THANKSGIVING LEFTOVERS

* Because one massive exploit last week wasn’t enough, this week saw everyone’s favorite media darling playing host to yet another exploit. Silly kids, gold rings are for hedgehogs. Shhhh. No one tell Bill that the skill set these players are learning within a fantasy world in order to earn a decent living is being deemphasized by those scary computer geeks.

* Because one massive ban last week wasn’t enough, this week saw everyone’s favorite pop-culture darling playing host to... a series of unbannings? Hey, that’s a much better ending. Props to you, Blizzard, even after Drysc produced a false negative post.

* Showing that they are still jiggy with the radical youth of today, MTV aired a special Cribs episode, MMO style, examining Ge Jin’s “Gold Farmers” documentary. Meanwhile, Edward Castronova finds his turkey extra succulent today and on the other side of the world, Korean RMTers now have two reasons why they don’t celebrate Thanksgiving.

* Mercury, creator of WoW Glider, was at home one day doing very innocent things and was totally-not-breaking-the-WoW-EULA-by-making-a-bot-program-nuh-uh-no-way-not-him when he was visited by some nice gentlemen calling on behalf of Blizzard and Vivendi. Everyone had a pleasant chat, but the Blizzard/Vivendi chaps had to soon leave. Nevermind. Mercury decided to help write a little story to commemorate the lovely time had by all.

I’m sure Mercury will come out on top in all of this. I mean, check it out. He filed against Blizzard. It wasn’t the other way around. Only someone in the right could have the cajones to do that!

It’s not like the WoW EULA (that is, the same EULA that Mercury accepted upon first activation and continues to accept after each patch) explicitly states something along the lines of;

“WHEN RUNNING, THE GAME MAY MONITOR YOUR COMPUTER'S RANDOM ACCESS MEMORY (RAM) FOR UNAUTHORIZED THIRD PARTY PROGRAMS RUNNING CONCURRENTLY WITH THE GAME. AN “UNAUTHORIZED THIRD PARTY PROGRAM” AS USED HEREIN SHALL BE DEFINED AS ANY THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION ANY “ADDON,” “MOD,” “HACK,” “TRAINER,” OR “CHEAT,” THAT IN BLIZZARD'S SOLE DETERMINATION: (i) ENABLES OR FACILITATES CHEATING OF ANY TYPE; (ii) ALLOWS USERS TO MODIFY OR HACK THE GAME INTERFACE, ENVIRONMENT, AND/OR EXPERIENCE IN ANY WAY NOT EXPRESSLY AUTHORIZED BY BLIZZARD; OR (iii) INTERCEPTS, “MINES,” OR OTHERWISE COLLECTS INFORMATION FROM OR THROUGH THE GAME. IN THE EVENT THAT THE GAME DETECTS AN UNAUTHORIZED THIRD PARTY PROGRAM, THE GAME MAY (a) COMMUNICATE INFORMATION BACK TO BLIZZARD, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION YOUR ACCOUNT NAME, DETAILS ABOUT THE UNAUTHORIZED THIRD PARTY PROGRAM DETECTED, AND THE TIME AND DATE THE UNAUTHORIZED THIRD PARTY PROGRAM WAS DETECTED; AND/OR (b) EXERCISE ANY OR ALL OF ITS RIGHTS UNDER THIS AGREEMENT, WITH OR WITHOUT PRIOR NOTICE TO THE USER.”

And hey, Mercury wouldn’t be stupid enough to admit that the program he created, updates and sells is against the WoW Terms of Service. Nahhhh. Plus, check it out! There has never been an instance where the EULA of an MMO developer has been upheld in a court of law. Hah, Blizzard hasn’t got a leg to stand on! Furthermore, and lastly, Blizzard are noobs. They, and their cheap ambulance-chaser lawyers, have got no experience and no track record with this kind of thing. No leg noobs, I tells ya!

Yes, siree. Mercury’s gonna be allllllright.

* Girls in the real world have real breasts (well, some do). Girls in virtual games have virtual breasts. Does that mean girls in Massively Multiplayer games have massive and multiplayer... nah, that’s too easy, even for me. In any case, let me distract you with HEY LOOK OVER THERE! BOOBIES! This, and the recent lack of Tabula Rasa development news? I’ll let you fill in the sexy dots.

* Unfortunately for all involved, Nevrax announced its journey into receivership. You know, I like to entertain the thought of player-created content, but when a company begins to hand over the tools to the customer it may be an indication as to how things are faring. Commiserations and good luck to everyone in the Nevrax family.

* Paul Barnett checked in from his home planet and said hello.

* A Games For Windows podcast involving Jeff Butler prompted a bloody crusade on the Vanguard forums against heathen mini-maps everywhere. And how justified those brave crusaders are! How dare Sigil re-evaluate the direction of Vanguard in relation to the evolving MMO market! How dare Sigil create a level of entry for the typical player at which they’ll feel comfortable and keep playing the game! How dare Sigil realize that naked corpse runs are not fun! HOW DARE Sigil attempt to create a game aimed at the current MMO market and make some money off it by not limiting the audience to a percentage of that same market! I swear, the audacity of those bastards!

(Hey, crusaders. Is this where I remind complainers “It’s beta!”? I know you do it all the time, but I’m kinda new to this. Please help me out here. Guys? Guys?)

* Blizzard began airing a new television commercial. Yeah, I think they might know their target market. The advertisement may also answer a question or two about the movie.

Comments

[blachawk]

I don't think you understand the nature of the dispute between blizzard and WoWGlider. They can ban whoever they like for any association whatsoever with WoWGlider. They cannot, however, sue you for making a product that goes along with it. Apple can't sue people for producing plastic covers that fit IPods. Blizzard can't sue someone just because they are breaking a EULA. Blizzard was hoping to scare him into shutting down his little operation, instead they just made him more determined.

[Doki]

Too bad MTV didn't mention the massive amounts of botting & controlling 50 accounts with a KVM switch in their little article. Hopefully the documentary will cover that some.