In that vein, it's worth checking out a new report released by McAfee called Mapping the Mal Web Report Revisited. It tested 9.9 Million websites in 265 domains to find out which ones had a higher risk of exposing visitors to malware, spam, and malicious attacks via a red, yellow, and green system.
Last week reader Jay sent me a screen shot of something I hadn't seen in a while – a gold seller using /tell to spread their wares. For a long time Blizzard has maintained this is illegal activity, and has taken substantial steps to negate the spammers ability to do this. In game spam protection done behind the scenes has been working well. However it looks like the gold spammers have found a way around this.
Initially I was pretty surprised to see the screen shot. After all, this hadn't been happening much. However a couple of days after getting this, I found some gold spam in my chat log as well. I was floored. Now they're back to their old tricks, and even some new ones.
We all deal with them. Their annoying spam, their flooding of the general channels. Those gold sellers deserve the kiss of death. Wouldn't it be nice if their industry just went and slept with the fishes?
In a tactic that even Don Corleone himself would be angry at, gold sellers have sunken to a new low. John M. wrote in to tell us the tale of a fellow guild mate who fell under the gaze of a gold seller who took his account hostage, demanding payment from his guild. Sit back, open up a new window with this Godfather music, and read on after the break.
World of Warcraft's European site has posted a new page of their FAQ aiming to describe the effects and consequences of third party gold selling, also known as RMT (Real Money Trade or Real Money Transactions). There doesn't seem to be a similar page added to the American site yet, but we've seen enough to know very well that they disapproveas well.
The page mostly focuses on the more underhanded tactics the companies use to get money, such as keyloggers and trojans, or simply stealing the accounts of people who paid for powerleveling, and using them as farming bots, or spamming in high traffic areas on level 1 characters with hard to spell names. It's a good start, and certainly reminds people of the harm that these gold farmers do, and how it can hit close to home.
As a veteran MMORPGer who's watched Johnathan Yantis and Brock Pierce practically invent the industry and most of the dirty tricks it pulls, I'm glad to see Blizzard continue to make a stand against these types of leeches and hope they continue to do so. I'd love to see them explain more fully how the constant amount of kill stealing and spawn and AH camping they do hurts the game. A campaign of information might be just what we need to stop the gold farmers once and for all. Legal measures and community shame (and thus shrinking of their customer base) for a one-two punch? Here's hoping!
This is probably the best news I've heard so far all year: Blizzard has won an injunction against Peons4Hire (we'll say their name now), which means that the one-time constant chat spammer is now legally banned from interfering with the game. It sounds like Blizzard sued on nearly all the causes that were speculated on a while ago, and as a result, have outright won their case: according to the injunction, In Game Dollar (the company that advertised Peons4Hire) is "permanently enjoined" from "making any use of the World of Warcraft in-game communication or chat system to advertise any website, business, or commercial endeavor."
Which means, in no uncertain terms, that we'll never see those ingame tells again. The only drawback is that, as Virtually Blind says, this is an injunction, not a decision, and so it doesn't have the "precedential weight" that a decision might-- Blizzard can't really legally use this to walk away with an easy win in the next case that comes along. But over the course of a few different settlements, including stuff happening in other virtual worlds, there is a legal precedent being established against using one company's service without permission to advertise another.
I'm just happy that, after being driven nuts by all that chat spam for so long, Blizzard was able to walk away with a solid victory.
"Hey, want to learn how to level the fastest way possible?" If you've played a character below level 30 any time recently, that probably looks infuriatingly familiar. Ever since the new spam protection features in patch 2.1, party chat has been one of the few ways spam has actually been getting through to many of us. You get an invite from a random level 1 character somewhere on a trial account, and then the fun starts in /p. I usually respond with "hey, want to get reported for spamming the fastest way possible?", but it still happens at least every fifteen minutes or so on some servers. A few hours ago, Blizzard went ahead and made the obvious and frequently suggested change: players on trial accounts can no longer send invites (Drysc).
They can still be invited to groups by subscribers, so people who are using trial accounts because they're legitimately curious about the game will continue to have a chance to experience group play. I'm optimistic that this change will greatly reduce the amount of spam I get, although I'm also sure the spammers will not take too long to find yet another way to share with us the opportunities of buying gold and powerleveling.
If you've been reading our Shifting Perspectives druid column, then you'll probably remember our discussion of the way druids look as they level up and get newer gear. The druids over in Europe have found a new way to show Blizzard how they feel about it on their forums: in a post by Rawr, entitled "[Screenshot] Season 3 Set Looks So Awesome," they've not only highlighted how druids look in the latest arena gear (as pictured above), but they've shown compiled pics very much like all the the different gear they've had leveling up, from level 10 to level 70.
My druid looked something like this at level 10, which as you can see, is pretty drab. But once I got to level 45 or so, I completed a set I thought looked pretty nice. Now at 70, I have three sets for Bear form, for Cat form, and for healing. I don't mean to brag or anything -- my gear isn't the best in the world -- but one day I hope my druid can look like Xgeno does in his armor!
There are many players out there who may think druids' opinion on their looks is a petty issue that doesn't matter, but when you think about it, there are lots of people out there with very strong opinions on class-specific issues that other classes don't understand in the least. In an age when some players stage riots on their servers or spam forums to protest class problems, these druids have once again demonstrated that there are alternative ways to share your feelings on a particular issue.
For anyone out there who feels extremely angry, happy, or whatever, about any particular class issue, it makes sense to stop and think how you want to look in the eyes of other players before posting on the forums about it. Do you want them to get really frustrated because you're disrupting their gaming in some way? Or do you want them to read your post, then grin and say, "I see what you did there?"
[Thanks Lewi!]
Edit: Apparently the European thread Lewi brought to our attention has its roots in the US. The level 20 druid Pando showed everyone what her animal form looked like, and invited everyone to show theirs. Classic. [Thanks Delkral!]
The latest uprising on the forums (seems like there's one almost every day now, doesn't there?) has to do with what seems to be an anti-chat spam measure on Blizzard's part. Players have discovered that multi-line messages don't work anymore, even in guild and group channels. Spammers are very fond of guild or group inviting folks, and then filling their chat window with ads for less-than-TOS-compliant activities, and Blizzard decided to cut those folks off at the pass.
Except that we kind of need those messages. Sure, lots of annoying macros use them, but so do legitimate healing and DPS meter addons. So Slouken says that Blizzard will change things, and messages like these "will be allowed in guild chat and private channels with 25 people or less." Which should cover most exceptions-- you'll still be able to show off the meters in guild and raid chat, but then again, you'll still have to be careful about what guild and raid invitations you accept anyway.
I'm sure you've heard that Blizzard's anti-spam additions to the game have caused gold selling spammers to change their tactics. However, it certainly hasn't stopped their activity -- they're still out there, spamming us with raid invites, says, and messages over general chat channels since they can no longer do so in whispers. Lately I've been joining their raid groups to see what they've got to say, and, of course, report them. However, earlier today in one goldseller raid, I noticed that instead of listing their full site name, they're telling you to visit, for example http://www.i*****.com/. i*****.com? What? Is that even a valid domain name?
My questions are soon answered, as later in the message, the spammer explains that the ***** stands for something else, which does turn it into a valid domain name. But I have to ask -- why are they doing this? It just makes it more difficult for their potential customers to figure out where to go, so I presume there must be a reason they'd do this. So, even though there's nothing official from Blizzard, I have to think that they're doing something that causes trouble for the spammers if they use their full domain name. Are they flagging people using known gold-selling domains in chat for further investigation? Since we haven't heard anything from Blizzard, we can't say for certain. But until we hear something, there's room for speculation.
The upcoming second Arena season, with new rewards, will be starting on June 19th, a week later than originally estimated (Drysc):
As we mentioned in our initial announcement of the second arena season, the start of the next season is planned to coincide with the release of a small patch. Due to additional development time and testing needed we will be delaying the scheduled release of the patch, and thus the start of Arena Season 2 by one week, to June 19. This current schedule is of course subject to change as well.
Also, don't forget that team ratings will be reset to the default 1500 with the start of the new season, allowing all teams to once again compete for top honors with a fresh start.
The delay was necessary because the new items for the new season are contained in the patch (presumably 2.1.2), and the patch will evidently not be ready for the 12th. The new date will be June 20th instead for European subscribers, by the way.
Also, the new-in-2.1 "report spam" feature is getting slightly changed (Eyonix): The new spam-reporting feature has been updated so that you can now report members inside your group or raid. This will allow players who are invited to groups created for purposes of spam to report the abuse appropriately. To report this type of spam, simply right-click on the player's name in the chat interface, and choosing the "Report Spam" option. Once you have selected this option, a dialogue box will open to confirm that you wish to report the target player, and your report will be sent once you confirm your choice.
Please make sure you're only using this reporting feature for spam. All other forms of abuse should be reported appropriately, by petitioning a Game Master.
This will keep people from pulling you into a group from the LFG tool just to spam you, which I've heard has been occurring here and there. How's the spam reporting functionality working out for you? Personally, I've been seeing very much less spam since 2.1 came out.
While poking around the World of Warcraft LJ, I couldn't help but notice that the spammers are back at it again, and apparently using some of the old tactics that they used to use. Well, tactics that they used to use before they figured out how to script spamming hundreds of people in a split second from a level one character. For those of you who either don't remember them, or who aren't familiar, I thought it might be best to relay the information.
There are a couple of main tactics that they seem to have started employing since the new patch is squelching their ability to get to us. The first one involves random group or raid invites where the spammers invite a massive amount of people and just repeat the same text over and over in party or raid chat. While many people will not fall for this, these blind invites may prove problematic for those people who are using the LFG tool. The best suggestion I saw was to /who anyone who sends you an invitation to make sure that you aren't getting invites from level one characters.
We've reported on the "right click the spammer's name and report them" feature. Players had some additional questions, so the fine folks at WoW's European official site have created a Squelcher FAQ. They don't reveal their methods (that could give the spammers a way to get around it), but they do include some interesting facts about the new functionality that you may not have heard.
When you report someone as spamming, it not only blocks any further whispers or mail from that character, it blocks any further communication from any character on that account. And if that account gets reported a certain number of times, it will be prevented from communicating with anyone until the GMs can investigate the reports.
Also, there are some restrictions on using the "Report Spam" feature. You can only use it once every minute and only five times every 24 hours. And you can't use it on anyone on your friends list, in your guild or, duh, yourself. Other than that, lay down the report hammer on any unsolicited spam and get in line to buy a Blizzard employee a drink at BlizzCon 2007!
We knew Blizzard implemented filters with Patch 2.1 to reduce in-game spam from gold sellers. But we didn't know that they are taking the fight into the real world as well.
Eyonix has reported that Blizzard has filed a lawsuit against one of the gold spammers who have caused us so much in-game grief. If the seller does not stop its in-game spamming of whispers and non-stop in-game mail spam, Blizzard is hauling them to federal court. Yes, that's right, federal court.
And in case you are still getting whispers from gold sellers after the latest patch, Blizzard has a new solution for you. Right click on their name on your chat screen. A list of commands will appear. Click on "Report Spam." This will not only report them automatically to the GMs, it will block all further whispers and mail from that player. No more trying to report intentionally hard to spell names.
In today's breakfast topic, I noted that I haven't gotten any gold spam in the time I've played since patch 2.1.0 came along. And oh, what a change it is! I was always a good little player, taking the time to report any gold selling spam to a GM, but usually by the time a GM got around to looking at my ticket, I'd have gotten at least five more piece of spam -- and that was if I opened my ticket during off-hours.
So what's the magical change that's stopped spam in its tracks this patch? Obviously, there's the new spam reporting system, which makes reporting anyone an easy task: just right-click on their name and select the "report spam" option. You'll no longer get whispers, see text, or receive mails from that player for the duration of your game session and the incident is automatically forwarded on to a GM. But even if every player were duitifully reporting every spammer, I wouldn't expect such a dramatic change in the level of spam. CM Drysc notes that as of the patch, trial accounts can no longer whisper other players -- at least not without players whispering them first. I don't know about you, but I think this simple step may have been the magic bullet.
We've all had at least a day (our European friends are a bit behind us, but I have no doubt they have also managed to form their opinions) to play with patch 2.1.0 and digest the many changes contained therein. While the Children's Week quests (and the non-combat pets you get from them) are super fun, but what I'm enjoying most is the lack of gold selling spam. At least for me, this near-constant nuisance has completely vanished since the patch came out -- though perhaps I'll have a different opinion tomorrow. So, I ask, what's your favorite aspect of patch 2.1.0?
In an era where clicking on the wrong link while browsing the web could mean your account will get hacked, and one of your guild members clicking on the wrong link means your guild bank could get emptied as well, it's always good to protect yourself and keep abreast of web security issues. 
We all deal with them. Their annoying spam, their flooding of the general channels. Those 
This is probably the best news I've heard so far all year: .jpg)
The upcoming second Arena season, with 
We've reported on the "
We knew Blizzard implemented filters with Patch 2.1 to reduce in-game spam from gold sellers. But we didn't know that they are taking the fight into the real world as well.
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