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After a player’s report published by Slashdot.org, it is become of very critical concern to many World of Warcraft players whether these two topics could be a reason to be banned due to Third-party programs or non-supported OS.
Linux is a no-brainer. Blizzard has said in the past that they do not offer customer support to Linux, and at this point do not have plans of a Linux version of World of Warcraft. Today, we emailed Blizzard to find out if playing World of Warcraft under Linux Wine could cause a player to be banned by a GM. The answer was no.
Linux users may breath more relax. However, there will be soon an official statement from Blizzard. It was not clear whether as a press release, or as a Terms of Service (TOS) / EULA update. Expect a follow up soon on the Linux controversy.
 LOGITECH G15 GAMING KEYBOARD |
Concerning the Logitech G15 Keyboard w/LCD, today a Blizzard Europe Representative—Aeus—responded the point of view of Blizzard concerning the use of the keyboard.
Gorgeous@Shadowsong: “I’ve just been bought a Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard by my girlfriend as an early christmas pressie. This keyboard, amongst other things, allows the recording of macros, i.e. multiple keystrokes assigned to a single keypress. As far as I can tell this doesn’t let you do anything that you couldn’t do with a normal, in-game WoW macro except it allows repeating or looping of the macros it records.
The drivers for this keyboard include 4 .exe files running in the background at all times, most of which are driving the LCD display on the keyboard:
LCDClock.exe
LCDMedia.exe
LCDMon.exe
LCDCore.exeI’d like to know for certain whether this keyboard and it’s associated driver files are considered allowable under the WoW EULA/ToC”
Blizzard Representative Aeus: “We have looked into this matter and haven?t found reasonable cause to disallow usage of its functions for use in world of Warcraft.
We do, however, reserve the right to come back to this statement at a later point, at which we will inform our players.”
We did not discuss with Blizzard the ban suffered by the player from the Slashdot article, because it is against Blizzard Policy to discuss Disciplinary Actions. However, from the answer we got concerning Linux Wine, and the forum reply concerning Logitech G15 Keyboard, we can simply conclude that the player was banned for playing unattended. Most likely a Game Master (GM) contacted the player—who admitted to be watching TV while playing—did not answer the GM message, tagging him as been playing unattended, which is a GM routinary botting behavior procedure to make sure real players are indeed behind the characters. If the player does not reply back, and its character is actively playing by itself, then you get in trouble. It was a very sad and unlucky event, and I wish the player was given a second chance. However, Linux Wine and Logitech G15 were not the cause for his ban. Hope everyone learns from this and never leave their characters playing unattended. It may get you banned.
UPDATE: 3-17-2006
As said before, Blizzard told us there would be an official statement concerning Logitech G15 Keyboard. Here is the follow up statement:
Tyren: “Recently, players expressed some concern over the use of programmable gaming peripherals while playing World of Warcraft. We want to make sure it’s clear that creating hotkeys for certain actions in the game is ok. However, if these peripherals are used to automate gameplay to the point where the player is able to conduct repeated actions in the game without paying attention, then that will constitute a violation of our game policies. The use of sustained automated play grants an unfair advantage over players who earn their achievements by actively playing through the game as it was designed. In the interest of maintaining an even playing field for all players, we will investigate reports of automated play and take action as needed to prevent this from occurring in the game.”
Will it come down to GM doing bot testing like in other games, sending the player a tell, if they don’t respond/answer correctly they get banned? Or will it all just be tests for physical hardware/programs?
Tyren: “Very valid question.
Without going into specifics, the main part involves human interaction. We can’t be more specific on what that interaction is, as it may give “botters” more insight into how they can avoid detection.”
Hopefully, there is an official statement soon concerning World of Warcraft on Linux Wine.
