In addition to the mountain of stuff added to World of Warcraft in Patch 2.3.0, Blizzard also updated the Warden anti-cheat system. This caused a new round of rabble over Warden, with new claims that it's a rootkit and spyware. But this time there is more to the story...

The yelling started over a blog post that claims Blizzard went "over the line" with the latest Warden update.

Strong words. What the blog failed to mention is that the author, Lax, is also the author of ISXWarden. And ISXWarden - what's that? It's a cheating tool, of course:

"Potentially Harmful Information" - like the process IDs of the bots you are running in the background?

So, we have the author of a tool designed to cloak other hacks, cheats and bots from Warden crying that the latest WoW patch updated Warden in a way that he can't immediately hack. Invasion of privacy! Call Slashdot, Digg this - Blizzard is potentially creating privacy issues! Can you say "conflict of interest"?

Look, someone got busted!

Oh my. It looks like Blizzard finally closed some of the loopholes used by botters and hackers to cheat in WoW by nuking ISXWarden, and applied some well-earned banstick to the lowlifes. It's understandable that they would be crying about the issue. They just cloak it by claiming they are crying how "Blizzard can dictate what they can and cannot run on their very own PCs". Ah, but you can run anything you like on your PC - Blizzard just reserves the right to boot your ass from World of Warcraft, should you run a botting program while you play WoW.

And that's not all - you agreed not to cheat, and you agreed that Blizzard has this right to ban you, should it catch you for cheating; it's all in the EULA and Terms of Service you accepted when you first started WoW. The vast majority of the players do not want you to cheat. Single player cheating is fine - all you cheat is yourself out of the enjoyment the game could offer, but online cheating should be a criminal offense anyway. When cheating online, you are depriving other players of the enjoyment the game could offer.

Besides, the simple way to avoid Blizzard "potentially invading your privacy" is to stop playing World of Warcraft. Any application you install and run under administrator privileges has the potential to self-modify itself to do something it didn't appear to do in the first place. Blizzard, running their multi-billion game franchise has so much to lose should they be caught doing something other than what they claim (catching hackers and botters using third-party programs to modify WoW) that I'm personally more than willing to trust them on this issue.

What's fun about the whole mess is how Slashdot, Digg and other popular sites took the blog - hook, line and sinker - and joined the chorus complaining about the potential privacy issues. Yes, in theory, Blizzard could be doing whatever it wants on your PC while you run WoW, but that's true even without Warden - you are running an application programmed by someone else, so you have to trust the source of the application. Blizzard could always be more open about Warden, but it's not a real secret to anyone, and there is plenty of information about it available online from other sources.

So, a storm in a teacup - with Blizzard apparently scoring a direct hit in the endless war against cheaters and botters.

Comments

	MeGamers 2007-11-17 #1 anti-cheat system ? ? that was great to have fair game
	Unregistered 2007-11-19 #2 I've been playing wow since beta I have NO issue with Blizzard doing this at all :> Might have something todo with I dont cheat lol
	Drunkin 2007-11-19 #3 I play the game quite frequently. If I wanted to "cheat" I'd just create my own server with a couple of friends and roll through BT as a GM. I mean really I don't see a problem with blizz making it harder for hacks and botters to do their bussiness in what is essentially blizzard property. I do understand the fear that the company may now have access to my machine that they would not normally have but I feel like I have nothing to fear. Only thing I can say is if you have something you want to remain hidden from all eyes, don't connect it to the internet. I'm happy blizzard has been working hard to keep the game "fair" in the perspective of botting and hacking. Then again what do I know? I'm just a lowly gamer.
	Unregistered 2007-11-28 #4 When greed is involved, nobody is trustworthy. While Lax is almost certainly guilty as you charge, I wouldn't be so quick to clean Blizzard's hands. They have created something that is ripe for abuse. It is only a matter of time before someone abuses it (and that could be an employee, the company, or even some other person that gets ahold of the Warden software (legally or illegally) >>>Blizzard, running their multi-billion game franchise has so much to lose should they be caught doing something other than what they claim (catching hackers and botters using third-party programs to modify WoW) that I'm personally more than willing to trust them on this issue.
	folgers 2007-12-24 #5 OMG!!! Cheating just got harder! Bummer Dude! In what way is it a game if you cheat? What ever...I keep playing, having fun, and making new friends. Screw the cheaters. PLAY ON
	iamshaked 2007-12-24 #6 speaking of hacks, dont you have to be registered to post on FM, i see someone a post or 2 above me that isnt registered? hacksss
	RainWind 2007-12-24 #7 This is full of win and awesome. I used to have fun taking nagrand botters into ravines and making it so they can't run to their corpse.
	Neeyik 2007-12-24 #8 Quote: Originally Posted by iamshaked speaking of hacks, dont you have to be registered to post on FM, i see someone a post or 2 above me that isnt registered? hacksss One doesn't need to be registered in order to post in the "In-House Content" section of the forum (i.e. news, reviews, previews, articles and sales charts).
	Unregistered 2008-07-01 #9 I play world of warcraft and it is great in all but i need some one to help me find a complaining site because blizzard hasn't completed my name change hasn't been completed so if some one could help me with that i would be on my way thnx
	Jarnis 2008-07-01 #10 Quote: Originally Posted by Unregistered I play world of warcraft and it is great in all but i need some one to help me find a complaining site because blizzard hasn't completed my name change hasn't been completed so if some one could help me with that i would be on my way thnx http://www.wow-europe.com/en/support/ (however, the site is down at the moment)
	Unregistered 2008-09-30 #11 i have never cheated but being spied on remotely bothers me. gms should actually do something instead of being not much better then an automated answering service.