[lvpa]

Open message to the devs about the dangerous software that they installed in the last update, which made the game unplayable for many people, and made the systems of the people who do play insecure. A plea to stop it, and a solution in the form of a Kickstarter that lets us vote with our dollars.

I'm currently not able to play, like a lot of other people.

I understand that this change was made to catch cheaters, but it won't; I think we both know that they'll find ways around it, if they haven't already. You could run EQ in a virtual machine, you could run your hack on a separate machine... those are just the first two that come to mind, as a non-cheater.

So we're left with a change that makes the game unplayable for some of the 99% of innocent people, to catch the 1%, who won't be stopped anyway (by this method, anyway).

Some companies, like Blizzard, have gotten away with doing things like this, but:

Blizzard is a billion dollar company. If I let Blizzard into my system folder and they accidentally turn my computer into a brick, I can sue them. And they're one of the few companies that get away with it, even with the resources of a game company behind them.

This is a hobby project on the internet. It's anonymous and free. If I let them into my system folder and they accidentally turn my computer into a brick, I have no recourse. I'm just screwed.

Tampering with the system folder is a big deal. One typo and boom, my computer is a brick. One weirdness that's unique to my system-- boom, my computer is a brick. Antivirus programs are right to flag this. It *is* dangerous software.

You probably didn't intend to do something so dangerous, but you did, and hiding it made it much worse. It was done without the user's consent and we only found out about it when our antivirus went off. No official explanation has been given. This is bad.

On to the real point:

I'm not a contributor, and I should probably change that if I'm going to complain. I have an idea that could be great for the server and let people vote with their dollars.

I'd like to start a Kickstarter with a goal of, say, 1500 dollars. If we meet that goal, then the server gets a donation of 1500 dollars. In exchange, we get this dangerous software removed, and you go after cheaters another way.

I think that's a really good incentive and would be good for everyone. A lot of people complained about Blizzard doing this, but a billion dollars goes a long way when it comes to letting people rootkit your computer.

I don't think you would do anything intentionally harmful. It's just that harmful things do happen accidentally when tampering with the system folder. If I'm going to let someone do that, it has to be a company with money that I can sue if the worst happens. This is my only computer and I don't have the money for a new one.