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Quarterly Producer Letter for Q2 2024 ×

Ravagers Exploit Action Update


EricMusco

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witch-hunters still cant determine the difference between a player explaining their actions, and justifying their actions.

 

reading comprehension is in short supply these days

 

Most of them can't even tell the difference between "more disgusted by gross over-reaction and a witch-hunt mentality, than by minor, largely harmless rules bending in a video game" and "cheater trying to justify cheating".

 

I've never even been in Ravagers, I'm not even sure I know where the entrance is (I think it's in the slums of Rishi), but I've been called "an exploiter" / "a cheater" enough times to close track at this point.

Edited by Max_Killjoy
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I'd love to finally see someone just say "Okay, yeah, I cheated, I think it's not big deal and anyway I simply hoped to not get caught. If I am, oh well, happens, was part of the risk."

 

BioWare may prefer people not do that. They may want to keep the details of sanctions as confidential as possible to minimize negative reactions from people who will think the sanctions were too severe or too lenient. By publicly admitting you cheated, you make what sanctions you receive more visible.

 

Imagine someone admits "My toon DirtyRottenScoundrel'NotMyRealName was the first to smuggle the lock to Pot5 and I made 100 million credits off it." Imagine that toon keeps showing up every day and does not appear to ever be sanctioned. Some people would really be cheesed at BW, right?

 

TL;DR: public confession may be bad for BW and may increase the odds you are sanctioned.

Edited by BuriDogshin
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Agreed, with such words as "Cheating" and "Morality" especially. ;)

 

I would have said "hard core raider" myself.

 

A hard core raider is one who still remains seated at their game terminal in the gaming salon, as the police are wrapping police tape around the terminal next to them because that player just had a heart attack after playing for 3 continuous days straight. Now that's hard core.

 

A true hard core raider is one who clears the entire Ravagers operation without ************ all the time on the forums despite all the bugs, broken content, and whatever else anyone blames the developer for.

 

Everyone else are just SM scrubs, some of them believing they're hardcore as one of the above, carries them through an end boss without doing anything or had someone who did this paid it forward.

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that would be CS being lazy and lying to you since Eric stated they can track stuff which means CS has been lying to the sub population for how long on missing or lost items.

Not true. Read what Eric Musco wrote. He never said they could "track stuff," he said:

We know who used it, who they invited, how many times they exploited, when they participated, credits gained, and whether they gained a crafting pattern from reverse-engineering.

No where did he say they could track, for example:

  • which random items were dropped,
  • what happened to mats that dropped,
  • what the tokens that dropped were redeemed for, or
  • the movement of armor, mods, and.or enhancements from one shell to another.

 

Maybe they can track those things, maybe not, but he didn't say they could.

So the accusations that the CS reps were lying is uncalled for.

Edited by BuriDogshin
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This post right here-

 

Why is it after being told that you guys could do nothing for me, or my guild members, or my friends on numerous occasions, you now claim that you can track everything that previous ticket responses have Sworn you have no way of verifying?

 

You are either lying now, or your customer support is even worse then previously thought for choosing laziness over doing their actual job.

Bravo.

 

This is a lot of hyperbole. Either you can't read or follow directions. TaitWatson's December 5, 2014 post re: "Inbound Bug Fixes" post, copied into the Developer Stream still available now states the following in response to following:

 

 

12.05.2014 , 08:24 PM | #9 This is the last staff post in this thread.

Report Post Quote

Quote: Originally Posted by SnickerJew View Post

Question Tait. For those who killed the final bosses of Ravagers and ToS and recieved no loot, should they file a ticket in-game or are we just not going to be recovering our loot?

 

File an in-game ticket. CS will verify the kill and then work with you guys to get the loot.

 

 

People who followed BW's instructions and did this, and actually over the past years who did similar when encountering bugged operations loot, had loot awarded.

 

I'm assuming you didn't follow the instructions in this case.

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For those that are hoping for exploiters to be banned, I do hope you realize that it will be about 1/2 the population... I did some random checks of players on rishi and fleet and found that 50% exploited.

 

Not so high, at least in my server. I do the same few days ago and I found a rate about 15 or 20%. Dont remember exactly.

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For those that are hoping for exploiters to be banned, I do hope you realize that it will be about 1/2 the population... I did some random checks of players on rishi and fleet and found that 50% exploited.

 

Dude 50% of the population doesn't even have a level 60.

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For those that are hoping for exploiters to be banned, I do hope you realize that it will be about 1/2 the population... I did some random checks of players on rishi and fleet and found that 50% exploited.

 

Actually, I think it's highly server depended.

 

I saw none of the signs that others did of this going on, nothing in chat, no price "crash" or sudden spike in supply of certain things, on my server.

 

I actually don't think it's all that common, and that's actually part of why I think the reaction of so out of proportion to the impact.

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Actually, I think it's highly server depended.

 

I saw none of the signs that others did of this going on, nothing in chat, no price "crash" or sudden spike in supply of certain things, on my server.

 

I actually don't think it's all that common, and that's actually part of why I think the reaction of so out of proportion to the impact.

 

yeah the impression I get is the exploiting was limited MOSTLY to a small number of servers, the result means that one or two servers may well have their end game population decimated, most will likely be untouched. and if thsoe servers are decimated because a culture of exploiting has taken hold there, maybe it's for the best. maybe those communities NEED to be able to start over

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People who followed BW's instructions and did this, and actually over the past years who did similar when encountering bugged operations loot, had loot awarded.

 

I'm assuming you didn't follow the instructions in this case.

 

Absolutely not true. I've had issues on numerous occasions with the boss disappearing and the loot not appearing for me or my raid team. We had bugs with Coratanni not giving out loot. We all sent in very detailed tickets, including the time of day, the operation, who all was in the group, and showing our achievements for actually getting the kill when it was the first time. Guess what? We all got a canned response saying it couldnt be verified and therefore loot could not be awarded. Most of the time, it takes numerous tickets before they actually stop giving the canned response and a majority of the time we didnt get the issue resolved in our favor despite all the documentation we took. So no, forgive me for not believing that. From my own experience, and the experience of numerous people I play with it just isnt true.

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yeah the impression I get is the exploiting was limited MOSTLY to a small number of servers, the result means that one or two servers may well have their end game population decimated, most will likely be untouched. and if thsoe servers are decimated because a culture of exploiting has taken hold there, maybe it's for the best. maybe those communities NEED to be able to start over

 

I don't think the punishments were severe enough to to do anything the those communities. I use the word 'were' because I'm pretty sure by this point most punishments have already been dealt out (Eric gave us a time frame of about a week and thats just about over). I guess the true test would be to see how much bellyaching there is come the end of the week.

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And again, if exploits are wrong then how many of you can raise your hand and say you never went and got the datacron on Rishi when it was bugged open? An exploit is just that, taking advantage of a bug for your own benefit or advantage.

 

How many here skipped Gharj before they fixed it just so they could finish the operation faster? That was an exploit of a bug- anyone here who actually thinks they wanted people to skip one of the bosses is as delusional as the people claiming it was ok to loot a chest on an operation boss you didnt kill.

 

How many people here click all the experimental guys in the final boss fight in Czerka Labs so you can ignore the mechanics of the fight? Every single group I have ever done that flashpoint with does it. And yet it is technically an exploit to get around the bosses mechanics, when he disappears he is supposed to summon one of the red guys. Yet everyone exploits the fact that you can skip that mechanic by releasing them all yourself at the beginning of the fight. Doesnt make it any less of an exploit to gain an advantage for yourself and make the fight either shorter or easier.

 

And before anyone says this is just a lame attempt to justify participating in this particular exploit. save your breath. I have said on numerous occasions that these people should be punished in some fashion. I am only concerned that bioware will screw up and punish innocent people as well. I have very little faith, based on my interactions with CS and their responses, that they can actually perfectly track this and know for a certainty that the person they are banning is actually guilty.

 

My point is, all of the witch-hunters in this thread are acting all shocked and outraged that people participated in this bug, when they are just as guilty of participating in other exploits. Stop being hypocrites and stop acting like you are any better than others just because you chose not to participate in this particular exploit.

Edited by Danery
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Been debating about posting this since I giggled over it last night. From "A Theory of Fun for Game Design" by Raph Koster, 2ed:

 

Once players look at a game and ascertain the pattern and the ultimate goal, they'll try to find an optimal path to getting there. And one of the classic problems with games of all sorts is that players often have little compunction about violating the theoretical 'magic circle' that encompasses games and makes them protected spaces in which to practice.

 

In other words, many players are willing to cheat.

 

This is a natural impulse. It's not a sign of people being bad (though we can call it bad sportsmanship). It's actually a sign of lateral thinking, which is a very important and valuable mental skill to learn. When someone cheats at a game, they may be acting unethically, but they're also exercising a skill that makes them more likely to survive. It's often called "cunning."

 

...

 

When a player cheats in a game, she is choosing a battlefield that is broader in context than he game itself.

 

Cheating is a sign the player is in fact grokking the game...

 

Players and designers often make the distinction between "cheating" and "exploiting a loophole." They always struggle to define this, but it boils down to whether or not he extraneous action is one that resides within the magic circle of the game's framework or not. Unsurprisingly, exploiters are often the most expert players of a game. They see the places where the rules don't quite jibe. This is also why they think that it's unfair when sticklers for the rules tell them that what they did is not allowed. Their logic goes something like this, "if the game permits it, then it's legal."

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Actually, I think it's highly server depended.

 

I saw none of the signs that others did of this going on, nothing in chat, no price "crash" or sudden spike in supply of certain things, on my server.

 

I actually don't think it's all that common, and that's actually part of why I think the reaction of so out of proportion to the impact.

 

Now, now, we all know that there is nothing more accurate than "I talked to a bunch of people and pulled this number out of my butt."

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