Imagine going to bed and waking up the next morning to find that your WoW Toon gathered up 5 stacks of Heavy Clefthoof Leather and 25 stacks of Knothide Leather, not to mention acquiring some gold and a few good loot drops. Too good to be true you say? Well, in a sense you are right, but it does exist.
Blizzard Entertainment recently banned a huge number of WoW Accounts because they were found to be using Glider, a program which according to their website ... "plays your World of Warcraft character for you, the way you want it. It grinds, it loots, it skins, it heals, it even farms soul shards... without you."
Blizzard Entertainment is currently in the middle of a lawsuit against the makers of Glider, MDY Industries, claiming that it violates their EULA (End-User License Agreement). They are seeking injunctive and monetary damages, essentially saying that they want to stop production of Glider. They claim that it allows players to cheat, giving them an unfair advantage over players who do not use automation software.
Now I personally do not see anything wrong with the application. It doesn't alter Blizzard's source code by any means. It does not PvP for you with skills beyond human capability. All it does is grind, farm and gather for you. I would love to have a program to do my farming while I sleep so I could dedicate my play time to raiding dungeons and actually be able to afford my repair bills.
How do you feel about it?
Monday, June 2, 2008
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17 comments:
It's Blizard's game, so I have no problem with the bannings.
They have been more than responsive with the way they implimented daily quests to help offset the cost of raiding. I cna run through just the Sunwell Island dailies in under an hour and have enough gold to cover raid expenses for an evening.
You are using an out of game resource to give you an unfair advantage. It's as bad as using eBay gold.
'nuff said
Douglas - The problem with the massive ban was that it banned players who did NOT use Glider as well. In fact, because of it there is a player-wide outcry for a way to contact Blizzard out of the game. There is even speculation of it turning into a good old-fashioned Class-Action Suit.
Yes, the dailies are very lucrative. But take my situation for instance. I work all day, come home, eat dinner and as soon as I log in, its raid time. After raid, its bed time. On the nights I don't raid, I live life. Now, its just as unfair for some people to play far more hours than I do and acquire many more riches than me, but I don't complain because I understand the situation.
This tool would be perfect for players like me who actually have lives outside of the game and would still like to be able to afford (in game) the cost of raiding.
Richard - An unfair advantage to what, Richard? Farming? Questing?
This thing is not doing Arena for you and getting a 2000+ rating. This thing is not doing BGs for you and getting you thousands of honor each day. It's simply gathering leathers, herbs or mining ore. Either that, or it is grinding monsters for you. Who is that unfair to?
I'm not defending it, I am really interested in starting a full-blown discussion about this.
In response to you, Messyah:
It is unfair in the sense that if you do set aside an hour to farm up some leather, etc. and one or more of these glider "bots" is working your herds, you stand 0% chance of them ever leaving or going AFK. At the very least, you can say, "well, I'll go quest and farm after" and see if they're gone, and in my experience, they are. With a program like Glider, they won't ever leave!
Rocknoats;
1. I like to think that I am smarter than a BOT, and I am certainly more capable of out-farming one.
2. The Glider BOT is only capable of farming at the skills and limitations of the Toon it controls. Hence, if you can kill more than 1 thing at a time and do more damage than the botted toon, you still will outfarm it.
3. So, what if you come across a real person farming "your crop" the entire day. What then? You still have to wait your turn, or jump in amd make the best of it.
4. Not everyone has an extra hour to set aside to farm and/or do dailies. As I stated, I am on limited time. I know people with newborns who enjoy playing the game, but can only manage a few hours each week. Blizzard always stands by the idea that WoW is designed for the casual player, but when it comes to money vs. raiding, the casual player will always be broke.
I don't expect you to share my opinion about Glider, but you have to admit that in order to progress into end-game content and remain financially sound, you have to be the type of player that puts a good 5-6 hours in each day at least.
Messyah -
The dailies are only 1 way Blizard has added as a way to allow people to gain gold. There are other ways to cover their raiding expenses without having to resort to botting.
In addition to running dailies, I also have several AH Alt toons that I use to buy/sell/trade items on the AH.
In the span of about 10 minutes, I can purchase 5 stacks of Adamantite ore, prospect it into Gems, cut the gems and relist them on the AH. I usually can get around a 30-50% return on those cut gems.
I also trade the Mote/Primal Market, this doesn't even require a profession. Check the cost of a Primal (say Air at 25g) then look at the cost of the Motes. If the Motes are selling less than 2.25g each, buy them, combine into a Primal & relist for a quick 2.5g profit.
A lot of the time, the motes will be even lower than the equivalent primal.
There are ways to gain gold in WoW that don't require a big time investment without breaking the ToS.
First a post saying Dalies are killing the game, then you want to make botting legal? WTF? You wanna wreck the economy, let people be logged in 24/7, farming when they're not playing. I'm sorry you don't have time to do dailies AND farm AND raid. Neither do I. I'm NEVER gonna see endgame content. Not enough time/gear/knowledge/skill (skill at typing, btw. Remember, all we're doing is typing at a cartoon). Sorry, but this really pushes a hot-button for me. Botting is cheating. There should be a real person behind the toons you meet in-game. I've had people, my own faction, run up and smack a node I'm already mining, then runn off. Wouldn't respond to /w. A bot? Never thought of that before, but maybe so. And that's just plain rude. I'd quit the @#$%ing game if they made botting legal. /boggle!
Gotta agree with above. If you don't have time to raid and fund your raiding legitimately, don't raid. Otherwise, clear something in your schedule to get a little more WoW time. If you don't think WoW warrants that, then you shouldn't be raiding.
In my mind, if you're using Glider, you're cheating. You're gaining an unfair advantage, economically, through the use of a tool that is banned by Blizzard. The more Glider abusers involved in an economy, the more gold floods the economy. This leads to server inflation. Server inflation due to abuse of Glider is irritating to players like me, who play the game legitimately and don't have a bot farming for them 24/7 and have to come about their gold in ways Blizzard intended.
Douglas - First of all, Blizzard had no fore-sight when they added Jewelcrafting as a profession. Something as simple buying gems, cutting them and re-listing them is a slap in the face to all other professions. Alchemists have to wait a day for each transmute, tailors have to wait 3-4 days for a simple piece of cloth and JCs can cut an unlimited number of gems each day.
Also, buying and selling on the AH can be lucrative, but it requires the time to constantly watch auctions, bids and buyouts. That means more game time, which as I stated, not everyone has.
On my server, primals and motes have gone through the roof because not that many people farm anymore. It's all dailies, raiding and PvP.
Bobo - What is the difference between botting and hiring a leveling/farming service, which are "legal"?
There was a guild on my old server who was notorious for mining nodes you are mining, ninja'ing herbs (or mines) while you are fighting something right beside it, and even herbalizing the tree guys in Skettis after you killed and looted it. This is real people behind the helm, simply being inconsiderate a**holes.
Anonymous - You sound like one of those nutjobs that puts game life over real life, like that couple who starved their kids because they were playing WoW.
Our server, Exodar, has been bombarded with server inflation but not because of botters. It's due to the large amount of money one can acquire simply by doing dailies.
Technically, Glider has not yet been been deemed against Blizzard's ToS, which is why they are in court. Blizzard took it upon themselves to ban any account suspected of using it.
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I'm not necessarily defending Glider or other bot programs. I do take offense to Blizzard attacking this bot when I am constantly spammed by bots to purchase cheap gold, pay to get my toons leveled or amazingly to me, to vote for Hillary Clinton. LOL
If it is one or the other, I would choose farming over dailies. The problem is, Blizzard has made it less lucrative to farm than to do dailies. Something like this would even the playing field, at least until Blizzard comes to their senses and balances it themselves.
"What is the difference between botting and hiring a leveling/farming service, which are "legal"?
There was a guild on my old server who was notorious for mining nodes you are mining, ninja'ing herbs (or mines) while you are fighting something right beside it, and even herbalizing the tree guys in Skettis after you killed and looted it. This is real people behind the helm, simply being inconsiderate a**holes."
Leveling services are not "legal" as they involve sharing an account, which is an EULA violation.
If there's a guild full of "inconsiderate a**holes" social pressures can be applied (although you probably found the ultimate solution, since you say they're on an ex-server).
Never mind that you're asking for it to be okay to pay someone to play a game for you that you're paying to play. Never mind that there's no justification for cheating. I think you're fronting, just to see what people will post :P Your real issue is with server inflation, isn't it? Botting won't fix it, it'd only make it worse (unless you're the only one allowed to bot).
Blizzard is hit-or-miss, inconsistent and unnecessarily obtuse, but if they just roll over and let cheaters prosper, they'll lose the people that don't, and that's a lot more subs than they can afford.
They are letting cheaters prosper, they still have Warlocks and Shaman in the game. ROFLMAO j/k
Ok, it's obvious I'm not going to sway you from your opinion about needing to Bot to be able to play.
I'm just saying one can have a life and raid without having to Bot to get by.
I have 3 lvl 70's that were all leveled by me. I work 50+hrs a week, and have a life outside of WoW, but still find time to earn enough gold and raid a couple of nights a week with a BT/MH guild on our server.
You're wrong about needing to constantly watch the AH to make it lucrative. My AH time takes 15 min. in the morning. I have a list of items I watch, I buy anything below XX gold, and put up items at the same time. I log on to my AH alt before I leave for work, get my gold from the previous day out of the mail, pick up the unsold items, and hit the AH to relist, buy & sell. No constant auction watching & I'm able to feed my mains enough gold and consumables for raiding.
And it's the fact that primals HAVE gone thru the roof that allows me to make gold in that 15 min.
Buying out 10 motes selling at 2g ea an relisting them as a primal selling at 25g is easy money & doesn't take any time.
To say that Bliz had no foresight in adding JC by comparing it to Alchemy. I think you're dead wrong with your example of Alchemy. Yes, the Cooldown on Alchemy sucks, but that isn't alchemy's only means of money generation. You can buy herbs and sell potions/elixirs and with the Mastery procs, you get free potions/elixirs, so that's free money right there.
I'm sorry you feel that the only way you can gain enjoyment from the game is to have to violate Bliz EULA with Glider. I hope you don't get banned.
Douglas,
I won't get banned because I am not using it. I stated in my article that I wouldn't use it because it has been deemed a violation and is in litigation.
I'm not arguing because I use the mod, I am arguing the fact that I don't see it as being cheating such as so many others do.
My solution has been to take a week off each month from raiding so I can farm, sell mats and BoE items I get from farming, and once in a great while I will do dailies.
I don't care what you say, if there was such a thing as an OP profession, Jewelcrafting is definitely it. You get gems for free from the Consortium, you can make gems now and most of all, you can usually buy crap loads of uncut gems at a fraction of the cost, cut them and make thousands of gold in a manner of a few minutes. I'm not suggesting it be nerfed, I am merely stating that no other profession has that luxury.
Hell, look at the amount of primals and skins leatherworkers have to gather just to make an armor kit that sells for 50-100g, and that's essentially at cost.
Heavy Clefthoof leather is selling for 90g/stack (20) on my server now. Since my Tauren Hunter just ding'ed 70, and he is a LW, that's all I do with him when I can. He's parked at Garadar, and only shows his face when I get some time to farm Clefthoofs. Btw, I will sick my pet on one, MD another onto my pet and freeze a 3rd, so I am farming 3 at a time. (Hunters are good like that) I can't tell you how many times I have been told that "hunters are OP", "Leave some for us", "you're not being fair", and a good old-fashioned "Go away!" LOL
Couple of issues that haven't been raised here. 1) If you are botting, you are denying a RL person (or another botter!) the chance at earning that farmed material.
2) I have noticed that the drop rate is dependant on how actively farmed the item is. It really does differ from day to day as far as I can see. For example, Elemental plateu. Sometimes the drop rate is one mote per kill (average), other times its 0.2 motes/kill.
3) They also recently nerfed Hunters with boar pets specifically, we hunters think that has a large degree due to the botting. With boars you would almost guarantee not to pull aggro, now you have to do alot of tricks and more actively manage your pet. Makes it difficult for botters.
All this says to me that Blizz is very serious about botters. I won't deny that their customer service does suck, and many people have been unfairly caught up in it. However, I want to be able to play the game too, and be able to get my clefthoof set. Its more difficult to do that when the drop rate is so low that thousands of clefthoof are required.
On the other hand (and this was your point I think), I see the poor rationale in banning people who bring much needed supplies into the game now that we have much more money at our disposal. My thought is that Blizz not only wants to make raiding easier, but they also want people who are leveling professions to spend more time in game acquiring the resources they need (in a legit fashion). It goes back to the time-sink philosophy - the more time they make casuals invest in the game, the more money they make.
Oh and JC is obsenely OP. They really need to introduce CDs on it. But here's the thing, its completely player-driven economics. The JCs have all decided to a) remove many uncut gems from market b) make a ton of money from just cuts. Each JC pattern costs a ton of money, so you need to charge alot just to break even. And most of these pats can be aquired either through consortium, purchase on AH, or SSO/badges. Whereas with something like LW or Enchant, the rep pats are all over the place.
I remember one guy mentioning on a forum in 2.2 or thereabouts, that he made tens of thousands of gold just JCing, log in every day, prospect, cut, profit.
Perhaps its the *only* craft prof to make money? I do LW/enchant, almost none of LW stuff is sellable at profit, even epic/rares. (I sold my first epic for 100g profit, but i paid 600g for pat, i doubt i'll be able to sell 6 more to break even). Faradhim mentioned the trick of making something and DEing it. Usually the LW mats are the same cost as the DE mats, so no profit there. And so many times (again even with very high end stuff such as riding crops) the cost of the finished product is less than the mats go for, sometimes much less. Its the players that have no idea how to price items and feel they must screw up the market for everyone. If the real world was like this, everyone would starve.
No matter how you look at it, BOTing is cheating... Why? Simply because you're not playing the game while the program is running. It would be the same concept as having a remote control car in a NASCAR race. See what I'm getting at? If you bot, you're gaining an unfair advantage over other players who aren't. If Blizzard did, on the other hand, allow everyone to bot, there would be no point in playing the game anymore because there would be no satisfaction in achieving otherwise difficult goals, such as buying a flying mount, etc.. I'm very disappointed that the writers of such a great blog would condone such behavior.
If you don't have time to raise the gold to support your raiding then you shouldn't be raiding. That is the plain and simple truth. I'm sorry you might not like to hear it but there it is.
Using a program to grind rep or gather materials for you is an unfair advantage over the player who does take the time to do these things to support their in game ambitions.
What is the advantage you ask?
All the rewards that come from the end game content. The badges, the Epics, the shards and the other drops from the raid. Even the trash in the end game dungeons drop materials that are in high demand in the WoW economy.
If you use a program to farm for you so you can spend your time raiding you are getting the advantage of those rewards that are only available to end game raiding players.
On a PVP server botters are simply known as free honor kills. And if they are in your faction there are creative ways to take care of them also.
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