It's worth considering that even Blizzard knew they couldn't manage to create a non-duplicatable client protocol and opted for the potentially very expensive route of using the DMCA. Unless I'm mis-remembering, WoW trivially encrypts 1 or 2 bits of every byte, letting them claim that anyone who made a client to supplant their own would be violating the reverse-engineering provision of the DMCA, and thus gaining the ability to sue the pants off offenders.
I suppose that's a viable strategy if you have the kind of money Blizzard (and their master, Vivendi Universal) has, but it's not feasible for small games companies.
I wish you luck Hephos, but it's a paradoxical situation: The only way you're going to be able to prevent other clients in the long run is if you have few enough players that nobody cares enough to hack protocol.
--matt
|