Legal

RIFT's come under siege as of late, but instead of that siege being the "vicious creatures from another planar dimension" variety, it's been the players themselves. Trion Worlds has posted that the game became infested with botters over the recent holidays, so the team has taken action.

"As of today, we've already shut down a few thousand accounts over the recent rise in fishing botting, and we've begun removing gains from others in places of extreme bot use. A good number of these botters were brought in, as is often the case, on stolen credit cards and fraudulent RIFT purchases," the development team wrote.

The studio said that while the situation is being dealt with, disabled gamers who use keyboard-assistance software are advised not to use these programs (but aren't forbidden from doing so, either). Trion has plans for "a more creative content solution" for the botting issue that will come in the future.

The sun has set on 38 Studios, but there's still a lot of people eager to analyze and dissect the company's rise and sharp decline. As a whole, it's been looked at and analyzed extensively from the gaming side, but the other factors that went into the studio's enormous state loan and subsequent burnout are examined more closely in a new video. This isn't about whether or not Project Copernicus would have been any good; this is about simple business and political pressures that doomed the project from the start.

Curt Schilling started 38 Studios at the end of his baseball career, but it was a well-known fact that his attempts to court venture capitalists were unsuccessful. The video goes into depth regarding the political climate that encouraged Rhode Island legislators to sign the historic and ill-advised loan, as well as the factors leading to the company's ultimate demise. If you're interested in a broader view now that the smoke has cleared, take a look at the full video past the cut.

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A couple of days ago, Massively reported that The War Z looked as though the trademark for its name would be suspended by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, forcing the game to choose another title. The game's creator, Sergey Titov, is disputing the suspension, however.

Corresponding with Kotaku, Titov said that he had received no such notice and is investigating the situation. "I assume what you see is one of the preliminary applications since it said that it suspended because [the] other application exists," he said. "I've sent an email to our lawyer who filed [the] application and [is] working with us to to provide more details on all this."

The War Z has been in hot water as of late due to prematurely launching on Steam and then being forcibly removed by Valve due to accusations of fraud and missing content.

The team at Hammerpoint Interactive isn't having the merriest Christmas, at least if their holiday happiness hinges on the development of embattled zombie MMO The War Z. The troubled game will likely be forced to change its name due to a trademark suspension handed down by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The organization says that the game's name is too similar to Paramount Pictures' World War Z, a Brad Pitt film slated for a 2013 release.

The decision comes on the heels of The War Z being pulled from Steam, as well as a bevy of fraud accusations from the game's disgruntled userbase.

[Thanks to Armond for the tip!]

Diablo III is a few thousand players lighter today, as Blizzard announced that it had culled the unfaithful (read: botters) from its fold.

Community Manager Lylirra issued the grim proclamation: "We've recently issued account bans to several thousand Diablo III players who were found to be using botting programs while playing. In addition to undermining the spirit of fair play, botting, hacking, and other forms of cheating can also cause technical problems with the game as well as contribute to performance issues with the Battle.net service."

Lylirra also said that the Diablo III team is working to add a feature that will allow players to directly report naughty bots through the game itself.

GamersFirst is out of the Sword 2 business, it seems. The publisher announced that it will be dropping its contract to publish and host the title at the end of the year. Fans of the game have no reason to fret that they're about to lose their world, however; HanbitSoft's subsidiary T3Fun will take up the slack come January 1st.

Due to the transfer between companies, players will need to expressly consent to allow their game data to be transferred over. The announcement post contains instructions how to do just that. Also, Sword 2 players won't be able to transfer their GamersFirst store currency, so spending it now is highly recommended.

There are a lot of details to go over, so if this affects you, be sure to read the whole post very carefully.

[Thanks to William for the tip!]

Titan, is that you? We can't say whether or not Blizzard is getting close to revealing its top-secret game project, but the studio did secure an interesting domain name this week. On November 26th, Blizzard Entertainment registered ProjectBlackstone.com and opened the door to all kinds of speculation of what it may be.

If it is Blizzard's next MMO or franchise, the name alone is one of the most solid pieces of news that we've seen in years. The studio is notorious for its tight security and has let little slip about Titan or any of its other projects. Earlier this year, Blizzard confirmed that development on Titan was proceeding and that the company had shuffled around some of its staff to share between World of Warcraft and the upcoming "casual" MMO.

The name "Blackstone" is also somewhat similar to Blackthorne, an early Blizzard game from 1994.

While the website for Project Blackstone is currently defunct, rest assured we'll be keeping our eye on it to see what happens when or if Blizzard turns on the lights.

Want to create an MMO? One man apparently decided the way to realize that goal was to hack a game, nab the code, then use that to set up his own game. A federal grand jury has indicted Anil Kheda of the Netherlands for allegedly conspiring to hack into and disable computer servers of Rampid Interactive LLC, a Portsmouth-based company that created Outwar, a free text-based browser MMORPG. Kheda also faces extortion charges.

The indictment alleges that Kheda, along with others, hacked into Rampid's servers and performed numerous unauthorized tasks, including restoring suspended accounts and stealing the game's code. The hacking took Outwar offline for nearly two weeks over a nine-month period, costing Rampid over $100,000. Kheda then created and profited from his game Outcraft using stolen code. The indictment also contains excerpts from emails in which Kheda threatens and tries to blackmail Rampid employees. If convicted on both charges, Kheda faces up to seven years in prison.

If you have created an EA Origin account for any reason, such as for Star Wars: The Old Republic or Ultima Online, we advise you to change your password posthaste. Numerous sites are reporting that hackers have breached Origin's security and are potentially modifying account information and stealing it.

Allegedly affected players claim that the hackers are changing the log-in emails associated with their accounts and that the new email addresses have a Russian suffix.

In response to a question about whether any accounts were compromised by hacking, an EA spokesperson made the following statement: "At this point, we have no reason to believe there has been any intrusion into our Origin database."

EA has updated us with its full security statement:

Anytime a player has a question about the security of his or her account or personal data, we take it very seriously and take all possible steps to help. For any customer who cannot access their Origin account for any reason, we ask them to please contact Origin Help or EA's customer experience group at help.ea.com. The robust security measures in place to protect Origin users accounts are constantly being expanded and upgraded, and we also strongly recommend customers take the protective steps of using strong passwords and changing passwords often.

A few days ago Massively reported that a class-action lawsuit had been brought by players against Blizzard Entertainment. The lawsuit claims that Blizzard's actions (and inactions) were forcing players to purchase physical authenticators for Battle.net. Today we've heard the response from the studio, which is an unsurprising dismissal of the accusations.

Blizzard released a statement that began as follows: "This suit is without merit and filled with patently false information, and we will vigorously defend ourselves through the appropriate legal channels."

The studio went on to address the concerns brought up by the lawsuit and defend its actions during the past summer's Battle.net security breach. Blizzard said that the onus to secure one's computer is on the operator, which is why the company "strongly encourages" the use of authenticators.

World of Warcraft creator Blizzard Entertainment is on the receiving end of a class-action lawsuit filed this morning by players who allege that the company is unfairly forcing players to purchase Battle.net authenticators in order to keep their accounts secure.

The two plaintiffs claim that in lieu of providing account security to Battle.net players, Blizzard puts the burden of protection in the hands of the subscriber and encourages the purchasing of authenticators. The suit alleges that the sale of authenticators has earned Blizzard $26 million and that Blizzard is profiting "unjustly" from players looking to secure their accounts.

The suit mentions several examples of Battle.net accounts being compromised, specifically noting the hack of Battle.net that occurred in August and Blizzard's confirmation of a rise in compromises in May. It also notes that the free authenticators for smartphones were compromised, which the plaintiffs say makes buying a physical authenticator the only true way to protect an account from theft.

Activision Blizzard hasn't offered a response as of yet. The two plaintiffs seek damages and an injunction that would prevent Blizzard from adding what the suit describes as "undisclosed fees" to ensure the security of Battle.net accounts (in other words, no more selling of authenticators).

We'll keep you updated as we hear more.

Blizzard's had all it can stands, and it can stands no more. The studio is taking aggressive action against botters and cheaters in Diablo III, reporting that it's gone through "several rounds of account bans" against such players.

The studio also used the ban announcement as an excuse to clarify its position on hacks and third-party software. If you're curious about what steps over the line that Blizzard has in mind, wonder no longer. Beyond allowing some players to get away with an unfair advantage over others, cheat programs reportedly cause instability and performance issues with client software and Battle.net at large.

"We strongly recommend that you avoid using any third-party software which interacts with Diablo III," Blizzard posted, "even if you are accessing that software from a reputable third-party site-as doing so can result in permanent ban from the game."

EverQuest II's newest expansion, Chains of Eternity, launches in just a few days. SOE Live brought a slew of news about both the expansion and the future of the game, and for longtime fans, there's a definite return to the game's roots.

This past week, we had a chance to see some of the new zones with a guided tour from Producer Holly Longdale and Designer Carlos Mora. They took us to the Ethernere and explained several exciting new features along the way. Read on for highlights!

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Back in May, Project Copernicus developer 38 Studios became embroiled in the controversy of the year when the studio officially shut down and fired all 379 of its employees. The story quickly turned political as the studio had been granted a loan of $75m US by the state of Rhode Island and it became known that the tax-paying public could be hit for an estimated $150.7m US due to the studio's closure.

The story of mishandled taxpayer money has played a big part in the politics of Rhode Island. Today that story developed further as the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation (EDC), which granted the original loan and may therefore be responsible for the public debt, filed a lawsuit against the people who created the deal. The defendants named in the case include 38 Studios founder Curt Schilling, CEO Jennifer McLean, former EDC executive director Keith Stokes, Wells Fargo Securities and even Barclays Capital. Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee released a public statement about the lawsuit on YouTube.

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The Boston Globe is reporting that Turbine has laid off an unspecified number of employees today due to restructuring. It's unclear how many of the 400-person workforce were let go.

Warner Bros. Entertainment Group Spokeswoman Remi Sklar issued the following statement: "As part of the continual review of our business operations and fluctuating market conditions, we have had to make reductions in our Turbine workforce. The group continues to remain an integral part of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment."

Former Community Specialist Suzie Owen acknowledged on Twitter that she was one of those let go: "Looking for work in the Boston-Providence area. Any links would be most appreciated. I am unable to relocate at this time."

Turbine recently hired several game industry veterans to include in its teams. Massively contacted Turbine for further clarification and received the same quote.