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| Chinese Gamer Suicide Wasn't A WoW Player |
Earlier this week, GamePolitics and numerous other news sites reported on a suit filed by the parents of a 13-year-old Chinese boy who committed suicide in 2004. According to news reports out of China, the grieving parents blamed the death on their son's addiction to World of Warcraft.
Although Xinhua reported the game involved was the MMORPG World of Warcraft, Pacific Epoch said the suit blamed Blizzard's Warcraft game, a real-time strategy game. World of Warcraft had not reached China by the time of the boy's death in December 2004, according to the researchers.
If these new details are correct, WoW is getting a bad rap in relation to the boy's suicide. Red Herring has more on this topic today. |
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 Score: 0
Posted by Tessil Monday, November 28, 2005 (12:31:41) |
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| Sony DRM Rootkit: More Sordid Details |
a Finnish researcher named Muzzy noticed a vulnerability in the web-based uninstaller that Sony offers to users who want to remove the First4Internet XCP copy protection software. For affected users, this represents a far greater security risk than even the original Sony rootkit.
The consequences of the flaw are severe. It allows any web page you visit to download, install, and run any code it likes on your computer. Any web page can seize control of your computer; then it can do anything it likes. That's about as serious as a security flaw can get.
The root of the problem is a serious design flaw in Sony's web-based uninstaller. When you first fill out Sony's form to request a copy of the uninstaller, the request form downloads and installs a program - an ActiveX control created by the DRM vendor, First4Internet - called CodeSupport. CodeSupport remains on your system after you leave Sony's site, and it is marked as safe for scripting, so any web page can ask CodeSupport to do things. One thing CodeSupport can be told to do is download and install code from an Internet site. Unfortunately, CodeSupport doesn't verify that the downloaded code actually came from Sony or First4Internet. This means any web page can make CodeSupport download and install code from any URL without asking the user's permission.
USA Today reports that Sony will recall the affected CDs. Discs in the supply chain will not be sold, and customers who have already bought discs will be able to exchange them. |
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Score: 0
Posted by Tessil Monday, November 21, 2005 (10:33:29) |
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| Roster Master for Dragonfly v4 Released |
Version 4 of Roster Master for Dragonfly is out!
This adds a number of bugfixes and feature enhancements, but most of all, it adds the first iteration of the dynamic signature generator. The signature block generator uses a pretty unique and innovative caching method:
- Registers a shutdown function to destory GD image resources.
- Gets the Character_ID from the server environment and casts it to integer.
- Gets the record matching the Character_ID from the roster, validating that it exists at the same time.
- Checks the server environment to see if a forced refresh has been requested by a CMS user, if it has, skip the caching logic.
- The caching logic starts by seeing if a signature block file already exists, gets the last modified time of the file, and checks that the file is at least as new as the latest information for that character in the roster. (The roster is configured by default to check Sony's data on the next roster or heritage quest tracker access after six hours.)
- It then checks to see if the file modification time is greater than the If-Modified-Since header sent by the client. If it is, it pushes the cached file and exits. If it is not, it sends a 304 response and exits.
- If the caching logic has been skipped or exited, the module creates the image file, saves it to the cache directory, pushes it to the client, and exits.
Right now, the signature block feature is still pretty nacent, future feature will probably include some customization and better handling of font sizes.
Read the Roster Master development thread on EQ2Players to learn more about Roster Master's progress! |
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Score: 0
Posted by Tessil Monday, November 21, 2005 (10:24:01) |
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EverQuest II celebrates its 1st birthday on November 9, 2005. As part of the celebration, special in-game items are being offered to the players. Your reward is based on the number of days that you've been an active EQII subscriber.
However, the most extraordinary gift is the option for US and European players to use unique Asian-styled characters that were only previously available for the EverQuest II East project created by SOGA, an SOE joint-venture development studio based in Taiwan. |
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Posted by Tessil Tuesday, November 08, 2005 (09:08:02) |
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| AT&T To Provide Managed Hosting Services To Microsoft Game Studios |
AT&T announced today it has won a $9.5 million, three-year managed hosting contract from Microsoft Game Studios (MGS) to support various online experiences and the infrastructure for massively multiplayer online role-playing games. The online games include the latest for both Windows and the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft.
Multiplayer online games, where tens of thousands of users play simultaneously from points around the globe, have emerged as one of the most sophisticated, bandwidth-intensive applications on the Internet. Multiplayer games have stringent requirements for real-time communication, dynamic applications and near-100 percent availability and reliability. |
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Posted by Tessil Sunday, November 06, 2005 (23:13:27) |
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| Sony BMG - Too Little, Too Late... |
Sony has offered a sort of "fix" for the DRM rootkit that was discovered by Mark Russinovich over at Sysinternals on his recently-purchased Get Right with the Man (the name is ironic under the circumstances) CD by the Van Zant brothers. The new DRM scheme has been widely reported on Slashdot, C|Net, PC Pro, The Inquirier, The Register, and The Washington Post.
Leo Laporte also interviewed Steve Gibson from GRC.com details and consequences of Sony Corporation's alarming "Rootkit" DRM (digital rights management) copy protection scheme.
"November 2, 2005 - This Service Pack removes the cloaking technology component that has been recently discussed in a number of articles published regarding the XCP Technology used on SONY BMG content protected CDs. This component is not malicious and does not compromise security. However to alleviate any concerns that users may have about the program posing potential security vulnerabilities, this update has been released to enable users to remove this component from their computers."
The updates site initially prompts the user to install an ActiveX control which detects if there is an XCP - Aurora installation and then selects the most appropriate update. To remove this activeX control simply open the folder "%SYSTEMROOT%\downloaded program files" (On a windows XP computer with a default installation the %SYSTEMROOT% folder will be "C:\Windows") and delete the file "codesupport.ocx".
When the activeX control has been installed the Updates Site will display one of two screens. The updates site will either inform you that it cannot find an XCP installation or it will offer the download of Service Pack 2. [Ed: Note that in this case Service Pack 2 refers to XCP, it's not related to the Microsoft Service Packs.] In addition to removing the cloaking, Service Pack 2 includes all fixes from the earlier Service Pack 1 update. "In order to ensure a secure installation," Service Pack 2 includes the newest version of all DRM components.
Be warned, the patch does not remove the DRM software, it merely updates it and removes the cloaking feature.
Instead of using the "uninstaller" (which uninstalls nothing), users can perform a safe decloaking by opening the Run dialog from the Start menu, entering "sc delete $sys$aries", and then rebooting. This sequence deletes the driver from the Windows Registry so that even though its image is still present on disk, the I/O system will not load it during subsequent boots. |
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Score: 0
Posted by Tessil Thursday, November 03, 2005 (09:45:47) |
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| Sun Claims They Make Worlds Biggest MMO |
Next Generation has a piece up examining Sun's claim that they develop the worlds largest Massive game: the stock market. They also go into some detail about Sun's actual MMOG middleware, Sun Gaming Server.
From the article: "I argue that we've been the principle architect of the largest massively multiplayer online game in the world. It's Wall Street. If you took a look at all of the mechanics that go in to building an online trading system, they're almost one-for-one, the same functions needed to build an MMOG. Except we've done it with more redundancy, reliability and scalability than pretty much anyone else." |
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Score: 0
Posted by Tessil Friday, October 28, 2005 (15:51:11) |
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| Cat 5.10a (BETA) OmegaDrivers Available |
The newest OmegaDrivers ATI Radeon drivers based on Catalyst 5.10a (BETA) have been released.
From the OmegaDrivers News Page:
(10/25/05)
Ok, the update is up now, the new version is 2.6.75a, sorry for the problems with the original release, but please download and update to the new one since there are tons of internal changes.
(10/24/05)
Ok, the new drivers based on the Cat 5.10a are here (Yes, decided to jump the official 5.10).
Go to the ATI Radeon section and take a look at the Readme while downloading so you know the latest changes, additions to this set and some important notes or warnings. As you remember from my last post here, I was going to start the development of a CCC for the Omega Drivers, well, fear not guys, I dropped the CCC idea after playing with it for a few days, I ended up uninstalling it (sorry ATI). I will continue to work and develop my drivers using alternatives to CCC for the time being.
Enjoy!
Oh! and BTW, if I can pull it off, expect a new installer for next release, more streamlined and easier to use than the actual one (also prettier).
Unfortunately, for some time now, drivers after Cat 5.2 up to and including the 5.11 drivers (whether it be the stock ATI or modified OmegaDrivers version) do NOT resolve the blackscreens/lockups in Everquest II reported by players in this thread.
It should be noted that the various solutions presented in the forums other than reinstalling Cat 5.2 will not work (but may have contributed to solving other problems a particular user was having). Setting Complex Shaders to -1 (turning off Complex Shaders altogether) may prevent the condition causing lockups, but will result in severely degrated visual quality. Basically, this turns off shaders and bypasses pretty much everything that makes owning a recent-generation video card worthwhile. And that's assuming it actually works around the problem...
ATI has provided Sony with a development driver that at last report was believed to resolve the problem in early testing. No information identifying the driver version series this fix is in or an ETA on release has been provided yet.
The issue is also being tracked in a sticky on the Technical Help and Questions forum.
Note that downgrading drivers is notoriously unreliable. It is highly recommended that folks use the Driver Cleaner to completely uninstall previous driver versions before proceeding with the downgrade. (It is vitally important that you read, understand, and follow the specific instructions that come with Driver Cleaner in order for it to be effective.) |
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Score: 0
Posted by Tessil Tuesday, October 25, 2005 (15:13:46) |
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| New Issue Of The Daedalus Project |
The Daedalus Project has new findings and a new survey. The Daedalus Project is an ongoing online survey study of MMORPG players that started 5 years ago and has surveyed over 35,000 players.
Some highlights of this issue's findings: While the media likes to talk about how "virtual" relationships in MMOs are, about 80% of players actually play with someone they know in real life (a romantic partner, a family member, or a friend). PvP servers attract younger players as well as more men than PvE servers. This has implications for gender-bending rates. On PvP servers, female avatars are much more likely to be played by men. 22% of respondents said that they had purchased virtual gold. On average, these players have spent $135 USD on virtual gold. While older players are more likely to have done so, there were no gender differences. |
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Score: 0
Posted by Tessil Tuesday, October 25, 2005 (10:29:42) |
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| XBox 360 Arrives November 22 in US |
Microsoft has released an official press release regarding the XBox 360 world wide launch just prior to the Tokyo Game Show. Looks like the US will be getting it just prior to Thanksgiving on November 22nd. Europe will get it on December 2nd, and Japan on December 10th. |
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Score: 0
Posted by Tessil Thursday, September 15, 2005 (12:32:31) |
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| Guild Name: |
| | Clenched Fist |
| Server: |
| | Crushbone |
| Guild Level: 90 |
| Guild Status: N/A |
| Total Characters: 179 |
| Unique Members: 33 |
| Average Adv. Level: 52 |
| Average Art. Level: 26 |
| Date Formed: |
| | Wed, 12 Jan 2005 18:31:00 |
| Average Quests Completed: 306 |
| Total Rares Harvested: 7,303 |
| Total Items Crafted: 481,720 |
| Highest Guild Status Contributor: | | | Tulvarus (6,778,623) |
| Most Quests Complete: | | | Tulvarus (5,060) |
| Most Collections Complete: | | | Toukai (494) |
| Highest Max Melee Hit: | | | Sala (5,124,003) |
| Highest Max Magic Hit: | | | Tulvarus (1,796,495) |
| Most rares collected: | | | Tulvarus (921) |
| Most items crafted: | | | Tulvarus (331,729) |
| Longest Time Played: | | | Tulvarus (1 year 5 months 21 hours 30 minutes 54 seconds) |
Class Breakdown:
 | Fighter: 20 |
- Berserker: 2
- Guardian: 5
- Bruiser: 3
- Monk: 5
- Paladin: 5
- Shadow Knight: 0
| Priest: 22 |
- Templar: 4
- Inquisitor: 7
- Warden: 2
- Fury: 4
- Defiler: 1
- Mystic: 4
| Mage: 28 |
- Warlock: 4
- Wizard: 6
- Illusionist: 4
- Coercer: 5
- Necromancer: 4
- Conjuror: 5
| Scout: 27 |
- Brigand: 2
- Swashbuckler: 1
- Dirge: 4
- Troubador: 5
- Assassin: 2
- Ranger: 5
- Beastlord: 8
Trades Breakdown:
| Craftsman: 24 |
- Craftsman: 9
- Provisioner: 7
- Woodworker: 4
- Carpenter: 4
| Outfitter: 14 |
- Outfitter: 5
- Armorer: 4
- Weaponsmith: 2
- Tailor: 3
| Scholar: 20 |
- Scholar: 2
- Jeweler: 5
- Sage: 5
- Alchemist: 8
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Last 10 Forum Messages
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Last post by Tessil in The Forum on Jan 20, 2011 at 23:59:50
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