Starcraft 2

[BardicKnowledge]

Wow, what a great series. Does this mean that all the rest of us hoping for a zerg buff are just going to have to get better? haha.

[Mr. Bottle Rocket]

Damn, hopetorture was just way outclassed by fruitdealer, totally mauled.

[Scrobble]

am i the only one that plays really late? like 2 am central? i get off work around 9:45, spend a little time with my girlfriend and then come home, and it always seems to be way late before i feel like playing.

[Souliarc]

Did you guys know there's a secret mission in the campaign? I didn't. I found it by accident when I got bored and went about destroying everything I could find. It's in the map where you use the Odin to attack the UNN network on Korhal. In the bottom right corner, there's a civilian building. Destroy it, and an object appears. Grab it with any ground unit, and it unlocks a mission you can play from your bridge.

I'm not going to spoil it, but it's one of those infiltration-based missions where you have a set number of units. The real fun part, though, is how they use the game engine to create traps.

Yeah it really screwed me on getting the achievement for all missions complete. I tried even going back to a save before hand but it didn't give me it.

Very fun mission though, fo sho.

[Souliarc]

I got reclassified from Platinum down to Gold 0_0

Kinda in a rut and hitting a plateau right now (plateau's are a bitch in a anything really...) but just have to keep learning. I've been trying a lot of new things in the game instead of the hard pressed BO's and tactics I've used many times before. This is at the expense of many losses, but hey, you can't be stuck in one form of game play.

I almost feel like the only reason I got to Platinum and Gold is because soooo many people cheese in bronze and silver that it's easy to get boosted up from all those wins. Problem being, once I got to the higher leagues I hadn't really had enough practice against good opponents, thus, the reclassification. It's like I'm in a purgatory of mediocrity. Just gotta break through.

/blog rant

And yes, you're welcome.

[lazygecko]

Closing in on 3 months after launch, still nothing about lifting the region lock. Guess it's not gonna happen at all.

More fun news, Blizzard bans single player cheaters because of achievements:

http://www.cheathappens.com/article_blizzardbans.asp

Battle.net 2.0 just keeps sounding better and better.

[Vivi22]

Closing in on 3 months after launch, still nothing about lifting the region lock. Guess it's not gonna happen at all.

More fun news, Blizzard bans single player cheaters because of achievements:

http://www.cheathappens.com/article_blizzardbans.asp

Battle.net 2.0 just keeps sounding better and better.

Well that makes me re-think ever wanting to play the game again just based on principle.

[Souliarc]

More fun news, Blizzard bans single player cheaters because of achievements:

http://www.cheathappens.com/article_blizzardbans.asp

Battle.net 2.0 just keeps sounding better and better.

I can see both sides of the story, but ultimately, if Blizzard warned of banning cheaters back in September and it's in the EULA, why would you risk it?

Sure, in the old days where playing single player didn't require you to be connected to the internet where your achievements were there for everybody to see, it would seem fine, but now, it's a different era. I can also see how gamer score could possibly effect your matchmaking. If you have a huge gamer score, it shows that you do have an adept understanding of playing the game, even with recognizing that playing A.I. and human opponents is quite different. With having even matchmaking being a large priority, I'd imagine Blizzard would want to take every step to ensure that balance. The StarCraft series has always been very strict on game play balance as well, I'd almost say more than any other game, and I guess that mindset has carried over to other services from Blizzard.

Messing with someone's intellectual property is typically not a good idea in the first place (OcRemix being an exception ), especially if the creator has the ability to monitor everything you do to/in their creation.

[Gollgagh]

okay this is where achievement shit steps over the line

I don't care for achievements in the first place since they always feel like artificial methods of adding meaning to games, but banning players to protect those achievements is asinine.

[Ramaniscence]

okay this is where achievement shit steps over the line

I don't care for achievements in the first place since they always feel like artificial methods of adding meaning to games, but banning players to protect those achievements is asinine.

The real question is: Why not just use the built in cheat codes? Why use the trainers at all if not to get the achievements? Which then obviously takes the achievement out of the achievements all together.

I mean, it's not like StarCraft 2 doesn't already have an easy mode, cheat codes, AND a map editor is you really want to mess with the game, but you also have to go and use a trainer because you just HAVE to?

This is a kind of cry baby article imho.

[Gollgagh]

oh ho I didn't realize there were built-in cheatcodes

that's a plus for blizzard, I thought cheatcodes were an extinct species by now

I rescind my previous post

(I must admit I use cheatengine a lot for single player games that don't have cheatcodes when I'm screwing around)

[Scrobble]

they've had this in WoW for *years*.

The guys who are 'totally innocent, i swear', and get banned, and then someone digs up that they were actually 'just hacking a little' or 'i just let my friend use my account, and HE must have done it' or something.

[Vivi22]

With having even matchmaking being a large priority, I'd imagine Blizzard would want to take every step to ensure that balance.

You might have a point if your achievement score had anything to do with the matchmaking process online. It doesn't though. In fact the only thing cheating in the single player would do is boost your achievement score, but if it doesn't harm matchmaking or your opponent then who cares? Sure, ban anyone hacking online, but in single player? Give me a break Blizzard. If someone wants to use hacks against the computer opponents then let them. They aren't hurting anyone by doing so.

[Gollgagh]

they've had this in WoW for *years*.

The guys who are 'totally innocent, i swear', and get banned, and then someone digs up that they were actually 'just hacking a little' or 'i just let my friend use my account, and HE must have done it' or something.

except we're talking about cheating in the single player campaign

[Ramaniscence]

You might have a point if your achievement score had anything to do with the matchmaking process online. It doesn't though. In fact the only thing cheating in the single player would do is boost your achievement score, but if it doesn't harm matchmaking or your opponent then who cares? Sure, ban anyone hacking online, but in single player? Give me a break Blizzard. If someone wants to use hacks against the computer opponents then let them. They aren't hurting anyone by doing so.

If they want to cheat against an AI for single player, let them. Blizzard put cheat codes in for that, it just disables your ability to get achievements. They want to cheat AND get achievements, and Blizzard wants to protect the integrity of their achievements.

I'm pretty sure that goes for just about every other game that has achievements right now. I would think VERY FEW allow actual hacking/cheating to get without threat of retribution. Why would this be any different?

[Scrobble]

yes, just like those people were 'only cheating a little' in wow.

that article even says that blizzard tells you not to use third party programs, or you run the risk of being banned. so i am not sure how you get to be surprised when you use third party programs, and get banned

[Reaif]

yes, just like those people were 'only cheating a little' in wow.

that article even says that blizzard tells you not to use third party programs, or you run the risk of being banned. so i am not sure how you get to be surprised when you use third party programs, and get banned

How many people actually read the EULA? I can see getting surprised, but there are so many people these days with an overgrown sense of entitlement it just makes me sick.

If you REALLY want cheats, use the ones that were provided... whatever they are.

[friendlyHunter]

I wonder... Blizzard may be able to tell whether or not people are cheating using third party programs, but can they tell whether they're using these programs for multiplayer (specifically ladder) or for just single player? If they can't tell whether someone's cheating in multiplayer specifically (or if it takes additional time/resources/investigating to tell), then that's quite a different story.

In any case, hopefully the people banned unjustly will get a chance to appeal. You're not supposed to have more than 1 BNet account per person, so you can't even make a new one and PAY for the game without blatantly breaking the rules. (Unless you can buy a second SC2 license on your banned account, which seems a little unlikely.)

A couple weeks ago I was going to download a program called SC2Gears, which lets me see my per-race stats and stuff like that. I think I'll investigate whether or not it's considered "cheating" before I use anything like that...

[Gollgagh]

I wonder... Blizzard may be able to tell whether or not people are cheating using third party programs, but can they tell whether they're using these programs for multiplayer (specifically ladder) or for just single player? If they can't tell whether someone's cheating in multiplayer specifically (or if it takes additional time/resources/investigating to tell), then that's quite a different story.

most likely the way they would check in single player is having redundant data and/or hash checks on what kinds of resources you've collected and spent and how much you've done so, so if the check value doesn't match the actual value, that's a pretty good chance someone edited the resource value with a trainer or a memory editor

multi would be even easier since trainers only work on local memory so if the data values on the client side didn't match up with the server values, you've either got lag or memory editing

[BardicKnowledge]

If they want to cheat against an AI for single player, let them. Blizzard put cheat codes in for that, it just disables your ability to get achievements. They want to cheat AND get achievements, and Blizzard wants to protect the integrity of their achievements.

I'm pretty sure that goes for just about every other game that has achievements right now. I would think VERY FEW allow actual hacking/cheating to get without threat of retribution. Why would this be any different?

At least one counter-example: Audiosurf allows you to ride a song with only one note in 5 (or 15) minutes to get the achievements. If you want them that badly and otherwise lack the skill, more power to you.

[Ferret]

THE POINT IS Blizzard is not doing ANYTHING to retain their fanbase and in fact these draconian measures are actually pushing people away from investing time and money in anything with the Blizzard or Activision stamp on it.

Imagine if Bioware or whatever said you weren't allowed to play Mass Effect anymore because you downloaded and installed third-party mods to alter your game experience. This is EXACTLY what Blizzard is doing every time they ban someone from multiplayer for 'cheating' in the single-player campaign or, even worse, when lock them out of playing the game, period.

It's insane and I for one am not going to support the company as long as they are resorting to such extremes, and it's my suggestion that nobody else support them, either.

Boycott Blizzard!

[prophetik music]

this coming from a guy who, according to his signature, uses hacks to skew his gameplay stats in his favor.

[Vivi22]

I'm pretty sure that goes for just about every other game that has achievements right now. I would think VERY FEW allow actual hacking/cheating to get without threat of retribution. Why would this be any different?

I can't think of any other instance in gaming history where a company denied players the ability to play their game because they used third party hacks or mods in single player, doing absolutely no harm to other players.

And unless you can explain to me why "protecting the integrity of achievements" is important then it's in no way an argument for banning people over this. Because in the end, the achievements don't matter, and if someone wants to cheat to get them then it in no way detracts from any other players experience with the game.

Ferret has it right with his third party mod example. This is no different than if Valve were to start banning Steam users for doing something like hacking the Portal gun into HL2: Episode 2 and using it to play through the game and get achievements.

[The Damned]

this coming from a guy who, according to his signature, uses hacks to skew his gameplay stats in his favor.

I say, good chap, well played.

[zircon]

I guess the issue with this is that achievements are involved, and achievements are basically game components with an online element. The point of them is to show to the world that you've, well, achieved things in game. If anyone can simply cheat to get achievement, then what little meaning they may have had is completely gone.