While hacking and botting may not be a source of frustration to you in your daily MMO, to the denizens of EverQuest, it is a real and ever-present headache. In what is already not the easiest MMO on the planet, players are experiencing an onslaught of hackers who go out of their way to ruin the fun for everyone.
In a three-part series, Ten Ton Hammer exposes the systematic problem of rampant hacking in the game, especially on the new progression servers. While guilds are doing their part to crack down on hackers in their midst, it doesn't seem to be enough to stem the flow, especially as with a much smaller team in place these days.
Ultimately, fighting this problem does not seem to be SOE's current priority. EQ Producer Thom Terazzas addressed the issue of hacking by saying, "The expansion is something that we're really focused on right now. That has gotten, I would say, 80 percent of the focus here. So doing anything that dramatically combats the hacking is something that we would really like to do, but it is not something we've been able to do."
Terazzas followed that up by talking with the Customer Service team and promised that the hackings will receive higher priority once the expansion crunch is over. In the meantime, he urged players to file reports with CS if hacking was observed.
Reader Comments (11)
Posted: Oct 6th 2011 1:15PM Yellowdancer said
Hmm...I never knew EQ had a problem with people hacking. Not sure what you can hack to ruin the game for others.
Posted: Oct 6th 2011 3:30PM Ceridith said
@Yellowdancer
Oldschool EQ didn't use instancing for dungeons or bosses, which is primarily what progression servers deal with since they move back to non-instancing. Other players hacking could very easily deprive non-cheating players from being able to experience dungeon or boss content.
Reply
Oldschool EQ didn't use instancing for dungeons or bosses, which is primarily what progression servers deal with since they move back to non-instancing. Other players hacking could very easily deprive non-cheating players from being able to experience dungeon or boss content.
Posted: Oct 6th 2011 3:07PM (Unverified) said
This is the game I figured would go F2P with SOE... kinda wish they would.
Posted: Oct 6th 2011 5:14PM blackcat7k said
Unfortunate, but it seems to be a trend with Sony. Planetside has had hacking problems for ages. However, I've never heard of malicious hacking attempts like this in an EQ type MMO, let alone THE EQ game itself.
Posted: Oct 6th 2011 6:41PM Resurge said
How ridiculous. Dont make new stuff till the stuff you already have WORKS. It's pretty damn simple.
Posted: Oct 6th 2011 6:49PM notinterested said
Typical SOE... We know there is a major issue but will continue to blindly work on our next quick cash grab instead of investing into the future of our games.
Posted: Oct 6th 2011 8:24PM Nepentheia said
*chuckles*
Wow, s'more of that typical hubris one can always expect from SoE.
In other words, "We're too busy making new content, screw the current content and the overall health of the game!"
Wow, s'more of that typical hubris one can always expect from SoE.
In other words, "We're too busy making new content, screw the current content and the overall health of the game!"
Posted: Oct 6th 2011 8:26PM (Unverified) said
Thats the problem. They are concentrating on yet another wortless expansion. Every year ANOTHER xpac comes out, all with either an AA/level increase and a few new high level zones and dungeons. Instead of spending the time to make the xpac WORTH IT, its the same thing - wayyyyy too early. If one was out every 2 years, it would be worth the wait and they could spend time on hacking which is 10000x more important to ALL PLAYERS, than another small xpac.
Posted: Oct 7th 2011 5:16AM demonlife said
I can't believe anyone still pays $15/month to play this ancient game and I really can't believe anyone bothers to hack it. That's like stealing quarters so you can play Pong.
Posted: Oct 7th 2011 8:28AM GrumpyGnome said
@demonlife
And what, exactly is your problem with Pong? Ehh?
Reply
And what, exactly is your problem with Pong? Ehh?
Posted: Oct 7th 2011 8:27AM GrumpyGnome said
The Warp hacks have been known of, and ignored by SoE since Kunark at least, although back then they were used primarily to get you into places you normally could not go, and allowed you to farm levels at an extreme rate. Every server had a few people using the dark arts; they were generally the ones maxing at cap so fast it defied logic.








