Blizzard Bans Single Player Cheaters

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I'm against cheating on principle, but this is a tad ridiculous. I'm curious as to what others think about it...

Achievements. There are a ton of them available in single-player, many with cosmetic rewards.

I'm bad, and that's good. I will never be good, and that's not bad. There's no one I'd rather be than me.

Dumb, for many obvious reasons. I never bothered with SC 2 because I don't like games with silly DRM, and the first game is better anyway.

For what they're worth, achievements are a "leader board" of sorts within the community.

"But don't give up hope. Everyone is cured sooner or later. In the end we shall shoot you." - O'Brien, 1984

Atleast it makes sense. That's why I only cheat offline, where it doesn't hurt anybody but myself.

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How can you know the first game is better if you haven't played the second one, which is what the phrasing implies?

Watched gameplay videos, played on a friend's computer, researched stuff about it.

My conclusion is that the first game is still more balanced.

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Well, duh. I could've told you that without looking at anything, SC 1 is over 10 years old and received balance patches for years. SC 2 hasn't even gotten its first expansion. Was SC 1 balanced before Brood War?

edited 12th Oct '10 12:58:17 AM by Clarste

Blizzard has also been banning people for using inventory managers in Diablo 2. These things affect only people who play single player, D2 has no trophies (it predates the concept)

The most famous of these is Jammela, which allows you to save items to send over email for trading purposes, and to allow for trading between characters on the same computer.

To reiterate, the program cannot affect close realm play, but Blizzard will perma ban anyone found using it via Warden.

^^ Very well said Clarste. *applauds*

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"How can you know the first game is better if you haven't played the second one, which is what the phrasing implies?"

I played it and decided it wasn't worth buying.

Personally I played Dawn of War 2, I don't need to play Starcraft 2.

If they can detect cheating, they can nuke the achievements. Locking people out of the games they payed for because they cheated in single player is borderline criminal behavior.

I'm all for banning cheaters in multiplayer but how I choose to play a game in single player is my business.

Jesus. I already had no intention of making a battle.net account for Diablo III after the RealID dumbfuckery, but do I have to kill its Internet access entirely just so I can use whatever the equivalent of Jammela is going to be?

Dumb solution for Blizzard: if the game detects any hints of such a program, lock out the achievements and Battle.net until they're turned off.

The blind man walking off the cliff is not making a leap of faith.

+1

Yeah, but see, that would be too fucking logical, plus it wouldn't screw people out of the product that they paid good money for and force them to buy ANOTHER copy if they want to play again. (Pirating? Bitch, please, there's NO way they could get on bnet with a pirated copy!)

/sigh

Well, at least now I can actually choose not to buy SC2 or Diablo 3 on their own merits now, rather than simply because Blizzard got in bed with Evil Incorporated Activision. Yay?

edited 12th Oct '10 6:09:14 AM by Reflextion

By the licensing terms of most games, you don't own them; you're acquiring the right to play them as long as you agree to and comply with the terms. If the terms spell out that you can't use any cheaters/trainers/etc. and that you may be monitored to ensure that you're complying, and you violate those rules, then Blizz (or any company) is within its rights to revoke your ability to play the game. You, in turn, have the right to not play the game if you don't agree with the terms.

Whether it's "fair" or "right" for them to do so is a separate debate entirely. Because I never got into competitive multiplayer in Diablo, trainers extended the life of the game a bit for me when I just wanted to make myself stupid OP and slaughter everything. However, if I got my account locked out of the blue because I wasn't expecting Blizz to be watching my single-player behavior, I'd be a bit pissed off.

edited 12th Oct '10 7:07:13 AM by Fighteer

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"

The first game had 12 years of balance patching to get anywhere near right. You should have seen how imbalanced some things were in 2000, 2001 and 2002.

"Allah may guide their bullets, but Jesus helps those who aim down the sights."

I am aware of that, as I started playing SC I back in 2000.

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^ That doesn't mean slagging off SC 2 for being imbalanced in its early life is acceptable ya know.

"Allah may guide their bullets, but Jesus helps those who aim down the sights."

Slagging it off when Blizzard is pulling this shit however, is perfectly reasonable.

That's true ... in some legislations. I wouldn't be surprised if Blizz violates several privacy laws in other countries by phoning home activities in a single player game.

Er, no, the two are completely unrelated. Using hacks and trainers has jack all to do with whether a game has 10 years of balance polish at release. If you don't want to buy the game because of Blizzard's stance toward single-player cheating, fine, but that's an entirely different thing from not buying the game because you think it's unbalanced.

^ That would have to be tested in court. Anyway, if the game requires battle.net verification to play, then it's an "online" game whether you're playing it in singleplayer mode or not.

edited 12th Oct '10 1:57:18 PM by Fighteer

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"

The first one is arguably better through better map design and superior balance, but if you enjoyed the first game, I don't get why you wouldn't enjoy the second. The gameplay is largely the same and it's sitll got the SC character and feel. Not to mention that this SP campaign, far, far outclasses the SCI and BW campaigns.

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