Blizzard Confiscates Gold From Exploiters, Donates it to Charity

[BanicRhys]

Say what you want about Blizzard and their games, but they have a great PR department.

By the way, I loved Diablo 3 and I still actively play it. I'm currently working through MP6 Inferno on my Barbarian and MP10 Hell on my level 49 Witch Doctor and it's fun as heck even though every piece of gear I own was purchased on the gold AH.

I think you are falsely mistaking Blizzard for a world government or an entity with any legal power in any way and not just a game company.
Frankly I'm hoping some of the parties concerned sue Blizzard for fraud since they didn't do anything illegal and Blizzard decided to repossess their money without any legal standing

Like a small minority of the posters have stated, I am extremely concerned with the gleeful joy of seemingly everyone else here. Blizzard literally just banned a bunch of people (450 or so, if I'm reading the article correctly) FOR EXPLOITING A BUG IN THE GAME. They didn't use illicit software, hack, or anything else that Blizzard's TOS forbids. All they did was go against the intended message of the rules, which might as well happen by happenstance. Did you find yourself outside of the allowable area where you can attack the enemy without it being able to retaliate? EXPLOIT. Are you supposed to get banned for that as well? That clearly goes against the intended message of the rules.

It concerns me that people instantly cheer whenever they hear that something went to "charity", as if that was some magical word that made everything into pink rainbows and ponies. Here are people losing a game (or in some cases, maybe "games", as the "account" was banned) that they legally paid for, all because they used the game in a way which the developer did not intend them to, with the tools that the game itself PROVIDED. Nothing more. Is Blizzard somehow supposed to be praised for this? It's shit like this that adds to why I avoid Blizzard games.

The license granted to you in Section 1 above is subject to the limitations set forth in Sections 1 and 2 (collectively, the ?License Limitations?). Any use of the Game in violation of the License Limitations will be regarded as an infringement of Blizzard?s copyrights in and to the Game. You agree that you will not, under any circumstances:

Create, utilize or transact in ?Duplicated Items.? A ?Duplicated Item? is any item in the Game created or copied by exploiting errors in the Game?s design, features which have not been documented, errors in the Service, and/or program bugs;

You hereby agree to defend, indemnify and hold Blizzard harmless from and against any claim, liability, loss, injury, damage, cost or expense (including reasonable attorneys' fees) incurred by Blizzard arising out of or from (a) your use of the Game; and (b) your violation of any provision of this Agreement. Some states do not allow the exclusion or limitation of incidental or consequential damages, so the above limitations may not apply to you.

http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/legal/d3_eula.html

Chill out. It's all good.

 

[IamLEAM1983]

Being an extremely casual D3 player, I tend to find this pretty hilarious. I'm convinced you'll see panicked forum posts in the coming days.

"Not cool, Blizzard! I'm totally, seriously not a cheater, so you should unban my account! Ok, so I maybe duped a couple items and maybe I used a power-levelling service and MAYBE I used a couple exploits to make some gold, but come on! It's totally your fault if I have to do this because your skill progression is totally cheesed! It's your fault I have to break your game so I can get the cheap satisfaction of ganking noobs early on! I DEMAND JUSTICE!"

And of course, that poster's friends are going to jump in like rabid animals, and Blizzard won't give a fuck. I swear, D3's forums are purely glorious, when it comes to finding prime rager specimens.

 

[theultimateend]

Yeah, not really endearing me to D3 guys. Horrible DRM, they mess up and blame it on players and ban them over it...

It can probably be argued that some didn't know it was an exploit. They messed up and are donating what thet took from players to charity for good PR.

Anything can be argued.

People argue against evolution or not torturing all the time. edit: [to clarify, people argue that torturing is a good idea.]

Doesn't mean they have valid points.

http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/legal/d3_eula.html

Chill out. It's all good.

Mildly troubling that you needed to point that out to so many people.

 

[BanicRhys]

Chill out. It's all good.

EULAs and Terms of Service Agreements aren't legal documents and aren't in any way legally binding in most parts of the world.

If local laws coincide with what is written in an EULA or a similar document, then it would be enforceable with or without you clicking "Okay" on anything after buying a product e.g. see Copyright and not being able to reproduce and sell a game or circumvent copy protection.

If something is not, writing it into an EULA or any other document won't help a company argue it is, since corporations don't quite yet have the power to change or supersede applicable local law.

Just because Blizzard (or any other company) writes something into their EULA which isn't legally enforceable doesn't mean customers are bound by it, that's what courts are for.
Companies can write any number of things into their documents, and by itself this doesn't mean much: http://www.bit-tech.net/news/gaming/2010/04/15/gamestation-we-own-your-soul/

In this case it is even more pertinent since Blizzard presumes to operate as some sort of bank service without many of the consequences and limitations thereof.

If your bank decided to retain your money and give it to charity because they made a coding mistake within their software you'd have rather harsh and justified legal recourses to that.

Maybe so, the user still accepted the conditions of that agreement, therefore, you'd be hard pressed to find any judge that would rule against Blizzard.

 

[00slash00]

I wasn't a big fan of Diablo 3 and I hated the auction house, but i feel like people are letting their hate for diablo 3 and/or blizzard get in the way of the real point here. people complain so much about game companies being greedy, money grubbing assholes. that is not what blizzard is doing here. blizzard turned a mistake that people quickly exploited, into a truly wonderful thing that will benefit a of people who really need help. ***** about companies when they do something wrong (and no, removing money that people essentially stole is not wrong). when you attack a company regardless of what they do, and simply criticize them because they continue to exist, it lessens the impact of your legitimate complaints and frankly, just makes you seem petty

 

[theultimateend]

Maybe so, the user still accepted the conditions of that agreement, therefore, you'd be hard pressed to find any judge that would rule against Blizzard.

I feel like the lawyers that wrote up their EULA know a bit more about the law and how judges will react over random forum posters.

That read like I was disagreeing with you...somehow...but I agree and was just adding onto that note.

Blizzard basically said "This is exactly how we will do things. If you are ok with that you can use our service otherwise do not use our services under any circumstance." I don't always like EULA's but this is a perfect example, to me, of where they are relevant and necessary.

 

[Ferisar]

That's the title you are going with? Really? Blizzard "donates to charity", "fights against the evil exploiters"?

How about "Blizzard proves it cannot handle money transactions.", "Blizzard programmers cannot into basic data types you learn about in your first year of programming.": http://gamasutra.com/blogs/MaxWoolf/20130508/191959/Diablo_III_Economy_Broken_by_an_Integer_Overflow_Bug.php or maybe "Blizzard defrauds customers of earned money using their services."?


I think you are falsely mistaking Blizzard for a world government or an entity wielding any legal or judicial power in any way and not just a game company.
Frankly I'm hoping some of the parties concerned sue Blizzard for fraud since they didn't do anything illegal and Blizzard decided to repossess their money without any legal standing.

If you bring money into the equation you better be able to handle it and make sure that you do. What they did is nothing more than trying to cover up their mistakes by placing the blame on and punishing their players.
This is real money their are juggling around here without any oversight, they've likely taken thousands of dollars from people during this screw-up alone and I think some much-needed state intervention would be in order.

You know what happened when Valve screwed up in their game design and was on the receiving end of exploiters (and it wasn't even about real money in that case)?
They rewarded the players that didn't exploit and fixed their game: http://tf2wiki.net/wiki/Cheater's_lament [http://tf2wiki.net/wiki/Cheater's_lament]

That's funny, I didn't know that Blizzard's Diablo 3 Gold Currency directly translated into stable IRL currency without having active participants.
Oh wait, it doesn't. The game prints imaginary fairy currency which people choose to spend money on.
AKA
Certain Customers found a way to replicate pieces of virtual numbers and increased their fairy currency under unfair terms, then sold it to real people who were entirely unaware of the bullshittery going on. So what happened here is people got the gold, the l33t h4x0rs had their free money taken away from them, and everyone lived happily ever after. I do not find it in me to defend people who cheat at the expense of everyone else.

 

[Atmos Duality]

So Blizzard gets something to add to a tax write-off and generate some good PR.
Good for them. I'm still not buying Blizzard's games.

I think it was a good idea having an official way to trade for real money, a way to overstep the shady dealers, even if the execution was not that good. But gamers will be negative about stuff that is popular, it's inevitable. Path of Exile is always-online just as D3 and people can only praise it, while bashing D3 all the way through.

This was a no-win scenario to begin with: Blizzard either ignores the shady gold farmers, or becomes the biggest gold farmer out there. (this an oversimplification, but I think it gets the point across)
The only difference is whether the extra cash goes into Blizzard's pocket, or someone else. Blizzard chose their pocket.

Oh, and because the Auction House (either one) validates the real-life value of in-game currency (and items), everyone's account is now a target for hacks and attacks even if they don't use the AH at all. So instead of protecting users from their own stupidity Blizzard just painted a bullseye on everyone who plays.

This isn't idle speculation on my part either; I've had friends and family whose D3 accounts were hacked and stripped clean even though they weren't even using either Auction House or any illicit sites.
(The intrusion came from within Blizzard around last July. Blizzard was at least kind enough to roll their accounts back along with everyone else whose accounts were hit).

So I remain unconvinced that Blizzard is doing anyone favors compared to before...well, except Blizzard of course.

As for Path of Exile, I tried it. While it gets a lot of things right, I couldn't be arsed to play it for very long on account of, surprise surprise, connection and server issues. Some of the same criticism I throw at Diablo 3.

 

[TechNoFear]

If your bank decided to retain your money and give it to charity because they made a coding mistake within their software you'd have rather harsh and justified legal recourses to that.

If your bank makes a coding mistake and you end up with much more money than you should, guess what happens?
[Answer: if you give it back immediately you don't go to jail...]

If a casino makes a mistake in your benefit (pays you too much money, later realising their mistake they ask for the money back) you will be charged with theft/stealing if you refuse to return the money.

These people knew what they were doing was against the rules and would hurt the majority on players, but they repeated the exploit over and over again anyway.

The expoliters are in no way the victims in this situation, nor are they worthy of any defence.

 

[ViciousTide]

And this is why I don't invest in a 401k account.

 

[Petromir]

Chill out. It's all good.

EULAs and Terms of Service Agreements aren't legal documents and aren't in any way legally binding in most parts of the world.

If local laws coincide with what is written in an EULA or a similar document, then it would be enforceable with or without you clicking "Okay" on anything after buying a product e.g. see Copyright and not being able to reproduce and sell a game or circumvent copy protection.

If something is not, writing it into an EULA or any other document won't help a company argue it is, since corporations don't quite yet have the power to change or supersede applicable local law.

Just because Blizzard (or any other company) writes something into their EULA which isn't legally enforceable doesn't mean customers are bound by it, that's what courts are for.
Companies can write any number of things into their documents, and by itself this doesn't mean much: http://www.bit-tech.net/news/gaming/2010/04/15/gamestation-we-own-your-soul/

In this case it is even more pertinent since Blizzard presumes to operate as some sort of bank service without many of the consequences and limitations thereof.

If your bank decided to retain your money and give it to charity because they made a coding mistake within their software you'd have rather harsh and justified legal recourses to that.

Again, I would hope that the parties affected would sue them for fraud, the reality often is though that the concerning amounts are too small for anyone to incur the following legal fees and trouble and companies like Blizzard get away with their practices scot-free.

Not quite true.

Many jurisdictional do count EULAs as legal contracts (the EU and US do) and any clauses in them are perfectly enforceable as long as they don't contradict local laws and stay within any bounds that are set in said laws (there is usually a fair and reasonable style restriction). However just because something is in a EULA doesn't make it legal, the only reliable way to find out is to take it to court. In general an individual clause being found unlawful only voids that clause and only counts as legal precedent in that clause or similar.

Contracts are allowed to set terms of service, and while some are quite strict there's plenty of leeway in some areas.

And your bank analogy is very flawed. If a bank error is made and you deliberately act to exploit it, knowing you are exploiting it, that is usually comes under theft or fraud criminal law. Cash machine giving out to much cash similarly so (though it's not unknown for them to not press charges).

 

[Ferisar]

Oh wait, it doesn't. The game prints imaginary fairy currency which people choose to spend money on.

How do you think any other currency works? Real (paper) money doesn't have any inherent worth, most transactions are done digitally nowadays with "imaginary fairy currency" and when people don't believe that a certain currency is worth much anymore it starts inflation of said currency.
Besides, the game has an Option to cash out to PayPal and those are likely the funds they are talking about, since a charity cannot do very much with Diablo 3 gold.
I don't know about you, but personally I don't think that a gaming company should have the rights to decide over people's financials and what constitutes proper earning or what not.

I'm aware of how the worth of currency works in real life, I'm just mentioning the idea that what we have in real-land has a bit more bearing (at least certain more-often traded currencies) then D3 gold, which is volatile and, especially with shenanigans like this, is constantly inflated because everyone can print it already. That's my problem though, if you can print all the gold on the planet by playing Diablo 3, then I don't think letting people just have infinite amounts of gold makes sense, on anyone's part. If this went to court, I really doubt anyone would side with the dupers, because what they did is, as has been said, is exploitative. It was Blizzard's fault for involving real money with the equation but telling them not to regulate the transaction process doesn't strike me as something that makes a whole lot of sense.

Now, if they wrongfully banned someone who wasn't aware of any duping going on, took his or her money, and then told him to go stick a legendary up his Auction House, there would be an issue, but that's not the case.

ALSO, they really didn't take away anyone's "earnings", again. People took a bug and abused the living hell out of it until they had trillions of gold to turn into free IRL cash (which I'm guessing is still something people buy in order to make the transaction happen). If they were left to do that for even a couple of days, the D3 economy would tank even harder than it already has.

Side-note: I didn't mean to come off as dickish as I did in my first response. D3 threads make me want to jump out of my two-story window repeatedly sometimes.

 

[13thforswarn]

I'm not sure how the real AH works and all that, but banning people for taking advantage of a mistake YOU made is wrong. Confiscating the gold would have been sufficient.

 

[NightHawk21]

And this is one of the reasons why a RMAH is generally a bad idea...

What? Why? It's a bad idea because it means Blizzard donates money to charities? Man, fuck charities am I right?

No its a bad idea, because it means any oversight on Blizzards end leads to people losing/making actual money. As soon as you put real money into the equation you open a whole other kettle of fish.

The only people losing/making money are the ones that exploited the bug to dupe gold. Which is clearly against the TOS. They knew what they were getting in to. Blizzard stated they won't be confiscating any items/gold that was bought from exploiters unknowingly by legitimate players. People who bought items with real money still get their items. The money that would have gone to the players who exploited is instead going to charity. Everyone is happy (except the guys who exploited). What's the problem man?

After your edit this situation really cleans up and is somewhat salvaged. I'm sure there's still some people that got/will get fucked unintentionally, but they're minor collateral damage. Imagine instead if this bug went like some of the other bugs in D3, unreported and unknown for months or weeks. At that point you can get people who are artificially increasing their wealth literally almost printing real money.

 

[NightHawk21]

And this is one of the reasons why a RMAH is generally a bad idea...

What? Why? It's a bad idea because it means Blizzard donates money to charities? Man, fuck charities am I right?

No its a bad idea, because it means any oversight on Blizzards end leads to people losing/making actual money. As soon as you put real money into the equation you open a whole other kettle of fish.

Im sorry, but wasn't that the entire idea behind the real money auction house in the first place?


I understand what you are saying, but real money auction houses have been around ever since the first mmo's, though not legally, and often times you simply lost your actual money to someone who never delivered.


Given the choice between the two, I would have to go with Blizzards version, at least that way you know you can get the item, instead of waiting around for someone to show up.

Don't get me wrong I agree with you. I was just clarifying what the other dude meant. That said I still don't like the D3 auction house, but that's more a game design issue. Having played the game for a long time, you eventually get to the point where it isn't worth your time to farm items anymore (due to various reasons), so you eventually just end up farming gold endlessly because all the weapons and characters are so poorly designed you need a very specific item which drops rarely and you turn to the AH.

 

[Zauxst]

Considering StarCraft 2 is the only game that is not getting so much burn over the internet, Blizzard made a smart choice for once to work more and donate at the same time.

 

[Atmos Duality]

I'm not sure how the real AH works and all that, but banning people for taking advantage of a mistake YOU made is wrong. Confiscating the gold would have been sufficient.

I agree. But the important thing to remember is this:
There is no Law but Blizzard Law in Diablo 3. Blizzard giveth; Blizzard taketh away..

That is literally all that matters.

Any argument steeped in ethos about "cheating" shrivels and dies in light of this; it doesn't matter if people are exploiting a mistake on Blizzard's part, or even if it's questionable how the money is being handled.

Fact is, Blizzard can flat up ban you for any (or no) reason they want at any time.
Even if you do something that isn't technically against the law or the written rules, or described in the EULA.

And these are the people who want you to use their "services" and the in-game auction houses, all for their profit.

When the rules are rigged against you from the start, the only winning move is not to play.

 

[Tanakh]

-snip-

You do realize everything you wrote can be applied verbatim to every freaking game with dedicated servers ever, right?