Ultima Online Bans Cheaters

EA is terminating the accounts of an average of 100 Ultima Online players every month when they are found to be using “mods” – third party applications – in order to farm, or “macro-mine” resources. Essentially, the cheats used inflate the values of resources such as raw ore, gems, gold and various types of ingots.

According to the Terms of Service, the use of bugs, scripts, reverse engineering or any other form of cheating is grounds for termination, and those whose accounts are terminated are not entitled to refunds of any fees they may have paid.

Some UO fans think that at the rate of 100 per month, the game will soon run out of players – and in any event, there are as many mods and cheats out there as there are code warriors capable of programming them.

EA, for their part, considers that such cheats are “harmful to the gameplay of honest players.”

This writer is inclined to agree with the latter when it comes to gameplay. However, there is a fairly new art form, called “Machinema” film-making, in which PC games are extensively “modded” for the purpose of gaining greater control over the game figures. Another popular EA game, Sims 2, has been used a great deal for this purpose.  One wonders if, rather than some gamers simply trying to gain an unfair advantage, some aspiring directors are not attempting to make movies from Ultima Online –  which brings to the surface a whole new legal can of worms.

EA is terminating the accounts of an average of 100 Ultima Online players every month when they are found to be using “mods” – third party applications – in order to farm, or “macro-mine” resources. Essentially, the cheats used inflate the values of resources such as raw ore, gems, gold and various types of ingots.

According to the Terms of Service, the use of bugs, scripts, reverse engineering or any other form of cheating is grounds for termination, and those whose accounts are terminated are not entitled to refunds of any fees they may have paid.

Some UO fans think that at the rate of 100 per month, the game will soon run out of players – and in any event, there are as many mods and cheats out there as there are code warriors capable of programming them.

EA, for their part, considers that such cheats are “harmful to the gameplay of honest players.”

This writer is inclined to agree with the latter when it comes to gameplay. However, there is a fairly new art form, called “Machinema” film-making, in which PC games are extensively “modded” for the purpose of gaining greater control over the game figures. Another popular EA game, Sims 2, has been used a great deal for this purpose.  One wonders if, rather than some gamers simply trying to gain an unfair advantage, some aspiring directors are not attempting to make movies from Ultima Online –  which brings to the surface a whole new legal can of worms.