Glider loses again, shutdown imminent
by Adam Holisky 
Jan 29th 2009 at 6:30PM
In the latest ruling in the Blizzard v. Glider case, the Honorable David G. Campbell (U.S. District Judge for the District of Arizona) ruled essentially that MDY Industries (the makers of Glider) has to present him with arguments why Glider should not be shut down during what will be a lengthy future appeals process. The arguments must be presented to the court by February 13th, 2009.The Judge will then decide if the arguments hold merit and justify the continued operation of Glider.
If MDY Industries is not successful in their persuasion of the Judge Campbell, and MDY Industries CEO Michael Donnelly believes they will not be (according to posts made on the Glider forums), then they will have to cease and desist selling Glider. The shutdown of Glider will happen quickly after the February 13th date.
Campbell's full ruling on the matter is available in PDF format for your viewing. We'll have more on this as it develops in the next couple weeks. In the mean time, check out our previous coverage of Glider and its results
Thanks to everyone who sent this in! And while I don't know what Judge David Campbell looks like, I prefer to think of him as pictured in the article.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, News items
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Loveheart Jan 29th 2009 6:38PM
Quite the hilarious picture. Carlton would *not* approve of Glider.
Apoc Jan 29th 2009 10:35PM
...Except that's not Carlton, that's his father, Phil.
Hoggersbud Jan 29th 2009 11:12PM
Who in later seasons, became a judge. I guess that was the only image they could find. Personally I'd have suggested something from Law and Order.
Todd Jan 30th 2009 11:05AM
But... meh... Law and Order is only mildly funny.
lbizzle Jan 29th 2009 6:39PM
I don't know why they even fought this case.
I'm not entirely sure how legal fees work in the US, but surely the costs incurred by Glider must significantly outweigh any profits they've made from their extremely niche audience.
I would imagine the bill by now is in the hundred thousands and that the taxpayer won't be the one to foot it.
Mr Magoo Jan 29th 2009 6:43PM
Maybe more people than you think cheat? ;)
Elvaleryn Jan 29th 2009 6:51PM
im part of the glider community and blizzard is being ridiculous as the glider community purchases like 1 million timecards every month and a huge amount of new vanilla wow codes, TBC and also WOTLK ...
blizzard will see a huge fall in profit when they win the courtcase... and the economy on every server will be chaotic as our bots collect raw materials for YOU and sell them CHEAP !!!
ah well.... the people that use bots now.. wont stop anyway when they shut down glider.. as we already have the program and resources and will find another program if necessary...
good luck grinding for weeks for your raw materials, as only the uber rich can purchase stuff in the AH after they shut down glider... gl!
:)
Randy Jan 29th 2009 6:55PM
So you profess and admit to willingly violate the ToS of the game. Good job. I highly doubt any customer of glider will be quitting WoW over this....are you? So you are too lazy to work for your mats and to do your thing? It doesn't take much, I've never used any type of program/addon for my gameplay to be automated and I happen to do just fine. And Blizzard is not being ridiculous....ridiculous is having Terms of Use that you don't enforce.
muddy Jan 29th 2009 6:57PM
Uh, I farm my own mats because they are to expensive now, I doubt your crappy botting helps me in any way.
Goodbye and may all bot software "format c:\" on your pc tonight.
AutumnBringer Jan 29th 2009 8:49PM
So you mean that when I get Eternal Life from herbing and transmute it into pretty much whatever Eternal I want and use it for crafting or selling or whatever - that I can do all that because of what you and the Glider community are doing for me?
Wow, thanks for letting me know what a great service you're providing. You guys are like a charity.
The Claw Jan 30th 2009 8:00AM
You're dreaming if you think the number of cheats who cry and throw a tantrum and quit the game when Glider gets shut down for good will even come CLOSE to the number of people who simply will not a play a game where cheating is not vigorously pursued by the administrators.
Faar Jan 30th 2009 7:55AM
Calling you glider scumbags a "community" is criminally abusing the English language. You're nothing but a bunch of cheating, rat-bastard lowlifes, and you don't even have the decency to admit that.
That you're delusional enough to think Blizzard should welcome you degenerates because you buy timecards just goes to show what an amoral and unscrupulous wanker you are. Apparantly, breaking the rules is okay to you as long as someone can make a buck out of it, eh? That Blizzard might want a clean, honest and level playing field for ALL players seem to be a totally alien concept to you. But hey, maybe you're onto something here - suppose you shoot a guy, then stick a couple big banknotes to the cops coming to arrest you for them to let you go. That's okay, isn't it?
When Blizzard bans all of you I'll be grinding my materials way easier when I don't have to compete with PCs that play by themselves, and I'll have the satisfaction of you not gaining any undeserved gold either from auctioning your effortlessly harvested wares.
GTFO my server, cancel your account(s), and don't let the door hit you in the ass on your way out kkthxbai.
Xtyle Jan 30th 2009 10:39AM
./cast
./wait
*nibble*
./catch
Self-Righteous -vs- Cheaters who will win? /popcorn
Philip Jan 29th 2009 6:52PM
WILL!
ch1d3th Jan 29th 2009 6:54PM
It might be a good idea to remind us wtf Glider is cause I sure don't know/remember. Now I have to go look it up :(
hold up Jan 30th 2009 12:19PM
Glider is a program that you download and is run in parallel to your WoW client that will basically take control of your computer's functionality and "play" the game for you.
It can be set up to fish, grind mobs or even play battlegrounds.
It uses a screen scraping technique to identify targets (i.e. fishing bobber) appearing on the screen and then uses your hotkeys to execute game commands. Mob grinding and battlegrounds are done by creating waypoint maps for your character to run around and when it comes in contact with a killable target it will attempt to kill it using the hotkeys you have programmed.
For the website try a google search for mmoglider
WI has already previously reported on the Banwave that was executed several months ago (possibly even over a year now) when Blizzard logged the accounts of every person suspected of using Glider and then did a massive sweep ban. WI also reported on Warden, the pseudo anti-virus program Blizzard runs when you start the Launcher to check for any botting programs that may be running. (PS - I miss that column)
In the end, the gold farming botters will find another way. The really good gold farmers create there own botting programs and will not even be effected by this. The only people that will be effected by this will be the casuals that use Glider to level toons or farm materials. Blizzard might lose some members but it's not going to be a huge hit to their subscription list. Many players know the risk and will just start over after their account gets banned.
I have never seen a botter on my server yet, but I can't imagine banning botters is going to change the wow economy very much.
Ryan Jan 29th 2009 6:58PM
"while I don't know what Judge David Campbell looks like"
your image ruined: http://www.meridianmagazine.com/ideas/images/Judge%20David%20Campbell%201.jpg
Keyra Jan 29th 2009 7:11PM
I like Adam's image better - the REAL Campbell looks like some skeevy TV evangelist in that picture! :-)
Kemikalkadet Jan 29th 2009 8:19PM
More like Judge Whitey from Futurama.
skynix Jan 29th 2009 6:59PM
Cheating ruins good games. Good riddance Glidder, and Glider users if you choose to go along with it (I hope you do).