Blizzard Attacks StarCraft II Cheat Developers

[Zer_]

Permaphrost... what an original name. Not.

I'm with Blizzard on this. I get tired of dealing with people who cheat and hack in order to gain an unfair advantage against me in multi-player.

The people selling multi-player hacks knew what they were getting into. They can't feign ignorance.

What amazes me is that no one has looked further into the story. It was single player too [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/104294-Blizzard-Gives-Single-Player-StarCraft-2-Cheaters-a-Time-Out-Opens-Can-of-Worms-UPDATED], where they basically tell people "cheat at your own risk"

So all in all, this is a money grab mostly. There's a reason I won't support Blizzard and Activision games. Some corporation telling me how to enjoy a game is kinda missing the point.

I agree, check out my previous post.

Are you missing the point that these cheats/trainers were sold rather than just given away?

No I am not:

1) Of course they are sold, it takes a lot of effort to keep them up to date and stable. And of course, this is all about money, that is also why the EULA was invented.

2) CheatHappens for one does actually release their trainers for free after a time, and people pirate their trainers like people pirate the games regardless.

But tell me, am I missing something? Surely this has no relation to what the argument here is, that Blizzard are suing developers that make available programs which hack their game protected by the EULA? Whilst of course at the same time banning users who dared use the program.

Those who created the trainers had to reverse engineer some of the SC2 code which is actually in violation of the law. Not only that, but they are modifying a game, and making a profit off of it, which is a massive no-no both legally, and in the modding community.

Sorry, but the cheat makers have no feet to stand on.

 

[Jewrean]

Multiplayer I think everyone can agree that cheating ruins the fun. But in single player there is absolutely no room to do this. They aren't harming anyone but themselves.

Unless activating the cheat also de-activates any achievements earned then Blizzard is in the right. End of story.

 

[lacktheknack]

No I haven't read the last three pages.

Okay, so Blizzard, and Ubisoft games are off my list. Activision? Still undecided...

I can see now why Valve gets so much love.

Blizzard is off your list for... giving a fiscal middle finger to multiplayer cheaters?

Huh.

No, read the article again, as Iscin, and blakfayt pointed out on page one, those cheats are for single player games.

No I am do not a cheat in multiplayer, and I rarely cheat in single player. It is the principle of the thing. Also, first its single player cheats, then it is mods. If I cannot customize my game, the way I wish to, then what am I spending my money on?

This time it was Starcraft, next time the developer's content will not be enough.

In Jedi Knight II, there were several options for adding new saber techniques, and new costumes.

-----------------------------------------

Did the article mention selling the code? That is an interesting area... Do people sell plugins for Internet Explorer, or Microsoft Office?

Did the cheat programs use any proprietary code? If so, then Blizzard is justified.

Yeah, I gave a longish reply to someone else about how these specific cheats affect multiplayer.

 

[Enigmers]

Hacks/mods have screwed pretty badly with the Diablo II online experience. Now, Diablo II was built back in 2001 when companies couldn't assume people would have a really good internet connection, so Diablo II tends to save a lot of data to your computer instead of the server, at least temporarily (this is why items can still be duplicated), but I am glad that they're trying to stop the issue with their newer games.

I don't see any problem with cheating in single-player though. Hell, Starcraft I actually had cheats for you to use in single-player.

 

[Mcface]

Why do I care if people are dicking around in LAN and single player games? don't they have a right to after buying the game>?

 

[Pebkac]

From what I can tell, Blizzard didn't win the WoW Glider case by copyright infringement, they won it by the fact that WoW Glider causes users to violate the EULA/ToS violation (possibly unknowingly).

What's interesting with this cases, is that instead of going with that method, they appear to be going with the "online cheaters make us look bad, and people won't buy our games because of it" approach. Which is weird, because they'd probably have to make the case that they've lost a certain number of sales based on it. This might make more sense due to many of the creators living outside of the U.S., since EULAs & ToS aren't even strictly enforceable in the U.S. I think in Canada it's easier to sue if there are real damages. Still, how much could they get? SC2 doesn't have a reputation for boat loads of cheaters. $69.99 * 100 lost sales? Not really worth the court costs.

As a side note, the act of reverse engineering a game, which breaks a EULA, is a pretty minor issue. If we're talking about 1 person reverse engineering their copy, and breaking their EULA... It's basically a zero-dollar violation. Big woop-dee-doo if you figured out how to change Jim Raynor's name to Jim Gaynor or how to spawn a hundred tanks.

EDIT: Modding/Cheating offline is probably still a violation of the EULA/ToS, but I'd imagine disabling the game for that would make the EULA/ToS unenforceable in the courts view.

 

[Firetaffer]

Why do I care if people are dicking around in LAN and single player games? don't they have a right to after buying the game>?

States in the EULA that sadly, they don't.

 

[maturin]

Okay, so Blizzard, and Ubisoft games are off my list. Activision? Still undecided...

I can see now why Valve gets so much love.

Blizzard is off your list for... giving a fiscal middle finger to multiplayer cheaters?

Huh.

Read the first freaking sentence. They banned *singleplayer* modders already.

 

[Warforger]

Okay, so Blizzard, and Ubisoft games are off my list. Activision? Still undecided...

I can see now why Valve gets so much love.

So I'm guessing you're a cheater right? only a cheater would say something like that.

Not exactly. Look at DoW, a RTS released in 2004, it was one of the fanboy's of both sides (Warhammer 40k and Starcraft) great wars against each other, it had a system where it would check the version of the game (i.e. if somethigns weren't the same like a mod)and it would block the versions that are modded unless of course the host has the same mod.

 

[lacktheknack]

Okay, so Blizzard, and Ubisoft games are off my list. Activision? Still undecided...

I can see now why Valve gets so much love.

Blizzard is off your list for... giving a fiscal middle finger to multiplayer cheaters?

Huh.

Read the first freaking sentence. They banned *singleplayer* modders already.

And you freaking read more about it. The hacks do, in fact, affect multiplayer.

 

[Moray]

Guys, this whole thread saddend me so much i signed up just to post this

Everyone in this thread who is supporting blizzard is helping kill the games industry, not the guys who 'hacked' some single player cheats.

EULAs are nothing but a con, and only worth anything nowadays in the US. EULAs belonging to microsoft and apple have already be proven 'not worth the paper their written on' in my country, and Valve's EULA is next.

When you BUY something, you expect to get the whole product and then be able to do whatever you want with it, weather thats play it, mod it, or bake a cake out it if you really want. Its yours. Now on-line play is different as your connecting to blizzard servers or supported servers so different rules can apply there (thereby not ruining the possibility of sales). So you can still come down hard on the multiplayer hackers, but really - if blizzard coded better and paid more attention to their servers then multiplayer cheaters would have a much harder job. I don't see why MY consumer rights should be harmed because of THEIR poor coding and server security.

These EULAs effectively mean you're only RENTING the game, and the company can choose to remove your access to it at any time for any reason, everyone apart from the pants-on-head-retarded can see that this is fucked up, and not fair on the consumer.

Hopefully someone in the US will see sense and these EULAs will die the death that they should have back in the 90's

 

[MetallicaRulez0]

Okay, so Blizzard, and Ubisoft games are off my list. Activision? Still undecided...

I can see now why Valve gets so much love.

"How dare you look out for the enjoyment of your legitimate customers Blizzard! HOW DARE YOU!!!"

Hacks are bad. People that USE hacks are the devil. People who CREATE hacks are... what's worse than Satan? Bobby Kotick? I dunno.

 

[snow]

Okay, so Blizzard, and Ubisoft games are off my list. Activision? Still undecided...

I can see now why Valve gets so much love.

So Blizzard is off your list because they're making people who broke their copyright agreement pay up?

If these guys did indeed break copyright, then Blizzard has a case. You make no sense good sir.

 

[samsonguy920]

Along with this Blizz oughta incorporate coding in the game paying recognition that someone is using these cheats, and announce it globally in multiplayer. Then the legit players can know right from the start that they are playing with a cheater/dilhole and kick him if it is possible or just leave the cheater/dilhole all alone as a cheater deserves to be.

 

[sonofzoltan]

88 million dollars! thats insane! there is absolutley no way that one person could do that much damage to a company with any amount of hacks and negative advertising/wordofmouth! 88 million! that is more money than 99.9% of people will make in their entire lives and blizzard is going to sue a hacker for that? unless they bribing the fucking jury they have no chance at winning and if they do i'm moving to canada. no wait, paraguay because if that works in this country i need to be at least 10000 miles away before it's far enough!


88 million DOLLARS. i doubt blizzard has even made that much off of SC2

 

[Moray]

Along with this Blizz oughta incorporate coding in the game paying recognition that someone is using these cheats, and announce it globally in multiplayer. Then the legit players can know right from the start that they are playing with a cheater/dilhole and kick him if it is possible or just leave the cheater/dilhole all alone as a cheater deserves to be.

This is a better idea, and doesn't infringe on anyones rights

Why dont blizzard already do this?

 

[Mcface]

Why do I care if people are dicking around in LAN and single player games? don't they have a right to after buying the game>?

States in the EULA that sadly, they don't.

That's retarded. games are becoming 60 dollar rentals. Stuff like this is why I now pirate every chance I get.

 

[Mcface]

Okay, so Blizzard, and Ubisoft games are off my list. Activision? Still undecided...

I can see now why Valve gets so much love.

Oh noes! You can't cheat in an online game! You can't break the rules and ruin the fun for the rest of us!

Good riddance I say.

None of those were online cheats, they were all single player and LAN stuff.

 

[Daymo]

Jesus Blizzard, I can understand banning them like a normal company, but suing them, that's really over the top. Imagine if Valve sued everyone they vac banned. Yeh, people say Blizzard haven't changed under Activision, but they have, they're a lot more lawsuit happy now then before.

 

[VanityGirl]

This is a good thing. Sorry guys, if you want to cheat, do it in "Guest" mode in Star Craft. Some people work really hard for what they've achieved and it really takes away that expeirence if you use a trained to obtain a difficult portrait. Just do it in offline so that you can't get portraits.

It's that simple.