Guild Wars 2 weapon exploit leads to 3,000 perma-bans - Polidicks

[QUOTE=Raidyr;37480535]Is this only the starting areas (I got to level 20) or is it another case of marketing hype?[/QUOTE] Exploring is a pretty big deal in this game. There is a reason to explore, you get rewarded for it, you don't have to kill things if you don't want. There is a bit of story to everything. And there is lot more than just killing, gathering quest. [QUOTE=FlashFireSix;37480567]My point was just remove the weapons, revert the "economy" back to the way it was[/QUOTE] Or just ban people who tend to exploit bugs for advantage?

[QUOTE=Jurikuer;37480463]They banned them not for exploiting the game. They banned them for repeatedly exploiting the game over and over again to gain an advantage over all other players. Not to mention the glitch that gave them real money for peppers through a karma exploit. It's one thing to do something you're not supposed to. It's another to do it all the time for the sole purpose of taking advantage of the game.[/QUOTE]

This is a really stupid move from them to ban, wether it's permanent or only 3 days, it's not an exploit, they're not BREAKING anything to get the gold conversion, it's literally talking to a specific npc that offers a much better deal than all others, it's an oversight by the developpers, not a bloody exploit. They're punishing players who found this, ridiculous, at most they should have warned them and hotfixed it, not fucking BAN them.

[QUOTE=FlashFireSix;37480511]Valve treat things like this right, players using a third part Idling program to contact valve servers and idle for hats/weapons that COULD be sold for IRL money So what do valve do? ban them? No they just remove the weapons and hats and reward players who didn't use the program with a halo themed hat That's the right way to deal with something like this, not permabanning people who bought your expensive game a few days after release for a bug you should of noticed yourself (I know it's being talked about changing to a temp. ban but my point still stands)[/QUOTE] They broke the rules of the game intentionally, over and over and over again, with the only goal being to benefit from basically cheating. This hurt the game economy, which hurts every other player in the game. Not only that, but I imagine the ToS has something about things like this stated. I don't know why people are acting like ArenaNet are being assholes here, when the people punished knowingly and intentionally broke the very contract they agreed to without a care in the world. Nobody was permabanned, they did this as a warning to let people who like to exploit games know that they take this seriously. The whole idea of the beta weekends and such was to allow them to work on the game with active feedback. Obviously some bugs slip through. That doesn't mean people can go using those bugs willy nilly and it's all ArenaNet's fault. The people here blaming ANet are acting like there's no such thing as an honor system. [editline]31st August 2012[/editline] [QUOTE=Bragdras;37480744]This is a really stupid move from them to ban, wether it's permanent or only 3 days, it's not an exploit, they're not BREAKING anything to get the gold conversion, it's literally talking to a specific npc that offers a much better deal than all others, it's an oversight by the developpers, not a bloody exploit. They're punishing players who found this, ridiculous, at most they should have warned them and hotfixed it, not fucking BAN them.[/QUOTE] They didn't just 'find' it. They found it, realized it was a bug, and decided to abuse it endlessly. (Hint: That's called an exploit)

[QUOTE=Bragdras;37480744]This is a really stupid move from them to ban, wether it's permanent or only 3 days, it's not an exploit, they're not BREAKING anything to get the gold conversion, it's literally talking to a specific npc that offers a much better deal than all others, it's an oversight by the developpers, not a bloody exploit. They're punishing players who found this, ridiculous, at most they should have warned them and hotfixed it, not fucking BAN them.[/QUOTE] They still broke the rules, the knew what they were doing, they knew it were not ok, yet they still did it. Of course they deserve a ban.

[QUOTE=Scotchair;37480449]Is this worth getting? Agrees/disagrees will do. I played the first one for a few months, got quite bored. I've tried other MMO's and can never really get sucked in. Not sure whether to give this one a go or not.[/QUOTE] You might like it. The gameplay is very different from GW2 This seems to be really good primarily because it takes many "MMO" tropes that have stuck around in the genre for YEARS simply because "its what WoW does" and says "Fuck that" For example, most mmos require you to build a specific type of character and be in a party that compliments it. GW2 this isn't the case - you can very well solo because everyone can heal themselves (but they might not be as good as a dedicated healer), etc. It's a very "classless" game in the sense that it doesn't force you down a specific "party role" like WoW and other MMO's do. The world is also a lot more dynamic. Most MMO's have most of the good action happen in instanced raids or some other things, which require you to be with a party of people to complete. You literally rely on other players to do everything. In GW2, things just happen in the world. You'll come across a village being seiged by some enemy or some demons, and you jump in to fight it off. Eventually you'll have people in the area who are also just kind of exploring on their own jump in and help you out - essentually the encounter has turned into a mission/raid, except it happens totally naturally through the game world instead of being done through instanced questing and such. Certain areas can be pretty high level too, but you can still quest in them as long as you tag along with some higher level players and put yourself in a support role. It also helps you get XP literally for almost anything, so you don't have to pidgenhole your experiences. Of course the game also support party-style gameplay, but unlike other MMO's you don't need to do that type of thing to do anything. Instead of getting in a large party of players because you have to for X thing, you do it because you want to and you simply meet up somewhere with them and go out as a group. There's other things to it, but I admit I've not actually played it. These are just the two big things that I hear makes GW2 stand out signifigantly from other MMO's.

[QUOTE=FlashFireSix;37480567]My point was just remove the weapons, revert the "economy" back to the way it was[/QUOTE] by the time people were caught, the weapons had already been circulated. they'd need to remove the exploiters money, hunt down who bought those specific weapons, refund them, and then remove the weapons. except there is no way to determine whether or not someone exploited to get the weapons or simply bought one off the marketplace unknowingly welcome to the big picture.

the worst thing is, they use reddit for people to contest bans, publicly

[QUOTE=rampageturke 2;37480987]the worst thing is, they use reddit for people to contest bans, publicly[/QUOTE]That's bad? That is hilarious.

[QUOTE=Doctor Zedacon;37480991]That's bad? That is hilarious.[/QUOTE] it's great for public humiliations [img]http://i.imgur.com/szAzv.jpg[/img]

I personally think it's a divided thing. On one thing ArenaNet has to make sure that things like this won't happen. Yet Reality tells us that it's nearly impossible to make it 100% bug or exploit-free. By using it intentionally and therefore betraying the system or more likely gaining an unintended advantage through exploiting they render the worth of items and the time you need to spend useless. A permanent ban is therefore too harsh, yet I think a 72-hours-ban is okay but a ban lasting 24 hours would've been way better to show what's okay and what's not.

[QUOTE=rampageturke 2;37480987]the worst thing is, they use reddit for people to contest bans, publicly[/QUOTE] Height of professionalism, folks.

I don't get people how blaming the game developer for letting the bug happen. You act like bugs never happen to ANYONE. It's not the developers fault, it's the player's fault for abusing it for fuck sake.

[QUOTE=rampageturke 2;37480987]the worst thing is, they use reddit for people to contest bans, publicly[/QUOTE] That's not bad, that's frigging genius.

[QUOTE=Ray-The-Sun;37481045]Height of professionalism, folks.[/QUOTE] Nah, it's pretty hilarious, people without much shame posted their characters to find out how many times they exploited it. (136 for me.)

The players knew very will what they were doing. If you abuse a bug to your advantage you will get banned. Every game is like that so I don't know why this is any different.

[QUOTE=zerothefallen;37481066]I don't get people how blaming the game developer for letting the bug happen. You act like bugs never happen to ANYONE. It's not the developers fault, it's the player's fault for abusing it for fuck sake.[/QUOTE] They misplaced a comma for a fullstop, could have been prevented by double checking then moving on. It's their fault.

[QUOTE=zerothefallen;37481066]I don't get people how blaming the game developer for letting the bug happen. You act like bugs never happen to ANYONE. It's not the developers fault, it's the player's fault for abusing it for fuck sake.[/QUOTE] My personal philosophy while developing gamemodes for Garry's Mod is not to ban exploiters, but rather try to fix the exploit. I can imagine that in a world like Guild Wars 2 an exploit can do a lot more damage though, so scaring people away from using it is one way to go about it. As long as they fix the exploit quickly. Problem is: will they notice an exploit if it isn't widely abused?

[QUOTE=RAG Frag;37481775]They misplaced a comma for a fullstop, could have been prevented by double checking then moving on. It's their fault.[/QUOTE] Games are made by robots now. It's not their fucking fault for a bug to happen. Not everyone is as perfect as you.

[QUOTE=No Party Hats;37480454]3000 people got a 72 hour suspension for breaking the game. i dont see the problem here, they knew very well what would happen.[/QUOTE] 72 hour suspension? Fine. 3000 people getting permanently banned from using the product they purchase because of utilizing a bug that was unseen by the developers in the 5 years of creation? Not fine. Like others have said, punish them if you want but don't permaban. They changed to 72 hour suspension this time but I doubt they'll do that in the future. Arenanet is extremely strict on banning people and it's pretty frustrating.

[QUOTE=itisjuly;37482039]Games are made by robots now. It's not their fucking fault for a bug to happen. Not everyone is as perfect as you.[/QUOTE] Writing 25,000 as 25.000 is human error. Sure mistakes happen, but it is entirely their fault. Or are players supposed to question everything they see and pussyfoot around the game, just incase their $60 gets voided.

[QUOTE=-Get_A_Life-;37480336][I]"just this once, the studio will offer to convert permanent bans to 72-hour suspensions."[/I] Yeah so basicly they just banned those 3000 players for 72 hours. Still, permabanning a player from playing a game he bought is pretty god damn disgusting. I could understand if it was for hacking or something like that, but when it comes to bug exploits, the devs are to blame for letting it happen in the first place.[/QUOTE] What one person does in the game can affect everyone. One guy crafts hundreds of high level weapons that otherwise cost everyone else LOADS of shit to even make. Suddenly this guy has flooded the market with them, and made enough money to buy anything he needs, along with an abnormal amount of these weapons in people's hands early on in the game. Now 3,000 people have done it. Oh fuck. Intentionally doing it? Ban them. Simple as that. They can get the ban reduced to 72 hours and lesson learned, which is a pretty god damn generous offer. It's in the Terms of Service you accepted to not exploit or glitch or cheat, or face punishment not limited to permanent suspension of your account Why does everyone say it's ArenaNet's fault when a glitcher gets punished? No, it isn't. People don't blame Glock for murders, but the guy pulling the trigger. Stop passing the blame as if it isn't the person intentionally and repeatedly using the glitch's fault. They aren't 5 year olds drawing on the walls with a crayon I remember when people didn't cheat, and were pretty decent. Now we got people who just flat out cheat then feel entitled to do so. And when they get caught, tell themselves that it's the developers fault for letting them to begin with so they won't feel like the piece of shit they are. Sorry. I hate cheaters

"They weren't exploiting, they were just *verbatim definition of exploiting*!"

[QUOTE=RAG Frag;37482104]Writing 25,000 as 25.000 is human error. Sure mistakes happen, but it is entirely their fault. Or are players supposed to question everything they see and pussyfoot around the game, just incase their $60 gets voided.[/QUOTE]Just because I forgot my phone at a cafe does not mean you have the rights to take it. Writing any code line wrong is a human error. This does not mean you have the permission to exploit these errors. I doubt they're banning people who crafted one or two cheap weapons. People who exploit shit on purpose deserve to be punished. They got 72 hour cooldown for it. If you find a bug, report and move on. Do not take advantage of it.

[QUOTE=RAG Frag;37481775]They misplaced a comma for a fullstop, could have been prevented by double checking then moving on. It's their fault.[/QUOTE] You're an idiot, mistakes happen, doesn't mean you can abuse them. Shut up. [QUOTE=Clavus;37482024]My personal philosophy while developing gamemodes for Garry's Mod is not to ban exploiters, but rather try to fix the exploit. I can imagine that in a world like Guild Wars 2 an exploit can do a lot more damage though, so scaring people away from using it is one way to go about it. As long as they fix the exploit quickly. Problem is: will they notice an exploit if it isn't widely abused?[/QUOTE] That's not how games work, no one will "not do things" because someone was banned for an exploit. People know they ABUSED IT. Just because people were banned for abusing doesn't mean "it'll scare people from using anything". It's showing that you if you knowingly abuse a glitch, you'll be punished. It's like this in ALL games. Why would you NOT punish players for abusing a glitch maliciously? There is 0 reason to not do so, and if you think "it's the developers fault" you should probably shut up and figure out programming errors happen. ALWAYS. [editline]31st August 2012[/editline] [QUOTE=RAG Frag;37482104]Writing 25,000 as 25.000 is human error. Sure mistakes happen, but it is entirely their fault. Or are players supposed to question everything they see and pussyfoot around the game, just incase their $60 gets voided.[/QUOTE] No players would "pussyfoot" because others exploit known bugs. NO ONE.

Suddenly FP thinks GW2 playerbase are pussies and will be scared to play because exploiters got banned.

[QUOTE=Archonos 2;37482097]72 hour suspension? Fine. 3000 people getting permanently banned from using the product they purchase because of utilizing a bug that was unseen by the developers in the 5 years of creation? Not fine. Like others have said, punish them if you want but don't permaban. They changed to 72 hour suspension this time but I doubt they'll do that in the future. Arenanet is extremely strict on banning people and it's pretty frustrating.[/QUOTE]Then don't abuse bugs and glitches in the game. Acknowledge the risks of what you are doing. If you want to risk losing your $50 because you don't want to play the game properly, then deal with it if you get caught. I have zero remorse for them. They knew what they were doing.

[QUOTE=itisjuly;37482360]Suddenly FP thinks GW2 playerbase are pussies and will be scared to play because exploiters got banned.[/QUOTE] "X got banned for exploiting.... I better not play the game how I want, or I might get banned!" They act like the company doesn't know that unintentional glitches happen and that as long as they DON'T ABUSE IT, nothing will happen.

I'm somewhat wondering if a few of the people in here were abusing the bug and got caught, so they feel obligated to bitch about how they were unfairly punished for knowingly abusing the bug.

[QUOTE=Archonos 2;37482097]72 hour suspension? Fine. 3000 people getting permanently banned from using the product they purchase because of utilizing a bug that was unseen by the developers in the 5 years of creation? Not fine.Like others have said, punish them if you want but don't permaban. They changed to 72 hour suspension this time but I doubt they'll do that in the future. Arenanet is extremely strict on banning people and it's pretty frustrating.[/QUOTE] "Why should I be banned from the game I bought when I only intentionally exploited the game to get an insane amount of in game money? It's the developers' fault that I'm an entitled prick!"