With hacks abound despite Blizzard pumping out patches, Battle.net is need of an overhaul. Freedom from hacks has its price though...
The Warden is an anti-hack program built into World of Warcraft which spies on your computer in order to detect hacks. It reads text from other windows too, and passes it all onto Blizzard. Passwords and all, this information is indiscriminately passed on to Blizzard. The Warden has been called spyware by critics, but Blizzard seems to find it the best way to prevent hacking.
With so many hacks floating around the community, gamers have sought refuge on PGT and WGT, which are protected by hack-sniffing launchers. If the community can come up with an effective anti-hack solution, how hard can it be for a software giant like Blizzard to do so? - for WoW and D2 they have gone the extra mile.
The community-built systems have a fatal flaw - they only detect known hacks, and can't sniff out new ones. For Blizzard it must have been cumbersome to keep patching the hacks as they come, but we are fortunate that they have tried. Maybe its time for a better solution for Battle.net. The only truly effective solution is RAM-scanning like Diablo 2 uses, or a more extreme system like WoW's Warden.
This week we ask you:
Are you willing to sacrifice your privacy in order for Blizzard to implement tougher antihacking software?
You gave
Strelok, the winner of the tourney, only a 10% chance of winning, but he beat the odds, taking out the favorite 
BrEaKdOwN in the third round. Also unexpected were 
Stinger who came in second and 
Predy, who wasn't given much of a chance in the poll, but pulled through to the the third LB round. #2 favorite 
TreK was crushed by BrEaKdOwN in the first round.All in all, your expectations and the tournament results were greatly different in most cases, showing that reputation and actual skill may not always go hand in hand.
Links
BBC News - Article about the Warden
