CCP Dev Blog: Client modification, the EULA and you
Today CCP has issued the following dev blog update: Client modification, the EULA and you
I've been asked by an ISBoxer user to interpret it, as he thought -- incorrectly -- that the dev blog implied that ISBoxer would no longer be allowed in EVE Online. I encourage you to read the post yourself, that's why I linked it, so you don't have to just take my interpretation...
Here's the skinny: They are reiterating everything that has been stated before about multiboxing, both by myself and CCP, including portions of their EULA, and they are explicitly warning people not to hack the game client. Hacking the game client is never okay and is definitely against the EULA and you should expect to get banned if you're hacking the game client; ISBoxer does not hack the game client (that has never changed and will never change).
So here's the most important part as it applies to ISBoxer:
So first of all, as is expected from game publishers, they have to state that they have absolutely no control over any third-party software (including ISBoxer) and therefore cannot endorse or promote it, or specifically tell you that the software does not violate the EULA. They can't do that because, from their point of view, whether it is against the EULA or not could change at any time and without notice to CCP. (But, we have always done our best to stay within the rules and will continue to do so! And, sometimes the details of how ISBoxer actually works are lost on people and they genuinely have no idea.) So that's fine, and nothing new -- standard disclaimer.
The important part is that as far as banning people goes, "unless we determine that people are doing things beyond “multiboxing”, we will not be taking any action. We only care about the instances where people are messing with [the running game] for the purposes of cheating, and running multiple clients at the same time is not in violation of our EULA in and of itself unless it involves trial accounts". Note that ISBoxer purposefully does not sandbox EVE's trial accounts (and has never).
So, to be clear, standard ISBoxer usage is not cheating, but if you go looking for hacks (such as one they mention in the dev blog) or try to exploit EVE trial accounts, or other illicit activity that we all know is against the rules, then you should expect trouble. And, as stated by CCP, this is effective regardless of whether some guy with his infinite wisdom believes that ISBoxer *must* be violating the EULA because it *looks scary*.
TL;DR: "Our policy on ISBoxer has not changed in a long time."
Multibox away, my friends! And as always, Be a Good Citizen!
I've been asked by an ISBoxer user to interpret it, as he thought -- incorrectly -- that the dev blog implied that ISBoxer would no longer be allowed in EVE Online. I encourage you to read the post yourself, that's why I linked it, so you don't have to just take my interpretation...
Here's the skinny: They are reiterating everything that has been stated before about multiboxing, both by myself and CCP, including portions of their EULA, and they are explicitly warning people not to hack the game client. Hacking the game client is never okay and is definitely against the EULA and you should expect to get banned if you're hacking the game client; ISBoxer does not hack the game client (that has never changed and will never change).
So here's the most important part as it applies to ISBoxer:
This extends to multiboxing software. Some of the multiboxing software out there is powerful enough to count as “client modification” if used for that purpose. Our stance on third-party software is that we do not endorse such software as we have no control over what it does. As such, we can’t say that multiboxing software isn’t against our EULA. But the same goes in this case, that unless we determine that people are doing things beyond “multiboxing”, we will not be taking any action. We only care about the instances where people are messing with our process for the purposes of cheating, and running multiple clients at the same time is not in violation of our EULA in and of itself unless it involves trial accounts.
So first of all, as is expected from game publishers, they have to state that they have absolutely no control over any third-party software (including ISBoxer) and therefore cannot endorse or promote it, or specifically tell you that the software does not violate the EULA. They can't do that because, from their point of view, whether it is against the EULA or not could change at any time and without notice to CCP. (But, we have always done our best to stay within the rules and will continue to do so! And, sometimes the details of how ISBoxer actually works are lost on people and they genuinely have no idea.) So that's fine, and nothing new -- standard disclaimer.
The important part is that as far as banning people goes, "unless we determine that people are doing things beyond “multiboxing”, we will not be taking any action. We only care about the instances where people are messing with [the running game] for the purposes of cheating, and running multiple clients at the same time is not in violation of our EULA in and of itself unless it involves trial accounts". Note that ISBoxer purposefully does not sandbox EVE's trial accounts (and has never).
So, to be clear, standard ISBoxer usage is not cheating, but if you go looking for hacks (such as one they mention in the dev blog) or try to exploit EVE trial accounts, or other illicit activity that we all know is against the rules, then you should expect trouble. And, as stated by CCP, this is effective regardless of whether some guy with his infinite wisdom believes that ISBoxer *must* be violating the EULA because it *looks scary*.
TL;DR: "Our policy on ISBoxer has not changed in a long time."
Multibox away, my friends! And as always, Be a Good Citizen!