04/01/2009 - StarWars Episode 7

Natalie

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Re: 04/01/2009 - StarWars Episode 7

« Reply #60 on: April 02, 2009, 11:31:10 AM »

Quote from: dctalk365 on April 02, 2009, 04:19:54 AM

Unfortunately I hadn't updated my WIM in a few months and I missed out on this great joke Sad

I usually don't update my addons regularly because they all work the way I like them to and I live by the rule of "If it isn't broken, don't fix it"

Many are saying that they registered just to complain. I am the opposite, I registered to compliment the good idea behind this April fools joke. Many of the complainers are probably some more prideful people that just don't like that they were fooled. Like many others said, they wouldn't know funny if it hit them in the face.

I am a huge starwars fan, and just as a suggestion, maybe you should come up with 10 icons that we can customize to represent a particular class.

Before you start attacking the authors use some common sense. You were fooled yesterday, have a good modem-sound-free day.

Well played, Pazza. If nothing else, some people actually updated their virus scanners. Who would have thought... actually updating virus scanners. Inconceivable!

Well said. I did in fact register just to say how awesome of a joke that was.

I can't believe the sense of entitlement people feel over someone else's work.


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Teni

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Re: 04/01/2009 - StarWars Episode 7

« Reply #61 on: April 02, 2009, 01:20:59 PM »

The modem thing was kind of cute and I just removed my headset while logging in (since you know, I could never stand that sound back when I used to connect with a modem, anyway; I don't like it any better now).

The Darth Vader sound was, however, the single most annoying thing I have ever run into in the game. It was SO loud, SO abrupt... numerous times, I would startle myself while I was playing. NOT something you want the holy priest to deal with during a raid, trust me.

You know, now that I know it was an April Fool's joke, I have to say it was doubly irritating!

Why didn't you do something innocuous, like the sound of R2D2's noises or something? Something that wasn't meant to startle?

Hell, even a stupid MURLOC sound would've been better. Roll Eyes


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Nephenee

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Re: 04/01/2009 - StarWars Episode 7

« Reply #62 on: April 03, 2009, 12:19:08 PM »

First off, I think it's actually humorous that people actually got so very upset with it..
Plus, the fact that everyone believe it to be some huge virus, again, humorous to say the least.

I think it was a good joke, I was actually quite disappointed that I only had two addons pull an April Fools gag on me.

So, I want to thank you for the joke

I registered just to tell you that I appreciated it. Tongue

I hope to see another one next year.

~Nephe


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Pathetic

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Re: 04/01/2009 - StarWars Episode 7

« Reply #63 on: April 04, 2009, 08:22:31 AM »

Your "prank" yesterday caused distress to hundreds of your users. Regardless of it being a joke or not. Your addon is accountable to all the actions that were taken by the users. This caused several man hours by blizzard as well as several computers to be formatted. I am also certain as a poor guildie before i could speak to him when he left, took his computer to a Repair Shop which charged him hourly to locate the problem and fix it.

Yes the modem is not something we use but you neglect that the hardware of the old style modem is still present in our everyday Network Cards.

Regardless of this, your computer doing something that was not planned or done by the user is a cause for alarm. No one wants to have damage done to their computer nor do they want their account hacked. So this caused distress to the users who immediately logged out and pulled their network connections to their computer and began to scan. Upon not finding anything within the scan is when the true panic set in. Several friends began formatting their computers to truly be safe as every time they found something big or small they still heard the sound in game.

You have failed to notify your members in the game of this being a prank. Your pathetic claim that you notified them via your website is faulty logic. It is a well known fact that your addon is downloaded via more popular sites than your own. American courts have held that such things must be clearly visible in a place that it is CERTAIN to be read. Atleast within the past with other 4/1 pranks done by addons it was very clear that it was a prank and not a serious action to be taken. Its one thing to make a video play or a sound to play but your prank caused a threat to the computers themselves.

I would not be surprised if legal action was taken for the damage you have caused. Yes your response of it just being a joke will not protect you in court. You are accountable for the hourly wages of the blizzard employees forced to investigate these claims, hourly charges of the computer repair shops and the personal files/storage of every computer which formatted.

Next time try not to be childish. You could have easily avoided all of this by simply having a message pop up and say APRIL FOOLS after the sound played but you knew ahead of time that there would be panic. You knew of several viruses on that day which would launch Dialers. Do not try to act innocent and say whats the big deal.


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Stewart

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Re: 04/01/2009 - StarWars Episode 7

« Reply #64 on: April 04, 2009, 09:23:11 AM »

x-ref to above post http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=16101930624&sid=1&pageNo=2#161359528575


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Pazza

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Re: 04/01/2009 - StarWars Episode 7

« Reply #65 on: April 04, 2009, 10:18:58 AM »

You post warrants a brief response.

The time trigged sound byte was added into WIM in the beginning of March before any known warning of the Conficker threat was announced. If I had known it would coincide, it wouldn't have been done. As soon as April 1st hit and I saw that it was causing panic to some, I immediately posted an announcement on this site as well as Blizzard's forums to alert everyone as well as alert blizzard themselves. I opened up in game tickets and alerted both the US and EU GM's. Reading through the posts, you will see that this is true and that Blizzard was well aware of the issue. I even have saved dialogue with them proving so. Also an announcement was made on WoWInsider and was syndicated across many of the popular sites.

The timed event was documented in WIM's source code freely available to be read by anyone and even labeled as AprilFools. Nothing was hidden or undocumented. WIM was not illegally put on anyone's computer and was installed by the user's themselves. No Blizzard terms of service or end user agreements where broken. As well as running within those strictly enforced policies, no US laws were broken either. Everything in my power was done to alert the people of this event.

With that, I am finished disputing/explaining this event. It is now April 4th and further discussion of this event is no longer warranted.


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My hobbies consume way too much time :-).

Zeke

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Re: 04/01/2009 - StarWars Episode 7

« Reply #66 on: April 04, 2009, 01:20:33 PM »


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Pathetic

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Re: 04/01/2009 - StarWars Episode 7

« Reply #67 on: April 04, 2009, 09:11:41 PM »

Quote from: Pazza on April 04, 2009, 10:18:58 AM

Any action that causes a user distress or costs them in anyway is there by up for courts to decide. In science this law states that for every action there is an equal or opposite reaction.

Your "joke" caused members to purchase virus programs (which granted they should have), hourly charges at computer stores and hours of their time in unneeded repairs/formatting of their computer. Their personal files or effects lost in the unnecessary process is also up to you to compensate.

Yes, you state that at the time you did not know this would coincide with another true claim but the fact remains that there was time to undo your actions and prevent this from happening. You also claim that you by every means possible tried to inform your members of this "joke" and by saying that the "joke" was clearly shown within code is hilarious at best. Several lawsuits have been successful purely on the basis that the disclaimer (your code in this example) was hidden or not clearly shown to the end user. IE. if the user had to have special knowledge or had to find information that was not clearly shown and available without having to "hunt" for. Imagine the user who does not log onto your site or the forums for example. What other means did you take to inform them? Were you expecting the gms to handle every single user with a polite in game mail? At what cost did that come to blizzard if they took that path?

Your comment pertaining to the Terms of Use.

Quote from: Section 2 G.

"disrupt or assist in the disruption of (i) any computer used to support the Service (each a "Server"); or (ii) any other player's Game experience. ANY ATTEMPT BY YOU TO DISRUPT THE SERVICE OR UNDERMINE THE LEGITIMATE OPERATION OF THE GAME CLIENT MAY BE A VIOLATION OF CRIMINAL AND CIVIL LAWS. You agree that you will not violate any applicable law or regulation in connection with your use of the Game Client or the Service."

You caused several members who have clearly posted above myself to turn off the game and proceed to take action to "clean" their computer of your "joke". This in other words is listed as a disruption. If blizzard charged on an hourly basis this compensation would also be up to you to pay. Saying sorry is not compensation that would bring back the charges these members have experienced nor will it bring back the files lost on several computers. It is NOT the users responsibility to monitor code of every single addon provided to them by an outside source. Laws are put into place to protect them.

The questions that need to be asked are these:
1. Did it cause damage?
2. If yes, could these damages be prevented?

Under these two incredibly simple questions a lawsuit could easily be provided.
Mcdonalds laughed all the way to court when a woman claimed that she spilled coffee on herself and burned herself. She not only won the lawsuit but forced McDonalds to place on their cups that indeed the coffee was hot.

So to have you sit there and find this to be unfounded and to scoff at this claim is in poor choice.

The questions i want answered are these. What reaction did you believe the users would take? How would your dialer sound be perceived? How would any normal non technically member be able to determine it was your addon? Was it your attempt to mask it as a fake keylogger/dialer program?

Blizzard has gone to great lengths to help educate their member base against user identity theft. This not only sets them back but also makes members nervous of addons even more.


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loo

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Re: 04/01/2009 - StarWars Episode 7

« Reply #68 on: April 04, 2009, 10:11:55 PM »

Quote from: Pathetic

Posted by: Pathetic

wow pathetic, your nickname is truly reflecting...

firstly i suggest some background reading, law: torts. its an awesome book! im know for sure many people so passionately enjoy reading it.

Quote from: Pathetic

In science this law states that for every action there is an equal or opposite reaction.

point one, its and equal and opposite reaction. if your going to quote (simplified) one of the scientist which so much of this world has developed from do it right. now this law is applicable in an ideal universe (where there are no external forces). please tell me we live in an ideal universe.

Quote from: Pathetic

Their personal files or effects lost in the unnecessary process is also up to you to compensate.

by your same reasoning i strongly suggest you go hunt down the maker of the conflicker virus as they are the undermining source of all your problems. then maybe unfit people should go sue maccas for making them that way. hey why not go for bill gates while your at it, isnt it his software that apparently "wastes" so much of your time. well if you didnt have a computer, im sure you would have saved a lot more time because this issue wouldnt even exist in the first place (hope your knowledgeable enough to see the irony). how about when people click on broken forum links on wow forums and somehow miraculously get a keylogger on their computer. dont hold other people accountable for your stupidity.

Quote from: Pathetic

if the user had to have special knowledge or had to find information that was not clearly shown and available without having to "hunt" for.

if people are stupid enough to use code which they do not write themselves and do not check it is their own then they are to blame themselves. go search wow addon on google. i guarantee you you will find viruses. hell i remember a time when so many people blamed curse gaming for getting keyloggers installed onto their computers. there is no binding agreement needing you to use WIM. the internet is not a playground for 5 year old kids buddy. the only thing broken here was an non pertaining agreement of trust.

Quote from: Pathetic

The questions that need to be asked are these:
1. Did it cause damage?
2. If yes, could these damages be prevented?

yes it could have. blizzard does not force you to use addons, infact they recommend that you dont. whenever there is an issue with anything related to wow, first thing they recommend you to do is to rename you WTF folder blah blah then go reinstall wow call technical support etc. in any customer service job they are there to deal with peoples stupidity, to point out the obvious etc. im sure blizzard CSR have seen their fair deal of stupid petitions, beat the dead horse more. if there is a problem you troubleshoot, obvious for many that these sounds were related to wow why not start there. now are you going to go off at blizzard every time they take down their servers for patience or they crash? or even how they make (good) rouges so OP, kinda making you look bad. i do hope its an alt you posted on CSF. maybe for damages to your delicate selfesteem.

Quote from: Pathetic

Blizzard has gone to great lengths to help educate their member base against user identity theft. This not only sets them back but also makes members nervous of addons even more.

you dont need addons to play this game mate. now im going to stop here before i decide to sue you for wasting my time (im joking!)

this whole thing is a joke. and i mean your posts as well as pazzas innocent fun.

people like you truly make this world a pathetic place to live in. now take a deep breath and go outside and appreciate your life.
BTW NICE ARENA RATING GG scrub! go play pacman (make sure you wear protective gear, you dont want to hurt yourself doing that). oh yea your sig on wow forums is broken too.

now to lighten up the mood for all:
a player once called chuck norris a n00b in wow. he was found dead the next day, his computer screen had been smashed into his face.


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Stewart

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Re: 04/01/2009 - StarWars Episode 7

« Reply #69 on: April 04, 2009, 10:23:42 PM »

I jsut want to get in before pazza's big long post with:

Quote

Blizzard has gone to great lengths to help educate their member base against user identity theft. This not only sets them back but also makes members nervous of addons even more.

If this joke encouraged people to run a virus scanner over there machine, then thats GOOD for their security. If users are now a little more careful about the software they install, then thats GOOD for their security.


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Pazza

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Re: 04/01/2009 - StarWars Episode 7

« Reply #70 on: April 04, 2009, 11:00:19 PM »

Quote

Any action that causes a user distress or costs them in anyway is there by up for courts to decide. In science this law states that for every action there is an equal or opposite reaction.

I am quite familiar with Newton's third law of motion.

Quote

Your "joke" caused members to purchase virus programs (which granted they should have), hourly charges at computer stores and hours of their time in unneeded repairs/formatting of their computer. Their personal files or effects lost in the unnecessary process is also up to you to compensate.

This wasn't due solely to a sound byte of a modem sound but to the scare of the Conficker virus threat which has been hyped up in the news.

Quote

Yes, you state that at the time you did not know this would coincide with another true claim but the fact remains that there was time to undo your actions and prevent this from happening. You also claim that you by every means possible tried to inform your members of this "joke" and by saying that the "joke" was clearly shown within code is hilarious at best. Several lawsuits have been successful purely on the basis that the disclaimer (your code in this example) was hidden or not clearly shown to the end user. IE. if the user had to have special knowledge or had to find information that was not clearly shown and available without having to "hunt" for. Imagine the user who does not log onto your site or the forums for example. What other means did you take to inform them? Were you expecting the gms to handle every single user with a polite in game mail? At what cost did that come to blizzard if they took that path?

The fact of the matter is, I was unaware of the Conficker virus being set to initiate on April 1, 2009. Ridicule all you want about how that isn't possible, but there are more important things to read about in the news. Every site which WIM is accessible on for download had public record of what happened. If i had a record of every user who had WIM installed, I would have been able to contact each and every one of them. But along with your McDonalds example, this is not a commercial product and it wasn't a paid service. I took my intellectual property and allow others to use it. If I charged for the usage of WIM, then we're in an entirely different boat and you'd be absolutely correct. Finally, unless blizzard needed to bring in extra staff and extend their hours of operation, no extra costs were incurred to them at all.

In regards to the ToU argument, playing a sound file by no means does any of the above. Also section 2 is referring to other applications which would cause damage to the computer the game is running on such as key loggers, packet sniffers or packet spamming which would have direct impact on the users account and/or server of the realm the user is using. This section does not refer to addons since addons are limited to the functions only which blizzard allows them to use and deems as safe. In this example PlaySound(pathToSoundFile).

Quote

An addon is not provided to them as in handed over to them. The user downloads and moves the folders his/herself. Nor is it my responsibility how a user decides to handle a problem. A user who knows how to reformat a computer's hard drive is by no means a novice and would be more likely to investigate an issue before taking such an action.

Quote

Laws are put into place to protect them.

This is correct only when pertaining to consumer products.

The paragraphs between this and the next quote have already been addressed above so lets move on.

Quote

The questions i want answered are these. What reaction did you believe the users would take? How would your dialer sound be perceived? How would any normal non technically member be able to determine it was your addon? Was it your attempt to mask it as a fake keylogger/dialer program?

The expected reaction was the same as mine. to laugh. In the age of broadband, which is not new, and for users who have been using the internet as long as I have, the reminiscent sound of a dial-up modem connecting to the internet cracked me up. It would be perceived just as that. To be honest, the amount of technical knowledge needed to figure it out was that equal to someone who knew how to download and install an addon. There are no installers. A user must download, unzip and place the addon's directory inside of the games interface addon directory. If a user can do that, they should definitely know how to use google. If that isn't the case and someone put the addon in for them, then your pointing fingers at the wrong guy. Finally, it was in NO WAY supposed to resemble a keylogger or dialer program.

Lastly,

Quote

Blizzard has gone to great lengths to help educate their member base against user identity theft. This not only sets them back but also makes members nervous of addons even more.

As they should since it effects their business largely. You have nothing to fear about addons except if it is delivered to you as an exe file. Otherwise, an addon contains nothing more then open readable source code and perhaps some sound files and picture files. That is all. WoW in turn reads these files and runs them. Your operating system, Windows for example does not execute any additional applications. In other words, an addon cannot steal your password and it most definitely cannot access your computer's hardware. If this was unknown, Blizzard should get back to educating cause they skipped an important lesson.


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My hobbies consume way too much time :-).

Zeke

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Re: 04/01/2009 - StarWars Episode 7

« Reply #71 on: April 05, 2009, 07:26:15 PM »

Quote from: Pazza on April 04, 2009, 11:00:19 PM

...(insert very long and intelligent response here)...

Damn, he types pretty well for a 14 yr old kid. Wink


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NachoNut

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Re: 04/01/2009 - StarWars Episode 7

« Reply #72 on: April 06, 2009, 03:30:04 AM »

Quote from: Zeke on April 05, 2009, 07:26:15 PM

Quote from: Pazza on April 04, 2009, 11:00:19 PM

...(insert very long and intelligent response here)...

Damn, he types pretty well for a 14 yr old kid. Wink

ahem, he's 12, but sounds 14


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ClemSnide

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Re: 04/01/2009 - StarWars Episode 7

« Reply #73 on: April 09, 2009, 09:36:15 PM »

Pazza-- As a dyed-in-the-wool April Fooler, I enjoyed the hell out of it, and I hope that you don't let the drones get to you. I post a bunch of facetious suggestions every year (previously under the name Haloperidol, this year under Aprilfirst... just to give more of a clue to the clueless) and get a lot o flak for it-- but I know they're appreciated by people who actually have a sense of humor. The same goes for your gag.

Actually, I thought the modem tone was the official Blizzard joke! Not having a home phone, I wasn't fooled, but I did smile. (I smiled a little less the tenth time I heard it, though. It might've been more user-friendly if it only happened every six times you flipped characters-- I do that a lot.)

And I had to point out to my guildies that their icon was of a Storm Trooper. They hadn't noticed! I'll be looking forward to next year's fun, and thanks for writing one of the most useful AddOns in the history of WoW.


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