Project Lore

I don't know about you guys but even though I am a far cry from the hardcore raiding base, I still live through them vicariously.  I follow the MMO-Champion's Hall of Fame, I check up on all the "top guild" websites here and there, and I even report about the major events in the top echelon of raiding.  Instead of freaking out over the conditions surrounding the King of Pop's death this weekend, I was busy reading into the death of an Old God.  None other then Yogg-Saron+0, the last undefeated Ulduar encounter, bit the dust a few days ago.  Like Jackson, as soon as The Beast with a Thousand Maws uttered his last whisper claims of a mysterious death were uttered. Turns out that the cries of shenanigans against Exodus were just, as the guild openly admits to using a newly discovered, by them, exploit after getting banned from the game.  The banhammer notice, details of the exploit and trash talking are all included in the guild's official statement.

In our many attempts at trying to figure out a way to defeat Yogg zero watcher, we found a way to use bugged game mechanics to make phase 3 easier in zero watcher then one watcher. The bug is when someone is left inside the brain room of Yogg-Saron, they can still get aggro on the adds that spawn in phase 3. That means if you have someone getting healing aggro in the brain room, they will get aggro on the adds, which cause them to evade in place and allows for all of your raids dps to be focused on Yogg. We discovered this mechanic on a wipe, and decided to see if we could actually get it to work. The first attempt after that wipe, we realized it worked, and went with it and killed it on that attempt. We also filed a formal bug report on Blizzard's website.

Blizzard's EULA clearly states that using an exploit to gain an unfair advantage is against the rules.  Exodus doesn't deny that they exploited, or complain about the temporary ban, at least not directly.  Nope, Exodus cries foul of favoritism by Blizzard amongst the hardcore raiding guilds.  The team alleges that Ensidia and Nihilum have used "clever game mechanics" before, even citing a few Ulduar examples, but haven't been meet by the same backlash from other hardcore guilds, or, and more importantly, Blizzard.  At the moment the team is riding out a 72 hour ban and it makes me wonder who at Blizzard makes these decisions.  It's obvious that the issues are handled case by case, so does that mean there is a higher up who oversees the GMs?  Or is it at the discretion of a server's lead GM?  Any readers have that much insight? The guild mud slinging really brings me back though.  In the vanilla days of World of Warcraft, whenever a new first kill was announced on Magtheridon (US) everyone would respond that "Feared killed Onyxia first."  The quip was due to a long standing debate between who killed the dastardly dragon first, Horde or Alliance.  I don't see it anymore so it must have died during The Burning Crusade's heyday, as that is when the old guild disappeared. Slap on the wrist and name calling aside, claiming that you have the right to exploit because the fight is unbeatable is an incredibly lame justification.  In case you are wondering, the exploit has already been hotfixed. What's more interesting to you, the temp ban or the possibility of unequal treatment?

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The vastness of the WoW-verse almost exploded when Karatechop got his hands on a developer item.  Martin Fury in hand, Karatechop and his guild - The Marvel Family - tore through content like Bear Grills through a zebra until he, and most of his guild, were hit with the fabledBanhammer.  After our first take on the issue, Karatechop took some time out to detail what happened, how the guild has recovered and what he's up to now. ProjectLore: With all the criticism you've taken, would you have done things differently or would you still just go have fun? Karatechop: I’ve played WoW for over four years, and its always been for fun. Given the choice, it would always be fun. Possessing Martin Fury is something I believe no player will ever receive again. In my four years of WoW, I’ve never heard of a normal player receiving such an item, so I doubt it will happen again.  Given the chance, I wouldn’t do it again; I’ve used it for fun, but at the cost of nearly destroying my guildies. After all, GM items come and go, but guildies are for keeps. PL: In hindsight, knowing that you'd be banned, you'd place your account and guildies above the once-in-a-lifetime experience? Karatechop: Providing the guild members who weren't involved have all punishments lifted, and I told all guild members they could get banned with me, then I would do it again with those willing to risk it all.  Getting those who weren't involved hit by the banhammer, I do not wish to see happen again. PL: You stated that you have been playing the game for over four years.  Shouldn't you have known something was up when you were given such an unusual item?  I'm fairly certain no shirt exists in WoW that has stats, let alone such a powerful use. Karatechop: The Shirt Came from Blizzard, so it made me think that they wanted Leroyspeltz (The Person who was originally received the shirt) to have it as some form of compensation for Leroy not having his characters for several months. At first we thought it was a mistake, but the fact it had 100 charges made us consider it was basic compensation for some fun. PL: Why didn't your guild mate use Martin Fury instead of passing it off to you? Karatechop: On the basis of me being the tank, so I can get close enough to use it in heroic Uldar.  That and I asked him nicely. PL: Which bosses did you down with the fourteen spent charges? Karatechop: Four charges weren’t used on bosses as such, the others were used for OS25+3D, Malygos 25-man (looting is impossible when he dies before you get flying mounts) and then the rest were used for some Uldar bosses. PL: Well, I guess you certainly broke the game in Malygos' fight then. Karatechop: This actually led to a sort of new guild moto for us, "We Came, We Saw, We Lol'ed." PL: Was there anything you wanted to do with Martin Fury that you didn't get a chance to accomplish?  We know you gained some achievements from its use, did you pick up any loot? Karatechop: I was curious how it would work in a PvP environment, I did ponder whether to join Alteric Valley and just ride south and take Drek and Galv on my own, or perhaps win some arena matches. Also in hindsight, I should have completed the full Uldar run, just because I got banned anyway. PL: You mentioned that a collection of your guild mates had their accounts locked.  Was it any of the players that you played the joke on?  Are they all back to normal now?  Have they forgiven you? Karatechop: The account bannings weren’t as clear as that though. Blizzard simple banned every guild member who was online at that time, instead of just the ones with the saved raid ID. I know the players who petitioned saying they weren’t in the raid are back, but those who had the raid ID had some additional difficulty.  Blizzard is treating it as a case-by-case. Despite the issues the majority of the guild members have my back. Some where annoyed, but the general consensus is I aimed for fun, and they had it. PL: People on both sides of the issue acknowledge that Blizzard did something wrong by allegedly sending your friend the item.  In all your interactions with Blizzard, did they admit to any fault? Karatechop: In the e-mail I received, they did not admit fault. This sums up Blizzard's side: “The character, "Karatechop," on the realm "Vek'nilash" was found to have obtained an item (inaccessible by standard game play) from another player and trivialized the World of Warcraft raid contents with the exploitative use of this item. Consequently, this character was able to assist with the accumulation of items and achievements through the use of this item that is not obtainable by "normal" means. The character's actions gave the account an unfair advantage over all other players. As a result of the violation of the World of Warcraft Terms of Use, this account will be permanently closed.” PL: Hmm, I wonder what would have happened if your guildmate - the original owner of the item - had used it instead of you.  The reason for the ban given in the e-mail would have gone out the window. Karatechop: We can only assume Blizzard would have penalised him as "fairly" as they punished myself. PL: What would have been a fair punishment to you? Karatechop: In the 4+ years I’ve played, I’ve never had an infraction. I would have thought this would have been taken into account. Perhaps removal of achievements and loot, and at max a week or two ban would be justified, that way all the “damage” I have done, is undone. PL: What's your stance on other EULA issues like purchasing gold or accounts and using bots programs like MMO-Glider. Karatechop: Programs that “mine” information of Blizzard's or automate parts of the games I do not agree with, that I see as too much of an unfair advantage. As for the buying of gold, I think it’s a hit-or-miss debate.  Personally I think casual players who work 40 hours a week and only manage to spend a couple of hours in the evening should be allowed to purchase gold, just so they don’t spend the only time they play grinding for that epic mount or the rep reward, which hardcore players can manage with hours to raid afterwards.  Making casual players richer, allows them to raid more and have fun, which is what WoW is about, regardless of which spectrum you side with.  Although, I have seen videos of typically Asian/Chinese children forced to play WoW to farm gold.  That I do not agree with.  I would however fully support Blizzard running their own gold selling store. PL: Do you think the incident will have any long lasting effects on how Blizzard enforces their rules? Karatechop: I highly doubt it. I’m assured they have am efficient legal team, who cover all clauses and loop holes in any legal documentation you need to sign before you can even create your WoW account. However, I assume that Blizzard will make some adjustments to their GM interface, to include some form of confirmation when sending items to players. PL: What are you doing with that new gaming rig now?  Are you going to try another MMO like Champions Online or are you going to move to a different genre?  Plan on staying in touch with The Marvel Family? Karatechop: Nothing at the moment. I’m contemplating starting WoW again, as I would still have gold and a large friendship base to help me back to 80, so restarting won't be as difficult as the first time. PL: Do you plan on doing anything with your new found recognition or are you going to ride it out? Karatechop: Well we all know what happened to Leeroy Jenkins, yet he managed to get on the Jeopardy, I don’t plan on going that far, nor do I think I could. Occasionally answering some questions on places like PL and WoW-insider will suffice for me. PL: Lastly, was God Mode worth it? Karatechop: Absolutely. I’ll get to level 80 again, but I won't ever have God mode again. PL: Thanks for your time, good luck in your future endeavors.

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Money, Money, Money, Money, MONEEEEY - Via GameCyte

Last week it came out that MDY Industries would likely have to stop selling their product, known as Glider.  MDY would be able to continue sales while the appeals court heard the case, if the company was able to present arguments to the judge defending their position.  In a post on the Glider forums, MDY Industries CEO Michael Donnelly stated that the company did not expect to make a successful case for the botting program, essentially handing the victory to Blizzard Entertainment.  Blizzard, by way of blue Poster Nethaera, responded to the recent changes in Blizzard v. Glider lawsuit.  In laymen's terms, MDY was charged with breaking the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Let's back up a minute, though.  While the case is essentially over, many players out there may not have any idea what the 2006 case is all about, or how it got to this point.  For starters, MMOGlider is a botting program that was originally designed for use with World of Warcraft.  Originally called WoW Glider, the name was quickly changed to avoid any possible confusion that Blizzard may endorse the program Glider is not a teleport hack, map hack or any kind of hack.  It is simply an automated farmer. It controls an in-game character given some preset instructions, and it is capable of doing all the routine grinding you normally do but at a way lower price.   It is against Blizzard's Terms of Service and End User License Agreement and has often led to accounts being banned.  Not to mention, most players - this one included - see it as cheating...while prospering! Blizzard vs Glider has been going on since the early days of World of Warcraft, so there is a lot to cover.   Rather than reinvent the wheel, here are links to various sites that have covered the case with a quick synopsis.

• MDY Industries sues Blizzard (November 2006) - That is correct, the case started off with MDY suing the developer for allegedly attempting to block the sale of the botting software.
• Blizzard tossed MDY a counter-suit (March 2007) - A few months later Blizzard turns around and sues MDY for damages.
• MDY receives a small victory (March 2008) - The first judgment comes out.  MDY's licensing partner Lavish Software will not be forced to give up information about Lavish and MDY's dealings to Blizzard.
• Public interest group stands up for MDY (May 2008) - Public Knowledge submits a "friend of the court" brief stating that Blizzard is claiming more power than copyright protection offers them.  The group, while not trying not to take sides, states that if Blizzard wins the suit, the lawsuit will become a landmark case that gives copyright holders immense power.  More thoughts on the far-reaching topic by Terra Nova, Ars Technica and then Blizzard's response to Public Knowledge's filing.
• MDY is found guilty (July 2008) - Blizzard wins the case due to MDY's program copying proprietary code into the system's RAM.  That is illegal under the DMCA.
• Blizzard seeks to bury MDY's program (August 2008) - Blizzard attempts to stop Glider from resurfacing by handcuffing MDY in every way possible.  Company looks to stop possible open-sourcing of the code or MDY helping others develop such software.
• Blizzard gets paid (October 2008) - Judgement awards Blizzard $6 million for the hassle.
• MDY's soul is crushed - Bot maker doesn't feel they will convince the judge to allow them to keep selling MMOGlider during the appeals process with Blizzard.

As you can see, legal wranglings took awhile to come to fruition. As it stands now, the case isn't truly over, but things certainly look bad for MDY.  Should the company be unable to make its case to continue selling the software, it will like go under.  They have until February 13 to come up with something. As noted by numerous software advocacy groups, gurus and copyright lawyers, the case affects far more than just WoW's millions of players.  In actuality, it can have an impact on all third-party apps that run alongside software for anything, including every other MMOG and even this spiffy machinima tool.

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