AVG: That World of Warcraft hack? RIDDLED with malware

A new cross-platform security product that covers desktops, smartphones and tablets is likely to be a key area of development for desktop freebie virus-scanner firm AVG during 2013. AVG is best known for its free anti-virus scanner for Windows PCs, but over the years it has broadened its range to include more functional PC …

[Anonymous Coward]

Should simply say

"If you're sick of grinding on Azeroth.. think again"

Blizzard doesn't deserve your money any longer. Incredibly stale.

[RyokuMas]

Re: Should simply say

Couldn't agree more - started playing back when it was "vanilla" WoW - back then people were friendly and actually talked on general chat, guilds were more than just about raiding, and you could get a "proper" dungeon group (ie: no over-levelled character carrying others through) for just about any instance.

Stopped playing shortly after WotLK launched... so bored. God knows what it's like now.

[Crisp]

Re: Should simply say

The Looking for Group tool was the death knell of the social aspect of the game.

Before that, you got to know people. Some you'd avoid like the plague because they were ninja looting scum, and others you would bend over backwards to run a dungeon with because they were so damn good. People got reputations.

Now all you have to do is click a button and you end up in a team of people that don't try because they've not had to put any effort into getting a group together.

/rant

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Should simply say

Another problem is the sheer number of comparison tools used to exclude people. Gear item levels, DPS, HPS, and so on, not ever necessarily related to the amount you actually helped the group.

Clearly you pull a community apart when you allow them to click a button, never talk to people, and then later whine about numbers on a screen.

It stopped being about just having a fun time with friends when it become a slick grind, with tiers constantly becoming obsolete.

[Mr Spock]

Re: Should simply say

Mists of Pandaria? It's basically Farmville and Pokemon. Meanwhile the RPG aspect of the game has been dumbed down so heavily as to be practically unplayable. Couldn't dump it quick enough.

[Shane8]

Re: Should simply say

Boring?! What are you guys talking about....we just unlocked stage 5 on Isle of Thunder!!!!

LFM nalak....anyone?

[garetht t]

Re: Should simply say

So - you haven't played it in three years, yet you agree the game is still bad?

You've missed too many changes to espouse on it's merits.

[Killraven]

Re: Should simply say

NEWSFLASH!

After many years and thousands of hours of gameplay, user tires of game. Said user is amazed that anybody else can now find the game interesting at all, even if they've never played before.

Anyhoo.... I know quite a few people that have been playing since vanilla, and still find it quite enjoyable. It's just as much about what YOU put into the game as what the designers do.

[Anonymous Coward]

Lack of business sense?

So AVG says that Android is "particularly susceptible" to malware. The logic of the statement makes not much sense, Android is susceptible to malware not because its open source nature, but because of its huge market share.

Leaving aside for a moment that consideration, AVG is not showing much business sense, why then release products for Windows Phone and iOS only? Where is the Android version?

(I used the AVG free product for Windows for a couple of years and I was quite satisfied, by the way, so I think these folks know a bit or two about their market)

[SteveK]

Re: Lack of business sense?

"Leaving aside for a moment that consideration, AVG is not showing much business sense, why then release products for Windows Phone and iOS only? Where is the Android version?"

Over there in the Play store, where it's always been...

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.antivirus

[Flawless101]

well duh...

These mmos go to incredible lengths to stop hacks being possible, can't catch them all but they're doing a fine job of it.

I bet most of these are VB programs that look like they were thrown together by a 12 year old child, and in fact probably were. What's more surprising is that people actually think these things would work.

[Lee Taylor]

AVG almost as bad as Norton

AVG used to be a good product and I had the paid version running on mine and families pc`s. But these days its turned into slow bloat ware that’s good at false positives and not

good at actually protecting pcs.

Personally I rate AVG as almost bad as Norton for making a standard pc unusable. You'll know when it's reached that status as PC World will start trying to flog it with every new pc......

[Mr Spock]

Re: AVG almost as bad as Norton

Heavily agree. AVG should maybe spend less time planting infomercials on El Reg and more time debloating their product so fewer people (like me) move to Avast.

[mark 63]

Next time you are sick of grinding on Azeroth , get a life

[Sarah Davis]

AVG is to protection what a net is to water, accept AVG has more pop-ups

AVG is a joke !! It's one of the most pointless, bloated, and useless anti-malware products. It's previously detected itself as malware and deleted it's own files. It's also falsely detected genuine windows files as malware and bricked users machines. To use it is to invite stress, data loss, and a myriad of pointless pop-ups into your life ! Seriously, who uses this rubbish ? your almost better off installing a virus.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: AVG is to protection what a net is to water, accept AVG has more pop-ups

If one wanted to install spyware on millions of PC's and/or maybe wanted to do very large distributed computing tasks without paying for the electricity, P2P data transfers, botnets, DDOS, and whatnot - then the "antivirus software" would be the ideal tool for it.

AVG and anything related with Symantec being crap, are probably legit - while other tools are slick and smooth and free .... Maybe SAIC, MOSSAD or CIA pay for them?

[MrT]

Mods and hacks...

...stuffed with malware, Trojans etc. is an old story - no such thing as a free lunch.

I remember back in 2000 an encounter with a nasty on a friend's PC (IIRC that had arrived as part of an unlimited cash hack on Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed) that set me off helping with Magnus Mischel and co on Trojanhunter and then on to work with Paul and Robin Laudanski at CastleCops. Even then, the idea of hidden payloads was old news - but it was the early days of the shift from ad-hoc dial-up access to always-on broadband and free stuff was flowing ever more energetically than back when 28.8kbps was fast.

[Anonymous Coward]

"AVG is best known for its free anti-virus scanner for Windows PCs"

AVG is best known for its free anti-virus scanner for Windows PCs and its nasty habit of acting just like bloody malware as it tries to foist bloody toolbars for sundry ne'erdowell outfits who have such a crap product they need a pusher with the morals of an autistic weasel*

There. Fixed it for you.

*Which is unfair to morally autistic weasels, to whom I would like to apologise

[Anonymous Coward]

Re:

Not just toolbars. It also advertises other AVG products and add ons even after purchase.

[Anonymous Coward]

As soon as I see the word 'family' I think rubbish product.

[Don Jefe]

What about 'family planning' products?

[Chairo]

Downloading executables from p2p is dangerous?

Good we have avira to tell us.

Next lesson - how to suck eggs!

[TheBampot]

AVG on Android

http://www.avg.com/gb-en/antivirus-for-android

[nuked]

Hmm. AVG or Malware on a Windows Phone. Tough one...

[SpaMster]

AVG is awful, it slows your pc down more than the malware does!