WoW and Wine are a no no....

[KingBahamut]

"Player gets banned for playing World of Warcraft under WINE and using a Logitech Gaming keyboard. "I am an experienced network engineer for an ISP and I am often running World of Warcraft on Linux through the use of WINE..."" Although the e-mails exchanged are unclear my guess is that the programmable keyboard was more the problem then WINE. Not that you'd ever know that given that Blizzard communicates with their users seemingly almost exclusively with form letters.

http://infernix.net/wowban/

hmmmmmm....im unsure how to take this. They can ban people for the use of Wine?

[MacV]

The Bliz email claimed that he was "botting". I don;t think there's anyway you can bot using Wine.

edit-I'm wondering if that "spyware" thing that Wow now uses is throwing out false positives to Blizzard because it can't find a "proper" windows enviroment when the game starts. Added to his keyboard macro, Bliz could have thought he was indeed botting.

[OffHand]

This showes that not only WoW ***** but Blizzard ***** too.

[polpak]

More reasons why I refuse to support (buy & use products by) companies who don't support my OS.

In this day and age there is really no reason for a major developer NOT to use cross platform libraries. Since I won't use windows, and they won't support anything but windows, I won't use their games. Plenty of other games out there to waste time on. No reason to pay money to this company just so they can give me the finger cause I don't use their sanctioned OS.

[aggiechemist]

There has been a lot of discussion, but a careful read of the article shows it was really about the keyboard.

He was using the keyboard to run macros to up his character with basically no interaction. Just press a button every now and then, and watch yourself become stronger in the game. The macro made the character go off and fight and whatever else you have to do.

The WoW folks had no problem with Linux, Wine, or anything like that. They just didn't seem to like him getting ahead in the game with so little work.

In the author's defense, the rules of the game don't give much guidance about this. It wasn't clearly against the rules, so it is pretty sad that he got banned with no warning at all.

[jdodson]

Seemed like this guy was just complaining because he got in trouble for using keyboard macros.

He used wine too, so that must the real issue(or thats what this guy wants you to think). However, if Blizzard did not want wine users playing WoW, you would hear many more stories than this one guy who got in trouble for macros and used wine as an excuse.

When I used to play Warcraft3 with wine, it ran fine and I had no problems and I was not banned. Blizzard knows what versions of OS's people run, its built into the code, then again I cant proove that the source is closed and its non-free. I imagine they have stats on all wine users, and since they are a paying base of users, I bet they dont care if they run it in wine or windows.

[siorai]

Oh boo hoo.. The guy gets busted for basically botting and then whines about it, putting the "Blizzard hates Linux" spin on the story to get people distracted away from his own screw up.

He openly admits that he was using macros on the keyboard, which enabled him to be watching a movie for 99% of the time while "playing." He even had the game muted so as to not be distracting while watching the movie. He wasn't playing the game, but his character was logged in and doing stuff. Basically, that's botting, but just under a (very slightly) different name just because he happened to be sitting at the the computer and had to hit a key once in awhile. Same crap, different pile if you ask me. He got what was coming to him...

[stabface]

what a dork, i wonder what he could have done with all of the time it took to build that guy in a fact word to get deleted

[siorai]

what a dork, i wonder what he could have done with all of the time it took to build that guy in a fact word to get deleted

If you read his emails, he says that he's played over 3000 hours... :(

[Zodiac]

The issue wasn't WINE, it was the logitech programble keyboard.

He was clearly botting and the ban was justified.

[theh0g]

People, don't panic over nothing. Just to be sure, I've sent a mail to Blizzard yesterday:

Dear Sirs,
I have a quick question, to which I didn't find any answers and it concerns me since I've read about some player getting banned (might or might not be connected to the question): is it "legal" to play WoW in Linux (using Wine/Cedega)? I know game is made for Windows/OSX and you do not support other systems (although it runs really great in Linux), but I really don't want to get into any troubles.

I'm looking forward to you response and I thank you in advance.

Your sincerely,
Marko

and the reply I got today:
Hello,

It is perfectly legal to play the game using Linux using Wine or Cedega although due to the nature of Linux, we do not support it directly. We will not ban anyone for playing the game using Linux and the player will have broken other rules in order to have been banned in the first place.

If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us further.

Best Regards


There you go people, you can continue playing your WoW :)

[deboring21]

The guy was banned for using macros that were programmed into his keyboard... he wasn't botting.....
-Ryan

[siorai]

The guy was banned for using macros that were programmed into his keyboard... he wasn't botting.....
-Ryan

Same crap different pile. He himself said that he was watching the movie 99% of the time that he was "playing" WoW. If that's not basically botting, please tell me just what is.

[cdean]

Botting is when a program is running and repeating a task without any user interaction. He was macroing. There's a huge difference.

[siorai]

Botting is when a program is running and repeating a task without any user interaction. He was macroing. There's a huge difference.

In this case, it's not really a huge difference. He was barely paying any attention to the game itself. He was as close to botting as a person can be without actually botting. But if you want to split hairs to defend the guy, be my guest. He wasn't botting, he was macroing to the extent that he might as well have been botting. Personally, I feel he got what was coming to him.

[joshuapurcell]

In the process of trying to make everyone feel sorry for his own stupidity, he has actually succeeded in dragging the Wine/Linux issue into the fight for better or worse. Worse if you ask me, since there are some of us who would jump at the chance to defend our right to use Linux and play video games... even if that means backing a guy who doesn't deserve the attention.

Screw this guy. He bots (macros... in this case it's the same thing), and he should leave the Linux gaming issue out of the fact that he got caught for it.

[Medievaldragon]

Blizzard already responded that Wine and Logitech G15 were not the reason he was banned. He was playing unattended. His attention was on watching TV, and he had sound off.

A GM sent him a message and he did not respond. So he was doing macros with his finger -- possibly -- and not looking at the computer screen. Here is what Blizzard said:
http://www.blizzplanet.com/?action=news&id=616

What I find interesting is that Slashdot.org was cool on posting the guy's rant, but when I submitted the news of Blizzard's answer to Slashdot's article as a follow-up, Slashdot rejected my submission. I'm starting to wonder if Slashdot is anti-Blizzard or something. It's not the first time they reject one of my news submissions related to Blizzard games.

Otherwise, why post the guy's rant for getting banned, but not post the follow up of Blizzard's reply to the subject?

Here is a screenshot of Blizzard-related articles rejected:
http://www.blizzplanet.com/staff/external/slashdot.jpg

In the screenshot you see a Starcraft: Queen of Blades book interview submission rejected. You would think it was rejected because it is a book. Right? Look what got posted yesterday. A Halo 2 Comic book by Marvel Comics:
http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/03/18/2025239

Bogus, or not Bogus?

[Nordoelum]

So it is safe to use only wine?

[Artificial Intelligence]

and Cedega, just don't cheat ;)

[LordBug]

and Cedega, just don't cheat ;)

Hehe, yep. I've been playing WoW under Cedega for months now. Never had any issues with GMs and whatnot.

As Blizzard stated, playing under WINE/Cedega is not an issue. Playing with a Logitech G15 is not an issue. Unattended macro'ing IS AN ISSUE. This guy should've been watching his screen and not TV.

[Nordoelum]

Hehe, yep. I've been playing WoW under Cedega for months now. Never had any issues with GMs and whatnot.

As Blizzard stated, playing under WINE/Cedega is not an issue. Playing with a Logitech G15 is not an issue. Unattended macro'ing IS AN ISSUE. This guy should've been watching his screen and not TV.
What does Unattended macro mean?

[Artificial Intelligence]

When you can set your character to do eg. slaying monsters and collectiong golds/items with one hit on a button and you can go out for shopping meanwhile.

[iAlta]

When you can set your character to do eg. slaying monsters and collectiong golds/items with one hit on a button and you can go out for shopping meanwhile.
No, that's botting....

[Artificial Intelligence]

ah, sorry.

But that's illegal too :-#

[iAlta]

Yes, that was what they were mistaking him fir doing, botting.

I have heard many stories about Blizzard treating their costumers badly, I wonder why no one is dooing anything about it...

[iAlta]

I just read the manuelle, and I was supired to see marco bottums in the index. I looked it up, and it sayd that you can creat your own macros by typing /macro in the chat channle. it's baisicly the same thing...

[Medievaldragon]

What does Unattended macro mean?

Unattended macro means using G15 Keyboard macros pressing the button many times without looking at the monitor, while you are watching TV -- then getting a whisper from a GM, and you do not answer. The GM keeps prompting you to answer, and he can see on his end that you are performing actions through macros but not responding at all.

If you do not reply back, then he considers you are actively killing stuff unattended -- botting or clicking macros while not watching the monitor + not replying back.

You can use G15 Keyboard but not too excessively and for as long as you are able to reply back a GM whisper.

Wine/Cedega are fine, but no Blizzard Tech Support. Still fine.

Recently, the Blizzard FAQ was updated too with using Boot Camp to play World of Warcraft on Mac Intels running Windows XP/2000/etc. It is fine to use, but no Blizzard Tech Support.

Apple's OS X Boot Camp software lets me boot Windows XP on my Intel-based Mac. Can I run Blizzard games under Windows using Boot Camp on these systems?
Yes, you can if you wish to do so. However, please note that as OS X Boot Camp is in beta form, we can't offer technical support for Blizzard games run under Windows using Boot Camp at this time.

What is Blizzard's plan for native Mac OS support, now that Boot Camp is available?
We have a recognized track record of native Mac OS support, and we have no plans to break with that tradition. We understand that our Mac player base prefers native software whenever possible, and our cross-platform development practice addresses that.
http://www.blizzard.com/inblizz/genfaq.shtml

[justleen]

I just read the manuelle, and I was supired to see marco bottums in the index. I looked it up, and it sayd that you can creat your own macros by typing /macro in the chat channle. it's baisicly the same thing...

There's macros and macros. The In-game macro editor will not allow for very fancy auto-repetitive actions. This guys was using his keyboard macros (probably in combination with the ingame ones) to such extend that he was able to play the game with one push on a button..

In my opinion, thats botting - botting which requires some minimal actions off the user to restart his macro, but botting nevertheless. call it what you want, but in the end its wasnt him playing, but his macro/bot...

Offcourse you can start an hairsplitting debate on the grammar used to describe what he was doing, but that still doenst change the fact that he was playing the game while watching TV.
He was doing in game stuff, while nog being able to respond to a GM message...

Good riddance, i'd say!

[Astinsan]

I know that the Blizzard people probly don't care about the os.. But I sure would like to hear from one of them. I personally don't care about wow.. I played it in the past on and off.. but it is usually a winter time sport, if you know what I mean.

[Imexius]

You know we can rant and rant about how unsupportive Blizzard is towards linux but in the end does it make any difference when Guild Wars is an entirely better game?

Sorry just had to state my biased and largely irrelevent opinion.

[Jazzyjazz]

Running WoW on Linux is ok. To be honest the guy who was banned just found a good excuse to drop his blame to.

For reference: A post regarding this issue on the WoW forums (http://forums-en.wow-europe.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-general-en&t=956799&p=1&tmp=1#post956799)