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How could the AH exploit have been possible?
cintec
Member Posts: 8 Arc User
A simple question. I've read in numerous places that the same exploit was encountered in STO which is run by this company. Think about this for a second - In a game where the economy means so much to the developers because a stable economy = profit for them how could they not have a rock solid auction house system in place. Think about how stupid/crazy it is that you could enter a negative number for a bid, or in any currency related text field in the game... How could the developers of the game miss this exploit?? Especially when they have had it happen before in another game?
Intentional? Weed out the exploiters, make examples of them? Generate publicity for the game? Initially negative publicity, but it's still publicity. Once things settle down it may lead to more players possibly? Is there someone at Perfect World/Cryptic crunching the numbers from previous games and seeing "that exploit generated a lot of publicity, and although it was negative publicity we actually have seen a surge in new accounts in the aftermath." If the numbers consistently showed something like that I bet they would manufacture such an "exploit" just to get more accounts, and more potential paying customers. (conspiracy theorist in me)
I'm just trying to wrap my mind around how such a simple exploit could make it past the development team. Why would "-" be allowed to be attached to any number in this game by a player? Unless it was actually a complicated process to begin these negative auctions, I don't know, I wasn't part of it.
Intentional? Weed out the exploiters, make examples of them? Generate publicity for the game? Initially negative publicity, but it's still publicity. Once things settle down it may lead to more players possibly? Is there someone at Perfect World/Cryptic crunching the numbers from previous games and seeing "that exploit generated a lot of publicity, and although it was negative publicity we actually have seen a surge in new accounts in the aftermath." If the numbers consistently showed something like that I bet they would manufacture such an "exploit" just to get more accounts, and more potential paying customers. (conspiracy theorist in me)
I'm just trying to wrap my mind around how such a simple exploit could make it past the development team. Why would "-" be allowed to be attached to any number in this game by a player? Unless it was actually a complicated process to begin these negative auctions, I don't know, I wasn't part of it.
Post edited by cintec on
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[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
You can not blame some people for trying to eat. It falls on Cryptic to secure their **** before taking in money,and failing that they better **** well do all they can to make it right.
I let myself get comfortable with spending on open beta for f2p games because I felt it helped cover development. I have been an advocate of open source software for a long time,and the f2p market has been a keen interest of mine for a few years now. I have taken to beta testing as a hobby. I let NWO get personal however because of my love for the license and I grew up on Ad&D.
As it stands right now, my next venture into beta I will probably be a bit tighter on my wallet.
Quote Originally Posted by roents
It's an "open beta" that can't be wiped even in the midst of multiple economy destroying exploits. FUN
The simple answer is, some people screwed up.
Not the first time in history, and not the last.
This is not true however, the exploit was reported to Cryptic as early as closed beta. It was also present in STO at launch. This was a major oversight ...I mean epic..
Quote Originally Posted by roents
It's an "open beta" that can't be wiped even in the midst of multiple economy destroying exploits. FUN
The issue wasn't that people were trying to eat, it was that they found out how to get paid for eating and rather than tell Cryptic and move on, told everyone how to do it too.
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The gateway wasn't in closed beta, if it was reported in closed beta then it would have been through the ingame interface which was fixed.
No, I literally mean Asian gold farmers trying to eat..IRL..If I lived in that condition, knowing what I know now...You **** right..
Check this link for an insight into gaming underground.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ho5Yxe6UVv4
Quote Originally Posted by roents
It's an "open beta" that can't be wiped even in the midst of multiple economy destroying exploits. FUN
This is where I'm coming from. I've heard the same rumors that it was reported early on in two diff games and yet still surfaces now after they have opened up the real money portion of the game. I don't mean to be harsh but I view Cryptic/Perfect World with a dose of skepticism as to their ability to properly manage this game and safeguard our time investment in the future. Don't get me wrong, I'm not jumping ship, just... wary.
The gateway exploit , correct..but many of the rest were...my post shoulda read "the exploits" ..Sry about that.
Quote Originally Posted by roents
It's an "open beta" that can't be wiped even in the midst of multiple economy destroying exploits. FUN
You do realize that people from the majority of Asia can't play this game right?
https://support.perfectworld.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1635/kw/region%20block
The bug in STO was through the ingame Exchange window, the bug in NW was through the gateway and couldn't be done ingame.
Your point? Anywhere their is opportunity, and a decent exchange rate you will find the same practice. Who could blame poor nations from proffiting of American video games..honestly, its a video game...Still does not mean I do not want to prevent it as much as possible..
check you mail box a few times a week and I am sure you will find evidence of their strong presence in NWO.
Quote Originally Posted by roents
It's an "open beta" that can't be wiped even in the midst of multiple economy destroying exploits. FUN
The bug probably arose when converting the game engine code (written in C++/c#/whatever) to a server based language (php/whatever). This bug could originate from a data-type problem. In C++ you can use unsinged integers (data type which only allows positive values) in a situation where you would not want negative numbers (such as an auction house bid). The problem comes when you tell someone to convert the AH to a web app, since PHP doesn't support unsigned ints the person converting it probably missed what seems like a small problem. They figured that since they already did a QA on the ingame one, that this one must be good to go.
What amazes me is that they actually never did any QA on it. The first thing you do in QA is try all types of inputs (min-1, max+1, max, min, max-1, random, etc). How a "professional" company could skip something like that is just insane.
Someone handed off the web test to a new hire or intern who wasn't fully briefed on what to test it with it seems.
I think more likely no testing was done at all.
I doubt that, there had to be at least some basic testing otherwise it wouldn't have worked at all.
EDIT: Bah need to learn to read someone already beat me to the explanation. Sounds like unit testing failed on the web side or was overlooked. Or it was tested and worked but an older version of the web code was uploaded by mistake where it was bugged. I've seen crazier stuff happen during software validation esp when dealing with multi-vendor code updates that love to break the basics.