Blizzard Vs Glider
Hello my name is PixelPoet and I am a WoW Info Addict. Don't get me wrong ladies and gents, I'm not addicted to WoW; I did play WoW from release until about 6 months ago, but my playing would never constitute an addiction. I mean I may be addicted to things like Sour Patch Kids, Elite Beat Agents, and Bears, issues that I talk to my husky and hairy therapist about in our weekly sessions (I like to call them playdates); however, I was never addicted to WoW. I'm a WoW info junkie, which means I can never read enough about the game and the changes coming to it, even though I don't play anymore. So if you ever want to know what changes they made to make Druids less of a viable healer in 2v2 or 3v3 PvP, or why the intended nerf to Warlock's Lifetap was reverted, I'm your man.
All that being said, some interesting WoW related news popped up over the last week regarding the ongoing legal battle between Blizzard and the 'bot' program known as Glider. The latest chapter in the story, according to GamePolitics.com, is that, as of March 21st, both sides have filed motion for a summary judgment to try and have judgment passed in their side's favor without having to go to trial. Both of the motions can be found in the above link, and there are a great number of juice tidbits in there, of course masked insidiously by legalese. One gem I found in Blizzard's motion was this:
A study of WoW play estimated that an average user needs approximately 480 hours of play to reach the maximum character level. Whereas a typical human player averaging two hours a day would thus need eight months to reach the highest level, a Glider user can run the bot and achieve the same level in less than one month. Thus, Glider users can "skip ahead" to the advanced levels without having to pay the additional seven months of subscription fees required of a legitimate human player, and thereby avoid paying up to $105 in subscription revenue Blizzard would otherwise receive. Multiplying this $105 savings times the 100,000 Glider programs sold alone demonstrates lost revenue to Blizzard of $10.5 million.
Putting aside the faulty logic that all Glider users will cancel their account 7 months earlier due to using Glider, this quote clearly illustrates that Blizzard knows just how much time you will sink into raising a character to level 60, and are anxiously awaiting the money with outstretched hands. The thought just sends a sensation to my groin, a sensation that feels oddly like a testicular torsion.
A (somewhat) layman's summary of all the infractions Blizzard cites against the Glider company, MDY Industries, is after the jump.
In an article by Dan Hunter on Terra Nova, Dan quotes the summary of the Senior Intellectual Property Attorney, Jeff von Lohmann of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), in reference to Blizzard's charges against MDY:
Glider lets WoW players play on "autopilot" in order to maximize in- game experience and loot. Blizzard has not been able to successfully stop players from using it, despite the deployment of technical countermeasures (i.e., "Warden").Blizzard is arguing direct copyright infringement by WoW players who use Glider (because they breach the EULA term that says "no bots!" and copy the WoW software into RAM), and secondary liability for MDY, the maker of Glider. Blizzard's argument is built expressly on the MAI v. Peak's "RAM copies" doctrine, plus the argument that any contractual breach of a EULA term creates an infringement claim, at least where
the license grant is expressly conditioned on compliance with the contractual restriction (apparently the WoW license grant is contingent on compliance with **all** the terms of the EULA, a typical drafting approach in modern EULAs).Blizzard also argues 1201 liability, on the view that Glider evades Warden. There is an interesting question here as to what copyrighted work Warden restricts access to -- Warden blocks access to Blizzard's WoW **servers**, not the client-side game software itself. Blizzard seems to argue that certain client-side game assets -- i.e., graphics
-- are rendered inaccessible when Warden blocks an account for cheating. But it's fair to say that this is not the typical "encryption" or "password" 1201 terrain.Finally, Blizzard argues tortious interference with the EULA, premised on the same EULA whose breach is supposedly also a copyright infringement.
Wow (sorry, bad pun), those are quite a few charges, but in their own motion, MDY Industries makes a case to refute each of those statements. Overall it looks like this will probably be dragged out for a while longer before anything else is decided upon for certain. In the meantime, I'll be reading up on just how awesome the new on Bard class, announced today on April Fool's, is going to be.
PixelPoet
Posted to Video Games on 2 April 2008
· Comments (11)
Other stuff like this: blizzard, glider, legal, wow
...Oh come now...surely a WoW info addict would know that "maximum character level" is currently 70 =P
Also, I find the entire thing ridiculous...it almost begins to tarnish my love of Blizzard...
I wish there was a glider program for Planetside back in the day, the only decent persistent online game ever made, it's a shame it hasn't really beenm updated to keep it competitive with the pretenders like WOW, FFXI etc.
Shame, I used to enjoy PS, but would have used a glider-esque program, took me two years on and off to get to level 16 out of 25, yeah I liked it but didn't play very often, my monthly playtime was less than 3 hours a month.
Good catch, Taiko. Yeah, I know the max level is 70; however, with the additions to quest experience they made in the expansion, the grind from 60-70, while about the same length as from 40-60 (pre-patch 2.3), is far less about grinding any mobs and more about questing. I still view the major bar to creating a new character in WoW, nowadays, as the grind from level 1-60. I didn't make that point clear in the post though, so thanks for pointing it out.
That being said, the changes that they made in patch 2.3 have greatly reduced the amount of time it takes to level a character to 60 now, or so I hear. Still trying to stay WoW sober ;)
I thought the Judge dismissed the case because Blizzard were asking for way too much information about WoW Glider and it's Client List. Did they re-sue again already?
I'm okay with Blizzard doing this. They just need to realise that there will ALWAYS be another group waiting to pick up after Glider. You can't stop things like that in MMOs, it's just the nature of the beast.
i side with blizzard on this one. power levelers suck, and ruin the game for people who really like to play.
isn't max level 71? ;)
Some of my more enjoyable moments was playing my priest from level 1 to 60 (and again from 60 to 70).
I have a hard time thinking that the people who use Power Level services are working towards having fun, the game is fun all around. If you want to race to 70, its most likely cause you want those epic lewtz and that isn't the point of a game.
I have the same set of problems for gold farmers/buyers.
I'm a WoW player and I've never power leveled (heck never heard of glider until now), but I have a question because everyone keeps saying this... how exactly does someone powerleveling ruin the game?
While, sensibly, you could say that the argument originates in the minds of those who see leveling and comparing their level to others as a mark of personal pride. The fun they get from the game comes not from the game itself, but from the satisfaction they get in being better than other people - e-peen, if you will. Of course, that's just one possibility..
I find that claim is -usually- intertwined with the claim that farming and gold selling results in ruining the economy and thereby ruins the play of the game for legitimate players. There's a general implication that, because your character level is maximized by artificial means, so is your gold and equipment. This is, of course, not true...but you try describing color to a blind person..*shrugs*
I'm pretty much of the mind that it's downright silly to max out your character immediately. As with Pixel, I played WoW from release until up to about 6 months ago...and the reason I stopped was because being 70 just held no meaning to me. A great majority of the game is the work from 1 to 70...if you don't do that, then what exactly do you have the game for? PvP? *scoff* Lawl...
Of course, having played 1-70 on 3 characters, I -can- appreciate the desire to have an alt at 70 immediately so you can play with guildmates and whatnot in the highlevel content. I think Blizzard should take a page from some (more) other MMOs (I think it's EQ?...I know there's something out there that does it)...If you have a level 70 character, you should be able to expedite the leveling on alts in some way - either by increased XP gain or simply being able to create a max'd level alt...
Also, perhaps, a GuildWars like PvP character situation...where, if your focus is only PvP, you start with a max level PvP character...but don't get to participate in PvE content or something.
Though, I suppose those suggestions are a bit of a stretch...each lending themselves to any number of arguments from any number of standpoints.
It really all depends on where you want to bring your arguments from.
my personal take on it (this as a newbie player, starting last october) is that power leveling ruins the game for people who are playing to enjoy the process. the end is not the reward, the journey is, so to speak.
on a less esoteric level, power levelers support the gold farmers, and the constant spam and hacked accounts from gold farmers ruin the game for regular players, not to mention that the companies that pay gold farmers are real-life gangsters and scum of the worst sort.
it's my understanding that once you hit levl 70, the game changes completely, because leveling isn't the focus anymore -- it's the high-end instances and endgame bosses that you have to work together to take down. PvP is also quite the attraction. once the new expansion comes out this fall, level 80 will be the new goal. the fun continues.
: )