houses a BeagleBone, HD webcam and LED lights. This all weighs in at 5.5 pounds and is piloted using a web browser and video feed. The footage is then piped up to a laptop that tethers the vehicle to the shore. Pre-orders for OpenROV 2.3 kits will be taken through Kickstarter later this summer at $750 apiece, though there are plans to sell fully assembled units. For now, explorers can register their interest at the link below and impatient Jacques Cousteaus will be pleased to know that all files necessary to build version 2.2 are available to download now.
Google bots learning to read webpages like humans, one step closer to knowing everything
Google just launched its Knowledge Graph, a tool intended to deliver more accurate information by analyzing the way users search. Of course, with a desire to provide better search results comes a need for improved site-reading capabilities. JavaScript and AJAX have traditionally put a wrench in Google bots' journey through a webpage, but it looks like the search engine has developed some smarter specimens. While digging through Apache logs, a developer spotted evidence that bots now execute the JavaScript they encounter -- and rather than just mining for URLS, the crawlers seem to be mimicking how users click on objects to activate them. That means bots can dig deeper into the web, accessing databases and other content that wasn't previously indexable. Looks like Google is one step closer to success on its quest to know everything.
Google reCAPTCHAs now featuring Street View addresses, 221b Baker St. to get even more famous
If you've enjoyed decrypting the often frustratingly skewed (and occasionally humorously juxtaposed) reCAPTCHAs, you might be a bit sad to learn that Google is mixing things up with some rather more boring numerals. The combinations of two words are typically used as part of a registration form to ensure the registrant is, indeed, human. Google is now replacing one of the words in some of its reCAPTCHA forms with photos gleaned from Street View service. Google says it uses these numbers internally to improve the accuracy of Street View and that pulling them into reCAPTCHAs is part of an "experiment" to "determine if using imagery might also be an effective way to further refine our tools for fighting machine and bot-related abuse online."In other words, Google's bots are already capable of decoding these numbers, which makes this all sound like a bit of a challenge to the rest of the OCR-loving coders in the world. Any takers?[Image Credit: dirtbag]
TOSY and Justin Bieber announce mRobo: we go hands-on, dance-off (video)
Beethoven's Fifth. Michelangelo's Pietà . Plato's Republic. Cornerstones of human civilization, to be sure, but they all pale in comparison to what we saw today at CES: TOSY's new mRobo robot, inspired by none other than the Cultural Colossus of our time, Justin Bieber. The Vietnamese manufacturer and pubescent Prince have just taken the wraps off their latest collaboration: a petite, portable speaker-robot that dances -- nay, transcends -- just like his only slightly larger progenitor counterpart. When in speaker mode, the mRobo weighs in at just 3.3 pounds, stands a little under eight inches tall, and boasts 2GB of internal memory. Its integrated speaker pumps out the jams at bass levels of 40Hz, but the real magic happens once the music starts playing, automatically prompting the system to transform into an 18-inch tall robot and start dancing. Unfortunately, the bot is still in prototype mode, but it's expected to retail for about $200 when it launches during the fall of 2012.Today, though, we were lucky enough to get a sneak peak of the mRobo, courtesy of a mic'd-up Messiah with sweepy bangs and a leather jacket. Upon taking the stage to roars of applause and Jelly Bean sunshowers, Bieber went on to do a brief demo of the bot, displaying its ability to sync its dance moves to whatever tunes blare out of its abdomen speaker -- in this case, Billie Jean. The mRobo looked admittedly clumsy at times, and was especially awkward when onstage with the teen phenom, but, as TOSY repeatedly reminded us, it's still in prototype phase. (Bieber, for his part, did a good job of looking completely awestruck throughout much of the experience.) Before descending from his bubblegum pulpit, Bieber reminded his acolytes to "follow your dreams." Ours, at least, have just been realized. Follow yours past the break, straight to our hands-on video.Mat Smith contracted Bieber Fever from this report.
Google's Androidify holiday wardrobe update lets your bot ring in the New Year
Ready to celebrate the holidays this year? Google has gone and refreshed its free Androidify app with some season-appropriate gear for your avatar. The new virtual wardrobe selections should certainly please a variety of tastes, whether you're itching to fit your robo with an ugly Christmas sweater or just a pair of New Years party specs. You can catch our bot's new winter threads below, and snag the update for yourself by hitting up the Android Market link below.