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Friday, December 08, 2006
Everybody is cheating in World of Warcraft
I used to be a "DCI certified level 1 judge" for Magic the Gathering. Which means I took an exam on the complex rules of that game, and judged a couple of smaller tournaments, before being allowed to judge side-events at the World Championship 2000. Besides rules knowledge the job of a judge in a Magic the Gathering tournament is to prevent cheating, and to decide whether cheating was really going on when one player accuses his opponent of it. As you might guess, the rules enforcement level at a World Championship is pretty strict. And if you apply such a strict definition of what cheating is to World of Warcraft, you quickly realize that nearly everybody is cheating in WoW.
Magic has some team events. Communication between members during the event is strictly forbidden in many cases. If I had found a team using electronic devices to talk to each other during a draft, I would have had to disqualify them. Meanwhile in World of Warcraft it is perfectly normal for some teams to use voice chat, while other teams don't have it. Voice chat not only makes beating a raid dungeon much easier, but also gives a nearly unbeatable advantage in small PvP battlegrounds. Use of electronic devices for communication outside of the communication channels the game offers you: Cheating!
In Magic there are limited and unlimited events. Limited means that you can't play with your whole collection of cards, but you are assigned a number of packs of cards as resources, and you have to build a deck with them. And everybody has to play with the cards he received, you can't give any of your cards to a friend who is also playing or sell them to him. In World of Warcraft the situation is far more bizarre: You are allowed to receive resources, like gold, from somebody else, as long as you didn't pay him. Imagine me as a Magic judge would have witnessed somebody passing cards to somebody else. Under the Magic rules both players would have been banned, but under WoW rules I would have to find out whether any cash changed hands as well, which is pretty much impossible. One of your characters receiving gold or items in World of Warcraft from another of your characters, or from a friend or guildmate, or from a gold farmer: Cheating!
A Magic player using a computer during a draft to calculate probabilities of certain cards coming his way would have gotten kicked out of the tournament pretty quickly. You can only use your head to calculate when playing cards, not software to make your life easier. In World of Warcraft nearly everybody uses mods and addons to make his life easier, and only "hacks" and "bots" are illegal. And some addons have a huge impact on your efficiency, otherwise people wouldn't be so angry about Decursive being disabled. Using third-party software to increase you efficiency in a game: Cheating!
So why are so few people playing World of Warcraft totally legit, and why does Blizzard allow all these activities which are cheating by any strict definition? Some of them are allowed because Blizzard simply couldn't control whether somebody is using these methods or not. Voice chat is a prime example. Even if the Blizzard Warden could detect the voice chat software running on the machine on which WoW is running, people could simply run the voice chat on a second computer. Something which I do anyway, to reduce workload on the game PC. Blizzard doesn't even know if that team beating up everybody else in Warsong Gulch isn't simply sitting all together in the same room. There is no possible way to disallow communication.
But the underlying reason why nobody cares about most forms of World of Warcraft cheating is that it isn't really a competitive game. The latest Magic the Gathering World Championship awarded a total prize money of $250,000, so you better make sure that everybody is playing on an equal level. Cheating in World of Warcraft earns you nothing, except in cases where gold farmers use bots to make gold and sell it, and these *are* banned.
World of Warcraft can't really be a competition, because it is not inherently fair. Your progress and standing in the game depends to a very large extent on the number of hours played. Imagine a race that goes on over many days (like the Tour de France), but where the contestants don't all start at the same time, not even on the same day, and don't all race for the same number of hours per day. Did the guy who crosses the finish line first win because he was fastest? Or did he just start earlier than the competition and race for more hours per day than they did?
As soon as you start considering World of Warcraft not as a game which you can win, but more like a toy, a sandbox in which you can play, it becomes evident why the very concept of "cheating" isn't really appropriate. Of course people disrupting the sandbox play of others should be evicted from it, just as they are in Kindergarten. But if somebody is building nicer sandcastles than the other people playing in the same sandbox, because he uses a bucket and a little star-shaped form, is not disrupting the game, however jealous the other kids in the sandbox might be. You can't cheat in a game which can't be won. That is why Blizzard allows people to use addons or transfer gold to other characters: It makes playing for them more pleasant, and doesn't really disrupt the game play of others.
- posted by Tobold @ 9:50 AM Permanent Link
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Of course if you do something crazy like look at the rules laid out by Blizzard then you will find that two out of three of your examples are not cheating.
Using voice communications. No rule against it. Not cheating.
Using tools to calculate probabilities. No rule against it. Not cheating.
Here's a quote from the dictionary -
"To violate rules deliberately, as in a game: was accused of cheating at cards."
What you need is some word which encapsulates the idea of playing the game in a way you don't like.
Perhaps at these magic tournaments you've seen kids crying that their opponent is cheating because they are using a control deck and they can't beat that. This is the kind of cheating you are talking about. That is, not cheating at all, just sour grapes.
Using voice communications. No rule against it. Not cheating.
Using tools to calculate probabilities. No rule against it. Not cheating.
Here's a quote from the dictionary -
"To violate rules deliberately, as in a game: was accused of cheating at cards."
What you need is some word which encapsulates the idea of playing the game in a way you don't like.
Perhaps at these magic tournaments you've seen kids crying that their opponent is cheating because they are using a control deck and they can't beat that. This is the kind of cheating you are talking about. That is, not cheating at all, just sour grapes.
# posted by 
: 8/12/06 11:37
: 8/12/06 11:37
No rule against it. Not cheating.
That is a very narrow definition of cheating. According to your definition using a "cheat code" is not cheating, as there is no rule against it.
For example you "cheated" by selecting from hundreds of different possible dictionary entries the one that supported your opinion. :) But there are other definitions, for example I found "act dishonestly or unfairly in order to gain an advantage" in the Oxford dictionary.
But you are totally right in that most people's definition of cheating is "gaining an advantage by doing something I haven't thought of". :)
That is a very narrow definition of cheating. According to your definition using a "cheat code" is not cheating, as there is no rule against it.
For example you "cheated" by selecting from hundreds of different possible dictionary entries the one that supported your opinion. :) But there are other definitions, for example I found "act dishonestly or unfairly in order to gain an advantage" in the Oxford dictionary.
But you are totally right in that most people's definition of cheating is "gaining an advantage by doing something I haven't thought of". :)
I'm not sure you can take the ruleset of one game and call out "cheating" when it's applied to another. If that's the case, then I say Vent isn't cheating based on NWN2 rules, where Bioware actually supplies a voip program along with the game. Addons aren't cheating either, since they encourage hacks and custom content. You're also free to transfer gold and any item you wish to another player. "Soulbound" doesn't exist in any form in the NWN platform.
The biggest mark against your cheating theory is that Blizzard has incorporated third party addons into their standard UI. Scrolling combat text and raid ready voting are good examples of this.
And some addons have a huge impact on your efficiency, otherwise people wouldn't be so angry about Decursive being disabled.
We moaned, we cried, we pleaded, and we sobbed over this. At the end of the day, we beat Chromaggus on the first try while using no decursing addon whatsoever. We are even relying on the original UI's raid monitoring abilites, too, since CTRaid is messed up. All it took was a tweaked healing strat.
-Mart
The biggest mark against your cheating theory is that Blizzard has incorporated third party addons into their standard UI. Scrolling combat text and raid ready voting are good examples of this.
And some addons have a huge impact on your efficiency, otherwise people wouldn't be so angry about Decursive being disabled.
We moaned, we cried, we pleaded, and we sobbed over this. At the end of the day, we beat Chromaggus on the first try while using no decursing addon whatsoever. We are even relying on the original UI's raid monitoring abilites, too, since CTRaid is messed up. All it took was a tweaked healing strat.
-Mart
# posted by : 8/12/06 15:07
: 8/12/06 15:07
I am not trying to brand you all as cheaters, I'm trying to challenge your understanding of cheating. Why is something cheating in one game and not in another game?
The "it's the rules, stupid" answer is simple, but not sufficient. For example I bet you won't be able to find a rule against gold duping in any MMORPG EULA or TOS. But if you find a gold duping bug and use it, you are sure to get banned for it. Rules are often created *after* the event, selling gold wasn't forbidden until somebody did it.
The "it's the rules, stupid" answer is simple, but not sufficient. For example I bet you won't be able to find a rule against gold duping in any MMORPG EULA or TOS. But if you find a gold duping bug and use it, you are sure to get banned for it. Rules are often created *after* the event, selling gold wasn't forbidden until somebody did it.
Rules are often created *after* the event, selling gold wasn't forbidden until somebody did it.
Well yeah, but if the event occurs, is reviewed and determined to *not* be cheating, then it isn't cheating, like most of your examples. For example, Blizzard specifically made WoW so that you can alt-tab out of it, unlike EQ. It was a conscious choice to allow third party sites to be used for research.
What you are discussing is "Is it fair?" Technically, it is not cheating to use team speak in PvP, but if the other team doesn't have it, is it fair? Is it fair to gank when the other person is afk? Just finished a fight? It's not cheating, but you may still be a dick.
Sammy
Well yeah, but if the event occurs, is reviewed and determined to *not* be cheating, then it isn't cheating, like most of your examples. For example, Blizzard specifically made WoW so that you can alt-tab out of it, unlike EQ. It was a conscious choice to allow third party sites to be used for research.
What you are discussing is "Is it fair?" Technically, it is not cheating to use team speak in PvP, but if the other team doesn't have it, is it fair? Is it fair to gank when the other person is afk? Just finished a fight? It's not cheating, but you may still be a dick.
Sammy
# posted by : 8/12/06 16:05
: 8/12/06 16:05
Come on, Tobold, you know that's not a fair comparison-- it's judging two things as if they are the same.
Here's a comparison that comes to mind:
If you do with another woman what you do with your wife *cough*, you're cheating on your wife.
If you do with one friend what you do with another friend, you are NOT cheating on your friend.
It is a neat thought starter, though. Well posted.
Here's a comparison that comes to mind:
If you do with another woman what you do with your wife *cough*, you're cheating on your wife.
If you do with one friend what you do with another friend, you are NOT cheating on your friend.
It is a neat thought starter, though. Well posted.
# posted by : 8/12/06 17:05
: 8/12/06 17:05
Ooh! Here's another one!
If an orange has green skin and the inside is white, it is WAY too green to be eaten; if a Granny Smith apple has green skin and is white inside, it's just about perfect.
If an orange has green skin and the inside is white, it is WAY too green to be eaten; if a Granny Smith apple has green skin and is white inside, it's just about perfect.
# posted by : 8/12/06 17:06
: 8/12/06 17:06
Seems like Tobold's taking a lot of heat on this one. I know he can watch out for himself, but I'll pitch in my two cents in support anyway.
I think people tend to take the word "cheating" to personally. It's an emotionally charged term, and it seems to be distracting from the point. If Tobold had meant it to have that sort of negative conotation, he would want to associate himself with that activity. But to the contrary, the title of the post is "Everybody is Cheating...".
In a truly competitive game, these activities would have to be much more tightly controlled. But we're not dealing with a competitive game, at best it's a competitive world. Just elements of competition, which is in stark contrast with MtG, which is highly honed competition, especially in tournament play. And this, as I see it , is the point of the article: the distinction in competition modes between MtG and WoW. And hence the different attitudes about using "external resources" (notice my deft avoidance of the c-word).
I think people tend to take the word "cheating" to personally. It's an emotionally charged term, and it seems to be distracting from the point. If Tobold had meant it to have that sort of negative conotation, he would want to associate himself with that activity. But to the contrary, the title of the post is "Everybody is Cheating...".
In a truly competitive game, these activities would have to be much more tightly controlled. But we're not dealing with a competitive game, at best it's a competitive world. Just elements of competition, which is in stark contrast with MtG, which is highly honed competition, especially in tournament play. And this, as I see it , is the point of the article: the distinction in competition modes between MtG and WoW. And hence the different attitudes about using "external resources" (notice my deft avoidance of the c-word).
Main Entry: 1cheat
Pronunciation: 'chEt
Function: verb
Etymology: 2cheat
transitive verb
1 : to deprive of something valuable by the use of deceit or fraud
2 : to influence or lead by deceit, trick, or artifice
3 : to elude or thwart by or as if by outwitting (cheat death)
intransitive verb
1 a : to practice fraud or trickery b : to violate rules dishonestly (cheat at cards) (cheating on a test)
2 : to be sexually unfaithful -- usually used with on (was cheating on his wife)
These are all strict defintions of the word cheating and none of them apply to the scenarios that you depicted.
I do agree with some of what you said, in terms of the fact that WoW is not designed as a game that's 'won', but I don't think the correlation is there with that and what you call 'cheating'. I just don't think you can apply rules from one game to another and make it work.
Pronunciation: 'chEt
Function: verb
Etymology: 2cheat
transitive verb
1 : to deprive of something valuable by the use of deceit or fraud
2 : to influence or lead by deceit, trick, or artifice
3 : to elude or thwart by or as if by outwitting (cheat death)
intransitive verb
1 a : to practice fraud or trickery b : to violate rules dishonestly (cheat at cards) (cheating on a test)
2 : to be sexually unfaithful -- usually used with on (was cheating on his wife)
These are all strict defintions of the word cheating and none of them apply to the scenarios that you depicted.
I do agree with some of what you said, in terms of the fact that WoW is not designed as a game that's 'won', but I don't think the correlation is there with that and what you call 'cheating'. I just don't think you can apply rules from one game to another and make it work.
# posted by : 8/12/06 18:29
: 8/12/06 18:29
“why does Blizzard allow all these activities which are cheating by any strict definition”
Here you yourself destroy your argument. Blizzard allows them. Thus, in this instance, those activities are not cheating.
This argument is as old as computer gaming. Some activities are in the game by design. Sometimes people come up with tactics or activities that the game designer did not anticipate. If you have played the old game “Heroes of Might and Magic II”, you might have lith-blocked.
A lith was a teleportation portal, jumping your hero and army from one lith to a matching lith elsewhere in the map. Players discovered that you could park a disposable hero in the lith, and it couldn’t be used, it blocked anyone from coming through it. That was an exploit. (The NWC developers in a later game made lith blocking impossible, you could fight your way through a lith block.)
So why not identify exploits in the game? That’d be more interesting (and more educational) than calling things cheats that aren’t’ cheats.
Here you yourself destroy your argument. Blizzard allows them. Thus, in this instance, those activities are not cheating.
This argument is as old as computer gaming. Some activities are in the game by design. Sometimes people come up with tactics or activities that the game designer did not anticipate. If you have played the old game “Heroes of Might and Magic II”, you might have lith-blocked.
A lith was a teleportation portal, jumping your hero and army from one lith to a matching lith elsewhere in the map. Players discovered that you could park a disposable hero in the lith, and it couldn’t be used, it blocked anyone from coming through it. That was an exploit. (The NWC developers in a later game made lith blocking impossible, you could fight your way through a lith block.)
So why not identify exploits in the game? That’d be more interesting (and more educational) than calling things cheats that aren’t’ cheats.
# posted by : 8/12/06 18:41
: 8/12/06 18:41
Tobold you appear to have gathered yourself quite a bunch of smart-arses lately.
# posted by : 8/12/06 23:20
: 8/12/06 23:20
it's not cheating. Simply because all cheating can be fixed by more specific rules, and programming. If they didn't want something to happen, there would be a rule about it. honesty and morales play no part in law.
# posted by : 9/12/06 01:55
: 9/12/06 01:55
I'm having trouble grasping your point. You are comparing the rules of a structured competitive environment like tournament level MTG and drawing conclusions on how they would feature in WoW?
WoW is not a competitive game. You can measure your progress against other people if you like, but there is no inherent winning and losing.
WoW always has been open to mods and addons. Blizzards stance is that we won't rule against addons, but if we don't like what they do, we will remove the UI functionality they depend on. WoW has what you could term an 'evolutionary ruleset' in terms of whats legal or not. MTG doesn't so much, is pretty hard to come up with 'new' ways to cheat at a physical card game.
WoW is not a competitive game. You can measure your progress against other people if you like, but there is no inherent winning and losing.
WoW always has been open to mods and addons. Blizzards stance is that we won't rule against addons, but if we don't like what they do, we will remove the UI functionality they depend on. WoW has what you could term an 'evolutionary ruleset' in terms of whats legal or not. MTG doesn't so much, is pretty hard to come up with 'new' ways to cheat at a physical card game.
# posted by : 12/12/06 02:03
: 12/12/06 02:03
The thing you have to realize here, is the prime differences between MtG and WoW.
WoW is not the same game as MtG, AND is not a card game. It's an action open ended MMORPG, where the prime of the whol is an ever changing world to keep things fun.
If Blizzard was really against voicechat, they wouldn't be working on a built in TeamSpeak option, now would they?
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WoW is not the same game as MtG, AND is not a card game. It's an action open ended MMORPG, where the prime of the whol is an ever changing world to keep things fun.
If Blizzard was really against voicechat, they wouldn't be working on a built in TeamSpeak option, now would they?
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