Jagex: Nuking Bots, Suing Cheaters, Sends Official Warning


Yesterday was bot nuking day at Runescape, and according to Jagex it has been an overwhelming success not just in cleaning up the game, but disabling 98% of the bots and gold farmers. Something has come to my attention from another player about receiving an email claiming to be from Jagex, offering amnesty and a last chance if the user no longer cheated. If the player continued botting, however, the email threatened to add their name to a list of defendants in Jagex Vs John Does, a pending lawsuit in the District Court in California.

The email is real, as Jagex confirmed on their forums. Check it out below:

Dear Player,

We have strong evidence that you may have purchased and used botting software in the past, specifically ibot software.

Botting and the cheating it brings is destroying your game, violates Jagex’s rights under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), and any player that continues to engage in botting activity has no place in our community.

As part of bot nuke week we are offering you a 1 time amnesty and settlement lifeline, which is a chance to reform and change your ways. We’d like you to contribute to the community in a positive way, to compete on a level playing field as everyone else does and play in the true spirit of the game, with integrity. All of your accounts, main and otherwise, are now on our watch list and will be monitored for the use of ibot and all other inappropriate third-party software. Regardless of who you are or how long you’ve been with us, if you decide to cheat and bot ever again we will have no hesitation in: (1) permanently removing your account from our wonderful community in order to protect Jagex’s rights under the DMCA, and (2) naming you as a defendant in Jagex Limited v. John Does, which is a lawsuit based on DMCA violations that is currently pending in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California (Civ. Action No. SACV11-00969-CJC).

Please note that this amnesty and settlement offer is protected under Fed. R. Evid. 408. If you ignore our offer and instead continue use botting software, we reserve our rights to pursue statutory damages against you for between $200 to $2,500 per act of past, present, and/or future botting in accordance with 17 U.S.C. 1203(c)(3).

We do hope you make the morally sound and lawful choice of turning your back on bots. We look forward to seeing you in game having fun in a way that is true to the spirit of fair play and respectful to your fellow players.

Yours sincerely,
Mark Gerhard

You can find the thread confirming this at: 14-15-831-63310676 (Enter this into the “jump to thread” form on the forums itself). But wait! There’s more! Mark Gerhard promises yet another update today in Project Clusterfutterer (they’re going to keep making me say that, aren’t they?) with more updates later this week to combat the remaining 2%.

Appeals Court Rules In Favor of Richard Garriot


Backstory: Richard Garriot partnered with NCsoft to create Tabula Rasa, a sci-fi shooter MMO that rather famously launched in late 2007 and shut down in early 2009 following a poor reception. Before Tabula Rasa shut down, however, NCsoft published a letter of resignation purportedly from Richard Garriot that he was leaving the company to pursue other careers. Garriot shot back, suing NCsoft with the claim that he was fired from the company, and then marked as voluntarily resigning in order to defraud him out of stock options that were available but expired upon his “resignation.”

Last year I reported that Richard Garriot had won $28 million in his lawsuit against NCsoft, although the final amount was $32 million, after lawyer fees and other costs added on. I also pointed out that NCsoft would undoubtedly appeal, and appeal they did. The 5th Circuit Court, however, saw Garriot’s side of the story (yet again) and shot NCsoft down, affirming the judgement.

“It would be unjust to allow NCsoft to sit back during trial, observe Garriott’s litigation strategy, and then demand a new trial on damages when it dislikes the verdict.”

NCsoft noted the lawsuit in their 2010 financial documents as a notable dent in their revenue.

It's Bot Stomping Day In Runescape


It’s bot stomping day on Runescape, and that can only mean one thing: Celebration. Now, I’ll be celebrating in the usual fashion (cooking goulash and decorating my bathroom with crepe wrappers), but over at Runescape Jagex is celebrating with in-game events all week. Check out the announcement here, and prepare for a full week of extra experience, points, and more.

Yes, the servers are still down as of this writing, but what is a nuke without an accompanying electromagnetic pulse? I have a bit more coverage of Bot Nuke Day in Runescape coming up.

It’s Bot Stomping Day In Runescape


It’s bot stomping day on Runescape, and that can only mean one thing: Celebration. Now, I’ll be celebrating in the usual fashion (cooking goulash and decorating my bathroom with crepe wrappers), but over at Runescape Jagex is celebrating with in-game events all week. Check out the announcement here, and prepare for a full week of extra experience, points, and more.

Yes, the servers are still down as of this writing, but what is a nuke without an accompanying electromagnetic pulse? I have a bit more coverage of Bot Nuke Day in Runescape coming up.

Jagex Announced Project Clusterfutterer: Bot Nuking On Tuesday


Coming on the heels of yet another announcement to ban bots, Jagex has formally announced Project Clusterfutterer. Mark Gerhard posted an announcement on the Runescape home page stating:

Today, I am really happy to say we are in the long-awaited position of being able to announce that we’ll be launching our most formidable bot-busting weapon in our history, targeting what we believe to be 98% of the bots seen in game.

The initiative aims at “reflection bots,” so called programs that operate by reading the information being processed in active memory and act upon it, similar to how AI in a single player game always knows where you are because the active memory tracks your location. At least that’s my understanding of reflection bots.

Check out the full announcement here. Jagex is so excited, they have a plan of events next week to celebrate Bot Nuking Day.

Golden Joystick Awards: Only The MMOs


The results for the Golden Joystick Awards are in, and since this is MMO Fallout and not Assassins Creed Fallout, I’ll focus on the MMOs that won awards.

Best Subscription MMO

  • Winner: World of Warcraft
  • Runner up: Rift
  • Third place: Eve Online

Best Free To Play

  • Winner: League of Legends
  • Runner up: World of Tanks
  • Third Place: RuneScape
You can find the rest of the awards here.

Come Back To Earthrise: 14 Days


Masthead Studios just released patch 20557 on to the live server, bringing in a slew of new features including (among other things) ride-able vehicles. You can read the entire list of patch notes here. More importantly, Masthead is so proud of their patch that they want you ex-players to come back and check out all that is new with Earthrise. Starting October 21st (yesterday), players are invited to log in for fourteen days to get a feel for the world and, oh I don’t know, refill that subscription you left so long ago.

Oddly enough, Masthead Studios hasn’t made any formal announcement that I’m aware of. MMORPG.com has reported on the welcome back weeks, but I don’t believe any emails have been sent out to former players. I’ve noted in the calendar how long this program should last.

Buy A Year of World of Warcraft: Get Diablo 3 Free


Don’t go rushing out right now and buying WoW subscriptions, folks, I have no idea when this deal starts. At Blizzcon, Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime has announced the WoW Pass, a twelve month subscription to World of Warcraft. With it, players will receive beta access to Mist of Pandaria, the upcoming expansion to World of Warcraft that was leaked earlier this year. Even more enticing, pass subscribers will receive Diablo 3 for free.

You can read VG247’s coverage of Blizzcon here, and get a few more snippets of Diablo 3, WoW, and DOTA. Check out the trailer below, Mists of Pandaria looks gorgeous, even if the Panda race was originally designed to be a joke.

Win Turbine Points [Closed]


The contest is now closed. Thank you to everyone who participated, I really hope to do this again soon.

Continue reading “Win Turbine Points [Closed]”

Mythos Shutting Down In Europe


If you live in the US and were eagerly awaiting the North American release of Mythos (and let’s face it, how many among us can honestly say we weren’t holding off only Old Republic preorders), you will be disappointed to hear that those prospects for a release and long life span have dropped rather significantly. In the EU, Mythos already launched under Frogster. In the United States, Hanbitsoft will be taking the reigns.

Of course, if you were waiting for Mythos to launch in North America, you’d know that Codemasters is shutting down Mythos in Europe, following what the company described as a great launch and then a terrible retention rate (and as I’ve pointed out time and time again, it’s all about retention in this business).

MYTHOS enjoyed great popularity with the launch in April and the numerous registered users ensured a good start. The desired long-term success unfortunately did not follow. Under these circumstances, we have made the difficult decision to discontinue the operation of MYTHOS.

This puts Mythos’ life span at about six months. Players who bought into the game will be compensated via credits for Runes of Magic, and potentially beta keys for Codemasters’ upcoming title Eligium.

You can read the entire announcement here.