By Alec Meer on March 27th, 2008 at 12:38 pm.
What people surely love the most about RPS is not our lengthy cleverthinks, wibbling retrospectives, bewildering references to bear-based religions, or refreshingly honest buy/don’t buy game verdicts, but rather the way we sometimes read a news story, then write about that news story in our own words. It’s journalism at its most pioneering. So, to make you respect us all the more, let’s have an experiment. Yes, voting! Ooh, it’s like the internet circa 1999.
Still, it’s a spot of moral deliberation that could only apply to videogames.
Blizzard have been trying for some time to take the folks behind an application called Glider to court. Why? Because Glider is a botting program – it automates a certain amount of World of Warcraft gubbins to enable climbing up the level ladder without having to actually play the thing (“It grinds, it loots, it skins, it heals, it even farms soul shards”). Glider charges $20 for the privilege, and Blizzard claim it EULA-bothers by copying portions of WoW into RAM in order to hide from the game’s anti-cheat software. Speculation, meanwhile, has it that this has something to do with cracking down on gold farmers.
Michael Donnelly, the dude behind Glider, is fighting back, and now both parties have filed motions that, if either proves successful, would see one of ‘em granted victory, but without that messy court business. In Blizzard’s case, victory involves the closure of Glider. In Donnelly’s case, victory involves continuing to sell the app, which Blizzard claim has earned him $2.8m so far. Man! Clearly I’m wasting my time installing WordPress poll plugins. I need to write me a bot program.
Anyway:
The case for the defence:
“Getting a bunch of characters to 70 is a pain. Getting money to equip them is a pain. Doing big instances, battlegrounds, raids, and generally socializing in the game is fun. We use the Glider to skip the painful parts and have more fun. Someone suggested we sell it, so…”
The case for the prosecution:
“MDY has willfully persisted in this endeavor despite knowing that the overwhelming majority of WoW players despise the presence of Glider bots in WoW, and that Blizzard is being forced to divert significant human and financial resources from game development and support to efforts to stop Glider… Bots spend far more time in-game than an ordinary player would and consume resources the entire time. ”
You may note I’m resisting my usual tendency towards ill-advised ranting here, and there’s a reason for that. The judgement, in this instance, is yours. I’ve tried to distill the arguments down into the key effects on players (as opposed to the claimed interests of the two companies involved). You’ll probably complain they’re somehow unfair, because that’s what you People On The Internet do, but honestly, it’s just intended to encourage your own conclusions.
So, there should be some buttons below. You should probably click one.
Maybe we’ll all learn something.
(And yes, I stole the title gag from The Daily Show. Thanks, Daily Show. Thaily Show).
27/03/2008 at 12:45 drunkymonkey says:
That’s a pretty rubbish prosecution file, but at the same time, bots on MMOs are really quite annoying. It’s a case of people having more money than others being at the top of the list (just like real life!) and something that isn’t actually human stealing your kills, loot, etc.
Luckily, I haven’t encountered many, but I really do hope something is done about 1. the gold-selling, and 2. the botting.
27/03/2008 at 12:52 Lu-Tze says:
Bot haters are winning right now it seems… i’m supporting the defence. I say “play it your way”. The main problem with botters is the fact they can destroy the economy of a game, but with World of Warcraft it seems to mostly work on a reward system instead, so it’s hardly a massive loss.
In response to the above, I don’t see how a “bot” steals your kills and loot that much more effectively than a grinder trying the same thing.
27/03/2008 at 12:54 Ben Hazell says:
If the game is so dull you want to use a bot to get through it, why bother playing it at all?
Clearly I’ll never understand MMORPG’s.
27/03/2008 at 12:58 drunkymonkey says:
“In response to the above, I don’t see how a “bot” steals your kills and loot that much more effectively than a grinder trying the same thing.”
At least with a grinder you can shout and ball at them! :)
27/03/2008 at 12:58 Flint says:
“Getting a bunch of characters to 70 is a pain. Getting money to equip them is a pain. Doing big instances, battlegrounds, raids, and generally socializing in the game is fun.
But it’s the journey to level 70 that’s the fun part, the big instances and raids and whatever are the icky things :(.
27/03/2008 at 13:01 kalain says:
I’m all up for blizzard winning this one. Bots are annoying as hell, especially when they are repeatedly kill the quest mob you are trying to get to.
If people want to bot in a game, then why play that game at all since you are not enjoying it or not interested in the actual aesthetics of the game itself.
27/03/2008 at 13:02 Babs says:
Interesting, I’m having a bit of an internal argument about this.
Defense:
People should clearly have the right to run anything they like at the same time as WOW, and write/sell any programs the like that exploit what exists in memory. Loading a portion of WOW into memory is simply not copyright infringement (assuming it’s loaded from the HD of course).
Prosecution:
I don’t care about Blizzards bottom line, they’ve got enough gold money hats (decorated with menacing spikes of gold) already, but as bots ruin the experience for everyone not using them there needs to be some recourse to prevent them. Clearly technical approaches haven’t worked.
In the end though this is a problem of Blizzard’s own making, so harping on about how it costs them money is a bit pathetic. They’ve made a game designed to be a tedious time-sink and then complain when people seek ways around it. They can’t offer a similar service (like jump to level 40 for $20) because of the dreadful press it would get them and the precedent it would set. Tough shit.
27/03/2008 at 13:04 Babs says:
Sorry, double post.
27/03/2008 at 13:05 Fatrat says:
Agreed with the above comment, why play if you want to bypass half the game. I botted for a couple of weeks in another MMO, called Lineage 2… that was murder to level compared to WoW and after those weeks i thought ”why am i doing this” and just cancelled my sub.
Sure it can be a pain after the first time, i know… i have 2 x 70′s and 4 other toons at 60 . But when i get bored, i just leave for a while, like i have at the moment.
It’s also Blizzards fault on making a lot of things so dependant on grinding and now making the gear gap so steep, which is why they’ve had to give easier means (EG – welfare epics through honour points) to get a fresh 70 (partially) up to speed. Then get 5k gold to get your epic mount, which the difficulty of varies on each server and depends on class/profs.
I’d rather skip playing than bot, cause once past whatever you’re botting, you’re only gonna be grinding again, everything is grinding, even at endgame whether it’s instances/arena/BGs/profs/money. WoW is a grind. But it masks it far more successfully than most other MMO’s.
Anyway, long rant… sorry. But also, the poll is worded a bit daft. SURE, grinding = misery. I agree with that for the most part. But that doesn’t make me agree with botting.
Edit – Also, i agree with Flint. My favourite part of WoW is the levelling. Only harsh feeling part is 30-55. But that’s because it’s easy to get ganked and have not much chance of escape. Still fun though. :P
27/03/2008 at 13:13 Cigol says:
It kind of defeats the purpose of buying a WoW subscription in the first place, it is after all a game designed and built upon grinding, which is precisely why Blizzard don’t want bots. Both parties are giving false testimony to disguise their real motives; simply making money off people grinding.
In the end, ignoring all the cynicism and laughing hysterically at their lame excuses you have to support Blizzard because bots defeat the purpose of the game and if you’re willing to pay for it then you’re going to have to accept it. I wouldn’t want people paying for bots to do all the ‘hard work’ if I played the game, I know that much.
27/03/2008 at 13:14 Flint says:
Fatrat: ganking is no problem when you play on PvE realms :P.
27/03/2008 at 13:14 Butler` says:
Hmmm, babs seems to have the proper defence where as RPS has the ‘McDonalds’ version. :p
It’s more about the fine line between whether he is altering the game (Blzzard say yes as it’s loaded into RAM etc).
An interesting one indeed.
27/03/2008 at 13:17 Ben Abraham says:
The *real* complaint I have against botting and power levelling services in general is that it fosters a 2nd class citizen that honest to goodness can’t play their own character – dreadful to group up with…
That said, there are plenty of examples of someone who *has* played their toon to 70 they are still completely rubbish, so maybe not such a water-tight argument.
I’m undecided. Is it *really* Blizzards game and they can ‘take their ball and go home’, or are we free to do whatever we want with what we pay for (EULA kinda makes me lean towards the former)?
27/03/2008 at 13:18 Z says:
Before I quit, I was seeing at least as many bots as I was seeing actual players as I leveled up late at night. Considering most of them were hunters with names like ‘Grhsfa’, I’m not convinced that the majority were players trying to “skip the painful parts and have more fun”.
27/03/2008 at 13:20 Alex says:
Get the bots out!
See the game for what it really is!
27/03/2008 at 13:20 Jon says:
I am inclined to let people play however they want, there will always be people who want that short cut and are willing to pay for it. I’d say the use of bots is inherent to MOGs, MOGs will always have repeatable content and someone will find a way to automate that repeatable content.
I’d say the best way to combat bots as a developer is to make your game so interesting and good to play that no one wants to skip any of it out. Of course, that might be harder than going to court.
27/03/2008 at 13:28 Seniath says:
Bots are tantamount to cheating. And cheating in online games is Wrong. I don’t see how it could be dressed up any other way.
As an aside, back when I played I was on a PvE server. Fun could be had by toggling PvP and goading a bot into attacking you, and then ganking it for half an hour. It achieved nothing, but was still incredibly satisfying.
27/03/2008 at 13:31 Espy says:
Interesting that some parts of this game are so dismal that people will spend 20$ to not have to play them. That alone should tell Blizzard a lot.
27/03/2008 at 13:32 Extorn says:
Look at it from a fiscal point
Blizzards sole objective is to get you to play the game as long as possible.
So if you bot a character to 70, and botfarm materials and professions, while you are at work and come home then play for 2 hours, that’s 8 hours of time you didn’t spend in the game.. the bot did in one day what would have taken you 2 weeks if not more.
Blizzard loses subscriptions because of botting.
Once you run out of stuff to do in the game, why play?
Also, if I sweat out grinding my two professions and materials for my items with my own time and hard work… everyone else should too.
A.D.D + Mining = Bad combination.
Why should I have to mine or farm gold to buy materials if someone else can get them for free and sell them to me for stupid prices? or undercut my prices and force me to sell my efforts for little to nothing?
27/03/2008 at 13:36 surprise says:
seriously, somebody realized that the grind in WOW sucks? what a surprise…
But they still keep playing? Their own fault, dont ruin the economy with bots then >_>
27/03/2008 at 13:36 Nick says:
I thought the problem with bots was they were like sweatshops and thus fairly horrible?
27/03/2008 at 13:38 caesarbear says:
If a bot can effectively play your game, maybe you need to make a more interesting game.
27/03/2008 at 13:39 Michael says:
People who can’t honestly play for any reason whatsoever should not be in the game.
Imagine if on the second day of getting a job, you could bring in some illegal alien and tell your boss that work isn’t fun, but getting paid is. So you are hiring this guy to do your work for you.
27/03/2008 at 13:49 K-k says:
Extorn, a few pointers. First of all A.D.D doesn’t exist. It’s brought up when a kid is more active than another kid, and somehow this is a disease. It’s a part of personality, not a disease for crying out loud.
Now that that’s taken care of, to the subject. No, Blizzard isn’t doing this because they would be losing subscriptions, it is untrue. How do you think the bot accounts are there? They magically hacked themselves in without paying a dime?
Simply put, botting and gold selling are both against EULA (that long text file in the beginning, ever read it?)
But one of them is, due to this End User License Agreement file, entirely illegal. (gasp! egads!)
It’s just about as illegal as such friendly crimes as credit card fraud and white collar crime. Even if the money is virtual, the end user license agreement states that both the characters and items, gold and such in the game belong to Blizzard Entertainment.
Now don’t get agitated about this, it’s the standard prodecure, and you’ll find little bit of text stating this in most MMO’s anyway.
What Blizzard should do is just actively sue every single gold selling industry that it can. :)
27/03/2008 at 13:54 Sander says:
Nayaye. Agree with Babs, especially because of the money hats. Go make a game that [a] cannot be grinded (ground?) because [b] it’s too much fun.
27/03/2008 at 13:59 Mattress says:
Lazy and exploitative design does not beget the good graces of impatient players.
Sort it out Blizzard, players won’t use bots if you give them a good (non-punitive) reason not to.
27/03/2008 at 14:02 matt says:
Well, i don’t really like the idea of using bots, and it does probably spoil some of the fun from actually playing the game, as it might ruin the game’s experience for others.
Now, on this one specifically, i’d also say that Blizzard should not be trying to have this guy’s company close. Maybe they should try and reach a settlement with him, maybe it does indicate that the game is not that interesting after all, maybe it does show some holes in the security / antibot system they have set up… But in anyway, they should not be sueing him to have his business closed, for god’s sake.
Is it me, or does that point out a limit on the fun one can get out of a MMO ?
Say, in Final Fantasy 7, there was a lot of levelling to do, and it could be painful towards the end, because it was really only levelling to be able to take on the bigger guns; but throughout the game, levelling was part of the game, so in a way it was fun. I can perfectly understand how levelling in WoW now could be painful, if you need to get to a particular level to get to enjoy the game and take part in the fun stuff.
So i can understand how some people would want to skip that part somehow. But it’s highly subjective, since for some, levelling is fun, for others it’s a pain..
Anyway, my vote is based on the fact that all in all, it has more to do with business than with the game itself. I say Blizzard should do something about it, but that something should not be trying to have that guy’s business closed.
27/03/2008 at 14:06 Michael says:
I entirely do not buy the “make a funner game” argument. Here is why:
If the game is not fun, why would anyone bother with bots or cheats? For example, as far as I am concerned LotRO is not fun. I don’t care if I could bot, or was handed down a top-notch character. This is not a game I want to play. Same goes for WoW. If you are paying for it then it’s fun for you. Otherwise you would have quit.
People who pay for gold and use leveling services or bots do it not because the game is bad, but because their own psychological inadequacies. They DO want to be the biggest and the baddest, but don’t want to work for it. Back in the DnD days such people were called “munchkins” and universally despised.
Also, I’d like to remind you that people cheated always and in all games. The web sites for cheaters seem to prosper and that means that hordes of people go there for codes, trainer programs, save-game editors and so on. So they do like the games. They just don’t like making an effort.
This is fine, as long as the game is single player only. However the moment you start cheating/hacking/botting/etc. in multiplayer games, you begin destroying other people’s experience. And that is unacceptable, and that is why Blizzard is up in arms.
Essentially Blizzard is protecting ME and MY fun from the knaves.
27/03/2008 at 14:10 tackle says:
The deal with WoW:
You pay to play the game, which requires you to play it so much that it impacts your social life. Sure you can play it less, but you get left out of the loop too quickly to not feel bad about it.
So you have to invest quite some time into it, and yes, pay for it.
Solution?
In Sweden, the equivalent of craigslist; “blocket.se” (roughly: ‘the noteboard’) has tons of ads of people seeling their lvl 70 characters for generally $250 each.
So for $250 you can bypass the need to play the game entirely, and you get your social life back as well! Success!
You only have to pay the subscription, but that’s nothing compared to the deal you’ve made.
Or wait… maybe you can cancel it then as well?
27/03/2008 at 14:15 Iain says:
My stance is that getting a bot to level for you is akin to buying a first person shooter and then paying someone else to play it for you, and then claiming you completed it. Not only is it cheating in the eyes of other players, but it utterly defeats the object of buying the game in the first place.
I’ve been playing WoW on-and-off for about three years now, and I find the process of levelling a character up from scratch the most enjoyable part of the game. Personally, I’m not fussed about the high level end game, raiding or getting all the Epic PvP armour sets…
Sue them out of existence, I say. The fewer bots and the fewer gold-sellers I have to put up with, the better.
[Edit: Totally agree with Michael above - if you play a game and want to get to the top, you've got to work for it. Paying for someone else to do it just cheapens the achievement. I could go out and buy the several thousand gold I still need to get my Epic flying mount, but what would be the point? I wouldn't feel as though I'd earned it, I'd value it a lot less, because I took a short cut on the journey - and for me, WoW has always been more about the journey than the destination.]
27/03/2008 at 14:20 trioptimum says:
I’m in the minority (currently) that voted for option #3.
Whether or not it’s right that people use bots, it’s a natural consequence of the way the game is set up, and railing against it is as useless as complaining that the moon causes tides.
Skill doesn’t count for much in WoW. The only thing it rewards is commitment, and people only have a finite amount of that to give to the game, so of course they will try to find other methods of experiencing the game content otherwise unavailable to anyone not obsessive or unemployed enough to level up and equip a character to a point competitive enough to enjoy the endgame.
If technical attempts to block bots and gold sellers have failed, and legal attempts fail too (as they inevitably will in the long term, because they’ll just move out of legal reach) then selling gold or levels must surely start to look like a pretty good course of action to Blizzard, if they can do it without pissing off the player base… they make money, reduce load on their servers, put the shady guys out of business, and get more players to a level where they’re putting most of their development efforts anyway.
This wouldn’t be destructive. NCSoft and others already do it.
27/03/2008 at 14:26 Michael says:
“Skill doesn’t count for much in WoW” != true;
Skill counts for a whole lot, as is evident from feats accomplished by many players. The feats that others, with better gear or higher level, could not recreate.
The best proof will be the current Arena tournament. Everyone will be able to create the character of their dreams, outfitted with the best gear possible, and there is no doubt in anyone’s mind that it is skill and not gear that will win the day.
27/03/2008 at 14:31 Zeno says:
I don’t even see why this is up for debate. The bot program violates the EULA, right?
27/03/2008 at 14:32 Willem says:
K-k: I’ll bite. ADD is a disease and [I'm not very good at debate if I can't make my point without abusing someone]. No offence meant, of course, but you can’t deny it’s a disease. I’ll agree that 90% of the kids diagnosed with ADD are actually just active kids, doctors really are a bit keen on saying it’s ADD. But there’s still that 10% that actually has ADD. It’s unfair to say they’re just a bit lively when they actually have a problem. So, don’t make statements like these.
Moving on:
People saying that it’s Blizzard’s own fault for making the game so dependant on grinding: You are wrong. That’s like saying: “That girl was raped but it’s her own fault because she dresses like a slut.” And remember kids, that’s not right. Blizzard have the right to make a slutty game. Doesn’t mean you can rape it.
Now, where was I?
Oh yes! Bots are bad and evil. If you only want to go on big raids/socialise, don’t play WoW. Use MSN or IRC for the socialising, or, heaven forbid, go out to the pub. If you want to fight, play a game designed to do just that. Or go out to the pub.
Don’t spoil the game for others/fuck over Blizzard (it’s not because Blizzard could buy China that we can steal from them.)
27/03/2008 at 14:33 trioptimum says:
Perhaps, Michael, but you would no doubt agree that there is a massive commitment requirement involved as well. No amount of skill can make a level 1 character good for much outside the starting areas. Skill is optional, but the game absolutely requires time.
27/03/2008 at 14:39 J. Prevost says:
I’m totally behind Blizzard on this. Cheating is cheating, and in a multi-player game, you can’t let it go on. It’s no excuse to say “omg, teh grind is suxz0rz”, because that’s the game. Yes, you may not find that fun. In which case, you don’t play. If you do find it fun, yet frustrating, you may note that Blizzard has made significant changes to make it less painful to level new characters up—increasing XP rewards, reducing keying requirements (rep and quests both). For people like me who don’t run alts, they’ve also made it easier to collect the money to maintain a jet-setting Azerothian lifestyle. Clearly, Blizzard is listening to complaints about what makes the game un-fun.
Cheating also makes the game un-fun—and that’s true whether you cheat by using a botting program or by spending cash out-of-game to pay somebody to do things for you. Sure, there are levels and levels: going after somebody for having their friend level for them would be lame, yes. But calling China to level up for you is clearly beyond the pale.
So why do I think Blizzard is doing such a good job? Mainly it comes down to this: They’re approaching the problem from many sides at once. They’re implementing changes in the game that make tiresome tasks less painful. More importantly, they’re implementing those changes in such a way that it makes the game nicer for people who play by the rules than for people who are trying to get around the rules. (Daily quests are a great example.) And, they’re also taking measures to go after people outside the game.
And that last is kind of important. That takes a lot of resources. It’s not cheap. I think it’s pretty clear that it’s not just about the bottom line, because unless you think Blizzard stands to make a hell of a lot more money if people stop botting, there’s no profit in this. They’re doing it because they want to stop cheating: they want the playing field to be level.
Why do they phrase their legal argument in terms of resource usage and cash, then? Because that’s what the law respects. If they went in and said “so-and-so is a big fat cheater, and other big fat cheaters pay him for his cheating”, they’d be laughed out of court. So of course they sue him in terms of wasting resources in the game: it’s something the court system can weigh objectively, unlike the existential angst of millions of WoW players.
So, three cheers for Blizzard, for their willingness to step up to bat and spend cash on a lawsuit that they may-or-may-not win when technical solutions don’t solve everything. It’s a heck of a lot better than “well, we can’t solve this technically, so we’ll just have to let this sort of cheating continue.”
27/03/2008 at 14:42 Michael says:
@trioptimum, certainly that is true. Still, this is the nature of the genre and people who play such games have an understanding of it. Role-playing games in general have leveling or an equivalent thereof. Attaining higher levels requires time and effort.
It is perfectly understandable that some people don’t have the time to level from 1 to 70. In such cases perhaps it is best if they realized that this particular type of game is not for them.
However sad it may be, it is not grounds for ruining the game for others and violating the EULA which they agreed to.
@Willem, I’d sign my name under every word you said above.
27/03/2008 at 14:51 Myros says:
Bots = cheating .. yes
Grind = suckage .. yes
Solution, for me anyway is just not to pay my $ for any game that has required mega-hours of grinding. Been there, done that … will never do it again.
Love EVE because I ‘grind’ skills while not even being online, and just log in for the fun parts. Sheer brilliance.
27/03/2008 at 14:52 Geoff says:
I was pretty torn on this one, and actually changed my mind after voting and then reading comments.
First off, the “why play at all if you hate half the game?” arguments are silly. The answer is obvious – “I like the other half”
I don’t, actually, I’ve never played WoW and never will, but I’ve played plenty of games with good parts and bad parts. The existence of bad parts (cheesy cut scenes, bad escort missions, too many collectibles, whatever) does not completely rob the whole game of all merit and make it not worth playing.
Just the thought of MMO grinding makes me kinda sad, but then that’s why I don’t do it. Some people like that sort of thing, some don’t.
Ultimately, I think the answer is: Blizzard have made a game, they have the right to determine what that game is like and decide what is cheating. If they make bad choices and people don’t like their game, people will stop playing it. For now, they say “this is not allowed in WoW”, and I see no good reason to force them to allow it.
I don’t play WoW, but if you do, and you think Blizzard should allow this, then I guess your appeal should be to Blizzard, rather than the courts.
27/03/2008 at 14:52 trioptimum says:
@Michael, I agree with you, but people do still want to take shortcuts, and are clearly willing to pay money to do so, even to disreputable parties. The demand exists, and we can complain about it, but realistically, the downsides surrounding this sort of exploit (in terms of negative impact on other players) won’t go away until Blizzard gets into the business.
27/03/2008 at 14:54 Noc says:
I agree with Michael.
Look at it as if WoW was an FPS.
Grinding is the basic mechanic of WoW. The more time you spend grinding, the more work you put in, the more effective you are.
In an FPS, the more time you spend practicing aiming, the more time you spend honing your reflexes, the more effective you are.
Some people are better at aiming then others. Some people are better at grinding then others, too. They work out the numbers, do the research, and grind through 70 levels in record time. It’s an intellectual rather than a reflexive endeavor, but it’s still arguably a matter of native ability.
So in a game where my relative effectiveness compared to other players is dependent on how well I can aim, it’s clearly cheating to make a bot to aim for me.
But in a game where my relative effectiveness compared to other players is dependent on how much I grind, it’s not cheating to make a bot to grind for me?
Is the grinding mechanic silly? Yes. Is it clearly a construct specifically intended to keep players playing for as long as possible? Yes.
Is the multiplayer environment your own personal sandbox? No. Are you consigning yourself to play by the rules set down by the game when you install the game and create a character? Yes.
So if you don’t want to grind, the solution is simple. Don’t play WoW. Similarly, if multiplayer FPSs aren’t your deal, don’t play them.
Don’t cheat because you want the reward of winning without actually having to play the game.
27/03/2008 at 15:03 Alex says:
There is a subsection of the MMO customer base that wants to be able to buy gold, equipment and levels, and is willing to pay for it.
What is lacking from many (most?) MMOs is:
a) A proper customer study to identify those who want to pay, along with the reasons why.
b) A way to legally/legitimately provision these services.
Any other argument defending the status quo essentially ignores the right of paying customers to play a game on their own terms (however abhorrent they may seem to other customers whose viewpoints are equally valid).
May I also recommend progressquest to the bot payers out there? It’s a free bot service: http://www.progressquest.com
27/03/2008 at 15:04 Sander says:
I see your point, Michael, and you’re right when you look at this lawsuit from the perspective of a player of Memorpegers. I’m not, and I was looking at what I feel about the suit itself, which is that legal wrangles are a money sucking game all on their own. Having any means at their disposal to throw out people who play ‘in bad faith’ is more or less a good thing for the Blizzards and for all good faith gamers, but only taking those steps, and not finding out why a game is vulnerable to cheating from a game play perspective (yes, mechanistically) is short sighted and will not lead to better games. Not to mention that granting big money software houses all legal means to determine how their code gets used is bad.
27/03/2008 at 15:08 Michael says:
@trioptimum, I definitely agree, the demand is there. Should we ignore it? No, just as we should not pretend that crime doesn’t exist.
The fact that there is a demand doesn’t mean that we have to accept it as something good. There is a demand for organs, but does it mean we should kidnap people and cut them up? Providing the supply illegally and at someone else’s expense is not the way to go.
In that sense WoW and real life should be treated the same.
@Alex, you said that “any other argument defending the status quo essentially ignores the right of paying customers to play a game on their own terms”.
Allow me to remind you that there is no such right and no such thing as your own terms. The terms you agreed to when you first ran the game are the ones that you must follow. Otherwise you should not have agreed to them.
For the purpose of this argument please imagine this game as a sort of a private property where you are invited. While there you follow the rules that the property owner has established as long as they don’t go against the law of the land. Blizzard’s EULA does NOT go against law of the land.
If you come into someone’s house, you do leave some of your rights at the door. While we have freedom of speech, I for one, will not have skinhead slogans chanted on my property. Same goes for insulting my other guests and making their experience of visiting me unpleasant. If you disagree you will be asked to leave. If you refuse to leave you will meet Mr. Shotgun.
In short, Blizzard has both the right and the obligation to go after those who break the rules and ruin the game. Since the only way they can do it is by suing, then let them sue!
27/03/2008 at 15:15 AbyssUK says:
Let them eat cake! Blizzard however should be the ones making the money
27/03/2008 at 15:16 Winterborn says:
I was initially against the third option but then I recalled EQ2. Back when I played EQ2(and probably still now) there was a server for people who wanted to buy gold and items. SOE sold them to this subset of players and probably made some money off it but most importantly they kept those players away from the majority who wanted to play without spending extra.
Perhaps Blizzard should consider something like that. I don’t think I’d have a huge problem with it. In no case would I like to have to play with the people who bought characters and items though.
27/03/2008 at 15:17 alphaxion says:
willem: um no, it’s not a disease.. It’s a disorder, learn your medical terms before using them. There is no contagion, it’s a behavioural activity, not a physical affliction.
And it’s only seen as a disorder because their activities deviate from a percepted norm (where in reality normal is a state that is the deviate since no-one manages to attain it, we’re all defective in some way).
Anyway, as a former raider, levelling up a character purely to fill a gap in your raiding needs is as dull as hell.
The need to get your character dragged thru places also wastes the time of others and frustrates people when they can’t get a group for rfk or brd.
How about this as a solution, once you have reached a certain level, you can make a new character at that exact same level?
Already ground your way to 70 on one toon? how about making an “insta-70″ toon, it’s not like you’ve missed out on the levelling experience. Got your way to lvl 45 on your druid and feel that it isn’t doing anything for you? How about making a lvl 45 shaman instead?
That way you force a person to play the levelling aspect once and then give them the chance to simply skip it for their next characters whilst keeping it open for those who enjoyed the levelling process to start of from any level between 1 and max level.
All parties satisfied and no-ones money and time wasted.
is it really that hard to think around the problem rather than throwing lawyers at it?
27/03/2008 at 15:20 Phil says:
Has any asked the bots for their views?
Tens of thousands of unemployed AI’s wandering around the internet looking for things to kill, loot and skin sounds dangerous.
27/03/2008 at 15:24 Butler` says:
@Noc, that’s a really nasty comparison, and best countered with:
In Counter-Strike I can enter a game with the worlds best clan and I’ve got a viable chance of killing one or two of them.
In Call of Duty 4 I can go in a public match as a rank 1 with base equipment and dominate a game full of rank 55s.
In WoW you can’t take down even the worst of level 70s with a 100 skilled level 1s. Equally so, an under geared but highly skilled level 70 can’t hope to take a full epic but poorly played level 70.
@Michael – as above. But with the added note that even when gear is equal, you have racial or class based imbalanced and the huge luck factor that features in RPG-based games (parry, miss, resist, dodge).
Apologies if that’s a little off topic.
27/03/2008 at 15:31 Michael says:
@Butler’, that is the nature of this here genre. I understand you are not a fan of it and that is perfectly fine. Myself, I am not too fond of racing games for example. Yet, as both an RPG and an FPS fan, I can assure you that both genres are different and there is absolutely no need to look for features of the later while playing the former.
Imagine getting a nice cup of coffee and then complaining that there are no bubbles in it, all based on the fact that whenever you drink a soda you get bubbles.
27/03/2008 at 15:35 trioptimum says:
@Michael, the stealing organs example is a little bit fanciful isn’t it? We’re only talking about a desire to spend money to save time. In principle, hardly an unethical trade, even if it is against the arbitrary rules of a system — rules that Blizzard writes, and can amend.
Devil’s advocacy aside, I agree that it’s cheating, in its current form — not because it creates inequality (it reduces it) but because it adversely affects other players, and that’s obviously unwelcome. I’m just trying to be pragmatic in saying that this demand is never going to go away however much we dislike it, and that the only way to fix the associated problems for their player base is for Blizzard to create a ‘proper’ way to do it, putting guys like this out of business by making their products obsolete. Litigation will only get them so far.
27/03/2008 at 15:42 Andrew Farrell says:
The problem with that, as Ben Abraham says above, is that you will have no idea how to play your character – one of the things that the game is actually really really good at is training you gradually on how to use your arsenal of skills as they appear to you.
27/03/2008 at 15:50 Buceph says:
This article is all over the place, and so are the comments. The matter in hand isn’t whether you like or dislike bots, it isn’t what it’s doing to the community in WoW and MMOs, it is about the legality of such issues. One of the main points is whether Glider is a breach of copyright law or whether it is a breach of contract law. What people think about bots has nothing to do with this. And it’s unfair to represent the case in that light.
Poor show, very tabloid.
27/03/2008 at 15:50 Butler` says:
@Michael – I semi-actively play arena and generally think Blizzard have the best implementation of structured RPG-based PvP. As you say, it’s just an innate part of the genre, which is why it hurts to see people go on about the importance of skill/ability in WoW.
And yeah, I’m kinda with Buceph (above) here. Anyone that supports the makers of/use of bots makes my head spin :p
27/03/2008 at 15:51 yet another michael says:
what are birds? we just don’t know.
27/03/2008 at 15:53 Willem says:
@alphaxion: Yes, yes. I know. English isn’t my native language so I have problems with medical terms and such. >_>
Yes, everybody is defective in a way, but if you stray from the norm too much, it’s o-kay to call it a disorder. Because it is.
So, pardon the misuse of the term, but my point still stands.
27/03/2008 at 15:57 Zell says:
The thing I like best about Blizzard is that they float above all ideological considerations. I suspect they have an internal police force that walks around and quietly kills anybody who starts waxing philosophical about game design.
They don’t try for absolutes. They don’t need to eradicate gold sellers — they just make sure the exchange rate is high enough. They don’t invent game mechanics that are more fun for the programmers than they are for the players. They don’t rant condescendingly about the pathos of the level grind — they just make it as fun as they can.
I hope they win this case, but if they don’t – no biggie.
27/03/2008 at 15:59 Arnulf says:
“leveling is a pain, farming money is a pain”
Yet both are elements of the game. For some it is a pain, for some others it’s the fundamental (and sometimes only) way to enjoy the game.
Also Donnelly completely disregards the fact that bots can disrupt the gameplay of fellow players. You can’t talk to a bot to get some understanding if a resource is contested. Only on PVP servers you can eliminate a bot if it is from the adverse faction.
27/03/2008 at 16:03 alphaxion says:
andrew: and that will only affect those who are lesser skilled than others.
Those with ability can figure out the basics of a class pretty easily – I managed with my lock, rogue, shammy, pally, mage and hunter.
Not forgetting the major help of your guildies who know their classes well too.
Plus, as I said the option to play it from any starting level would be there too. So if you feel you don’t need to learn you can jump in at the deep end.. if you feel you need to understand how to play it then start from your chosen level.
Those that have no clue how to play will sink to the bottom anyway and aren’t worth your time. It’ll just make them even easier to spot before you pug that lvl 35 dungeon with them again.
As a small anecdote, I once did a strat pug with this other lock who only used his wand because “it had 10 frost dmg too”. this was before the 5 man demotion.
I simply educated him and his damage went up quite a bit.
27/03/2008 at 16:09 trioptimum says:
@Buceph: but this is RPS, not groklaw. I don’t think it would be an improvement to have a load of gamers arguing about the intricacies of contract and copyright law. But thanks for letting us know what the matter in hand is and isn’t!
27/03/2008 at 16:12 Alec Meer says:
“The matter in hand isn’t whether you like or dislike bots, it isn’t what it’s doing to the community in WoW and MMOs, it is about the legality of such issues. ”
Ha ha. Guys, next time we post about piracy, you’re only allowed to say whether it’s illegal or not. Bringing up any of the other issues around it would be poor show, very tabloid.
(The tabloid insult, I’ve noted, is a recent favourite of certain internetmen, and I fear it’s often born from exactly the same exaggerated generalisation as calling anything that tries to be smart ‘pretentious’).
27/03/2008 at 16:17 Garreett says:
Hah, Blizzard’s lawyers are going to rip them to SHREDS.
27/03/2008 at 16:17 Kieron Gillen says:
They’re certainly both insults designed to shut down debate.
KG
27/03/2008 at 16:18 Senethro says:
This issue touches on one of the main flaws of MMORPGs, that a lot of the playtime is incredibly boring.
Voted blizzard should have their own auto-levelling service. Time is money, so money should equal time. If they’re really worried about their precious economy then they can run “pure” servers, right?
27/03/2008 at 16:20 Buceph says:
There’s no problem with arguing about the use of bots in MMOs. The problem I have is making it look like that is the issue that’s being brought to court. The matter in hand, when you’re referring to a court case, is the court case. If you want to use it as a springboard it to debate the surrounding issues, that’s fine. Obviously that’s what you were doing. But you’ve been very blasé what the issue in the trial is about.
The tabloid comment is perfectly valid, I feel. You’ve been ambiguous with the facts to highlight a different argument.
And pretentious and smart are too different things. Smart people know this, pretentious people don’t care.
27/03/2008 at 16:20 Jon says:
Did Blizzard ever sue that Mousepad guy who created Maphack for Diablo 2 and sold it for money? That was against the EULA I’m sure.
27/03/2008 at 16:20 Michael says:
“If they’re really worried about their precious economy then they can run “pure” servers, right?”
Right. Like they run role-playing servers.
RoFfLc0OptErr! kkthxby!
27/03/2008 at 16:25 Buceph says:
KG “They’re certainly both insults designed to shut down debate.”
Maybe in the shit flinging realms of the internet, but you know, I thought you were trying to go for reasoned discussion here. With articles that were to your standard. But when someone has any difference with what you say or how you present something, you act as though someone just shat in your kitchen sink.
Despite how some people use them, they’re valid terms that can well describe something, if taken at face value.
*Yer, this is about the use of the words “Tabloid” and “Pretentious.”*
27/03/2008 at 16:26 Mawich says:
I’m not going to comment on the legality or otherwise of Glider, nor am I going to comment on whether or not bots should be allowed.
Instead I’m going to agree with the people above who suggest that the fact that people are willing to pay $20 to skip large chunks of the levelling grind in WoW point to something pretty horribly wrong with the game.
Blizzard: Here’s the thing. It’s a game. It should be fun. If parts of your game aren’t fun, your game is wrong. Players of Starcraft know that parts of your company understand this. Please teach it to the WoW people as well. Imagine: WoW is making you piles and piles of cash. Imagine how much more cash you could make if every single moment of somebody’s WoW experience was fun.
One day I will come up with a way to make a game like that, and I will become even richer than you. So there.
27/03/2008 at 16:31 Alec Meer says:
Buceph – difference is fine. Lazy web insults are lazy web insults. There was no necessity to present your argument like that.
I clearly say “I’ve tried to distill the arguments down into the key effects on players (as opposed to the claimed interests of the two companies involved)”. If that’s not enough, sorry. But that was what we wanted to hear our readers’ thoughts on. It’s an entirely different thing to the “single mothers are stealing our jobs” sensationalism the ‘tabloid’ flamebait presupposes.
27/03/2008 at 16:35 Senethro says:
Mawich: I’m disagreeing with the idea that every moment of the game has to be fun. Its like gambling. A lot of the time its not fun (losing) but just around the corner is the big win.
I wouldn’t be surprised if, like casinos, Blizzard has done intensive studies on what rate of drops and stuff causes the most profitable ratio of total hours played:players quitting. Alternatively, total subscriptions paid:subscriptions discontinued.
27/03/2008 at 16:39 BrokenSymmetry says:
Why are people complaining about the slow leveling and grind in WoW? Have they played the game recently? Level 1-20 have never been a grind in WoW, and with the recent changes (decreased XP per level and increased XP for quests for level 20-60), you will keep gaining a level every 1-2 hours (especially when making good use of the rested state).
In some ways, leveling is now too quick in WoW, as you will outlevel quests and instances pretty quick, before you have done them.
27/03/2008 at 16:40 Dean says:
Lets get this straight: Bots break the EULA and like it or not it’s Blizzard’s ball and they have every right to take it home in a huff if they want. But to push that analogy furthur, they don’t have the right to have a policeman come arrest you as you wanted to play dodgeball instead of football. They can ban as many accounts of bot users as they want – I hope they do, they’re annoying. But legally they don’t have a leg to stand on, they’re attempting to use bully tactics and half-arsed justifications to make it a legal issue when it isn’t. They can couch this in legal terms of copyright infringement and loss of earnings but it’s not that they’re bothered about. It’s the cheating. But stopping people cheating in a game isn’t a legal problem. It’s like the cop that gets pissed off with the guy that sleeps with his wife – he can’t arrest him for that but he can watch him like a hawk and the minute he breaks the smallest law, he nicks him.
Legal stuff out of the way, the entire thing is silly anyways. The time commitment required by WoW increases exponentially. Anyone can level from 1-70 over time with just a couple of hours a week, and there’s no ‘grinding’ involved. Yes, you could do it by killing the same enemies 1000s of times like the bots do, but you can also reach 1-70 and never do the same quest twice, and still only have done around 60-70% of them. There is no ‘grind’, just quests, y’know, the quests that *were* the game back when it launched and we all gave it 90%+ and called it one of the greatest games ever. That 96%-rated content is what Glider helps you skip. Does it get boring if you’re levelling up the 3rd or 4th character? Of course it does but hey, most games get dull on the 3rd or 4th playthrough. If you’re claiming a 200+ hour game sucks in parts the third time around, fair enough but could I respectfully suggest maybe trying a different game?
But what about people that want to be 70 and play with thier friends but don’t have the time for that? As I say, time commitment increases exponentially. An hour or so at a time can help you level up to 70. At 70 you need a minimum of 2 hours to run an instance with 4 friends. More like 4 hours for the bigger raids, generally at least 4 times a week. And it’s at 70 (which Glider gets you to) the grind actually *begins*. 1-70 you never do the same quest twice. At 70 it’s repeatedly running dungeons for a certain piece of armour, repeatedly running battlegrounds for honour, repeatedly running raids to gear up your guild enough to move on to the next one, or repeatedly running “daily quests” (literally: the same quest every day, and a concept Blizzard have become disturbingly enamoured with lately) for reputation.
I’m not speaking for other MMOs, I’m speaking for WoW: the grind starts at 70, and if you don’t have the time available to level to 70, you don’t have the time available to do anything once you’re there anyways.
And just to re-iterate, all those reviewers at launch were reviewing the 1-60 levelling game. I doubt any actually hit 60 with the deadlines involved, and even if they did there was far less endgame content back then. And they all gave it 90% scores, and we all loved it. It’s the same game now, so I really don’t buy this ‘levelling is boring’ crap.
27/03/2008 at 16:47 Buceph says:
Alec: I don’t think they’re lazy insults. I think they’re valid when used appropriately. I’m certainly not trying to treat this place like the gamespot comments or the PCGamer Forums. I think there’s more to the case than the simple, immediate and direct result on users. With the effects v the argument within the case. I think it’s disingenuous to completely sidestep them. Especially when you’re linking your user debate to a case that has serious implications for EULAs and copyright law when it comes to games.
Edit: And looking at the comments a lot of people have gotten the wrong end of the stick when it comes to the case.
27/03/2008 at 16:51 Kieron Gillen says:
Buceph: As Alec says. Poll says “Should…” not “Will…”. This is a direct question aimed at the readers interest. Clearly, Blizzard can do it. But should they? Yes, people are getting the wrong end of the stick, but that’s not Alec’s fault.
I mean, no matter what the legalities are, I dare say if 100% of gamers loved bot programs, they wouldn’t do this.
(Hell – if that was true, I suspect they’d go for option 3 and monetarize the process themselves).
And keep my sink out of this.
KG
27/03/2008 at 16:52 wyrmsine says:
Maybe in the shit-flinging realms of the internet, this game is nothing compared to… auuugh. I’m spending too much time here.
ETA: I don’t really see why it has to be taken to court, at least not right away. Blizzard catches cheaters/bot-users, Blizzard bans bot-users. Parasite/symbiote bot-maker loses revenue, detaches from host. I mean, you’d think they’d at least try something else first before wasting time with litigation.
27/03/2008 at 17:06 tWB says:
I find disturbing Blizzard’s reliance upon MAI Systems v. Peak (which contravenes the legislative history of the 1976 Copyright Act and the NET Act, but is supported by Title III of the DMCA). Blizzard is attempting to use copyright and DMCA to enforce its EULAs, a move that goes well beyond the reasonable scope of copyright. Basically, a win by Blizzard would dramatically narrow the rights enjoyed by software licensees and users of online services (including web browsing). This would be A Very Bad Thing.
On the other hand, Blizzard may have a reasonable claim for tortious interference with contract, though there are factual questions that would preclude summary judgment. Under MDY’s reasoning, by the way, Blizzard would be more justified in suing bot-users rather than MDY — something that Blizzard is, I assume, unwilling to undertake due to public relations concerns.
27/03/2008 at 17:08 Butler` says:
Well this comment thread ended up quite the read!
27/03/2008 at 17:46 Cyrenic says:
@Butler
I couldn’t disagree with you more. I think WoW arena is the worst implementation of MMO PvP I’ve ever played. I’m curious why you think it’s the best, so here’s some questions if you feel like answering them:
Are you talking specifically about arenas? I’m assuming so because they were what you specifically mentioned.
You use the word “structured”. Are you referring to how the reward system/ladder for arenas work?
What other RPG/MMO PvP have you played? Why do you think WoW’s system is better?
Sorry if any of that seemed leading or incendiary, I’m actually curious why people like WoW arenas. Usually when I ask stuff like this the immediate response is something like “OmGz joo are not l33t enuff for teh arenas!”
27/03/2008 at 17:52 etho says:
Bots defeat the purpose of WoW (grinding) but WoW defeats the purpose of games, (fun) so I guess I don’t really know which is worse. I voted for the third option, but I don’t think that will ever happen because it would be like a great big admission that 80% of the game is a fun-free slog through endless grinding. But if Blizzard did do that, I would consider reactivating my account just out of curiosity as to whether or not the game is any more fun at higher levels.
Really, I think Blizzard shouldn’t bother though. Ultimately, it will be the same as the English killing William Wallace. As soon as they get rid of Glide, 3 more violent Scots will be right there to take it’s place. Botting will never go away, especially in something as huge as WoW.
27/03/2008 at 18:01 Jon says:
I would have more sypmathy for Blizzard if they treated all of their games the same, are they sueing Mousepad who makes a maphack for Diablo 2 or the guy who made RedVex?
If this lawsuit is actually about EULA violations then why are those two not getting sued as well?
27/03/2008 at 18:06 ran93r says:
In way too late to add anything more constructive than what’s been said above but bots have hampered my experience in WoW and I used to go to great lengths (pre-TBC) to report the shitebags. Precious little was done back then so I huddled back into my cloak of apathy.
I still don’t want to see botting, “some” of the gripes about just wanting to play PVP with a level-cap toon are being addressed by blizzard with the tournament realm but I can’t think of any serious raid group in the world that would want to take a bot-maxxed toon into an instance without the 70 levels of playing experience (at the very least).
27/03/2008 at 18:08 Michael says:
@Jon, I would imagine that more people are affected by botters than by maphack and such.
@Etho, alright so you don’t think this game is fun. That’s a perfectly valid viewpoint. Many people think otherwise, however. A lot of us really enjoy leveling vs. the end-game raiding. Many people think that killing poor old Illidan for the 2398547943875th time is much more of a grind than killing 10 cobolds for a quest. No matter who is “right”, this argument is beside the point since we are talking about whether Blizzard should protect its paying customers from those who abuse the game.
27/03/2008 at 18:13 Matthew Gallant says:
Bots ruin the game experience for everyone else around them, they’re the bane of MMORPGs and should be quashed as early and as often as possible.
27/03/2008 at 18:17 Jon says:
@Michael: Breaking the EULA can’t be done by increments, you either brake it or you don’t. If you brake it for one game shouldn’t the punishment be the same for any other? To me it looks like they’ve picked Glider to sue because Glider is making money and causing Blizzard to miss out on subscriptions, which smacks of pure greed.
Edit: If I were Blizzard, I’d recruit the Glider guys and get them to write code for Warden. Killing two birds with one stone is good I hear.
27/03/2008 at 18:22 Michael says:
@Jon, yes ideally they will go after all these people. In reality, however, they have to set priorities. Who plays Diablo2 now? Hardly anyone. Who plays WoW? Almost 11 million people. I think it is only natural that they chose to deal with the kind of abuse that affects most users.
As far as the “missing out on subscriptions” argument, I say it is completely fallacious. Whether people use bots or not, they still pay the monthly fee to play the game. In that sense Blizzard gets their due regardless of the violations.
27/03/2008 at 18:38 Big J says:
The most fun thing to do it to kite a bot’s mob around and witch it chase!
27/03/2008 at 19:05 Piratepete says:
Yes I was a fan of mob bot kiting too :)
Personally I think that, by using a bot program your a robbing yourself of the achievement of getting to the top level, but isn’t that what society is all about these days?
An MMO should be, in my opinion, fun but require a certain level of commitment to achieve a level of gaming higher than most of the other players. Botting ruins this as it levels the playing fields once again. In this case rather than have the top flight players at the top, everyone is together, having botted their way to the top, probably missing most of the game in the process.
Also, is there an instance where the word or derivatives of ‘botting’ aren’t funny? If so, damned is i can find it!
27/03/2008 at 19:10 etho says:
@Michael: You sort of summarized my feelings on the matter, though from the other side. I’m conflicted because I think Glide is a tool to do away with what I and many others think is deadly boring. But I recognize that not everyone feels the same way. I’d be willing to say that about half of the players think the end game is fun and the grind is boring, and half of the players think the opposite. I have never experienced the end game, but it doesn’t sound fun, and I didn’t really enjoy the grind either. But neither group is really “correct,” right? I mean, “fun” is not an absolute value. So by going after the botters, Blizzard makes the experience less enjoyable for end-gamers. But if they don’t go after them, bots will keep being a hassle for non-end-gamers. Hence my conflict, because I really don’t know of any solution.
The trouble with “paying customers” vs “game abusers” is that the ones abusing the game are paying customers too, and if they only want to do level 80 raids, it seems silly to force them to do all the lower level stuff they hate. I agree that botting is not a good solution to this (hence, I voted for option 3, having blizzard offer some sort of leveling service) but I think a solution needs to be found.
27/03/2008 at 19:21 Butler` says:
@Cyrenic – That’s quite a complex one to answer, because I have mixed feelings about arena.
I think it’s the ‘best implementation of structured PvP’ in the sense that it’s a fixed number of players fighting in a controlled environment (no external factors like potions, no 1hr cooldowns etc).
At the same time, and bare with me here: it’s tagged on, staged and ultimately boils down to a very poor attempt at a team deathmatch game in balance terms (due to the aforementioned gear, race, talent build, and heavy reliance on luck) when compared to other styles of TDM such as Quake, Unreal Tournament… yada yada.
But still, it’s the best attempt at this style of PvP ever seen in an online RPG, or MMORPG.
Then there’s the “this is an MMORPG, I want world PvP” side of things which I fully agree with. In terms of fulfillment, I’d much rather random, world based encounters with lots of external factors (like mobs or the actual environment), hunting, ganking, chasing and all that PVP-RPG goodness.
27/03/2008 at 19:48 Cyrenic says:
@Butler
Ok, now that you’ve clarified your points I agree with you for the most part. The framework for the arenas is certainly good (matchmaking, ladders, no outside buffs), but the actual gameplay is pretty crap (they had to add things like resilience and line of sight just to make it playable).
I think Guild Wars has much better arena style PvP gameplay, but the framework around it could have been better, particularly the matchmaking. I’ve only ever been able to get exactly 3 other people together a few times for the team arenas, there needs to be matchmaking for having 2 or 3 people instead of 4 or 8 exactly.
I also agree that WoW’s world PvP is when WoW is strongest at PvP, and the emphasis on Arenas and Battlegrounds by Blizzard while they discouraged world PvP at every turn led me to cancelling my account.
27/03/2008 at 20:34 Darren T says:
I took a look at glider the other day, and I don’t see what the fuss is about. It doesn’t appear to cheat and it doesn’t appear to play with any great skill. I don’t see anything different between someone using it and someone manually grinding an area, except for the obvious issue of actually requiring a presence at the computer.
Yes, you can’t reason with a bot, but then you can’t reason with an awful lot of people online either.
Should Blizzard also ban people from playing for long periods of time (even in shifts) – given that they have actively encouraged that very activity in the past (with their leveling competition a couple of years ago)?
27/03/2008 at 20:34 Butler` says:
Yeah exactly, and as I said in the Warhammer Online post today, WAR should be to PvP what LOTRO is to PvE. That is, a successful (3-5mil) PvP centric (from the ground up) MMORPG. Proper world PvP, experience points for killing players, a low emphasis on gear etc etc.
This is assuming they actually pull the game together to a high standard, which of course has yet to be seen :p
As for Guild Wars, I played it a while and appreciate its PvP, though I find it hard to compare to WoW’s.
@Darren T – that’s the kind of unfounded attempt at rationalising bots that drives me crazy :/
27/03/2008 at 21:02 DigitalSignalX says:
Blizzards world. Blizzards rules. Period. Don’t like Rules? Don’t play in Blizzards world.
It’s. That. Simple.
27/03/2008 at 21:55 Veloxi says:
I dunno, I don’t like bots like this, I think grinding is part of the experience that I wouldn’t wanna miss…
27/03/2008 at 22:46 Boop says:
Forgot to include the can’t sue me bit in the Glider EULA.
27/03/2008 at 23:40 Leeks! says:
By Blizzard’s own admission (and proved by some of these comments), WoW is a game where you make your own fun. To some, that’s killing lots of monsters and clicking on shinies. To others, it’s the social aspect of the game. So there’s going to be some natural disagreement between parties as to weather or not bots ‘ruin’ the experience.
The part of Blizzard’s defense that I take issue with is that the ‘bots’ are absorbing resources that should be available to legitimate players. What resources, exactly, are these? By purchasing a subscription, haven’t players effectively bought themselves unlimited access to the game’s information-resources (exp/loot)? And if it’s server bandwidth they mean, aren’t they entitled to play the game as much as they like on their subscription?
Monster that I am, I’ve gotten my little sister to farm gold for me while I’ve been at school. While I’d certainly agree that child labour advocates and social services could stake a legitimate claim against such practices, I don’t think Blizzard should be able to dictate to it’s players how they utilize their bought-and-paid-for subscription hours.
28/03/2008 at 00:04 Caiman says:
I voted “cheating”, for all the reasons previously pointed out. I’ve no problem with people playing the way they like, but there are common sense limits and this crosses the line.
Personally I think it’s pointless – like a lot of people, I have no interest in the endgame. And if you hate the “grind” to 70 so much, you’re clearly playing the wrong game.
28/03/2008 at 00:05 Dean says:
Digital – It’s not that simple though, as Blizzard are seeking remedys outside thier world. Yes, they’re entitiled to do whatever they want with thier game world, including banning all Glider users. But when they start threatening legal action it becomes an external issue.
Leeks – I think they mean in-game resources. There are only so many monsters in a given area, and they take time before they re-spawn, a bot killing them is depriving actual players of the chance to kill them for quests etc.
28/03/2008 at 01:31 Will Tomas says:
As other people have said, what I find utterly bizarre is the fact that by using bots people are effectively paying to not play the game. The game is intrinsically dull: this is a problem with the game. But quite why people then feel inspired to play-without-actually-playing I don’t know.
That said, I agree that grinding is misery. Which is why I don’t play MMOs.
And on the earlier subject of tabloid and pretentious, there’s a great line in Eric Idle’s The Rutles: “the press grabbed hold of the wrong end of the stick and started to beat about the bush with it.”
This applies to most sides in internet debates too.
(And, yes, I know that’s an incorrect use of the phrase “beat about the bush” but it sounds great, and that’s what matters.)
28/03/2008 at 01:56 twb says:
DigitalSignalX,
But it’s not Blizzard’s world. It’s the American people’s world, and I find Blizzard’s attempt to use copyright to enforce non-copyright terms in their EULA offensive.
Those who are willing to trade essential liberty to purchase a non-bottable MMORPG deserve neither liberty nor MMORPGs.
28/03/2008 at 04:46 Leeks! says:
Dean –
I suppose the point I was trying to make (in a long-winded, half-formed sort of way) is that a bot can’t kill mobs any faster than a player. So what’s the difference whether it’s me grinding Yetis for six hours or an autonomaton?
I suppose it’s also worth mentioning that I’m against bots on principle, because I am one of those silly people who plays the game primarily to interact with others. Bots cheapen that. That’s why I picked the “legalize drugs” choice on the poll. If Blizzard offered some kind of first party leveling service, then they could test and implement it themselves, and ensure there was some kind of balancing penalty for those who chose to use it (For example, you pay twenty bucks to get bumped up to forty, but you still start off with your level one gear).
28/03/2008 at 09:45 Butler` says:
The idea of a first-party leveling service, to me at least, is ludicrous. I can’t believe people are suggesting it, doesn’t it defeat the object somewhat?
28/03/2008 at 11:15 D says:
Gold seller ad on the right bar!
28/03/2008 at 11:46 Saskwach says:
Blizzard has the right to sue but any MMO with a labrynthine levelling system automatically loses my sympathies when someone finds ways around the levelling.
28/03/2008 at 13:31 Michael says:
When all is said and done WoW has 10 million honest subscribers and maybe a few hundred thousand dishonest ones. Blizzard owes it to its honest customers to go after the dishonest ones in whatever way possible including suing them.
They are doing it for me and in my name. I approve.
28/03/2008 at 15:01 Lu-Tze says:
Sweet jebus there’s a lot of taking the point to it’s extreme going on here. Everyone who has said “Why bother to pay for the game if you don’t want to play it”, stop being so ridiculously reductionist. You know damn well they actually DO want to play, it’s just the part they want to play is the END game. They want to play with their friends who are lvl 70, or they already totally into endgame content but want to build a specific character for that without the tedium of getting all the way back there. In either case, the game they want to play exists, it’s just not available to them despite paying their money to Blizzard.
Comparing it to an FPS and saying it’s like getting someone else to play it for you is stupid. Imagine, for example, that… say… Team Fortress 2, you were only allowed to play Dustbowl once you’d spent 100 hours playing. All your friends are playing on Dustbowl now, and everyone is going “wow I love this” but you can’t do it… I know most people would log on to other servers and then just go AFK.
That’s exactly the same as botting, and it’s completely understandable that in a game where the subscriber base is probably 80% comprised of people who got the game because their friends already had it, people actually want to experience the game with their friends. Blizzard are providing a game where as a new player, your only way to enjoy it with your friend is to persuade them to start new characters (unlikey) or grind grind grind your way to their level over hours and hours. Let the botters bot, it’s not like they are doing anything they couldn’t do if it was human controlled anyway, and the damage to the economy is barely different to the human gold farmers anyway.
28/03/2008 at 15:50 Dean says:
1-70 isn’t boring or a grind though. I don’t even know what people are using the word ‘grind’ to mean here – it’s being used as a pejorative but in the context of Wow it’s being used to dismiss 90% of the game.
Now, new players not being able to play meaningfully with level 70 friends *is* an issue, but it’s a different issue. There are a lot of better ways to get around that than legitimising levelling services – CoH’s sidekick system comes to mind.
28/03/2008 at 16:22 Michael says:
Once upon a time in Warcraft
Lazy bastard Danny Pott
Couldn’t get to level twenty
And so he installed a bot
Danny wanted loot and levels
But he didn’t want to play
Plus he wasn’t very honest
So he broke EULA
Bot was only twenty dollars
And it looted, skinned and killed
Danced on mailboxes for coins
Joined Chinese farmers’ guild
All was good while it lasted
But one day it came to halt
Players noticed Danny botting
And decided to revolt
No one grouped with lazy Danny
Some ignored him outright
Others /spit and /snub and /threaten
All considered him a blight
And the worst was yet to follow
With his bot he won a ban
All because the silly doofus
Couldn’t get past level ten
Once upon a time in Warcraft
Lazy bastard Danny Pott
Got deleted from his server
Because he installed a bot
28/03/2008 at 17:26 Noc says:
@Butler, way back up there when he replied to me the first time:
(Reposted for clarity: @Noc, that’s a really nasty comparison, and best countered with:
In Counter-Strike I can enter a game with the worlds best clan and I’ve got a viable chance of killing one or two of them.
In Call of Duty 4 I can go in a public match as a rank 1 with base equipment and dominate a game full of rank 55s.
In WoW you can’t take down even the worst of level 70s with a 100 skilled level 1s. Equally so, an under geared but highly skilled level 70 can’t hope to take a full epic but poorly played level 70.)
Exactly. That’s because in an FPS, the “currency,” if you will, that determines success is skill. You’re a good shot, you’re aware of what’s going on around you, so even with subpar weapons you can dominate an arena of better-equipped but lesser-skilled players.
You can’t expect someone who’s never played a video game in their life to take on the world’s best CS players. That’s the equivalent of the Level 1 vs. Level 70 comparison.
In the level-based RPG model, all of that reflex and skill that you have as a shooter takes the form of stats. These stats increase as you level. In the same way as you were rubbish at FPSs when you first started playing, but after years of playing and honing your skills you’ve gotten considerably better, so does your character start out piss-weak but grow into a relative juggernaut.
So the “currency” that determines success in a level-based RPG is time spent leveling. Player skill is still important, but it takes the relative importance that equipment does in an FPS; it can help swing an otherwise even fight one way or the other, but it won’t make a difference if there’s a significant gap between the player’s respective “currency” levels.
So, to answer Lu-Tze’s point, it’s not a matter of getting someone else to play for you. It’s a matter of finding a way to put Autoaim into your game so you consistently get headshots without actually having to be any good. It’s a matter of artificially inflating the “currency” that determines your success in the game. Yes, unlocking content IS part of the issue . . . but there’s lots of content that’s not Endgame. Lots of content that’s being skipped over when you bot through 70 levels.
The issue clearly isn’t “I want to run this particular instance, but I’m X levels away.” It’s “Raiding is what all the cool kids are doing! I want in on that! But 70 is a big number . . . ”
And the reason botting is different then playing through yourself:
A) You aren’t actually doing the work. Yes, it’s your client that’s running the bot program, but it’s also your client that’s doing the shooting if your FPS has an auto-aim hack. The issue isn’t the effectiveness of your program as a client, it’s the effectiveness of YOU as PLAYER.
And since this is a game, everything hinges on the perceived value of things to the player. If players are cheating to achieve things they don’t deserve, it cheapens things for the other players.
B) Here’s the point people seem to be missing: Bots run 24-7. Player habits can vary tremendously, but it’s usually a matter of a few hours a day. So the level advancement isn’t necessarily more efficient, but it IS tremendously faster.
Figure you play a good three hours a day, in the afternoon. On average. You can leave your client up and your bot working 24/7, so you’re leveling eight times faster.
That’s right. Bots DO level you faster than doing things manually. Because your bot doesn’t have to eat, sleep, maintain it’s relationships with other human beings, or vary it’s routine to live a happy and fulfilling life.
Oh, and @twb:
It IS Blizzard’s world. You’re agreeing to play in Blizzard’s world, by Blizzard’s rules, when you log on to the server. And agree to the EULA.
And the EULA is a legal document in OUR world. (“The American People’s world,” apparently. It’s only a matter of time, imperialist tendencies and all.) The EULA is the legal device that links Blizzard’s virtual world to the product you buy from them and install on your computer.
. . .
I WILL make the concession that players who’re already Level 70, and want to use other characters at their current level of functionality, need some sort of device to help them do that which doesn’t involve effectively replaying the game. Is there any statistic on what percentage of botters are using them for secondary characters?
Also, a note: I fully endorse powerleveling and whatever game-mechanic twisting methods people have devised for trying to speed up the leveling process. Since that boils down to attempting to play the game intelligently, instead of cheating. It’s the difference between munchkining your way through a PnP game and fudging your dice rolls.
And I THINK that’s everything. Apologies to anyone who I’m repeating or ignoring in the fifty-odd posts I read through to write this.
28/03/2008 at 20:21 Jocho says:
Great poem, Micheal, or a good choice of copy-pasting, if that’s what it was.
Anyway, my inner argumentation went as follows: If people want to skip the leveling process, which I agree is very long, then it’s clearly a design fault from the developers part. But if people don’t enjoy such a big part of the game, design flaw or not, then they should consider if they want to play at all and let those who enjoy it play instead. Vote: Yay!
29/03/2008 at 08:34 malkav11 says:
I don’t really see how it’s a design flaw if millions upon millions of people have paid out plenty of good money to quite cheerfully plug along through all that levelling process. Sure, some people don’t want to do that. That just means that they’re not part of Blizzard’s market.
It’s kind of like saying that a roguelike is flawed because people don’t like losing their characters to perma-death. Well…those people don’t like roguelikes. So what?
29/03/2008 at 09:54 Alexander says:
sorry for bolding this but there have been a shitload of comments about bots and the subsequent consequences, no one is talking about the DANGERS of the lawsuit
Maybe I agree with the bot-hate, I can understand either party, I have a level 70 rogue and I spent 3hundredsomethinghours on getting there myself.
PROBLEM = LAWSUIT IS BASED ON COPYRIGHT ISSUES, COPYING A GAME TO RAM WOULD BE COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT = BULLSHIT -> if blizzard wins this on MORAL GROUNDS, the problem is that this suit will become a tested case for a lot of seemingly unrelated cases on copyright issues. The road of copyright infringement is DIRTY, your browser would no longer be able to load pictures from the internet (saved in RAM) and you wouldn’t be able to copy files from one drive to another (backup anyone? COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT!!).
Please look past the issue of ‘bots’ in this case, really, STOP THINKING ABOUT YOURSE.. ehh THE CHILDREN!! (I meant to say your pathetic little annoyances, and look at the big picture. I am next in line with the Bot-Haahte but damn, the grounds of this case are way too serious)
must give kudos to one other person
29/03/2008 at 17:59 Wasbrough23 says:
The funny thing about all this for me, is that the worst parts of “grinding” in WoW come AFTER you hit lvl 70. Grinding as you level up has more immediate and tangible rewards. (New levels, new abilities, new gear.) At 70, you find yourself grinding gold and materials for your next raid/battleground/arena match far more often than doing anything fun.
It’s like skipping to the last few maps/missions in a FPS or RTS; Sure, you’re powerfull in that part of the game, but you missed a good portion of the fun in getting there.
29/03/2008 at 21:05 Leeks! says:
Dean -
I’m no expert on such things, and I’m more than willing to admit that I haven’t given the topic much serious thought (tacitly: that you’re right). More important, I think, is what Alexander and, tWB (with considerably less vitriol) pointed out.
29/03/2008 at 21:37 Zeto says:
The biggest thing about this case is that ALL other MMOs will be unable to do anything about bots and third party programs in general if the defense wins.
Also the defense is technically stealing profit from Blizzard because the people getting the bots are going to hit max level faster and thus quit the game sooner because they will have done everything and grow bored of it.
29/03/2008 at 22:30 Larington says:
Legal ramifications make my brain hurt.
30/03/2008 at 02:57 Beoulve says:
I agree with Zato on his first point. Cases like these set a precedence. Even if you dislike World of Warcraft; later down the line if any MMO you want to play comes out there is nothing that the developer can do to prevent the use of bots.
Bots are not simply used to circumvent the leveling grind or the rep grind. I’ve seen bots used in nearly all areas of the game such as Arenas and Battlegrounds. Nothing like having a 10 man team when 2 of them are bots and being forced to play a handicapped side.
Bots can also destroy economies on servers. Best example of this is to look at final fantasy 11. For most of its early days it was plagued with bots that would fish all day and programmed to sale the fish and go back to fishing. On many servers the economy was completely devestated to the point that you had to bot yourself or play 60 hours a week to be able to afford anything nice.
Bots in MMO do not simply affect the people using them. They affect the global economy and other people’s enjoyment of the game. Whether or not it’s world of warcraft or the next big mmo.
30/03/2008 at 05:08 Dean says:
The case won’t prevent Blizzard or anyone else doing anything about bots though. It’ll stop them suing someone for making one, but it doesn’t legitimise them. It certainly won’t prevent them banning the accounts of those who use them, which is how the problem *should* be dealt with.
The perfect analogy is steroid and performance enchancing drug use in sports. Most are legal to take, but obviously thier use in competative sport ruins in. But the sports bodies introduce drug tests and strict rules to prevent this. They don’t sue the guys making the steroids, because it really isn’t the court’s problem.
30/03/2008 at 12:17 zma123 says:
I bot, but I’ve also hand leveled about 5 characters to 70.
That crap gets OLD. I never bot in areas that are populated. I never bot away from my computer. When people come to my area needing to kill the mobs Im grinding, I usually HELP them.
I enjoy the game, but the damn grind is ridiculous, and Blizzard knew it, which is why in 2.3 they LOWERED the amount of exp needed to level. Its a timesink and a moneysink. They didn’t have to make the grind that painful, so since I’ve done it so many times, of COURSE I’m going to take an opportunity to circumvent it.
30/03/2008 at 12:24 Aldrenean Nearo says:
Play EVE! Rabble rabble rabble!
(post name = ingame name, btw. ;)
30/03/2008 at 15:04 anonymous says:
It is Blizzard’s game. They get to choose how much grind there is. NOT YOU, the user.
30/03/2008 at 15:29 Dustin says:
To get to the point, a bot means that no human is actually playing, and as such, is cheating. If i have to spend countless hours playing in order to get to level 70, yet some kid who buys a program can turn the bot on and then leave, i see that as cheating.
30/03/2008 at 22:56 Lily says:
I find it strange that people think botting should be allowed. It takes the experience out of the game. The game took the lore from the first three games and exploded in an online world where you take a journey throughout the world of Azeroth. Botting takes the journey away and gives lazy players a way to be lazy. Blizzard has every right to be upset because it’s their program. People should not be allowed to profit off parts of their code. Also, these lazy players who think that botting is the way to go should not be allowed to get away with diminishing the positive experience of other players.
01/04/2008 at 18:40 rtuuber says:
RE: Cheating to bypass content.
Am I the only one who finds some of the moral outrage expressed above relating to other players “getting-without-earning” a little bizarre, given that what we are talking about is ostensibly a leisure activity?
If you were talking about real-world compensated work then sure, I’d agree that its galling that so many people don’t have to do very much of it and yet still reap bountiful rewards.
But do I worry that some people are cheating their way through an activity that I enjoy as play? Not one bit.
Unless we are talking about directly competitive play ofc, but I don’t think that this kind of cheating is what we are arguing about because this kind of cheating is uncontroversially bad. Also the leveling process in WOW (which accounts for many hundreds of hours of play) is not in the main directly competitive.
I think this particular “problem” isn’t a terribly significant one, is very much specific to the WoW model (as I say, bypassing content is not equivalent to wallhacking in CS) and is more or less designed-in to any leisure activity that is trying too hard to mimic actual work.
Persistent World type games based on the WoW model will probably struggle on with the same old formula for a few more decades, but as soon as some clever developer makes a similar game that is consistently fun enough that people will engage in it for pleasure alone it will make it very hard for developers to sell the old model where time consuming repetitive work yields dubious rewards. Basically I think that when people are given the choice between work and fun, they will pick fun every time. Currently the market does not really offer this kind of choice, particularly not the casual gamer.
That said, I will acknowledge that some people do enjoy gaming that resembles work in the way WoW does. Personally I think that as the gaming $ becomes increasingly dominated by the console\casual market this group will increasingly find themselves on the margins because the requirement of having to put in hundreds of hours to access new content hurts accessibility and the console\casual market demands accessibility. That said the work\reward scheme does mitigate skill requirements which might help sell the model to the casual gaming crowd at least.
For the time being the whole argument will probably end up being moot because Blizzard will no doubt eventually introduce legitimate, bought, pre-levelled characters, probably to milk the last few years out of the game (the arena tournament is just the thin end of the wedge!). At that point I’d like to think that some imaginative developer is sure to wonder if level grinding is really the most fun thing players could be doing in an elaborate online fantasy world, and hopefully the result will be as all the fun without any of the work!
18/04/2008 at 11:58 _Flin_ says:
- A flying mount costs 5000g.
- You need to spend about 120k honor just to be able to enter the arena without being cut into tiny little pieces in an instant.
- Flight paths are designed in a way that it takes extra long to come from A to B.
- Flights exist instead of a departure / arrival animation
These are just timesinks. The whole damn game is a timesink once you reach level 70.
Instances are fun. Raids are Fun. Arena PvP is Fun.
To do all that you need:
- Flasks, Potions, Time for Raids and instances
- Resilience Equip for Arena PvP
To get from A to B fast you need an epic flying mount. To farm efficiently you need an epic flying mount. To get that you need 5000g. Which equals about 35 – 100 hours of mindnumbing money farming.
Where exactly is the “experience” and “enjoyment” of that ? That gets “taken out of the game” ?
I would love to bot, I just don’t do it because I don’t want my account to get banned.
21/05/2008 at 05:00 Plaz says:
I am all in favor of Glider. I have been playing WoW for over a year now, using bots AND playing the game. I pay 15 dollars a month for WoW for one reason: Entertainment. I do not give a shit about how “the game feels”, it is all about me. I pay them to have a good time. The exciting part of WoW for me is endgame stuff: raids, heroic dungeons, arena pvp and the such. If I want to spend my hard-earned $20 for a subscription of glider to bypass the “boring” part of WoW so that I can fully enjoy the reason I am paying 15 dollars a month to blizzard, I should damn well be allowed too. I see that I am outnumbered here so I don’t expect anyone to agree with me, but all the same my vote goes to glider. Way to make a program that accomplishes what I want: To have fun!
28/09/2008 at 09:45 Khillian says:
i’m all in favor o Plaz n his likes. If Blizzard is daft enuff to produce a “fun” MMO game, they should’a known from the beginnin that players r eventually gonna wanna do what THEY wanna do. IT GOES WITH THE EFFIN TERRITORY! I play WoW for FUN n coz my family n friends play it, no other reason. the way Blizzard sees this crap, it’s like as if i were to look at some businessman wrong, he’d nail me for it SIMPLY coz he’s makin more money than me n i’m just the lil shit-turd on the ground that pays him…screw that crap. the $15 a month i pay to Blizzard, NOT the other way around. it’s MY $15, it’s MY investment i’m protectin…i WILL do as i please to make the game more enjoyable. with that said, i’ve never used bots in ANY MMO game, n prolly never will. bots don’t bother me, REAL greedy people behind coporate names DO. on the account bout the gold spammerz, i vote to get rid of em ALL. on the issue between glider n blizzard: blizzard believes they have a right to deploy the game as they see fit regardless o the consequences o their ignorance. i believe that the makers o Glider should have JUST as much space in that alley. But Blizzard has screwed things up with EVERY patch they’ve come out with. i’ve quit the game several times before, but it was my FAMILY n FRIENDS who begged me to come back…NOT Blizzard. they can rot in hell for all i care…greedy bastards r in it for the money. i’ve seen more than enuff proof o that already.
13/01/2009 at 04:06 FlakAttack says:
Well if the game is so grindy and awful, why play it?
This is WoW, for better or worse. You have to take the good with the bad, THAT’S THE WAY IT WAS MADE. The game is repetitive BY NATURE. THAT’S WHAT AN MMO IS. Besides, Blizzard owns the game, your characters, everything, and they say “NO BOTTING”. Rules are rules.
20/03/2009 at 12:57 MrFake says:
The poll options are somehow unfair, so I’ll drop my opinion.
I’d have to stand by Blizzard on this, for certain reasons that I know no one is going to like. But, before that, I should say that botting and assist programs are a boon for MMORPGs for two reasons. One, they add a new dimension for enjoyment. It’s not just about skipping the grind, but skipping the farming. In the few MMOs I’ve played, I find that if you must farm, you’re not playing the game right, but that’s an issue with faulty game design, not necessarily the player. Two, the grind is an ethical dilemma. The player must pay monthly to be subjected to long hours of what we’d call heresy in any other game, and I fear that’s too easily exploitable by the host to keep obsessive players in the game month after month. The best solution is for the host to offer assist programs themselves, even for a fee if they wish, and some do.
But, I side with Blizzard on this, and probably for the same reason they initiated action: Donnelly is selling his botting program. By a stretch, that falls under derivative works and is a copyright infringement, but let’s be reasonable. He’s making money off of Blizzard’s work. I don’t give a shit if Blizzard staff sleep with gold-plated hookers at night and don’t need the money, it’s still based on their work. Part of my ire may be because I’m cheap, and seeing people charge for programs rubs me the wrong way (Windows third-party apps are a joke; open source you jerks), but if I had released a game and found someone else profiting on my hard work, I’d be livid.
None of our opinions matter though. Blizzard may not even give a shit. Their only real courses of action are to either buy out Donnelly or take legal action. It’s a business thing–the fool Donnelly could have just offered his program for free and suggested donations, and probably none of this would have happened.