Criticisms
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This article’s Criticism or Controversy section(s) may mean the article does not present a neutral point of view of the subject. It may be better to integrate the material in such sections into the article as a whole. |
Corrupted Blood plague incident
The Corrupted Blood plague incident was one of the first events to affect entire servers. Patch 1.7 saw the opening of Zul’Gurub, the game’s first 20-player raid dungeon where players faced off against an ancient tribe of jungle trolls under the sway of the ancient Blood God, Hakkar the Soulflayer. Upon engaging Hakkar, players were stricken by a debuff called “Corrupted Blood” which would periodically sap their life. The disease would also be passed on to other players who were simply standing close to an infected person. Originally this malady was confined within the Zul’Gurub instance but made its way into the outside world by way of hunter pets or warlock minions that contracted the disease.
Within hours Corrupted Blood had infected entire cities such as Ironforge and Orgrimmar because of their high player concentrations. Low-level players were killed in seconds by the high-damage disease. Eventually Blizzard fixed the issue so that the plague could not exist outside of Zul’Gurub.
The corrupted blood plague so closely resembled the outbreak of real-world epidemics that scientists are currently looking at ways MMORPGs or other massively distributed systems can model human behavior during outbreaks. The reaction of players to the plague closely resembled previously hard-to-model aspects of human behavior that may allow researchers to more accurately predict how diseases and outbreaks spread amongst a population.[67]
Usage problems
In September 2005, Blizzard gave all European players two free days of play as compensation for repeated network failures. During the early days of World of Warcraft’s U.S. release Blizzard also gave out free days to compensate players for days lost due to problems on their end. The issues were suspected to be Blizzard’s upstream Internet service provider.[68] Weaknesses of the client-server model used by World of Warcraft have also been exploited in order to crash the cluster of servers that make up a realm.[69] Exploits also include characters being able to instantly change location or teleport.[70][71]
At various times, World of Warcraft players have experienced problems with connecting to and logging in to the game. Cases include long delays waiting for usernames and passwords to be authenticated or large queues on certain realms. Sudden server crashes that would force realms offline also occurred. The situation became worse when trying to coordinate activities across a number of players or guilds on the same realm. On May 3, 2006 Shane Dabiri, World of Warcraft Lead Producer, stated that new realms would be introduced to relieve the burden on existing ones. Existing realms would be upgraded. The paid migration service was also unveiled at this time.[72][73]
Security concerns
When a player creates a World of Warcraft account, they are asked to choose a username and password. Whenever that player then plays World of Warcraft, they are asked to supply the same username and password in full. This is also the case when using account management facilities online. This type of authentication is vulnerable to keystroke logging. While this is not unique to World of Warcraft and is common to many MMORPGs, the game has been directly targeted with trojans being specifically crafted to capture account login details.[74] Attacks have been reported as early as May 2006, although they may extend as far back as July 30, 2005.[75]
In September 2006, reports emerged of spoof World of Warcraft gaming advice websites that contained malware. Vulnerable computers would be infected through their web browser, downloading a program that would then relay back account information. Blizzard’s account support teams experienced high demand during this episode, stating that many users had been affected. Claims were also made that telephone support was closed for isolated periods due to the volume of calls and resulting queues.[76] In April 2007, attacks evolved to take advantage of further exploits involving animated cursors, with multiple websites being used.[77][78] Security researcher group Symantec released a report stating that a compromised World of Warcraft account was worth US$10 on the black market, compared to US$6 to US$12 for a compromised computer (correct as of March 2007).[79] In February 2008, phishing emails were distributed requesting that users validate their account information using a fake version of the World of Warcraft account management pages.[80] In June 2008, Blizzard announced the Blizzard Authenticator, a hardware security token that provides two factor security. The token generates an one-time password based code that the player supplies when logging on. The password is only valid for a limited time, thus providing extra security against keylogging malware.[81]
In the United Kingdom in February 2008, the Halifax Bank claimed that stolen credit card details were regularly being used to fraudulently pay for World of Warcraft accounts.[82] A statement from the bank read that a “significant number of fraudulent transactions through Blizzard’s gaming sites” had been observed. As a result, the Bank had stated that transactions with Blizzard would be blocked by default, requesting that customers contact them directly to authorise payments. However, in the Autumn of 2008 this was no longer the case and Halifax accepted that the majority of transactions were legitimate and removed the default ban.[citation needed]
Blizzard makes use of a system known as Warden on the Windows version of the game in order to detect third-party programs, such as botting software, allowing World of Warcraft to be played unattended. There has been some controversy as to the legality of Warden. Warden uses techniques similar to anti-virus software in order to analyse other running software on the players’ PCs, as well as the file system. However, unlike most anti-virus software, it sends a portion of this information back to Blizzard, which caused privacy advocates to accuse it of being spyware.[83] One example of the information Warden collects is the title of every window open on the system while WoW is running.[84] Blizzard has not stated what information is passed by Warden over the Internet, or if that information is encrypted, so it is entirely possible this information is passed over the Internet back to Blizzard. On balance, many gamers responded positively about the development, stating that they supported the technology if it resulted in fewer cases of cheating. Blizzard’s use of Warden was stated in the Terms of Agreement (TOA).[85]
The Warden’s existence was acknowledged in March 2008, during the opening legal proceedings against MDY Industries.[86] The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Arizona, and also listed Michael Donnelly as a defendant. Donnelly was included in the suit as the creator of MMO Glider, software that can automatically play many tasks in the game. Blizzard claimed the software is an infringement of its copyright and software license agreement, stating that “Glider use severely harms the WoW gaming experience for other players by altering the balance of play, disrupting the social and immersive aspects of the game, and undermining the in-game economy”. Donnelly claims to have sold 100,000 copies of the $25 software.[87]
Filed under: World of Warcraft