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Blizzard Bans Speed Hackers from WoW
Voodoo Extreme has the world that Blizzard has already banned several accounts for Speed Hacking, a type of cheat that allows a character to move far faster than it should. From the article: "Those individuals who were caught using the speed hack have been banned from the game and have had their accounts closed. We must stress once again that we are opposed to hacking and cheating of any kind and are dedicated to maintaining a fair environment in our games." Adios, punks
Generally speed hacks work by sending packets in such a way as to simulate periods of extreme latency between the client and the server. This leads to a bit of a bad fork for Blizzard...The two most likely ways that they banned people were checking for constant extreme latency (which could occur) in which case they may have banned people who were not cheating, or they tested for programs running on the user's machine, which is a slippery road towards privacy invasion.
Some people never learn... :/
...would the speed hack give an unfair advantage in combat or any other part in the game?
Article doesnt say.
The lag wasn't the game going slowly, it was just everyone going faster then I was. Damn kids and their speed hacks... and makeout parties...
One of the complaints I heard frequently on various forums was people claiming that they'd "never play World of Warcraft because Blizzard games always get hacked and Blizzard never does anything about it." Hopefully this will convince them that Blizzard is indeed being proactive about preventing cheaters.
Unfortunately, I expect that instead they'll just take it as evidence that World of Warcraft is easily hacked and use that as a reason why they refuse to play.
But I'm glad Blizzard is announcing this, rather than the approach a certain other MMORPG took of saying "oh, there's nothing wrong, there are no bots anymore, we took care of them all" despite groups of players who seem not to mind doing the same thing repeatedly 24/7 and never respond when you try and talk with them...
Several people used FRAPS to record people that were using SpeedHacks in the game. So they were not banning people who had not visibly evidenced this behavior several times and been reported by users.
And they were not faking a Gryphon flight while on the ground, they were faking lag to the client making the server lag-o-port them great distances. This is using a method posted on the BlizzHackers website forums.
"To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield." - Tennyson
Whats the point of cheating in a online game. It justs fucks with the Balance for everyone. And why the hell cheat in a gane you have to pay to play for!. If just wanted to let a bot run around Id just run something like progress quest since it pretty much amounts to the same thing.
I've always thought that this kind of hacking would not be a problem once internet technology gets suitably advanced. Once everyone has super fast internet connections, you wouldn't need to have the program stored on your own system where punks can work at hacking it. All you would do is buy an account, and then everytime you wanted to play, you would download a fresh copy of the program. You play for however you want, and then you log off, and the program is ereased off your computer (or maybe if you're afraid of having a remote computer deleting programs, it can stay on your hard drive). Then the next time you want to play, you download the program again, thus ensuring that you and everyone else is always playing with a non-hacked version of the program. Your character and his equipment would be stored on the server, so that couldn't be hacked either. So the elimination of punks is only a matter of time.
Why is this news, again? Every MMoRPG has a few cheaters, who get caught and banned. It's like reporting that a 14 year old kid was caught stealing candy at the local corner store and was grounded for it. Whee... It would be news if Blizzard said 'we marvel at the intelligence of these cheaters. We consider them magical beings and will do all we can to accomodate them'
-Ryan
AUWYHSTOT (Acronyms are Useless When You Have to Spell Them Out Too)
I think it has to do with a deep-seatesx psychological perception of self-inadequacy. Such people perhaps have never had the chance to be in charge or to be in a position of power and so instead of playing the game like everyone else, they feel the need to cheat to obtain a position of power. Doing stupid things that piss everyone off give such persons a feeling of power and importance based upon the attention they receive, even though it is negative. This syndrome does not just appear in cheaters, but in the kind of people who steal planes just to steal planes in Battlefield and who flashbang their team every chance they get in CounterStrike. It is rooted in a deep need for attention which they most like receive little or none of in real life. This problem, to use Freudian terms, would be called a "Smacktard Complex" driving people to do rude, annoying and stupid things just to anger those around them. It gives them feelings of power and supplies them with attention as they deeply desire. So, everytime you ignored that idiot at school or at work, a cheating smacktard was born.
Is the human mind even capable of conceiving the CPU/GPU resources that a company would have to possess to be able to transmit everything to the dumb terminal, which is only transmitting/processing keyboard/mouse input?
The "server" room in this example would also be hotter than a thousand suns. Also, the subscription cost would be more on the order of 100 a month rather than 15.
So, yeah, get used to dealing with people hacking things client side.
"Inattention makes clowns of us all" -Bean
I first read your post as "Blizzard can't catch speed hackers, because when they're spotted, they run". I only grasped what you really meant when I saw it mod'd as informativa. Was I the only one? :D
The AACS key is NOT 0xF606EEFD628B1CA427BEA93A9CA9773F
blizzard opposed to cheating? haha
anyone remember playing diablo online?
I only played it later on, and when I did, I'm pretty sure the number of cheaters far exceeded people playing fairly. I wonder what it's like now.
System.out.println(syynnapse.getSig());
Speed hackers could be master ambushers. Rush in quickly, have all the ambushers attack one guy, run out, repeat. They'd be untouchable in PvP.
What scares me is when I wonder what that kind of people do in real life -- and how many are in my social groups. :-(
Shudder...
Karma: Excellent (My Karma? I wish...:-( )
Has Blizzard taken a stand on these?
there's cash money to be made selling virtual stuff.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
I remember when UO was out people were using all kind of hacks such as the speed hack until they implemented server side checks.
So using the speed hack for example, if some took a step the server would have to send an acknowledgement back to the client that the move was accepted. There was a small buffer to compensate for lag. This worked well except when you bumped into a dymanic object during high periods of lag in which case you would see yourself walk through the object only to get "bounced back" because the server had denied your request to move.
Hacking the client to remove the check for the server response was pointless since the server kept your actual location so while you appeared to be one place on your client, the server had you somewhere else.
Since UO is over 8 years old and they solved the problem, how come current games still have this problem?
Than they did in the Diablos and Starcraft. Recently they deleted around 500,000 starcraft accounts in two seporate waves.
That said I think there is a lot greater risk hacking in WoW than in Starcraft. In SC if you hack and your key is banned, you can play on alternate servers. As far as I know there is no Alternate network to connect to for WoW.
He who knows not and knows he knows not is a wise man. He who knows not and knows not he knows not is a fool.
In Soviet Russia, cheaters ban you.
Eh.
Why oh why do we hear this time and time again. Whether it be auto-miners, bots or speed hacks?
It wouldn't really be the case that the games designers are short sighted would it?
It wouldn't really be the case that some people have almost zero real imagination?
Just like the OSS movement, I would really love to see at least one game where we could contribute things which made the game better for all. In other words, better AI (please please) better anything. All it takes is to allocate a few worlds as a sandbox/playpen where anybody can break every
rule (and accepts that their code becomes public domain)...
What do other slashdotters think?
(perhaps i should post to askslashdot?)
Andy.
I participated in beta and I got sick of spending all my time taking damage in fights. Probably 100% of the fights I was in damaged me. It's the primary reason I didn't bother buying the game.
You know you have a problem with people start using invincible hacks to save themselves from getting damaged. But instead of fixing the problem, Blizzard banned anybody who cheated. Good job listening to your customers, Blizzard.
Not a Twitter sockpuppet... but I wish I was.
PvP is possible on all servers, actually.
Incase you miss the point, which you probably will... it's against the rules (ie: LAWS) set down by Blizzard. When you install WoW, you are agreeing to play by the rules/obey the laws that Blizzard has put down for the game.
Understand now?
"If Common Sense was so common, it wouldn't be such a valued trait."
Okay, so they have done nothing software-wise to prevent people from doing this? Just their usual 'no mods' rule? So, do they have any way of detecting moderate use of this? For example, someone who runs just that _little_ bit faster than everyone else. This seems to me like it would be indistinguishable from legitimate lag, if correctly implemented. Although this does downgrade it from a game-breaking bug to a pretty small tweak. I suppose Blizzard will be watching _very_ closely for lag-hopping past certain bottlenecks :P
Playing poker with a joker and some Uno cards
How long did you play your character for, total? And did you get a mount? From what I've heard (and I must admit I didn't get the client downloaded in time for the beta) there are many many many different transport options, all specifically designed with player comfort in mind. I think the thinking goes like this: Early levels, the players can damn well walk. Let them have a close look at all our lovely scenery, we worked flipping hard on it, okay? Later levels, fine, give them a mount, and they can sprint thru. *sniff* Not even a pause to admire our lovely grass Long distance, give them something airborne! We can show off the big picture! Yeah, even the high levels will have to spend a little time watching the horizon in this one
Playing poker with a joker and some Uno cards
When I was a kid, I honestly didn't see -any- moral problem with cheating. To me it was just part of the game, and as long as you won and didn't get caught, you won, and getting caught was just another form of losing, and since if you wanted to cheat it meant you were likely to lose, it seemed to make no difference.
I think my perspective changed when I realized that losing well had social benefits.
I suppose a realization like that is much harder to make online.
I'm sure most of the cheaters would rationalize that it doesn't even apply at all, but knowing the kinds of friends I've made through mutually respectful play vs the kinds of people you see on their cheater forums I'd say the social rewards for not cheating are substaintially better online as well.
1) Every server is PvP. The "PvE" servers are just consentual instead of automatic.
2) Speedhack means that someone can beat you to every single important monster/chest/whatever.
3) Customers want a button they can click to win the game. Should Blizzard provide it?
I remember when ppl were doing speed hacks on Final Fantasy XI. It was so unfair to see them run by your charcter at 80MPH while you jog at a jumpy 5. It really tips the balance of the game. So I belive ban-mation is sutable punshiment. If you commit a crime, you must be punshed. In this case. They were speeding.
Mounts come in at level 40 - and there's a hell a lot of walking to do before then. That said, after your first 10 levels or so, you don't need to walk much. Griffins (or Horde equivelant) cost next to nothing after you've hit level 12 or 14. Then there's the Deeprun Tram for free between Stormwind and Ironforge, and I think the Horde has a Zeppelin? Many classes also get their own transport abilities - Druids and Shaman get a travel form, Mages get a teleport, Hunters get Aspect of the Cheetah, etc. Plus you've got Warlocks who, with two other people to help them, can summon another player from anywhere else in the game. Oh, and don't forget your hearthstone you can use once every hour. Although mounts are a high-level bonus, there are plenty of travel alternatives from very early on.
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
It is just that 99% of them give the others a bad name.
Are you talking about Item Damage? Because if so, they have changed it so that one mainly takes damage in the case of death (10% to all items), Resurrection by talking to the Spirit Healer (25% to all items). You take a tiny, tiny, tiny bit of item damage through battle, but it's nothing to really complain about, and when you do repair the costs seem relatively reasonable. They have GREATLY reduced the amount of incidental item damage since the start of beta. If you're talking about character damage, then that is kind of a given that you will be damaged in a fight... You can use bandages, food, potions, or healing spells to restore your health.
Don't you mean "4di0z, punkz"?
3) Customers want a button they can click to win the game. Should Blizzard provide it?
yes
Thanks for the specific information :) I didn't know about all of those, just general Blizzard promises of easy transport :)
Playing poker with a joker and some Uno cards
This kind of exploit was common in the first generation of MMORPGs, we had overlaid maps that show the movement, and threat level of all NPCs & PCs, invisible or otherwise in DAOC, movement cheats in EQ1 iirc, tradskill bots in EQ & SWG.
Blizzard is pitching itself against the second generation MMOPRGs (of which EQ2 is the first) and it is interesting that it should fall into the same traps as the previous generation. Part of my decision to play EQ2 was the fact that Sony/Verant have had years of experience therefore hopefully the game will benefit from this whereas WoW is a new player.
As the first two weeks of my EQ2 pass by I can say that I am pleased with my decision. Good luck to WoW perhaps I'll play it when I'm bored of EQ2 in six months time.
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
No, I was being a smartass and saying that everybody has something they don't like, and that doesn't give them the right to CHEAT.
Not a Twitter sockpuppet... but I wish I was.
At least the moderators got my post. Which is odd, because usually they're the clueless ones.
Not a Twitter sockpuppet... but I wish I was.
when anyone asks me if I'm going to play WoW, I've been saying I'll never play a blizard MMORPG because blizard's security has always scucked, if they do something about it afterward is beside the point. Being tough on hacks is nice and all, but that still means players have to deal with cheaters for a time before blizard bans them / fixes it, shadowbane anyone?
Suck.
I love how everything is centered, and there's ads on top of each page of the 7 page review.
So the game is perfect, aside from your unrealistic desires for ultra-realistic (but pointless) physics and water effects.
Yawn.
Your music has guts though (viola? double bass?). Keep it up.
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
Well, you could have some Monthy Python type executioner(s) run around on the MMOG, halt and ask people questions like "What is the speed of an unladen swallow?" and then kill them if they don't answer well, since they obviously must be a script if they don't know the answer ;-)
I'm still trying to figure out what people mean by 'social skills' here.
I participated in beta and I got sick of spending all my time taking damage in fights. Probably 100% of the fights I was in damaged me. It's the primary reason I didn't bother buying the game.
As a non-WoW player, but fan of RPGs, i find this statement rediculous. You are playing a game that has combat as a big componant. Large fleshy things are swinging large metal things at you, or whatever. Of course you will take some damage in fights that are somewhat equal.
lousy MTv generation.. . no patience.
You managed to miss the entire point of my post. Read the parent again and compare them.
I'm commenting on the players who cheat to fix a problem they see in the game.
Unfortunatly it went right over your head.
And I stopped watching MTV when they cancelled Sifl & Olly.
Not a Twitter sockpuppet... but I wish I was.
I wouldn't say they "got it": they marked your comment "Insightful", not "Funny". Oh, well...
I can mute all comments that use the term "slippery slope" and it's variants.
A strain of paranoid prevention can be worse than the disease, whate'er the intention.