Blacktide Thief Hacker Strikes again, part 10
We don’t need to see it in-game, sometimes good video evidence is enough for me to track down who it was. In this case, the video was enough for me to find out who it was and take action. Thanks for the video, and to accompany your video, I give you this video of his account’s last moments:
Oh yah, he’s also banned
You should match his login IP to other accounts, and go after his main. Banning that account is punishment, but if it were a throw away account that he got for the $10 sale, then he may do it again.
I never said this was the only one of his accounts that was banned
Chris, did anyone ever say your awesome? Cause your pretty awesome.
We don’t need to see it in-game, sometimes good video evidence is enough for me to track down who it was. In this case, the video was enough for me to find out who it was and take action. Thanks for the video, and to accompany your video, I give you this video of his account’s last moments:
Oh yah, he’s also banned
You should match his login IP to other accounts, and go after his main. Banning that account is punishment, but if it were a throw away account that he got for the $10 sale, then he may do it again.
I never said this was the only one of his accounts that was banned
Chris, you deserve your own meme. Colin’s one has gotten stale after reading this.
I only have this one picture of you. If you send me a better one, we can do a lot more!
We don’t need to see it in-game, sometimes good video evidence is enough for me to track down who it was. In this case, the video was enough for me to find out who it was and take action. Thanks for the video, and to accompany your video, I give you this video of his account’s last moments:
Oh yah, he’s also banned
Where does one send in video evidence?
Notice he only has 851 AP. I commend the effort, but this won’t stop speedhackers. So when are you going to fix speedhacking anet?
This is the real question and not just speed hacking but every sort of questionable action that ruins the competitive spirit of WvW.
Where does one send in video evidence?
exploits@arena.net
any ofc the hacker was using a p/d perplex build -_-
Chris, you did the EXACT same thing my friend did when we discovered a cheater in our old game server project. The youtube video is still out there but it’s related to another MMo. I don’t want to link it here for this reason but I want to let you know you were not the first. ;-)
(edited by Lascax.2163)
Can you look into the entire Maguuma server repeatedly mesmer exploiting into inner SM through the walls? Thanks.
That was more satisfying than any Dhuum ban I’ve ever seen. Now the jerk gets to go back and watch all of his stuff be deleted; it will be there for as long as youtube cares to host it. A great end to this story.
This just made my day. Now I can enjoy wvw again.
Thanks, Mr. Cleary!
Good he has been banned and also good to know video evidence DOES help to stop this kitten. I really enjoyed the video, especially the guy claiming he was it and will take blizzard to court etc.
Madness Rises [Rise] – Banners Hold.
Don’t argue with idiots, they pull you down their level and own you with experience.
This is just one of many, though.
Lots is still left to be done.
After every 75% sale, lots of new hackers appear after purchasing some cheap accounts.
Some of them are there to test hacks to distribute or even sell, others are script kiddie fools who are using hacks made by others.
The main problem is getting proof, as they tend to use stealth to hide their behavior.
Downside of this is that there is a kind of witch hunt going down..I was roaming wvw for daily purposes, evaded with Shortbow skill 3 upon stumbling on an enemy but dc’ed after that. Upon returning (yay for ssd drive ) , I got this whisper from someone who’s name shall remain hidden (although my fingers are itching to place it here!!) that he has reported me for speedhacking ! I explained to the player this was not the case, but sure enough, player blocked me..
How is ANet dealing with false allegations ? Any of you encountered this ?
Sadly true. A long while back (some two, perhaps three months), I was idly watching a group from my server fight two thieves and an ele from an enemy server, up in the northern most camp and the thieves were essentially running laps around the people from my server (two rangers, a mesmer and something else). The thieves were obviously Stealth specced (or at least proficient enough to weave in two leaps into a stealth field without getting hit) and the ele was very good at dodging. After ours got a sound thrashing, they complained in map chat about hackers etc, and I, sadly, laughed at them and said they didn’t hack. Usual retorts and insults followed, with the line “obviously hacking” being dropped all the time: apparently, having swiftness and stealth was hacking (one even said they had a thief so they knew the max duration of stealth)…
And this worries me. If a group of (quite honestly) unskilled players label better players as hackers because they can’t beat them by pressing a few keys and having numbers, aren’t we just adding fuel to the witch hunt and contributing to making the issue of finding the real hackers worse?
Can we just give Chris access to Dhuum already?
Because I’m pretty sure he IS Dhuum.
(for those unaware, this is how people got banned in GW1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUMfE2FCj-4 )
Perfect way to embarrass these idiots who seem to find it fun cheating……glad this one has been dealt with.
Id suggest that all hackers that get found and proved to be hackers get named and shamed on youtube all the time
I applaud the effort and cheer for the ban of the hacker.
But, the deletion of the characters by a dev is troubling. Banning/disabling the account and making it so that it is not able to be played on A-Net servers is great, but there should be some limiting boundries as to what an employee can do. In my mind deleting characters crosses that line. The server belongs to A-Net, it’s their property and they can disallow play by anyone they want at their sole discretion. But the characters belong to whoever bought the box; even if they can never activate the account again, the property is still theirs and shouldn’t be tampered with.
Sorrows Furnace
Can we just give Chris access to Dhuum already?
Because I’m pretty sure he IS Dhuum.
(for those unaware, this is how people got banned in GW1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUMfE2FCj-4 )
First time i actually see what they all meant with the dhuum. +1 to add this to get rid of the cheaters/hackers/exploiters.
Madness Rises [Rise] – Banners Hold.
Don’t argue with idiots, they pull you down their level and own you with experience.
I applaud the effort and cheer for the ban of the hacker.
But, the deletion of the characters by a dev is troubling. Banning/disabling the account and making it so that it is not able to be played on A-Net servers is great, but there should be some limiting boundries as to what an employee can do. In my mind deleting characters crosses that line. The server belongs to A-Net, it’s their property and they can disallow play by anyone they want at their sole discretion. But the characters belong to whoever bought the box; even if they can never activate the account again, the property is still theirs and shouldn’t be tampered with.
While I see where your coming from, and if it were Gaile or someone like that I might agree, Chris is the Game Security Lead. I see no problem with him, or someone in a position similar deleting accounts used for hacking and grieving of players.
We don’t need to see it in-game, sometimes good video evidence is enough for me to track down who it was. In this case, the video was enough for me to find out who it was and take action. Thanks for the video, and to accompany your video, I give you this video of his account’s last moments:
Oh yah, he’s also banned
You should match his login IP to other accounts, and go after his main. Banning that account is punishment, but if it were a throw away account that he got for the $10 sale, then he may do it again.
I never said this was the only one of his accounts that was banned
I hope that they did more than just match the same login IP to other accounts. I work in Information Security myself. Most home customers have DHCP allocated addresses from their ISPs (getting a static one usually costs a fee). While the chance of one Guild Wars customer getting handed an IP that was previously used by another customer is small, it is definitely still possible with the crowded IPv4 space that they Internet is struggling with. A lot of people play GW2….
Phoenix Ascendant [ASH] | Rank 80
Next time send their wealth to me before you delete their chars
But the characters belong to whoever bought the box; even if they can never activate the account again, the property is still theirs and shouldn’t be tampered with.
This isn’t true. It isn’t true for any MMO. Read the User Agreement.
This was a pretty good laugh. Keep up the good (humorous) work.
Ty Chris, my faith in GW2 moderation politics has been somewhat restored, now only if this would happen more often!
Anyone else notice how ironic it is that you hear “Act with wisdom” from an NPC right before his account is banned for acting in a manner that is anything but?
We don’t need to see it in-game, sometimes good video evidence is enough for me to track down who it was. In this case, the video was enough for me to find out who it was and take action. Thanks for the video, and to accompany your video, I give you this video of his account’s last moments:
Oh yah, he’s also banned
Finally a dev who gets what needs to be done about hackers! <3
Also, I have a suggestion… make this weekly, I will anticipate your videos with a lot of joy.
We don’t need to see it in-game, sometimes good video evidence is enough for me to track down who it was. In this case, the video was enough for me to find out who it was and take action. Thanks for the video, and to accompany your video, I give you this video of his account’s last moments:
Oh yah, he’s also banned
You should match his login IP to other accounts, and go after his main. Banning that account is punishment, but if it were a throw away account that he got for the $10 sale, then he may do it again.
I never said this was the only one of his accounts that was banned
I hope that they did more than just match the same login IP to other accounts. I work in Information Security myself. Most home customers have DHCP allocated addresses from their ISPs (getting a static one usually costs a fee). While the chance of one Guild Wars customer getting handed an IP that was previously used by another customer is small, it is definitely still possible with the crowded IPv4 space that they Internet is struggling with. A lot of people play GW2….
Maybe email account match?
Wow, so that’s how they execute the banned.
Scary. :p
for there you have been and there you will long to return.
We don’t need to see it in-game, sometimes good video evidence is enough for me to track down who it was. In this case, the video was enough for me to find out who it was and take action. Thanks for the video, and to accompany your video, I give you this video of his account’s last moments:
Oh yah, he’s also banned
And how is that acceptable professional behaviour? Making a public spectacle of this isn’t doing anything conductive towards an image of being able to professionally and rationally deal with people who have broken the rules, nor does it inspire confidence for a game that is known to produce false positives in regards to things like botting.
How are people supposed to know that they will be dealt with fairly and rationally when the games security lead is partaking in incredibly unprofessional witch-hunt style public shaming of people? Shame on you.
This is straight from your personal linkedin page:
Lead of the team that is responsible for maintaining:
• Fair game-play in Guild Wars 2 by enforcing the User Agreements and Rules of Conduct
• Maintinence and evolution of systems to help reduce instances of payment fraud
• User/Corporate information security
• Improvement of game features to align with the needs of a shifting player base and behavior
Do you sincerely believe that you’re exhibiting a capacity for “Fair game-play in Guild Wars 2 by enforcing the User Agreements and Rules of Conduct” – could you point to the part of the user agreements and rules of conduct that legitimises the video you made? Is it not a compromise of user security for you to post a video logging in to another persons account and posting a video of it? Regardless of what they’ve done, how is that ok? Sure cheating is not ok, but there are wrong and right ways to deal with it. This wasn’t the right way.
(edited by FlamingFoxx.1305)
We don’t need to see it in-game, sometimes good video evidence is enough for me to track down who it was. In this case, the video was enough for me to find out who it was and take action. Thanks for the video, and to accompany your video, I give you this video of his account’s last moments:
Oh yah, he’s also banned
And how is that acceptable professional behaviour? Making a public spectacle of this isn’t doing anything conductive towards an image of being able to professionally and rationally deal with people who have broken the rules, nor does it inspire confidence for a game that is known to produce false positives in regards to things like botting.
How are people supposed to know that they will be dealt with fairly and rationally when the games security lead is partaking in incredibly unprofessional witch-hunt style public shaming of people? Shame on you.
This is straight from your personal linkedin page:
Lead of the team that is responsible for maintaining:
• Fair game-play in Guild Wars 2 by enforcing the User Agreements and Rules of Conduct
• Maintinence and evolution of systems to help reduce instances of payment fraud
• User/Corporate information security
• Improvement of game features to align with the needs of a shifting player base and behaviorDo you sincerely believe that you’re exhibiting a capacity for “Fair game-play in Guild Wars 2 by enforcing the User Agreements and Rules of Conduct” – could you point to the part of the user agreements and rules of conduct that legitimises the video you made? Is it not a compromise of user security for you to post a video logging in to another persons account and posting a video of it? Regardless of what they’ve done, how is that ok? Sure cheating is not ok, but there are wrong and right ways to deal with it. This wasn’t the right way.
Dude, sometimes, a witchhunt style spectacle is jusy the way to go. I can understand why you disprove, but at the same time I feel this kind of rule enforcement is beneficial when used on occasion. I feel like it puts the developers on a more “down to Earth” relatable pedistal.
Cheers
Dude, sometimes, a witchhunt style spectacle is jusy the way to go. I can understand why you disprove, but at the same time I feel this kind of rule enforcement is beneficial when used on occasion. I feel like it puts the developers on a more “down to Earth” relatable pedistal.
Cheers
It does not put them on a ‘down to earth’ level. It puts them in a very high up, untouchable position where they have the ability to use public shaming as a form of humour. This is not so different from something like a public flogging. For a lot of people on the surface it appears to be a light hearted joke at someone else’s supposedly deserved misfortune and punishment, in reality it is an open threat and a misappropriation of power. How does this show a capacity to fairly judge? It isn’t professional and people should be able to play the game with the confidence that they’re actually going to be dealt with fairly in a situation where they get accused, wrongly or rightly, of something. This does not inspire confidence. Great for you if you think it’s humorous, but he should never have posted that.
Awesome job Chris. Just to give some feedback, I’d love to see more dev stuff like this. I know it’s a lot more business-as-usual to do these kinda things behind the scenes, but showing off the destruction of cheaters and such really drives the impact of the action home.
+ confidence in the community
- belief that people can get away with this kinda stuff
Hahahaha
Can I haz his gems?
Flamingfoxx. First of all this hacker has driven many people from WvW in T8 and T9 and caused a lot of people to stop enjoying a game they play to have fun for months.
Secondly, read the second post by Chris Cleary. I very much doubt this is the only account associated with the guy in question and it wouldn’t surprise me if he had accounts on multiple servers doing this.
Thirdly, a dev can do and see more than you or I. They have the tools to know they get the right people and see if something fishy is going on. This is not an abuse of power, this is him investigating and dealing with a problem as outlined in the T&C which we all agreed to.
As for the video, you find it appalling but to the 50 people on WSR, UW and FoW that I know, they find it funny. It has made them feel the devs do not simply ignore us nor that they are robots without any form of emotion or humour. I’m sure many others are rejoicing on BT, FoW, WSR and UW.
Flamingfoxx. First of all this hacker has driven many people from WvW in T8 and T9 and caused a lot of people to stop enjoying a game they play to have fun for months.
Secondly, read the second post by Chris Cleary. I very much doubt this is the only account associated with the guy in question and it wouldn’t surprise me if he had accounts on multiple servers doing this.
Thirdly, a dev can do and see more than you or I. They have the tools to know they get the right people and see if something fishy is going on. This is not an abuse of power, this is him investigating and dealing with a problem as outlined in the T&C which we all agreed to.
As for the video, you find it appalling but to the 50 people on WSR, UW and FoW that I know, they find it funny. It has made them feel the devs do not simply ignore us nor that they are robots without any form of emotion or humour. I’m sure many others are rejoicing on BT, FoW, WSR and UW.
I’m not questioning the action of banning the person. I’m fully behind taking action against those who cheat. But this isn’t the way to do it. The abuse of power is not using the tools they have at hand specifically designed to catch people out, it’s making public ridicule/example of a person in a way that is absolutely needless.
Depends which side of the fence you’re on. As one of the victims for months on end I very much feel this was needed as do many others judging by the thread.
Hacking isn’t victimless, it’s not like he’s done no harm. People choose to spend their precious down time in this game doing fun things like WvW to take a break from life. To have people like this hacker for months keep taking away your enjoyment is far far worse.
In fact, Mr Cleary providing some entertainment for us as recompense feels like justice.
It’s a huge plus that you made this action public. Many of us have given up reporting to you because seemed that you ignore reports. It’s a good first step in the right direction. You should have a subforum related to these. A bit late, but still most welcome. Congrats ArenaNet!
Dude, sometimes, a witchhunt style spectacle is jusy the way to go. I can understand why you disprove, but at the same time I feel this kind of rule enforcement is beneficial when used on occasion. I feel like it puts the developers on a more “down to Earth” relatable pedistal.
Cheers
It does not put them on a ‘down to earth’ level. It puts them in a very high up, untouchable position where they have the ability to use public shaming as a form of humor. This is not so different from something like a public flogging.
I would have to disagree. I would feel like the dev would be on “a very high up, untouchable position” if he/she banned or punished people with a machine-like, persona-less demeanor. Providing the video shows us that he/she is human and in a sense, “one of us.”
Public shaming is a very effective form of humor when the perpetrator had previously done many people grief, and as long as it doesn’t cause physical pain or death, imo. Comparing it to a flogging is somewhat extreme :\
(edited by Razor.9872)
Do you sincerely believe that you’re exhibiting a capacity for “Fair game-play in Guild Wars 2 by enforcing the User Agreements and Rules of Conduct” – could you point to the part of the user agreements and rules of conduct that legitimises the video you made?
Can you point to the part of the user agreements and rules of conduct that says this is not allowed? You can’t, because he is an employee, and the game security lead at that. Is there anything in the user agreements/rules of conduct that says it’s okay for Steve Whiteside to lower map caps? For GMs to be able to go invulnerable and switch servers at will while observing? For the programmers to completely disable the use and creation of golems at will? Etc, etc. If they were playing the game normally with their dev icons up, and then suddenly went invul when dying or switched to the winning team, that’s against the rules. But they don’t do that. They are granted additional powers that they can execute whenever they feel they need to, and that is totally their right. You do not get to decide that, sorry.
Sure cheating is not ok, but there are wrong and right ways to deal with it. This wasn’t the right way.
I think it was absolutely the right way, because Anet has not been entirely transparent about the bans they’ve handed out in the past. Sometimes an example has to be made. Oh, and if you think this is wrong, did you not play GW1? In that game, GMs and security staff were able to execute a ban using a unique reaper-like avatar called Dhuum, which publicly shamed anyone who violated the rules — inside the actual confines of the game itself.
Your “cheating is not okay but this is going too far” defense falls flat when these individuals have spent all of their time ruining the game for hundreds of other people, for weeks and sometimes months on end. That’s going too far. What Chris did was an appropriate and tactical response to that behavior — if you cheat, prepare to have this happen to you. A good lesson.
I think it was absolutely the right way, because Anet has not been entirely transparent about the bans they’ve handed out in the past. Sometimes an example has to be made. Oh, and if you think this is wrong, did you not play GW1? In that game, GMs and security staff were able to execute a ban using a unique reaper-like avatar called Dhuum, which publicly shamed anyone who violated the rules — inside the actual confines of the game itself.
Your “cheating is not okay but this is going too far” defense falls flat when these individuals have spent all of their time ruining the game for hundreds of other people, for weeks and sometimes months on end. That’s going too far. What Chris did was an appropriate and tactical response to that behavior — if you cheat, prepare to have this happen to you. A good lesson.
I don’t have a problem with the Dhuum style ban animation. Its just adding an animation on to what the client itself was already doing. That is massively different to a developer posting a video in which they log into the account, strip the character down, jump them off a ledge, and then delete the characters. Why not just ban the account like normal and tell users that it had been done. It seem unnecessary and unprofessional to me. There’s a big difference between thinking ‘if I get banned there’s be a Dhumm animation killing me’ and ‘if I get banned a staff member might log into my account and do things to my character and then delete and ban me’. Big difference. Obviously the person deserved to have their account banned and deleted, but was the other stuff necessary? No.
Clearly our ideas of appropriate differ so any further discussion isn’t really going to be fruitful. I’ve stated my opinion on it and if people disagree with me then that is fine.
I think it was absolutely the right way, because Anet has not been entirely transparent about the bans they’ve handed out in the past. Sometimes an example has to be made. Oh, and if you think this is wrong, did you not play GW1? In that game, GMs and security staff were able to execute a ban using a unique reaper-like avatar called Dhuum, which publicly shamed anyone who violated the rules — inside the actual confines of the game itself.
Your “cheating is not okay but this is going too far” defense falls flat when these individuals have spent all of their time ruining the game for hundreds of other people, for weeks and sometimes months on end. That’s going too far. What Chris did was an appropriate and tactical response to that behavior — if you cheat, prepare to have this happen to you. A good lesson.
I don’t have a problem with the Dhuum style ban animation. Its just adding an animation on to what the client itself was already doing. That is massively different to a developer posting a video in which they log into the account, strip the character down, jump them off a ledge, and then delete the characters. Why not just ban the account like normal and tell users that it had been done. It seem unnecessary and unprofessional to me. There’s a big difference between thinking ‘if I get banned there’s be a Dhumm animation killing me’ and ‘if I get banned a staff member might log into my account and do things to my character and then delete and ban me’. Big difference. Obviously the person deserved to have their account banned and deleted, but was the other stuff necessary? No.
Clearly our ideas of appropriate differ so any further discussion isn’t really going to be fruitful. I’ve stated my opinion on it and if people disagree with me then that is fine.
They most definitely deserved to have their character/account made fun of in that manner. People like that punk thief deserve it 3 fold.
I’m really finding it hilarious that this is the cross you’ve decided to crawl up on here, Foxx. “Someone was using a 3rd party program to ruin the game for hundreds of people, violating the rules on a routine basis, but publicly shaming him is going too far!”
I applaud the banning of these hackers, but that video is nothing like the bans of gw1. Do something more extravagant, like maybe having a dragon bite his head off or poop on him or something like that. Otherwise, thanks for ridding us of a menace. claps hands
No mercy/sympathy for those who have been ruining/deliberately breaking official rules for so long. 6 months or more of absolute hell and a seconds few video or minute is worth it and acceptable. This is the Stone Age we live in and that’s how things are done.
We don’t need to see it in-game, sometimes good video evidence is enough for me to track down who it was. In this case, the video was enough for me to find out who it was and take action. Thanks for the video, and to accompany your video, I give you this video of his account’s last moments:
Oh yah, he’s also banned
Finally a dev who gets what needs to be done about hackers! <3
Also, I have a suggestion… make this weekly, I will anticipate your videos with a lot of joy.
OW YES! Ban of the week…in which the most original ways to kill and ban a player are reviewed and provided with a score…with the result of having a ban of the year award at the end of the season..XD
(Seriously..of course this cannot be done..serious matters need to be taken care of in a professional way, not made fun of. But still it gives insight in A-nets actions towards speedhacking players)
Do you sincerely believe that you’re exhibiting a capacity for “Fair game-play in Guild Wars 2 by enforcing the User Agreements and Rules of Conduct” – could you point to the part of the user agreements and rules of conduct that legitimises the video you made?
Can you point to the part of the user agreements and rules of conduct that says this is not allowed? You can’t, because he is an employee, and the game security lead at that. Is there anything in the user agreements/rules of conduct that says it’s okay for Steve Whiteside to lower map caps? For GMs to be able to go invulnerable and switch servers at will while observing? For the programmers to completely disable the use and creation of golems at will? Etc, etc. If they were playing the game normally with their dev icons up, and then suddenly went invul when dying or switched to the winning team, that’s against the rules. But they don’t do that. They are granted additional powers that they can execute whenever they feel they need to, and that is totally their right. You do not get to decide that, sorry.
Sure cheating is not ok, but there are wrong and right ways to deal with it. This wasn’t the right way.
I think it was absolutely the right way, because Anet has not been entirely transparent about the bans they’ve handed out in the past. Sometimes an example has to be made. Oh, and if you think this is wrong, did you not play GW1? In that game, GMs and security staff were able to execute a ban using a unique reaper-like avatar called Dhuum, which publicly shamed anyone who violated the rules — inside the actual confines of the game itself.
Your “cheating is not okay but this is going too far” defense falls flat when these individuals have spent all of their time ruining the game for hundreds of other people, for weeks and sometimes months on end. That’s going too far. What Chris did was an appropriate and tactical response to that behavior — if you cheat, prepare to have this happen to you. A good lesson.
I remember why I miss HoD – you and a few others made it livable and so easy to follow. And winning the season we did was a joy.
I applaud the banning of these hackers, but that video is nothing like the bans of gw1. Do something more extravagant, like maybe having a dragon bite his head off or poop on him or something like that. Otherwise, thanks for ridding us of a menace. claps hands
Ya know, until the trolls and cheaters are publicly shamed in a trial – literally of their peers online, in WvW, in real time, announced days in advance — we are never going to see the betterment of the gaming profile that has become so ridden with literal hate, cheating, revenge and stalking.