WoW Speed Hack Accounts banned!

[Glavinsolo]

We wanted to take this time to make an announcement about a serious hacking violation in World of Warcraft, one for which we have zero tolerance. Certain individuals have been identified as using speed hacks to accelerate their characters. This goes against the theme of fair play that we have instituted for the game, and is in clear violation of the World of Warcraft Terms of Use. Those individuals who were caught using the speed hack have been banned from the game and have had their accounts closed. We must stress once again that we are opposed to hacking and cheating of any kind and are dedicated to maintaining a fair environment in our games. This will serve as a final warning to others who are considering using the speed hack. If you are caught using it, you will be banned without question from World of Warcraft and your account will be revoked. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation in this matter. If you suspect someone of using the speed hack, or wish to report other instances of cheating, please email us at hacks@blizzard.com. Thank you again for your continued support.

 

[Schadenfroh]

good, i hope they crack down hard on all forms of bots and hacking. But i doubt it will be wide spread. They lose $15 a month for every person they ban.

 

[Ausm]

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh
good, i hope they crack down hard on all forms of bots and hacking. But i doubt it will be wide spread. They lose $15 a month for every person they ban.

Yeah but in the scope of things ithe number of people hacking is very small compared to honest players.

I say get rid of the scum!


Ausm

 

[CVSiN]

Originally posted by: Glavinsolo
We wanted to take this time to make an announcement about a serious hacking violation in World of Warcraft, one for which we have zero tolerance. Certain individuals have been identified as using speed hacks to accelerate their characters. This goes against the theme of fair play that we have instituted for the game, and is in clear violation of the World of Warcraft Terms of Use. Those individuals who were caught using the speed hack have been banned from the game and have had their accounts closed. We must stress once again that we are opposed to hacking and cheating of any kind and are dedicated to maintaining a fair environment in our games. This will serve as a final warning to others who are considering using the speed hack. If you are caught using it, you will be banned without question from World of Warcraft and your account will be revoked. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation in this matter. If you suspect someone of using the speed hack, or wish to report other instances of cheating, please email us at hacks@blizzard.com. Thank you again for your continued support.

This was the 1st week of wow... Old news now =P
look at the date =P

 

[Gurck]

Ugh... Forget banning, they should make it impossible to do in the first place 🙁 Any time you have a conflict of interest, the money will win. I'm guessing it's an empty threat and that they're not willing to sacrifice many subscriptions... I'm a bit disappointed, I had higher hopes for their handling of hacks with a mmog, after all they're earning money for allowing online play here, not spending it (free battle.net).

 

[BlueWeasel]

Well, as long as they design the games to allow for 3rd-party plugins and programs (ie, Cosmos), then hacks and cheating mods are always going to be part of the game. It's good to see Blizzard taking an aggressive stance in the beginning, instead of other developers banning the cheats once they maxed out their level and skills.

 

[Zysoclaplem]

Has anyone here actually witnessed a speed hack?
I have seen some people move extremely fast on my server, but I'm not sure if that's a buff, or an item they are wearing.

 

[torpid]

Hm, this happened in FFXI over a year ago and was a major problem. Fish bots also happened over a year ago in FFXI. I wonder why WoW took so long to get on the ball on these two cheats, which were bound to happen in WoW. Do they actually need to witness the cheat before they can figure out how to stop it??

 

[ggnl]

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh
good, i hope they crack down hard on all forms of bots and hacking. But i doubt it will be wide spread. They lose $15 a month for every person they ban.

That's nothing compared the the amount of players that will leave if they allow cheaters to run rampant.

Originally posted by: Zysoclaplem
Has anyone here actually witnessed a speed hack?
I have seen some people move extremely fast on my server, but I'm not sure if that's a buff, or an item they are wearing.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft....l&T=166208&P=1

There's videos in here of someone caught speedhacking. You may have to search a little to find a working mirror.

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Good! 😀

- M4H

 

[ArmchairAthlete]

There's a new newspost on worldofwarcraft.com about another ban, for botting I think.

Bot-Using Accounts Banned - Indoflaven on 12/7/04
We have recently verified that certain individuals were using third party "bot" programs to automate their characters in World of Warcraft. A bot is used to play an account non-stop, allowing its user to accumulate money, items, and experience without actually requiring the user to be physically present to play the game. The use of bots is a violation of the World of Warcraft Terms of Use and is absolutely prohibited. Therefore, the accounts identified as having used bots have been banned.
Blizzard Entertainment is committed to maintaining an environment of fair play in World of Warcraft. As stated previously, the company has a zero-tolerance policy for cheating or hacking of any kind. Players caught using a bot program to automate any of their characters' actions will have their characters removed and their account banned. They will not receive a warning. Over 300 accounts have already been banned for offenses of this nature.

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation in this matter. If you suspect someone of using a bot, or wish to report other instances of cheating, please email us at hacks@blizzard.com or submit a GM ticket in-game. Thank you again for your continued support.

I'm very much hoping this isn't just "look we're tough on cheating" and then stop doing anything. Hopefully they'll continue to fight this before it ever gets widespread. I don't think I saw any cheaters.

 

[Firus]

Originally posted by: ArmchairAthlete

I'm very much hoping this isn't just "look were tough on cheating" and then stop doing anything. Hopefully they'll continue to fight this before it ever gets widespread. I don't think I saw any cheaters.

I fully agree with this. WoW is not a game that you even need to cheat in, they made it so easy to accel I don't see the point of cheating. Bots, Macros, Hacks, Exploits are exactly what ruined AC for me, soooo many people were doing it that being a normal player (ie: no hacks or cheats) was almost out of the question as you would be left in the dust. I being one of the non-cheaters found the game was totally ruined when all you see is bots running around killing things or set up in one spot killing a high level dummy for hours on end.

So I say, ban them all and use the info gathered to stop as much of it all together.

 

[Malak]

Macros will be a part of MMO gaming until they start making less boring games. For instance, EVE had massive amounts of macroing because mining wasn't something anyone wanted to do. But you had to mine to do any of the cool stuff. So people macro mined all day and all night. I never did, but I have no problem with the people that did.

 

[CVSiN]

Originally posted by: malak
Macros will be a part of MMO gaming until they start making less boring games. For instance, EVE had massive amounts of macroing because mining wasn't something anyone wanted to do. But you had to mine to do any of the cool stuff. So people macro mined all day and all night. I never did, but I have no problem with the people that did.

Any MMO has these problems..
the problem is MMO Money is worth more than half the worlds currencies in exchange rate...
and capped chars are worth a small mint..

as long as there is a market to make a living from games there will be cheaters and hackers that do it so they can sell at an accellerated rate..

as for peeps moving fast they are most likely hunters.. they have a buff..
there is also a higher level speed potion...

 

[torpid]

Originally posted by: CVSiN
Any MMO has these problems..
the problem is MMO Money is worth more than half the worlds currencies in exchange rate...
and capped chars are worth a small mint..

as long as there is a market to make a living from games there will be cheaters and hackers that do it so they can sell at an accellerated rate..

as for peeps moving fast they are most likely hunters.. they have a buff..
there is also a higher level speed potion...

Most people moving fast, yes. But there are certainly at least a few speedhackers in WoW. They need to clamp down on it very quickly, not for the sake of the game, but for the sake of GMs. In FFXI people became so paranoid about it that the GMs were getting flooded with speedhack reports. And worse, they already had a way to check for it without human intervention anyway.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I don't understand how a "speedhack" is even possible - physics movements of entities within the world should be handled entirely server-side. I know that AC sometimes had issues with "warping", when the client and the server's ideas of where things were, started to drift and then sync'ed-up again, but that's not the same thing. In other words, if it's possible at all, then that's a serious bug in the game.

 

[torpid]

Originally posted by: VirtualLarry
I don't understand how a "speedhack" is even possible - physics movements of entities within the world should be handled entirely server-side. I know that AC sometimes had issues with "warping", when the client and the server's ideas of where things were, started to drift and then sync'ed-up again, but that's not the same thing. In other words, if it's possible at all, then that's a serious bug in the game.

Not true. Handling it server side is now old school design. It places too much burden on the server and causes a lot of warping on the client side, making for an uncomfortable experience if there is much lag at all. The client actually sends movement data for the most part. It relies on packet loss and timings, which speedhacks exploit by simulating packet loss. For this reason, a few people in FFXI were wrongly accused of speedhacking due to having applications running in the background that were causing packet loss.

 

[onza]

they have enough users

things will be ok.

let the cheaters cheat in EQ or some other game

 

[Malak]

Originally posted by: VirtualLarry
In other words, if it's possible at all, then that's a serious bug in the game.

"Do you think that's really air you are breathing?" Gaming is a lot like being in the Matrix. There are rules, but some can be bent, others can be broken. The client must tell the server which direction it's going and where it is. You simply cheat and tell the server info that makes you faster sort of. "Do you think it's because I'm faster or stronger?"

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Originally posted by: malak
Macros will be a part of MMO gaming until they start making less boring games. For instance, EVE had massive amounts of macroing because mining wasn't something anyone wanted to do. But you had to mine to do any of the cool stuff. So people macro mined all day and all night. I never did, but I have no problem with the people that did.

Me neither. Macrominers are an excellent source of minerals. 😀

- M4H

 

[Malladine]

Originally posted by: MercenaryForHire

Originally posted by: malak
Macros will be a part of MMO gaming until they start making less boring games. For instance, EVE had massive amounts of macroing because mining wasn't something anyone wanted to do. But you had to mine to do any of the cool stuff. So people macro mined all day and all night. I never did, but I have no problem with the people that did.

Me neither. Macrominers are an excellent source of minerals. 😀

- M4H

Mining and gathering doesnt have to be a primary focus in wow, ever. I gather herbs, my wife mines and neither of us specifically focuses on either of those. We adventure and quest and kill then gather/mine. If some shows on the map, we grab it and it feels like a little gift 🙂

 

[ggnl]

Originally posted by: CVSiN
as for peeps moving fast they are most likely hunters.. they have a buff..
there is also a higher level speed potion...

Watch the video is the link I posted above, there is absolutly no doubt in my mind that the guy is speedhacking. He gets jumped by a horde player, and right when he is about to die he takes off at about 500% normal run speed, jumping all over the place. It looks exactly like the speedhacking you see in any other game.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: malak

Originally posted by: VirtualLarry
In other words, if it's possible at all, then that's a serious bug in the game.

"Do you think that's really air you are breathing?" Gaming is a lot like being in the Matrix. There are rules, but some can be bent, others can be broken. The client must tell the server which direction it's going and where it is. You simply cheat and tell the server info that makes you faster sort of. "Do you think it's because I'm faster or stronger?"

But what I'm saying is, that design (client-controlled rather than server-controlled), is "broken", and is what allows this sort of cheating in the first place. From my understanding, there were a lot of cheats possible in UO because of that style of system. I actually worked on AC during the "early days", and while I didn't work on the physics or the server stuff directly, I was always under the impression that they were done server-side, explicitly to prevent the possibility of client-spoof-based cheating, even with the downside of potential lag-induced "warping" that occurred because of a temporary client-server de-sync. Plus, they made the combat system in AC1 more turn- and stat-based than realtime, so any "warping" wouldn't really affect the outcome of battles even if it did occur. I can't play those games anyways, I'm already an "internet addict", and those games are worse than crack, heroin, and speed combined. (Not that I would know, but I can imagine.)

Btw, "The 13th Floor" is a good movie too, that was a bit overshadowed by the release of the first Matrix movie. Similarly, I have a screenshot from a very high point in AC that I took during the beta, when I can see "the edge of the world". If you've seen that movie, you'll understand. 🙂

 

[mldeveloper]

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh
good, i hope they crack down hard on all forms of bots and hacking. But i doubt it will be wide spread. They lose $15 a month for every person they ban.

This is the wrong assumption for people to make about banning cheaters. The damage to both your reputation and players quiting accounts because it just isn't worth it to play in a environment full of hacks is far costlier.