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        riddles >> general problem-solving / chatting / whatever >> Detecting leaker of a beta
        
(Message started by: drunksage on Nov 8^th, 2006, 12:03pm)

Title: Detecting leaker of a beta
Post by drunksage on Nov 8^th, 2006, 12:03pm

I'm not sure where this topic fits, so I placed it here.

Is anyone here familiar with Warcraft III, and especially WC3 mapmaking? I want to figure out a way to protect a WC3 map from being leaked during closed beta testing and mainly a way to detect who is leaking the map. If you're not familiar with WC3 The only people who have access to the map are the developer and a pool of, say, a hundred beta testers.

Some ideas:

- Since the map is loaded within WC3, you can't limit "installing" it, but maybe you can put in a trigger to end the game as a loss if a certain password isn't typed in. Password (or one of multiple passwords) would be given to selected, "trusted" beta testers to use when playing the map with other beta testers.
- Slightly modified versions of the map released every so often, and monitoring who downloads it and who plays it. "Replays" of a game can be saved after the game is completed, so you can keep track of who's played a certain version. If that version is leaked, you have a better idea of what's going on.
- Something that doesn't work: limiting the map to certain names of testers, since some of these names are publicly known.

Title: Re: Detecting leaker of a beta
Post by towr on Nov 8^th, 2006, 2:16pm

The only thing I can think of is one you already mention, give everyone a slightly different map. They could easily be functional equivalent yet differ in color or texture somewhere. Just enough to be unique.

Title: Re: Detecting leaker of a beta
Post by drunksage on Nov 8^th, 2006, 3:13pm

on 11/08/06 at 14:16:40, towr wrote:

I knew I missed something. Let me elaborate on this point: the mechanism of beta testing is mainly to play the map with other players, ideally 10 people in a game, since some bugs can't be determined in single-player. The exact same version of a map is needed by all people in a particular game.

Title: Re: Detecting leaker of a beta
Post by Icarus on Nov 8^th, 2006, 6:20pm

You could hide a unique ID code in the file for each copy of the map. You would have to adjust the game to ignore this code during play. If the map is leaked, you only need to look up the code in the leaked copy to see which one it was. Then you can limit the pool of potential sources to the people who had access to that copy.

Title: Re: Detecting leaker of a beta
Post by towr on Nov 9^th, 2006, 12:04am

on 11/08/06 at 15:13:17, drunksage wrote:

The exact same version of a map is needed by all people in a particular game.

It can't even differ on nonfunctional details? Like a pixel here or there?

To be honest, someone might have thought about the leaking problem while making the game itself. But I suppose it's too late for that.