Blizzard Bans StarCraft II Player for Cheating

[EmptyTimCup]

Blizzard Bans StarCraft II Player for Cheating Against AI


But there’s a twist: Gm0ney got suspended for gaming the system against the game’s AI, not for mobilizing his illicit fleet against other players. He might have been playing online, but no other players were directly affected by his actions.

Still, gm0ney got caught up in a sweep, during which Blizzard reportedly banned 5,000 StarCraft players for cheating.

The ban of a player for tweaking his solo experience is the latest gamemaker move to call into question the limits of gamers’ rights. Once you bring a piece of software home, whose business is it to tell you how to use it? Should a game company be allowed to ban you from using mods and hacks against an AI opponent? The interconnected nature of online gaming creates a gray area that means players can get punished for activities that seemingly cause no harm to anyone.

StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, which Blizzard released in July for PC and Mac, carries with it an explicit anti-cheating policy that forbids players from using “any file or program that is not a part of the StarCraft II software, but is used to gain an advantage in the game.”

if you are playing against the AI, it is nobody's business how you win .......


Online yeah everything should be on the level ....



Hmmm ...........

False Achievements

Blizzard has another reason for cracking down on single-player cheats: They can affect users’ online profiles.

“While single-player games only appear to be you and a computer at first, your achievements and gamer score also [carry] weight and prestige for your online play,” Blizzard wrote to another Cheat Happens user, according to O’Rorke.

Starcraft II dangles more than 400 achievements — virtual trophies for completing difficult or tedious tasks — in front of players. Battle.net public profiles keep a record of those achievements, so gamers can brag and show off their accomplishments to the rest of the world.

 

[Warron]

It's likely that the software they use to scan for cheating can't tell the difference between a match between players and with an ai. An online match is an online match.

The solution is to not use a multiplayer match when you want to play single player. And why would you even have a friends list within a game if you didn't play multiplayer?

The other issue is the crappy achievements they put in all the games these days. Designers and fanboys seem the think they have value although they add absolutely nothing to gameplay and can be used for nothing.

In the linked article blizzard says "But if players are allowed to use cheats to get them, achievements become meaningless." What they fail to realize is that achievements have always been meaningless. Who cares if you've killed a hundred billion zombies in dead rising. I'm not interested in a pissing contest between 12 year olds on who's better at the game. I buy the games for my entertainment, not to compete with others.

 

[GWguy]

Maybe the answer is to turn off the game, step outside, breathe the air and get a real life.

 

[Severa]

I buy the games for my entertainment, not to compete with others.

Same here. I started playing World of Warcraft this summer. I'm having fun just playing the game, being part of a really nice guild. That being said, it doesn't take a whole lot of watching trade/general chat to pick out the real mental cases.

 

[EmptyTimCup]

In the linked article blizzard says "But if players are allowed to use cheats to get them, achievements become meaningless." What they fail to realize is that achievements have always been meaningless. Who cares if you've killed a hundred billion zombies in dead rising. I'm not interested in a pissing contest between 12 year olds on who's better at the game. I buy the games for my entertainment, not to compete with others.

there is a Steam Achievement Hack out now ........ apparently the data is stored client side until you reach the magic # for whatever achievement then a msg is sent to the steam server .....