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Recently, Blizzard has banned several community members for using third party cheats in single player games and custom games versus AI.
The cheats being used were not the maphacks or drophacks we're accustomed to in multiplayer games, but rather, "Trainers", local game hacks used to manipulate local, offline, play. These work in single player, but not in multiplayer, because single player games are entirely local, and only upload critical achievement and completion data onto multiplayer.
In practice, the work functionally identical to exploiting in game single player exploits, or the use of blizzard sanctioned cheat codes.
The same report was also confirmed in the Rock Paper Shotgun gaming blog
Blizzard’s stance is that since those single player games affect the achievements and score displayed in multiplayer, they can’t be standing for it. In response, CheatHappens point out that these elements “have no bearing on multiplayer standings, matches or games”. Personally, I always thought achievements were harmless. This is causing me to reconsider.
The end result is that the several hundreds of people received account bans for cheating in Starcraft 2's single player component, without any prior warning that this would occur.
In reality, this entails blizzard will ban for any modifications or programs that interfere with the game, regardless of the effect, and that they have complete administrative control over your Starcraft 2 account. It also implies that programs such as warden will be running, regardless of your format of play.
Thoughts?
(Original reported by Cheathappens.com. They don't host maphacks or any competitive hack, only single player trainers, which have traditionally never been the subject of controversy)
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Thoughts?
They got owned.
User was warned for this post
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We already knew Blizzard's management of Battle.net 2.0 was pretty moronic, so this just follows suit.
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It's really absurd. Can you imagine being banned from playing any other game on your computer for using a trainer in single player?
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On October 12 2010 04:23 Half wrote: In practice, the work functionally identical to exploiting in game single player exploits, or the use of blizzard sanctioned cheat codes.
In practice sure, but Blizzards codes disable achievement gain. Thus, even if you cheat to get through the campaign faster to get through the story, you do not earn the achievements as you have not earned them.
On October 12 2010 04:27 floor exercise wrote: It's really absurd. Can you imagine being banned from playing any other game on your computer for using a trainer in single player? Why not? Modyfing game files is modyfing game files. It is against the ToS whether it is in single player or multiplayer. Sucks for the people who got banned, but you cannot argue Blizzard being in the wrong for this.
People cheating with trailers to get achievements they do not deserve == People cheating with map/drop hacks to get wins in multiplayer they do not deserve.
Sure a much smaller sub-set of people care about said achievements, but keeping a legitimate playing field in all aspects of the game, including single player is important.
It may not be important to you, it's not really important to me, but someone out there took time to get those achievements legitimately and it's important to them.
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Well there should be a warning for that.Banning for using trainers in single player is really stupid.....They should just remove the achievements of said account if it "matters".ROFL who gives a fuck about achievements anyway?
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The "best" fix to this would be to just remove achievements. It would fix alot of stuff such as those people that join games and leave them just for achievements as well as would prevent Blizzard "needing" to ban people who cheat in single player.
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I support these bans. If you notice these "trainers" don't do anything that the ingame cheats for SC2 do EXCEPT disable achievements. That is you can just use those ingame cheats to achieve the same effect, but you won't get achievements.
The SOLE reason to use a trainer like this is to cheat in order to get achievements. So yes they should be banned for that.
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On October 12 2010 04:27 Seide wrote: Modyfing game files is modyfing game files. It is against the ToS whether it is in single player or multiplayer. Sucks for the people who got banned, but you cannot argue Blizzard being in the wrong for this.
So you're essentially arguing that people who purchase digital products are entitled to absolutely no consumer rights and protections?
Clauses of the ToS like prohibiting multiplayer exploitation have legal basis. They interfere with the operations of company owned servers, and could, technically, be prosecuted as the distribution of malware.
There is no legal legislation that prohibits consumers from modifying the code of there product, so long as no reverse engineering of encrypted information is involved.
Moreover, no legal legislation
I support these bans. If you notice these "trainers" don't do anything that the ingame cheats for SC2 do EXCEPT disable achievements. That is you can just use those ingame cheats to achieve the same effect, but you won't get achievements.
The SOLE reason to use a trainer like this is to cheat in order to get achievements. So yes they should be banned for that.
This is false.
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On October 12 2010 04:28 Half wrote:Show nested quote +On October 12 2010 04:27 Seide wrote: Modyfing game files is modyfing game files. It is against the ToS whether it is in single player or multiplayer. Sucks for the people who got banned, but you cannot argue Blizzard being in the wrong for this. So you're essentially arguing that people who purchase digital products are entitled to absolutely no consumer rights and protections?
Well as much as I don't think Blizzard should be doing this, I'm not sure if consumers actually own the right to modify what they buy, as strange as that sounds, because I know modding video game consoles is actually illegal.
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On October 12 2010 04:28 Half wrote:Show nested quote +On October 12 2010 04:27 Seide wrote: Modyfing game files is modyfing game files. It is against the ToS whether it is in single player or multiplayer. Sucks for the people who got banned, but you cannot argue Blizzard being in the wrong for this. So you're essentially arguing that people who purchase digital products are entitled to absolutely no consumer rights and protections? You clicked the box. If you're not happy with it, you shouldn't have clicked the box.
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On October 12 2010 04:33 TMTurtle wrote:Show nested quote +On October 12 2010 04:28 Half wrote:On October 12 2010 04:27 Seide wrote: Modyfing game files is modyfing game files. It is against the ToS whether it is in single player or multiplayer. Sucks for the people who got banned, but you cannot argue Blizzard being in the wrong for this. So you're essentially arguing that people who purchase digital products are entitled to absolutely no consumer rights and protections? You clicked the box. If you're not happy with it, you shouldn't have clicked the box.
That was a yes or no question you know.
So you're arguing consumers of digital products should not be given any consumer protections what so ever?
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Why are they banning for cheating in campaign? Thats like banning people for using "power overwhelming" in sc1. And its not like people are gonna judge how good a player is based on their achievements
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On October 12 2010 04:33 skyR wrote:There's already a thread on this: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=159820Why do some of you defend people that use trainers thinking they don't deserve a permanent ban? You do realize that the majority (probably all) the people that use trainers also use maphacks.
oh sorry I only searched sc2 general >.>.
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On October 12 2010 04:28 Half wrote:Show nested quote +On October 12 2010 04:27 Seide wrote: Modyfing game files is modyfing game files. It is against the ToS whether it is in single player or multiplayer. Sucks for the people who got banned, but you cannot argue Blizzard being in the wrong for this. So you're essentially arguing that people who purchase digital products are entitled to absolutely no consumer rights and protections? Clauses of the ToS like prohibiting multiplayer exploitation have legal basis. They interfere with the operations of company owned servers, and could, technically, be prosecuted as the distribution of malware. There is no legal legislation that prohibits consumers from modifying the code of there product, so long as no reverse engineering of encrypted information is involved. Moreover, no legal legislation Show nested quote +I support these bans. If you notice these "trainers" don't do anything that the ingame cheats for SC2 do EXCEPT disable achievements. That is you can just use those ingame cheats to achieve the same effect, but you won't get achievements.
The SOLE reason to use a trainer like this is to cheat in order to get achievements. So yes they should be banned for that. This is false. If they said they agreed to the terms of use, then that means they agreed to be banned if they modified game files. What people were doing here was harmless, but if it goes against the terms of use, Blizzard has every right to ban them.
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It seems to me that Blizzard already provides enough cheat codes for single player, all of which void achievements, that there is no need for trainers etc.
When you purchase SC2 you effectively purchase a licence to use the game under the EULA, and Blizzard reserves the right to revoke your licence at any point for any reason. So if you decide to alter the original game in an unintended and (possibly harmful) manner they can ban you.
With current licencing policies, you don't actually own a copy of SC2, you lease it. So I understand why Blizzard may decide to ban people abusing the game.
On the other side single player has usually been typically a no holds barred event, allowing people to explore the inner and outer workings of the game.
But I say people should read the EULA before hitting accept and installing your game, especially if you plan on using 3rd party add ons. This is particularly important on games that require you to play online, or publicly share your progress. Blizzard is sending out a message not to mess with their stuff, but I think it's a bit harsh.
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On October 12 2010 04:36 Sentenal wrote:Show nested quote +On October 12 2010 04:28 Half wrote:On October 12 2010 04:27 Seide wrote: Modyfing game files is modyfing game files. It is against the ToS whether it is in single player or multiplayer. Sucks for the people who got banned, but you cannot argue Blizzard being in the wrong for this. So you're essentially arguing that people who purchase digital products are entitled to absolutely no consumer rights and protections? Clauses of the ToS like prohibiting multiplayer exploitation have legal basis. They interfere with the operations of company owned servers, and could, technically, be prosecuted as the distribution of malware. There is no legal legislation that prohibits consumers from modifying the code of there product, so long as no reverse engineering of encrypted information is involved. Moreover, no legal legislation I support these bans. If you notice these "trainers" don't do anything that the ingame cheats for SC2 do EXCEPT disable achievements. That is you can just use those ingame cheats to achieve the same effect, but you won't get achievements.
The SOLE reason to use a trainer like this is to cheat in order to get achievements. So yes they should be banned for that. This is false. If they said they agreed to the terms of use, then that means they agreed to be banned if they modified game files. What people were doing here was harmless, but if it goes against the terms of use, Blizzard has every right to ban them.
No, they don't.
The idea that TOS supersedes consumer rights and legal authority is absolutely retarded. No, ToS was intended to be used to maintain legal authority and support consumer rights, not for companies to subvert both for a higher profit margin.
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People should be allowed to do whatever they want with the game so long as it does not affect others. And no, achievements mean absolutely nothing. If you think they have an effect on multiplayer you are dumb.
Cheating online = bad. Cheating on your own = why should I care? I know why Blizzard cares: money.
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