Guy gets banned from WoW for using Linux/Wine and Logitech G15

generally, you should offer some comments of your own.. just posting a link and asking for comments is considered a little rude.

As far as i could tell, skimming the article, he wasn't banned because of Wine, but because of his programmable keyboard. The servers thought he was a bot, so he was banned.

Nothing to do with Linux/Wine. Using that as an excuse to post that on Slashdot and try to get the 'Blizzard r teh evil!!11!!' response.

It's a sign it's time for him to swith to :

A ) a different MMORPG
B ) a different type of game
C ) something else then video games

He has things programmed into his keyboard? Sounds like a good way to get yourself looking like a bot.

With a playerbase of that size, Blizzard can't be expected to look in too hard on any of these cases, unless you would like to pay $50 a MONTH, or more. It looks like a bot, and there isn't much Blizzard could do to confirm the players 'claims'.

Heh. I feel that anyone beating up a healing, level 25 mob at level 60 to boost all weapon skills to 300 should be banned. But that's just me.

(Okay. I don't think he should have been banned, but it seems like he was violating the spirit of the TOS).

Yeah, it was all over Digg.com
Anyway, my view is that Blizzard was right.
He didn't get banned because of a keyboard, but because of the automation done by the keyboard drivers.
We also punish people if they are caught macroing (keyboard or no keyboard involved).

Also, people lie. Each time you ban someone, they WILL lie, with very few exceptions. You'd have no idea how creative some people are when it comes to saving their skin.

IIRC, the admins on WoW whisper something to people they suspect are botting, and if you don't reply, it's pretty obvious that you're botting, and they ban you.


Why didn't this guy reply?





Anyway, this is pretty much Blizzards fault anyways. They purposely built the game to be a repetetive time-sink so that people would have to play incredibly long periods of time in order to get anywhere, and then they act surprised when people bot?


Why not make a game that takes more user interaction in the first place?

Quote:

Original post by Mithrandir IIRC, the admins on WoW whisper something to people they suspect are botting, and if you don't reply, it's pretty obvious that you're botting, and they ban you. Why didn't this guy reply?

If you set /dnd ( do not disturb ) I believe it stops whispers from getting to you and informers the whisperer you are not to be disturbed.

Quote:

Original post by acraig Quote: Original post by Mithrandir IIRC, the admins on WoW whisper something to people they suspect are botting, and if you don't reply, it's pretty obvious that you're botting, and they ban you. Why didn't this guy reply? If you set /dnd ( do not disturb ) I believe it stops whispers from getting to you and informers the whisperer you are not to be disturbed.

I think the GM's are exempt from the /dnd block.

I don't know about WoW, but our game has a system that a mod can bring abig message to someone's screen, which is on top of the other windows, to prevent that person from not seing the message.
This way, they can't claim they didn't see it.

If you are watching TV 99% of the time while playing a game that you are *paying* to play, you might want to reconsider why you are doing this.

Quote:

Original post by Steadtler If you are watching TV 99% of the time while playing a game that you are *paying* to play, you might want to reconsider why you are doing this.

get with the times grandpa. the time when games were supposed to be fun is long since gone.

I have the TV on nearly all the time I'm at the computer. (I like it, because it has shorter boot and load times, but can be hard to get what YOU want running on it,...)

Watching TV while using the computer is also very good on the eyes, provided you have your TV atleast 3 times the distance from your eyes as the moniter is. You look at the screen, then look at the TV while you're typing something. (I'm not looking at the computer right now, I'm watching some crapy modern history thing on the History Channel,... where did the remote go?) Lets me sit here nearly all day and get work done.

Now, if I actually was doing work, and not playing a game in another window and reading forums, this would be a good thing.

First, I agree that programmable keyboards are no better than programmable software. If Blizzard wants to get picky, I'll bet the keyboard uses software to program the buttons, so he did violate the TOS.

That said, if GMs really do just send a standard whisper, they need a new system. I personally spend almost all of my battles in the combat chat panel...it gives me a much better idea of how the battle's going, and prevents me from being distracted by the idiots in general chat. But it also prevents me from recieving whispers in a timely manner. Raduprv's seems like a reasonably good idea, although I can't imagine how devistating that could be in some fights.

CM

I remember the feeling when my NES final fantasy game, 90% complete with high levels and all spells, got erased because the power went out. I almost swooned. He must feel 10x worse.

Again, the issue was not the programable keyboard in itself, but how he used it.
If I assign a script to some keys on my normal keyboard, and use that in a MMO then get banned, well, I couldn't complain.
All the MMOs out there have something like this in their ToS: "Any automatization done by electronical, mechanical or software means is illegal."

The whole idea of a MMO is so that you have to play the game yourself, not have a macro play it while you sleep or watch tv.

I do however believe the punishment was excessive, we usually don't ban people on their first offense, we either lock them for a few days, or warn them, or reduce their stats a little.

3000 HOURS?!?!?!?! Are you F&%KING KIDDING ME?!?!?!

Dude, that's a third of a YEAR! LITERALLY!!!

Do you realize what can be accomplished in that kind of time? If I spent that much time just to have two level 60 characters in some game, I think I'd just shoot myself. Blizzard did this guy a huge favor. [grin]

Now that I'm over the initial shock...

I do find it odd that Blizzard would cut off someone that's spent that much cash on their game AND do so without warning. I'm not convinced we're getting the whole story. =/

Quote:

Original post by Mithrandir Why didn't this guy reply?

Because he was too busy watching a movie to reply.

Quote:

Original post by coderx75 I do find it odd that Blizzard would cut off someone that's spent that much cash on their game AND do so without warning. I'm not convinced we're getting the whole story. =/

Botting ruins the experience, because the only way to compete against a bot is to be a bot.

Real paying people will not want to play your game if they must compete against bots for the good areas. Since the bots are always there, a human player always has to compete. At least with a mostly bot free game, the players can fight mobs at less popular times if they have a problem with lots of people.

So, being aggressive with botting is a good idea, because it lets all the other customers have a better experience.

Quote:

Original post by Binomine Quote: Original post by Mithrandir Why didn't this guy reply? Because he was too busy watching a movie to reply.

Exactly. He wasn't actually playing the game.

Therefore he was botting, and he's brining up the "BUT LINUX!!" thing for sympathy.