Originally posted by ArEf

Originally posted by Lobotomist

Its bummer. But look at it from positive side :

Without it you would not be able to play online with any character without being plagued by cheaters.

What is this retardation? Did you PLAY Diablo 2 Battle.net? Battle.net was it's closed instance. You could play on Open Battle.net, which was basically open hacking central, but Battle.net only had cheats that were already in the game and got patched out (duping bugs etc).

THAT was acceptable.

Originally posted by jdnewell

I for one am glad they did it.

Always online does not bother me in the least. If it helps cut out the hackers, scammers, cheats, ect that literally ruined D2 then props to them.

TL2 wont have any sort of protection. While it will be a good game I am sure, the hackers will eventually make it unplayable.

Wow.

Just.

Wow.

ITT: People who've never played Diablo 2.

I'm sorry man but you're just plain full of it

Diablo 2 was so full of hackers and cheaters for the first 5 freaking years that it wasn't even fun to play anymore. It wasn't until Blizz came out w/ 2.0 and Warden that they really were able to do anything about it. But by then it was pretty much too late.

I would rather have this "always-on" system then be plauged by the jerk-off cheaters, dupers, haxors, and the like. Granted, I am really not very happy about how easy Blizz made it to pay-2-win, but it seems that is what a large portion of people wanted, so they gave it to them. I just wish that they had devised a better way to keep the p2w seperate from those of us that actually want to play-2-win, but maybe that will come down the road.

I haven't picked up my copy of D3 yet, and I won't be able to until tomorrow :*-( So I can't really comment on how good the game actually is. From what I do know in the limited amount of time I played it in OB though, I think I will really enjoy it. I don't think it's as dumbed down as everyone thinks. They really didn't REMOVE the customization, they just CHANGED it, and they're reasoning for doing so is sound IMHO. I mean let's face it, every class did have a couple cookie-cutter builds that were pretty much requiered to succeed. This new system looks like it may actually change that a bit, I mean, I'm sure there will still be some cookie-cutting going on, but I hope this will lead to more variety and freedom.

As for Blizzard, I HAVE to give them the benefit of the doubt. They have been THE premier PC developer for a long time, and have never let me down with their products. Not only have they always made some of, if not THE best PC games, but they have always supported the hell out of them as well, for free to boot, outside of the obligatory expansion pack here or there... It will be my, and I'm sure many others, worst fears come to pass if Activision truly has corrupted Blizzard. I don't know, Mike Morhaime is still the head of Blizzard, and as long as he's there and in-charge I find it hard to believe he'd allow his company to change for the worse so much. Of course, Blizz is now part of a publicly-traded company, one headed by a scum-bag to boot, so it's not like it's outside the realm of possibility, but it would be hugely disapointing if Blizzard is losing it's way. Especially before they make Warcraft 4...

I'm sorry guys, but I have to strongly disagree with most of the people on this thread, and agree w/ only a few.

First, I strongly disagree that Diablo 3 is anything but a masterpiece. Now, before d/l'ing and playing the beta yesterday, I really wasn't excited at all for this game. Why? B/c it's an ARPG, I've played hundreds of them and had gotten really bored with the whole genre. I didn't think anything could be done to bring me back to it. But I was wrong. Now, to be honest, I haven't seen anything in the game that is groundbreaking, or moves the genre forward by leaps and bounds. But, and this is a BIG BUT (excuse the pun), it is alot of FUN. And when we get right down to it, what else does a game need to be? It's fun, and that's enough for me.

Now, for the things I do agree with in this thread (and I know I'm going to be flamed for this, but oh well, I have to call a duck a duck....).

It's been obvious for a long while now, but never more so then today, that nothing, NOTHING, is ever going to satisfy the people that troll these forums. There are a lot of very intelligent people here, that express their thoughts and desires very well, but a lot of these people also seem to have gotten very bitter and I don't think anything will ever satisfy this lot. I understand opinions are like ass holes, everyone has one, and is entitled to their own, and express their thoughts and feelings however they like. But I have also come to the conclusion that many people here seem to have become frustrated w/ games as a whole.

My thoughts on the bitterness that lurks in these forums are that this was caused by the disapointment that the MMO market has become after all the promise it held early on. I mean, I still dream about recapturing the wonder and excitment of those first few months of logging into EQ back in the day, but, I've come to the conclusion it's just not going to happen. I haven't held a sub to an MMO for about 2 years now, since I left EQ2. And I miss it, terribly. But I haven't let that turn me bitter on all games. Not every game needs to be as immersive, or groundbreaking, as those early MMO's felt, and if you expect that out of every game you play, you're always going to be disapointed. 

I don't know, I could be way off the mark here, and I'm sure people will say that I am. But that's how it seems to me, and again, everyone has an opinion, and everyone likes what they like. All I'm saying is that maybe people need to take a step back.

I got this for my son (9yo) for Christmas and he absolutely LOVES it.

At first I wasn't sure b/c it seemed awfully gimicky, so I got him the starter pack for PS3, 1 3-pack of figures, and an Adventure Pack (1 character figure, 1 set piece figure, and 2 item figures). Well, he started it up that morning and hasn't looked back since. At last check he has beaten the main story 3 times w/ different profiles, has played through all the levels, and collected (read: bought with his allowance) a good number of figures. My son is the kind of kid that gets into something for a good while, hardcore, then slowly looses interest and moves on to something else. Well, so far he is still really into Skylanders and is looking forward to getting more characters/figures, the new Adventure Pack coming out (should be this month), and the expansion, called "Giants" this fall.

The game itself is actually pretty good (and yes, I HAVE played it myself. I don't let my kids play anything without playing it with them at first), it definitely isn't simply a cheapo, poorly developed, money-grabbing vehicle to sell more figures and make tons of cash....you know, exactly what you'd expect from Activision. They actually put quite a bit into the game, and it shows. There are about 20 different areas/levels, which each area has a different, and unique, theme that allows certain characters to be stronger in. Every character has an associated Element (kinda like Pokemon), and so far each Element-type has 4 different characters, so there is alot of variety. And then, on top of that, each Character is FULLY upgradable through leveling. So the more you play each character, the stronger they get, unlocking new, and upgraded abilities. Each character also has an "Ultimate" power/ability which is only unlockable after you have found that characters "Soul Crystal" (or some such), with the crystals being hidden throughout the game. The really cool thing is that the characters powers/abilities, level, and amount of coin is NOT stored on the console, it is actually stored in a chip contained within the figure. Also, contrary to popular belief, you do NOT need one of each type to beat the main story...to find everything in the game, yes, and to make things easier, yes, but not to beat the main story.

The only downsides to the whole thing are some characters are VERY hard to find, with some characters not even being released nationally yet. Also, some stores (Toys R Us I'm looking at you) have marked up the figures by a few bucks (for example, figures can be bought for 7.99 in stores with 3-packs and adventure packs going for 19.99. But in Toys R Us, singles are 9.99 and 3-packs and adventures packs are 24.99). As you can imagine, it can also get pretty expensive, but that's on the consumer, like I said, you do NOT need to buy all the characters...but it's hard not to want them all b/c the game is fun to play.

Bottom line, the whole experience is very enjoyable. My son is enthralled with it, and I admit that every once in awhile I will sneak up to his room and load it up myself. If you are anything of a collector then you will really enjoy trying to hunt down and find some of the rarer characters/figures. Around and after Christmas anything Skylanders (except the "Starter Packs", which include the game itself, the Portal, and 3 figures) have been extremely hard to find, but this is finally starting to abate now, with supply finally able to match demand. If you have the time, and money, I say check it out, it's worth it. And even if you don't enjoy it all, I hear Gamestop is starting a program to accept skylander figure trade-ins, and they are actually giving decent amounts of credit for them, with the amount based on rarity of the character.

TL:DR...it's actually a cool game with a really neat concept and execution. I recommend it.

Originally posted by RizelStar

Originally posted by teddyboy420

Originally posted by pacov

The meaning is the same it's just differently worded. All that statement is saying is that there will be cosmetics.. its just they won't have any STATS.

No...the meaning isn't the same, and that is not what the new statement is saying. There is a VAST difference in the meaning, and implications, of the change in wording. 

 

The old statement was worded to give the impression that everything for sale via micro-transactions was purely cosmetic...i.e. no stats, just for looks.

 

The new statement is worded to give the impression that everything for sale via micro-transactions will also be available through playing the game...i.e. items in the store CAN (and will, or else they wouldn't have changed the wording) have stats, but that there will be no "unique" items being sold. In other words, if you don't feel like putting in the time to kill "Super Raid Boss A", you could, potentially, buy the item off the store if you so wish....but hey, you could still get it through playing so it's ok. Amirite?

http://www.guildwars2guru.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1113375&postcount=173

Yeah, of course a rep is going to come on the forums and try to calm things down, but that doesn't change that this is clearly a shift in what will be in the store. Even that statement you linked to is saying that things changed, albeit in a very clever way by repeating the sentiment in the new choice of words, only after telling everyone that everything is ok, and that the change in wording is for the best and to clarify their position.

But the fact remains, there is a clear change in meaning in those two statements. There is a clear difference in 'items sold will be purely cosmetic', and 'items sold will also be obtained through investing your time playing the game'.

Let's see....I dint play really play much GW, but maybe you played WoW?

Well, the old statement was like saying:

"We're only going to sell cosmetic pets, maybe a mount or 3, and some appearance-only armor."

This new statement can be interpreted to say:

"We're only going to sell things you can also get from questing, raiding, or crafting. For example, Ragnaros, a raid-boss only seen at the end of hours, and hours of end-game raid content drops an "Axe of Fiery Death", if you like you can buy said Axe...but that's ok b/c we aren't offering anything that offers an advantage over anyone else b/c if they don't want to buy it they can invest hundreds of hours of time and achieve the same results."

The same slippery slope we've been seing everywhere....vague enough answers to leave the door open for whatever will bring in the most cash, regardless of what other paying customers may think.

Alarmist? Maybe. But you can't deny that the possibility for such a scenario is now possible with the newly reworded answer.

Originally posted by pacov

The meaning is the same it's just differently worded. All that statement is saying is that there will be cosmetics.. its just they won't have any STATS.

No...the meaning isn't the same, and that is not what the new statement is saying. There is a VAST difference in the meaning, and implications, of the change in wording. 

The old statement was worded to give the impression that everything for sale via micro-transactions was purely cosmetic...i.e. no stats, just for looks.

The new statement is worded to give the impression that everything for sale via micro-transactions will also be available through playing the game...i.e. items in the store CAN (and will, or else they wouldn't have changed the wording) have stats, but that there will be no "unique" items being sold. In other words, if you don't feel like putting in the time to kill "Super Raid Boss A", you could, potentially, buy the item off the store if you so wish....but hey, you could still get it through playing so it's ok. Amirite?

My first "real" gaming/mmo mouse was the original G5, and I absolutely love(d) that mouse. The dpi range was large (enough) and very fine-tunable, it had some really nice feat, and the thing I thought was most assuredly just a gimmick I ended up liking the most, the adjustable weight. To me, after shape, weight is the most important aspect of a mouse (especially since almost all decent gaming mice have a large dpi range, so that's kind of standard now) and I loved being able to fine tune the weight until it felt perfect sliding around my mouse pad. Sadly, a little while before last Christmas we got a puppy who loved to chew things, especially wires to very expensive, and loved peripherals/appliances/electronic devices and, well you can imagine what happened.

So my wife, being the awesome wife she is...got me a new mouse for Christmas, the Razer Naga. I'm going to be honest, when I first unwrapped it I was all like.... :), but really I was thinking "how am I going to exchange this without hurting her feelings b/c she obviously went out of her way to find a mouse, a very expensive mouse, specifically for the games I play the most...". So, I decided I'd try it out for a day or three and tell her it "didn't work right", take it back to Best Buy, and get a mouse I'd really love, like my G5...maybe even the new and improved G5 or whatever. But while trying it out, I found that having my number strip/pad within easy reach of my thumb was actually quite handy and with some time spent learning the layout could possibly even improve my skillz ;) I ended up sticking with it b/c I do like the thumb buttons, especially in MMO's, and Dungeon Crawlers.It does have all the nice "standard features" a good gaming mouse should have too, i.e.; the large range of dpi settings, nice slick feet that glide on any mouse pad, quality wheel, etc.

I love my Naga but it's not without it's faults, I am not a huge fan of it's ergonomics, it's easy enough to wrap my hand around, and has support in all the right places, but I like a slightly lager mouse with more, and deeper places to lay my fingers. I really like the layouts that have places to lay your thumb and pinky on so they aren't dragging on the pad surface. But ergonomics are a very personal matter, so that complaint won't apply to everyone. And, I find myself missing he adjustable weight of the G5, it was nice to have a mouse feel perfect in your hand.

The best RP I personally ever took part in was in the original EQ, back in the day, before there was such a thing as a triple-A MMO. When the genre was young, and EQ was the only 3D MMO anyone really knew of, RP in EQ was sooo rich, and deep. This was due to a conglomeration of factors IMO, the first was obviously the community, but the ammazingly deep lore and world that was craftedfor the game made it all possible. I mean, almost the day EQ was released there were already legends about a certain Vampire Lord in a certain castle that would only spawn if you did this and that while making your avatar stand on his head. 

More than anything else, it was that sense of history, myth, and lore that I miss about EQ. Sadly, what they say is true, you just can't go home again. All the games and "advancements" in the genre that followed EQ have, in a way, ruined it all. Ironically, it was all done in the name of "fun" and "accessibility". It's a damn shame, I've tried to go back...it just isn't the same. All I have are memories of the greatness of old-school pre-PoP EQ.

I'm sorry, but all you people talking about (paraphrasing) "myself, and lots of people like me won't put up w/ RMT, so we won't be playing x game b/c of it"....you really are much more alone then you realize.

When this whole RMT thing started creeping into mainstream, western MMO's, I was all against it, sounding just like all of you. But really, now I don't really care very much. Honestly, how does it affect me if Joe-shmoe over there bought all his shiny gear? It doesn't. And if I want to drop a couple bucks on a vanity item, cool, I can do that. I won't be buying any high-end gear, but if someone else wants to, more power to em.

Back to my main point about you in the hardcore anti-RMT crowd...I know it's not an MMO, but Team Fortress 2 has as large a population as many MMO's, and a community that is just as passionate. When Valve introduced RMT's into TF2 there was a lot of bitching and moaning, but Valve has made a not-so-small fortune through selling items in TF2, so obviously, you anti-RMT's aren't all that numerous as you like to think.

Just food for thought

Originally posted by Coldren

DAoC 2 just isn't going to happen. Sorry :(

Originally posted by adam_nox

sounds like made up BS to me.  I know what was wrong with WAR and most of that drivel didn't touch it.  And ragging on SWTOR just proves that it's BS.

What? That dude hit the nail on the head w/ the one line that said something like: "we had to make WoW 2.0, and left out everything that made DAoC great"...umm, that, right there is exactly what went wrong w/ WAR. As for ther rest, seems to make perfect sense to me, the whole part about Hickman and Denton throwing Mark Jacobs under the bus, that sounds pretty spot on. Now, don't get me wrong, it can't be all that simple as Mark Jacobs was the head of Mythic and thus ultimately in charge of WAR and it's direction, regardless of Hickman being the EP. That being said though, it certainly does seem possible that everyone threw Jacobs under the bus as almost, if not all, of the other "Leads" and "Executives" got to keep their jobs.

I'm curious, does anyone know what Mark Jacobs is up to these days? After all, he was the man most directly responsible for DAoC, and I truly feel that if he would've just stuck to what he and Mythic knew best, instead of listening to everyone else telling him he needed to try and steal WoW's thunder, then WAR would've been what everyone was hoping for, DAoC 2.0, instead of a sorry ass mish-mash that was mostly trying to copy WoW w/ teeny-tiny bits of DAoC thrown in. I'd like to see MJ start up a new, independant studio, to maybe try and make the game we all want, DAoC 2.

And yeah...I have to say that I've been really hoping that SWToR turns out to be everything it seems like it could be, but after hearing this, I am no longer all that optomistic. Yes, this could all be total bullshit from some random dude just looking to stir things up, but what he says is very possibly the way it all went down, and certainly sounds logical. We'll have to wait and see, but I, for one, am a bit more guarded about hoping beyond hope that SWToR turns out to be the shiznit.

Pran?

Pran = Pr0n?

I know you didn't include it as one of your options, but you should really check out the Captain. I haven't played LoTRO in a long while, but when I was playing my main was a Captain, and I have to say that it really is a pretty unique, and very enjoyable, class. They are a mix of the best parts of an EQ Bard w/ the AoE/group buffage, plus a DAoC or WAR plate DPS/off-tank abilities, w/ a small touch of healing abilities such as reses thrown in for good mesure. I always thought it was one of the deepest, and most interesting classes in any MMO period. Their only drawback, if you can call it that, is that the only race that can be a Captain is Man, and personally I like to play other races in games, but to each his own.

I can't comment much on the Champion as I never really gave em a shot, I can say though that the Burglar is pretty interesting and goes far beyond the sterotypical "Rogue". Burglars in LoTRO also have a support element thrown in with their usual rogue-like abilities in the form of their group-attack starter ability, in addition they are also the consumate de-buffer to boot. I usually don't really enjoy playing rogue-likes, but the Burglar is a lot more and thus, imho, a lot more fun to play.

I have an ASUS TOP/CU 5850 and I have to say, it is a beast for the price and can handle just about anything thrown at it in 1920x1080 w/ settings maxed, including FFXIV, well, at least from what the FFXIV benchmark says. The only thing it can't handle maxxed is stuff like Metro and Crysis 2, but even those it handles really well. Not to mention that you can overclock the hell out a 5850, or even a 5870...I have been a nVidia fan-boy since I got into PC gaming, but when I started doing research a few months ago to prepare for the new rig I was building (which I am using now), it was just impossible to ignore ATi's dominance this (and last) generation. I swore off ATi back in the days of RAGE, b/c everything was shit, but I really had to eat crow building this rig as I love my 5850 and am happier with it then I was with my last 3 nVidia GPU's (ge-force 4, 5700 Ultra, and 7800 GTX if anyone is interested).

In the ever important price/performance factor the last two-gens of ATi have been totally destroying nVidia's offerings, and by destroying I mean it's as if ATi shoved a tactical nuclear warhead up nVidia's ass and detonated it...twice. That being said, if you can afford them, the 480's are impressive pieces of hardware and will put out better framerates, and benchmarks in most games compared to a 5870...so why don't people prefer the 480's? it's a combination of their heat and power consumption, and their much higher price point, and there's the big problem.

nVidia priced the 480's so high that they aren't in the same price bracket as the 5870, but rather are priced closer to the 5970 which is a dual-gpu solution, and when compared, the 480's generally don't measure up to a 5970 except when you get into games that use a very specific type of rendering and such. A lot of people say that this comparision isn't really fair as you're comparing a single-GPU card to a dual-GPU card, but if you ask me what is more fair then comparing the two competing companies products that are priced closest to each other. The 480's have physx, cuda, and 3D support built-in, so that is definitely something to take into considertation, but b/c of nVidia's low market-share the last few gens, fewer and fewer devs and publishers are willing to take the time, and spend the money to implement these closed, proprietary features that such a small fraction of the demo will ever use.

Basically, nVidia's hardware IS superior, but b/c of absurd pricing, ATi offers much better bang-for-the-buck. So if you can afford to ignore that and spend the money, then nVidia is the way to go, but if price is a factor, then you will be much better served w/ an ATi.

I doubt your system can run EQ2 @ max settings. I am not putting down your rig by any means, EQ2's engine was designed for the "next,next-gen" of single-core CPU's...which were never made b/c the industry went multi-core in the "next-gen" and never looked back. SoE never took the time, or invested the cash, to fix this major flaw in their engines design. In their defense though, they would have to almost totally rewrite the engine to change it.

As I said though, EQ2 was designed w/ super-powered single-core proc's in mind that never materialized, and even though they have optimized it, very slightly, to take some of the load of the proc and put it onto the GPU, it is still VERY HEAVILY cpu dependant and only the super-nice, and super-expensive i7's (or maybe the core-duo extremes from last gen) coupled w/ a 480 or 5870 and plenty o' RAM can run the game w/ all settings maxed @ 60fps, anyone who tells you anything different is either lying, or deluded. My system is fairly nice (Phenom II X4 955 BE, 5850 1GB, 4GB DDR3 1600)  and I can only run the game w/ med-high settings @ a steady 30+fps.

Yeah, EQ2 is an awesome game tbh, it's sad that the way they are doing the F2P is going to just kill the population on the subscription-servers b/c of how they are setting up the free-trial and character transfers/copies once F2P goes live....

That being said, the "out of memory" issue you mention has been with the game for a very, very long time. Basically, the only thing that fixes it is to reboot your computer and once you load it up again try lowering your settings, after each time you lower the settings alt-tab out of the game to clear what is loaded into memory so you start fresh. Basically, just keep lowering your settings until you don't get that error anymore...I know, it's a pain in the arse and the error itself seems to stem from a problem w/ the game keeping data "cached' in memory and it just keeps building and building until your out of physical memory and the game has no room to load anything else and crashes. The only way I found to deal with it (besides getting a new, better, faster system) is to follow the procedure I outlined above. I guess I should also throw out there the fact that this may not be the actual cause of the error, but what I gathered from years of experience w/ the error, again on my old system as I haven't had it since I built my new comp w/ a nice quad-core CPU, 4GBs of DDR3, and a 5850 w/ 1GB of video-memory.

If you don't mind me asking, what server are you playing on, the server you play on really affects the quality of your experience in EQ2 with the best communities being on Lucan D'Lere and Antonia Bayle (in that order), at least imho. Anyway, glad you found the game, it really is pretty enjoyable and is definitely under-rated in the MMO community, mostly b/c the game was pretty bad at launch, not so much due to bugs or lag or anything, but rather b/c the way the game was set-up. But over the years they have surely, and steadily chipped away at the stone and really sculpted EQ2 into one of the best MMO's out there, again, at least imho ;)

@ tehjackal That is a hella nice set-up you got there mate, and a nice system too. I know you paid out the arse for that sweet rig, especially buying from ibuypower, they build some absolutely beautiful systems, but charge an arm and a leg. I wish I could afford a system like that...one day I hope, that said I still wouldn't buy from a builder, as I enjoy building them myself and being able to throw that kind of money at a machine to build myself would be a dream.

Here's my system specs, don't have any current pics of how everything is set up, but it's nothing extroadinary really...

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE 125W C3 @ 3.2ghz

Mobo: Gigabyte 890GPA-UD3H AM3 890GX

Memory: 4GB (2GBx2) G.Skill ECO DDR3 1600 @ 8-8-8-24-2T

GPU: ASUS DIRECTCU TOP/2DS/1GD5 ATI Radeon HD 5850 1GB

PSU: Antec EarthWatts 750W

HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB

ODD: HP dvd1270i 24x DVD-R/RW/Multi w/ Lightscribe

Card Reader: AFT XM-35U Kiosk

Case: Antec 902

Monitor: ASUS VH226H Black 21.5" 2ms(GTG) HDMI Widescreen 16:9

Keyboard: Logitech G15 (v.1, hope to get the new one soon)

Mouse: Razer Naga

I always enter most of the contests here and I've been wondering something...

You guys usually give "bonus entries" for days logged into the site during the duration of the contest. Down at the bottom of a contest page, in a little box, it displays how many of these "bonus entries" have been earned, and how many "Total Contestants" there are thus far in the contest. So, I was wondering if this "total contestant" number being displayed is the total number of individual contestants that have entered the contest, i.e. not counting "bonus entries"; or are "bonus entries" counted as an individual contestants and included in that number? I'm just wondering b/c I like to use that "total contestant" number to get a rough idea of my odds, but if that number isn't showing "bonus entries" people have earned then it's kind of pointless to try and figure that out.

Thanks.

edit: Sorry if I posted this in the wrong section, but this seemed to be the one that fit best for my question.

Originally posted by alithanar8

Well this might be interesting, I just hope BW decides that, given their loyalty to story in all their other games, they bring back an RP server... the lack of one is the only thing keeping me from dropping WoW like a bag of rat droppings and going back to WAR.

 

WoW, all the WAR RP servers were closed w/ the server merges? That's freakin lame, from what I remember (I was/am a "Veteran Beta Tester") the RP servers were the highest populated around launch. I played on Phoenix Throne (at least, I believe that's what it was called) and can remember it being fairly well populated....although, all the servers were well populated at launch so I guess that doesn't count for much.

That really is pretty surprising though that they'd make all the remaining servers "core" servers as WAR is an ideal game for RP servers, not to mention that, at last check, the RP servers from DAoC were still the most highly populated. Oh well, I'm sure at least one of these remaining servers is an "unoffical" RP server, but it's still not the same.

Gods...I am still bitter about how WAR turned out, what the hell were they thinking, if they would have just made an updated, improved DAoC-2 in the Warhammer universe that game would have been the f'n shiznit. But noooooooo, they just had to try and emulate WoW *sigh*

Anywho, lets just hope that when SW:TOR is released there is at least one RP server..

Originally posted by LordDraekon

Blizzard needs to stop restoring accounts that are playing with altered game clients. I remember how good it sounded during WoW's beta when it was said that Blizzard was putting tools in place to deter anyone hacking the game client. That was until Thottbot started datamining and the floodgates opened. Originally, we were told that they were allowing add-ons so they could learn how to combat the hacks.

Then the suits figured out pretty quick that the inconvenience of restoring compromised accounts was far outweighed by allowing the chumps who made the add-ons to do much of the development grunt work. How else do you think that changes to the UI were instituted? They just look for the add-ons that get used the most, pick them apart, and graft them into the client without having to worry about pesky details like compensation for labor.

If you use add-ons (I won't even talk about buying gold or leveling services), you have only yourself to blame for your account being compromised.

There's two things opinions in this therad that I have a problem with, add-on hate, and the idea that if someones WoW account is compromised, then it's that persons own fault.

I really don't understand all the add-on hate, not that it's anything new, I've run into plenty of people that seem to think that using add-ons are "cheating". But going so far as to say that if you use add-ons then it's your own fault you were hacked... I'm sorry but that's just ignorant.

Yes, I readily admit that it IS possible for someone to slip a keylogger into an add-on, but as long as you are careful you won't ever have a problem using add-ons. The RESPONSIBLE add-on sites, namely the ***interface.com sites (EQ2interface, WoWinterface etc.) will not post an add-on if the author doesn't submit their code for review to ensure that there isn't any malicous code in the add-on, and if they find anything even remotely malicous or something undocumented then the add-on is never posted for download. I don't know for sure, but I don't think Curse does this, and I know the majority of the smaller add-on sites don't, and that's why I don't use them, and strongly caution people to stay away from those sites. Not to mention the fact that the sdk used for WoW add-ons is limited in what it can do, and even though it does use Lua, it uses a limited version that makes executing malicous code in-game almost impossible. For an add-on to contain a key-logger it would have to be something executed outside the game, like an installer package, or even possibly a data-miner, but again, as long as you are careful, add-ons are totally safe.

I have used add-ons since EQ first started allowing UI customization, and have used them in EQ, DAoC, EQ2, WoW, LoTRO, WAR, and others, and am careful about where I download the add-ons from and have only ever had my account compromised once. And guess which game that was in? Yup, WoW, and I know that it wasn't b/c of an add-on.

When my WoW account was "compromised", I hadn't played WoW in over a year, and as soon as I became aware that my account had been reactivated I thoroughly checked my computer and archived files (including old WoW add-ons I saved incase I wanted to play again) for keyloggers/trojans etc and didn't find anything. And I know my way around a computer, I didn't just use Norton or McAfee, spybot or adaware, or any other programs that are easily fooled. I manually went through my registry, used a combination of Process Explorer-type process viewers and a wonderful little tool called Hijack-This, and some other utilities specially designed to find shit in your system and/or files where others fail, and found nothing. Maybe someone lifted my info from a fansite? Maybe, but it wouldn't do them much good as I use different passwords for different types of things, and would never use the same password for a website and a game or bank log-in or something.

The point is, I am very careful about these protecting my personal info, data, and computer and yet, magically my WoW account was compromised. I am not one for conspiracy theories but there definitely IS something going on here, too many people are having their accounts compromised, it especially seems prevelant amongst those people that have an inactive WoW account.

Personally, my account was compromised around the time that Blizz changed the WoW log-in to corespond w/ bnet log-in, and I think that during that time they possibly had a major security leak and just never told anyone. And why would they? They are NOT obligated to tell you if your personal information was, or may have been compromised b/c of their actions. It just seems that there was a rash of accounts compromised around that time, too many for it to be a coincidence.

Another possibility, albeit a very remote one, is that there is a "mole" inside Blizzard that is selling peoples account info to unscroupulous characters/companies. And yet another possibility, and I hesitate to even say it b/c it is bordering even closer to a "conpiracy theory" and just sounds ridiculous imo, is that Activision-Blizzard is purosefully doing all this to drive sales of authenticators.

Note that I don't actually believe these last two, I'm just throwing them out there. I think that a majority of the compromised accounts are b/c of people not being careful with their info, but there are just sooo many people coming forward saying their accounts were compromised that I find it hard to believe that all these people were simply not careful. Before it happened to me I held the same view that a lot of people in this thread do, but I KNOW that I was more then careful and yet still had problems.

tldr version: Add-ons are totally safe as long as you are careful, and I believe there are too many accounts being compromised for it to all be coincidental, or the individuals fault.

Originally posted by bobbyjr

Every single account compromoise has come from the players side.  You can deny it all you want, but that is what has happened.  I can prove numerous ways people get hacked client side. YOU cannot prove even one single way accoutns have been hacked through blizzards side. That is FACT. Not opinion.

 

Though i know the conspirarcy theorists will come in here to try and debunk it, as they seem to either get a kick from blaming others, or just flat out refuse to take the blame for something that happened on their side.

Your statement, that "Every single account compromoise has come from the players side", is even more ridiculous imo then some of the conspiracy theories just b/c it's making such a sweeping accusation. Just like the "conspiracy theorists" can't prove that there is such a conspiracy, you can't even begin to prove that "ever single account compromise has come from the player side". That is NOT fact, it IS opinion. Are many, if not most of the compromises user error or complacency? Yes, probably. I am more then willing to admit that.

But, and this is a huge but, I know from personal experience that all compromises are not the fault of the user. How do I know this?

Like I siad in my last post, I have had my account reactivated after almost a full year of dissuse where I didn't even so much as attempt to log into WoW, Bnet, or any Blizzard site. On top of that, I work in IT, and took acredited college courses in network administration and security, programming (BASIC, C, C+, C++, C#, HTML, XML, etc.), hardware, web site design and more. I'm not saying I know everything, or am some expert, and I am certainly not saying that b/c of my education I am immune to "hacking" or making mistakes that could compromise my private personal information. What I am saying though is that I know my way around computers, I know how to protect myself and my data, I know how to detect, and remove viruses/trojans/etc without the use of any "anti-virus" software, and all that good stuff.

Now, I became aware that my WoW account had been reactived, and used w/o my authorization within 24 hours of it being reactivated. The absolute first thing I did when I found this out, even before contacting Blizzard, was to thoroughly check my computer (which had not been reformatted since I cancelled my WoW sub), to ensure that I didn't have any keyloggers/trojans/what-have-you, and that nothing else was at risk. I didn't find anything. Nothing. No trace of a trojan, keylogger, or any such tool of malicousness. While I had removed WoW itself and all related files, I still had the add-ons I use archived in case I ever wanted to return, so I examined the code of all of them, and again, nothing. Now, I admit that it is a possibility that someone infiltrated my system without my knowledge, accessed my data, and bounced again without me ever knowing or leaving a trace. But that doesn't really make sense, it's an awful lot of trouble for someone to go through to gain access to data and then proceed to use ONLY my WoW log-in info. Seriously. I mean, if that happened then that person would have had all my personal financial data including credit card #s, bank account #s, and all the personal info to make use of said info....but if someone did get all that info, why in gods name would that only act on the WoW log-in? Totally non-sensical.

I'm not saying that all this is definitely someone on this inside, or that there is a conspiracy. All I am saying is that I am 99% sure that my account being compromised was no fault of mine, and that I have yet to find exactly how it happened. To be honest, I almost wish that I had found something on my computer or that I had goofed and fallen for a phishing scam, b/c then I would know what happened and could take steps to prevent it from happening again. But as it is, I am still in the dark, wondering exactly how this happened.