Blizzard's Response to Classic Hardcore DDoS Attacks

Originally Posted by fazaim

Before official hardcore, video evidence was enough. So many people recorded their playing.

Record playing, get my mate to pull network cable if it looks like I'm in trouble.

Video evidence, hardcore mode no longer hardcore mode.

Originally Posted by javierdsv

Don't ever let them tell you streamer privileges don't exist.

No one's ever said that.

I wonder who is the people doing these ddos attacks on blizzard wow servers, like who have this much time to lose and for what?

Originally Posted by Syegfryed

I wonder who is the people doing these ddos attacks on blizzard wow servers, like who have this much time to lose and for what?

There are IRC channels full of botnet owners who sell their DDoS services. There have been WoW haters for decades who love wasting their copious amount of free time and money on ruining WoW players fun, particularly on patch days or other special events.

Nerds are a prejudice and hateful bunch at times, and can end up very wealthy with nothing to spend their wealth on but fucking with others.

Originally Posted by schwarzkopf

Record playing, get my mate to pull network cable if it looks like I'm in trouble.

Video evidence, hardcore mode no longer hardcore mode.

So in this case, your mate pulled out the Blizzard server cable? That's a nice mate.

Originally Posted by Rageonit

So in this case, your mate pulled out the Blizzard server cable? That's a nice mate.

Anyone that thinks this is an unreasonable move by Blizzard is just mad because they thought the DDoS attacks were funny.

- - - Updated - - -

Originally Posted by javierdsv

Blizzard couldn't let go of their free advertising and caved in to break their most strict rule.

Don't ever let them tell you streamer privileges don't exist.

See above.

Originally Posted by SL1200

Good to see blizzard fight the griefers for once.

It's sad if you think about it. Blizzard wasn't fighting griefers until their precious free advertisement twitch guild got griefed.

- - - Updated - - -

Originally Posted by DarkAmbient

I don't think this is a case of streamer privilege. This is Blizzard protecting their business. Because of the popularity of the OnlyFangs event and the subsequent publicity generated by the DDOS attack against them Blizzard had to be seen acting to maintain the integrity of their game services. If one nerd with a grudge can grief thousands of players by repeatedly carrying out attacks that are likely to cause the permanent deletion of their characters then it renders the Hardcore servers effectively unplayable.

It's special treatment, not Blizzard acting to maintain the integrity. If Blizzard wanted to protect OF they should have given them dedicated servers. I am willing to bet that if this was any other non-streamer guild, Blizzard wouldn't have given a flying fuck. It's definitely streamer privilege.

- - - Updated - - -

Originally Posted by Syegfryed

I wonder who is the people doing these ddos attacks on blizzard wow servers, like who have this much time to lose and for what?

I wouldn't be surprised if it's OF themselves. More drama is always welcome for streamers.

Originally Posted by Greengrim

It's special treatment, not Blizzard acting to maintain the integrity. If Blizzard wanted to protect OF they should have given them dedicated servers. I am willing to bet that if this was any other non-streamer guild, Blizzard wouldn't have given a flying fuck. It's definitely streamer privilege.

Yeah thats what bugs me the most. They already proved they didn't give a shit when a server crashed and thousands lost their characters at the start of HC.. But now these insufferable attentionfarmers get targetted and now they decide to revert it... Fuck that.

Originally Posted by Greengrim

It's sad if you think about it. Blizzard wasn't fighting griefers until their precious free advertisement twitch guild got griefed.

- - - Updated - - -

It's special treatment, not Blizzard acting to maintain the integrity. If Blizzard wanted to protect OF they should have given them dedicated servers. I am willing to bet that if this was any other non-streamer guild, Blizzard wouldn't have given a flying fuck. It's definitely streamer privilege.

- - - Updated - - -

I wouldn't be surprised if it's OF themselves. More drama is always welcome for streamers.

...and there it is at the end. You don't dislike this because it is unfair or a bad idea. You dislike this because you don't like the streamers and found it amusing that they lost their characters.

- - - Updated - - -

Originally Posted by Sanguinerd

Yeah thats what bugs me the most. They already proved they didn't give a shit when a server crashed and thousands lost their characters at the start of HC.. But now these insufferable attentionfarmers get targetted and now they decide to revert it... Fuck that.

The entire server suffered the effects of the DDoS attack, not just the streamers. Blizzard has never, and is not now, treating streamers with any different rules for hardcore.

Best case scenario. No one will bother with classic hardcore if some nerds with a grudge can delete people's characters like that. Yes it is a special case with special treatment and that's a fine response to a very deliberate DDoS attack. Only fangs waited over half an hour before pulling to make sure there are no dcs, as soon as they started, people began to have connection issues.

People being upset over this are a special case too lol

Originally Posted by Greengrim

I wouldn't be surprised if it's OF themselves. More drama is always welcome for streamers.

You're so right, it's definitely a reasonable assumption to suggest that this group including multiple US citizens physically present in the USA committed a felony in order to attract more viewers to their World of Warcraft stream. Sure it might end up with a 10 year prison sentence or a half million dollar fine, but think of the Twitch chat!

This website should be renamed MMO-Cookers.

Originally Posted by Enthris

You do realise that once they'll start doing that,people will abuse it. You see you're dying, you just turn your connection off. And no one will ever die this way unless the death is instant.

If only server performance, network performance (of the server) and additionally layer / regional players ping could be logged and then time of deaths could be compared to such data. Sure it can be your network but that's not Blizzard's fault.
So even if you pull out your cable, they can still identify that everything was ok on their side if server was stable, their network was stable and no other players were experiencing lag.
But that would require work to he done and optimized.

Originally Posted by NineSpine

The entire server suffered the effects of the DDoS attack, not just the streamers. Blizzard has never, and is not now, treating streamers with any different rules for hardcore.

Except they are. They're only taking action BECAUSE of the streamers.

Originally Posted by Sanguinerd

Except they are. They're only taking action BECAUSE of the streamers.

And the ddos only happened and affected everyone on that server because of the streamers, why should blizz let everyone suffer for this exactly?

OF is by far the most annoying wow related phenomenom ever.

I get it;

Warcrafts only claim to fame is OnlyFangs and RWF now, else it's a dead game for viewership at least.
It's super unfair that DDoSing kills off something a lot of people spent a lot of time on..

But.. it just doesn't feel ... right.. that they are taking action now. What about the night before when the servers went down and loads of people lost their toon? Under 5 viewers? Sorry, Blizzard doesn't care.

Originally Posted by Sanguinerd

Except they are. They're only taking action BECAUSE of the streamers.

The DDoS attack only happened because the streamers were being targeted.

- - - Updated - - -

Originally Posted by Algorath

I get it;

Warcrafts only claim to fame is OnlyFangs and RWF now, else it's a dead game for viewership at least.
It's super unfair that DDoSing kills off something a lot of people spent a lot of time on..

But.. it just doesn't feel ... right.. that they are taking action now. What about the night before when the servers went down and loads of people lost their toon? Under 5 viewers? Sorry, Blizzard doesn't care.

Does it take a lot of effort to intentionally refuse to understand the difference between a targeted malicious attack and bad luck?

Originally Posted by NineSpine

...and there it is at the end. You don't dislike this because it is unfair or a bad idea. You dislike this because you don't like the streamers and found it amusing that they lost their characters.

- - - Updated - - -



The entire server suffered the effects of the DDoS attack, not just the streamers. Blizzard has never, and is not now, treating streamers with any different rules for hardcore.

The...what?! How in the living hell did you end up with that conclusion? I don't give a flying fuck for the streamers, or for hardcore, or even Blizzard's real reasons for rolling shit back. I speak from the most unbiased position possible.

The one and only thing that bugs me out is precisely the special (unfair as you said it) treatment. Hardcore is a thing from Diablo days. Millions - if not billions - of charachters were lost to all kinds of reasons, including DDOS attacks. Why did Blizzard never stood up for those people?

The iron rule in hardcore has always been the same: if you die - you're dead! And this has always been so. Or at least until now it was. So what's different now? In my most honest opinion, you don't need to be a rocket scientist to see that this is just the next move made by Blizzard entirely based on greed. Their free source of advertisement was at stake, so they took precautions. Has nothing to do with fighting DDOS, or the poor streamers/players, or the hardcore experience...

Originally Posted by kranur

If only server performance, network performance (of the server) and additionally layer / regional players ping could be logged and then time of deaths could be compared to such data. Sure it can be your network but that's not Blizzard's fault.
So even if you pull out your cable, they can still identify that everything was ok on their side if server was stable, their network was stable and no other players were experiencing lag.
But that would require work to he done and optimized.

None of this is how TCP/IP communication works. You are describing a fantasy technology that doesn't exist.

- - - Updated - - -

Originally Posted by Greengrim

The...what?! How in the living hell did you end up with that conclusion? I don't give a flying fuck for the streamers, or for hardcore, or even Blizzard's real reasons for rolling shit back. I speak from the most unbiased position possible.

The one and only thing that bugs me out is precisely the special (unfair as you said it) treatment. Hardcore is a thing from Diablo days. Millions - if not billions - of charachters were lost to all kinds of reasons, including DDOS attacks. The iron rule in hardcore has always been the same: if you die - you're dead! And this has always been so. Or at least until now it was. So what's different now? In my most honest opinion, you don't need to be a rocket scientist to see that this is just the next move made by Blizzard entirely based on greed. Their free source of advertisement was at stake, so they took precautions. Has nothing to do with fighting DDOS, or the poor streamers, or the hardcore experience...

I wish you guys would just be honest and say "I thought it was funny and now I'm big mad Blizzard is being decent to people!" Cloaking it in all this concern for consistency and integrity is laughable and transparent. You aren't fooling anyone.

The idea that Blizzard should take no action, thereby rewarding and encouraging more DDoS attacks against their servers, is absolutely fucking deranged.

I do think it's the right call. You can't really surrender victory to ddos attackers, I am just curious if the who matters more than the why/how. It only empowers it moving forward if you do obviously. It also seems fairly obvious these attacks were aimed at NA RWF raiders and/or Onlyfangs in hardcore. You know, the attacks just line up a little to perfectly time wise. If it was pure Blizzard haters why not strike at NA, Asia, and Europe in a coordinated attack all at once.

Probably doesn't help that you put all these events in a tight time window making a direct attack on many targets at once much easier.