Truth is not all Black and White

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Nemephosis

Nemephosis

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Gamers are furious over the hit PC game Black & White. They love the gameplay, the graphics, and just about anything else about the game itself -- all except for the fact that the game sends information about a user's computer to the makers of the game!

When a user fires up their game, it sends out information including your IP number, system registry details, and your hardware configuration to a server run by the game's developer Lionhead and it's publisher Electronic Arts.

Black & White In Action

Critics of this well-loved (*sarcasm*) feature accuse it of being spyware. The game will even try to establish an Internet connection when it's installed on a PC, even if the user isn't playing the game at the time.

The game's developer Lionhead says that gamers have nothing to fear, and that Black & White contacts the Internet only to setup the means for players to exchange messages online.

In a message that they posted publicly on gaming newsgroups, Lionhead stated that "Black & White uses a mechanism for its built in messaging system to tell the server if you're online or not and ready for receiving messages from other friends online. We are not spying on your system!" (Nightmare's note: utter bullsh*t.)

However, they do drop a warning to those who did not obtain a copy of the game legitimately: "If you playing an illegal copy of Black & White, the program is self-aware, so if you encounter problems with it, then maybe you should buy a proper version." (Nightmare's note: Probably cause a burned version won't copy the spyware.)

Of course, we here at ********* are wondering about what the difference between a "self-aware" program and "spyware" really is. Numerous folks have contacted EA for a comment in order to clear up the controversy, but they have not responded. Oh well... you've been warned.
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How low do you have to go anyway? That is despicable. Thank God I didn't get B&W.

[edit]I see it censored the name of the site I got this from.[/edit]
 
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thewalkingman

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hal

hal

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I think you're a little worked up over nothing. The game does run a diagnostic on your system to help you troubleshoot it. It also does connect to the internet... but only if you check mark the box that asks it to do so. It's used for messaging, to import your local weather patterns, and to alllow your creature to build it's own website. You don't like them? Don't check the box! :)

I have B&W and it's a tremendous game. I know there will be those who won't try it because of rumors like this, and it's completely your loss.

But to call it "spyware" brings to mind the hidden code that goes into some shareware/freeware and other downloadable utilities. Those types of things are completely hidden and go out of their way to remain so. Of course, there are anti-spyware programs that are available to combat them. But it just seems a little harsh calling a feature "spyware".

I'll take back my words if I'm wrong. And I'll be very disappointed in EA if it is indeed as devious as you say it is.
 
PsychoMoggieBagpuss

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No need to get your knickers in a twist Nightmate, your getting extremely paranoid over nothing.

I've got the game.
I've been playing it none stop for the last couple of weeks.
Not ONCE has it tried to connect to the internet.
The only people who are kicking up a fuss are those who downloaded it/warezed it and are getting all panicy that they might be found out.
The only info that EA/Lionhead could use is a record of your IP address when you connect for multiplay.
You are also extremely naive if you don't think more information (OS/CPU type/etc) is stored on EVERY website you have ever visited.
Its a damn good game, its up to you whether you buy it or not.
But to miss out on such a gem of a game because your worried that "Big Bad EA" is spying on your every move is not just silly, its retarded.
 
OshadowO

OshadowO

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Come on we all know why Nightmare is really worried. He's scared they might find out about the impact hammer.
Seriously my two cents on this:
I don't think that this is that big a deal. From what it sounds like it only sends game specific data out. Even if they do detect priated software on your system they will not come banging down your door. Now if they were starting to compile lists of web sites you visited, the types of things you purchased online...then I'd worry.
 
Y

Yellow5

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Blah big deal.. I can read the PU stats page and find out which OS, browser, etc. people are using when they connect to our site. That's just as bad IMO, but nobody ever flips out about that...
 
G-Lite

G-Lite

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The banner programs that come with Babylon and Go!Zilla are spyware. Spyware usually comes in shareware or software only. I have never seen a commercial product that is spyware and besides, there clearly was a checkbox. If you wanna check for spyware, download Ad-aware.
 
8-4-7-2

8-4-7-2

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if you are really so worried there is a security fix out there. Ask me in irc for the url if you want
 
thewalkingman

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'Spyware' games developer says you have nothing to fear
By: Tim Rance
Posted: 17/04/2001 at 14:11 GMT


We have read your article about Spyware (Spyware concerns over fast selling PC game and I would just like to make it absolutely clear what Black and White does with respect to the internet information we send.

Clearly in the multiplayer game, a lot of data is sent but this is just game related.

In the single player game we make requests for weather data (if this is enabled) containing your user registration details so that the server can look up your city and weather associated with your city.

Additionally, every 3 minutes we send a UDP packet containing 8 bytes - packet length, packet type (i.e. a ping packet type = 4225) and your registration ID (if you have registered, otherwise just a hash of your name with a high bit set). The originating IP is also available through winsock.

If you have any friends in your friend list, then additionally every 3 minutes a request containing length, type (user list request=4227) and a list of your friends' registration IDs is sent to the server. If the server thinks that any of your friends are online then it will return their IP address so that you can chat to them.

We cannot make any comment about pirated versions of Black and White because we have no information as to exactly which version of the software was hacked in order to get a pirate copy.

Another point is that it would appear that some machines have a configuration which we did not come across in our testing that may cause a dial-up requestor or a hang to occur when one of these packets is sent.

There is a simple way around this - make sure that the program is run with the command line option : /NOINETCONN. This will actually prevent any
packets ever being sent over the internet at any time in the single player game. So if anyone is having any problems then we suggest you try this option.

I have also read comments that data is sent when Black and White is not playing. No data is sent when Black and White is not playing.

Tim
 
Nemephosis

Nemephosis

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That's not my article, I didn't write it. I found it at a website which apparently will remain unnamed (not like that is a bad thing) and I thought I would share it. True maybe the guy who installed it and wrote the article is an idiot, but if it did happen to him it can happen to others. I thought you would like to know.

Not to argue or anything but of course the developer is going to say it doesn't send info. They aren't going to say "oh this game sends info to our website and spies on your system blah blah blah" I seriously doubt they would admit that. I don't know for sure yet, as I said, I got this off a website. Until I get more info I'll just stay away. (that, and I don't have the CPU for it, I can hardly handle UT :D)
 
D

Do_Or_Die

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All this fuss over B&W having "spyware" is total BS. I have it, and I have firewall software installed on my PC which notifies me when any program tries to access the internet. It tried to access the internet right away but it stuck exactly to the ports listed in the installation manual for the game. Yes, that's right, if any of these paranoid fools took a minute to look in the installation manual they would see that it explicitly states which ports B&W uses to communicate and why. What it's trying to do is connect to the service that in the future will allow players to instant message friends of their's that are also playing B&W at the same time. It's also trying to gather local weather information for the game's weather engine. You can easily keep B&W from sending anything to anyone anywhere on the internet by adding the command /NOINETCONN to the commandline of your shortcut. I've been looking at my firewall logs after I've played and it's not doing anything it shouldn't.

And don't forget, a lot of people automatically assume they're being spied on if software they install tries to connect to the internet without their permission when they actually have no idea what they're talking about.
 
Nemephosis

Nemephosis

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Well maybe the guy who wrote it has no idea what he's on about..... :D

I dunno, I might check it out once I get a new rig that can handle it. Might see ya online in B&W? :D
 
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