Several days ago, Steven Den Beste noted that Sony’s horrible DRM on their audio CD’s (now sparking lawsuits) was interfering with Blizzard’s anti-cheat spyware running under Worlds of Warcraft.

20051103: Blizzard Software created a utility called “Warden” which loads and runs when you play World of Warcraft. Warden’s job is to look for cheat utilities, but it apparently looks for — and reports back to Blizzard — a hell of a lot more than that. There have been complaints.

Now it turns out that the rapidly-becoming-notorious Sony audio DRM malware patch gives people the ability to evade Warden. Seems that if you buy and play one of those Sony CDs, then if you rename your cheat utility so that it begins “(deleted –ubu.)” then Warden won’t see it and won’t report you as a cheater.

The irony meter is pegging.

It was a humorous bit of schadenfreude as far as I was concerned. But when Whizbang mentioned it again today, an idea hit me. Then I hit myself, for not thinking of it earlier.

Worlds of Warcraft is the biggest thing in a niche market called “massively multiplayer online role playing game.” (Qualifier: North American market. The Asians are insane in this area.) It’s a niche that makes Blizzard probably around nine or ten million a month in revenue. Every month, like clockwork. That’s in the monthly subscription fees, meaning it’s recurring income — software sales for the game and expansions are on top of that. Before WOW was released, the top dogs in that market were Everquest and Star Wars Galaxies, and both took significant hits in their subscription base.

Both are owned or licensed by Sony Online Entertainment. Both have serious problems with hacks and “bots” (unattended players run by another program, that fight too efficiently and can “see” things the players can’t, like when a new monster spawns and what treasure it carries.)

Is it a coincidence that Sony released a product on all it’s audio CD’s that “accidentally” enables rampant cheating in a competitor’s game, thereyby spoiling it? Bear in mind that these aren’t single player games. You’re online with thousands of others at once. And in addition to the above, it’s a real bummer to be going after the monster that drops the big treasure… then someone sweeps in fighting with computer reflexes, doing 3x your damage, but taking none, so they kill the monster and loot the “phat lewt.” Or something as simple as running twice as fast as you… after “aggroing” all the monsters in the area and leading them to little ol’ slowpoke you (this is called “training,” but it doesn’t involve a montage). So now you’re dead and the other guy has the area to himself.

So just how did word get out that this interaction is possible if you rename your cheat program to start with four specific characters anyway? One wonders….

(Edited slightly at 12:25 for clarity)