Neowin.net - EA takes action against Battlefield 2 demo hackers

EA takes action against Battlefield 2 demo hackers

Posted by LOC on 15 June 2005 - 02:14 · 43 comments & 8663 views

In a move that many will not like, EA Games has banned or delisted over 1,000 servers running their recently released Battlefield 2 demo. In a community update issued earlier today, EA Games had this to say about the situation:

EA and DICE both fully support server-side modding in the sense that we have intentionally exposed a good deal of Python functionality to the end-user, primarily to encourage modders to tweak game types and scoring (on UNRANKED servers) once the full game is available. That said, we have come to discover that two items that were not a part of the demo feature-set were hacked in the Battlefield 2 demo. We consider both of these changes in violation of the Tools EULA that each server operator accepted in installing the server software.

The demo's feature set included a 12-minute time limit on rounds and excluded access to the weapon unlocks. Because some server operators have hacked the time limit out of their servers or hacked access to the unlocks, we have been forced to reinforce our intended feature set by delisting the offending servers. All violations of the EULA as described above will result in a 1-week ban/delisting.

The activities of the obviously active hacking community reinforce our decision to not release the Ranked server publicly with the final product. Our desire is to be able to offer an exploit-free place to play where players can legitimately gain ranks, and collect awards and unlocks. The only way we can offer such a service and protect the Ranked server content is by hosting the ranked servers directly and through trusted partners. The Unranked server tools will be released to the community so that they may host their own BF2 servers, mods, etc.

News source: Battlefield 2 community update

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MS05-032: Vulnerability in Microsoft Agent Could Allow Spoofing (890046) Important
A vulnerability exists in Microsoft Agent that could enable an attacker to spoof trusted Internet content. An attacker first have to persuade a user to visit the attacker’s site to attempt to exploit this vulnerability.

MS05-033: Vulnerability in Telnet Client Could Allow Information Disclosure (896428) Important
A vulnerability exists in the Windows Telnet Client that could enable an attacker to retrieve unpredictable information from a system.

MS05-034: Cumulative Security Update for ISA Server 2000 (899753) Important
Vulnerabilities exist in Microsoft ISA Server 2000 that could allow circumvention of a packet filter and enable an attacker to retrieve unpredictable information from an ISA Server’s cache or from a system behind the ISA server .

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#1 Posted by DirtyLarry on 15 Jun 2005 - 02:17: Okay. I can MAYBE see their beef over the hacked weapons, but time limit?
I have said it once, and I will say it again. I hate EA games.

#2 Posted by metro on 15 Jun 2005 - 02:44: how is adding a # in front of a line in a text based server file "hacking"? The server timelimit really isn't that big of an issue to me. Gives people a little more time to play on both sides, get more of a feel to the game. I wouldn't have decided to buy this game unless the demo was released, or played it on a friend's computer. I have gotten burned on a lot of games, such as Doom 3.

#3 Posted by Marduk on 15 Jun 2005 - 03:01: WAY TO GO EA! Alienating people interested in playing your game ALOT, good job! I hope this kills some of it's fan base! What a retarded idea gimping your game demo like that, I think it was dumb to start with. The game plays just like the Desert Combat mod for BF1942 pretty much anyway, so BIG WOOPDEEDOO.

#4 Posted by necrosis on 15 Jun 2005 - 03:07: Yeah, EA/Dice screwed up on a couple of things.

1) stupid 12 min timer
2) no PS 1.1 or 1.2 so people with older cards than FX line can play

Needless to say untill FINAL sys requirements are released my copy of BF2 will remain canned.

#5 Posted by Acid on 15 Jun 2005 - 03:07: Why have a time limit? If anything that would annoy people and keep them from enjoying the experience. Morons in todays world, jeesh.

#6 Posted by virtorio on 15 Jun 2005 - 03:17: I remember a time when bypassing the time limit on demo's was the best thing about them (ala GTA and GTA2)

#7 Posted by sodapop on 15 Jun 2005 - 03:39: Oh scary!, Guess I'm in big trouble for posting the time limit removal tip huh?

#8 Posted by beardly on 15 Jun 2005 - 04:21: This kinda makes me not want to buy the game. Not that it will probably affect me at all, but I really don't feel like supporting companies who are dicks.

(3 replies) #9 Posted by Steven on 15 Jun 2005 - 05:30: 12mins is too long. 10mins is what America's Army sets their normal servers at. With Elite servers running 7mins and delta running 4.

12mins? I understand that there is respawn but seriously I think its a bit too long.

#10 Posted by SS64 on 15 Jun 2005 - 05:59: AA is diffrent becuz the time has a role in gameplay,with BF(u will understand when u play the BF series) u want to play until u win.its stuiped having time limits anyway,do they want us to play or not?

(2 replies) #11 Posted by Mattimeo on 15 Jun 2005 - 06:30: Just goes to show that when you don't comply with the EULA it comes right back at ya. You may get punished, you may not but it shows developers that there really IS a need for this type of work. Hacking games is prolly the weakest thing the "gamer" can do.

#12 Posted by Jasco on 15 Jun 2005 - 06:35: EA is lame as always. What else is new...

#13 Posted by LCPLSkyeHack on 15 Jun 2005 - 07:03: F U K E A G A M E S

#14 Posted by Epimetheus on 15 Jun 2005 - 07:19: Wow, this is complete bull**** if I have ever heard it.

There are thousands of people on BF1942 servers using aimbots, and maphacks, and EA just goes ape**** over a time limit? Good job EA. (Well not thousands but you get my point)

#15 Posted by cheesegoduk on 15 Jun 2005 - 07:53: This is insane, if EA didn't want people removing the time limits and weapons lockouts etc, they should have done it properly(by hard compiling in limits, PROPERLY removing weapons etc) rather than just changing some plain text conf file that anyone with a small amount of knowledge can read.
Whats the point on the timelimit anyway? All it did was reset players back to there starting positions which was terribly annoying(Why bother going for a flag if theres only 2/3 mins left?) and didn't really give you time to actually get into a long enjoyable fight.

Most people who played the demo would have brought the game anyway, all they have done is alienated the very people they are trying to sell to.(Sounds like the **AA's :/) Are they worried that people will just play the demo rather than buy the full game or something???

(3 replies) #16 Posted by FudgeMonkey on 15 Jun 2005 - 08:01: I'm sorry guys, i enjoyed the extra time and weapons as much as the next guy but it's their game and their choice, people have been caught and pay the price. it clearly states in the demo agreement about this and personally i've got no problem with them forcing the timelimit back and limiting the weapons, people who say that they should have made it not possible to "hack" it are also the people slagging EA off for being some hyper-global corporate demonic infested evil force, what do you expect? they release a demo like this and instantly every server running it is breaking the agreement set out. I admit I'm not the biggest fan of EAs movements in the last few years but this kind of thing is partly to blame, The demo came out of nowhere and. At least they are only banning for a week and not completely, although that's timed nicely to coincide with the release date of the actual game is it not?

#17 Posted by Superluminal on 15 Jun 2005 - 09:34: Wow, so now I've to play on unmoderated public servers, that are usually smacktard heaven, to participate in the rankings? THAT'S JUST GREAT, ELECTRONIC ARTS! SCREW YOU!

#18 Posted by Imaginos on 15 Jun 2005 - 09:49: HAHA! Like any admin will pay to be in the exclusive EA-hosted ranked server pool. They will soon give up fronting the cost of maintaining 'official' public servers.

#19 Posted by PR. on 15 Jun 2005 - 11:27: Quite clearly they have done this because in BF1942 even months after the full game was released people where still playing that single map in the demo servers.

(1 reply) #20 Posted by Kst on 15 Jun 2005 - 12:02: By all means DO not open your videodefault.con and enter
renderer.allowAllRefreshRates 1
renderer.lockfps 200
renderer.nuttonEAsFace 1

(2 replies) #21 Posted by SittingBull on 15 Jun 2005 - 13:32: Bizarre, my server has the timelimit removed and we aren't banned yet

#22 Posted by stncttr908 on 15 Jun 2005 - 14:29: This doesn't really matter, since someone will post a site listing IP's of hacked servers in no time anyway.

#23 Posted by Big Booger on 15 Jun 2005 - 15:01: I Will intentionally download a cracked version or boycott this game simply because of this. **** EA!!!

#24 Posted by Nodiaque on 15 Jun 2005 - 15:19: hey guys, its only a demo... geez cut it out! time limit and all that stuff, it's only for the freaking demo. They could choose to not release one so you'd had to wait until the rtm date to get a copy of the game and play, but no you can play right now with a demo version...

#25 Posted by seafirex on 15 Jun 2005 - 15:58: i think that they are doing what they have too, If people dont like the way the game is played then dont bother even playing the game.

People are mad about something that they agreed to not do in the first place but still did it. It is not EA fault but instead the testers fault. Does admins that where hosting got what they deserved from this but the sad part is that beacuse of does mor**s, we are the one's that are gona loose out of this.

Just my two cents.

#26 Posted by Valkyre on 15 Jun 2005 - 17:45: EA can legally do it, but legallity doesn't win them any brownie points with paying customers.

#27 Posted by Juguard on 15 Jun 2005 - 18:17: I was gona preorder it, even though I hate EA. But now, I'm gona wait untill the game is cheap, and them maybe buy it. Even if it takes a year. F EA.

#28 Posted by MR_Candyman on 15 Jun 2005 - 19:11: man you people are cry babies!
Simple fact: the hacked demo lets people do too much, taking away from final game sales. They did this to make sure people actually buy the game, so quit complaining little pussies

#29 Posted by xpgeek on 15 Jun 2005 - 19:26: Removing the time limit was not that big a deal, but I can understand why they doing this, to make sure people not still playing demo in 3 months instead of buying full game.

The weapon unlocks tho, I say GOOD. I was kinda mad when I first saw servers with weapons unlocked. I for one am looking forward to ranked servers and actually having to earn them. Hope they allow people to create their own ranked servers tho.

#30 Posted by Viper217 on 16 Jun 2005 - 04:47: yeah, only servers i played on were the no-time-limit ones, since they allowed for far more intensive and involving battles, as well as giving the MEC a chance at winning... w/ the time limit MEC was forced to just rush and try and take all the outposts, but would always be outflanked, w/o the time they could slowly advance and cover their rears at the same time.
the weapon unlocks im fine with them limiting, the only unlocked weapon i considered an improvement was the US engineer shotgun, which made it a semi-auto.

#31 Posted by EKS on 16 Jun 2005 - 12:30: This means you have to be on a "offical" server to get access to all the content in the game, this just annoys me(Thinking of when the full game is out).

Last edited by 114691 on 16 Jun 2005 - 12:55

#32 Posted by bilemke on 23 Jun 2005 - 05:09: I pretty much had already blacklisted this game before I knew the demo was released sicne I had seen this. A friend sent me this link via IM.

http://www.gamecloud.com/article.php?article_id=240

and a little further info for those interested

http://www.evilavatar.com/forums/showthrea...ead.php?t=2663&

These are not wise moves by EA or DICE.

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