OwnedCore - World of Warcraft Exploits, Hacks, Bots and Guides. - Pocket Gnome Lead Developer Interview

Recently I got the opportunity to chat with Tanaris4, the lead developer behind Pocket Gnome.
More information about Tanaris4 and Pocket Gnome can be found at the bottom of this interview, or by following links in the article.

What exactly is your affiliation with Pocket Gnome?

Lead Developer

What made you decide to develop a WoW bot, and how did you get started with it?

I actually didn't decide to, it kind of fell into my lap. The previous developer decided to open source the software and move on to other things in his life, so I offered to take over development + releases. Pocket Gnome was the first bot I ever used, I didn't even play wow when Glider was around.

What's been your biggest challenge in developing the bot thus far?

I'd say the largest was learning a new programming language (I didn't know Objective-C), and then just learning how wow works (huge props to those on OwnedCore that had patience for me in the memory editing section, I learned everything I know from them).

So you are basically self-taught in the language and figured it out with the help of our forums?

This book was a god send:
Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X
Read the first 100 pages, then I was ready to go and anything related to offsets, reverse engineering, etc... - all learned from a couple IDA books that were recommended by the OwnedCore guys and their posts/contributions.

Can you give me a brief history of where Pocket Gnome has been, and where it's going?

Great question, I believe it was started sometime in 2008/2009 (not by myself), And it has always existed as just a helpful toolkit, which is what I'd like to have it continue to be; It's not meant to be a one-click get me to level 85 and walk away, however, in the future that may be different.

So you're planning some major revamps for Pocket Gnome then?

The next major launch will include navigational meshes, similar to HonorBuddy, which will open the door to a lot of other uses.

Do you find yourself able to manually play World of Warcraft anymore given all of the internal workings that you know about it now?

Absolutely, although I will say there was about a 6 month period where League of Legends dominated a lot of my time (wish they had a mac client!!) but I've been playing the 4.3 content quite often lately, I love the random raid finder. Since the lawsuit began, it has added a lot more stress to my personal life, unfortunately. Before that process started in November, it wasn't much stress at all.

How much time do you have to invest into working on keeping PocketGnome running, and how has that affected your personal life?

I would say I invest around 10-20 hours per week that are dedicated to Pocket Gnome (I have a day job, so I can't really dedicate much more). I have a very understanding girlfriend that allows me dedicate a few of my nights a week to working on PG, and the majority of time lately has been on the future version of Pocket Gnome, which will include pathfinding.

I see. So the lawsuit has really put a damper on things, then?

Yes, absolutely.

When you were younger is this something you envisioned yourself ever doing as a "career"? If not, what did you see yourself doing?

I don't see it as a career, I wish it could be. For me, working on Pocket Gnome is just fun, and I enjoy the thought that other people are able to do other things with their lives (have a family, go out with friends, maybe add another hobby) instead of grinding levels or mobs for items/XP. I have been a developer since I started with Visual Basic (don't laugh) when I was around 11. Even though my day job wasn't directly related to development, I've always thoroughly enjoyed writing software. I would love to eventually run my own company (preferably software, or something technology related) that could enable others to pursue careers in development.

You seem very enthusiastic with Pocket Gnome, but what other people have helped you out the most in your work with Pocket Gnome?

Too many to name, and many unnamed I hate to say. Honestly the quote by Newton is so fitting for me, "If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants."
Without the ownedcore community, and their patience, I would never have learned what I know today to continue to improve and build on Pocket Gnome. Without the original Pocket Gnome developer, my interest or even awareness of such a great software solution would never have existed. Without my forum moderators and business partner, I wouldn't have the time to actually work on the software (as I'd probably be answering forum posts all day), nor the money to make investments in software and other developers, and of course various articles/posts randomly found via Google, there isn't much on reverse engineering for OS X. Quite jealous of the windows devs at times.

If you could have any superpower, what would it be?

To grant wishes. Strange, maybe, but it could help fix a lot of the world's problems.

What is your creative process on new features for Pocket Gnome?

It isn't much of a process really, but all stems from user requests. All improvements come from bug reports and the suggestions forum on our site.

Fair enough. What is your setting of choice while programming?

My home office for sure (in my basement): http://dump.tanaris4.com/desk.jpeg
But I also do enjoy just sitting at my dining room table from time to time (better light)
Note: that is the cleanest my desk has ever been

Being a mac only client, and to my knowledge the most well-developed, if not the only bot available for mac users, how do you feel about the community that has developed around Pocket Gnome?

I love them, they are seriously amazing. *Without them I would have no motivation or drive to continue working on it, and I can only compare it to one other community I used to run (wc3mods.net, war3ft.com) - warcraft mod for counter-strike. Very different userbase, although still gamers nonetheless.

Do you have any advice for potential or aspiring developers?

Pursue your passions, always.

If you could say one thing to potential PocketGnome customers, what would you tell them?

We've put a lot of time and effort into creating a well-rounded product, and are continually improving to adapt to everyone's needs. You won't regret your purchase!

Alright, and just to clear this one up for all the PocketGnome users out there, is it lrn2 or l2?

Most definitely L2, I'm not sure what Phillis was ever thinking

OwnedCore user Questions
The following are questions OwnedCore members sent in for me to ask.

How do you think future versions of Pocket Gnome will measure up to competitors such as Bossland bots, or even private bots?

We're always going to try to create the best software solution for our users, and as we see requests for features we may not have, we will definitely look into adding them. This is mainly why we're working so hard to add navigational meshes (something that Honorbuddy has had for quite some time) to the next major release, and unfortunately I haven't used windows bots very much :/ My first exposure to the botting community was Pocket Gnome. I'm very rarely on windows, and I literally know nothing of private bots. I didn't even play WoW when Glider was around.

Do you plan on adding the ability to quest bot in future releases?

Absolutely, it's already in our beta build for 2.0. *You can see it in action here: Pocket Gnome 2.0 Questing Preview - YouTube
Also, it is actually possible to quest today, with the current release. Phillis created a questing route for alliance and horde for Tol Barad dailies, it's just not as fluid as it could be with navigational meshes

Currently, given your knowledge of the way bots work with the World of Warcraft client. Would you say that a ban for botting is high risk low risk or no risk?

That's definitely a loaded question with not one answer. At any given time, botting could be very high risk, if Blizzard decides to implement server side detection heuristics. but I would say currently it's medium risk, depending on the particular bot you are using. Some developers don't bother to understand warden and how their users could be instantly banned, as the recent "ban wave" demonstrates from a particular windows bot. And risk is always defined by the user's actions. If they are botting for 48 hours straight, obviously they will get a ban.

To your knowledge, is Blizzard using any new methods to detect players botting or is it still the same as it has been for multiple expansions?

I don't have any reason to believe it is any different. I think they would be smart to implement some better detection methods, although it seems they would rather fight everyone in court rather than hire an experienced anti-bot developer. Seems they don't actually have the desire to ban all the botters, because then they lose revenue.

Do you fear Blizzard?

No, I don't fear them. I think they are bullies. Although I do respect them for creating a great game. And other games as well, I'm very much looking forward to play past Act 1 in Diablo 3, and I grew up on Diablo 2, and selling Windforces (a unique and very rare bow dropped in Diablo 2, comparable to a legendary in WoW) on ebay helped me through college quite a bit

Do you prefer pie or cake?

Not a huge fan of cake, I always asked for cookie cakes on birthdays. And I love Cheesecake (although don't have it often).

Why "Pocket Gnome"?

I inherited the project, so I didn't name it :/

Do you plan to release more bots for other mmorpg's?

I would love to, but I doubt I'll have the time, or the expertise to reverse engineer other games. And it pretty much needs to be a game on OS X, which there are very few.

Pocket Gnome - Mac WoW Bot

For more info on Tanaris4, you can find him on the Pocket Gnome forums, visit his OwnedCore profile, and check out his blog!

Have a great weekend, OwnedCore, and don't forget to check back next week for the "March Monthly Roundup"!