Would you support anti-cheat, client spyware in WAR?

I recently ran an unscientific poll at two popular WAR forums, WAR-RvR and Warhammer Alliance, asking future players if they would support anti-cheat, client spyware in Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. Over 100 people responded, and the results are quite interesting.

Before I get into the analysis, you might be curious why I even asked this question in the first place. I could sum it up with one word: Warden, but that may require further explanation for some of you. Here’s some background information:

Warden is a program Blizzard uses to search your computer for cheats, hacks, bots, and keyloggers while you play World of Warcraft. In the past, some have classified Warden as spyware, while others stoutly defended it.

There’s no longer much of a mystery about what their program does to your machine while you play WoW (see here for a comprehensive list). The main argument about Warden is a moral one. The majority of people trust Blizzard implicitly with their scanning software (see BBC article here). The minority have been much more cynical, questioning why people would blindly trust a mass media corporation such as Blizzard’s parent company, Vivendi. Afterall, there’s a lot of information in your Web browsing history that a marketing and game development company would find extremely valuable. And there’s always the risk of a disgruntled employee wanting to stir things up by releasing your personal information. These may be extreme examples, but to discount them as impossible or improbable would be irresponsible.

Blizzard recently released a new WoW patch in mid-november, which added encryption to Warden in order to better mask itself from the hacks and cheats it was created to seek out. This new encryption means Blizzard (or someone at Blizzard) could replace the search algorithm with any type of nasty critter, including malware, and you’d never know about it.

The changes to Warden effectively remove our ability as a community to police Blizzard’s activities, and may lead to undetected violations of personal privacy, among other possibilities.

…I cannot condone or agree with the changes to Warden, and I fear they may be overstepping their bounds.

Source: http://onwarden.blogspot.com/2007/11/storm-is-brewing.html

This comment comes directly out of the mouth (okay, technically fingers) of one of Warden’s most popular defenders after the WoW 2.3 patch. Scary stuff, if you care for that sort of thing.

Warden is the reason I asked the question. I wanted to know how accepting or fearful WAR players would be if an anti-cheat program like this was ever implemented by EA Myhic.

• 36% would support it outright
• 35% would be unhappy with a Warden-esque program
• 29% don’t seem to care one way or another

You can basically group the all-out supporters with the people who don’t seem to care one way or another because they’re the ones who wouldn’t be overly angry if anti-cheat spyware reared it’s head in WAR. That basically means…

• 65% of people would support it
• 35% of people would not support it

A two-pronged poll could have helped determine if the non-supporters would actually boycott WAR if EA Mythic created their own version of Warden, but I didn’t have th foresight to set it up that way. Instead, my guess is that at least 50% would swallow their pride, and surrender to enforcement.

Just for fun, let’s play TheoryHammer with some pretend numbers and potential dollar figures to determine the monetary impact of releasing anti-cheat client spyware. Let’s say we run with my hypothesis that 50% grudgingly accept and enforced anti-cheat spyware:

• 82.5% accepters
• 17.5% true boycotters

Assuming EA Mythic charges a fairly standard MMORPG sales price $59.99 per box to their current 500,000 beta subscribers…

• $24,745,875 in box sales (412,500 people* $59.99)
• $5,249,125 in lost box sales (87,500 people * $59.99)

Assuming they charge the fairly standard monthly fee of $14.99 per month to play WAR and retain all their players from the previous month…

• $6,183,375 income per month ($74,200,500 per year)
• $1,311,625 income lost per month ($15,739,500 per year)

Sure, these numbers are make believe, but they do make a point, and it’s that including anti-cheat programs like Warden in WAR may have a potentially large impact on your player satisfaction and earning potential.

What’s my advice to EA Mythic (as if they’d ever listen to a wee little blogger like me)?

Be as transparent with your anti-cheat policies and programs as you can without compromising its effectiveness and the security of your customers. There are potential risks to this kind of software, and the blowback from a security breach would be highly damaging to your players and your business’ reputation.

With the vast resources of EA behind Mythic and WAR, I’m very confident that they can run a tight ship in all areas of this issue. There’s still the risk of individual employee breaches, so I suggest they keep the office morale high as well

What do you think of this issue? Would YOU support anti-cheat client software in WAR?

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