Some people wonder why I don't want to commit to writing only about EVE Online. Quite frankly, online gaming has a lot of cheating going on, and why would I want to limit myself to just the people that Team Security bans every day? The wider world offers up so many more opportunities for giggles than I could ever imagine.
First comes the story out of San Diego that Daybreak CEO John Smedley offered to allow banned players back into H1Z1 if they publicly apologized in a YouTube video. Something tells me the idea originated from customer support staff sick of reading phony apologies and promises to never use hacks again. Smedley posted the following to Reddit:
"I'll give you my perspective. So far we've unbanned 3 people out of 30k we've now banned. One of which is probably about to get re-banned for taking his video private.Of course, someone on Reddit reminded Smedley of Daybreak's past views on the subject.
"I want to make sure it's clear there are consequences for cheating. You don't just get to make a video and get unbanned. This is a very limited time thing to try and raise awareness of what's actually going on. You may say "hey there clearly aren't consequences if you are unbanning people". Let's get back to the part where I said we've unbanned 3 people. If these videos go far and wide and it elevates the importance of getting rid of the cheaters in PC gaming, I feel it's an excellent trade.
"Why?
"Here's why. These guys could easily go right back in, make a new steam account.. use an HWID hack and play anyways. Yes, that's the reality. It's ugly, but there it is. And it's true for every single PC game out there. Even the ones that say it isn't.
"So is this the right move? I don't know. But doing the same thing we have been doing is a tough fight and I'd like to at least try something different.
"Video submissions end at Noon PST today anyways. Maybe by then it will be 4 or 5.
"Update at 1:08 Pacific -
We unbanned 5 out of 30k.
Smed"
The next story comes from World of Warcraft. I just found out that those banned for cheating did not confine their tears to the Honorbuddy forums. No, someone decided to demand action from the U.S. government and started a petition on WhiteHouse.gov. While the Obama administration chose to remove the petition because the petition violated its Terms of Participation rules, Geek News Central saved the text for posterity:
"Today over half the pvp community that did not use their fingers to play have been banned. The other half were people who would use a program called T-Morph to do stupid things…Anyways we are demanding Blizzard to change their terms of service and fix this game so we can play again. WE do not want to see any lives lost due to A ban.I only wish that GNC saved the categories the petition fell under. Another WoW-related petition on WhiteHouse.gov categorized a lag-free game experience as a civil and human right.
"Please help us change this
"Blizzard you are ruining everything"
While not a reporter, I do like to collect these types of stories. Hopefully you enjoyed these too.
why yes, I do enjoy reading tears of cheats and hackers. any kind. I wont claim to be holier than thou, young and dumb me did try out glider back in TBC for fishing, interesting program, the techie and comp sci guy in me wanted to know how they did it, and I admit fishing was boring.
ReplyDeleteI will say that I never got caught, but if I had, well then damn I broke the rules and that was a risk I took. Looking at people who take the risk and then decide that they don't want the consequences. Either own what you did and learn or you know... don't cheat its easier that way.