Oh Warlock, Where Art Thou?
This past weekend I fired up World of WarCraft for a brief and familiar respite from this all too real reality, and was met by digital malfeasance most foul, though I didn’t realize it immediately. I am impressive enough in the speed of my keyboarding, but my lack of equally impressive accuracy leaves me no stranger to the incorrect password dialog box. Normally it just means that I have bungled along the keyboard with the grace of a drunken elephant on a frozen pond, and with some concentrated effort the problem is soon enough alleviated. Not this time. I was about to encounter villainy most foul!
So, allow me to save you the artificial and flowery suspense that I so ham-fistedly offered and jump right to the point. I was hacked. Haxzored! Owned!
On resetting my password, and with a palpable sense of dread, I logged into the tattered remains of my account. My once vastly populated character select screen had been mercilessly trimmed to one lonely, naked and embarrassed looking Dranei. Gone were my level 70 Warlock, my fifty-something warrior, my sundry collection of alts with their pseudo-twinked gear and healthy bank accounts. These trappings and avatars which now represent hurumph-mmphg hours of my life had been stripped down for parts and discarded without apparent thought or care.
I was the victim of a good old fashioned virtual mugging.
I suppose at this point the traditional rhetorical flourish would be to compare this violation to something far more serious like an armed robbery or that other R word violation, but that seems naively stupid. It’s the sort of low-hanging fruit that usually indicates a writer who is either looking for something big to say or has completely lost perspective. Really, the only thing that happened is that the data that represents my World of WarCraft stuff got moved from one memory node on some distant server to another, and while annoying might be considered a reasonable adjective to describe the event anything more than that would be hyperbole.
My first thought as I stared at my unabashedly naked Shaman on the character select screen was, “this is a great time to stop playing!” While this was sound advice it remains advice that I am incapable of following. I look, instead, at the theft of my fake things as a great opportunity to take stock of how much I should care about those fake things. After all, the only things that really matter within this social experiment in virtual reality is the connections I’ve made with online friends--which may be substituted for real live friends only in the most dire cases--and those are unassailable. While it would be at least inconvenient to discover that my characters could not be recovered, that was far from the case.
I considered briefly being angry at the violator, but even that seemed beyond my capacity. After all, we’re talking about a guy whose job may very well be to steal things in World of WarCraft. That’s gotta suck on the Working the Graveyard Shift at an inner city gas station sort of level. Just as I find it hard to get too worked up when the guy working late night at Taco Bell forgets to put the stuff they dare call sour cream on my Soft Taco Grande, so too I wonder what good would it do to send alpha waves of ill-will at this guy. There’s at least the reasonable likelihood that while I stew and steam in the soft comfort of my suburban home, he’s working away for a handful of change a day in some Asian warehouse collecting other people’s fake gold so that his bosses can sell it back to the sulky over-enfranchised that I would represent.
My main concern was really to just make sure that I didn’t have some subversive keylogger in my system that could do some real and tangible damage to my non-WoW based stuff. Once I was relatively satisfied that blame could be laid squarely on my own head for being too lazy to upgrade my Flash player despite repeated warnings from Blizzard, the issue was largely resolved for me.
I understand that in-game items represent time and effort, but it’s not like I was left without recourse. Unlike most people whose stuff gets nicked from their apartments or their cars—again I am speaking of the real world here—the World of WarCraft authorities were able to magically recreate identical items from thin virtual air. Throwing a fit about the temporary loss of my equipment would be like getting worked up because someone stole your chair on the Starship Enterprise. Just replicate another one, moron!
What is somewhat troubling to me about this whole ordeal is how professionally clinical the Blizzard staff were. That’s not a critique on them; they were flawless in execution. But there are clearly well rehearsed procedures for dealing with these hacks to the point that you get the feeling there are people in a business park somewhere who spend all day doing nothing but processing through the victims of digital theft. While the people I dealt with were insatiably courteous, I sensed that my problem was about as unoriginal as a new song by Nickleback.
It is a reminder of how these thefts do have a real-world component. While the crime seems relatively victimless, ultimately these cyber-thieves operate because there are buyers who will spend real money for online items and gold. Perhaps the answer is for Blizzard to be pro-active in the process as Sony has attempted. Perhaps if there were some sanctioned method for transacting real world dollars for fake world commerce then more of the business would be done in the light of day instead of the darkness of a black market, running the less legitimate operations out of business. Otherwise, Blizzard’s hesitation to be a player in this business that clearly isn’t going away on its own, only serves to help those who profit from the shady dealings of online wealth.
While Blizzard has made impassioned pleas for players to stop supporting gold farmers, and their arguments are accurate and persuasive, it’s silly to think that people will actually follow their advice. Hell, they told me for two weeks that I needed to upgrade my Flash player or someone might steal my account, and I couldn’t even be bothered to follow that sage wisdom. The only strategy is to muscle the gold sellers out of business or force them into a system which can be regulated. Then, to get to the customers, they’ll have to be more inclined to play by at least some of the rules.
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There may be hope for you yet.
Danjo Olivaw Lives
As long as it takes time to get "things" in the game, and certain people have more money than time I don't see any way to get the profit-seekers out. I think the intellectual property rights need to go to the players ala Second Life and let this be figured out by the players. A Tale in the Desert managed to create a completely player-driven market system without the help of the developers. Perhaps it's the 20,000 line EULA that's really making this into a problem. I realize there might be issues with a free-for-all in games much more concerned with things like "levels" and "PvP" so I'm all ears, but from my experience in EQ2 and SWG the markets were too little, too late.
-=<
Let this be the hour that we draw swords together.
Fell deeds await.
Now for wrath.
Now for ruin.
And the red dawn
>=-
?
You are no longer AFK.
Did that Flash player advice coincide with the theft?
Maybe the solution is:
Less time suggesting far reaching change.
More time updating Flash player.
Is this more likely:
weak password being brute force cracked
strong password being brute force cracked
password being lifted off your PC (ie. keylogger)
interception or directly hacking the password exchanger (which I'm guessing is what the Flash upgrade stops)
password being lifted from another source (ie. you use the same password on a chat forum).
I think how serious the theft of all your virtual stuff seems to you is in partly dictated by when it happens in your WoW 'career.' If it happens when you are at the tail end of your WoW interest and you kinda weren't that bothered anyway then it isn't too bad. When it happens to a person (as it did in our guild) who is actively raiding at a high level and having fun with their friends (and therefore need their kit, gold and supplies to play) then it is a whole different story. I think it's a very, very nasty thing to do to a player.
At the time it happened to people in our guild my understanding was it wasn't that easy to get everything back as Blizzard were wary of people pretending that they had been hacked and asking for better kit. Maybe the procedure has improved a lot since then. It's great if it has.
... herald of Piggledy 'Destroyer of Worlds'
So, forgive me for not entirely following your rhetoric...but were you able to recover everything with a support call to Blizzard? I'm intrigued, I thought the standard response in these situations was 'you let your system get infected by a keylogger...tough'
The day it's actually enjoyable to grind out 2000g to buy shiny digital objects is the day gold sellers will disappear. In my view the problem isn't that getting these virtual items takes time, or rather it isn't just that these take time. The issue is that the time you're putting into it seems like wasted time, time you otherwise would be using for other activities.
For example, I'm currently enjoying GTA IV. Every time I complete a mission I discover a bit about the story line and the main character. The money I get from the mission is a side benefit, I'd do these missions just to progress the storyline if I had to. If there were a DLC option to give myself a million in-game dollars for five bucks real money I wouldn't bother. Contrast that with World of Warcraft, where to get my flying mount I had to go out and do a bunch of daily quests that are essentially grinding with goals. Given the choice I wouldn't have ever done those quests, I would have happily tried out Battlegrounds or ran some 5-mans. But I needed a flying mount to get more content out of the game, so grinding I went. Honestly, at this point I'd be seriously tempted to plunk down some real money to Blizzard for whatever the next time-sink in WoW is. It just isn't fun enough.
Remember, only by treating everyone with dignity and respect can we maintain the element of surprise for that inevitable day when we wipe our enemies from the face of the Earth.
For clarification, "bnpederson" is pronounced "Brian."
I played a ten-day trial account a few months ago and was surprised recently by a message from Blizzard saying they were upgrading my account. I didn't pay any attention, figuring it for a marketing thing. But a few days later I got another message telling me my account had been suspended for violations of the user agreement or some such thing. My trial account got hacked, and I still don't know how. I didn't get keylogged and didn't have any spyware or viruses on my machine so far as I know.
What's the deal with the flashplayer and the hacking?
Elysium as always you have struck me with your eloquently ordered use of adjectives in your story telling. It may be that I have just watched 5 straight episodes of Minami-ke and so I have the Chiaki method of symbolic oration stuck in my head. Regardless of the reason I find it refreshing to read this. In comment to your situation all I can say is, there is not much more to do. Shō ga nai.
Prederick wrote:
"When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross." - Sinclair Lewis.
My understanding as to why companies are reluctant to do this is that it opens them up to liability issues. IANAL, but the way it was explained to me is that as long as Blizzard maintains the official policy that your 10,000 gold and Sword of Uber-Leetness have no real-world value then if they are wiped out by a game glitch or server crash Blizzard has no obligation for anything other than the time you were unable to access the servers (which is what, 50 cents a day?).
But, if Blizzard assigns a real-world value to these items, then Blizzard could be liable for that real-world value if the items were lost and it was determined to have been caused by problems with their servers or code (or even if the account was hacked due to a vulnerability in their code). That is the reason so many companies are afraid to go that route.
XBL - CavemanGamer | Steam - Paleospieler | Twitter - Paleogamer | Blog - The Paleogamer
First thing I thought when I started reading the article, even before I got to that line!
Uh...sorry about your troubles, though.
Quote:
- Legion, taking "keeping it in the family" to a whole new level.
Xbox Live: Fedaykin98
Give a man a fish ...
See, the problem is that this makes this entirely my responsibility, and even Blizzard's EULA says that. But, I'm the customer. It's their responsibility to protect my play environment, and if I feel threatened I'll likely solve everyone's problem by just quitting instead. Ultimately, like I said, the real world threat of these kinds of breaches isn't with me, it's with Blizzard, because these are forces that can interfere with their customers perception of the game.
It was remarkably easy to get all my stuff back. At least Blizzard has realized that the problem is so sweeping that they can't ignore it. They simply can't, as mentioned above, say "tough luck, it's not our problem." That's how big the issue has become. Still, the reactive way the company handles the situation is the finger in the near-bursting dike. The problem is only going to get worse.
Interesting. Does that translate even if Blizzard simply opens a sanctioned marketplace and lets the players assign value. As in, instead of Blizzard selling you 500 gold, it simply allows the players to enter an Ebay like atmosphere. I mean, after all, I'm not sure how much longer the argument that these things don't already have real-world value works, because they clearly do. Blizzard sticking its fingers in its ears and going la-la-la-la doesn't mean that measurable money isn't being transacted. I don't see the difference.
"I think Elysium has the right of it" - Certis
More important than all of this talk about in-game property and accounts being hacked: has anyone seen an episode of Star Trek (any series) that shows a replicator that can make anything larger than a plate of food? Maybe a chair being stolen off the Enterprise is more serious than Sean would have us believe... What would Picard do after he just informed the bridge crew to "engage" if his chair were missing?
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As long as they have the ability to recreate the items, you wouldn't actually lose anything of value because of a crash.
I was writing a "there's not much Blizzard can do" reply, but then a bunch of ideas occurred to me. Presumably Blizzard can track where items are mailed to, so they can figure out which accounts to ban and just destroy the items. Kind of pointless selling/buying items if they vanish a couple of days later.
A behavioural filter might work as well - if somebody logs onto my account from a different IP block and starts mailing items like mad then block the account for a while and confirm with the account holder or something. Kind of like a spam filter for WoW actions.
Ultimately, though, it is the player's responsibility to keep their machine up to date and secure. Short of using online banking style external keygen dongles there's not much Blizzard can do at the user's end.
As an aside - I really don't understand the people who buy in game gold. Apart from anything else, gold is so easy to make in game. Without really trying I had 300G by level 40 by just skinning/mining while questing.
Problem with that is that these items get immediately filtered back into the lawful population. So, what if you bought some awesome gloves on the auction house and *poof* they disappeared a few days later.
Or worse, once the items are sold off, and the money is circulating in the economy how do you make that gold disappear?
Like I said, entirely true but a naive philosophy for Blizz to adopt. They can tell me what they like about my responsibility, but ultimately I hold the trump card. I can just stop giving them money. Considering the scope of this problem, they really don't want to risk alienating as much as 10% of their customer base.
I agree, particularly considering that it makes them that much more vulnerable a target.
"I think Elysium has the right of it" - Certis
I'm actually not sure; I'm just repeating (from memory admittedly) how it was explained to me in another game a while back (It was on the SW:G forums that this came up). IIRC the argument was that even allowing trades on eBay or whatever was an acknowledgment that in-game items had a real-world value and thus could open them up to liability for said items.
You would think, but maybe they are afraid of everyone going "Oh yeah, I lost one of those too" or something. Again, I'm just repeating what was explained to me here so I'll happily defer to anyone who knows what the actual legal implications are.
XBL - CavemanGamer | Steam - Paleospieler | Twitter - Paleogamer | Blog - The Paleogamer
Could Blizzard not just reverse every transaction involving the stolen item? I wouldn't feel too bad if that happened as long as I got an in-game mail explaining it (perhaps wrapped up with some sort of "demonic cursed weapon" explanation on the RP servers).
I guess that would take a fair bit of manpower on Blizzard's part, and we don't know if they store enough history to make it possible. Although, do many people who buy an item with real money then turn round and stick it on the AH straight away?
Dammit, must stop thinking about WoW, I'm getting the urge to reinstall it again and that never ends well...
Too bad there isnt some type of selling history for characters. I.e. an ingame log that retains a history of item trades / sales to other characters. On a pvp server you could then hunt down the innocent purchasers of your items and exact an entirely satisfying and bloody revenge on them. It would achieve absolutely nothing, but the revenge might be sweet. mwahahahahaha
You could even RP it.... Your shaman awakens from a drugged sleep. Naked, confused and alone. With a dull realization, he remembers the strange taint to the ale a catching nightelf had treated him to at the Summer Festival. Was it last night? How many days had passed?
His hard fought armor and weaponry gone, his mind fixates on the lost artifacts of arcane power he had gathered in his travels. He attunes his mind with nature, and in the distance, toward the great city of Stormwind, he senses the aura of his lost staff and mace.
A name comes to him.... Certis. This man must pay. He sets off determined to exact a mighty revenge and reclaim what was his....
Xbox Live: Irongut | Playstation ID: Irongut_GWJ
I love the idea that you could log in to your newly robbed character and then just have a look at a log to find who the stuff was mailed/given to.
But most likely if I were this sort of thief, I'd just delete the characters after looting them, (which actually appears to be what happened to Elysium) and then...hmmm...I suppose the logs could still be there, if they were available at the character select screen. And undeleteable, else the thief would simply delete them.
Interesting idea.
If Blizzard provided an in-game permanent log at the character select screen (for this purpose, even), 'twould indeed be fun to track down the scum responsible for the theft and "life-annullment" of your characters.
With a group of bloodthirsty high level guildmates.
"I have not supped of Buffy, nor have I supped in any wise during the absence of Firefly. When Firefly returns again in glory, then shall I sup at the table of Whedon." - Fedaykin98
My guess is you would be in the minority.
That brings up another problem. You've bought an item with real money, and blizzard turns around and takes it away. How are you going to get your money back?
"I think Elysium has the right of it" - Certis
Isn't that already possible now with desirable items? If you don't have it to begin with, you can't lose it. If you lose it and they replace it, you haven't lost anything. You can't win a lawsuit without damages.
I don't think it's a customer liability issue that concerns them so much as worries over the administrative cost of managing some new market program and concerns regarding the status of the IP involved. Sort of like it doesn't sound like they'd make any more money off it and could cause them headaches, so why bother.
This is doubly true when you hit 70. The plethora of daily quests that are now available mean that you can easily make well over 100g per hour. To me, it doesn't even feel like a grind, since there are so many quests. You can mix 'em up, do 'em in a different order, group for some--the more dailies they add, the more chances there are to add your own variety while doing them.
If your goal is to amass gold, it's simple, engaging, and dare I say it, fun to do so now. I can only see it getting better as they add more daily quests and achievements in the future.
Sturgeon's Law: 90% of everything is crud.
What have they lost? A few minutes game time browsing the AH? They got the gold back.
Edit: I guess you'd need a warning period - having your sword disappear in the middle of an instance run would be kind of annoying.
Isn't buying in-game items against the EULA anyway? They can't really complain about losing money doing something that's against the game's rules.
You are woefully underestimating the internet denizen's ability to bitch about nothing.
I agree, but again it's a balancing act. Being in the right doesn't always make for good PR and keeping customers. Whose gonna care about the right and wrong of the EULA if people see you as unsupportive and punitive, and start leaving your game. Remember, Blizzard's goal isn't its own law-enforcement, it's goal is to keep customers hooked.
"I think Elysium has the right of it" - Certis
Note: article received minor edits for the sake of clarity.
"I think Elysium has the right of it" - Certis
A lot of this conversation is hypothetical, since most "stolen" armor and weapons are soulbound anyway; I imagine most people have very few high-dollar BoEs sitting around. Unless the hackers take down someone who is an AH fanatic, there will seldom be a case of someone wearing goods stolen from someone else, so there would be no reason for a sword to be confiscated.
I would imagine that a heck of a lot of stolen gold goes straight to flying mounts and epic flying mounts, which means that it disappears down a hole and leaves the economy. Until the new BoE goggle recipes from Sunwell, I had never heard of anything more expensive than a 5000g epic flier, nor even close.
Quote:
- Legion, taking "keeping it in the family" to a whole new level.
Xbox Live: Fedaykin98
It would be upsetting to give a man a fish and then hear him complain that it hasn't been scaled and filleted.
Hows this for a sensible customer perception:
Just like antivirus, antispyware and windowsupdate are necessary so is updating what wow tells me to.
Some people suck and will try to hack me. I will try to prevent that by staying up to date. If somebody does manage to hack me Blizzard will address it and give me back what I have lost. If this is because I failed to run my updates I will be more aware.
Blizzard don't want to spend 24/7 dealing with this so will be figuring out ways to minimise exploits and track abusers.
Quitting because you can be hacked is as ridiculous as not playing Bioshock because you are disgusted at being treated like a criminal.
I'm not an MMO player, so this may just be me being naive, but what does flash have to do with a WoW session? How can an old flash cause/permit a WoW login+password to be snatched? Or, is it something generally broken with certain older flash versions, so that I can get into trouble playing some seemingly innocuous (casual) flash on a PC?
"Gamers With Jobs will take over the world someday. I hope they're benevolent overlords." -- Bill Harris
The worst kind!
...On the internet?
Alright, so I know that I get attached to characters in story-driven games. Maybe I'm just touchy-feely that way. I still don't understand the attachment people have for MMO characters and items, though, at least outside the rare, full RP setting.
Elysium: The democratization of the web ... has installed an illusion of a digital first amendment that protects speech no matter how poorly spelled or stupid.
XBL: E Munnie
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