Good evening, Mac

My name is Jennifer and I just got off of a support call with Don. I have no problems with Don, who was very helpful during our call, but I'd like to voice my unhappiness with the Recruit-a-Friend? website and its effect on my gameplay.

I had created a recruit-a-friend account for myself, in order to level up alternate characters. I believe I was a rather early adopter of the Recruit-a-Friend? system and (from what I remember) I signed up the first day it was available. I was happily running my characters through Stratholme over the weekend in the hopes of getting them to level 60 and granting my levels to a mage on my other account. Knowing that I was running on the last few days of my recruit-a-friend time, I checked the worldofwarcraft account management page, under "Recruit-A-Friend", and noted that my RAF time expired on 11/4.

Trusting the official Blizzard website not to lie to me, and making sure to note what time it was in EST just in case (I believe the Archimonde server, though central time, is located on an eastern time datacenter), I rushed to try and fit in as many levels as I could before my supposed expiry date of 11/4. I wanted to get my gifted character all the way up to 60. Had I known that my expiration was actually on 11/3, I would've played it safe and gifted my levels on 11/2 (I was, in fact, online at the time).

Midway through playing, I noticed that my RAF bonuses had disappeared. I scrolled up to find the exact moment of expiration and did the math in my head. It was 8:10 server time (central time), which meant it was 9:10 eastern time. That was NOT 11/4. I immediately opened a GM ticket, created a forum post on the CSF, and started a call with your Billing line — why? Because according to my clock I still had 3 hours before 11/4 could even be POSSIBLE in the United States, and I knew that if I did not get in touch with someone from support to fix the issue, it might end up being 11/4 before I was able to resolve the problem.

All I wanted to do at that point was gift the levels I had been hoarding, since I had hoarded them under the impression that my RAF time expired on 11/4.

Don was the first person I got a hold of. He was very courteous on the phone even though I was quite frustrated. He explained to me that the RAF system is automated, and that my RAF time expired on the exact moment, 90 days after my signup, and that the website was listing the dates in GMT.

GMT?! Nowhere on the website did it mention GMT — and why would a north american account information page for a US company be listed in GMT when NOWHERE else on the page was that the case? It's incredibly misleading and I, personally, feel lied to. I was online yesterday, and had I known that the expiry was 11/3 I would have gifted my levels before 12 midnight 11/3/08 EST. I was online yesterday. I was online THE EXACT MOMENT my RAF expired. I was literally standing there continuing to play. Why? Because the website told me I was safe to do so.

Thanks to Don, I understand that my RAF levels are lost forever. I feel miffed because the website lied to me. The fact that I have 3 days credit on my account thanks to the 3.0 patch server instability is salt on the wound — 3 days playtime credit but no RAF extension. I don't expect an RAF extension. At this point, I don't expect to get the RAF levels. I am, however, a very angry customer who feels lied to by a resource I am supposed to be able to trust. And, as a vocal customer, I will be making my experiences known to my friends, coworkers, and on my personal blog. I'm not trying to discredit Blizzard, but I will be truthful about my experiences and distaste with the way the company's official website is handled.

That being said, I do want to reiterate that the support personnel involved were very courteous and knowledgable. I feel that, had I called the billing support page instead of trusting the online website, I would've gotten a truthful answer that I could've relied on, and that wouldn't have put me in this position. That also being said, I can't justify waiting on hold for minutes or hours just to get that information when it IS supposed to be available and correct online.

A north american WoW subscriber, knowing that the company is US-based and that the server datacenters (at least for my server and all of the ones I am aware of) are in the US, would not realistically expect that dates and times on a official website for that particular flavor product and account are listed in GMT

If you could, please make sure that the dissatisfaction shared by many people, including me, is known to the folks responsible for this error or lack of clarity on the website, as well as their supervisors.

Thank you,
-Jennifer Leising
http://www.vboxing.net

Hey All,

Velath, your friendly multiboxing clarifier of rules is back again! :)

A certain software program has popped up a couple of times in my multiboxing community, and we're a bit fuzzy on the legality of certain features. While the developer seems to think that they are safe, I feel they are more "gray area". I'd rather not see any of my fellows get banned due to a misunderstanding, so I am here to clear the air.

The current software in question is developed by Lax of Lavishsoft (if you recognize the name, you will likely understand my concern). ClickBoxer? is a script, written for the InnerSpace? platform. My concern with ClickBoxer? is actually 2-part:
1) ClickBoxer? utilizes InnerSpace's knowledge of WoW's RAM memory
2) ClickBoxer? makes decisions, based on the state of WoW's memory, to position a click on a UI button

Software that makes decisions is generally frowned upon. Mouse multiplexing is relatively unreliable, because mice work on relative locations so it's often hard to keep them sync'ed up on your screen (and pretty much impossible if you have differing resolutions). Most software used by multiboxers is a simple keyboard multiplexer emulator — it sends keys to all windows regardless. Neither mouse (unreliable as it is) nor keyboard multiplexers have any knowledge of what's going on within the individual wow windows nor make dynamic decisions about the inner content of those wow windows.

Never before have I seen a "click" replicator — probably because nothing exists in hardware to emulate, and messing (even if it's just peeking) at WoW memory is something we generally stay away from. Hardware input is always 1-way (from user to computer) and doesn't make decisions based on the state of the windows, therefore all of our current software follows that trend for safety.

This is what Lax, developer/owner of LavishSoft, had to say when presented with section 14, paragraph A of the Terms of Use (http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/legal/termsofuse.html):

...the portion you highlighted has nothing to do with the claims you are making about Inner Space. Inner Space does not intercept, mine, or otherwise collect information from World of Warcraft. The section you are highlighting has to do with packet sniffing (which Inner Space does not do), or reading WoW memory for purposes of collecting data about the game (which Inner Space does not do). For example, they do not want you running a program that collects information on all of the nearby mobs for you to determine if there is a rare mob for you to go kill (which people did in EverQuest? all the time). If the claim you were making about Inner Space being illegal for residing in-process were true, then WinEQ, WinEQ 2, and a multitude of other software including software promoted on dual-boxing.com would be illegal.

So, given these facts, my questions are as follows:
1) Is reading WoW's memory bannable? According to Lax, it is only bannable when it has to do with packet sniffing and/or datamining. (I'll keep my personal opinion to myself)
2) Is making dynamic decisions (based on memory) about the location of a UI action button (in order to click it) bannable?
3) Is InnerSpace, as a platform (and by association to some known-naughty scripts) bannable? That is, will users who do NOT use the naughty scripts but DO use the InnerSpace? platform be banned thanks to nefarious folks?


In final, I'm a hardware boxer so this particular program doesn't directly impact me. However, the precedent for reading memory, and making decisions about where a button resides in the UI so you can click on it, is a new one — and I'd rather not see my fellows in the multiboxing community get banned thanks to misinformation or lack of information.

Thanks in advance for your help!

-Velath / Vyndree / Jennifer

"You should really get facts before you make a post like this. I know you asked for people to correct you if you are wrong but dont you think you should have done that first before posting this?"

That's the point of why I requested in big, bolded letters for someone who WAS an expert to do so. ;) I'm basing my information off of what I've read and understood. If it's incorrect — by all means, correct me. :)

All I am doing is posting the ongoing discussion somewhere where we actually have hope of resolving conflicting opinions — after all, it's not likely we'll get a Blizzard representative to come to the dual-boxing.com forums and tell us it's OK. So I posted somewhere where we CAN get some resolution.

Lax (et al) claimed he was unable to get a blue response from his efforts, so I'm trying personally. He didn't link his previous efforts, otherwise I would've tried to copy/paste/link them here for better accuracy. I've already explained that I'm a hardware boxer, and that ClickBoxer? doesn't directly impact me. However, my concern is with the precedent of GUI-mouseclicks (and apparently ClickBoxer's GUI is outside of, but somehow interfaced with, WoW).

There is no need to be hostile. If my information is incorrect, I've already invited you to correct it. I never claimed to be the expert.

"The truth is you are wrong. Of course, you were already told this"

? I was?



In any case, I've gotten people IM'ing me telling me that, while ClickBoxer? does indeed click buttons, the buttons exist in an overlay on top of WoW. I'll leave it to an expert to explain exactly what that interface does and how it makes its decisions on where to click and what to click on (and whether or not the clicking happens inside/outside of WoW).

My questions still stand, though — even if unrelated to the nuances of the ClickBoxer? script, the precedent of memory reading, making decisions about UI locations, and ban-by-platform-association are still valid for future programs.