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How MMO Exploitation should be dealt with...
imruined
Member Posts: 1,457 Arc User
Star Wars: The Old Republic players suspended over Ravager exploit...
This is exactly how those who abuse game exploits should be dealt with...
This is exactly how those who abuse game exploits should be dealt with...
The entitlement is strong in these forums...
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We seee a problemm withh House Atreideesss, We Seee a Problem withh Housse Harkonnenn"
Thank you, Frank Herbert!
So, if you happen to leave an upstairs window unlocked one day while you're off at work, and someone goes in through it and steals from you, it's your fault, really. You made the mistake, the thief just took advantage of it. :rolleyes:
And yet when cryptic tries the forums become alive with the sound of butthurt to the point they undo the punishments. Of course EAware is less likely to use bad "metrics" and slap down people that didn't touch the exploits.
Yep ... that's probably what the Police & Insurance will tell you (aka everyone that matters) ...
This is not a good analogy...
The Tau Dewa 'exploit' was on Tribble. And players noted it in their reports on the forums. These reports got no response and there was never any hint from the 'powers that be' that this was working anyway other than as intended.
Here is a better one...
You walk into a store and find some nice jeans.
You check the price tag and it says $0.00.
You think that this must be a mistake so take it to the checkout and ask the store clerk if it is correct.
The store clerk assures you that the price is $0.00 and priced as intended.
You say fine and put it in your bag and walk out the store.
On your way out the security guard tackles you to the ground and informs you that you are shoplifting.
Not only does the guard take the jeans that you have in your bag, but he also takes the jeans that you are wearing as well so you leave the store wearing no pants...
...#LLAP...
lol i went to macy's one time and it happened to be their 50% off of the 50% off sale plus a discount for using a credit card, and i was buying pants that were already 50% of the red tag price and the woman messed up, or the computer did or something and gave me 100% off.. i got 6 pairs of pants that cost me just tax.
and yes, i didnt say anything at all and left happy.
[12:44] Vessel One of Two Unimatrix 01 deals 1019527 (1157678) Kinetic Damage to you with Plasma Energy Bolt Explosion.
Yet, when something is released in a broken state that does not benefit players, the players demand that the problem be fixed yesterday as it negatively impacts them... Many even go on to demand recompense in the form of refunds or in-game rewards... Hell, there were people demanding the Samsar for free on day 1, because of patch-day problems, for example...
Turn the situation on it's head, and something that works in the player's favour and people cry that it's unfair for them to be penalised for abusing mechanics that were clearly never intended, regardless of whether the exploit was shipped in a paid expansion, or free content...
This right here shows a complete lack of understanding of what the exploit was... It had nothing to do with EA losing money...
The exploit allowed players to warp right to the end of an already completed raid and collect high-end items without having to run the raid to begin with...
So, in lay terms... They were exploiting a loophole in the game mechanics to gain access to items they were never actually entitled to...
False dichotomy. A more apt analogy would be a hacker stealing money from your bank account due to a security hole that wasn't patched. Both your bank and the hacker are at fault, though I personally would fault the bank more.
Just FYI - the majority of the 'suspensions' were 24 hour bans. They didn't remove anything from player accounts, or do rollbacks.
TLDR: All show, no substance.
PWE ARC Drone says: "Your STO forum community as you have known it is ended...Display names are irrelevant...Any further sense of community is irrelevant...Resistance is futile...You will be assimilated..."
Which is what happened in STO after DR.
1) the exploit in TOR was in fact an exploit. Teleporting to a treasure room... there is ZERO way anyone that did that didn't know full well it was an explit.
2) What happened in STO was NOT AN EXPLOIT. Cryptic claiming it was pissed people off rightfully so... because the game worked no different under what was being called an exploit then it had for FIVE YEARS.
Not the same situation at all.
Says who exactly ? Jonsills ? Sure we all know he really hates Cryptic, and is one of the biggest Critics on the Forums ... *sarcasm*
When your content is a boring corridor populated by a bunch of static mobs, assuredly loaded with excessive HP and possibly loaded with some annoying mechanics all meant to artificially slow players down, and then you expect players to run that dozens or hundreds of times in order to overcome xp grinds, low drop rates or time gates, it's no surprise that the playerbase would be conditioned to exploit even beyond what it was already inclined to do.
Incidentally, I actually like what Cryptic has done with advanced/elite reward structures, in so far as the missions will fail prematurely if certain conditions are met and, when failed, players aren't outright handed something approaching 70%+ of the rewards they would have received for successfully completing the map. That design philosophy (the "everybody wins" philosophy) often accompanies the same bland content design I reference above, and the two have come to define the absolute garbage state the genre seems determined to achieve.
Cryptic's content could stand to be improved, but I feel that if I were a content developer I would rather start that process from the vantage point of too stingy a reward structure than too generous; your content is more likely to appreciated for what it is if your not actively TRIBBLE the players in the process.
Yet the problems are never fixed yesterday, and many are often left in perpetuity, while the developers who are inclined to punish "exploiters" seem to work faster than any other team within a given studio, if with just as much inaccuracy and uselessness, as evidenced by the gross mistakes in punishing minimal exploiters while failing to punish major exploiters while at the same time doing nothing to address the exploit itself, because that's always some other team's problem.
It's SWTOR; the greatest enemy players face there in endgame PVE is the bugs. Otherwise, it's basically free loot on a time-gate. The developers there are just as shortsighted in their blind pursuit of chasing metrics as Cryptic and every other developer out there. They don't offer an option to just purchase your way through the grind, leaving them still concerned about how long it takes players to actually get through new content.
It's every bit as likely. What it may be less likely to be is concerned in the least; they didn't completely waste a great IP, so they're not clinging quite as desperately to whatever trickle of income their cash shop brings them. Cryptic no doubt is more concerned about exploits, because the economic situation is far more closely tied to their bottom line.
It's a good thing no Macy's fanboys are here to white knight on their behalf, you dirty exploiter.
Are you absolutely sure they weren't entitled? Maybe not to the items, but certainly in spirit.
That story reminds me of that Destiny raid where you could just knock the end boss over a ledge. Not that I ever did that of course...
I thought about this in the context of the omega particles. Because the mini-game is bugged, sometimes you don't even need to finish the mini-game to get your blue, red, or yellow. I don't think Cryptic is so nitpicky to punish players by taking away their omega upgrades. But then again, it's not an exploit either - it just is how it works, even if it is bugged.
Let us remember, the Tau Dewa exploit and subsequent punishment wasn't so much about the rewards being unearned by play, but rather, because individuals were buying tokens from the c-store that could boost that already large payout of rewards. That said, nobody ever got banned in STO for an 'exploit'. What's hapening in SWTOR seems harsh - I mean, lifetime bans, c'mon. Even we must admit all that Cryptic did was inconvenience us by making us grind more.
"Go and have a wee, the second act gets considerably weirder." -Tim Minchin
Tau Dewa patrols were an exploit, and players knew it... They were returning significantly more XP than they should have - well above what DR content was providing for far less effort, which was why so many people were running them - and people well and truly knew it to be an exploit...
I saw players talking about it in zone chat, and bragging about it being an exploit for crying out loud...
OK, I'll give you all a hint: it starts with a "U" and rhymes with "employment."
Of course it was an exploit. You gained 17 times more XP than anywhere else. Some people got to the maxiumum amount of spezialisation points within a few days and made huge amounts of dilithium afterwards.
But only blaming the players for it would be wrong. This issue was reported several times on Tribble long before it went live on Holodeck. If there ever was somebody reading the Tribble Bug Reports they knew. Yet they decided to do nothing till it was too late.
BS have you played this game for longer then a few months.
I was teaming and gaining increased XP on toons 4 years ago... perhaps Cryptic should go and ban people that haven't played in 4 years.. in case those no good cheats come back. lol
Sure some players that had no idea you got increased XP when you teamed with people figured that out at that time... cause if anyone asked people that have always known that have told them so. Some players even took the time to test there junk on tribble before it launched and they stated clearly in there feedback section that teaming increased rewards. Most people like myself where not worried about it. It is how the game has operated since launch. I have teamed with friends to power level tons of toons to 50 long before Delta... where all a bunch of exploiters for playing the game as it was intended I guess.
Bottom line teaming up SHOULD increase your XP gain not cut into it. Right now it cuts into it... there is ZERO reason to team with anyone other then perhaps making things go faster... but faster with less reward hardly seems logical to me.
Long ago CRYPTIC Developers decided to set increased reward numbers for people teamed up. Because the current employees don't understand the game hardly makes what happened an exploit. lol Bottom line they set there rewards not taking teaming bonuses into account... they wanted it to be a GRIND... but players have been teaming to speed the grind for 5 years. Before delta I could power level a toon in a few hours with a few friends. Seeing as it worked that way for 5 years why in the world would any player consider that to be an exploit... HELL I have played with past Devs helping them power level there own toons... I guess they where exploiting as well ? lol
The 17x is also BS. Anyone that did the math knows better. 17x MORE then what they set the rewards to after there panic mode patch sure. However it was NOT 17x more then the rewards that where offered at the time if you ran other content. They nerfed XP everywhere after that... and I would be willing to believe it was 17x more then current sure... but it wasn't 17x more then XP gain at the time.
Agreed here 100 percent. Players caught doing bad things in games always play the I'm innocent card or the It was the dev's fault card. Players need to own up to their actions.
Defending The Galaxy By Breaking One Starfleet Regulation After The Next.
This. So much this.
In the ToR case we are looking at an exploit that upsets the economy and effects those not exploiting negatively, by depreciating the value of what they have.
In the DR-17 case we are looking at some dev, probably Mr-No-Longer-The-Boss failing to dedicate enough resources to the development team responsible for ensuring the new system fit players into a pre-defined levelling schedule, and then punishing the player base for playing the half finished system the way it was delivered to them.
In the case of DR-17 the only person negativly effected was the guy failing to meet his metric target.