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Further steps to a better Neverwinter

akromatikakromatik Member Posts: 1
edited August 2014 in General Discussion (PC)
Greetings adventurers!

Last week, an exploit was brought to our attention by our ever-vigilant community. Due to the nature of the exploit, immediate action was required. We are following through with our investigation and have taken action against those who abused this exploit. We wanted to update you and let you know that we’ve banned many of the accounts that were involved with the exploit. We hold our player’s safety and the integrity of Neverwinter above all else.

Thank you very much for your support.

Edit: I'd also like to add that due to our policy surrounding our players' privacy, we cannot discuss specific actions taken on a given account. If you feel you have been banned in error, please contact our support team via support.arcgames.com

Post edited by Unknown User on
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Comments

  • myowmyowmyowmyow Member Posts: 1,923 Arc User
    edited August 2014
    Yay! Nice to have a communication about it! I hope the bans were lifetime, not the 7-day variety.

    Alas, I had hoped much of the ill-gotten AD could have been removed from the ZAX . . .

    Prepare for a massive response to this. :)
    SEC! SEC! SEC! SEC! SEC! SEC! SEC! SEC! SEC! SEC! SEC! SEC! SEC! (repeat indefinitely)


    myles08807 said, "Back in my day, we didn't have any of this fancy Mulhorand gear while we were leveling . . . we walked uphill both ways while dying once every five seconds while leveling, and we liked it fine!" . . . Now, get off my lawn, you kids!"
    pointsman said, "I don't rue the game. In fact I don't feel any regret for the game at all."
    looomis said, "I don't like people changing to alts and then bragging about their mains like schizophrenic role players."
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  • myowmyowmyowmyow Member Posts: 1,923 Arc User
    edited August 2014
    magenubbie wrote: »
    Woot. Keep up the good work. Get the rest as well if you can :)
    Read the forums. According to some players there's still a few more to catch.

    "Gotta catch 'em all!" :)
    SEC! SEC! SEC! SEC! SEC! SEC! SEC! SEC! SEC! SEC! SEC! SEC! SEC! (repeat indefinitely)


    myles08807 said, "Back in my day, we didn't have any of this fancy Mulhorand gear while we were leveling . . . we walked uphill both ways while dying once every five seconds while leveling, and we liked it fine!" . . . Now, get off my lawn, you kids!"
    pointsman said, "I don't rue the game. In fact I don't feel any regret for the game at all."
    looomis said, "I don't like people changing to alts and then bragging about their mains like schizophrenic role players."
  • charononuscharononus Member Posts: 5,715 Arc User
    edited August 2014
    akromatik wrote: »
    Greetings adventurers!

    Last week, an exploit was brought to our attention by our ever-vigilant community. Due to the nature of the exploit, immediate action was required. We are following through with our investigation and have taken action against those who abused this exploit. We wanted to update you and let you know that we’ve banned many of the accounts that were involved with the exploit. We hold our player’s safety and the integrity of Neverwinter above all else.

    Thank you very much for your support.

    Akro while banning was needed, and absolutely had to be done, I think the real question most of us have is tied in with the next quote.
    myowmyow wrote: »
    Yay! Nice to have a communication about it! I hope the bans were lifetime, not the 7-day variety.

    Alas, I had hoped much of the ill-gotten AD could have been removed from the ZAX . . .

    Prepare for a massive response to this. :)

    While I didn't think most of the AD could go poof as it's probably gotten too far into the economy now, to the point where everyone that uses the ah to sell things probably has some counterfeit AD in their wallet from exploiters buying things, I do think that something needs to be done to limit the time it takes to heal this damage. To that end I think many of us would like to see some kind of AD sinks be worked on and ran for a while. Many ideas for these have been suggested, so the question most of us have is are you going to do anything like this to help the aftermath.
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  • iambecks1iambecks1 Member Posts: 4,044 Arc User
    edited August 2014
    This is great news and I am sure many members of the community will agree , I'm glad you guys seem to have finally taken a fairly tough stance on cheaters and people who wreck and ruin the game , I heard you even got a few fairly big names with perma bans which apparently surprised some of their guild members and stuff lmfao.
    YourSecretsAreOurSecrets.gif
  • ayrouxayroux Member Posts: 4,271 Arc User
    edited August 2014
    clonkyo1 wrote: »
    IP bans for those exploiters would be a nice start

    This.

    I think in a F2P game this is the only way to really curb stuff like that. Unfortunately it would mean perma ban for players - not just accounts.

    Im not 100% sure isnt there a way to change your IP?
  • lazaroth666lazaroth666 Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 1,332 Arc User
    edited August 2014
    Indeed, that's a quite interesting question: When an account is banned, are their active listings removed? Just imagine 25k zen requested per every player banned and every account related to them.

    Btw, thanks for the good work, we really appreciate it.
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  • charononuscharononus Member Posts: 5,715 Arc User
    edited August 2014
    clonkyo1 wrote: »
    IP bans for those exploiters would be a nice start
    ayroux wrote: »
    This.

    I think in a F2P game this is the only way to really curb stuff like that. Unfortunately it would mean perma ban for players - not just accounts.

    Im not 100% sure isnt there a way to change your IP?



    IP bans do nothing to the guilty and may hurt the innocent. IP's are not static in most cases. Everytime I lose power or restart my cable modem I get a new one and someone else gets my old one. If someone else had been ip banned and I got their address with this I wouldn't be able to play which makes this a bad idea. This doesn't even get into VPN's where in a matter of seconds I can make it look like I have an IP and a location half a world away from my true location.
  • lewstelamon01lewstelamon01 Member Posts: 7,415 Arc User
    edited August 2014
    clonkyo1 wrote: »
    IP bans for those exploiters would be a nice start

    Not really practical. If you're unlucky to have one of those ISPs who dynamically reassign IP addresses from time to time and wind up with the address of an exploiter...well then you're screwed.
    magenubbie wrote: »

    Oh you can. If national TV can name and shame someone who hasn't even been convicted yet without breaking privacy laws, you could choose to share that info.

    But in all honesty, I don't want to know. If you can assure us they've been dealt with and will never be able to repeat the offense, I'm one happy camper.

    PWE/Cryptic's own privacy policy forbids this, as does our Rules of Conduct.
    ROLL TIDE ROLL

    Great Weapon Fighter: Because when is today not a good day to die?

    PC and PS4 player. Proud Guildmaster for PS4 Team Fencebane. Rank 5 Officer for PC Team Fencebane. Visit us at http://fencebane.shivtr.com
  • iambecks1iambecks1 Member Posts: 4,044 Arc User
    edited August 2014
    Indeed, that's a quite interesting question: When an account is banned, are their active listings removed? Just imagine 25k zen requested per every player banned and every account related to them.

    I was wondering the same thing , if the listings aren't taken down on banned accounts they need to be , especially considering the state the exchange is in at the moment .
    YourSecretsAreOurSecrets.gif
  • seamusflatsseamusflats Member, Neverwinter Beta Users Posts: 3 Arc User
    edited August 2014
    akromatik wrote: »
    I'd also like to add that due to privacy laws, we cannot discuss specific actions taken on a given account.

    I'm curious as to what privacy laws restrict you from talking about bans for an online videogame. Drizzt@drows4lyfe isn't PII, and I really can't think of anything else even in the ballpark.
  • charononuscharononus Member Posts: 5,715 Arc User
    edited August 2014
    I'm curious as to what privacy laws restrict you from talking about bans for an online videogame. Drizzt@drows4lyfe isn't PII, and I really can't think of anything else even in the ballpark.

    I don't know the law specifics but I do know that every single mmo I've ever seen has said the same thing, so I'd assume it to be true.
  • lewstelamon01lewstelamon01 Member Posts: 7,415 Arc User
    edited August 2014
    I'm curious as to what privacy laws restrict you from talking about bans for an online videogame. Drizzt@drows4lyfe isn't PII, and I really can't think of anything else even in the ballpark.

    Akromatik edited his OP. It is still disallowed by Cryptic privacy policy to disclose actions taken against a specific account with anyone but the account holder.
    ROLL TIDE ROLL

    Great Weapon Fighter: Because when is today not a good day to die?

    PC and PS4 player. Proud Guildmaster for PS4 Team Fencebane. Rank 5 Officer for PC Team Fencebane. Visit us at http://fencebane.shivtr.com
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  • charononuscharononus Member Posts: 5,715 Arc User
    edited August 2014
    magenubbie wrote: »
    Is this still happening in the civilized world? That's so last century. Anyway, you could use MAC addresses instead. They are already logged as part of the computer verification process, so why not use them? You can even use them to find alternate accounts of offenders.

    While MAC bans don't have the possibility of harming the innocent, but they can be bypassed in seconds. MAC Spoofing is very easy.
  • sexwax45sexwax45 Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited August 2014
    magenubbie wrote: »
    Is this still happening in the civilized world? That's so last century. Anyway, you could use MAC addresses instead. They are already logged as part of the computer verification process, so why not use them? You can even use them to find alternate accounts of offenders.

    That's something else entirely. Policies are not laws.
    And while I understand and respect such policies, looking at the history of MMOs worldwide in the past 15 years or so, publishing ban lists and the like has shown to do more good than harm. I suppose it's not up to me to question a policy set in stone, but maybe someone will take lessons and learn from previous experiences of others that went before them.

    And as I said, I don't really need to know who got banned. All I really need -and most of the community with me- is the assurance that these exploiters will not be able to repeat the offense. It doesn't require a ban list to do so, even if it would be nice to have visual" proof that it's being done.
    lol MAC address all you would have to do then is change your network card / usb wireless network adapter as that is the only thing you MAC is tied to see the back of any usb adapter
  • adinosiiadinosii Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 4,294 Arc User
    edited August 2014
    This is nice to hear. It would have been even better if the OP had included something like "So far X accounts have been banned because of this", and it would also be nice to hear whether the bans were permanent or just temporary suspension - my guess is both, but we would just like to know.

    I think many players were frustrated because of what was seen as inaction to previous exploits, so this post helped improve things...thank you.
    Hoping for improvements...
  • charononuscharononus Member Posts: 5,715 Arc User
    edited August 2014
    sexwax45 wrote: »
    lol MAC address all you would have to do then is change your network card / usb wireless network adapter as that is the only thing you MAC is tied to

    You don't even need to change it. 10 secs with the right software and you have a new MAC for that card/adapter.
  • kaiserschmarrnkaiserschmarrn Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Hero Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users, Neverwinter Knight of the Feywild Users Posts: 390
    edited August 2014
    IP bans ? Mac bans ? Just saying LOL to this.

    Ever heard of VPN, Proxies, dynamic IPs ? A blocked IP range might sooner or later come back to bite the host in the ***, cause fixed IPs can change over time and are mostly used in the business sector, here in Europe the majority of providers assigns a dynamic IP to their customers. And a Mac address is so easy to spoof that it's laughable. Seriously anyone suggesting such methods is just completely clueless.
  • lwedarlwedar Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 790 Arc User
    edited August 2014
    akromatik wrote: »
    Greetings adventurers!

    Last week, an exploit was brought to our attention by our ever-vigilant community. Due to the nature of the exploit, immediate action was required. We are following through with our investigation and have taken action against those who abused this exploit. We wanted to update you and let you know that we’ve banned many of the accounts that were involved with the exploit. We hold our player’s safety and the integrity of Neverwinter above all else.

    Thank you very much for your support.

    Edit: I'd also like to add that due to our policy surrounding our players' privacy, we cannot discuss specific actions taken on a given account. If you feel you have been banned in error, please contact our support team via support.arcgames.com


    Thanks for the update. Good to see action and finally some repercussions for fraudulent activity.

    I have one question that I know alot of people have as well. Alot of times accounts are banned for 3/7 days instead of perma. I can understand doing this for small things however some people did blatant exploits and still only received 7 day bans.

    It would be great if we had some feedback on what criteria needs to be met for a perma vs 7 day ban. Just to help people understand Cryptic's point of view.

    If the question is out of line feel free to delete.
    "we all love this game and want it to thrive"
  • loboguildloboguild Member Posts: 2,371 Arc User
    edited August 2014
    I like it!

    Just one thing: Please make your auto-SQL-bans more specific or recheck by hand, too many innocents get hit every time that have to crawl through your awful support to state their case.
  • mconosrepmconosrep Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited August 2014
    magenubbie wrote: »
    Is this still happening in the civilized world? That's so last century. Anyway, you could use MAC addresses instead. They are already logged as part of the computer verification process, so why not use them? You can even use them to find alternate accounts of offenders.

    Even MAC addresses can be (easily) spoofed.....
  • ironzerg79ironzerg79 Member, Neverwinter Moderator, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 4,942 Arc User
    edited August 2014
    It would be nice if you could give us a general idea of what action was taken. I know Final Fantasy did this a lot when they swept through and wiped out bots and hackers.

    They'd give an update such as 1,000+ illicit accounts were banned last week in the latest rounds of sweeps. We removed over 11,000,000 in illicit gil from the system.

    It would be nice if you could do the same, letting the players know approximately what actions were taken and the results.

    Otherwise, we just have a very nice, but otherwise empty, post from you about non-specific action being taken in a very non-specific manner.

    Look at is this way. Imagine if you had a string of car break ins in your neighborhood. Then one day the police put out a message that they've dealt with the situation, but can't share ANY details of what happened, or what was done. Would you feel satisfied with that resolution?
    "Meanwhile in the moderator's lounge..."
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  • goonlaughiegoonlaughie Member Posts: 67
    edited August 2014
    clonkyo1 wrote: »
    IP bans for those exploiters would be a nice start

    what is dynamic ip address?
  • charononuscharononus Member Posts: 5,715 Arc User
    edited August 2014
    what is dynamic ip address?
    Simple answer.
    Dynamic IP Addresses are ip addresses that change. Your cable/dsl modem requests a ip address from the isp and gets assigned a random one from a block of addresses the isp uses. If you lose power or restart your modem, you will likely get a different one, and someone else will eventually get your old one.
  • alteretulalteretul Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 3 Arc User
    edited August 2014
    All I really want to know is when/if I'm getting my AD back? They (support) told me last thursday they would roll back my characters and not to play them or I would lose everything I've done. So... I'm still waiting. Yea... I may be new to this game, but I've started putting money into it... do you think I'm going to put anything else into it if support is not going to support me? I'm sure you're busy, but you could at least let us know what is happening! How long the wait is expected to be?
  • jrfbrunetjrfbrunet Member Posts: 388 Arc User
    edited August 2014
    alteretul wrote: »
    All I really want to know is when/if I'm getting my AD back? They (support) told me last thursday they would roll back my characters and not to play them or I would lose everything I've done. So... I'm still waiting. Yea... I may be new to this game, but I've started putting money into it... do you think I'm going to put anything else into it if support is not going to support me? I'm sure you're busy, but you could at least let us know what is happening! How long the wait is expected to be?

    In your case, i would put in a new support ticket every 12 hours asking them about your rollback. Be sure to be nice when you do so, and explain that you've been waiting to play each time longer and longer (and still - nicely).
    Where'd my blinky-blinky path go?
  • mystagoguemystagogue Member Posts: 322 Arc User
    edited August 2014
    Immediate action, bold words, results - meh, not so much.

    Zen Exchange backlog slowed down a bit, but it's resumed its climb - which tells me few to no AD's were removed.

    Shame, shame, shame...
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