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RuneScape: Seventh anniversary retrospective

Brendan Drain — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 11:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Video, Game mechanics, MMO industry, RuneScape, Free-to-play, Browser

Although RuneScape officially launched in 2001, today marks the seventh anniversary of the end of the RuneScape 2 beta. This was a complete gameplay and graphics overhaul that signaled the rebirth of the game, and it's a date well worth celebrating. The past year has been filled with massive content updates that added clan support, upgradeable clan citadels, a new website, and countless new quests. Player-made battlefields put game design in the hands of players, who have used the system to produce ton of content.

Understandably, most people will likely remember this year for one thing: This was the year that RuneScape beat the bots. Following the momentous Bot Nuking Day, players logged in to find a distinctly emptier world but one filled with real people. RuneFest 2011 was a success, with presentations from the game's developers and a special focus on breaking the bots. This year also saw the interesting story that the Dutch Supreme Court ruling that stealing RuneScape items is the same as theft of real life goods.

In this anniversary retrospective, I look back at some of RuneScape's top news stories and game additions of the year.

Continue reading RuneScape: Seventh anniversary retrospective

RuneScape: Seventh anniversary retrospective originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 28 Mar 2012 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EVE Online nukes over a thousand botters from orbit

Matt Daniel — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 17:30:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, News items, Dev Diaries, Sandbox

Look upon CCP's works, ye botters, and despair! EVE Online players recently noticed "by virtue of reading various shady forums" that the CCP team has suspended or banned a large number of botters. CCP Sreegs stopped by the official site today to respond to some of the community reactions to the mass bot-nuking. Many fans seem to believe that the bannings are a publicitity stunt to drum up interest in the upcoming Fanfest. CCP Sreegs responds that, of course, this isn't the case. He notes that during CCP's recent periods of turbulence, there was no team responsible for "handling the technology responsible for nuking botters," but now that there's a full team once more, "[CCP has] now thrown the switch again and turned on the catching bad guys machine."

Other players are crying out that the current three-strike system is too soft-hearted. Sreegs respectfully disagrees, citing the fact that, of all players that go on to receive two strikes, only something like 3% go on to earn a third. But what's to stop these problem players from transferring their characters to a new account and carrying on as usual? Sreegs also announced that a new system is being put in place that will indefinitely revoke the character transfer privileges of any suspended players, no matter how many strikes they have against them. For the full story as well as a bit of insight as to how CCP deals with botters and cheaters, just click on through the link below.

EVE Online nukes over a thousand botters from orbit originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 01 Mar 2012 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jagex wins court case against RuneScape botters

Jef Reahard — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 14:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, MMO industry, News items, Free-to-play, Legal, Miscellaneous

Jagex Games Studio is trumpeting its legal victory against Mark and Eric Snellman. The brothers formed a company called Impulse Software, which now owes Jagex unspecified damages following a two-year legal battle concerning macro and botting tools for the company's RuneScape MMO.

The brothers have been muzzled as a result of an injunction, and they are forbidden from discussing Jagex, RuneScape, or the lawsuit. Additionally, the pair must relinquish "all websites, domains, source code and customer details to Jagex along with all the details of all those individuals who have developed scripts for iBOT and sold or re-sold those scripts," according to a company press release.

Jagex CEO Mark Gerhard vowed to protect RuneScape users from similar threats in the future. "We have spared no expense fighting this case, as demonstrated by the seven figure bill this action has cost, but the point of this and other cases of its kind is that we will continue bring to justice those who set out to harm the game or our beloved community. We are delighted to say that we have convincingly neutered them after a very long battle," he said.

Jagex also says that its "Bot Nuke" operation, which began in October and includes a suite of code obfuscation tools, has rendered 98% of RuneScape bots obsolete.

[Source: Jagex press release]

Jagex wins court case against RuneScape botters originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 23 Jan 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nexon takes Mabinogi offline indefinitely due to 'malicious activity'

Jef Reahard — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Business models, MMO industry, New titles, Free-to-play, Mabinogi, Sandbox

If you were looking to play a little Mabinogi to kick off the new year, you might want to make alternate arrangements. Nexon has taken the free-to-play sandbox offline in order to deal with the recent spate of "malicious activity" going on in-game.

Mabinogi went dark yesterday, and Nexon says that it does "not have a specific time for the service to re-open." This is the second time in the past three months that Nexon has disabled the game, as the company dealt with a rash of unauthorized RMT issues and botting as recently as October of 2011. As per usual when MMO security issues crop up, the company has not released any details, saying only that "we feel that we have no choice but to take the game down in order to prevent any further malicious action."

[Thanks to David for the tip!]

Nexon takes Mabinogi offline indefinitely due to 'malicious activity' originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 01 Jan 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Free for All: Jagex answers more questions about nuking bots

Beau Hindman — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Interviews, RuneScape, Free-to-play, Browser, Casual, Massively Interviews, Free for All

Recently Jagex, maker of the mega-popular browser-based MMO RuneScape, bragged about the success of its Bot Nuking Day, an event of epic proportions that promised to rid the game of the thousands of bots that plague legitimate players. The proof is in the pudding, as they say, and any long-term player can now tell you that the effort seems to have worked. But for how long? Players have been promised a solution for a long time, so what makes Jagex think that the recently nuked will stay nuked?

I wanted to know more, and Daniel Clough, VP of RuneScape, was nice enough to answer several of my questions about the event. Did the nuking work as well as the team hoped? Will the bots stay dead? It didn't work in the Terminator, so why now?

Click past the cut for all of the answers!

Continue reading Free for All: Jagex answers more questions about nuking bots

Free for All: Jagex answers more questions about nuking bots originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 21 Dec 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Daily Grind: Do you feel companies do enough to fight bots?

Eliot Lefebvre — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 08:00:00 EST

Filed under: Culture, MMO industry, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous

They lurk in the dark corners of every MMO, sometimes farming gold, sometimes just taking care of tasks that actual players feel are too tedious to bother with. Bots have been a part of the MMO sphere for years now, and while games like RuneScape have recently brought them back to the foreground of attention, nothing has ever managed to push them completely out of the limelight. If you play an MMO, you have to work around them.

Development teams, of course, regard bots as fundamental problems, and usually a great deal of time is devoted to trying to quash bots for farming or repetitive tasks. But do you feel enough is done to try and stop them? Do you believe they're a result of game systems that are designed for too much grind and not enough fun? Or do you think they're just another face of cheating and deserve no special attention?

Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!

The Daily Grind: Do you feel companies do enough to fight bots? originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 06 Nov 2011 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This Week in MMO: MechWarrior edition

Brianna Royce — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 19:45:00 EST

Filed under: Video, Opinion, Humor, Miscellaneous, MechWarrior Online

In this week's TWIMMO, Mike B aka Fony, Josh Allen, and Mike Schaffnit join host Gary Gannon for Gamebreaker.TV's weekly chat about recent MMO stories. They kick things off by pondering how a video stuffed with anti-gay slurs slipped by Blizzard Entertainment (and a lot of the folks in the live crowd, as well) at BlizzCon. They also gush like fanboys about the newly announced F2P MechWarrior Online MMO before spending some airtime on PlanetSide 2, World of Darkness, and RuneScape.

Hit the break for the full show!

Continue reading This Week in MMO: MechWarrior edition

This Week in MMO: MechWarrior edition originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 03 Nov 2011 19:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Free for All: The real damage of botting, in the words of a botter

Beau Hindman — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: Business models, Economy, Opinion, RuneScape, Free-to-play, Browser, Free for All

I received an interesting email from someone the other day, someone who wanted to let me in on the lifestyle of a botter. Frankly I was a little embarrassed for the guy since he seemed to believe me to be naive about the entire process. The truth is that I have met plenty of shady characters and heard stories that would make your eyes bug out of your head. I've heard these stories from the developers and players themselves. There truly is some nasty stuff going on in MMO gaming.

The saddest thing is that cheaters honestly think that what they do cannot possibly result in much harm for the game they are botting in, cheating at, or hacking up. It's sad because the truth is that a cheater, as one person, might not have much of an impact on the game. Add up several thousands of these scam artists and the results are mindboggling. Drive by your local dump to see just how much trash can pile up, one person at a time.

I want to shine some light on just how damaging botting can be. Click past the cut.

Continue reading Free for All: The real damage of botting, in the words of a botter

Free for All: The real damage of botting, in the words of a botter originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 02 Nov 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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RuneScape dev panel highlights incredible success of bot bans

Brendan Drain — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 16:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Video, Culture, Events, real-world, MMO industry, Patches, News items, RuneScape, Free-to-play, Casual, Dev Diaries

Over the past few weeks, we've heard a great deal about browser MMO RuneScape's struggle against botting and RMT. The bot problem has become progressively worse over the past year, with bot makers countering every change developers made to stop their bots from working. This week developer Jagex celebrated bot-nuking day as it deployed a massive update designed to permanently stop all of the popular reflection and injection bots from working.

At this year's annual RuneFest event, Jagex CEO Mark Gerhard presented a fantastic insider panel on the facts and figures behind bot-nuking day. Mark explained the company's position -- that normal players botting to speed up gameplay was counter to the goals of RuneScape. "We don't want your computer to play with our computer," he told attendees, "we want you to have fun with our community." Before delving into facts and figures, Mark reminded attendees of the element of unfairness that bots create. "I want to know that if I'm putting in 30 minutes this evening, that that 30 minutes is equal to everyone else's 30 minutes."

Want to know how many million accounts were banned since bot-nuking day? Read on for a summary of the facts and figures from the talk and to watch the full video in HD.

Continue reading RuneScape dev panel highlights incredible success of bot bans

RuneScape dev panel highlights incredible success of bot bans originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 30 Oct 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jagex levies a lawsuit against RuneScape botters

Justin Olivetti — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, RuneScape, Free-to-play, Legal

As RuneScape staggers under the assault of thousands of bots, Jagex is pulling out a pair of big guns to meet the problem head-on. The first weapon was yesterday's "Bot-Nuking Day," in which a patch was released that was supposed to deal with 98% of the botting in the game. The second is an official email sent to suspected botters threatening them with a class-action lawsuit if they don't desist.

In the email, Jagex calls out the suspected behavior and offers the player a "one-time amnesty lifeline" to shape up. These players will be placed on a watch list and will be monitored for any further botting action. If the player persists in cheating, then Jagex promises to not only remove their account permanently but to include the player in a mass lawsuit.

"If you ignore our offer and instead continue use botting software, we reserve our rights to pursue statutory damages against you for between $200 to $2,500 per act of past, present, and/or future botting," the letter states.

A Jagex mod on the RuneScape forums confirmed that these emails are real.

Jagex levies a lawsuit against RuneScape botters originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 26 Oct 2011 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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RuneScape celebrates 'bot-nuking day' this Tuesday

Brendan Drain — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 16:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Events, in-game, MMO industry, Patches, RuneScape, Free-to-play

Last week we reported that veteran browser MMO RuneScape was losing its ongoing war on bots. Players have begun botting on a massive scale, and it's become increasingly difficult to distinguish bots from ordinary players. Developer Jagex asked for help from the playerbase in solving the botting problem and announced its intention to continue fighting legal battles against the creators of bot programs.

In a new community update this week, Jagex Chief Executive Officer Mark Gerhard announced the release of a new doomsday weapon in the war on bots. In an upcoming patch on October 25th, Jagex will be "launching our most formidable bot-busting weapon in our history, targeting what we believe to be 98% of the bots seen in game." This update permanently prevents reflection bots from working and the effects should be immediately visible in-game. To celebrate "bot-nuking day", Tuesday's patch brings four days of events and minigame bonuses for regular players.

[Thanks to David for the tip!]

RuneScape celebrates 'bot-nuking day' this Tuesday originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 23 Oct 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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RuneScape is losing the war on bots

Eliot Lefebvre — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 21:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Economy, MMO industry, News items, RuneScape

We have an expectation of conflicts made up of good vs. evil. What we don't usually expect is for evil to win. But in RuneScape's war against the evil of botting, that appears to be what's happening. In a letter from Daniel Clough, it was explained that despite the development team's best efforts, the war on bots is being won by the botters. The re-introduction of the Wilderness and Free Trade has resulted in an explosion of gold farming and botting that just can't be held back.

The letter goes on to urge players to not utilize these services and report anyone known to be using them and outlines the steps being taken to try to beat back the tide. But as Clough puts it, while the staff sinks significant time and money into fighting the problem, it's fighting an opponent whose only business goal is to get back into the game. It's grim news for the game's players, certainly, and it doesn't bode well for the many other games waging the same battles.

RuneScape is losing the war on bots originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 11 Oct 2011 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Fighting the EverQuest hacking wildfire

Justin Olivetti — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 13:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, EverQuest, Bugs

While hacking and botting may not be a source of frustration to you in your daily MMO, to the denizens of EverQuest, it is a real and ever-present headache. In what is already not the easiest MMO on the planet, players are experiencing an onslaught of hackers who go out of their way to ruin the fun for everyone.

In a three-part series, Ten Ton Hammer exposes the systematic problem of rampant hacking in the game, especially on the new progression servers. While guilds are doing their part to crack down on hackers in their midst, it doesn't seem to be enough to stem the flow, especially as with a much smaller team in place these days.

Ultimately, fighting this problem does not seem to be SOE's current priority. EQ Producer Thom Terazzas addressed the issue of hacking by saying, "The expansion is something that we're really focused on right now. That has gotten, I would say, 80 percent of the focus here. So doing anything that dramatically combats the hacking is something that we would really like to do, but it is not something we've been able to do."

Terazzas followed that up by talking with the Customer Service team and promised that the hackings will receive higher priority once the expansion crunch is over. In the meantime, he urged players to file reports with CS if hacking was observed.

Fighting the EverQuest hacking wildfire originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 06 Oct 2011 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EVE Online introduces new bot-reporting feature

Brendan Drain — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 13:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Culture, Game mechanics, MMO industry, Patches, News items

Botting is an almost universal problem in the MMO scene, disrupting in-game economies and often funding shady RMT operations. EVE Online has always been a big target for the RMT industry as much of a character's progression relies on in-game currency. In a world where you can buy a bigger ship, better modules and even the loyalty of player-run mercenary corporations, demand for the illicit sale of ISK is high.

Several years ago CCP banned over 6200 botters as part of Operation Unholy Rage and launched the PLEX system to provide a legitimate way to buy ISK that doesn't harm the game economy and helps cash-poor players fund their subscription with in-game ISK. This week, CCP continued its plans to rid New Eden of bots with a devblog on its recently implemented "report bot" feature. The devblog explains how to identify a bot, how to report it and the steps GMs take after investigation of reported characters.

EVE Online introduces new bot-reporting feature originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 18 Aug 2011 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EVE Spotlight: An interview with CCP Zulu

Brendan Drain — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, Video, EVE Online, Culture, Events, real-world, Interviews, MMO industry

EVE Spotlight is a new bi-weekly feature in which we interview prominent members of EVE Online's player community or development team. Twice each month, we'll be shining the spotlight on a player or developer who has a significant impact on EVE to highlight the efforts of EVE's most influential people.

It's almost an unwritten rule of game development that someone from quality assurance should never be promoted into a game design role. Game testing and QA are said to be so fundamentally different to design that it's argued the roles require incompatible skillsets. Arnar "CCP Zulu" Gylfason has definitely proven that this isn't the case, successfully migrating from QA to game design and finally being promoted to senior producer on EVE Online. Taking over from CCP T0rfifrans, Arnar has become a very public figure for CCP in the EVE community.

Older players will remember Arnar as CCP Zulupark, that horrible guy who nerfed their carriers back in 2007. Alternatively, you may remember a fantastic forum thread from 2008 in which he personally answered countless player questions on game design and balance issues. Since becoming senior producer on EVE, Arnar has been a strong advocate of this kind of heavy communication with players. Through devblogs, interviews and interactions with the Council of Stellar Management, he's helped to fill the information vacuum players have become accustomed to.

We caught up with EVE senior producer Arnar "CCP Zulu" Gylfason several weeks ago at the EVE Fanfest. In this EVE Spotlight, I ask him about communication with players, the role of live events in future expansions, and other topics.

Continue reading EVE Spotlight: An interview with CCP Zulu

EVE Spotlight: An interview with CCP Zulu originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 15 Apr 2011 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Banned WoW player offers $1,000 for reactivation

Rubi Bayer — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Culture, MMO industry

If you lost an MMO account through hacking, banning, or any other method, what would you pay to get it back? One California World of Warcraft player didn't hesitate to put a hefty price tag on that possibility.

"I got my WoW account banned yesterday during the archaeology bot ban wave. I wasn't a gold farmer or seller, never bought gold. I just botted archaeology because it's a boring profession. I'm looking for a WoW Account Admin [...] to unban my account for $1000USD. No questions asked - your anonymity will be preserved."

The plea for reinstatement says it all. The anonymous player posted via Craigslist last week, offering any form of payment the recipient might ask for -- including "an envelope under a tree." While it's a safe bet that nobody on the WoW team will open this particular can of worms, it's an interesting look at how far some players will go to preserve the time invested (or not invested, in this case) in gameplay.

Banned WoW player offers $1,000 for reactivation originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 22 Mar 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Daily Grind: Have you ever bought gold?

Brendan Drain — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 08:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Culture, Economy, Opinion, The Daily Grind

Practically every MMO ever made has some kind of currency-based trade system, and if that currency takes time or effort to acquire, you can bet someone somewhere will pay hard cash to shortcut the process. Although most game EULAs forbid the practice of buying currency for cash, players are often unaware that they could be banned if caught. Websites selling virtual currency are often linked to shady dealings such as harvesting credit card details, key-logging buyers' computers or even just not delivering purchased goods. The effects are often felt in-game too, as methods used to generate currency for sale often include abuse of exploits, farming limited resources using bots, and hacking accounts.

Developers of subscription MMOs have fought against the RMT (real money trade) business using a variety of strategies. In late 2009, CCP Games banned 6,200 accounts linked to botting and RMT in one day as part of operation Unholy Rage. RuneScape developer Jagex took an even tougher stance, putting severe restrictions on the movement of gold between players. This week, we heard the news that a leaked client database from an EVE ISK-selling organisation had named hundreds of EVE Online characters as buyers. While many of the characters named were temporary accounts created to receive ISK anonymously, life has been made very hard for all characters named in the leak. So have you ever bought gold, ISK or any other MMO currency? If so, what were your reasons for buying it, and what would you do if your character were suddenly exposed as a buyer or banned?

Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!

The Daily Grind: Have you ever bought gold? originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 12 Mar 2011 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Massively's EVE CSM interview: EVE Gate, microtransactions and more

Brendan Drain — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 15:30:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Culture, Game mechanics, Interviews, MMO industry, Opinion

Earlier this month, the official minutes of meetings between CCP Games and EVE Online's Council of Stellar Management were published to the general public. EVE's democratically elected council of volunteer players meets with CCP's developers twice per year at the company's headquarters in Iceland. At the meetings, the concerns of EVE's players and details of upcoming expansions are discussed. Response to the December summit's minutes has been largely positive so far, which is a huge turnaround from June's tirade of negativity.

EVE blogs have been considering some of the problems raised in the meetings, and insider Keith Neilson delivered his assessment of how the meetings went right here on Massively. The only people we have yet to hear from are the council members themselves. To make sure the CSM has its say in the public arena, Massively interviewed council member Dierdra Vaal about the summit and asked some critical questions on CCP's plans for EVE's future. In this first of two interviews, we discussed EVE Gate, the growing botting problem, user interface upgrades, CCP's microtransaction policy, how the summit went in general, and how attitudes within CCP have changed toward the CSM.

Skip past the cut to read the first of two illuminating interviews with EVE Online's CSM.

Continue reading Massively's EVE CSM interview: EVE Gate, microtransactions and more

Massively's EVE CSM interview: EVE Gate, microtransactions and more originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 21 Jan 2011 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Turbine expands on LotRO's Lua scripting

Justin Olivetti — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 15:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Previews, Free-to-play

Ever since hearing the news that Turbine will allow players to create mods for Lord of the Rings Online using the Lua programming language, the community's been abuzz about what this means for LotRO -- good and bad. Would this allow for the creation of game unbalancing add-ons, or perhaps the rise of a LotRO edition of WoW's controversial GearScore? Or does Turbine have a specific vision in mind for the scope of mods?

Yesterday on the LotRO forums, Narrel, Turbine's Games Systems Engineer, posted a clarifying note about why the company chose to implement this and where it plans to go with it. The devs' main priority with Lua scripting was to empower players to tweak and modify the user interface more to their liking, as the default UI cannot be all things for all folks.

While it is going to prohibit mods from botting or macros, Turbine will open the field for players to work with the inventory layout, information that the HUD displays, quickslot bars, target info, fellowship info and raid vitals. "We are very excited about this feature," Narrel said, "and look forward to the day when it goes live allowing players to have a much more customizable experience with our graphical interface."

Turbine expands on LotRO's Lua scripting originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 20 Jul 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NCsoft releases third The More You MMO video

Jef Reahard — Thu, 27 May 2010 17:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Video, Aion, News items

NCsoft has released the third episode in The More You MMO series of video shorts focused on RMT in Aion. The new piece, entitled Earn Your Power, examines the perils of buying your characters as opposed to leveling them up the old fashioned way.

"When you buy a character, you could be buying a character created by an RMT company or a power-leveling service. Not only could your security be compromised by dealing with these companies, the link your character has to these companies will lead to your account being eventually banned. Even worse, your character could have been a character stolen from another player who has been hacked," states the press release accompanying the video.

You can watch the short, which chronicles the ineptitude of a newb named Yarvington, on the official website or embedded here on Massively after the cut.

Continue reading NCsoft releases third The More You MMO video

NCsoft releases third The More You MMO video originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 27 May 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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[Updated] If you cheat in Guild Wars, Dhuum will kill you

Rubi Bayer — Wed, 26 May 2010 18:30:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Guild Wars, News items

No, seriously. Guild Wars players hanging out in Heroes' Ascent this afternoon noticed an interesting sight. Dhuum in all his giant shiny glory was popping in and out of different districts, banning people with a swing of his scythe. What was it all about?

ArenaNet announced today that they have banned over 3,700 accounts and disbanded over a dozen guilds in Guild Wars for botting and match manipulation. Design Director James Phinney, addressed the issue in the newest ArenaNet blog post, explaining more about what they're doing. First of all, if you break the User Agreement, you may get banned at any time in the future, it's as simple as that. "...there is no expiration date for breaches of the User Agreement or RoC." Just don't cheat.

Second, they plan to take a much more active and public approach to this problem from here on out, so you'll see more in the future. All Guild Wars players need to read through the blog post to understand what's going to happen from here on out, but James' closing statement encompassed it nicely: "For those of you who raised concerns about this issue, we're sorry it took as long as it did to put these changes in place. We should have been faster and more prepared. With your help, we will be more responsive in the future. We are listening, and we are ready to take action."

[Update] The Guild Wars team, including Emily Diehl, spent some time in Great Temple of Balthazar this afternoon, and Emily stated: "We checked and have been told that the following mods are OK: KSmod, GWstats, TextMod, and MultiLaunch. NOTE THOUGH: this is the original code of these guys. So we cannot guarantee that future updates of these mods will remain pure. So use caution, and if you're truly unsure, err on the side of caution." Regina chimed in as well on the forums to remind us that while it's okay, you are on your own should anything go wrong.

Want to see the Dhuum-slaughter for yourself? Follow along after the jump for a video.

Continue reading [Updated] If you cheat in Guild Wars, Dhuum will kill you

[Updated] If you cheat in Guild Wars, Dhuum will kill you originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 26 May 2010 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The lesser of two evils is still evil

Eliot Lefebvre — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 20:00:00 EST

Filed under: Culture, Exploits, MMO industry, Opinion

There are a lot of choices we face where we don't so much pick a good option as we pick the option that's least negative. Most people would argue that going to work is a better choice than faking illness and calling out, but not really a choice they like. Kill Ten Rats recently posed an interesting question along the same lines: would you rather your game have gold farmers or cheaters?

As the full piece argues, gold farmers are the greater evil to the companies running the game -- they aren't paying customers and they're disrupting the playerbase. But the average player is more likely to run into cheaters than gold farmers, and they're more likely to have a direct negative effect upon the experience of the game. Yet teams tend to be more active in pursuing gold farmers (witness Aion's theatrical destruction of them) because cheaters, to the company, are a slightly lesser problem.

Obviously, it's not a binary equation, and some games (such as Final Fantasy XI) place both at an equally high target priority. The fundamental question, however, is an excellent one -- cheating jerks, or RMT bots? There's no good option.

The lesser of two evils is still evil originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 28 Jan 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Masthead Studios discusses Earthrise economy

James Egan — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, Economy, Exploits, Game mechanics, New titles, Earthrise

It's an immutable law: create an online game where virtual currency is used and it'll inevitably give rise to a black market for that currency, not to mention for the various items in the MMO. Earthrise will be no different, but developer Masthead Studios aims to be proactive about the problem of gold sellers, rather than reactive. They also feel that their game will be difficult to bot. "Most of Earthrise design has followed the paradigm of requiring player interaction and skill through every aspect of combat, crafting and logistic movement so we firmly believe the game will be, by design, very difficult to automate via known methods," Masthead explains in their latest Question of the Week.

Another factor that Masthead Studios feels will curb black market activities in Earthrise, at least in respect to items, is that every use of gear slowly degrades the item in question. Of course, where there's a will there's a way. So when Earthrise enters open beta Masthead Studios will keep a close eye on the various ways players find to exploit the economy.

Continue reading Masthead Studios discusses Earthrise economy

Masthead Studios discusses Earthrise economy originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 19 Jan 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aion's first Eye On Community for December

Rubi Bayer — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 16:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Aion, Forums, News items

The Aion team had plenty to say in the latest Eye on Community segment, released on Friday.

The question of the week, unsurprisingly, centered around the nine-minute "Visions of the Future" trailer released recently. Fans have had a million questions, mostly different versions of "What is this, and when will I get to play it?" Since it's a work in progress, specific answers are unfortunately few. "Some of the features highlighted in the trailer are further along in the development process than others. Because of this, we aren't ready to share or speculate on timeframes."

While it was exciting, the trailer wasn't the only recent news. The Aion team returned from DreamHack with photos and stories galore last Monday, the same day that they banned 26,000+ bot accounts. It looks like they had a bit of fun with the bot accounts, to which we say "more power to you!"

The Aion community was active recently too, creating quite a few things that are worth looking into if you're an Aion player. The full Eye on Community entry can be read here.

Aion's first Eye On Community for December originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 06 Dec 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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See an Aion GM in action blowing up spammers

William Dobson — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Aion, Humor

NCsoft has always been fairly vocal about about their assault on Aion's goldspammer and bot epidemic. They bolstered the game's spam filter a while ago and their Game Surveillance Unit reportedly banned over 27,000 botting accounts just last week. It's great to hear about these positive statistics, but if your game experience has been ruined in the past by some of these unsavory characters, you might be looking for something more visceral -- and thankfully, we've got that for you.

Enter Youtube user MidoriPeanut, who managed to catch an Aion GM in the throes of a banning spree and recorded it all for the rest of us to enjoy. The movie features the GM blowing up a number of goldspammer ad stores, all set to the dramatic Syringe by Emilie Autumn. Sure, this could all take place behind the scenes and the offenders would quietly disappear from the world, but isn't it a lot more fun seeing them cast off to hell by a cutesy animal? Get out the popcorn and head past the break to see the banishing in action.

Continue reading See an Aion GM in action blowing up spammers

See an Aion GM in action blowing up spammers originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 06 Dec 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NCsoft bans 16,000 Aion accounts

Kyle Horner — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Aion, News items

One of the continued complaints we hear from Aion players is that bots litter the game's digital landscape, severely reducing the enjoyment of actual flesh-n-bones players. So we feel inclined to shout, "Good news, everybody!" at today's announcement by NCsoft that nearly 16,000 accounts have been banned during a recent unscheduled server reboot.

That's a huge number and certainly nothing to scoff about. This should hopefully alleviate much of the problem, at least temporarily -- and then future banhammers will likely come crashing down.

We hope nobody was caught in the crossfire with today's bans, but if you do find yourself without an Aion account to play and are 100% sure of your innocence, you can create a support ticket. Obviously, this isn't ideal if you're suddenly without your account, so with any luck there aren't any cases of mistakenly banned players.

NCsoft bans 16,000 Aion accounts originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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One month: Aion October community address

Brooke Pilley — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 16:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Aion, News items

Aion has officially been out for one full month and NCsoft just released an October community address in response. The notice reads less like a giant pat on the back and more like a checklist of major issues they are working on, which is bound to churn up speculation about how well the title is doing. Oh, we're sure Aion is doing quite well even though we haven't heard the official numbers yet, but developers usually use these opportunities to shout about their accomplishments rather than their shortcomings.

The top three issues mentioned in the letter are experience curves, client performance, and spammers/botters. Most players will agree that it can feel like a part-time job to level your character at times. Some players have had performance issues specifically related to "Cryssystem.dll." And finally, everyone has been forced to /ignore the odd spammer... or fifty. NCsoft is using this opportunity to yet again tell players they are aware of these issues and fixes are on the way.

We're curious how this may relate to differences between eastern and western gaming cultures. Aion has been released for nearly a year in Asia and yet only the outcry from European and North American players against experience grinds and gold spamming specifically seems to be sparking a change.

One month: Aion October community address originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 24 Oct 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Silkroad Online says no to botters

Seraphina Brennan — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 15:00:00 EST

Filed under: At a glance, Fantasy, Historical, Business models, Culture, MMO industry, News items, Silkroad Online, Free-to-play

No botters! Bad botters! Down! Ban! You're banned!

Well, that's not exactly how bannings go, but Silkroad Online is starting to crack down on their botting problem. The game has recently changed their anti-botting rules, converting over to a three strike policy. The first instance of your account being suspected, you get a 7 day ban. The next time your account gets flagged, it's a 14 day ban. And, if your account gets flagged a third and final time for the use of illegal programs, you can kiss your account goodbye.

It's a pretty strict system, doubly so for a free-to-play game. Usually we see larger MMO developers, like Square-Enix and CCP, moving towards initiatives like these. However, it's clear that Joymax is interested in cleaning up their game, a move that many will undoubtedly enjoy.

Silkroad Online says no to botters originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 28 Sep 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Massively goes toe to toe with Jade Dynasty's Andrew Brown

Seraphina Brennan — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Game mechanics, MMO industry, Free-to-play, Casual, Massively Interviews, Jade Dynasty

Jade Dynasty. The game that plays itself. We ran an op-ed on it a while back and even got some impressions on the game from E3, looking into the game that offers all players the special ability to run a bot to play the game and lets players gain experience while offline.

Needless to say, we were interested in the game thanks to, what some would say, are odd choices in game design. However, we were recently lucky enough to sit down with Andrew Brown, the project manager for Jade Dynasty, and put him to the test. Why should MMOers try out Jade Dynasty?

Well, Andrew took our hard questions and sent us back some awesome answers. He didn't shy away from our question barrage. If you were looking for some answers for why Jade Dynasty took the game design path it did, or why they believe their decisions will ultimately help the many players of their game, then look no further than this interview. And what's this new immortality ability and "hardcore PvP" server that Andrew has mentioned? You're just going to have to follow after the break and find out!

Continue reading Massively goes toe to toe with Jade Dynasty's Andrew Brown

Massively goes toe to toe with Jade Dynasty's Andrew Brown originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 26 Aug 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jade Dynasty goes into open beta, supplies new trailer

Seraphina Brennan — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 09:00:00 EST

Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Trailers, Launches, New titles, Free-to-play

Perfect World Entertainment's new flagship game, Jade Dynasty, has pulled itself out of closed beta right on time and has jumped into open beta, swords and magic at the ready.

If you're looking to check out this new free-to-play MMO, or at least judge some of the controversial game options for yourself, you can head right on over to the Jade Dynasty website, sign up for Perfect World Entertainment's portal, and jump into the game with no beta key required.

With the release of the open beta client comes a new trailer, and we here at Massively have cleverly embedded the video after the break. If you want to see some high flying combat, just hit continue reading and enjoy the video!

Continue reading Jade Dynasty goes into open beta, supplies new trailer

Jade Dynasty goes into open beta, supplies new trailer originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 17 Jun 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Anti-Aliased: My first 30 levels with AFK... er... Jade Dynasty pt. 2

Seraphina Brennan — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 15:00:00 EST

Filed under: At a glance, Betas, Fantasy, Game mechanics, MMO industry, New titles, Opinion, Free-to-play, Anti-Aliased

So that's why it's called AFK Dynasty...

When I finally found a new area to level in as my awesome level 30 self, I actually found that the quests had surprisingly become more tedious. Now it was kill 30 of a monster, or collect 10 to 15 of an item that would only drop once every 7 monsters. This is when I began to make crazy use of the invigorate feature, where I'd press the "kill stuff" button and my character would go off killing whatever she pleased.

Was I worried about dying? Pfft, no! Using my wonderous cash shop gold I got a health and mana battery! These two items carried 700,000 HP and 700,000 SP inside of them, and would use enough of their charges to bring my character back up to full HP and SP when I dropped below 10% in a category. I had absolutely nothing to fear now all because my character was basically on a potion IV drip. Everything in my path was easily slaughtered, and I didn't have to be present for any of it.

It scared me.

Is this what an MMO is?

Other games try to hide it with cutscenes, story, diversions, and other tactics. Jade Dynasty is the full, unabashed version of what a MMO is -- grindy grindy grind. But when the game becomes so advanced that it can play itself, then I need to ask an important question What the heck is the point?

"Jade Dynasty is the full, unabashed version of what a MMO is -- grindy grindy grind."

A better designer than I once said, "Making video games for a living comes down to one cold, hard truth -- you're making pushing buttons fun. Your job is making an extremely mundane task into an experience with impact." The fact that a game like Jade Dynasty exists is a scary proposition for our industry as a whole. It means we're walking the path of making timesinks, not games. It's like one of those old addages -- "How can we have fun playing a game when we're not playing the game?"

I sound like a broken record, but this is a very strong reason why I preach about the necessity of storyline and impact in a game. While gameplay is very, very important, any repetitive activity will become boring unless it is spiced up with enough change to keep it engaging. We use to have a strong grasp of making worlds with engaging content. That grasp, however, has diminished since the dawn of the EverQuest and the rise of "kill X to level" quests.

How do I know that we've lost our path regarding storyline? Well because Bioware is touting storyline as a new feature in The Old Republic. When we've gotten to the point that storyline is a "on-the-box" feature for a game, then we've done something horribly wrong in our designing.

Our original designs focused on the adventure in the world, not the quick grind sessions to max level and the repetition of raids. I wish we could re-find those designs.

My final note to you all for this week: if you want to play a game of numbers without playing the game, I have a recommendation for you. It's a "game" that runs on anyone's computer thanks to low graphical requirements and provides all of the same action and features that Jade Dynasty provides. It's called Progress Quest, it's equivolent to Jade Dynasty, and it's 100% free. Try it, you'll love it.

Colin Brennan is the weekly writer of Anti-Aliased who is totally level 45 in Jade Dynasty by only playing it for an hour. When he's not writing here for Massively, he's rambling on his personal blog, The Experience Curve. If you want to message him, send him an e-mail at colin.brennan AT weblogsinc DOT com. You can also follow him on Twitter through Massively, or through his personal feed.

Anti-Aliased: My first 30 levels with AFK... er... Jade Dynasty pt. 2 originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 12 Jun 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Anti-Aliased: My first 30 levels with AFK... er... Jade Dynasty

Seraphina Brennan — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 15:00:00 EST

Filed under: At a glance, Betas, Fantasy, Game mechanics, MMO industry, New titles, Opinion, Free-to-play, Anti-Aliased

So I learned a few things since last week. One, writing an opinion column on how much I like Final Fantasy XIV can push people into a frothing internet rage, and two, people apparently forgot that I write an opinion column.

Therefore, because my column may induce emotional states similar to some drugs, I've been asked by the FDA to include a legible warning prior to each of my column topics.

The FDA would like me to tell you that reading Anti-Aliased can, in rare cases, cause extreme emotional upset, eye strain, monitor punching syndrome, a feeling of discomfort around Mithra, itchyness, nausea, resurrection sickness, paralysis of the eyelids, and carpal tunnel syndrome. You should stop reading Anti-Aliased and consult with a World of Warcraft priest should you develop any one of these symptoms while reading.

With that legalese out of the way, let's talk about Jade Dynasty -- dubbed by the illustrious James Egan as AFK Dynasty as it's the one MMO where you pay microtransactions to not play it. Yes, you heard me, it's more beneficial to not play Jade Dynasty than it is to play Jade Dynasty. EVE players, there is finally a game that puts your skill training system to shame.

Continue reading Anti-Aliased: My first 30 levels with AFK... er... Jade Dynasty

Anti-Aliased: My first 30 levels with AFK... er... Jade Dynasty originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 12 Jun 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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E3 2009: Jade Dynasty at a glance

Seraphina Brennan — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: At a glance, Betas, Fantasy, Game mechanics, Launches, New titles, Free-to-play, Casual

The third game in Perfect World's portfolio, Jade Dynasty, has been riding quietly in closed beta for a while. At this year's E3, however, the Jade Dynasty crew brought out their game and let us here at Massively take it for a test drive. They also hit us with an announcement as well -- Jade Dynasty will be jumping out of closed beta on June 15th, and a European server will be added in on that day as well.

Overall, Jade Dynasty pulls much from Perfect World's other games: Perfect World and Ether Saga Online. The click on map to automatically move feature, cosmetic cash shop, and large amount of in-game quests returns, but a few new features have been added in that make this game a very interesting experience.

Join us after the break as we break down Jade Dynasty's features, a few of which may be controversial for some gamers.

Continue reading E3 2009: Jade Dynasty at a glance

E3 2009: Jade Dynasty at a glance originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 04 Jun 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Darkfall lays out a strict anti-macroing policy

Brooke Pilley — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 13:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Darkfall, Exploits, News items

There are no levels in Darkfall Online. Instead, they use a skill-based progression system. For example: the more you cast magic missile, the better your magic missiles become. Once your magic missile becomes good enough, you will be able to learn a more powerful spell. Obviously a system like this can be easily exploited by macro or bot programs, so it isn't surprising that Adventurine is taking a strict stance against any such exploitation. Of course, there are also the reports of speedhacking where players can run as fast or faster than sprint without losing stamina.

Tasos does not define the term "macro" in the policy, so one must assume its definition is broad. A macro could be assigning several actions to a single hotkey (e.g., a combination of attacks in a particular sequence). A macro could also be a reactionary action (e.g., whenever you are cursed, auto-cast your "remove curse" spell). Anyone caught macroing or spamming spells in the safety of a city or tower area will be warned once, kicked, and potentially banned for repeat attempts. It doesn't seem like they'll punish macro-users in the riskier open-world unless the macros are unattended (generally called bots). Finally, anyone caught using third-party cheating, hacking, modding, or botting programs will be perma-banned no matter where they are.

[Via MMORPG.com]

Darkfall lays out a strict anti-macroing policy originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 04 Mar 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Public service announcement from WoW Europe discourages gold buying

William Dobson — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 21:00:00 EST

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Economy, Exploits, Leveling, Making money

Timmy is sick and tired of lagging behind his friends and guild-mates, all because of his inferior flying mount. He decides to purchase some gold with real money and buy his epic mount. Timmy thinks to himself, "It doesn't really hurt anyone, does it?" The answer to that question is, "Yes Timmy, it does". The European World of Warcraft site has listed a gold-selling FAQ that aims to educate players like Timmy on some of the consequences of purchasing products and services from a gold-selling company.

The site lists the obvious stuff, like spammers and bots, which both annoy people and take up Blizzard resources that could be put to better use, but the article also brings up some things that aren't always mentioned. Much of the gold that these companies trade in comes from hacked accounts, and many accounts are hacked after the owner enlists the aid of a power-leveling service. When the companies have access to the account, the unfortunate victim may also find their personal details being used for identity theft and credit card fraud. The bottom line is, without people using these services, the companies could not continue to operate. We here at Massively are also vehemently opposed to gold-selling, and agree wholeheartedly with Blizzard's message. Just say no, Timmy.

Public service announcement from WoW Europe discourages gold buying originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 22 Feb 2008 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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