NCSoft Drops GameGuard From Western Launch of Aion

chalkyj writes "NCSoft has announced that they will be dropping GameGuard from the western launch of their upcoming MMORPG, Aion. The flawed Korean anti-cheat software has been heavily criticized for employing root-kit like techniques and conflicting with many hardware configurations. The final straw is thought to have been the stability issues experienced by players during open beta and the community outcry it caused. The decision makes Aion, which recently announced over 400,000 western pre-orders, a real contender in the western MMO market."

Comments

That's nice

[MacAnkka]

A company is actually listening what their customers have to say? Thats quite refreshing to hear during these days.

Re:That's nice

[sopssa]

Nice thing about MMO's is that the companies actually *have to* listen to customers or they will stop playing and paying. Blizzard alone has 2500+ people working on customer support related jobs.

You of course cant listen to or adjust the game by every single person, but you have to listen to the larger group. This is true even more because Aion is NCSoft's try to create real competitor in the western markets.

And the game does look good with its Crytek Engine and with some of the gameplay mechanics. I haven't played it myself, but some friends have been playing the beta and say it is quite fun. However I will wait for more reviews first, as I cant concentrate on WoW that much either. What I'm worried about is that it will have lots of grinding like WoW, specially because thats even more common in Asian games.

Re:That's nice

[Smooth and Shiny]

Any real evidence behind this assertion, or are you just basing this on, well, hearsay? I've played the game since launch, and ALL of the bans & suspensions that I have seen happen have all been more than merited by the players' conduct. So unless you have some sort of evidence or even an anecdote that might support this claim, this sounds like an angry, bitter rant from someone who got banned/suspended, or had a friend get banned/suspended for good reason. Given said angry rant, I would imagine that it was well deserved. :)

I was on the forums one day and saw a post about "sex toys." I clicked to view the post and it was rather nasty. I replied to the post, simply saying; "This will probably get you banned for sexual harassment and various other reasons." I then left for work. When I came home, I tried to log back into the forums (I used to post helpful information for people, true story) and a message saying - "You have been banned from the forums for the following reasons: Making threats, demeaning someone for their sexual preference or making inappropriate remarks concerning race, sexuality or ethnic background." - Naturally, I was thinking "WTF?!" So I checked my email and, sure enough, there was a letter in my inbox stating the same. I wrote to Customer Support, asking for a review and giving them solid proof of what I had actually said in the post. I showed them screenshots AND gave them direct links to my comments (mind you, the OP in the thread was still posting to it when I checked on my wife's account). A day later, they got back to me and said "after further review, we see that you have done nothing wrong, but the ban will remain in effect."

Good enough for you? Yes, I _am_ bitter for that. But then it goes on... my account received a suspension (I couldn't play the game for 72 hours) after someone told me that I had sex with my sister. *I* was BANNED for being insulted by someone.

If you're talking about the guild(s) that completed Naxxramas when WotLK launched, they completed it in TBC epics and greens that were better, in some cases, than said TBC epics, much like the greens in TBC were better than some vanilla WoW epics (just do the maths, it makes sense). And judging content 'nerfed' because the best of the best players can complete it in a few days isn't really fair, given that those players pounded said content on the PTR and beta enough to ensure that they would be able to plow right through it. Not to mention that this was Naxxramas 2.0, they already KNEW all of the basics of the encounters, and only had to figure out what had changed this go 'round.

No, not talking about those people. I am talking about the new guilds full of Blood Elves in which almost 90% of the guilds were totally new to the end game in WoW. People who were super casual before the remake of Naxx. THEY are now destroying that content (well, back before I quit) and having a much easier time than the established end-game population. Most of the content was nerfed really hard (this one has 1 million fewer hitpoints and his DoTs only do half the damage they did before). That is really like saying: "Here you go, raid this and get easy epics."

Even with all the PvP nerfs hurting PvE (and here is one area where I agree with you), if you were doing less DPS on a boss than the tank... then your spec was poor, or your gear was poor, or your rotation/ability use was poor. If you are talking about trash, however (particularly in Naxxramas), then of course tanks will do more--all they're going to do is AoE. Paladin, druid, and DK tanks can pour out a ton of AoE damage when tanking trash, so it's certainly possible that they out-DPSed a rogue on trash, as all rogues have is one ability that can't compete with other, more AoE-centric classes such as mages and warlocks.

Nah, my rotations were always good as was my build and gear. My point was that rogue DPS output was really affe

Re:That's nice

[murdocj]

Blizzard has 2500+ people working POORLY in customer support related jobs. They make decisions based on hearsay and ban without even doing a thorough investigation into the matters at hand. It's beginning to cost them in playerbase.

The few times I've had to contact GMs, the experience has been uniformly positive. And I know of a number of people who were hacked and had their stuff ripped off. Each of them got their gear back in a few days. I don't know of anyone leaving the game due to customer service. I played Everquest for years, and WoW CS is head and shoulders above SoE.

Now take that above and toss nerfs into the mix. Not just item nerfs or class nerfs, but CONTENT nerfs. Making "epic" raid encounters so trivial that almost any casual guild with all green gear and ventrilo can take out most of the upper-tier content.

I used to be upset about reducing the difficulty of content. However, it's actually a really good move on Blizzard's part. Unless they do stuff like that, the game becomes a filter where fewer and fewer players get to see the content. Once the hard core "uber" players have seen some content, what's the problem with easing the encounters so other players can see it?

I mostly did PvP with my rogue and not to float my own boat, but I was good at it. Then some warlock made a video that showed his poor class playing ability and how rogues were somehow so uber they needed to be nerfed to Hell and back. It got to the point where every PvP nerf they gave me hurt me in PvE high-end raiding content. Even with tier 7+ gear it was hard to do what a rogue SHOULD do - damage things better than the tank at least.

So they nerfed your class and then you got pissed off and decided to stop playing. Well, guess what, every MMO is going to need rebalancing, and that may include nerfs. I was seriously annoyed when they nerfed fear ward on my priest, but that's just the way it goes.

Yes, I am bitter toward WoW and Blizzard. In fact, I hope WoW dies a horribly, slow burning death

It's a game, it's not worth getting that pissed off about. Play a different game. Go outside and see the ball of yellow light in the sky.

Re:That's nice

[vikstar]

Actually, no...

We will however continue to pursue ways to effectively utilize GameGuard within Aion in the future.

So once you've payed for the game, they'll bring it back.

Awesome

[Dyinobal]

Now if they promise not to 'include it' in future patches that would be swell. I might actually considering trying it.

Re:Awesome

[S77IM]

No, they basically say the exact opposite.

The entirety of the relevant text from The Full Article:

After analyzing our open beta test results Aion will not feature GameGuard at launch. We will however continue to pursue ways to effectively utilize GameGuard within Aion in the future. Right now we're focused on providing players with the best possible Aion experience.

Essentially, they're saying that the implementation is flawed, not the concept.

  -- 77IM

Re:Awesome

[geekboy642]

Except that Blizzard has made their own DRM/antihack software invisible to almost all of their players, and that's the important difference. Anecdotally, I've never met anyone who was unable to play because of it. I've met several unwilling to play because of a healthy paranoia about spyware, but even as spyware it's quite technically competent.

Re:Awesome

[Megane]

It's not just the kiddies who want to go run around griefing, it's the gold farmers who want to ruin your game's economy for profit, and their bots overcamping the stuff you need to kill.

Re:Awesome

[joaobranco]

Now if they promise not to 'include it' in future patches that would be swell. I might actually considering trying it.

Yeah, that really stopped people from buying World of Warcraft.

Notice that the WoW Warden is much less intrusive than GameGuard (it even allows for playing WoW on Linux using wine, which means it is very much standards compliant). Big difference here.

Poor Summary

[Lulfas]

Nothing about the decision to drop GameGuard makes it a competitive MMO. The preorders numbers were given before that decision was made public. While I'm very glad they are dropping the horrible DRM program (I might pick it up myself now), it really has nothing to do with it's success or failure.

Re:Poor Summary

[Savior_on_a_Stick]

It's not DRM.
It has nothing to do with DRM.

It was used previously in FreeToPlay games like 2moons to prevent cheating via game hacks.

It failed utterly in that regard and was dropped.

If Aion was relying on it as an anti hack measure - and "may introduce it later" - the game is already doomed.

Re:Poor Summary

[The Analog Kid]

WoW and other gamers are quite easy to make hacking tools to too, but players reporting cheaters to gamemasters and the fact one account costs whole new game limits it goodly.

WoW also has Warden to detect cheating programs and bots. I don't know how effective it is, but unlike some other anti-cheat programs, it shuts off when WoW does, and it doesn't stay on the system if you were to uninstall WoW.

It's also been reported that Blizzard is suspending accounts that are played on machines that they detect have spyware on for 24 hours. It's started happening when they began collecting "Non-identifiable system information" again. They don't won't suspend the account though if you have an authenticator attached to your account.

Re:Poor Summary

[SanityInAnarchy]

Seems people just like to throw "DRM" word around because of its bad image here on slashdot.

Anti-cheat software, however, employs similar tactics and has similar effects. Example: Blizzard's Warden checks for certain programs running in the background. SecuROM does the same thing. Only difference is, SecuROM doesn't like DaemonTools, while Warden probably cares more about Glider (if it still exists).

The biggest difference between DRM and anti-cheat in general is motivation -- legitimate players actually do benefit, much more directly, if the anti-cheat software works, whereas if DRM could ever work, legitimate players would be no better off than with no DRM at all.

However, in the bigger picture, you still have the same problems -- false positives and general headaches (rootkit-like behavior, anyone? Hello?) for people forced to use anti-cheat software, which are the same problems as people forced to use DRM.

So while it may not be technically accurate, it does make sense.

Re:Poor Summary

[Jestrzcap]

If the program rootkits your system and prevents you from running certain software... well that sounds like DRM to me. I'd be happy to use a different term if you have something that's more accurate while conveying the same information.

Any word on Exteel?

[Bieeanda]

Not that it's a particularly good game (because it's not), but that pile of crap Gameguard is the reason I dropped out of that beta a week in. Stupid thing turned my uninterruptible power supply service off every time the game started, and I can only guess at what else it was doing behind the scenes... rather than preventing hacks, which it apparently wasn't worth shit at.

Re:Rootkitting is a-okay for cheat protection

[Bieeanda]

Bullshit. It's an MMO, not some rinky-dink peer-to-peer setup like original flavour Diablo. If there's something important enough that you don't want it hacked, you don't let the client handle it.

GameGuard doesn't cause any problems

[S77IM]

I was in the open beta (hey, free game!) and I think the accusation that GameGuard introduces security vulnerabilities into your system, which linger after you uninstall it, are an exaggeration.

No-one wants to hack my desktop, anyway.Being well-endowed is the biggest gift the nature can give to a man. You are ashamed to take shower in public pools and gyms because of your tiny pecker? Now you can leave all your inhibitions behind as we know how to help you enlarge your instrument. Widest selection of desire lifters for men and women! We sell products for making your nights perfect!~

Re:examples

[Auxis]

It was also used in Lineage 2. Bots/hacking programs in that game are ridiculously easy to use and get working.

Re:Why rootkit this kind of MMORPG model?

[Savior_on_a_Stick]

absolutely nothing

He saw the letters DRM in someone's post and his brain crashed

GameGuard thinks battery backups are for cheaters

[zorg50]

GameGuard disabled my computer's USB connection to my UPS (battery backup). I'll at least consider trying Aion, now that they've dumped that piece of shit.

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[account_deleted]

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[account_deleted]

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gameguard circumvention is easy

[blueworm]

As Auxis alluded to below, you can simply write a hack to tell the game that gameguard is running when it's not. These hacks are readily available for Lineage II (and I suspect almost every other game popular enough to warrant them), so all gameguard does is treat the gamer like a criminal while doing little to actually prevent unauthorized use.