Ban cheaters vs Customers Rights

[Gandrake]

don't cheat if you don't want to get banned

easy solution

[rhorle]

That's quite new to me at least. What happens when every FPS, RTS, and every other game is made online-only, in the name of DRM?

Diablo 3 isn't online only for DRM. Starcraft 2 has an offline mode that requires Online DRM. Diablo 3 is built as an online game and not built to be able to play it off line.

DRM is only a side effect of Diablo 3 being only an online game. It is the cause of being online and it isn't even the biggest reason for it to be online.

[reckoner04]

Diablo 3 isn't online only for DRM. Starcraft 2 has an offline mode that requires Online DRM. Diablo 3 is built as an online game and not built to be able to play it off line.

DRM is only a side effect of Diablo 3 being only an online game. It is the cause of being online and it isn't even the biggest reason for it to be online.

In fact you can play SC2 without going online. It's just that achievements and other info associated with you profile aren't recorded.

[Lilly32]

Costumers Rights have been infringed upon for far too long imo.

I know. What the hell if I wanna dress up like its Halloween every day why cant I? Im writing my congressman NOW!.

[rhorle]

In fact you can play SC2 without going online. It's just that achievements and other info associated with you profile aren't recorded.

Starcraft 2 still requires you to have been online at some point in order to play it offline. It isn't just offline play. It is offline play with an online DRM.

http://us.battle.net/support/en/arti...m-requirements

StarCraft II Online Play
StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty multiplayer and singleplayer modes require an active Internet connection. However, offline play for singleplayer is available as long as your copy of StarCraft II has been logged into Battle.net within the last few weeks. There are two ways to play offline with StarCraft II.

[Redmage]

Read the eula you agreed to when you installed the game. They reserve the right to terminate your ability to play whenever they feel like it.

Essentially you have no rights.

[Deleted]

A guy goes to a football match and starts creating trouble, he runs across the field naked or whatever it is people feel like doing while watching football.

He has payed for his ticket

If he gets thrown out of the stadium does he then have a legal grounds to demand a refund?

In Europe? None whatsoever. In America? Wouldn't be surprised if he did.

[Arthur-the-exalted]

Lately Blizzard banned players for cheating and botting in Diablo 3. Since Diablo 3 is online only, those players will have to buy another copy of the game in order to be able to play again.
In this case, you can clearly see two normative commands in collision. In one side, you have the Blizzard's Terms of Agreement, where it states that cheaters and such will be bannes. On the other side you have the Costumers Rights, that states that you have the right to consume the product you buy, the way you want.
One was made by a company trying to protect their players, and the other was made by the legislative power, made to protect all costumers.

When Blizzard bans someone, forcing him to buy another copy of the game, it's acting against the law, since you have taken away your right to consume your product. A company cannot simply make their own laws that goes against the State laws.

Legally speaking, Blizzard should only be able to ban someone based on a judicial decision, where it was proved that the acts performed by the player were against the rights of the others players.

Just something for you all to think about.

.....cheaters pay for what they do, end of story, I have played enough games and been screwed by modders and cheaters enough for 10 life times, any time one gets banned and has to blow another $50 on a game, a baby smiles

[Gouky]

the game already been cracked, no need to pay for that crap anymore.

[Deleted]

the game already been cracked, no need to pay for that crap anymore.

In addition to "cracking" the client, you would need to download and install a server software to run your game. All the server softwares out there are completely and utter crap though, and they would be, seeing as though the coders have only been able to reverse engineer the crudest possible server from the information that the client sends and requests. For example, it's the server software that decides which monster spawns where, and how it acts (the monster AI), and what it drops.

You can't just get a fixed exe or some cracked files for Diablo 3 and then play it without logging on to battle.net. That's not how it works.

[Tharkkun]

Blizzard isn't the first company to ban players from an online game. It doesn't matter if the game is online only, offline only, or online and offline. If it is illegal for Blizzard and other companies to do this then why haven't such companies been challenged in the court of law about such bans? Literally millions of accounts have been banned from online games. If it what companies were doing was actually illegal then there would have already been a class action law suit against the companies.

Hell Runescape banned over 7 million bots in a few days http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/10...s-of-bot-bans/ If it was illegal don't you think someone would have sued and companies would have stopped doing it by now? The question becomes this:

Why Blizzard, why complain now?

For years people said and EULA was not legally binding but when they sued, they always lost.

---------- Post added 2012-06-18 at 01:51 PM ----------

Only playing a lil devil's advocate here.

The main problem I could see if someone really wanted to pursue legal action against Blizz (or any other gaming company) and dispute this whole "you don't buy the game, you don't own the character, etc." argument is when you go to buy the game, technically you are buying it (a purchase is a purchase is a purchase no matter how you've phrased it). Heck, even Blizz has "Buy Now" on their own sites! Buy, purchase...it's the same thing. I plunk money down to own what it is I've bought. If it said 'Rent Now" then that's a whole nother box of worms. But nowhere in the EULA/TOS does it make mention of renting the game.

From their opening statement:



Even Blizz agrees this is a outright purchase and not a rental.

You can't have your cake and eat it too. It's either 1 way or another.

Except the first line says

THIS SOFTWARE IS LICENSED, NOT SOLD. BY INSTALLING, COPYING OR OTHERWISE USING THE GAME (DEFINED BELOW), YOU AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT, YOU ARE NOT PERMITTED TO INSTALL, COPY OR USE THE GAME

So you've already agreed you purchased a license, not a copy of the game.



Finally: Blizzard already invoked the DMCA along with the EULA against the makers of the Glidebot and won.

[Deleted]

So some people are now arguing for botters? What has the world come to?

As I see it, everyone profits from this, nice players profit since there's less botters, Blizzard profits since those botters payed but now they don't need to run more servers for them, Blizzard also wins if botters buy the game again, and the bad guys, the botters, lose.

[Tackhisis]

Diablo 3 is not a product, it is a service. Companies can provide services at their own terms, and terminate it if you don't comply with these terms. Contract states that the keeping to game rules is such a term.

[Biged781]

On the other side you have the Costumers Rights, that states that you have the right to consume the product you buy, the way you want.

And where did that assumption come from I wonder, because it can be easily proven to be false. You have no "right to use the product you buy, the way you want." For example, it is illegal to huff gasoline, spray paint, whatever. Opening up your laptop probably voids the warranty. Jail-breaking your phone probably voids the warranty. See what I'm getting at here?

You imagined this "customer right", nothing more. It does not exist anywhere but in your head. You agree to the terms of service, you must abide by them. You did not buy the servers, you paid for the right to play. Stop making shit up. If you want to make a real argument then go study the law.

[Shmeh]

If I buy a lifetime pass to a water park that doesn't mean that I can shit down the slides without getting kicked out.

[Biged781]

If I buy a lifetime pass to a water park that doesn't mean that I can shit down the slides without getting kicked out.

Succinct and accurate. OP, you are obviously a child. That's ok, but don't presume to understand how the world works without doing some research and gaining some life experience.

[Darsithis]

This is clearly going nowhere. Closing