True enough, WoW was never really a PvP game. PvP was just a side part for fun. Killing off towns, civilians, low levels. All part of the game. BG’s were added later and they are not bad…arena is what killed the fun of PvP.
PvP related stuff.
And you know that how? Are you a programmer at blizzard? Did you develop their software? No?
Then what qualifies you to say that’s the case?
People keep repeating this line as if it’s positively true without a shred of evidence to back them.
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That has already been debunked. We know blizzard can know how it is being done. This is because blizzard reversed the bans for some people that were only making appearance alternations. This means that they do have a way of telling the difference. However they are probably simply more concerned with if a change happened at all to begin with.
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I don’t work for Blizzard but I’ve spent the past 5 years of my life as a full time software developer and I have general knowledge of the game’s internals from developing my own addons and dabbling in datamining. I’d like to think I have more of a clue on the subject than the average forum poster at least.
The question isn’t so much, “is it possible” but more “is it reasonably possible”. Practically anything can be developed, but only a tiny subset of those possibilities make any sense to even consider developing, let alone actually following through with. Software development is incredibly expensive – even notoriously underpaid game engineers average $93k/year, with senior devs and management positions making considerably more (source).
Basically, any major project Blizz commits to has to be worth the price, and I’m not so sure that a system that automates the process of detecting the nature of modifications (it was likely done by hand for the unban) meets that criteria. Same goes for implementing stronger protections on more “critical” game files (it’s an endless game of cat and mouse). Ultimately, it would serve a tiny slice of the player base and it’s way cheaper to just slap them on the wrist and say, “don’t do that”.
The only way we’re ever going to see Blizzard-approved player-generated mods in WoW is if Blizzard goes all out and provides an official mod gallery along with an officially supported way of installing mods, because this opens up the feature to a much larger chunk of the playerbase and eliminates the shadiness currently surrounding mods. This won’t make everybody happy (NSFW mods are never going to be approved) but it’s the only realistic route.
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What about mods that alter the appearance of the UI or rarity finder or even DBM?
Curious how those are any different as they do indeed affect the playstyle of the game. Someone without DBM will be at a disadvantage during a raid. And there are cooldown mods that tell you in pvp when someone has blown a cooldown. All perfectly allowed.
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Addons are an officially supported system provided by Blizzard. Addons don’t actually replace or modify anything, they’re just “layered” on top of the game (even when they change UI appearance). Additionally, any functionality exposed by the addon API has been approved by Blizzard and thus all addons are approved by Blizzard.
Mods like people got banned for are very different. They function one of two ways: via reverse engineering and modification of WoW’s data files or by hacking WoW in memory after it’s been launched. Both are strictly prohibited by Blizzard.
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Ok. I honestly wasnt sure of the difference, but know addons like that have been allowed since Vanilla.
Yeah I can see how the two types could get conflated, with both commonly being referred to as “mods” (even though that’s a bit of a misnomer in the case of addons).
There is a saying…
The letter of the law versus the spirit of the law.
When it comes to this, it’s pretty easy to see where people take sides. People that change textures/models for aesthetic reasons aren’t trying to cheat other players. The rules are pretty much in place to prevent cheating against other players. Thus the disconnect of letter of the law vs spirit of the law. Often people will get so caught up in the letter of the law, that they forget what was the reason those specific rules where created in the first place, and use it to bash people that are innocent of the evil intent. Conversely, you also have people that strive to break the intent of the law, while following the letter and they often get away with it, because people get so caught up in the letter of the law, smashing innocents while the true evil people get away scott free. A shame really.
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Classic alignment clash: Chaotic good versus Lawful evil
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It was not tolerated since vanilla/tbc it has been banned every so often, there was a massive ban wave in WOTLK for ecample, and another in vanilla, and another in MoP
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Exactly zero people were banned, while exactly 100% of the people were suspended. Blizzard doesn’t ban anymore.
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The last ban wave we had.
nah we had a few ban waves in wod, and in legion.
Hell wod had a few and was the one that changed the default for bottting/third party programs from perma to 6 months/1 year/perma (based o repeat offences)
When it comes to botting, yes there were plenty of banwaves
However, with innocent modding, this is actually the first time anyone has been suspended/banned/received warning. A friend of mine has been modding since vanilla. That friend is also closely tied in with the modding community - there have been no reports of bans or suspensions in the modding community since vanilla (until this past week)
No, we haven’t. We have had a handful of suspension waves but zero ban waves like the old days.
I suppose that does about sum up my reasoning yes. I know I fall under the Chaotic Good camp most of the time irl.
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uhhh what? yes… we have had ban waves…
idk if you know my dude… but for example a botter, if they get caught 3 times, the third time is a perma ban…
the difference between a suspension wave and ban wave is simply repeat offenders
Suspesions work better then bans
if you are suspsended, you still have your account and are told “you can keep your stuff, but do it again and your years of work will be gone”
but if you are perma banned “all your stuff is gone. Start fresh” and so with that, why not bot again, if you already lost everything, bot again nad hope you dont get caught, what are you gunna lose, a few month old account, who cares?
people break the law all the time, and for ALOT of people, the first time they get punished is enoguh to scare them sh*tless and never do it again, of couse not true for everyone, which is why eventually they get more and more time.
“innocent modding” incorrect
in wotlk people got PERMA BANNED for exactly this
there was a guy who got perma banned for changing how his armor looked in wotlk to have smiley faces on his shoulder.
your friend is a right out liar btw.
why would a company breaking the ToS like a bot company, or boost seller, or mod makers say “oh yeah people get banned all the time” no they say “no no one has EVER been banned…”
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