Change Your Race In-game?

[ck1p3]

I have recently come across a few PvP videos where the player has seemingly changed the "skin" on their character and becomes a different race in certain clips. Examples of this can be seen in the "Tuska 3" and the Saru and Tharbad 2v2 Arena video which can both be found on the warcraftmovies site. The characters still have all their original armor so it is definitely not Orb of Deception. The change in race can only be seen by the one who is playing the character as well. To everyone else you still appear as your actual race. If anyone knows what I'm talking about or knows how to do this then some instruction would be much appreciated, Thankyou.

[Valas Azuviir]

That's either private server stuff, or they've messed with the .mpq files
The latter is not something that Blizzard likes for folks to do, and they can ban you from the game if they detect it.

Either way, we really can't help you any further with this subject, considering both Private servers and mpq messing are violations of the ToS, and we cling rather close to that on these forums.

[Kojima]

Private servers are violating the ToS? I just thought they were frowned upon or something. Wow, glad I never set one up 0.o

[Tunga]

Yes, very much against the rules and bannable.

[Everglow]

Private servers are violating the ToS? I just thought they were frowned upon or something. Wow, glad I never set one up 0.o

A private server is basically someone stealing Blizzard's game and setting it up so they and their friends can play it together for free. Not only is it against the ToS, but is illegal under the criminal code, with up to 4 years (US) or 10 years (UK) sentence attached, if Blizz were to press charges. WoW is not public domain software.

[Tehdead]

Ok first the reskins are just model edits this is not against any of the TOC as it does not change or alter the economy or fairness of the game but the use of a third-party program to force WoW to read it is against the TOC lol they always to have some thing to get ya. And as far as private servers go this was brought up to a well known blizzard employie known as "The Blizzard lawyer" looked into it and found that when you purchase the game your a purchasing rights to play the game, untill you make an account you dont have the right to use there servers and that seeing as "you" own the game and have rights to play it there is nothing saying whos servers your allowed to play it on. BUT it is against TOC and a couple of copyright laws depending on where you live to withdrawn game data from its origanal self.

[Taryble]

Ok first the reskins are just model edits this is not against any of the TOC as it does not change or alter the economy or fairness of the game but the use of a third-party program to force WoW to read it is against the TOC lol they always to have some thing to get ya. And as far as private servers go this was brought up to a well known blizzard employie known as "The Blizzard lawyer" looked into it and found that when you purchase the game your a purchasing rights to play the game, untill you make an account you dont have the right to use there servers and that seeing as "you" own the game and have rights to play it there is nothing saying whos servers your allowed to play it on. BUT it is against TOC and a couple of copyright laws depending on where you live to withdrawn game data from its origanal self.

And actually, you only have the right to install the game - you don't "own" anything beyond the physical stuff that was in the box. Something most people don't realize is that all software has an End User License Agreement (EULA) - and it takes effect the moment you open the box or download the installation file. Running and/or connecting to a private server is against the EULA, as it requires reverse engineering of the software and/or data files, which violates basically every known EULA of the last 20+ years. Blizzard's EULA also makes any editing of the data files against the EULA, which is a legally binding agreement.

Speaking of fun EULA's... did you know that you don't own your copy of Windows/MacOS? You're merely granted the right to USE the OS, Microsoft/Apple still owns your copy of it.

-- Taryble

[Lothaer]

it is possible to change race ingame... its called delete your toon and re-roll another race.

[Phoenixcoder]

Tampering with MPQ file is against the TOC, but double check the videos. I am pretty sure I have seen it before where an item will change the look of your char, but your gear will remain.

Regarding private servers, there is a loop hole in the TOC. It forbids connecting to or setting up servers for PRIVATE use, but not connecting to or setting up a server for PUBLIC use. However, as Taryble stated, it is against the EULA to reverse engineer the software or data files.

This is where things get complicated. The server software itself, the binaries (exe files), are legal. (although there maybe some confusion of the devs intent.) This only holds true as long as you don't use any data from the WoW Client, such as the DBC files (they store a lot of client-side data), and Maps. (Both exist inside the MPQ files.) The database that the server needs to run is disputable, as it is similiar to the Blizzard's, but -as far as anybody knows- has a different structure.

It's actually curious though how Blizzard is supporting Machinima, as a lot of people use private servers to get the right camera shot. I know they also use a program called WoWModelViewer, which is in clear violation of the EULA as the dev would have to do some reverse engineering to access the World of Warcraft data files.

Speaking of fun EULA's... did you know that you don't own your copy of Windows/MacOS? You're merely granted the right to USE the OS, Microsoft/Apple still owns your copy of it.

LOL (literally when I read this) That's why I use Linux as much as I can. The only need Windows to play games that cannot be run in WINE or Cedega. I haven't used MacOS in years. I heard that it is virus free, but I wonder if that is true, or it just means that no virus have been identified.

[Tunga]

No OS is virus free. Fact.

[boomsaber]

You guys are silly. Altering mpq files... blah blah... what are they going to do? Get a grip. If you alter a mpq file the game won't run, plain and simple. You never altered the mpq files to get this working. What you did was put folders with the same path as the mpq in the data folder. Wow used to read this as a new patch and would run that data, then the mpq files. It still works like this, just now you have to make your own mpq files called patch-(whatever, a high letter like r or something) and it will still work... just not with model changing. Leave it to pvp to mess up everything in wow like always... people were setting up the flag to be 1000 feet tall and bright pink. N E A T. GG PVP GUYS. They claimed in a patch that people were "growing larger than intended to gain access to areas they would otherwise be restricted from" but come on, everyone knows that's garbage.

A N Y W A Y S... yes, you can still do it, but you have to run a program and since wow has the right to look at your ram anytime it's up you pretty much can't do it without getting banned(not entirely true, there are ways you can hide it). You can still reskin models, like nude patches and stuff, but there's no real fun in that. You know, on the boards people complained that people would be able to make herbs and ore neon pink and have an advantage, which they did nothing to change, with the right amount of work you can still do that. You can still make all horde race skins bright red if you're alliance, ect...

[Valas Azuviir]

I think this thread has just about outlived its usefulness.

*Casts binding spell*
*Clank*

*Unholsters bakka hammer just in case*