This reminds me a lot about Neverwinter Nights
The thing about NWN is it's very consumer friendly. They have the law that you can't modify the software, but like it seems with CoH, there is a folder called Override. Which does just that, any file put in that folder will override the main file upon uploading. No alteration is done, nothing is hacked, it just reads the override file first.
They have cracked down one people who modify the exe file... there was a camera hack for a while ( that let you move the camera view to a first person and increased the range ) that they were against, and eventually put into the actual game client themselves. Thing is, all this stuff IS client side. You can only do so much client side... as far as I know you can't get free XP or influence because the server will say "no, you didn't kill that because I didn't see it" client is just that... client, what you the single person see and nobody else.
Now granted, an MMO is a whole different creature when it comes to modding, can easily talk about UT and Quake and NWN and such, they have online aspects but pretty much everything is between a group of people. You and a person connect to each other and play. MMO's deal with servers owned by someone, paid for by customers and have to deal with everyone. The others don't have to, they can sell the base product and let people go to town, they have their money... they don't have to contually watch things like an MMO where monthly is where your money comes from.
In my eyes, an override folder is a good thing, it's only for the one person, granted viruses and such can happen but well, that's a risk you take and sometimes you just find guides anyway ( I believe the sound one just dealt with making a blank file or such ). Now yes, bots and such are wrong I think, they allow someone to have an advantage over another. Stores on a map don't, disabling sounds don't... I mean in the map you get with the game, the stores are on it... there isn't an exact placement cause the maps are small, but you can find it easily if you just look in the general area.
I do understand the legal ramifications, and I believe that's really what it comes down to. There have always been the "constant threat" of infringing copywrites of the various comic book companies, and I suppose it would be easy to have a superman logo or such on your chest... but you know what? Only you would see it. Again, it's all client side... the things on the servers can't be modified without directly hacking the server itself. You can't send fake info to the server because the server won't believe it. It does all the calculations, it does all the results, you just tell it what you want to do, and it does it for you.
I see why they are cracking down, but then again... I don't see why. Suppose that's how it works though
