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League of Legends mastery point exploit fixed, banhammer incoming

Matt Daniel — Mon, 07 May 2012 13:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, News items, Free-to-play, MOBA, League of Legends

We all know that League of Legends breeds a fairly competitive community, but unfortunately there are players out there who don't let little things like rules and common decency get in the way of their desire to win. A number of such players were recently found to be taking advantage of an exploit that allowed them to place more mastery points in a given talent than they would legally be able to, thereby giving them an incredibly unfair advantage.

Riot Games' Lead Community Manager, Tamat, stopped by the forums today to let everyone know that "that's bull****" and that it's not going to be tolerated. The post goes on to state that a fix for the exploit has been implemented, and the studio is about to lay the smack down on the guilty parties. Tamat says that the studio has "comprehensive logs and data" that have been used to identify the players who used the exploit. Riot is "going to be taking firm action against their accounts." May all the exploiters meet a swift and terrible demise at the hands of Riot's banhammer. For the full details on the matter, head on over to the official post on the League of Legends forums.

League of Legends mastery point exploit fixed, banhammer incoming originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 07 May 2012 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EVE Online fixes boomerang exploit

Justin Olivetti — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 15:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Bugs, Patches, Sandbox

Pilots looking to duck the long arm of the law in high-security space will need to find another way to perform their nefarious deeds, as EVE Online released a patch today fixing the so-called "boomerang exploit."

CCP considered it an official and actionable game exploit to avoid CONCORD retaliation in high-security space by attacking a target right after the aggressor warps away or within the same grid in which the player earned a Global Criminal Countdown. Those who used the exploit prior to the fix could have found themselves dealing with a much scarier force than CONCORD: game masters themselves. Now, any player with a GCC will simply be unable to warp away.

Other than keeping boomerangs in the hands of kangaroos where they belong, Crucible patch 1.6.3 contains a few localization fixes, the ability to add a station as a waypoint or destination through the API, and some pesky client crashing issues.

EVE Online fixes boomerang exploit originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 02 Apr 2012 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Game Archaeologist dials up Phantasy Star Online: The players

Justin Olivetti — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 21:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Classes, Culture, Interviews, Consoles, The Game Archaeologist

After last week's foray into the colorful world of Phantasy Star Online, I knew I had to step it up for a great follow-through. That's why I got in touch with three excellent MMO bloggers who have long histories with PSO and were more than eager to share their perspective on this unique game world!

The Game Archaeologist: Who the heck are you and how did you first get into Phantasy Star Online? What class and race did you play?

David: I'm David Lambert, but many people know me better as Branick, host and producer of the LOTRO Academy podcast. I first got into Phantasy Star Online with the original Dreamcast release, which I picked up only about two weeks after it came out. I actually had eight different characters (I bought six VMUs in addition to the two I already had specifically for this purpose), but I definitely favored the HUcast. I wasn't big on using techniques, and the HUcast had the highest attack power in the game.

Continue reading The Game Archaeologist dials up Phantasy Star Online: The players

The Game Archaeologist dials up Phantasy Star Online: The players originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 07 Feb 2012 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Daily Grind: When does a clever loophole become a bannable exploit?

Brianna Royce — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 08:00:00 EST

Filed under: Bugs, Game mechanics, MMO industry, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous

Trouble has been brewing this week over a Star Wars: The Old Republic "exploit" in which people use seemingly legitimate (but perhaps unintended) game mechanics to tip the balance of the game in their favor. Of course, this is nothing new to veteran MMO players, who have seen hundreds, even thousands, of such loopholes and bugs spackled and patched since first MMO came online. Entire World of Warcraft guilds have been banned, however temporarily, for "exploiting" poorly coded raid AI, for example.

I've always felt that it's the game company's responsibility to counter loopholes before anyone takes advantage of them; the onus should be on the developer, not the player, to set the rules of the game using hardcoded mechanics. The players can't be expected to suss out the game-designers' intent, after all. Other gamers believe that "exploiters" really ought to know better and deserve whatever punishments the game's GMs mete out. What do you think? When does a clever loophole become a bannable exploit?

Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!

The Daily Grind: When does a clever loophole become a bannable exploit? originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 07 Jan 2012 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This Week In MMO: Interrupting dance edition

Matt Daniel — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 22:00:00 EST

Filed under: Video, News items, Humor, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Final Fantasy XIV

It's time for yet another episode of This Week In MMO, and you'll never guess what the topic du jour is. Well, unless you guessed Star Wars: The Old Republic (again), in which case you would be correct. Much discussion is had about the hilarity that was SWTOR's /getdown exploit, which allowed players to interrupt enemy mobs by... dancing at them.

Meanwhile, Final Fantasy XIV will resume charging subscription fees tomorrow, January 6th, so if you're still subscribed and don't want to pay, you'd better cancel now. And lastly, on a note of complete and utter excess, the gang reports that one gamer (who we imagine spends most of his time swimming in his money like Scrooge McDuck) has spent $16,000 US on an in-game sword for Snail Games' F2P (irony!) title, Age of Wulin. The kicker? The game isn't even out yet. For the full video, just click on past the cut and have a look.

This Week In MMO: Interrupting dance edition originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 05 Jan 2012 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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BioWare's James Ohlen: Bug fixes coming weekly

Matt Daniel — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 18:30:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, Bugs, Patches, News items, Star Wars: The Old Republic

Any new MMO, even big-budget behemoths like BioWare's Star Wars: The Old Republic, is often fraught with bugs and exploits that can keep the game from living up to its full potential. The Old Republic's game director, James Ohlen, recognizes this and has stopped by the official forums to let players know how the company will be handling the game's bugs, glitches, and exploits.

Ohlen states that "almost every week [BioWare] will be releasing a new patch." These pseudo-weekly patches will be focused almost entirely on fixing bugs, exploits, and glaring balance issues within the game. Ohlen does remind players, however, that bug-fixing is not always a simple task. "There are issues that we will fix immediately," he says, with the caveat that "these are rare and not every issue can be fixed in this manner. We usually reserve these 'emergency fixes' for bugs that are stopping players from playing the game or to exploits that could unbalance the entire game if not corrected." I'm sure players have a few things in mind to which an emergency fix could be applied, but we'll just have to wait for the next patch to see what the devs have cooked up.

BioWare's James Ohlen: Bug fixes coming weekly originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 04 Jan 2012 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Breakdancing breaks SWTOR enemies' spirits [Updated]

Justin Olivetti — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 09:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, Bugs, Humor, Star Wars: The Old Republic

We've heard of many a bug and exploit in MMOs over the years, but sometimes there comes along one special case that is so entertaining you can't help but wonder if some mischievous developer planned it on purpose.

Such is the case with Star Wars: The Old Republic's latest glitch, where players busting a groove actually affects combat. According to several sources that confirmed this, by typing /getdown during combat (a dance move) enemies attacking you will be continually interrupted -- including bosses. Perhaps the bad guys were so amazed that players could do the moonwalk that they become stunned out of awe?

If you're hoping to wield your incredible dance powers for either the light or dark side of the Force, know that BioWare is fully aware of this exploit. Considering that the studio removed all mentions of the bug on the forums, we can assume that a fix is coming to the game sooner rather than later.

[Thanks to Kaizlu for the tip!]

[UPDATE: The Reverend Shaw Moore has arrived in SWTOR and accounts are being banned for getting down. Accounts taking advantage of this bug are being sanctioned with the explanation that the offending characters "participated in abusing game mechanics to prevent enemy NPCs from targeting the user", and that "dancing is currently not permitted outside of special Dance Zones."]

[UPDATE #2: BioWare sent us a note saying that the previous update was based on a troll posting to Reddit and that this is a "fake ban email."]

Breakdancing breaks SWTOR enemies' spirits [Updated] originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 04 Jan 2012 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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BioWare responds to SWTOR's Ilum exploits

Larry Everett — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 17:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, New titles, News items, Star Wars: The Old Republic

The Star Wars: The Old Republic open-world PvP zone of Ilum is intended to be an area where high-level players duke it out for planetary control. However, many players spend their time just standing around and not actually engaging each other. Some even go so far as to use their low-level alts of the opposite faction to cap nodes and help their mains gain PvP currency.

Recently, some of these players were surprised to find their accounts temporarily suspended. Normally, we do not contact gaming companies because of bans, but there was some confusion in the community regarding a section in the rules of conduct that states: "You may not engage in any conduct or practice that results in an Account containing items, objects, currency, character attributes, rank, or status that are inappropriate for the level or rank of the character contained in the Account, i.e., 'item loading.'" Community Manager Stephen Reid pointed us to a forum post he created after we contacted him, in which he comments about the suspended accounts:

It's important to remember that our Terms of Service team is extremely careful and thorough in their investigation of any potential exploit or unusual activity in-game. Working closely with the development team and using extensive metrics based on player activity, they are able to determine what is normal player activity, what is unusual and what is exploiting. Our goal is always to ensure a fair game experience for all players while also protecting the rights of individuals, and if people are disrupting the play experience for others action will be taken.

In the post, Reid clarifies that only accounts suspected of gold farming were actually banned. Only a small number of accounts were temporarily suspended for the Ilum exploit, and also any action taken against an account may be appealed.

BioWare responds to SWTOR's Ilum exploits originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 02 Jan 2012 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Amazing EVE Online video tells epic tale of wormhole conflict

Brendan Drain — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 09:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, Video, EVE Online, Culture, Game mechanics, Guilds, Lore, PvP, News items, Sandbox

PvP in EVE Online is more often likened to a game of strategy than of action. If that's true, then Rooks and Kings' impressive track record for tactical genius makes the alliance undeniably a grandmaster of intergalactic chess. The group's instructional video Clarion Call: Triage Special in early 2009 was released to wide acclaim, and the tactics demonstrated in the video became core strategies replicated by military corporations throughout the game. The follow-up video Clarion Call: Pantheon evolved those strategies to counter opponents prepared to come up against triage carriers.

Massively is proud to exclusively reveal Rooks and Kings' third and undeniably most impressive video to date. Clarion Call 3 moves the stage of Rooks and Kings' normal hunting grounds in nullsec and lowsec to the undiscovered lands of wormhole space. But star Alazais says "one does not simply walk into a wormhole," noting that the tight restrictions on the mass of ships that can enter a wormhole presents new challenges. The group fought outnumbered and outgunned against an enemy possessing an ability that later became known as "the infinity gun."

Skip past the cut to learn more about the infinity gun exploit and to watch the full film. Don't forget to set it to 1080p for the full HD experience.

Continue reading Amazing EVE Online video tells epic tale of wormhole conflict

Amazing EVE Online video tells epic tale of wormhole conflict originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 18 Nov 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Daily Grind: What's the most creative solution you've ever come up with in an MMO?

Justin Olivetti — Sat, 21 May 2011 08:00:00 EST

Filed under: Culture, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous

Players are endlessly creative, rebellious beings. While we do play by the rules that are established in MMOs, we're always always looking for other ways to do things and solutions that weren't conceived by developers when they created the game. Sometimes devs call these solutions "exploits," sometimes they're applauded, and sometimes they're even legitimized.

You see, MMOs contain a series of problems that need solving -- usually by decapitation. To aid the player in doing so, they provide a toolbox in the form of skills, abilities, stats, and items. The best MMOs allow us to use this toolbox to explore multiple paths to victory, particularly when there are tricky non-combat puzzles and problems afoot.

So today I'd like to know the most creative solution you ever came up with while playing an MMO. When was a time that you were beating your head against a problem, tried something unconventional -- and it worked? Impress us with your creative genius!

Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!

The Daily Grind: What's the most creative solution you've ever come up with in an MMO? originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 21 May 2011 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EVE security devblog explains recent forum exploit

Brendan Drain — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, MMO industry, News items

When EVE Online's new forum went live on Thursday, April 7th, it wasn't long before someone discovered a gruesome exploit. The cookie used by the forum wasn't encrypted, putting the user's character ID and signature in plain text. The forum software also didn't have the required validation procedures, meaning users could change the user ID in their cookies to any character's ID and they'd be able to post as that character. Moderator tools and private forums for EVE developers, volunteers and the CSM were also allegedly exposed.

In a new devblog, CCP Sreegs has explained the extent to which the exploit compromised security. In addition to being able to post as any user and edit any post, users abusing the exploit were able to inject arbitrary HTML into their forum signatures. Several players have been very vocally outraged by this, as the potential for someone to insert javascript into a forum page could be extremely damaging. Sreegs assured players that javascript inserted into the signature was sanitized and would not execute.

At least one player who reported the exploit was banned for subsequently abusing the exploit in an effort to force CCP to take action. In his devblog, Sreegs re-iterated the correct steps for getting in touch with CCP's security department if an exploit or security hole is discovered. Player response to the devblog has been largely positive, but questions still remain. CCP has yet to comment on why it decided to base the new forum on open source software Yet Another Forum and why it didn't inform players that it was using a pre-made package.

EVE security devblog explains recent forum exploit originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 12 Apr 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Wings Over Atreia: Boss world tour -- Inggison

MJ Guthrie — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 14:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Aion, PvE, Wings Over Atreia, Guides

Back in January, Wings Over Atreia brought you the first installment of a series highlighting the who, where, what, and even some how of Aion's world bosses. At that time, we took a tour around the land of Heiron and met up with those tough (and some not-so-tough) bosses who taunt players with their juicy, coveted loot. But Heiron is for youngins; this week, we will focus our tour on the playground of the highest levels, the lands of Balaurea -- specifically, Inggison.

It never fails -- the best goodies are never the easy-to-get goodies. As much as Daevas may want to get their hot little hands on some of the weapons, armor, and crafting materials dropped by these world bosses, they have to first find these giants and second actually defeat them. So much easier said than done. On the bright side, some of the mobs are easier to kill and can even be soloed (although they are also well-camped). On the not-bright side, others don't seem to show their faces as often as hungry loot-hunters would like, or they take a friend or 20 to take down. So what's a Daeva to do?

Soar past the cut for some tips, tricks, and a handy map for seeking out those Inggison bosses and convincing them to give up their loot.

Continue reading Wings Over Atreia: Boss world tour -- Inggison

Wings Over Atreia: Boss world tour -- Inggison originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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New EVE Online forums get off to a bumpy start

Brendan Drain — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 22:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, MMO industry, News items

As part of EVE Online's Incursion expansion, players were due to get a new set of forums with a powerful new search feature and other handy tools. A beta version of the forum was released for testing by players at the end of February to help CCP collect feedback on its design. On Thursday, April 7th, the new forum was officially launched and the old forum was set to a read-only archive. It wasn't long, however, before problems began to crop up with the new forum. With so many people now using the new forum, it was only a matter of time before someone found a security hole in it.

Players discovered a cookie-based exploit that allowed them to authenticate as any EVE player without knowing the user's password, including forum moderators and CCP developers. Although user login data wasn't revealed, players abusing the exploit were able to edit other users' posts, access moderator tools and post as developers. A similar exploit was found that allowed players to post arbitrary Javascript into their forum signatures, which could have led to serious security compromises.

Web developers at CCP disabled the forum for several hours to develop and deploy a fix, but were ultimately unable to resolve the problem. For now, the new forum has been disabled and the old one has been reactivated in its stead. A devblog on the issue is due to be posted tomorrow.

New EVE Online forums get off to a bumpy start originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 10 Apr 2011 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Perpetuum reels from robot insurance fraud

Justin Olivetti — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, Bugs, Economy, Perpetuum

In an MMO so dependent on its economy, it's crucial to keep a tight rein on the flow of money so that the whole mechanism doesn't spin out of control. Unfortunately, it appears this started to happen in the relatively new Perpetuum when a number of profiteers began to unbalance the economy by manipulating the market on insured robots.

According to a Perpetuum dev blog, the fraud came about when players figured out how to game the insurance system. The game's robots are insured not according to a fixed amount, but in relation to the global market average. Developer "Zoom" explains what happened next: "Due to some additional flaws in the mechanism, with good skills and good facilities it became very profitable to manufacture robots with the sole purpose of insuring them and blowing them up as soon as they roll out of the factory."

While the dev team initially sanctioned the action as part of a free market economy, this post represents a changed stance toward such practices. Players have written to Massively telling of how their wallets were sucked completely dry by the company after months of what they assumed to be legitimate market techniques.

The team retrieved over a billion NIC (Perpetuum's currency) from players and called out a number of corporations involved in these actions. Ultimately, the team elected not to ban any of the associated parties for the time being. Instead, all players should be seeing a modified version of this insurance feature within the week.

[Thanks for all the tips sent in on this one!]

Perpetuum reels from robot insurance fraud originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 14 Feb 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Further developments in MapleStory Europe's hacking madness

Brendan Drain — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, MapleStory, Culture, Events, in-game, News items, Free-to-play, Casual

Last week, we brought you the news that players abusing an exploit had brought MapleStory Europe's in-game economy to its knees. Using a packet-forging exploit, players with the Meso Guard skill were able to trick the server into giving them 2.17 billion mesos. Hundreds of mule accounts were created to house the forged currency, and trillions was poured into the economy via trades and market stalls. Nexon EU's initial response was to trade-ban all characters with over a certain amount of currency, a move that was criticised for catching a great deal of legitimate players and also somehow missing many of the hackers' mule accounts.

Despite concerns that the issue had gotten out of hand, Nexon EU stated that the company opted not to perform a server rollback. "The reason why we didn't perform a rollback on our servers," a Nexon EU representative told us, "was because we detected the exploit too late which may make the players lose even more of their gains if we were to turn everything back." The company's final plan for dealing with the massive influx of mesos has finally been announced, and it's bad news for practically everyone involved. After determining that the damage to the economy had become irreversible, Nexon decided to try to bring balance back to the economy by deleting a large percentage of every single player's mesos.

The forums have been in an uproar about the solution, with players complaining that it harms legitimate players more than the hackers. Legitimate players who have never cheated nor hacked will log in to find up to 90% of their hard-earned cash gone. Hackers will suffer the same percentage deduction, but with trillions stashed away in mule accounts they'll still be a lot better off than they were before the incident. Nexon EU clarified the statement in a later announcement, stating that "the deduction of Mesos will only be applied to users who have logged into the game between January 5th, 2011 and February 9th, 2011 5:00 A.M. (GMT+1)." Accounts that were previously trade-banned will also be receiving 1,000 maple points and an incubator as compensation.

Further developments in MapleStory Europe's hacking madness originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 10 Feb 2011 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MapleStory Europe's economy collapses due to currency exploit [Updated]

Brendan Drain — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 14:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, MapleStory, Bugs, Economy, Events, in-game, MMO industry, News items, Free-to-play

Despite its huge financial success, MapleStory Europe has had more than its fair share of problems. Last month, controversy hit MapleStory Europe when double-xp cards lasting for 90 days, instead of the intended 24 hours, were accidentally placed in the cash shop during the new year sale. The latest issue to hit MapleStory Europe has done serious and potentially irrecoverable damage to the game's economy. The exploit involved the Chief Bandit and Shadower classes, which both have a skill called "Meso Guard". This causes them to lose mesos, the game's currency, when hit instead of hitpoints.

Packet-forging exploits have been used for some time to alter the damage players deal to monsters or receive from them. Combined with Meso Guard, hackers were able to fool the game into hitting them for -2,147,483,648 damage (the largest negative value a signed 32-bit integer can hold). Since the damage was a negative value, the Meso Guard skill then granted the player over two billion mesos. Hacking players used their ill-gotten gains to buy up practically everything in players' market stalls, massively inflating the game's economy by pouring untold billions into the hands of random players.

Nexon attempted to patch the exploit last night and responded by permanently trade-banning countless accounts. Reports from players indicate that the exploit is still possible and that many of the offending accounts were not banned. To make matters worse, a large number of legitimate players who were traded ill-gotten currency were also allegedly trade-banned. The follow-up to another meso exploit found last year was similarly lackluster, with no server rollback performed in either instance.

[Update: Scott Yoo from Nexon Europe got in touch with us to provide an update on the story. He had the following to say: "[W]e did 'trade-ban' suspected accounts temporarily in order to conduct an internal investigation but we also had to make sure no-more illicitly gained Mesos (in-game currency) are going out to the in-game market and contained in the meanwhile. We do admit that a certain amount of legitimate players can be included in the trade banned list and that's what we are going to reveal through the investigation carefully. [...] The reason why we didn't perform a rollback on our servers was because we detected the exploit too late which may make the players lose even more of their gains if we were to turn everything back. Another announcement that includes more details on this incident will go up live shortly (either today or tomorrow as the latest)."]

MapleStory Europe's economy collapses due to currency exploit [Updated] originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 01 Feb 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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[UPDATE #2] DDO: Endless night or endless bannings?

Justin Olivetti — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Bugs, Events, in-game, Free-to-play

What began as a fun Halloween event in Dungeons and Dragons Online has turned into a sour experience for several players. Last night, three-day bans were handed out by Turbine GMs who determined that DDO players were reportedly taking advantage of an exploit during the Mabar, The Endless Night Festival. However, many hit by the bans were unaware of the exploit, and were disgruntled when they were hit with the ban right as customer support left for the evening.

According to the notices sent out, Turbine feels justified for these actions: "Recently we conducted an investigation into an exploit that was being utilized in Dungeons and Dragons Online: Eberron Unlimited, involving our recent Mabar, The Endless Night Festival. As a result of that investigation, your account has been identified in utilizing this exploit. Please be advised that use of an exploit is strictly prohibited by our Code of Conduct."

One thread concerning the bannings was deleted, although another persists. Players express disbelief over what they see as punishment for rules they didn't know existed. One player, Madmonkey2, summed up the collective disbelief: "If the player has no idea what is going on, how can they be guilty of abusing an exploit? I personally did not gain one single benefit from that event, yet I am accused to doing something (unknown) repeatedly to benefit somehow?"

As you may recall, the Endless Night Festival was plagued with issues in the preview, although the event appeared to proceed more smoothly on the live servers.

[Update: The forum thread we mentioned has since been deleted]

[Update: It looks like those bannings happened by mistake. According to Turbine, less than 1% of the player base was affected, but those players can expect the error to be rectified and to receive compensation as soon as possible. Turbine's Tolero has posted a statement on the DDO forums.]

[UPDATE #2] DDO: Endless night or endless bannings? originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 10 Nov 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EVE Evolved: Downtime deployment debate

Brendan Drain — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Culture, Events, in-game, Game mechanics, PvP, Opinion, EVE Evolved

Earlier this week, an explosive argument broke out in the EVE Online community. Following an extended server downtime, it became known that Reddit-based alliance Test Alliance Please Ignore had used the server downtime to protect the deployment of 14 territorial claim units. Ordinarily, these claim units are vulnerable to attack for eight hours while they start up. The owner may choose to either commit a fleet to defend them for eight hours or leave them unguarded and hope nobody decides to knock them down.

This mechanic is designed to ensure that a force can't claim or attack a large number of systems simultaneously against opposition, as an alliance can't reliably defend several TCUs at once. By anchoring the structures just before the extended downtime occurred, Test Alliance made them invulnerable for their entire deployment time. A controversial debate then ensued, as GMs stepped in and Test pilots began making accusations of corruption, collusion and favouritism.

In this opinion piece, I weigh in on the latest debate to shake New Eden. I look at whether downtime deployment really is an exploit and whether there's any substance to the accusations made against EVE's Game Masters.

Continue reading EVE Evolved: Downtime deployment debate

EVE Evolved: Downtime deployment debate originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 07 Nov 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EVE wormhole exploit is fixed

Brendan Drain — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Game mechanics, Patches

Two weeks ago, we reported the news that a new exploit had been uncovered in EVE Online. Players in a hidden class 6 wormhole system with a rare magnetar anomaly discovered that they could abuse the anomaly's effects to gain infinite tracking and range on typically short-range turrets. The exploit was uncovered when they used it to defend their home system from attack against Rooks and Kings, a corporation that wormhole-dwelling corps have learned to fear for its precision invasions of colonised wormhole systems.

On September 21st, a hotfix was rapidly deployed to temporarily remove the offending electronic warfare effects from magnetar anomalies. This prevented players from pushing the effectiveness of tracking disruptors over the magic 100% mark that caused the bug. EVE developers CCP Games have announced that after some internal discussion, they've decided to make that change permanent. Removing the effect from all magnetars and not just the currently exploitable ones ensures that similar problems don't occur in the future if new equipment ever raises the effectiveness of tracking disruptors. The only question left unanswered is what will happen to Aperture Harmonics, the corporation that has been using this exploit for some time.

EVE wormhole exploit is fixed originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 29 Sep 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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New EVE exploit gives wormhole corp incredible advantage

Brendan Drain — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 17:30:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Game mechanics, Guilds, PvP, News items, PvE

A potentially game-breaking new exploit was revealed tonight in EVE Online. The exploit was first noticed by Rooks and Kings pilots during their invasion of populated wormhole systems. Their target, a corp named Aperture Harmonics, appeared to have almost game-breaking abilities. The corporation's ships were somehow able to successfully hit their targets from over 150km away using short-range weapons like blasters and autocannons. Since short-range weapons with short-range ammo deal massive damage, being able to hit with them at distances beyond a few thousand metres is potentially game-breaking.

Aperture Harmonics and its parent alliance K162 have both maintained a strong presence in EVE's 2500 hidden star systems since the appearance of wormholes over a year ago. The corp has become incredibly wealthy by running the difficult exploration content in these hidden systems, but it was always assumed that the tactics Aperture Harmonics pilots used were entirely legitimate. Whereas other corps tackle high-end Sleeper sites with complex logistics and electronic warfare strategies, the Aperture Harmonics pilots may simply have been cheating to run the sites in an almost impossibly short time.

Continue reading New EVE exploit gives wormhole corp incredible advantage

New EVE exploit gives wormhole corp incredible advantage originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 17 Sep 2010 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Unintended source of passive income to be removed from EVE Online

Brendan Drain — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Economy, Patches, Professions

There are many of ways to make ISK in EVE Online, from mission-running and ratting to trading and research. Some methods, like mission-running, are very active processes in which the amount of ISK made is directly proportional to the amount of time spent playing. Other processes, such as trading or moon-mining, are largely passive endeavours in which ISK is made even while the pilot is offline. One such source of passive income, which has been around since the tech 2 invention system came in, is datacore collection. Players with high enough standings and the right skills trained in the science field can sign up to do research with various R&D agents throughout EVE. The agents automatically give players research points every day for free, which can later be redeemed for datacores to be sold on the market.

Datacore collection itself is an intended game mechanic, and this system for supplying datacores doesn't look like it will be changing any time soon. The issue is that characters on expired accounts will still accrue research points every day. Using this so-called "ghost research" loophole, some players have been farming datacores with an unfair advantage over active pilots. Abusers typically set up accounts with three research characters each, then let those accounts expire. Several months later, each account will be re-activated to harvest the datacores. In a recent devblog, CCP Soundwave explained that this issue came from a list of important player-voted issues that was presented to CCP by the Council of Stellar Management. The unintended loophole will be closed in a hotfix in the near future.

Unintended source of passive income to be removed from EVE Online originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 23 Aug 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Behind the Mask: The exploiter's dilemma

Patrick Mackey — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Super-hero, Game mechanics, PvP, Champions Online, Behind the Mask

It's tough being an exploiter, especially in a game like Champions Online. It carries a certain social stigma, somewhere above catgirls but below most other castes of players. I feel like the exploiters have a bad rep, because other players misunderstand and misrepresent us.

Exploiters are the players who find bugs and ultimately discover FOTMs or gimmick builds and strategies. Because most people consider bugs and "flavors of the month" to be bad, the people who work to discover these things tend to be treated badly.

This is unfortunate, because exploiters are basically explorers. One might think that they are achievers or killers (as the end result of finding exploits is granting unfair advantages), but exploiters are explorers at heart. While other explorers journey through lands that have been charted by other players (except in the case where the game or feature is new), exploiters explore the landscape searching for things that other players haven't discovered and might never look for. The thrill of learning something new drives the exploiter, rather than the material reward of an imbalanced build.

After the jump, we'll talk about some previous exploits in Champions Online and the ways they impacted the playerbase.

Continue reading Behind the Mask: The exploiter's dilemma

Behind the Mask: The exploiter's dilemma originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 08 Jul 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AoC PvP changes incoming

Jef Reahard — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 16:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Patches, PvP, News items

Age of Conan's Shrines of Bori PvP update has been the subject of a fair amount of player controversy since going live back in late March. While the spirit of the patch was appreciated, many players took issue with the fact that PvP rank could be gained via PvE farming, as well as an exploit allowing single guilds to monopolize the play fields. This morning, Funcom executive producer and game director Craig 'Silirrion' Morrison checked in on the official forums to bring players an update on the coming fixes.

Improvements will include sacrifice rewards given to the group/raid making the sacrifice, relocated altars to reduce the ease of a single dominating force, increased duration on the Favor of Bori buff, an increase on the time period during which shrine destruction gives a reward, and a decreased respawn time on the Idol of Bori recipe.

Morrison goes on to discuss a new butcher bag/body part mechanic, as well as some of the reasoning behind the original design decisions. "These changes should be coming to the test server this week, and we hope they are ready for deployment on the live servers with the 2.0.5 update. We will of course be watching these changes carefully, and will continue to make further adjustments if we see a need," he said.

Check out the full post on the official forums.

AoC PvP changes incoming originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 08 Jun 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Lost Pages of Taborea: Costume Killer

Jeremy Stratton — Mon, 31 May 2010 17:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Bugs, Free-to-play, Runes of Magic, Lost Pages of Taborea

If you play MMOs long enough, you may find yourself running across glitches or mechanics with interesting side effects. Sometimes these side effects can be beneficial to your gameplay because they circumvent difficult parts of a game. Maybe jumping at just the right spot lets you walk on air and cross a cavern, or maybe certain spells and items give beneficial effects which allow you to down the Lich King.

These types of loopholes have always interested me from a psychological perspective. They present a moral gray area for players to make a decision. On one hand, nothing is being used that isn't already in the game. There are no outside programs or hacking of any kind, but the mechanics of these unintentional easter eggs seem to tiptoe around what are supposed to be challenges.

Runes of Magic has its own gray area that affects the PK system on PvP servers. I'll give you the gist of it, what it results in, and my opinion on whether players should be using it or not.

Continue reading Lost Pages of Taborea: Costume Killer

Lost Pages of Taborea: Costume Killer originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 31 May 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tyrannis launch oversight destroys starbase market

Brendan Drain — Mon, 31 May 2010 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Economy, Expansions, Game mechanics, News items

After what seemed to be a smooth launch, it soon became apparent that EVE Online's Tyrannis expansion had brought with it several broken features. While the planet-scanning interface works fine and looks fantastic, the deployment of command centres was pushed back until June 8th. The materials produced on planets could not possibly be made until June 8th but on May 26th, tier 4 products from planetary interaction began appearing on the market. It wasn't long before EVE players figured out that you could refine NPC-sold starbase structures into high-end planet products. Starbase structures are one of the many things that CCP is switching from being supplied at fixed prices by NPCs to being produced by players through planetary interaction. The NPC supply was meant to be removed on May 26th but as players were currently unable to produce the structures, that change was delayed until June 8th.

Continue reading Tyrannis launch oversight destroys starbase market

Tyrannis launch oversight destroys starbase market originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 31 May 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hotfix deployed for EVE Online invisibility exploit

Brendan Drain — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 16:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Culture, Exploits, Forums, Game mechanics, Patches, PvP, News items

Last week, we brought you the news that a terrible exploit had made itself known in EVE Online. The exploit allegedly involved filtering network traffic for specific packets which told the server to join the local chat channel. As a result, the player would remain hidden in the local channel and could sneak up on unsuspecting victims for an easy kill. Most of the controversy surrounding the exploit hinges on whether or not a certain group of players from Pandemic Legion alliance had been abusing the bug to kill farmers and macros. "The MonkeySphere" and his crew have spent months killing the macro element in nullsec using an unannounced but clearly effective strategy. Suspecting him of cheating, Russian players managed to recreate a set of conditions under which a player would remain hidden from the local channel.

Although posting the actual exploit details is not permitted on the official EVE forums, the thread discussing the exploit and The MonkeySphere's alleged involvement has now exceeded 50 pages. Showing a refreshing sense of transparency, CCP opted to keep the thread open while they investigated. Players used the thread to bring forth evidence of the exploit in action and filed bug reports on the issue. On Tuesday, CCP announced that a hotfix for the exploit had been deployed which should prevent the exploit from being used. Meanwhile, debate over The MonkeySphere's involvement with the exploit continue in the original discussion thread.

Hotfix deployed for EVE Online invisibility exploit originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 29 Apr 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Confirmed exploit allows EVE players to sneak up on unsuspecting victims

Brendan Drain — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 19:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Culture, Exploits, Forums, Game mechanics, PvP, News items

A nasty exploit has raised its ugly head in EVE Online this week, allowing players to prevent themselves from showing up in the local chat channel. Unless you're in a wormhole system, this channel is meant to show a list of every pilot in the system and must update instantly when a player jumps in. In the deep nullsec regions, the local channel is the primary way a player will know if he's safe or not. If you're alone in the channel, there's nobody else logged on in the system that can attack you. If an enemy fleet rolls by, you'll see a list of names suddenly appearing in the channel and know it's time to get to a safe place. If a pilot were able to somehow hide himself from the local channel, he could sneak up on unsuspecting victims without them knowing he's there.

Skip past the cut for an investigative look at this unsettling development.

Continue reading Confirmed exploit allows EVE players to sneak up on unsuspecting victims

Confirmed exploit allows EVE players to sneak up on unsuspecting victims originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 22 Apr 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Diamond trade gets destroyed in Runes of Magic

Eliot Lefebvre — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 22:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Exploits, Patches, News items, Free-to-play, Runes of Magic

There's an understandable problem with selling game currency in subscription games, where it's generally considered verboten for good reason. While some subscription games will sell you things in addition to the monthly fee, there's a general sense that you should earn your advantages. But in free-to-play games that have a cash shop allowing players to purchase items directly... well, the very idea of gold selling seems kind of silly. But it can happen, and Runes of Magic has experienced a bit of a problem of late with the trade of Diamonds (their cash shop currency) for gold.

The game has traditionally treated the currencies as interchangeable insofar as players with lots of Diamonds and not enough gold could sell their excess to other players. Unfortunately, the current spate of RMT activities have called for draconian measures: they've taken away the ability to trade Diamonds for gold. They've also temporarily removed the ability to send gold through the mail. The official announcement stresses that this is a temporary measure to combat unacceptable behavior. While less gold spam is a good thing, fewer features are a negative, so this new is a mixed bag for Runes of Magic players.

The Diamond trade gets destroyed in Runes of Magic originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 20 Apr 2010 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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CCP changes deep safe spot nerf due to player feedback

Brendan Drain — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Expansions, Exploits, Game mechanics

On Wednesday, we brought you the news of CCP's plans to nerf deep safe spots in EVE Online. Deep safe spots are bookmarks far outside the outer boundaries of a solar system. Being several hundred AU from the nearest celestial body, ships in a deep safe spot are far outside normal scanning range. The spots have been created using a variety of exploits over the years, and with Tyrannis on the way they're headed for a nerf. The announcement of the change was met by strong opposition from some players on the official EVE forums, not about the nerf itself but the planned implemention.

On May 18th, all ships and objects over 10AU further from the system's star than the outer-most planet were scheduled to be deleted. Any ships or items inadvertently left there would be gone and any pilots logged off in these locations would log in to find themselves without a ship. In response to player feedback, CCP have decided to rethink their plan to delete objects in deep safe spots. These objects will instead be moved to the outer edge of the solar system. In the new announcement, CCP took the time to clarify what objects will be moved with a handy diagram. The announcement was rounded off with some interesting statistics, showing that there are currently about 345 ships without pilots abandoned at deep safe spots across EVE. As these ships will eventually be moved to within normal probing distance, some lucky players may find them unexpectedly.

CCP changes deep safe spot nerf due to player feedback originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 19 Apr 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mission Architect fix goes haywire in City of Heroes

Eliot Lefebvre — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 21:00:00 EST

Filed under: Super-hero, City of Heroes, City of Villains, Exploits, Game mechanics, Patches, News items

With any player-generated content system, a game becomes a struggle between two equal and opposing forces: the designers who want to cram in every possible exploit to get the best possible rewards with the least possible effort, and those who just want to make really neat story arcs. City of Heroes recently dropped a small patch in the hopes of fighting something that had been a target for exploits, and unfortunately the latter group got caught in the crossfire.

In short, the patch was designed to target allied NPCs in missions who didn't attack, but buffed the player characters to the gills in order to make missions easier. Unfortunately, caught in the crossfire were almost any missions that involved things other than enemies, up to and including missions where players would rescue hostages. Needless to say, player response has not been kind.

Sean "Dr. Aeon" McCann was quick to give an official statement on the matter, explaining that the idea was to implement a temporary fix that would prevent current farming, with a more permanent one coming around Issue 17's launch. (Although we don't have a specific date on that, it's been generally pegged for early this month.) Until then, City of Heroes players might find themselves advised to take a break from Mission Architect for a little while.

[ Thanks to Steve for the tip! ]

Mission Architect fix goes haywire in City of Heroes originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 09 Apr 2010 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EVE Evolved: The faction warfare mission debacle, page 3

Brendan Drain — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 20:00:00 EST

Continue reading EVE Evolved: The faction warfare mission debacle, page 3

EVE Evolved: The faction warfare mission debacle, page 3 originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 06 Dec 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EVE Evolved: The faction warfare mission debacle, page 2

Brendan Drain — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 20:00:00 EST

Continue reading EVE Evolved: The faction warfare mission debacle, page 2

EVE Evolved: The faction warfare mission debacle, page 2 originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 06 Dec 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EVE Evolved: The faction warfare mission debacle

Brendan Drain — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 20:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Expansions, Exploits, Forums, Game mechanics, Professions, PvP, Making money, Opinion, Hands-on, EVE Evolved

When faction warfare went live with EVE Online's Empyrean Age expansion back in the summer of 2008, It was a magnificent success. It was intended as a way for newer players to get into PvP and as a stepping stone from the safe haven of empire to full-on sovereignty warfare. It wasn't long before large fleets were duking it out in low security space and for a time, it was great. Eventually, problems began to come to light that demanded developer attention. Capturing exploits and a lack of rewards were causing players to leave the war and after a year with no development, faction warfare was looking abandoned.

Rewards were eventually implemented in an attempt to revitalise the ageing faction warfare system and promote PvP. With the Dominion expansion came the most anticipated of those rewards - new tier 1 navy battleships available only from the faction warfare loyalty point store. Since the announcement that they were coming, mission-runners have been farming faction warfare missions like crazy for loyalty points. The promise of unique rewards from the missions was intended to revitalise the game and give pilots something to fight over. But did the rewards really improve faction warfare and promote PvP or was it a huge mistake?

In this three page exposé, I run down the history of faction warfare missions, from the development mistakes to the EVE corp that made almost enough ISK to build a titan. Did the mission buff revitalise faction warfare or did it put the final nail in its coffin? And just how did mission-runners make billions of ISK?

Continue reading EVE Evolved: The faction warfare mission debacle

EVE Evolved: The faction warfare mission debacle originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 06 Dec 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NCsoft scrambles to reduce server queues: Private store tweaks incoming

Brooke Pilley — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Aion, Patches, News items

If one thing has marred the otherwise polished launch of Aion it is the extremely long server queues players face when trying to log in and play what they paid for. NCsoft responded a couple days ago saying that they are aware of the problem and working on solutions such as increased server caps and even opening a new server in both North America and Europe. Today they just announced a maintenance patch that addresses a major cause of their queue problem: Private stores will now have 30-minute timer to prevent them from being abused.

Private stores are a great concept. Players can set up shop anywhere in the world to sell their spare goods and make a pretty penny. Unfortunately, a feature of these stores is that they prevent you from idling out of the game. This feature really compounds the current server queue problem.

To avoid going through the queue process again, many players simply set up a private store and go AFK for hours at a time. One store we came across had this description set: "AFK at work, making you queue." This is even more evidence that MMO players will often take the path of least resistance for personal gain. Devs really need this hammered into their heads.

NCsoft scrambles to reduce server queues: Private store tweaks incoming originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 25 Sep 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Cheating, exploits, and the game-mechanics behind the nerf

Tateru Nino — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 12:30:00 EST

Filed under: Classes, Culture, Exploits, Game mechanics, Opinion

Nerfs are something that you don't want to happen. Leastways you don't want them to happen to you. One day, you're striding through the MMOG like a god, defeating mobs, collecting loot and punishing the wicked in PvP. The next day you feel like you're fighting with a nerf-bat covered in goose-feathers.

Nerfs are best known in MMOGs but also happen in assorted multi-player (and occasionally single-player) games. Nerfs usually (though not always) come about for good reasons, though. Partly it's because few people are actually sure when cheating is happening. Even if they're the ones doing it. Really.

Continue reading Cheating, exploits, and the game-mechanics behind the nerf

Cheating, exploits, and the game-mechanics behind the nerf originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 04 Sep 2009 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Are MMOs truly as persistent as they claim?

Brooke Pilley — Sat, 30 May 2009 15:00:00 EST

Filed under: MMO industry, Opinion

The two biggest differences between single player RPGs and massively multiplayer online RPGs are the MMO and persistent components found in the latter. Player vs. Developer has a thought-provoking blog post up claiming that MMOs are not as persistent as they claim to be.

"Persistent" can be defined as "continuing without change in function or structure," which when you really think about it doesn't quite fit with how it is employed in most MMORPGs. Many MMOs claim to have a "persistent struggle," or "persistent world," which is only half true. Developers are constantly changing their MMOs and it impacts how we play.

What happens at the end of an expansion cycle? Often, players stop trying to progress and wait for the new content that makes old content obsolete. What happens when classes undergo constant balance shifts? Players are forced to compete on uneven playing fields. What happens when some gamers benefit from bugs or exploits before they are fixed? It can hurt player morale.

Many of these changes are for the best, but it does illustrate that MMOs are not truly as persistent as they claim.

Are MMOs truly as persistent as they claim? originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 30 May 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Matt "Positron" Miller prepares his radioactive banhammer against mission architect abusers

Seraphina Brennan — Tue, 05 May 2009 19:00:00 EST

Filed under: Super-hero, City of Heroes, City of Villains, Business models, Culture, Exploits, Forums, Game mechanics, News items, PvE

Mission architect -- an amazing system that allows a very creative player-base to finally take the reigns of creation and make amazing in-game arcs that feature personalized stories, personalized characters, farming, well made.... wait, what?

Yes, you heard that right, people have already began to leverage City of Heroes's architect system into nothing more than powerleveling tool, and the community doesn't find that to be too enjoyable. Luckily, Matt "Positron" Miller, the lead designer, has already stepped up with a post to the community on the City of Heroes message board about how they plan on dealing with these problems.

The team wishes to remove the rewards some characters may have gained through powerleveling, all the way up to removing access to characters that were solely leveled up via mission architect exploits. Past working on a player by player bases, some badges will be changed while others may be removed entirely due to the exploiting groups surrounding them. Lastly, but certainly not least, the team will be proactively banning missions that are created to exploit the system.

For Matt's full plan, check out his post over on the City of Heroes message board.

Matt "Positron" Miller prepares his radioactive banhammer against mission architect abusers originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 05 May 2009 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Daily Grind: To banhammer or not to banhammer

Krystalle Voecks — Fri, 01 May 2009 08:00:00 EST

Filed under: Darkfall, Opinion, The Daily Grind

One of the things that many people absolutely can't stand about many different MMOs is how slow to respond - and generally how light the punishment - for people getting caught exploiting/botting/or generally being a flaming @#(hat. Botting might nab you only a couple of weeks off for bad behavior - if they even bother to ban you at all. Scamming other players? Smack on the wrist. Of course, on the other side of the road, you have Aventurine who, with Darkfall, have been aggressively ban-hammering anyone who appears to be doing anything fishy. No excuses, no second, third, or fourth chances. If you cheat there and they can verify it, your account gets nuked from orbit.

Some players hate this, and claim that due to potential for error, it's way too dangerous. Other players think this is quite possibly one of the best things Aventurine is doing in regards to Darkfall - trying to keep it completely level and dealing with anyone who exploits, macros, etc. harshly. This morning we thought we'd ask what you feel is better - the more hands-off approach, giving people multiple chances to screw up before they're banned more common to many MMOs, or the hard-line Darkfall approach of ban first time, ban often?

The Daily Grind: To banhammer or not to banhammer originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 01 May 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Massively interviews EVE's Lead Economist part 2

James Egan — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Economy, Exploits, Game mechanics, MMO industry, Massively Interviews

The starbase exploit has been some big news lately. How does it impact your ability to assess the state of EVE's economy, and are there assumptions you've made in the past that you need to reassess now?

It's a good thing that you mentioned the starbase exploit because we are in the final stages of creating a very thorough dev blog on that, which will hopefully be published very soon. [Note: this interview was conducted just prior to the release of the investigation's findings.]

There are certain things with the POS exploit that made it very difficult to detect. You basically needed to be able to go to that particular starbase and look at it, look at the setup and so on. It was difficult for us to detect it otherwise, except from the code once we knew what we were looking for.

From a market perspective the EVE economy has become so big that in order for you to impact the market you will really have to have large quantities. And as will be shown in this dev blog that will be published, the scale of the exploit really didn't start until late 2008... to the large industrial scale so that it started to impact the market.

Continue reading Massively interviews EVE's Lead Economist part 2

Massively interviews EVE's Lead Economist part 2 originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 19 Feb 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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CCP Games releases findings on EVE starbase exploit investigation

James Egan — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 17:30:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Economy, Exploits, Forums, Game mechanics, Guilds, MMO industry, Crafting, News items

The EVE Online starbase exploit revealed in December has had a far-reaching impact on the game. Certain player-owned starbases in EVE were producing valuable, high-end materials that they shouldn't have been. Once a group of players picked up on this, they exploited the game on a massive scale, resulting in trillions of ISK (Interstellar Kredits, the game's virtual currency) that never should have existed being injected into the game. To date, this is the largest economic manipulation (via an exploit) ever revealed in EVE Online.

The starbase exploit was the first of several player-triggered drama bombs that hit the game in recent weeks, and resulted in a substantial amount of (in-game) market turmoil and player outcry over the issue. The game's subscribers wanted openness on the matter from EVE's developer, CCP Games, and they've certainly got that as of today. CCP Games posted the results of the exploit investigation, and the caveat "be careful what you wish for" may apply here, given the depth and complexity of the findings conveyed to the playerbase in today's dev blog, "War Makes Thieves and Peace Hangs Them."

Continue reading CCP Games releases findings on EVE starbase exploit investigation

CCP Games releases findings on EVE starbase exploit investigation originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 10 Feb 2009 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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