When the 1.10 patch was released, gamers found that the downloader stayed on even after they were done downloading the patch. It was found that the downloader was using their bandwidth to share the patch with others who were downloading the patch (thereby exhibiting BitTorrent-like functions.) Well after a storm was raised about that, Blizzard decided to update the downloader to allow you to optionally choose to enable this feature.
But many WOW players still weren’t happy. A poster called Glorinus argued: “The simple fact is, is that I NEVER agreed to be a patch mule for Blizzard and you never informed me of this fact when I signed up (nor have you updated the Terms Of Service)… You knowingly piggy-backed software onto my computer without my knowledge, thus it should be considered spyware.
Little bit more detail on this. The updater does not take up all your available bandwidth, it actually uses a very small amount. I personally monitored less than 2KB when it was running. Blizzard called it a trickle, and I agree with that definition.
I do find it rather humerous that the person quoted said they wouldn’t be a “patch mule” when then patches are done thru bittorrent.
Now that said, I do wish they would have been upfront about it. Put it in the ToS in a spot easy to see (at the top or bottom so it isn’t easy skip over), and put it in the News Loader up front. The fact that they hid it is a bad mark for them.
As a note, if you delete the patch files after you are updated this doesn’t happen anyways.
Koskun on 03 31st, 2006
Blizzard has always been a bit slow when it came to customer support, especially with World of Warcraft.
However… the customers of Blizzard have to take into consideration that they are dealing with the most aggressive online community in the world, as far as I’m concerned. They deal with many people who are very picky when it comes to what they want, and whatnot. Either way, Blizzard does have a bit of toning up to do in their customer relations center.
Joe on 04 1st, 2006
This is a bit rediculous. I for one like the fact that it uses a bittorrent type update system as it gets me my update faster than I can download from anywhere else.
Adam on 04 3rd, 2006