3 ms·

It's an interesting response because it shows that not only were they tracking program usage over a period of time ("significant number of hours during a multi-

It's an interesting response because it shows that not only were they tracking program usage over a period of time ("significant number of hours during a multi-week period earlier this year"), but _also_ shows that they quite possibly could have banned people who _weren't_ cheating ("We targeted programs that allow players to cheat and gain unfair gameplay advantages, even if those programs have other, more benign uses."). I use Cheat Engine all the time to mess around in single player games, and quite often leave it running in the background or forget to close it -- that in no way means I'm cheating at other types of games. Further, it's just a memory editor -- unless GW2 is trusting the client where it shouldn't, would it even work on an MMO?

Evansbee 9y ago
> would it even work on an MMO? CheatEngine is a great first step in developing any bot, for any game. GW2 doesn't have to trust the client for CE to be useful, it's just that the usefulness is different than what you're using it for currently. The goal of CE in developing an MMO bot is to figure out where in memory things like player location, party members, linked list of all nearby objects, etc, are. This allows the user to write the bot in a way that's pulling information directly from memory. CE is a great way to back into this data (coupled with a debugger/disassemble, of course).
- krispbyte 9y ago
  What's fun is that GW2 even gives you an API you can use to get information like player location. Used it a few years ago to automatically switch maps in my map event timer: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/API:MumbleLink https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/API:MumbleLink
FRex 9y ago
My understanding is that even with a perfect server side simulated game you can read memory to find out extra information even if the game logic is on the server, i.e. that's how X-Ray in UT99 and Minecraft works. This is also hardly the first such incident (unfair bans or borderline spyware anti-cheats), it'll end without any long term echos as always. If you were sure you were banned unfairly and went to the support they'd just link you to some ToS or other, saying that all bans are 101% sure, confirmed, irreversible, etc. If you went to forums you'd get insults, told that you deserved it, that you're making excuses, that there are no legitimate reasons to run CE, etc. or at best told that you were an idiot to have CE running in the background and thus deserve a ban for being so careless. Eventually you might get unbanned automatically, with an apology and a freebie - or not. It depends on the specific company, how many people were banned, how big of an issue it is, does the company bother to fix it, is it reported by the media as a problem, etc. It's kind of a crapshoot and a circus but then again - it's just games (except for the 1% of esportsmen) and they don't have such a bad track record compared to important companies (Facebook, Equifax, etc.) that leak or sell people's life affecting data.
vkou 9y ago
> unless GW2 is trusting the client where it shouldn't, would it even work on an MMO? MMOs have to trust the client, to a large extent, in order to avoid janky gameplay on ~150ms connections.

Evansbee 9y ago

> would it even work on an MMO? CheatEngine is a great first step in developing any bot, for any game. GW2 doesn't have to trust the client for CE to be useful, it's just that the usefulness is different than what you're using it for currently. The goal of CE in developing an MMO bot is to figure out where in memory things like player location, party members, linked list of all nearby objects, etc, are. This allows the user to write the bot in a way that's pulling information directly from memory. CE is a great way to back into this data (coupled with a debugger/disassemble, of course).

krispbyte 9y ago
What's fun is that GW2 even gives you an API you can use to get information like player location. Used it a few years ago to automatically switch maps in my map event timer: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/API:MumbleLink https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/API:MumbleLink

FRex 9y ago

My understanding is that even with a perfect server side simulated game you can read memory to find out extra information even if the game logic is on the server, i.e. that's how X-Ray in UT99 and Minecraft works. This is also hardly the first such incident (unfair bans or borderline spyware anti-cheats), it'll end without any long term echos as always. If you were sure you were banned unfairly and went to the support they'd just link you to some ToS or other, saying that all bans are 101% sure, confirmed, irreversible, etc. If you went to forums you'd get insults, told that you deserved it, that you're making excuses, that there are no legitimate reasons to run CE, etc. or at best told that you were an idiot to have CE running in the background and thus deserve a ban for being so careless. Eventually you might get unbanned automatically, with an apology and a freebie - or not. It depends on the specific company, how many people were banned, how big of an issue it is, does the company bother to fix it, is it reported by the media as a problem, etc. It's kind of a crapshoot and a circus but then again - it's just games (except for the 1% of esportsmen) and they don't have such a bad track record compared to important companies (Facebook, Equifax, etc.) that leak or sell people's life affecting data.

vkou 9y ago

> unless GW2 is trusting the client where it shouldn't, would it even work on an MMO? MMOs have to trust the client, to a large extent, in order to avoid janky gameplay on ~150ms connections.