Glider Interview

[Forever]

What is glider?
Glider is a bot developed for World of Warcraft to automate gameplay. It will check your health, mana/energy/rage and kill the monsters which you want to be killed. It will run around through the game, eat, drink, farm soulshards. All this while trying to look as human as possible.
While Glider is doing this you can go to work or whatever you like and this nice little program will take over the process of leveling.
It does not only level however, it can also pickup herbs, mine ore veins and even fish!
Glider is not a hack and cannot do things for you that you normally wouldn't be able to do.

Profiles
For glider to work you will need to download or make your own profiles. Profiles are files with waypoints in it. Glider will follow the waypoints in the order they are set and while running between these waypoints it will scan the area around your character for monsters. If there are monsters around you that are on your to-kill list Glider will run to that monster, kill it, loot it, (skin it) and run back to the waypoint and continue its round.

Making your own profiles is really simple, you just need to make up a name for it and then make the waypoints. To make a waypoint all you have to do is go to the place you want Glider to run at and click "Add Waypoint". You will need to add various waypoints for your profile to be succesful and look as human as possible.
Alternatively, you can make automated profiles too. Just select that you want to use that function and Glider will tell you that you can run around and kill monsters. Waypoints will be automatically recorded and monsters you kill during this process will be added on the to-kill list.
You can also setup Ghost waypoints. Ghost waypoints are the waypoints you want glider to walk that go from the Spirit Guide (Where your spirit is released) back to your corpse. Glider will then automaticly resurrect your character and continue its task.
If you do not setup ghost waypoints Glider will simply stop doing anything once it dies.

Glider Elite
Glider elite is an addition to normal Glider. It costs $5 per month but gives you access to special features such as:
- Plug-ins
- Background gliding
- Automatic login

Plug-ins
Plug-ins are "AddOns" to Glider made by usually by fans. These come mostly in the form of Custom Classes. Custom classes changes the way Glider handles combat for certain classes. This also involves how Glider handles PvP (Standard Glider won't reach if it's getting attacked by a player).
Once you have Glider Elite you can download plug-ins at no additional cost.

Background gliding
In addition to the standard Glider, Glider will control WoW completely in the background. This makes you able to do other things such as making your homework while Glider is doing his job. The standard Glider will keep pressing buttons and if World of Warcraft is not your main window but Firefox is then you will see your adress bar being filled with 1,2,3,2,2,5,5.

Automatic login
If you ever disconnect Glider will automaticly log back in for you and continue what it was doing. Standard Glider will simply stop if you disconnect.

My personal experience with Glider
After I had done pretty much everything at level 70 I began looking for ways to level up my alt without me having to do anything so I quickly came to Glider and since it was the only bot back then I purchased two copies of it. Configuring the bot toke some time because I wanted to maximize my security, there are some good guides are here that explain everything to you to reduce the risk of getting banned.
After the bot was set I went to download some profiles off the official website and started the program. I watched as my Glider dealt with all the vicious monsters of the Barrens and I decided that it was good to go without me having to monitor it.
So the next day I went off to college and I had Glider running in the meantime, when I came back I was a couple of levels up and I was happy.
Since then I have been botting a lot and I couldn't live without Glider anymore, I will definitely be using this for a long time!
I have never tried Glider Elite though because I was happy with the standard Glider so I cannot give my opinion about that.

Prices
Glider is not free, you will have to pay $25 for a normal key which lasts for a lifetime. With this purchase you will also get lifelong updates so it's definitely worth it.
If you decide you share your key with someone else it will trigger a warning and your key will be banned and no longer usable, it is adviced that you don't let anyone use your key, keep it a secret to everyone.
Glider Elite costs an additional $5 per month and is an automated subscription. If you do not wish to have an automated subscription you can choose to buy ElitePasses which can be compared with WoW GameCards. These ElitePasses can be bought in 2- and 4 month versions.

If you are interested in purchasing Glider take a look at Glider for more details.


[BREAK=Interview with Mercury - by KuRIoS]
We have approached Mercury, the creator of the most popular bot for World of Warcraft – called Glider.
Glider is the most popular bot for World of Warcraft, many claims that it is the best, where others don’t think so but that is not what the interview is about.
I myself had my first botting experiences with Glider and I was blown away, sure it has cost me a “few” WoW accounts, but I knew that I would be banned on them sooner or later, that is how it is when you decide to use a bot. I later switched to another bot, but I am actually back enjoying the services of Glider as I’m writing this. I have 1 nice little priest and an even nicer lock running in the background doing 28k xp per hour at lvl 30, not too bad .

Some claim that Glider is more popular because it is easier to use, I don’t really know about that, yes it is easier to use, but it is easier to get caught as well then. If you want to master Glider and doing your upmost to not getting caught, then it takes a bit more than just one press of a button. That being said, I have no idea why Glider is the most popular though, It could be because it is the easiest, it could be because it is the fastest, it could be because it is the best and it could be another number of hypotheses, the fact is that it is the most used bot for World of Warcraft at this stage.

Anyways enough blabbering, let's get on with the interview!



MMOwned: First of all, can you tell a little bit about yourselves?

Mercury: We're two guys that run a small company. We like WoW and we don't like grinding. We've been in a bunch of different small companies over the years, so it's kind of old hat for us, although this is the first time we've been just the main dudes without a couple of partners.



MMOwned: Now we all know one of the hot topics regarding Glider is the court case. What was your initial reaction after Blizzard first appeared at your house?

Mercury: Well, once I got past the shock (which took a long time), I felt a little betrayed, as weird as that sounds. They could have sent me a C&D or an email or maybe even called first. Yeesh. Things could have been so much simpler if they approached us as a company, not some kid hacking away in his mom's basement.



MMOwned: What do you think is the worst thing that will happen if the case is lost, and what will you do next if that happens?

Mercury: I'm not real sure what the worst thing could be - it's pretty bad, I imagine. I do have to treat things like the absolute worst imagined option comes to pass, which definitely includes Glider being stopped. Next is a relative thing, but we're definitely kicking around some other business ideas unrelated to WoW, since it has a finite lifetime, no matter what happens in court. It's going to take a long time before there's really an end, assuming we go to the 9th circuit court of appeals, where I (and many others) expect the copyright stuff will not hold water.


MMOwned: What originally inspired you to create Glider? Was it the opportunity to make some money with your skills or just a side project which developed over time?

Mercury: Totally a side project, with the slim chance that it could grow into a big project. I just made it to catch up with my friends because I couldn't get any other bot to work. Once I started selling it, I figured it might bring in a couple hundred bucks a month. It turned out to be a bit bigger than that.


MMOwned: In relation to the last question, did you ever think Glider would become so popular while you were developing it?

Mercury: No, definitely not.


MMOwned: When did you realize that it was a "bit" bigger than you had expected?

Mercury: I think it really started to get crazy in January of 2006. That's when there was enough money coming in that I could safely quit my contracting job and go full-time to Glider.


MMOwned: Do you play World Of Warcraft at all? If so, do you use Glider yourself? (When not testing, of course)

Mercury: I don't play that much any more, as I'm kind of burned out. I was already a bit worn out on my shadow priest (main) when I lost what I'd call my best alt account in the May 08 ban wave. I went back on my shadow priest and got him all ready for wrath: maxed out trade skills, epic flying mount, skipped a bunch of rep/gear that doesn't matter, etc. I'm sure I'll get sucked back in when Wrath comes out, at least to check out the new content. I don't glide normally other than to test, although I'd use Glider to level a new alt if I got the bug. Not likely, though.



MMOwned: How long was development for the first version of Glider? And did you code it from the start in .NET, or was it started in another language?

Mercury: The very first version of Glider was actually called Nightfall and it was written in C# .NET, although it injected a small function into WoW to collect information that I didn't understand how to read at the time. That took about 2 weeks to make, but it was very unstable and only good for my own personal use. Turning that into Glider 0.0.1 took probably another 6 weeks, including the website and all the server-side pieces to manage Glider keys and their sales. Of course, Glider 0.0.1 sucked pretty badly if you hold it up against anything recent. (when I say weeks above, I mean 40-hour man-weeks)



MMOwned: Do you have any new features planned for future released of Glider?

Mercury: We're considering some fairly big stuff for Glider, as we want to make it a good deal less dependent on profiles and looping. I like the idea of task files or just entire chunks of scripts linked together so you can go into a new zone and just fire it off, which would let it pick up the quests, do them all, turn them in, throw out some random chatter, etc. There are some big pieces we need to assemble before we can consider that, like some good navigation. We also don't want to stomp or steal from the PPather guys. That may take a back seat to death knight code and whatever else comes in Wrath, but it's the big one on the plate now.



MMOwned: Since you guys are against injection for the most part, I won't ask why you're not using an in-game GUI (such as CEGUI, or CEGUI#), but why not use injection at all? Wouldn't it allow for much more support on a much broader array of features and possibilities?


Mercury: Injection is a trade-off between security and features. You definitely get to do a lot more cool stuff without having to go through the rickety keyboard and mouse, which add a ton of support problems. On the flip-side, it makes your job **REALLY** hard when it comes to avoiding detection. Finding injected code is insanely easy and can be concealed in a single instruction, so you have to exert a lot of effort into directly interfering with the detection code ala ISXWarden. That can work fine if you're up to the task (Lax is a better reverser than I am), but it can also turn ugly if the detection code is not where you expect it to be. Lately, that's turned into a bad deal with code strewn all over the client and not just in Warden. By contrast, code to detect Glider has to be a good deal bigger and more complex, so it's harder for them to hide - and easier for us to see when it fires off.

It's all trade-off's and there's no right answer. Just have to choose what works for your team.



MMOwned: Do you have any specific thoughts or feelings towards mmowned.com and how it functions? (Or any hacking/exploiting community for that matter)


Mercury: A "hacking community" tends to attract a lot of leechers and wannabe's, so I always shudder a bit at the term. And I shudder even more when threads about patching Glider pop up there, since that's literally taking money right out of our lawyers' pockets and the net effect of that is not something the "hacking community" probably wants. But as history has shown, individual members of any group cannot be expected to act in the best interests of the group. It's particularly true of the kind of attention-seeking generation you see playing WoW, where folks want to try to establish a name for themselves by creating the appearance of skill, regardless of whether it's there and regardless of the damage done. I've hacked my share of apps in the past, but I would never consider releasing tools or information that could be so destructive to the authors of the software.
- As I have explained to Merc, we have never allowed cracks of Glider here on MMOwned.


MMOwned: How do you feel about Openbot? (The only major competition to Glider currently) Although OB does not have as huge a fanbase as Glider does, things could get interesting with the release of OB.NET getting closer


Mercury: OB looks really cool and we've heard nothing but good stuff about it. With a solid core of people, you can accomplish some amazing stuff and OB definitely has that potential. We'd sure like to steal some of the navigation stuff, but we haven't found a good way to pin the blame on someone else.



MMOwned: What are your feeling towards MMOwned.com and do you have a member account there?

Mercury: I don't personally have an account there, although Hamut does. I think I summed up my thoughts in 10 above - any open exchange of information is a good thing, at least until that exchange becomes a vessel for people to get software without paying for it. That's over the line for me. Of course, that's to be expected, given how we make our money.


MMOwned: With the recent release of Warhammer Age of reckoning, are you planning to create a "Glider" for Warhammer?

Mercury: Highly doubtful. There are a lot of negative factors involved: Punkbuster, usefulness of a bot in that game, number of subscribers, risk of more legal mess. If the game reaches a huge number of subs and they all realize there is an annoying aspect of the game that can be automated, maybe. But don't hold your breath.


MMOwned: Could you imagine creating something along the lines of glider, or maybe an addon so we could get Glider for Starcraft 2 or Diablo 3. (Yes we know its a long way form release, but we're just wondering)


Mercury: There are certainly options for SC2 and D3. Of course, a huge number of unknowns exist, but some of the known factors (subscriber count and Blizzard's penchant for grind-oriented design) are already on the positive side.


We would like to thank Mercury very much for taking his time to answer our questions.

If you have any inquiries or wish to purchase Glider then you can do so at Glider, it's well worth it.

[BREAK=Screenshots]

This is the window you will see if Glider is running. The window is hidden ofcourse for your own safety. The shortcuts are "Start" "Kill target" "Stop" "Load profile" "Configuration". I'm sure you can figure out what those buttons will do.


This is the profile tab of the default Glider screen. You can start the profile wizard from here as well as load your profile to begin Gliding.


This is the profile wizard, as you can see it is set to "recording" so all you have to do is run around and waypoints will automatically be added. Don't forget to kill monsters or you won't have anything on your "blacklist"!


This is the configuration screen of Glider. It has many tabs and options so I suggest you find a guide that will help you set up Glider as safe as possible!

[KuRIoS]

very nice that we got it up now

[Innit]

First!

Kurios doesn't count

Nice interview and infomation on glider. 5/5

Could do with a bit more intense infomation for the informed on bots, but not on glider. We could give them it here, rather then telling them to gtfo to mmoglider.com.

[Viter]

Great interview!

[Ease]

epppiccc. (fillz

[Obama]

good job forever.

[KuRIoS]

well you have to understand how busy they are (merc and hamut). We really appreciate that they took the time to help us getting this article done.

Also the glider subscription is well worth it IMO.

[JohnPreston]

Sweet! Good stuff

[Performer]

Intresting read

[Rockerfooi]

Awesome interview!

And awesome screenshots lol xD

[philizzle]

Glider is amazing, in my eyes you guys are gods. It has freed up so much of my time and It is so much fun to watch my guy run around and pwn face without me doing anything. When i was leveling(gliding) up a lock that was 33 a 35 warrior tried ganking me. Glider handled this wonderfully and owned the warrior. This happened on multiple occasions. I always have and will be a dedicated Glider. Long live MMOGlider!

[dfk]

wow nice interview some nice info good read thanks kur

[KeyMaster45]

did anyone bother to proof read this article, its a grammer and spelling nightmare.

[KuRIoS]

did anyone bother to proof read this article, its a grammer and spelling nightmare.

who cares? if it makes sense then its fine with me

[Syan]

Cool that they did this for us. Long live glider !