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A Mature Look At What Happened....
ztempest
Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users Posts: 9 Arc User
Let’s put this entire episode into perspective.
A small number of individuals exploited an entire virtual world. In terms of game population, this group of individuals probably represented less than one tenth of one percent of the entire player population…
Yet the actions of a few are affecting the entire playerbase, most of which are players who genuinely enjoy the game – whose purchases of Zen represent an investment in the game, and who genuinely play the game the way it is supposed to be played.
Some people are calling for a complete wipe of this entire virtual world. Let me tell you why this is wrong. First, 90% plus of the player base has invested time and money to reach certain goals in-game. Wiping the servers reduces all that effort to nothing. Secondly, the small group of individuals who exploited the system have essentially a criminal mindset – and that means that a server wipe would just be more entertainment for them. Just think of it – by not only exploiting the system, they will have caused the destruction of an entire virtual community and world. They already got out of the exploit what they wanted – a server wipe would be icing on the cake, and does nothing more than add to their reputation in an evil way. Let me be clear – they WANT a server wipe – within certain circles, that would cement their claims to fame.
Do you REALLY want to give them what they want?
Solutions – Cryptic and PWE are closing the loopholes and tracking down and punishing the guilty. This is the right thing for them to do…but wiping all of the shards?
Pause a moment…because if this is what happens…then you will have handed the exploiters what they desire on a silver platter.
A small number of individuals exploited an entire virtual world. In terms of game population, this group of individuals probably represented less than one tenth of one percent of the entire player population…
Yet the actions of a few are affecting the entire playerbase, most of which are players who genuinely enjoy the game – whose purchases of Zen represent an investment in the game, and who genuinely play the game the way it is supposed to be played.
Some people are calling for a complete wipe of this entire virtual world. Let me tell you why this is wrong. First, 90% plus of the player base has invested time and money to reach certain goals in-game. Wiping the servers reduces all that effort to nothing. Secondly, the small group of individuals who exploited the system have essentially a criminal mindset – and that means that a server wipe would just be more entertainment for them. Just think of it – by not only exploiting the system, they will have caused the destruction of an entire virtual community and world. They already got out of the exploit what they wanted – a server wipe would be icing on the cake, and does nothing more than add to their reputation in an evil way. Let me be clear – they WANT a server wipe – within certain circles, that would cement their claims to fame.
Do you REALLY want to give them what they want?
Solutions – Cryptic and PWE are closing the loopholes and tracking down and punishing the guilty. This is the right thing for them to do…but wiping all of the shards?
Pause a moment…because if this is what happens…then you will have handed the exploiters what they desire on a silver platter.
Post edited by ztempest on
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Comments
~Rex Stout, Death of a Doxy
If the server population is around 300K or so -- and that is conservative, it might be much higher than that and it likely is -- then 10% of that group would be 3,000 individuals.
I don't know anything about the AH...but the AD exchange had all of the earmarks of a small group of individuals manipulating the entire market. I doubt that it was a coordinated group of thousands.
But once again, just a guess based on numbers and logic.
Frankly...if the number of exploiters was more than 5% of the player base, I would be shocked.
The money folks spent would get converted back into credits on the cash store, and all toons would get zapped out of existence with perhaps an X-days period to get your character name.
That's just normal for an MMO launch.
You just threw in numbers in there trying to make sense. There was A LOT of people committing this exploit and was having major issues regarding the economy. *WTS Cat 10g*
The part you are correct about is that more than the other part of the community was playing the game legitimately, we already know there will be no wipe. If anything this downtime serves as a minor inconvience in the long run of this game. People are blowing this out of proportion.
I think that the main point I wanted to make -- and which I did not make well evidently -- is that if there is a server wipe (and we have already been told that is not the case, so it is a moot point), that kind of action would be what the exploiters want, because it would add to their reputation. I understand the frustration of the segment of the community calling for such a drastic action...I can understand the whole "tear it down and recreate anew" mentality...but in this case, it is self-destructive for absolutely zero gain in the long run...and it actually gives the perps what they want -- recognition and bragging rights for destroying a pretty awesome game.
Also, your PWE account keeps track of any cash purchases you've made for zen. So there'd be no reason to lose your investment of money at least.
10% OF 300K is 30k, not 3k. That would be 1%.
Yes, your point remains. However, it won't be that easy to fix this situation without reverting back. I completely understand about your point about the people who have invested money into the game, and I would hope PWE would compensate/refund any money spent since whatever point they may or may not choose (if they do) to roll back/wipe to. However, the fact is that this is a F2P game, and the vast majority of players haven't spent a cent, especially considering this is still technically beta.
I feel the same way Morvek01. I have a feeling they are going to go the same route as they did with STO and give some 'stern' warnings, and we will be covered in cat fur.
Cheers!
When he thought it should go down, he'd sell back.. when he wanted it to go up again, he would buy back. He conveniently dumped ecto when he was about to make sale, and bought it out, when he was making a buy.
If anything I would bet 90% of the people online today took advantage of the exploit. hence my view is a total wipe is the only thing to fix the mess, anything short of that and I will most likely quit.
Character is what a man is in the dark
to Morvek...a wipe is not the answer. A restructured economy is. Make certain types of loot and purchased items Bind on Pickup instead of Bind on Equip...and phase out AD, and you have brought to a screeching halt any stored-away caches of loot that could unbalance the economy down the line...shoot...just making most of the blue loot and ALL of the purchased items from vendors BoP would go a long way to stopping that nonsense...no more "Cat 10G" posts, that is certain.
do you have a brain to back up your post? lol.
He said "90% of people invested TIME and MONEY."
I'm quite sure that to most people Time=money....and if you played this game, you invested time into it, no matter how long you played for.
And the kind that one looks up that someone made up then posts on the Interwebs.
If you phase out AD, what do those of us who have legitimate stores of AD get compensated then? What about those of us who planned to share companions they purchased between their toons (once they fix the unbinding issue)?
Cheers!
The only thing fiction about this, is your brain....because TIME=Money. So..Yes the OP is actually right.
can they just do roll over or whatever and get dam servers up i want play damit...
im poor i don't care i just want to play, worry about AH when im 60
IF this game ever became actual WORK, where I wasn't having fun anymore, I STILL wouldn't care about a wipe, etc, because I'd be moving to another game.
Everyone seems SO passionate about this whole thing, and I can't help but wonder why they wouldn't have the same fun they had the first time around. And again...with the knowledge to avoid a few mistakes.
TR, Beholder Server
This should say: What cracks me up is the number of "do as I say or I'll take my ball and go home!" comments. Seriously people STFU, if you are going to threaten, then just leave! If you are to na
Nah, the best thing to do is not to leave but to ensure that the buildings are razed, the land salted, and the people scattered; that is to say, I recommend people exploiting every facet until the game either improves and PWE/Cryptic become reasonable/decent people (corporations are apparently people) or crashes and burns. Then with its corpse dragged from the scorched earth and strewn onto a crucifix by the people as to serve as a reminder that it's probably better to be transparent and work with your community than to work against it.
Either way, the exploiters did us as a service by exploiting now rather than later given how things are turning out, and will inevitably push the game towards improvement. While I have invested plenty of time and 'love' into this game, I don't really mind seeing it burnt down either and neither should you.
Otherwise this game will forever had a bad rep and cryptic as a whole could be damaged...
End of story!
RIP Caine
Correction: This has happened during the beta of every MMO ever. EVER.
TR, Beholder Server
Zone chat was flooded with foundry farm groups, zone chat was flooded with pirate king exploit groups, zone chat was flooded with GF buying valiant pieces and groups paying AD for GFs to run with. This was all 2-3 days before any of those exploits were fixed. There were streamers with thousands of viewers showing how to do the exploits live days before they were fixed.
Just because you didn't know about them doesn't change that a <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> ton of other people did. Frankly whenever someone tells me they didn't know of any of the exploits I just assume they are kinda slow or oblivious which might explain why it's so hard for you guys to re-level to 60.