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Blizzard Suing Creators of StarCraft II Hacks
An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from Rock, Paper, Shotgun:
"Blizzard have taken the extremely peculiar decision to ban players from playing StarCraft II for using cheats in the single-player game. This meant that, despite cheating no one but themselves, they were locked out of playing the single-player game. Which is clearly bonkers. But it's not enough for the developer. Blizzard's lawyers are now setting out to sue those who create cheats. Gamespot reports that the megolithic company is chasing after three developers of hacks for 'destroying' their online game. It definitely will be in violation of the end user agreement, so there's a case. However, it's a certain element of their claim that stands out for attention. They're claiming using the hacks causes people to infringe copyright: 'When users of the Hacks download, install, and use the Hacks, they copy StarCraft II copyrighted content into their computer's RAM in excess of the scope of their limited license, as set forth in the EULA and ToU, and create derivative works of StarCraft II.'"
Blizzard used similar reasoning in their successful lawsuit against the creators of a World of Warcraft bot.
I presume this factors into it, and it's exactly why I don't support their actions.
You see, once upon a time, in the mythic age of the mid-2000's, developers intentionally added cheat codes to their games. Yes, intentionally. No, I'm not pulling your leg, it's true! "But Keatonguy", you ask, befuddled, "Why would they intentionally give people ways to do things in the game without spending untold days of time to unlock it piecemeal?" Well, young poster, because it's fun as hell. Cheating and hacking the RAM of games is where half the replay value of the classics comes from. Tell me, would San Andreas be as fun without flying cars and rioting pedestrians? Have you ever played a PC FPS without using noclip even once? Would we have found all those unused rooms and learned the programming tricks used to make classics like Metroid and The Legend of Zelda work without an Action Replay or a Game Genie?
Now these little things called achievement scores roll around, and if anyone dares to think of getting past a part of the game they don't feel like playing, it's something to be shunned and reviled. Damn kids these days, rabble rabble rabble...
If you aren't angry, you aren't paying attention.
No, because the achievement system isn't optional. If I bought Starcraft II (which I'm not going to, especially now), I'd probably not play it online at all, and if I did, it would just be with a few specific friends. I don't give a fuck about the achievements, I wanna play the game MY way. If I run in to a level that I find incredibly annoying, and I wanna skip it, or I wanna just stomp all over it with some invincible units, it's not any of Blizzard's fucking concern. It wouldn't have been their concern if my friends and I wanted to cheat with each other either, if we used LAN play. The only time it should matter is if we're actually, purposefully, and with intent accessing online multiplayer to play with people who couldn't know whether or not I'm cheating. If you're going to use achievements as a reason to stop people from doing what they want with their game, then that system needs to be optional.
Canada: The US's more awesome sibling.
I've had a recent change of heart as well when it comes to Blizzard. Not as a result of this, but some of their other recent and monetary based decisions. I have been a fan from the beginning and have bought all of their games. But no longer. I've already sent them an email expressing my feelings.
It's sad that such a great company is being run my greedy wankers.
You might call me a Blizzard fanboy. I don't consider myself a fanboy of anything, but I think Blizzard has produced nothing but excellent PC games. Not a single bad one. All 7 of the games they released have been fun, well polished, well supported, and ran decently on older hardware. SC2 is really good. I uninstalled it yesterday because the network-centricity of it is pissing me off. I have a fast computer. I should not have to sit and wait for things to load when I hit the custom maps folder icon (on single player), as the custom maps I have already paid and I assume downloaded, should be on my local machine. Instead I wait for it to do whatever network activity it does to monitor me playing a single player custom map. And then beyond that it just gets worse. This is the first time I personally think I agree with the argument that I would be getting a better product if I find a hacked/cracked version of the game that doesn't do all this network garbage when I just want to start the game from my OS, load a map, and play single player.
It would also be nice to be able to change my account name when on multiplayer. Or even better to just let me make up new account names and start with a 0-0 record, so that I can learn other races in the game without lowering my rating with my main race (as I would lose lots of games and get stomped playing zerg for the first time when I am say at the gold or platinum level with protoss.)
This is a slightly tricky one for me. I entirely in favour of very strong action against the development and use of cheats for multiplayer games. They ruin the experience for legitimate, paying customers. When Blizzard go after the developers of multiplayer RTS or WoW cheats, I'm with them 100%. Humiliate the users in public, lock their accounts and pursue the developers through the courts. They're damaging Blizzard's product and they should be treated accordingly.
Singleplayer cheats, however, are another story entirely. What I do in a singleplayer campaign should be entirely my own business; it may increase or decrease my own enjoyment of the game, but it isn't hurting anybody else. Part of the problem here, as I understand it, is that SC2 singleplayer cheat programs use software pathways that are difficult to distinguish from multiplayer cheats. So going after both of them looks like the "safest" option from Blizzard's point of view.
What we need is a return to the days of cheat-codes in games. IDDQD and that sort of thing. Game and platform developers have made this more difficult for themselves by adding a degree of meta-online functionality for singleplayer gaming via achievement systems. But there are already games out there which simply disable achievements while a cheat code is active. Skill levels among players vary wildly and a lot of singleplayer games are probably beyond the ability of many players to finish, which can be a profound irritation given the price tag that they carry. SC2 didn't give me any problems in blasting through the campaign; I was a fairly hardcore Warcraft 3 player for a while, so my RTS skills, while hardly top-end, are more than capable of handling the average singleplayer campaign. Other games, however, have had me desperate for some kind of cheat code to let me past a particularly irritating section (Halo: Reach had a few such moments). Let desperately frustrated players tap in a code to activate a singleplayer cheat and you remove a lot of the incentive to go searching for nasty third-party hacks.
I loved Blizzard, loved StarCraft and Brood War, and wanted StarCraft II. I even had a StarCraft website they liked once, and received beta tester status and a free comic book for it. But now, so many years later, this is the final drop. No LAN and requiring internet connection to play the single player game, is not the kind of game I play. But a company I once loved turning evil, that's way too bad, now I'm not interested in them and the games they make any longer.
> If someone wanted to make the "Game Genie" nowadays, Nintendo would sue them into oblivion and prevent it from ever happening.
Funny you say that.
Nintendo DID sue Galoob to try to stop them distributing the Game Genie.
Nintendo LOST.
Very similar "devalues our games" arguments; and Nintendo was the 800-pound legal gorilla back then too, with a 95%+ market share and who one 99%+ of copyright and similar legal cases.
Even so, I don't hold much hope for this case - not because any of the facts are materially different... just because I've lost hope of sanity in anything related to copyrights, patents, or trademarks.
"Having paid Nintendo a fair return, the consumer may experiment with the product and create new variations of play, for personal enjoyment, without creating a derivative work."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Galoob_Toys,_Inc._v._Nintendo_of_America,_Inc.
I don't understand where all the hate is coming from. I love Blizzard for doing this and hated them when they didn't do anything against hackers in Warcraft3 in the end.
Hackers destroyed WC3, a game I played for many years, but in the end every other online game I tried to play online, I got either map hacked, disconnect hacked or crash hacked. Blizzard released a patch, a week later there was a new hack
I still like the game, but it became unplayable, it ruined all the fun.
And now SC2 arrived.
And hacks soon after.
The hacking is not only in the single player game by the way.
I was very sad when I saw the first map hacks arrive in SC2 and encounter the first hackers on the ladder. It was so great to read when they banned a lot of players that used the hacks and even better, they are now targeting the hack developers.
Also don't forget that SC2 is aiming to be more than a game. it's aiming to be the no1 e-sports game.
This week a game from old SC1 legend SlayersBoxer returning in a SC2 tournament, with 80k for the winner, was watched on a stream by more than 700,000 people. No joke.
Mostly Koreans, but more and more people outside Korea start liking E-sports as well. People who don't play the game at all watch the tournaments online and like it a lot. Some youtube commentators, who cast games with english commenting, have more than 100k subscribers.
There are even a few americans and europeans now living in Korea as professional gamers, people who earn their living by playing SC2.
It's becoming pretty big.
I would love it if E-sports got as big worldwide as it is in Korea.
But if that's your goal as a game developer you have to get rid of cheaters, like in any sports.
A football player who's caught on doping gets banned too and they will for sure try to find the provider of the doping and get him in a lawsuit as well.
Anyway, on SC2 fan sites almost everyone approves about Blizzard taking action:
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=161168
Just thought it would be good to add this info to the discussion
And your friends can see your pacman high-score at the local arcade. So fucking what.
When was the last time you cheated at Pac-Man at the local arcade?
And you'd probably be banned from the arcade if you go around messing with the machines to set your score as the highest.