The Warden IZ IN YOUR FILEZ, STEALZIN YOUR SECRETZ

CNN has a rare article on gaming, focused on cheating and what companies do to combat it. Of particular interest was the article's mention of WoW and a program that Blizzard uses to monitor cheating called "The Warden." I've never heard of this anti-cheating initiative by Blizzard, but it blew my mind that the article asserts the program likely goes beyond monitoring the game and actually combs through a user's operating system. And that it might even violate California anti-spyware law!

The article brings up another good point. Blizzard bans gold sellers, who turn around and buy new accounts, get banned again, buy new accounts, rinse and repeat. What would motivate Blizzard to stop that kind of cash cycle? Interesting issues, not surprising at all that Blizzard declined to comment.