Category: MMO

Blizzard Drops Another Banhammer

Blizzard has dropped another banhammer and this time has banned thousands upon thousands of accounts that have been caught using bots or botting programs. One thing to note is that most of these are not permanent bans this time around, rather 6 month bans that will be released sometime around November.

We’ve recently taken action against a large number of World of Warcraft accounts that were found to be using third-party programs that automate gameplay, known as “bots.” We’re committed to providing an equal and fair playing field for everyone in World of Warcraft, and will continue to take action against those found in violation of our Terms of Use. Cheating of any form will not be tolerated.

The main bot that seems to have been targeted was Honorbuddy. Just about every who has used it in the past few months will probably be presented with “this account is temporarily suspended.” Many people are reporting that their main tanks or raid leaders from their progression guilds have been banned and won’t be back until November. This is probably going to have some measurable amount of impact on the amount of progression guilds and we’re probably going to see several big ones break up over it. It might even have a noticeable impact on the economy and the price of the new WoW Token.

What’s your stance on botting? Did you get caught in the ban wave?

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Eve Online Passes 500k Subscribers

Eve 500k

It certainly doesn’t seem like it, but Eve Online has been around for 10 years and in that 10 years has seen some pretty impressive numbers. It has boasted some of the largest pvp battles in MMO history and has a reputation for ruthless hostile takeovers the likes of which make big budget hollywood films look like a youtube meme. But recently it passed a mark that it can be proud of – Eve has passed the 500,000 subscriber mark. This pales in comparison to some other MMOs out there like WoW and Guild Wars 2, but it’s still impressive for such a massive game with such a steep learning curve.

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Neverwinter

Neverwinter

Neverwinter is a new MMO from Cryptic Studios. It’s based on 4E D&D rules and has already started into its beta testing, with release probably in a few months. It’s going to be free to download and free to play. Monetization isn’t finalized yet it seems, but looks similar to other FTP games where you can purchase in game currency with real money that you can then use to buy cosmetics and unlocks. I can’t comment on how much it’s FTP vs so-called pay-to-win, but at least the devs so far are saying that in-game purchases will not be for combat upgrades. There will also be a system in the game called the Foundry that allows players to create their own stories and quests.

Anyone following this/interested in playing?

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