Massively^™

Factional warfare in EVE Online, by design, ensures that ships of a much greater ship class cannot engage smaller ships in certain deadspace mission pockets. If you and your fellow militia pilots are in a zone designated for nothing larger than frigates, for instance, you shouldn't find yourself getting locked by battleships fighting for your rival militia. Apparently this has started to occur; some players have found that the jump gates to these zones don't actually prevent them from warping in ships of a magnitude not allowed in such areas.

GM Grimmi had this to say at the EVE Online site: "Flying bigger class ships than allowed by the jump gates to Factional Warfare complexes has been classed as an exploit. If you are found doing this we will be forced to take in-game actions as abusing game mechanics is not allowed." So there you go. You might still be able to get in there with something obscenely overpowered and pop frigates like balloons, but you'll say goodbye to your account over it.

Pirates of the Burning Sea's 1.5 patch deploys tomorrow morning, but effective immediately are two policy changes. In regards to cross teaming which is when a player uses two different accounts to play as a separate nation on the same server. The rule will be enforced and now applies to multiple accounts tied to individual account owners. It's not possible to play two characters of opposing nations on the same account so players would bypass this by using another account. The second policy change is that the selling of durability to Pirates is no longer allowed.

Players with multiple accounts that play as a differing nation on the same server will be given the opportunity to transfer their characters to another server. If players have any further questions regarding the new policy changes please petition in-game. The announcement also warns that repeat offenders are subject to further disciplinary action, most likely the ban stick. Joe Ludwig is responding to some dismayed players over on the official PotBS forums.

Well, it seems I may have been too hasty in jumping on the 'omgblizzardgmsaretehsuckzorz" bandwagon last week. Merely a handful of hours after logging back on to my World of Warcraft account and submitting a GM ticket after reformatting my PC, not only had my deleted characters been restored, but all of their gold and items had been recovered.

Colour me chuffed.

I was correct in my suspicions, and whoever had managed to compromise my account had indeed stripped and deleted two of my level 70 characters. The last time I had logged on, I had three characters at level 70; a Horde Druid and Priest and an Alliance Warrior. On checking the Armoury, both the Priest and Warrior were missing, and the Druid was naked – which, as I'm sure any other Tauren player can attest, is rarely a good look.

Now, as much as I deplore it, I can understand the concept of hacking a person's account in order to sell their gear, then pass that money along via a Goldseller – that's simply business, but I don't understand why you would delete a character completely – while the first is an undeniably rotten thing to do to a person, it's generally something that can be recovered from, or (in the worst-case scenario) rebuilt. New gear can be acquired, gold can be earned once again, and if your guild happens to be chock-full of good folk like mine, you'll maybe get some help along the way.

When you play online games these days, you always have to be mindful that you don't leave yourself vulnerable to viruses, account fraud, and hacks. Something as seemingly simplistic as a hidden keylogger in a UI mod can open the floodgates to strangers to come on your computer and take your account information. Stories abound of players losing accounts they've dumped thousands of hours into because they didn't take the proper precautions. While some of the blame certainly lies with the players, there are some critics who have charge that the MMO industry doesn't do enough to prevent fraud.

Enter the Blizzard Authenticator. This new keychain SecurID device can be attached to your World of Warcraft account, making it impossible for anybody to access it without the Authenticator plugged into the computer They'll be debuting the device at the upcoming Blizzard Invitational, but it should be available on Blizzard's online store soon at the low, low price of $6.50. It's a small price to pay for peace of mind.

In the mainstream media it's not entirely uncommon to hear tales of virtual theft cast in a mocking or sometimes even light-hearted tone. Given the right set of details, we're sometimes guilty of it ourselves. In any case, when you actually read a first-hand account of such an experience, you quickly see how devastating a personal blow it can be to a person. A recent article in The Escapist explores one such experience, going into the depths with one unfortunate Paladin who had her Final Fantasy XI account hacked.

Much the same way that a real life burglar can rob somebody of their sense of safety, virtual thieves rob players of the joy and security they get from building up a character in a virtual world. The Paladin followed in the article lost her will to play altogether, which we think is an even sadder outcome than losing her highly-valued account.

PlayNoEvil points out an interesting blog entry on cheating in Runescape. The poster, who wishes to remain anonymous, describes himself as a retired Runescape cheater who devoted five years to the 'darker side' of the game. He states, "This article details all the intricacies of Runescape and cheating and what really goes on behind the scenes, I assure you that it will surprise you."

The poster, identified only by the name ThirdEyeOpen, lays out how cheaters and buyers operated as a would-be organized crime ring. 'Welcome to the Dark Side' is his chronicle of how he began his Runescape cheating career, and how it all ended. He recounts being 'interrogated' online by Jagex Ltd. about his activities, and how the subsequent account banning led to a malevolent wish to get even. His anger eventually snowballed into the creation of an organization of similar-minded individuals, mostly other teenagers, who accumulated a fair amount of real-world currency through exploits in Runescape before cashing out altogether. It's an interesting read -- perhaps a bit disturbing in the sense that he views cheating as a kind of playstyle -- but worth checking out all the same.

Via PlayNoEvil

RF Online in the Philippines recently had serious issues with dupe hacks, prompting an unannounced rollback of the servers. PlayNoEvil writes that the operator of RF Online for the Philippines, Level Up Games, discovered a dupe exploit and tried to purge it from the servers as well as those who used it. However due to time constraints with unraveling the intricacies of the exploit, the company decided to roll back the game to a point before the exploit was used.

Level Up Games issued a statement on the problem: Based on DB evidence, numbers as well as feedback from the community, the GMs, the Vanguards and also from our field agents, there was an oversupply of in-game currency and gold - as high as 500 %. GMTristan of RF Online Philippines clarified the situation further on his blog:

Jon Wood from MMORPG.com recently interviewed Funcom's Product Director Jorgen Tharaldsen about some of the issues affecting gameplay in Age of Conan. The interview was primarily focused on customer service issues, and hopefully provides a good indicator as to how things are improving in AoC. Some of the key issues that Tharaldsen addressed include:

• Customer support frustrations expressed by players.

• Inability to log in to the game's official forums.

• Funcom's actions taken against exploiters.

• Poor game performance despite meeting required system specs.

• Server downtimes during peak hours.

• Limitations on number of players in certain instances.

• Increasing the number of GM's to handle the petition backlog.

Check out the interview over at MMORPG.com, where's there's quite a string of comments from the readers. Do you think Funcom is handling customer service issues properly (given that AoC had such a recent launch), or are they dropping the ball?

Not long after launch day, Age of Conan, fell victim to such exploits. One involved the Demonologist class and leveling, and the other was a severe duping exploit via the trader system. Funcom is now under scrutiny for their handling of the situation. In many cases, Funcom opted to ban now, and suspend players for investigatory purposes before determining the final outcome. The aftermath from their decision had players crying foul, claiming that they did nothing wrong. In this interview with Ten Ton Hammer, the Senior Customer Service & QA Manager for Age of Conan explains the situation and admits that some suspended accounts were free from any illicit activity and reinstated. Some players are still awaiting word on their fate.

How do you think Funcom is handling the situation?

According to an email sent to some users of the Second Life public JIRA by Linden Lab, a number of users have unintentionally had their email address published on their JIRA profile page.

Apparently JIRA profiles included the account's registered email address from 20 May to 24 May. Users whose JIRA profiles were logged as being accessed during that period have been emailed to alert them that their email addresses may have been exposed.

Even though email addresses may be considered comparatively innocuous, many virtual world and MMOG users value their privacy very strongly, even if they are not anonymous. This isn't the first time that confidential user-data held by Linden Lab has been unintentionally exposed, and it would be unwise to suggest that it will be the last time.

[Thanks, Sean Heying]

Have you got Flash player 9,0,115,0 or earlier? Check. No, really, do it now. These versions are apparently vulnerable to an exploit that can put malicious software on your system, including keyloggers that are set to swipe MMO passwords and credentials, like your World of Warcraft account. This is happening right now, according to Symantec.

The latest update, version 9,0,124,0 is apparently not vulnerable to the exploit according to Adobe. You should probably get that version now, if you trust Adobe's information. If you trust Symantec's alert, only versions 115 and 124 are vulnerable, and this is a new exploit, and not the one that Adobe is talking about. If you want to play it safe, go plug the No-Script add-on or Flashblock into your Firefox browser, and breathe a huge sigh of relief until everyone gets their story straight (but check your system for malware first, okay?)

[via Macnn]

Update: Symantec and Adobe agree that 124 is not vulnerable. If you have any other version, you should upgrade.

So far there have been two major updates to Funcom's still-new Age of Conan. The third has re-added a much-missed feature: the Trader. Traders are a combination bank, auction house, and mailbox. If you haven't yet had the chance to use them, all you have to do is drop your wares into the bank and set the item as 'for sale'. There's no option to do a traditional auction; other players can purchase your items at the price you list, or not.

Additional tweaks to the game correct a leveling exploit formerly available via the apprenticing system, correct a few class ability issues, and smooth out a number of UI issues. Interestingly, Bear Shamans have had a number of abilities moved to an earlier level, correcting a bug where class representatives weren't getting certain spells at all. For the full notes, read on below the cut.

How long has Age of Conan been out? Like 3 hours? Okay, it's been a week, but still. Players have already discovered a way to exploit a bug and powerlevel their Demonologists to level 80 in that brief time. This is both a testament to the genius of MMO players, and a sign of our complete lack of anything better to do. Apparently, the problem lied in the player's ability to stack certain spells repeatedly and insta-kill mobs. The first person to claim this feat reportedly posted screenshots, a movie and several emails to the GMs explaining his procedure, in hopes of getting it fixed soon. He claims it took him 4 days and 12 hours of in-game time to reach level 80.

So now that we have this update fixed by Funcom, the real question is, what will they do with those who exploited the bug and have level 80 Demonologists running around already? Should they delete those characters, bump them down a few levels, or resort to something more severe like temporary or permanent account banning? I'm sure not all players who are level 80, or even in that vicinity have exploited this bug, so it will be interesting to see how Funcom decides to handle this one.

World of Warcraft seems to be the focus of virtual law, lawsuits, angry gnomes, and all sorts of fun these days. Not only is a player suing IGE due to their gold selling practices, but Blizzard also took MDY, makers of the glider program, to court. Now, MDY and Blizzard are moving closer to getting this battle finished.

The arena of choice is the US District Court of Arizona and the two sides put forth their best efforts and finished their replies. Now we just have to wait for the federal justice system to make a decision on summary judgment. As Virtually Blind's Benjamin Duranske points out, that could take some time. Nonetheless, a few people are following such lawsuits closely since this is new territory for the courts and the MMO industry. Some fear the cases bring the federal government onto virtual turf, others think it is time for an end to cheating and want government help, and a few players are indifferent and just want to get their characters to level 70 before Wrath of the Lich King arrives.

Tired of gold spammers clogging up the bank square in Stormwind? Lots of other World of Warcraft players feel the same way and have (apparently) found a way to deal with this issue firsthand. The site TechnoLlama notes a technique where Shamans can kill off the Level 1 goldspammer bots, despite being a part of the same faction. By logging off just a moment before their Fire Nova totem detonates, it essentially turns the explosive device into an unaligned item. When it goes off, it does damage to everyone around it regardless of faction.

Even a level 70 totem doesn't do that much to your average player. The damage done is more than enough to kill a level 1 spambot, though. All of this is outlined in a post to the official WoW forums. It's (of course) been deleted, but it can be viewed in whole via Google cache. This unique post and discussion was highlighted by the commentary site Terra Nova. Commenter Greg Lastowka notes that this is a unique response from a fed-up player community. He ties it back to a previous discussion on the site about appropriate levels of RMT control.

What do you think? Should players be allowed to "take the law into their own hands" when it comes to gold spammers?