Everyone hear about the SWG debacle?

[Jedi359]

Apparently some players found a way to exploit a bug to dupe credits in game. They started distributing them. SOE found out, and banned those who duped the credits. Then they took it a step further and began banning all kinds of people who had the credits on them, many of whom were unaware that the credits they possesed were duped. I guess there is an in game system where a player may give another player money without trading. It got to the point where, according to what I heard, a player was banned for recieving duped credits for a sale at his NPC vendor.

It doesn't stop there, though. To protest the bannings of the innocent, many players on one of the servers gathered together in a city on one planet, and spammed messages demnading the reinstatement of the banned accounts. At least a few dozen, adn I've heard more than a hundred did this. It got to the point where SOE told everyone to desist, or the server would shut down. The people were randomly teleported all over the wolrd, some even into space. Then the servers were shut down.

Comments?

 

[Sol Invictus]

SOE fucked up. A lot of players are already quitting in protest to their friends accounts being banned.

 

[manco]

That is truly insane. Heh, if they are so proud of their so-called player run economy, they should have rolled with it. Tag the duped credit passers as "rebel counterfitters", or some such star wars jargon, and placed bountys on their heads so the million fake boba fetts in SWG would have something to do. Then, the counterfitters could spend all the fake money they wanted, but have half the players in swg breathing down their necks as they jumped from planet to planet. God, anything to spice it up. But I guess killing all those accounts and coming off like nazis works well too.

 

[Whipporowill]

Well Manc, that's actually a pretty good idea. Strip the offenders of all equipment and put a wanted sign over their heads...

 

[Elwro]

I'm glad I stick to my rule to never even try out non-free MMORPGS.

 

[undead dolphin hacker]

I'm glad I stick to my rule to never even try out non-free MMORPGS.

A better rule is to never even try out Star Wars games.

 

[suibhne]

I'm glad I stick to my rule to never even try out non-free MMORPGS.

A better rule is to never even try out Star Wars games.

That's a terrible rule of thumb. You'd miss out on lightsaber dismemberment in JK2 and JA, which is one of the only objective joys left in postindustrial life.

 

[Psilon]

More importantly, you'd miss out on the glory that is TIE Fighter.

 

[Reklar]

Sounds like Sony alright. They've always managed to take the hamfisted approach to every problem that ever cropped up in EverQuest, so it doesn't surprise me at all. I'm glad I didn't make the decision to try out SWG.

-Reklar
(a Fallout/RPG fan)

 

[rasta_kid]

manco's idea is actually pretty good.
Why didn't they think of it, is beyond me.

 

[Seven]

This is actually funny; the main point should be that players were able to exploit a bug, big freaking deal. If they don't want people to exploit bugs then they should do more extensive and rigorous testing. Not only that, wasn't half a trillion credits scamed? That's a pretty big exploit. To date I don't think that they've address the fact that it was their fault that this happened. What did they expect, for people to just ignore the chance to get free credits?

 

[undead dolphin hacker]

I'm glad I stick to my rule to never even try out non-free MMORPGS.

A better rule is to never even try out Star Wars games.

That's a terrible rule of thumb. You'd miss out on lightsaber dismemberment in JK2 and JA, which is one of the only objective joys left in postindustrial life.

IIRC, JK2 and JA required ubar hax to enable dismemberment.

And Tie Fighter was a long, long time ago--back when Star Wars games didn't automatically suck.

 

[Jedi359]

This is actually funny; the main point should be that players were able to exploit a bug, big freaking deal. If they don't want people to exploit bugs then they should do more extensive and rigorous testing. Not only that, wasn't half a trillion credits scamed? That's a pretty big exploit. To date I don't think that they've address the fact that it was their fault that this happened. What did they expect, for people to just ignore the chance to get free credits?

Yes, in fact. Just because exploits exist doesn't mean you can use them. It fucks up the game for everyone when cheaters do this kind of thing. That's like saying "It's OK to use map hacks in FPS and RTS games. What does the developer expect, that the player not to use these things?"

I agree with them on banning those who took advantage of the bug. The responsible thing to do when you find a bug in a game like this is to report it without using it. What I don't agree with is banning those who unkowingly recieved these credits, and fucking over those who portested.

 

[undead dolphin hacker]

The solution is to reward players that report gigantic bugs like money dupes, instead of man-banning anyone who came into contact with duped money.

When it comes to hacking, for some strange reason, MMO teams forget all about the dangling carrot principle that got them their zombie-like subscribers in the first place. Instead they switch into uber-active mode and ban everyone, or let their pre-pubescent 20-something GMs and Guides randomly teleport people around the galaxy due to massive protests.

Man, if a MMO team took as much interest in normal day-to-day runnings of an MMO as they do when a hack breaks out, these games would be quite a bit more interesting...

 

[Jedi359]

I read about a player of DAOC who reported a bug, and after they checked to be sure he didn't abuse it, he was rewarded with a free lifetime subscription to the game. If more MMO games did that, there would be a lot more people reporting bugs.

 

[fnordcircle]

Too bad for Sony SWG sucks a big fat nasty one.

God, I had such high hopes for that game, followed it until the end. Got in the beta (which was a feat in and of itself) and was immediately disgusted with what I saw.

Gamespy put it best, they called it an MMO sprayed with Star Wars juice.

 

[Tiliqua]

SWG seduces you with its brilliant engine and potential but eventually disappears up its oriface due to meaningless PvP and unbalanced combat. Respawning is the enemy of combat, combat becomes stupid and monotonous. They need to introduce a system where you can remove enemy cities and buildings, it's very annoying to live next to an enemy city and if the players hide inside their houses you can't do anything

I'm sorry to hear about its problems because I still have a lot of friends playing the game and they deserve better. SWG might one day be a great game, but not yet.

 

[Seven]

Yes, in fact. Just because exploits exist doesn't mean you can use them. It fucks up the game for everyone when cheaters do this kind of thing. That's like saying "It's OK to use map hacks in FPS and RTS games. What does the developer expect, that the player not to use these things?"

I agree with them on banning those who took advantage of the bug. The responsible thing to do when you find a bug in a game like this is to report it without using it. What I don't agree with is banning those who unkowingly recieved these credits, and fucking over those who portested.

Or you could avoid the whole thing by not letting such a huge freakin exploit get through. Coincidentally, if you're playing a rogue character do you still suppose that it's reasonable to expect such a character to report the exploit? Of course not, such a character would be perfectly justified in exploiting this situation.

 

[jiujitsu]

This reminds me of what happend with Lineage2.

People dupe money.

People drop some of the money.

People who have no idea come along and pick up the money.

All banned.

Isn't that why you quit, Rex? Or am I thinking about someone else?

 

[Sol Invictus]

I quit way before that happened.

 

[Tiliqua]

I just spoke to a friend of mine who's still playing SWG. Apparerently they froze all the accounts they found with the duped money and you had to give an explanation as to how you had come by it. About 20% of the money was too far gone in the game to be traced but the other 80% was followed.

So if you had a shop and somebody spent the dupes, then nps, they unfroze your account, but if you didn't have a good explanation then you were gone.

 

[lunchmeat]

How many accounts were frozen. Seems like it would take a while to evaluate them all on an individual basis?

 

[Sol Invictus]

There's a really neat thread on one of the SWG forums about that. If you're banned, it's basically permanent and no amount of proof will get them to unban you - according to a low level GM. According to a high level GM, bans are permanent, but they can undo the ban if you provide sufficient proof (or complain sufficiently).

 

[Pendragon]

I agree with punishing cheaters; it sucks to have a small groups of people wreck a game for hordes of legitimate players--not coincidentally, this I why I also steer clear of MMORPGs.

Ironically, Sony is doing the same thing as the stupid game-wrecking cheaters. Lots of folks who had nothing to do with the cheating are getting screwed. SWG was a good idea, but practically every decision they've made since "Hey, wouldn't a massively multiplayer Star Wars be cool?" has been, basically, stupid.

 

[Eron]

Oh my god MMORPGs suck balls