WOW downloader updated

By Ellie Gibson Published 31 March, 2006

Following series of complaints.

The World of Warcraft downloader has been updated after disgruntled players accused Blizzard of using it to steal their bandwidth.

A change introduced in the recently released patch 1.10 meant that the downloader ran constantly - even if the program was closed.

In a post on the Blizzard forums, WOW player Buronimo wrote: "So I was playing Wednesday morning after installing the 1.10 patch and in the middle of playing my firewall says that Blizzard Downloader is trying to make an outgoing connection.

"Ummm why? I already have the patch, what is it doing?"

A Blizzard poster going by the name of Tseric replied: "When you are done downloading the patch, the connection will stay open allowing you to upload the patch to others. Basically, you become part of the network allowing other players to download the patch easier.

"This is how Bittorrent has been working for some time, as a sort of 'pay it forward'-type setup."

Tseric was careful to point out that "You aren't actually sending out any information other than the patch content."

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.

"Seriously guys, you make over 30 million a month in North American subscriptions and you have to pull this kind of snakish BS on your loyal and paying customers?"

Fellow poster Nexoccultus echoed Glorinus' comments, stating: "No you can't use my bandwidth for your stupid bit-torrent crap. Buy some file servers."

Following the complaints, Blizzard has now updated the downloader with an option you can use to stop it running in the background. To find out more, visit the official World of Warcraft website.

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (32) Latest comment 6 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Harpe #1 6 years ago

    Ban this sicken filth then?

  • AtomicBanana Verified Level Designer, Playground Games #2 6 years ago

    WoW Geeks in over-reaction shocker!

  • asphaltcowboy #3 6 years ago

    As long as this isn't affecting your ping, I fail to see the problem...

  • Wobble #4 6 years ago

    They have submarines in wow now?

    (o/

  • chromice #5 6 years ago

    Morons. It took them more than a year to learn they'd been part of a big p2p network. ;-)

  • BlackJedi #6 6 years ago

    "As long as this isn't affecting your ping, I fail to see the problem..."
    But it will be. Blizzard's downloader, unlike every other torrent downloader, has no option to throttle back the upload speed. So it can easily saturate all your upstream bandwidth, leaving you nothing left for anything else. Like playing the bloody game.

  • AOFanboi #7 6 years ago

    A bigger issue was that since the old patcher was a Bittorrent application, it could run into trouble with P2P-hating ISPs and the like...

  • earthdog #8 6 years ago

    I personally think BitTorrent is a good way of distributing this kind of file content.

    I would certainly prefer it to be done this way than risk the possibility of an increase in my sub charge so they can pay for file servers all over the place.

    What is a shame is that it uses all available bandwidth, fine when i'm watching the progress bar eager to download the patch for myself and get playing. Having said that would I get such a good download speed if some other poor persons connection wasn't streaming it to me at full whack?

    Either way it's about the experience we expect from Blizzard there are many options to consider but before we voice that opinion we should be careful what we ask for.

  • Sko #9 6 years ago

    "Pointlessbleater#736 was quick to piss and moan on the forums... directly underneath the stickied post - '29/03 - The Blizzard Background Downloader' which explains what the program was and links to the FAQ telling you how to turn it off if you so should desire."

  • Gurgeh #10 6 years ago

    You could only turn off the uploader by modifying your registry which isn't something your average gamer should need to do

  • TheBlueShmoo #11 6 years ago

    "No you can't use my bandwidth for your stupid bit-torrent crap. Buy some file servers."

    This is actually one of my few gripes with this game. 5 millions subscribers (worldwide) paying £9 per month (or equivalent local currency) - and they have the cheek to get us to torrent their latest patches. Give us a file server to download directly from please, why should i have to reconfigure my router / ICS / *insert your method of IP security here* - just to get a patch for a game that i pay hard earned cash for.
    Edited by TheBlueShmoo at 31/03/06 @ 16:25

  • Salvia #12 6 years ago

    Funny, I thought MMOs were all about community spirit and that sort of thing ;-)
    I don't mind sharing some bandwidth if it means getting the patches and updates out to others quicker because it means that maybe one day I'll get patched faster.

  • smoison #13 6 years ago

    Ya, basically they're being cheap.

    If they really needed help distirbuting the patch, they should have used Bittorrent.

    Sneaky bastards.

  • urban #14 6 years ago

    over reaction or WHAT its a 24mb file...if you uploaded it back it'd take no time at all..whinge whinge whinge

    what a bunch of losers

  • urban #15 6 years ago

    i guess these people dont know what its like to distro a file to 5 MILLION people one one day.

  • Martin #16 6 years ago

    Cheap bastards -- share damnit. (Not Blizz, the users.)

    And BlackJedi -- this app *does* throttle it's bandwidth.
    Edited by Martin at 31/03/06 @ 17:27

  • smoison #17 6 years ago

    Ya, its not like other FREE site let you download EVEN bigger files...

    And uploading 24 Mb can take a WHILE when you have 10 kbs upload, no to mention how nice it is to surf when you upload at the max...
    Edited by smoison at 31/03/06 @ 17:30

  • wayn3h #18 6 years ago

    That is a pisstake tbh.. And you'll see no such shenagins with another very popular and free MMO.

  • BlackJedi #19 6 years ago

    Cheap bastards -- share damnit. (Not Blizz, the users.)

    And BlackJedi -- this app *does* throttle it's bandwidth.

    I'd happily share if they provided a torrent file I could use in a decent bit of torrent software. As for the app throttling its bandwidth - the old downloader certainly didn't, so how do I know if the new one does? What does it throttle it to? Does it know what other applications on my network are using? Why does Blizzard get to decide how much of my upstream I'm willing to give up?

  • PinkSpider #20 6 years ago

    A bit of an over-reaction, but still a massive MMO, raking in tons of cash to an already quite rich company. Surely they should have file servers.

  • dudefella #21 6 years ago

    adds insult to injury. We, as subscribers, already put up with shit like lag, slow logins when it's busy, queues, and downtimes. The fact is that Blizzard can't handle so much traffic, but as a paying customer, that's simply not my problem, and if they can't keep up the service they are trying to provide for, let's face it, a rather large sum of money, then we have a right to feel gutted.

  • Dirtie #22 6 years ago

    The biggest problem I see (at least for this part of the world - NZ) is that it eats into your bandwidth cap. That's the entire reason I don't use Bittorrent unless I have to anymore.

  • ali-uk #23 6 years ago

    God almighty - DOES IT MATTER

    "omg blizz yuo r lozing a customor over thsi!"

  • TheMoonRat #24 6 years ago

    Ali: read what Dirtie has just said! Some parts of the world have pretty damn strict usage caps. I know that some ISPs give a different bandwidth quota for national traffic and international traffic. An application using your bandwidth without you knowing about it could equal hefty added costs for going over your usage cap.

  • Lumines #25 6 years ago

    People JUST noticed this? Jeez how many "IT Enthusiants" are there playing the game? They just noticed it?

    Idiots tbh, it has been this way ever since WoW came out, it's nothing new.

    I still can't believe took people a year to notice that ¬_¬

  • ali-uk #26 6 years ago

    Oh, yeah true, bandwith caps would prove a problem. But for normal users, I don't see why it's such a big deal - you're helping people get the patch. I guess people don't like to share.

  • zozart #27 6 years ago

    "over reaction or WHAT its a 24mb file...if you uploaded it back it'd take no time at all..whinge whinge whinge"

    I don't think they're uploading it once, I think they're just generally uploading parts of it to people for the duration of their time playing WoW.

    I think people are justified in whinging about this. Whinging is good the spirit, or something.

  • urban #28 6 years ago

    alright folks...heres the solution...close the program in task manager ..dont tell me thats hard.
    i for one HATE on the day of a patching that i cant access their website because atleast 2 MILLION people want to read what the patch notes were, theres a solution, its called bit torrent, it shouldnt all be on them to distro the file.

    i really do think people are being anal.

    next people will be whinging that they have to send data to websites in order to recieve it. this is just daft.

  • wayn3h #29 6 years ago

    Having to be part of a distribution system and saving them money on bandwidth is a bit cheaky imo.

  • paulf #30 6 years ago

    It's not so much them doing this, it's them doing it without asking

  • Tiger_Walts #31 6 years ago

    There was always an option to not upload and effectively leech your patch of everyone else, at the expense of a slower download of course.

  • paulf #32 6 years ago

    Tiger, this is a new program though that runs in the background after you have dloaded the patch, (I only knew about it because of my firewall asking to give it access privelages) I'm not sure that it runs all the time you have your machine switched on or just when wow is running. Either way they should warn you that this is what they plan to do (which is essentially what they have done with the updater so all is cool)