Auction House Down [11/16] - BACK UP

strumslinger · November 2016

UPDATE 3PM: The Auction House is back up!

Hey everyone,

We're aware the Auction House is down right now and are working on it. Sorry for the late notice - it happened when I was asleep

.

We intentionally took it down due to botting activity that we're still looking into.

Thanks for the patience.

somex · November 2016

~~Is there no explanation behind the downtime at all? It's being left to a lot of speculation (bot attacks, intentional takedown, etc).~~ One working theory is that they took it down to break botscripts to easily detect activity.

Also, I'm assuming since your post didn't have one, there's no ETA?

dupeks · November 2016

strumslinger said:
Hey everyone,

We're aware the Auction House is down right now and are working on it. Sorry for the late notice - it happened when I was asleep .

Thanks for the patience.

Thanks for the update Strum.

I know that it may be a little premature and over-the-top, but are you able to quiet the community's nerves by confirming that this is not an intentional decommissioning of the Auction House?

Folks are understandably suspicious given the way that the Gateway went the way of the dinosaurs, and communication surrounding that sad situation bears an uncanny resemblance to your announcement right now.

I want to believe that this is a bug and you guys are working to restore it. Please help the community feel at ease by confirming that you aren't intentionally removing the Auction House.

demonmonger · November 2016

Hmmm

raverner · November 2016

It would be awsome if now they pay atention to the listing issue i have been dealing with for the last few months.

greywynd · November 2016

strumslinger said:
Hey everyone,

We're aware the Auction House is down right now and are working on it. Sorry for the late notice - it happened when I was asleep .

Thanks for the patience.

You're allowed to sleep when you aren't on vacation?

Thanks for the heads up.

gleichgewichtnw · November 2016

Than I ask here again

What happens with items that where in AH during Downtime und got offers on it?

colier · November 2016

strumslinger said:
Hey everyone,

We're aware the Auction House is down right now and are working on it. Sorry for the late notice - it happened when I was asleep .

We intentionally took it down due to botting activity that we're still looking into.

Thanks for the patience.

Does this mean no more AH as well now?

hastati96 · November 2016

Fight the war against the bots and win it!

Unknown · November 2016

This content has been removed.

dupeks · November 2016

mimicking#6533 said:
Hey Gang- not shutting the Ah down or the bank:) we may temporarily disable hopping up and down on level 4's though ( gallow humor, I know). Looking into this issue now, thanks for the heads up.
M.K.

Source:
http://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/neverwinter#/discussion/1225336/bot-attack-currently-under-way-in-pe

I'll admit I chuckled at the gallows humor. Thank you for confirming that the AH / bank is not scheduled for demolition.

As usual, I make my plea: better communication goes a long way. If your objective is profit, I think investing some time into a better relationship with the community will result in more Zen sales. I strongly believe that the return on time invested into more transparent dialog with the community is far better than a bit of incremental content or releasing a patch a bit sooner. @mimicking#6533 I beg you to consider this.

loboguild · November 2016

Now why have you shut down the Gateway exactly? And who's gonna say we told you so?

How much longer until you realize that you only shift the problem while taking away features from players...

dupeks · November 2016

strumslinger said:
We intentionally took it down due to botting activity that we're still looking into.

Oh look, a ninja update...

This is starting to sound INCREDIBLY FAMILIAR like the gateway situation. And starting to border on deceptive and unprofessional. Is anyone in charge of this ship?

@strumslinger your explanation is kind of at odds with the statement @mimicking#6533 made. Why would Thomas have to be looking into the issue if you intentionally brought the AH down? Thomas or Andy can either of you clarify?

mimicking#6533 said:
Hey Gang- not shutting the Ah down or the bank:) we may temporarily disable hopping up and down on level 4's though ( gallow humor, I know). Looking into this issue now, thanks for the heads up.
M.K.

Source:
http://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/neverwinter#/discussion/1225336/bot-attack-currently-under-way-in-pe

beckylunatic · November 2016

Because they are looking into the botting, not the outage. Thomas just didn't specify in his post.

While an update to the first post of a thread is a good way to keep information in one place, it does also unintentionally "hide" that information from people who do not return to the first post on account of they already read it. (Terramak's color-coding of updates to preview patch notes are a great way of distinguishing text added later, btw.)

Something something mumble mutter, lack of official dev tracker.

dupeks · November 2016

beckylunatic said:
Because they are looking into the botting, not the outage. Thomas just didn't specify in his post.

While an update to the first post of a thread is a good way to keep information in one place, it does also unintentionally "hide" that information from people who do not return to the first post on account of they already read it. (Terramak's color-coding of updates to preview patch notes are a great way of distinguishing text added later, btw.)

Something something mumble mutter, lack of official dev tracker.

Fair enough. I guess in light of their recent communication failures (Gateway and Keygate being front and center) I'm disheartened that they seem to be repeating the same exact communication missteps that (I believe) cost me half my FL.

I strongly believe the onus is on @mimicking#6533 and @strumslinger to do a better job communicating with the community. Part of that means both posting a new comment as well as updating the OP when communicating important new info (especially if it's something as sensitive as botting... any action that could be perceived as deceptive is incredibly counter-productive in building trust with the community). Or providing a dev tracker / better forum software, but let's face it that's a pipe dream.

I know I'm a broken record, but I'm constantly surprised at what I perceive to be pretty obvious communication faux pas. Repeated. Repeatedly. It really hurts the community, and that kind of breaks my heart.

rubbertrixs · November 2016

so no HE in stronghold, no big HE in sea of moving ice, and now no AH. this has to stop please tell us what is going on. when will it be fixed. if you want players to be loyal just tell us what is going on...please

mamalion1234 · November 2016

So you gonna remove auction house and only with trades we will able to get items?:p

mimicking · November 2016

dupeks said:

strumslinger said:
We intentionally took it down due to botting activity that we're still looking into.
Oh look, a ninja update...

This is starting to sound INCREDIBLY FAMILIAR like the gateway situation. And starting to border on deceptive and unprofessional. Is anyone in charge of this ship?

@strumslinger your explanation is kind of at odds with the statement @mimicking#6533 made. Why would Thomas have to be looking into the issue if you intentionally brought the AH down? Thomas or Andy can either of you clarify?
mimicking#6533 said:
Hey Gang- not shutting the Ah down or the bank:) we may temporarily disable hopping up and down on level 4's though ( gallow humor, I know). Looking into this issue now, thanks for the heads up.
M.K.
Source:
http://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/neverwinter#/discussion/1225336/bot-attack-currently-under-way-in-pe

Dupek- the statement is not at odds. We know the reason we took it down, but, as some queried, not shutting it down. As to looking into the issue, we are working on a fix so that we can safely bring it back up.
Cheers
M.K.

dupeks · November 2016

mimicking#6533 said:
Dupek- the statement is not at odds. We know the reason we took it down, but, as some queried, not shutting it down. As to looking into the issue, we are working on a fix so that we can safely bring it back up.
Cheers
M.K.

Thanks for the clarification. Please excuse my sensitivity around the issue, the communication so far had all the hallmarks of what happened when the Gateway was taken away. Now you've clarified, I'm less concerned.

That said, I would politely encourage you to be more mindful about how your words are perceived. Your post reads as if the outage wasn't intentional: some dark humor followed by "Looking into this issue now, thanks for the heads up" sounds like the acknowledgement we typically receive when someone reports an unexpected game-breaking bug. It does not read like a confirmation of an intentional decision to combat botting.

With great power and all that...

dupeks · November 2016

strumslinger said:
UPDATE 3PM: The Auction House is back up!

Yay! Update for those who don't revisit the OP

ajlir · November 2016

So, did the bots stops jumping?

dread4moor · November 2016

ajlir#7970
"So, did the bots stops jumping?"

Yes. This infestation of thieving roaches gathered on our kitchen floor, hopping up and down as if to say "HAMSTER you, Cryptic. We own this place, HAMSTER. We dare you to ban us!"

Nothing was done about them.
They have crawled back under the floorboards.

dupeks · November 2016

ajlir#7970 said:
So, did the bots stops jumping?

If the bots stopped jumping then they would idle out. So no, bots jumping is akin to our hearts beating, it's kind of beautiful to see them if you ever get the chance

And no, it's really unlikely that this emergency shutdown of the AH would result in actual progress in removing bots. Even if they ban some accounts, automatically creating new accounts is so easy that they would be back tomorrow.

Perhaps Cryptic is working on some sort of better solution, but so far most of their attempts have shifted the focus of botting and moved the strain between different parts of the game, but haven't been able to sufficiently address it (or even meaningfully reduce it, as far as I can tell, but that's an opinion and we as players don't have sufficient information to accurately assess this)

Auction House Down [11/16] - BACK UP

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