Blizzard is suing hackers

[Arehexes]

There is a new name for mods, DLC and free mods have a very limited role in that future. So yeah, I think we are seeing the foundations of the future of modding being laid. It will be farmed for maximum profitability. One of the first steps to doing this is to let everyone know that only Blizzard-approved mods will be tolerated.

Hacking mods should not be tolerated by anyone. Do you tolerate, or even more damning, approve of hacking mods?

So I guess the Unoffical TES4 mod is bad even though it fixes a crap load of bugs in TES4 the makers didn't fix or enhance?

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CompletelyMissingThePoint

TES4 is not a multiplayer game. It gives you access to the developer console, which literally allows you to do anything. You totally missed the point of what I said.

That's where you wrong, you never mentioned in your post about multiplayer games or single player games. You said "hacking mods", which can be used to describe a simple Action Replay hack for "Max Gold", or a full blown game like Multi Theft Auto(Which requires you to use Grand Theft Auto: SA and a downgrader). Me I approve of mods because it made games like Counter Strike and Team Fortress, or uncover hidden things like how Darth Vader was already on the Xbox 360 version of Soul Caliber 4(and opposite for Yoda on PS3), or Hot Coffee. And pokemon is a big thing and it's riddled with hackers and leeches who want hacked pokemon to use for the purpose of online battles only. No one throws a fit about how bloody easy to is to make a pokemon (I can make someone a pokemon to pretty much what they want in less then 10 minutes on a good run). And on another note the guy you quoted said modding is dying, nothing about online and cheaters. So what point did I miss?

 

[Diddy_Mao]

There's a lot of shades of gray in this that aren't being addressed.

I'm usually the first in line to defend someone's right to do whatever they damn well please with their own property as long as it's not effecting other players.

In other words, your right to swing your fist ends where my face begins.

With the online nature of a lot of the Starcraft II content it's hard to make a cheat that doesn't effect other people is some regard. Now I personally don't give a rats ass about my gamer score or my ranking on the leader boards, but a lot of other people do and if you've made a hack for the game that directly or indirectly effects that aspect of the game you've overstepped your bounds.

Now as for these three, the simple fact that they're selling these hacks means they can rot for all I care.

 

[Spencer Petersen]

Its the lesser of two evils, either allow hackers to run rampant on your game or take a hard stance with them, and I think this is the better option. I'd rather a couple greedy fucks lose their game and right to illegally alter a multiplayer system they have to ruin for all of us, than let the entire multiplayer experience turn into a cesspool of hackers because the developers refused to take any action.

Yeah cause suing people is the ONLY way to ensure that the multiplayer experience isn't ruined.

Here's what we've learned. If you tie single player to multiplayer (in even the smallest of ways) you can maintain complete control over your game and gamers will support you.

The future is looking bright where true single player gameplay all but disappears and is replaced by "always online" single player.

Why do you seem so keen on jumping to the aid of people who honestly just care about their achievement points and online prestige? Actual multiplayer hacks do exist and are being produced by companies like this with the sole intent of fucking everyone who plays this game. I'm sorry if I don't support people whose sole intent is to invalidate any work I or anyone put into the harder achievements for their own self serving intent. Not to mention there is no need for these hacks in a single player environment anyway due to there being cheat codes already embedded in the game.
You also keep making the point of single-player online. My answer, play in offline mode, simple, effective, and solves all your problems, now stop trying to ruin it for everyone else. And if you plan on quoting this I want you to give a definitive answer on why offline single player doesn't work for you.

As I have said, soon there will be no offline single player. Soon single player will be online only so the company can control every interaction you have with the game. This is what I fear and it is coming. Blizzard is setting the ground rules for what is coming and the next game may have only online single player.

I doubt anyone has the sole intent of ruining online play for everyone, I think their goal is to make money.

Here's a question, if it's illegal to make money from a game without the permission of the game publisher, where does that put unauthorized strat guides?

This isn't Ubisoft were talking about here, you can play the game without a connection to the internet just fine. From my point of view, the achievements offered through connected single player are a sort of broken up "online leader-boards" to let those who are very good at the single player show off their skills and earn some prestige for it. The hacks offered to earn these achievements while still using godmode and the like makes this system entirely pointless and cuts down any possibility of expansion on this premise into something for developed. I'm sorry if you see that adding features to your game while connected to the net somehow looks like they are removing features of the offline mode. Again, please tell me why the offline mode is any less functional than the previous Starcraft or Brood War.

And I also bet that illegal arms dealers don't have the sole intent of hurting anyone, they just want to make money, but does that make them blameless? Absolutely not

As for the strategy guides, I don't know anyone that buys strategy guides anymore now that the internet is around, but selling something that is designed to make money off of someone's intellectual property is in incredibly poor taste in my opinion, especially if your intent is not to clear up confusion or even the playing field but instead give people who don't need the help an unfair advantage over anyone else who didn't fork over the cash.

 

[Arehexes]

Its the lesser of two evils, either allow hackers to run rampant on your game or take a hard stance with them, and I think this is the better option. I'd rather a couple greedy fucks lose their game and right to illegally alter a multiplayer system they have to ruin for all of us, than let the entire multiplayer experience turn into a cesspool of hackers because the developers refused to take any action.

Yeah cause suing people is the ONLY way to ensure that the multiplayer experience isn't ruined.

Here's what we've learned. If you tie single player to multiplayer (in even the smallest of ways) you can maintain complete control over your game and gamers will support you.

The future is looking bright where true single player gameplay all but disappears and is replaced by "always online" single player.

Why do you seem so keen on jumping to the aid of people who honestly just care about their achievement points and online prestige? Actual multiplayer hacks do exist and are being produced by companies like this with the sole intent of fucking everyone who plays this game. I'm sorry if I don't support people whose sole intent is to invalidate any work I or anyone put into the harder achievements for their own self serving intent. Not to mention there is no need for these hacks in a single player environment anyway due to there being cheat codes already embedded in the game.
You also keep making the point of single-player online. My answer, play in offline mode, simple, effective, and solves all your problems, now stop trying to ruin it for everyone else. And if you plan on quoting this I want you to give a definitive answer on why offline single player doesn't work for you.

Offline single player games are going to be gone with PC games, look at Assassin Creed II, if you can't log into the Ubisoft server you can't play it AT ALL. And it's Single Player online ONLY so yeah. If companies start attaching "leader boards" to single player games (which some single player RPGs do now), they can claim the same thing Blizzard is doing. Now if I wanted to cheat in my copy of Tales of Vesperia for the fun of it should I be banned because it keeps the score on the leader boards and "ruins the online experience of the other players"(which I don't even want to be a part of). Think about it, single player for everything but the leader boards so it still has a "online" component, which Namco could use to ban cheaters.

 

[KefkaCultist]

So you hate Blizz for actually doing a good thing and preventing people from hacking and ruining the game?

Would you hate the president if he stopped a nuclear missile from hitting your house?

 

[Spencer Petersen]

Its the lesser of two evils, either allow hackers to run rampant on your game or take a hard stance with them, and I think this is the better option. I'd rather a couple greedy fucks lose their game and right to illegally alter a multiplayer system they have to ruin for all of us, than let the entire multiplayer experience turn into a cesspool of hackers because the developers refused to take any action.

Yeah cause suing people is the ONLY way to ensure that the multiplayer experience isn't ruined.

Here's what we've learned. If you tie single player to multiplayer (in even the smallest of ways) you can maintain complete control over your game and gamers will support you.

The future is looking bright where true single player gameplay all but disappears and is replaced by "always online" single player.

Why do you seem so keen on jumping to the aid of people who honestly just care about their achievement points and online prestige? Actual multiplayer hacks do exist and are being produced by companies like this with the sole intent of fucking everyone who plays this game. I'm sorry if I don't support people whose sole intent is to invalidate any work I or anyone put into the harder achievements for their own self serving intent. Not to mention there is no need for these hacks in a single player environment anyway due to there being cheat codes already embedded in the game.
You also keep making the point of single-player online. My answer, play in offline mode, simple, effective, and solves all your problems, now stop trying to ruin it for everyone else. And if you plan on quoting this I want you to give a definitive answer on why offline single player doesn't work for you.

Offline single player games are going to be gone with PC games, look at Assassin Creed II, if you can't log into the Ubisoft server you can't play it AT ALL. And it's Single Player online ONLY so yeah. If companies start attaching "leader boards" to single player games (which some single player RPGs do now), they can claim the same thing Blizzard is doing. Now if I wanted to cheat in my copy of Tales of Vesperia for the fun of it should I be banned because it keeps the score on the leader boards and "ruins the online experience of the other players"(which I don't even want to be a part of). Think about it, single player for everything but the leader boards so it still has a "online" component, which Namco could use to ban cheaters.

Did I miss some big announcement saying that Blizzard was planning to axe offline singleplayer? Or are people just pulling conspiracies out of thin air?

And yes I agree that Ubisoft's DRM policy is the embodiment of Satan, but in my experience Blizzard is a bit more rational than them, so I doubt Heart of the Swarm or Legacy of the Void are going to have single player servers. If they did I would be pissed, but until then I'm going to keep calm about this.

 

[YoBadMama]

Well if you read the cpoyright in the instruction book (yes, I got THAT fucking bored one day) is says that you cannot modify games. So i guess they have the rights to?

 

[Arehexes]

Its the lesser of two evils, either allow hackers to run rampant on your game or take a hard stance with them, and I think this is the better option. I'd rather a couple greedy fucks lose their game and right to illegally alter a multiplayer system they have to ruin for all of us, than let the entire multiplayer experience turn into a cesspool of hackers because the developers refused to take any action.

Yeah cause suing people is the ONLY way to ensure that the multiplayer experience isn't ruined.

Here's what we've learned. If you tie single player to multiplayer (in even the smallest of ways) you can maintain complete control over your game and gamers will support you.

The future is looking bright where true single player gameplay all but disappears and is replaced by "always online" single player.

Why do you seem so keen on jumping to the aid of people who honestly just care about their achievement points and online prestige? Actual multiplayer hacks do exist and are being produced by companies like this with the sole intent of fucking everyone who plays this game. I'm sorry if I don't support people whose sole intent is to invalidate any work I or anyone put into the harder achievements for their own self serving intent. Not to mention there is no need for these hacks in a single player environment anyway due to there being cheat codes already embedded in the game.
You also keep making the point of single-player online. My answer, play in offline mode, simple, effective, and solves all your problems, now stop trying to ruin it for everyone else. And if you plan on quoting this I want you to give a definitive answer on why offline single player doesn't work for you.

As I have said, soon there will be no offline single player. Soon single player will be online only so the company can control every interaction you have with the game. This is what I fear and it is coming. Blizzard is setting the ground rules for what is coming and the next game may have only online single player.

I doubt anyone has the sole intent of ruining online play for everyone, I think their goal is to make money.

Here's a question, if it's illegal to make money from a game without the permission of the game publisher, where does that put unauthorized strat guides?

This isn't Ubisoft were talking about here, you can play the game without a connection to the internet just fine. From my point of view, the achievements offered through connected single player are a sort of broken up "online leader-boards" to let those who are very good at the single player show off their skills and earn some prestige for it. The hacks offered to earn these achievements while still using godmode and the like makes this system entirely pointless and cuts down any possibility of expansion on this premise into something for developed. I'm sorry if you see that adding features to your game while connected to the net somehow looks like they are removing features of the offline mode. Again, please tell me why the offline mode is any less functional than the previous Starcraft or Brood War.

And I also bet that illegal arms dealers don't have the sole intent of hurting anyone, they just want to make money, but does that make them blameless? Absolutely not

As for the strategy guides, I don't know anyone that buys strategy guides anymore now that the internet is around, but selling something that is designed to make money off of someone's intellectual property is in incredibly poor taste in my opinion, especially if your intent is not to clear up confusion or even the playing field but instead give people who don't need the help an unfair advantage over anyone else who didn't fork over the cash.

If you care enough about achievements to where you have to brag about it then your just sad, achievements weren't as big in the 90's(but they gave out more cheats instead of a stupid number). I have more important things to work on then brag about how I play games all day, and by this logic if you use ANY OUTSIDE HELP BESIDES YOUR OWN SKILL TO EARN THAT ACHIEVEMENT YOUR EVIL AKSD;CAOJDF(sry couldn't help it lol). But really people "earn" achievements by boosting or just doing nothing. So to be honest if I can play Fable 2 and sit around while someone does the work and I have all the achievements (which I did do btw), it kinda makes the whole idea moot. Your just crying about someone getting something you worked hard on getting. Your not getting money for earning achievements or anything, all those trophies, points, or steam achievements mean NOTHING. Oh and fyi if your Achievements mean a lot to you get this in fallout 3 PC you can type in "Achievement Hex#" on the console and get that achievement and you know whats great it's games for windows live. So yeah I never played passed Following His Foot Steps but have all the achievements for the Karma level things.

 

[Arehexes]

Its the lesser of two evils, either allow hackers to run rampant on your game or take a hard stance with them, and I think this is the better option. I'd rather a couple greedy fucks lose their game and right to illegally alter a multiplayer system they have to ruin for all of us, than let the entire multiplayer experience turn into a cesspool of hackers because the developers refused to take any action.

Yeah cause suing people is the ONLY way to ensure that the multiplayer experience isn't ruined.

Here's what we've learned. If you tie single player to multiplayer (in even the smallest of ways) you can maintain complete control over your game and gamers will support you.

The future is looking bright where true single player gameplay all but disappears and is replaced by "always online" single player.

Why do you seem so keen on jumping to the aid of people who honestly just care about their achievement points and online prestige? Actual multiplayer hacks do exist and are being produced by companies like this with the sole intent of fucking everyone who plays this game. I'm sorry if I don't support people whose sole intent is to invalidate any work I or anyone put into the harder achievements for their own self serving intent. Not to mention there is no need for these hacks in a single player environment anyway due to there being cheat codes already embedded in the game.
You also keep making the point of single-player online. My answer, play in offline mode, simple, effective, and solves all your problems, now stop trying to ruin it for everyone else. And if you plan on quoting this I want you to give a definitive answer on why offline single player doesn't work for you.

As I have said, soon there will be no offline single player. Soon single player will be online only so the company can control every interaction you have with the game. This is what I fear and it is coming. Blizzard is setting the ground rules for what is coming and the next game may have only online single player.

I doubt anyone has the sole intent of ruining online play for everyone, I think their goal is to make money.

Here's a question, if it's illegal to make money from a game without the permission of the game publisher, where does that put unauthorized strat guides?

This isn't Ubisoft were talking about here, you can play the game without a connection to the internet just fine. From my point of view, the achievements offered through connected single player are a sort of broken up "online leader-boards" to let those who are very good at the single player show off their skills and earn some prestige for it. The hacks offered to earn these achievements while still using godmode and the like makes this system entirely pointless and cuts down any possibility of expansion on this premise into something for developed. I'm sorry if you see that adding features to your game while connected to the net somehow looks like they are removing features of the offline mode. Again, please tell me why the offline mode is any less functional than the previous Starcraft or Brood War.

And I also bet that illegal arms dealers don't have the sole intent of hurting anyone, they just want to make money, but does that make them blameless? Absolutely not

As for the strategy guides, I don't know anyone that buys strategy guides anymore now that the internet is around, but selling something that is designed to make money off of someone's intellectual property is in incredibly poor taste in my opinion, especially if your intent is not to clear up confusion or even the playing field but instead give people who don't need the help an unfair advantage over anyone else who didn't fork over the cash.

If you care enough about achievements to where you have to brag about it then your just sad, achievements weren't as big in the 90's(but they gave out more cheats instead of a stupid number). I have more important things to work on then brag about how I play games all day, and by this logic if you use ANY OUTSIDE HELP BESIDES YOUR OWN SKILL TO EARN THAT ACHIEVEMENT YOUR EVIL AKSD;CAOJDF(sry couldn't help it lol). But really people "earn" achievements by boosting or just doing nothing. So to be honest if I can play Fable 2 and sit around while someone does the work and I have all the achievements (which I did do btw), it kinda makes the whole idea moot. Your just crying about someone getting something you worked hard on getting. Your not getting money for earning achievements or anything, all those trophies, points, or steam achievements mean NOTHING. Oh and fyi if your Achievements mean a lot to you get this in fallout 3 PC you can type in "Achievement Hex#" on the console and get that achievement and you know whats great it's games for windows live. So yeah I never played passed Following His Foot Steps but have all the achievements for the Karma level things.

In order for my son to play Halo 3 online, he has to play under my profile. That means that I am getting credit for achievements for a game I have never played. My god! I just realized that I used a strat guide for Lost Odyssey so I guess I cheated to get those achievements.

Oh my, I feel like such a criminal! LOL

I thought it was funny I was able to enter a console command to earn achievements on my gamer score and still be there. But here is the command:
Gives achievement with the number you put in(1-53) ex. addachievement 23 addachievement xx

So yeah achievements mean wat now lulz . But I agree with you on the Single Player thing having some online component linked to it to make it a "online game" (I mean really a single player rpg having leader boards?).

 

[Pendragon9]

The problem is they were SELLING hacks to be used online.

No excuse people. NONE.

If you wanna cheat in single player, you can use cheats built in. They disable achievements, but you get your hollow victory. If you wanna make a custom map (basically modding) the editor has it all there for you.

If you wanna cheat online, you get no sympathy from me.

 

[demoman_chaos]

Selling bad, for free isn't. If no profit is made, then there is no law saying it cannot be done (note all the parody videos on the internet). If profit is made, compensation must be made to the original creator.

I always love it when big companies sue individual people (most usually middle-class or below) for millions of dollars to "set an example" over little things like this.

 

[Pendragon9]

The problem is they were SELLING hacks to be used online.

No excuse people. NONE.

If you wanna cheat in single player, you can use cheats built in. They disable achievements, but you get your hollow victory. If you wanna make a custom map (basically modding) the editor has it all there for you.

If you wanna cheat online, you get no sympathy from me.

Ok so the sticking point here seems to be SELLING. So once again I ask a genuine question (no rants about strat guides please).

Is it also illegal to SELL an unauthorized strat guide?

Also, the trainer was for single player use, was it not?

WHY do you need it for single player? What can a trainer do that the editor + built in Blizzard cheats can't?

Also, these cheaters are lying. They were gonna use it for multiplayer soon enough. They just don't wanna admit Blizzard caught them in the act.

By the way, yes, it should be illegal to sell unathorized strat guides. If you were to GIVE them away though, then that's fine. But if someone works hard to make a guide and they go through the trouble of making it official, then they deserve a cut of profit.