SOE Game Launchers Triggering on VMWare
As part of SOE’s very public efforts to stop cheating in PlanetSide 2, SOE is instituting more detection code into its Launchpad to try to stop troublemakers. Apparently some of this code has not been isolated to PS2 as a number of players of SOE games including EverQuest, EverQuest II, and Wizardry Online have all found themselves having trouble logging in.
The culprit? A popular virtualization software called VMWare which allows PC users to run more than one instance of Windows (for keeping work and play separate, or for running multiple game instances), or in the case of Mac users, being able to play their favorite SOE games without having to reboot into Windows.
SOE Customer Service have been quick to unban users and get people logged back in, but it’s something people should be aware of. As long as you are not logging into SOE games through VMWare or another virtualization program, you should not encounter this issue.
We’ll report back if any Policies on this are officially announced or there are any changes to report.
Tip of the hat to the player who e-mailed me this info!
Sources:
http://forums.station.sony.com/eq/index.php?threads/vmware-account-ban-warning.3986/
http://forums.station.sony.com/wo/index.php?threads/account-banned.2316/
http://forums.station.sony.com/wo/index.php?threads/use-of-virtual-pcs-being-banned.1616/
http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/index.php?threads/cant-log-into-launcher-game-support.4152/
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Comments (12)
Eschia
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Hopefully this wont trigger if ran under linux + wine.
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milliebii
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I am surprised this one has not lead to more comments. Back when I was regularly playing EQ2 I new lots of folks that multi-boxed using isboxer and would have thought that a VM trap would have lead to them all being banned. So where are all the screams of pain?
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Landiin
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Wow thats just crazy of SOE. People have been using VM to play this game since beta. No that all of the sudden decide to ban them people. Kind of makes you leery of playing a SOE game or at least start to play a new one.
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Blambil
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Screams of pain?
You can’t post on the forum when banned or suspended.. That keeps the noise down.
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Qamar
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I use parallels for Mac running Win XP and have not had problems so far. I now and then am thrown to lockscreen or can’t connect to server but nothing that is exclusive to VM.
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Swagems
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What is th problem with using VM ware how does it let you cheat
I used it on eq2 a few years ago . I see no different just running muiltable client
On the Same computer, but again (I’m not a very smart man Jenny)
Thanks
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Lempo of Everfrost
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The only reason I can imagine that they would want to ban VMware would be that you can run multiple VM’s and run a bot controller on the host, this way they could not detect a banned program. This is unsettling to me, I use VMware daily, otherwise I would need to have 8-10 other PCs with multiple boots to be able to do my job.
I also use VMware for almost all of my web browsing.
The thing I do not do is run EQ2 INSIDE a VM which is apparently the current problem. How long will it be before SOE decides that you can not even have VMWare installed on the host that EQ2 is ran on?
The only sort of an answer that I saw in any of those links was from TSR-AlexS and that was
posted here http://forums.station.sony.com/eq/index.php?threads/vmware-account-ban-warning.3986/#post-51425
Alex is a great support rep and is working off of limited information but this is not much of a response, ‘not supported”forbidden from use’ and there needs to be an official response to this that clearly defines if it is allowed or not allowed and in what capacity.
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Swagems
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Next question is if you have Vmware installed on your computer can that get you banned. I dont use Vmware for gaming.
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striinger
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If they are going after people cheating that are screwing up the game for others, then it’s just another case of collateral damage. If they are making rounds looking for ways to get rid of people who don’t play “their” way (but who don’t really affect other reasonable players), then just pull the bandaide already. I use Vmware, sometimes, and several Logitech G accessories. Banning would make or easy for me to finally make a clean break with the game that keeps sucking me back in. 🙂
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griffonlady
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Play your way.. unless it’s this, this, that, thisthatorthatorthator….
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B
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RE: using VMware , the TSRs have been very specific. Do NOT have VMWare running when you play ANY of their games, or log into ANY of their websites, or you will be banned.
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SternLX
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VMWare can be used to circumvent Machine GUID(globally unique identifier) Bans. Which is what SOE and Punkbuster do. IP Bans are not enough to keep cheaters out. Each instance of VMWare has it’s own Machine GUID. Which honestly is only a stop gap measure. Some of the more serious cheaters know how to circumvent Machine GUID Ban’s by locating and replacing them in their registry and starting a new game account.
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