[squall-11]

I just logged in and received a pleasant surprise.
All of the PVP XP has been reset, pvp armor has been stripped, and none of the gold spent on those items have been replaced.

Now before everyone goes on a flamefest about exploiting/exploiters consider the following:

1) On PVP servers competition is fierce. There are two things that factor into this: Skill and gear

Regardless of how good you are, gear will always be a factor in MMO's and can/will be a deciding factor in battles with people at your own skill level or better.

When people on your server begin exploiting, they will have a deciding factor in battles unless you participate in the arms race.

2) The fault lays not only with the players who exploited but with Funcom as well.

Funcom has been releasing this patch for over a month. In that time there was plenty of time to test out all the facets of pvp and other factors on that server. So why is it that this game has had a reputation of broken patches? Why is that everytime a patch is released there are bugs released with the patch? Why isn't there any QA done on these patches before they are released?

You can point fingers at the players who exploited - that's cool but if Funcom doesn't shoulder at least half of the blame, there is something wrong with this picture.

3) Conflicting messages and no assumption of responsibility of Funcom

Here's a simple rule-of-thumb: When you screw up, announce it quickly so that people will know what is accepted and what is not. Funcom released this patch and become aware of this glitch/exploit quite a while ago. Why didn't they say anything? Why was no official statement released telling us what was accepted and what was not. Now before all the flamers start saying "You shoulda known this would happen", consider this:

What about the people who used the leveling bug at release? Did they get their levels stripped? What about the people who duped the **** out of gems and made gold upon gold selling these gems. What about the people who farmed Yakmar over and over again using glitches that I probably can't mention. What about people who farmed a lot of the other raids over and over again using methods, that, once again I can't mention.

You know what's common with all of these examples above? NO action was taken whatsoever. No bans.. no punishments whatsoever. Every player on every server who used this exploit was thinking the same thing: "If I don't use this exploit, everyone else will be ahead of me and Funcom won't do a thing" (as usual I might mention).

What about some of the GMs on various servers? Why were they telling people this was not an exploit? Do you communicate these things with your GMs? Or do you leave judgment up to them? If so, are you not bound to their judgments?

4) Punishments

Has anyone ever heard of let the punishment fit the crime? It's the basic principle in any judicial system. Funcom you created some fancy script that, just like any of your other scripts, DOESN'T WORK. You have screwed up everything with your version of a 'rollback'.

This should have been done using the principle
"an eye for an eye". If people exploited then you should have handled it professional like any other MMO. You should either

A) Issue a ban for what they did (you can't afford this so we'll skip to option B)

B) Do a proper rollback. You should have done this quickly and swiftly as soon as you got wind of the problem.

C) Stay the course and do what you always have done: nothing.

Since we're obviously choosing option B, why didn't you do the rollback properly? You should have checked to see what pvp level the person was WITH XP into that level and reset them there. ALso, if you take armor away, how about you make a healthy deposit into our bank accounts? Nobody knows better than Funcom that the economy is severely broken and that earning money is difficult. If you take away all that gold don't you think you should replace it? Isn't that what a rollback is?


Funcom, you've really screwed this up. This game already has a low POP and this is NOT the way to handle this situation. People will not take this well. Ideally you should have rolled back immediately when you discovered the problem. Okay so you didn't - we can't change the past. I don't even know if we can change what you've done to us now.

You've penalized a LOT of people that didn't even do anything wrong. There are people who were legitimately level 3 before the exploit and they are now lvl 1.

This is an epic failure on your part and a complete disappointment. I understand that you have two conflicting pressures: the people who exploited and the people who didn't. Your actions cannot please both parties, but this should have been handled much better - from cradle to grave.
Unacceptable.


Squallx

[alan0n]

I agree whole heartedly, the punishment must fit the crime. Now what is the absolute WORST thing you can do in an online game? If you said 'cheat' you are correct.

Now whats the worst punishment available in an online game? Ooooohhh... the dreaded perma ban.

In short, you should have been permabaned, quit bitching about a slap on the wrist when you SHOULD have lost a goddamn hand.

[ztAntiFaith]

Originally Posted by squall-11 "You shoulda known this would happen" Squallx

I just don't like you, so I figured I'd flame your post for the hell of it

Trolling ftw!

[arkady08]

Originally Posted by alan0n I agree whole heartedly, the punishment must fit the crime. Now what is the absolute WORST thing you can do in an online game? If you said 'cheat' you are correct. Now whats the worst punishment available in an online game? Ooooohhh... the dreaded perma ban. In short, you should have been permabaned, quit bitching about a slap on the wrist when you SHOULD have lost a goddamn hand.

Absolutely, I mean hate this phrase BUT - Cry more cheater.

[thomasthemonkey]

ya i mean this is crap i will say i got to 4 this way form 2 and there sever had pop for the past week and now its dead once again. and iv seen people do brc and the yak bug b4 and nothing for that cause people got **** out of that and nothing happened cause they got there **** but when people dont get gear they bitch

[Prima]

Originally Posted by alan0n I agree whole heartedly, the punishment must fit the crime. Now what is the absolute WORST thing you can do in an online game? If you said 'cheat' you are correct. Now whats the worst punishment available in an online game? Ooooohhh... the dreaded perma ban. In short, you should have been permabaned, quit bitching about a slap on the wrist when you SHOULD have lost a goddamn hand.

Yep.

Sorry, OP, the "you should have punished me, but I didn't think you would, and now that you have, the punishment wasn't good enough, so you're an idiot, therefore you shouldn't have punished me" argument just isn't doing anything for me.

[Phrix]

Post of the year.
Academy award.
I love you squalls.

[Direape444]

Originally Posted by squall-11 Since we're obviously choosing option B, why didn't you do the rollback properly? You should have checked to see what pvp level the person was WITH XP into that level and reset them there. ALso, if you take armor away, how about you make a healthy deposit into our bank accounts? Nobody knows better than Funcom that the economy is severely broken and that earning money is difficult. If you take away all that gold don't you think you should replace it? Isn't that what a rollback is?

This isn't a rollback. This is a spanking, and less than you deserve. You should have been banned.

[arkady08]

Originally Posted by thomasthemonkey ya i mean this is crap i will say i got to 4 this way form 2 and there sever had pop for the past week and now its dead once again. and iv seen people do brc and the yak bug b4 and nothing for that cause people got **** out of that and nothing happened cause they got there **** but when people dont get gear they bitch

Uh, what? I honestly cannot understand this post in any shape, form or fashion. Are you trying to make a point? What?

[thomasthemonkey]

ya get some balls and pvp