Although I think it was a silly/stupid move for Blizzard to stir up a commotion at a fun and positive community event, I'm more surprised as to why this news even made its way on TL. Seems like a private issue between Huk/TLO/Blizzard and I doubt they intended for the public to hear about this, it's not even a rule they enforce on the majority of players and only gives them bad press at this point.

It doesn't really matter who is wrong or right, but the fact remains they broke the TOS and Blizzard still doesn't know how to communicate with its customers or act reasonably. what else is new?

Vari

United States532 Posts

June 25 2011 05:19 GMT

#883

if they don't take issue with these type of things it defeats the entire purpose of the anti-piracy steps they've taken

if they aren't going to give us lan, I damn sure want them to enforce the rules they put in place.

sorry for when it's a hassle to pros (who are generating revenue just by playing high level games) but it's sort of the point

Gamegene

United States8308 Posts

June 25 2011 05:21 GMT

#884

If I shared accounts with my friend would they call me too?
Seriously isn't that an invasion of privacy to hunt down HuK and TLO on the phone?

dybydx

Canada1764 Posts

June 25 2011 05:21 GMT

#885

strategically, this is a bad move by blizz.

ppl play games for fun and the inability to share and enjoy your game with your good friend is simply taking the fun out of the product. majority of SC2 players do not have a degree in law. trying to keep kids from violating IP laws is like herding cats.

landmarktiger

226 Posts

June 25 2011 05:34 GMT

#886

I really think that some nerd was trolling and called take rather than the official blizzard rep. If it was an official blizzard rep than i am dissapointed in blizz. I expected better from them. I was watching huks stream and he tried for 30+ mins to find games on his own account without success and that is the reason he switched to TLOs account. Pro gamers borrow accounts all the time because of blizzards region segmentation. Tourneys are held all over the world and you cant expect people to have accounts in all the regions. For example Fxo team was also sharing accounts recently in Korea and what about when pro gamers need to practice secret strategies before an important match ?- They cant do it on their own account since everyone can see the match histories. Also what about caster accounts that tourney use for the casters - many people use those for casting.

JustPlay

United States211 Posts

June 25 2011 05:57 GMT

#887

People have a problem with it because it's an unenforceable rule. On top of that it is two people with valid accounts sharing them, so there is no argument of lost profits. It was in a custom game, so no customers were effected by these actions. You could argue that it was TLO who accessed his account and HuK who then began using the computer under TLO's supervision.

It's a legal disaster, wouldn't stand up in any EU/US court in this specific context (although sharing would in general), and it's something that simply can't be enforced unless they start tossing out bans for different ips using the accounts. Even then sharing would be legal if you lived in the same house or setup a VPN.

The outrage is because they are trying to make an example in the silliest context imaginable. If the situation were changed slightly the replies in this thread would be different.

Krayze

United States213 Posts

June 25 2011 05:59 GMT

#888

What about team accounts? I watched Sheth play today in Korea with the ID "FXOTeam". I'm guessing all players on FXO have access and play on that same account. So should they be banned/warned as well?

Frequencyy

United States344 Posts

June 25 2011 06:02 GMT

#889

Okay so if I share an account with my cousins will I get in trouble too? I don't undersatnd the problem, both of them have accounts and contribue huge amounts to their game.

Drxz

Australia115 Posts

June 25 2011 06:05 GMT

#890

For A second I had to double check the date and make sure it wasn't april 1

nemo14

United States425 Posts

June 25 2011 06:36 GMT

#891

On June 25 2011 14:15 Frankthetankk wrote:
Doesnt desrow do this sharing on his stream also, he calls it 'powerleveling' but gets paid for it?

He does, and that is what Blizzard is actually concerned about with account sharing. Desrow gets on some bronze account, smashes about 50 noobs over the course of a few hours, and boosts the account to whatever level the customer wants it to be. In Blizzard's view this reduces the quality of their game for both the low-level players desrow cheeses while he is powerleveling and the high-level players the customer plays against once they get the account back, not to mention the problems with tournament qualifications, online identities, and all the rest of that.

Jerubaal

United States7684 Posts

June 25 2011 06:42 GMT

#892

I'm a little confused because sharing accounts is fairly common even in major tournaments.

HOWEVER...

There are a lot of 'don't give a fuck' laws: They aren't going to make a vice squad to find these people but if you rub it their face, don't be surprised.

sabas123

Netherlands3122 Posts

June 25 2011 06:43 GMT

#893

it is true that huk played on tlo's account, i did have seen him on his stream

Coeus1

Finland160 Posts

June 25 2011 07:01 GMT

#894

First of all it could be just someone trolling. Blizzard *calling* Take to tell HuK&TLO to stop sharing accounts? Why no email to TLO bnet account? This story sounds strange to me. Why would they make a personal phone call to Take..

Anyway I think this point of view is not discussed much:

Blizzard takes integrity of the ladder more seriously than this teamliquid community. Here the common conception of ladder is along the lines: "it doesnt matter its only for practice lol". But Blizzard doesn't take it so lightly.

Maybe if they want to hold a GM tournament and half of the GM accounts are shared? It wouldn't work. "Welcome to Blizzcon, next player is the rank 1 GM player of Europe! It's TLO+Huk! Give a cheer to these guys!" Team accounts could also be problematic.

This Blizzard hating is nothing new. This happens in almost every esports game. Community criticizes developer whatever they do or not do.

edit: maybe i remember wrongly, but wasn't GOM acceptin players to some qualifier based on their ladder rank? now imagine sharing accounts and that, also no good. I hope HuK has contacted blizzard about this problem, bnet should be fixed to allow best players find opponents

Traumatizer

Canada16 Posts

June 25 2011 07:11 GMT

#895

Maybe it was a prank call from someone watching the stream?

Slago

Canada726 Posts

June 25 2011 07:12 GMT

#896

ridiculous

TerranTurisT

Germany15 Posts

June 25 2011 07:38 GMT

#897

so basically sharing accounts in tournaments is illegal? Every observer account with changing casters like TakeSen (switching between Rotti/Take/Players) , CasterA + CasterB in NASL, even changing casterteams at GOMTV? GSTL is illegal, they are using one account for the whole team.

If Blizzard warns HUK/TLO, so it should warn every tournament in the world with rotating casterteams/playerteams. It would be legal to ban them all. BUT ... then Blizzard would realize how bad their system for eSports is.

Blizzard wants Starcraft2 to be an E-Sports titel, but the big big issues that many players since Beta are pointing out are still there. (forgot the kittens video? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-r_uCaFxg8)

Blizzard: we will share accounts .. until you implement really big changes to account-organization and you are supporting clans and tourneys a lot more..

Clans und tournaments are the basic components of eSports.In fact, the system does not support them, it's preventing legal organization. It is simply horrible. The community said it over and over again.

If Blizzard bans TLO, so please ban GOMTV, every Team on it, nasl etc... we will see what happens

xlep

Germany274 Posts

June 25 2011 07:43 GMT

#898

I'm really starting to ask myself where those companies get their community staff from... Seriously with all the bad publicity video game companies get in the last years a bunch of apes would do a better job...

EA/Bioware bans the game-account of a fan for ranting in a forum, Gearbox's PR guy threatens journalists and now this... and this is only the last ~3 months...
Seriously what the fuck?

Kafkaesk

Germany140 Posts

June 25 2011 07:53 GMT

#899

On June 25 2011 16:38 TerranTurisT wrote:
so basically sharing accounts in tournaments is illegal? Every observer account with changing casters like TakeSen (switching between Rotti/Take/Players) , CasterA + CasterB in NASL, even changing casterteams at GOMTV? GSTL is illegal, they are using one account for the whole team.

The problem is the laddering. Accounts just playing custom games or observing won't influence the top ladder rankings.

JustPassingBy

10776 Posts

June 25 2011 08:17 GMT

#900

On June 25 2011 16:53 Kafkaesk wrote:

Show nested quote +

The problem is the laddering. Accounts just playing custom games or observing won't influence the top ladder rankings.

I thought the think that tipped blizzard off was the custom games played by Huk on TLO's account?

edit:
And blizzard can't really expect Take to believe it was one of their officials that called,
could be some random troll as well.
Warnings should only given by blizzard personally through their official emails.