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Blizzard Sues Creator of WoW Bot
Ponca City, We Love You writes "Blizzard, the makers of World of Warcraft, are suing Michael Donnelly, the creator of the MMO Glider program, which performs key tasks in the game automatically. Blizzard says the software bot infringes the company's copyright and potentially damages the game. 'Blizzard's designs expectations are frustrated, and resources are allocated unevenly, when bots are introduced into the WoW universe, because bots spend far more time in-game than an ordinary player would and consume resources the entire time,' Blizzard wrote in its legal submission to the court. More than 100,000 copies of the tool have been sold while more than 10 million people around the world play Warcraft. Donnelly says his tool does not infringe Blizzard's copyright because no 'copy' of the Warcraft game client software is ever made. The two parties are now awaiting a summary judgment in the case."
A program that plays the boring parts of the game. Can he come up with a program that does the boring parts of my life while I'm out having fun?
All Blizzard needs to do is put it in the Terms of Service that USERS cannot use bots. Then they can suspend all users using bots on their system. Blizzard is just down the street from me. Maybe I should drive down there and tell them this.
what if I were an abnormal player who is on nearly 24/7;
I don't think that's so abnormal..
Whale
I agree completely. What we need isn't less bots, it's more bots! Put scripting into the official client, and let people run riot. Probably work better in a Sci-fi MMO than WOW, but still. And if the scripts end up making the game no fun, then hire the best script writers, and kick your designers in the nuts.
Send lawyers, guns, and money!
Of course we can, but wouldn't it be more efficient to have a computer entertain itself, on our behalf? Your recreation could be taken care of, for you by proxy, freeing you to pursue other more fulfilling endeavors, such as laboring.
This is just a step toward the ideals mankind has dreamt of for ages. Someday, computers will be able to drink beer for us, have sex for us, and enjoy books,music, and movies for us. Perhaps they could even sleep for us. This would make us free to perform menial tasks.
"Believe me!" -- Donald Trump
How long until EFF joins the party?
It should be illegal for computers to be able do that.
Modern copyright is theft of culture from everyone and it retards the progress of the useful arts and sciences.
Dude, we are still boycotting... aren't we?
In regard to the OP, the Terms of Use for WoW require that you not share account details or access with any other persons. Hence, if a player is on constantly (24/7) then, short of someone who's finally discovered the secret to avoiding the unnecessary "sleep" that plagues our existence, the terms of use are clearly being compromised. As for "nearly" 24/7, Blizzard isn't claiming against players on "nearly" 24/7, they're complaining about bots that ARE on 24/7. If a played only needs 1 hour of sleep a night and plays WoW for the other 23, good for them. At least they're not busy reproducing..
Actually.. that's not Nullav's logic at all. Thats Brian Gordon's logic turned back on him. Twice, even.
Nullav was pointing out that bots consume resources on Blizzard's machines and are indicative of asshattery.
Not that I'm exactly sure that those are necessarily going to be actionable in court.. especially the asshattery bit.
I don't expect morality, equality, consistency, or justice from the law. I expect only legality.
No, it's still boring. Or rather, It's full of interesting content and brilliant visuals, and quests from humorous to dramatic.
Only, to get to that interesting content, you have to wade through a lot of boring crap like, "collect 10 livers from undead dire boars" And when you get there, you discover that they drop livers 2.5% of the time (so you need to kill 400 boars), and at least one of the following is true:
1) the boars are too powerful for you to take on easily, so you have to wait between them while you restore health and mana and/or burn through potions at a rate that the quest reward + the loot will not support (and therefore necessitating further farming...)
2) The boars are powerful, but you find other player(s) to help you, but you have to split the loot up, so factoring in the extra boars you need to kill, it takes just as long as if you solo'd.
3) there aren't enough boars, so there are a dozen people just standing around waiting for one to spawn, hoping to get the first shot in to claim the loot.
And you need those livers to make the soup to give to the informant to get the trinket to give to the other informant to get the key to enter the dungeon where the monster lives that drops half of the amulet that you need to be holding when you kill the elementals that drop the ingredient that you need ten of to bribe the wizard to give you the cure for the children of the village's mysterious plague.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
...annoying additions to the game that occurs randomly while logged in and harms, kill, or causes monetary loss to the inattentive player. I believe they're called Sons of Arugal. Or, later, Fel Reavers.Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.