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The Azeroth Ethicist: Is it cheating to trick the LFR loot system?
Before I write anything else here, the issue to be discussed in this article will no longer exist in patch 5.3 if the changes announced in the PTR patch notes from May 22 survive. For the record, I think this is one of the best changes to come along in a while, as it should reduce queue times for the Raid Finder significantly, while also being a great quality-of-life bonus for anyone trying to gear an offspec. However, it's still a problem at the moment. After reaching level 90, I ran heroic after heroic obsessively in order to scrape the ilevel needed to enter the Raid Finder. After a few drops and the generosity of a guild leatherworker, I cheerfully queued as a tank for Vaults, and then went off to do dailies, figuring that the wait might be a little longer than normal given the popularity of new raid content, but it probably wouldn't be too bad. 30 minutes later, I shrugged and thought to myself, "Well, everybody's running LFR now." 52 minutes later, it occurred to me while yanking pink turnips out of the ground that I had been a little overoptimistic about wait times. Oh well. The farm wasn't going to tend itself. An hour and 20 minutes later, I tabbed out of the game to check the forums, wondering if others were complaining about queue times, or if I'd just had a stroke of really bad luck. Nope. Wait times for tanks through LFR, as a legion of enraged forum posters screamed, were through the roof at the beginning of the expansion. Right now, it seems like DPS players are getting the lion's share of agony. Rather than wait it out, many -- perhaps most -- tank players chose to exploit a loophole that allowed them to get a raid more quickly on a less easily-filled role.
Wings Over Atreia: Are Aion exploits ingenuity or abuse?
Exploit: an act or deed, especially a brilliant or heroic one or to make use of selfishly or unethically? Well, both. But as much as I wish the title of this week's Wings Over Atreia referred to my amusing (and oh-so-heroic) antics throughout the gorgeous world of Aion, it is actually about the latter. Or is it? Most likely, one of your first thoughts when you hear the word exploit is that it's a trick that takes advantage of some bug for personal gain. That thought is often followed by images of a banhammer. It makes sense; you are gamers, after all. Now, whether you regard exploits with admiration or with unbridled loathing is a matter of personal opinion. But does it have to be one or the other, or can it be both? It depends on the actual use of the word itself. Thanks to a recent foray into Lower Udas Temple, exploits have been at the forefront of my mind lately. I have noticed that we actually use both definitions of the word for a variety of situations in Aion, yet we also ascribe the negative connotation to many of them. But is this warranted -- couldn't some actions simply be ingenious examples of problem-solving, or must they all be considered ban-worthy abuse? If the former, where do you draw the line?
The Daily Grind: Is an exploit an exploit if a developer approves?
Over in the world of Lord of the Rings Online, some players are riled up over what they see as a clear exploit in PvP. The controversial situation arose when players rolled the free Reaver monster class for the sole purpose of being killed by other players, and thereby rapidly advancing those players in rank. Some players called it a clear exploit. Others said it violated the game's code of conduct. Yet Turbine stated that it is not a violation of rules and therefore is OK to continue. It's an interesting situation that raises the question: Is an exploit really an exploit if a developer gives it the official studio approval? Do players have a leg to stand on by calling something an exploit if it's been evaluated and endorsed by the studio? 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!
Blizzard lowers the boom on Diablo III cheaters
Blizzard's had all it can stands, and it can stands no more. The studio is taking aggressive action against botters and cheaters in Diablo III, reporting that it's gone through "several rounds of account bans" against such players. The studio also used the ban announcement as an excuse to clarify its position on hacks and third-party software. If you're curious about what steps over the line that Blizzard has in mind, wonder no longer. Beyond allowing some players to get away with an unfair advantage over others, cheat programs reportedly cause instability and performance issues with client software and Battle.net at large. "We strongly recommend that you avoid using any third-party software which interacts with Diablo III," Blizzard posted, "even if you are accessing that software from a reputable third-party site-as doing so can result in permanent ban from the game."
Borderlands 2 hack can 'sabotage' characters through Xbox Live, Gearbox warns [Update: patch incoming]
While PS3 and PC owners can sleep soundly at night knowing that their Borderlands 2 characters are safe from the nefarious plots of evil men, Xbox 360 owners are not afforded such a luxury."Users have begun violating the Xbox Live Code of Conduct by using an external application to maliciously disrupt the experience and sabotage characters of legitimate Borderlands 2 players on Xbox 360," Gearbox Studios community manager Chris Faylor said in a post on the developer's official forums.While Gearbox and its "partners" work to resolve the Xbox-specific issue, it recommends avoiding public games with unknown players for the time being. Additionally, players should always Save & Quit before returning to the dashboard or powering down their Xbox, and if you find yourself kicked back to the main menu after death, select "Continue" immediately.What destruction is actually involved in the exploit's sabotage is uncertain – anecdotal accounts on the forum report everything from wiped character progress to entirely deleted characters. We've reached out to Gearbox for clarification and will update with any new information we receive.Update: Gearbox has informed us that a patch to exterminate the exploit has been submitted to Microsoft for approval and will be released "as soon as possible."[Thanks, Justin!]
EVE Evolved: Three ways to break Retribution
EVE Online's upcoming Retribution expansion is set to revolutionise PvP with its brand-new criminal and bounty hunting systems. Players will be able to hunt down criminals who show their faces in highsec, and bounty hunters will track not just individuals but also entire corporations and alliances. If past expansions are any indication, however, the first thing players invariably do with any new feature is to try to break it. Some people will undoubtedly find ways to bend the new gameplay into scams, others will trick players into getting themselves killed for a few laughs, and a few will hunt for borderline exploits. We now know enough about Retribution's new features to figure out some of the ways they can be potentially abused. The ability to sell kill rights opens up a whole new scam based on tempting players with a juicy target and then pulling the rug out from under their feet. The new Suspect flag that lets players dispense justice to criminals can also be used to bait innocent players into getting themselves killed. There may even be a way to get rid of bounties for free, undermining one of the expansion's core mechanics. In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at three potential pitfalls in the upcoming Retribution expansion, how they might work when the expansion goes live, and how to protect yourself from falling victim to them.
League of Legends tournament cheaters fined $30,000
With $2,000,000 US in prize money up for grabs in the League of Legends World Championship tournament, last week's accusations of cheating by several teams threw the e-sports scene into chaos. Several teams were accused of looking across the room at the enemy team's minimap, which was on display for audience members. Riot Games initially announced that nobody had looked at the minimap, but as viewers at home dug through the recorded streams, the evidence of cheating mounted. This week Riot carried out a full review of each match that was called into question, investigating both the incidents of players peeking at the opposing team's map and the impact on the match. One team was cleared of all misconduct, three were issued warnings for unsportsmanlike conduct, and Korean team Azubu Frost was fined 20% of its winnings. The $30,000 fine will be donated to Riot Games' charity programme in Korea.
Riot apologizes for League of Legends tournament issues
If you peek, you did cheat -- or so sayeth Riot Games. The studio came forth to address several issues with this past weekend's $2 million League of Legends tournament, including allegations of cheating by participants. Viewers noted that tournament players were looking at competitors' minimaps on the large screen, and Riot admits that it didn't do enough to keep that particular temptation at bay. VP of eSports Dustin Beck apologized to LoL fans: "We're trying to deliver an extraordinary experience for viewers, and yesterday didn't live up to our goals. In hindsight, the potential visibility of minimap screens for players was a mistake." Riot is rescheduling the problematic matches and promised that the remainder of the tournament will be minimap temptation-free. Beck also mentioned that the team is looking into several disconnects that happened during the event. As an apology for what happened, Riot is granting all players double influence points for 24 hours following the finals match on October 13th.
League of Legends cheating controversy puts $2,000,000 on the line
The competitive e-sports scene has exploded in the past two years, with top MOBA teams competing for prizes of up to an incredible $1,000,000 US from a single tournament. This weekend, MOBA fans tuned in to the League of Legends World Championship tournament, streamed live from Los Angeles. The crowd attending the event got front row seats to see the game's best teams battle it out over a total of $2,000,000 US in prize money, and with so much money on the line, it's no surprise that accusations of cheating have already surfaced. A huge screen showed the match in action to event attendees, with two smaller screens showing each team's in-game map with the positions of their players. Competitors were told to face forward at all times, but controversy erupted last night when livestream viewers at home noticed players turning their heads and looking up away from the screen. It was argued that those players were cheating by looking at the opposing team's minimap to check the positions of their players. Riot Games e-sports coordinator RiotTiza was lead referee for the tournament and released the following statement: "We keep a constant watch on all the players on stage at all times. We have cameras as well as live people walking onto stage to keep tabs in everything. All players are told that they need to remain sitting, facing forward, and with headphones on at all times, including during pauses. I can personally confirm that no WE player looked at the minimap at any point during the match."
Some Street Fighter X Tekken character DLC may exist on disc, Elena playable via glitch
So, you know how the Vita version of Street Fighter X Tekken is launching this fall with 12 bonus characters, and that those fighters are coming to the console versions as DLC? Well, it looks like at least one of them may already be on the 360 version. Awkward.In the video above, YouTube user SoulReaperTTG demonstrates a glitch that allows the player to select Elena (one of the 12 DLC characters) and fight with her normally. While we don't know how the glitch actually works, it appears to be based on tricking the game into loading Elena's character data instead of Poison's. This isn't Poison wearing Elena's skin, either; anyone familiar with Third Strike will instantly recognize Elena's moves as being distinctly her own.SoulReaperTTG's channel also features prologue videos for some of the DLC characters, supposedly recovered from the 360 version of the game. Now, because the game isn't actually out yet, we have no way of knowing if the retail version actually shipped with this content, or if Elena's inclusion is unique to the pre-release version SoulReaperTTG got his hands on. We anticipate extensive sleuthing to commence once the game releases this Tuesday, and have reached out to Capcom for comment.
How to kill a Skyrim dragon with a single arrow
Do you have the patience it takes to craft a mighty bow, capable of felling an elder dragon with a single strike? We ask because ... well, we'd love for you to take care of it for us. Here's our copy of Skyrim. Thanks![Thanks, Chris.]
Ask Massively: No idea what's coming edition
I don't know what's going to happen next in the MMO industry. I have my guesses, sure, but unless I'm fairly certain, I just don't feel right putting them up here. I certainly would not have ever imagined a world where APB: Reloaded was successful, or one where Lineage II goes free-to-play, and until it was announced, I wouldn't dare dream of WildStar. Heck, half the time I'm not sure I understand what's going on at any given moment, much less several months down the line. This week's Ask Massively received several questions that require me to be more confident about my predictions than I actually am, but it does contain a question about the future of Aion and a question on the past, present, and future of cheating. If you've got a question you'd like to see answered in a future installment of the column, leave it in the comments below or send it along to ask@massively.com. Questions may be edited slightly for clarity and/or brevity.
Breakdancing breaks SWTOR enemies' spirits [Updated]
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."]
APB Reloaded cracks down on cheaters
Cheating and exploiting are problems that plague all MMOs, and developers often go to great lengths to detect offenders. In a new APB Reloaded devblog, developer TechMech explains the company's latest and highly successful attempts to rid the game of cheaters. Three major hacks were targeted, and every account that had ever used the hacks was banned overnight. TechMech won't go into details about how exactly the hackers were observed, but he does say that a second anti-cheat patch is coming to wipe out any players who choose to continue hacking. TechMech is considering offering a kind of amnesty to cheaters, stating that anyone who uninstalls all hacks and plays legitimately may be permitted to continue playing. Perhaps the most shocking statistic in the devblog was that almost 50% of the banned accounts were paid accounts, and some had over 1500 hours of gameplay on them. TechMech went on to estimate the revenue that the three main cheat-makers had been generating as between $15,000 and $50,000 per month each, with users spending $30 per month on hacks.
Gameloft working to patch hacked Modern Combat
Gameloft's Modern Combat: Domination draws some heavy inspiration from another big FPS franchise. And ironically, it's facing the same problem as its higher-profile counterpart. Available exclusively via the PSN, Modern Combat has been struggling against cheats and hacks almost immediately since its release -- "a result of the PS3 jailbreak situation," a Gameloft representative told us. A YouTube video demonstrates how the game "is going to get f***d hard," as the poster describes it. Cheaters are able to enable a few tricks, including smokeless smoke grenades, bullet tracing, the ability to walk through walls and even "God Mode." A new patch, coming in a few weeks, will attempt to rectify the situation by implementing "anti-hacking protection," in addition to other tweaks. "We are confident this fix will eliminate hacking and add to the player experience on Modern Combat: Domination," the rep added. "The anti-hacking pretty much means that people using a modified code (including cheaters) won't be able to access the game." A full list of changes can be found after the break.
Google responds: Bing recycles search results, and we'd like it to stop
Google accused Microsoft of copying search results this morning, and the company's sticking to its guns: in response to Microsoft's firm denial -- "We do not copy Google's results" -- it's released another tiny batch of evidence to the contrary and a call for Microsoft to discontinue the practice for good. Mind you, Google search engineer Amit Singhal doesn't explicitly call out its competitor for "copying" results -- rather, "recycling" them through a clever combination of Microsoft Internet Explorer and the Bing Toolbar -- but the message is clear. Google wants you to view its search results as the originals, and doesn't really care how sincere Microsoft's flattery might be.
Google accuses Bing of 'cheating,' piggybacking off its search results (updated)
You could say Bing is taking a cue from its competition, but it seems to be more literally taking search results as well. Google Fellow Amit Singhal is claiming so much and has provided some amusing (if not totally clever) results from its "Bing Sting." Here's how it works: find a search term that returns no matches for either site, make a "honeypot" page manually appear for the term, then have about 20 Google employees make the search (and click the top link) using Internet Explorer with both Suggested Sites and the Bing Toolbar on. Within two weeks, Singhal claims, a handful (about 7 to 9) of the 100 or so "honeypot" results were popping up in Bing. Bizarre choices, too, like mbrzxpgjys, hiybbprqag, and indoswiftjobinproduction. So, is this "cheating," as Singhal specifically alleges? The experiment had to be run with Bing's toolbar and / or Suggested Search feature activated, which it explicitly says are used to collect data and improve services. And more popular search terms do return different results, It's not as if Microsoft is using non-public information, but is this an example of taking an unfair shortcut? That's a debate we imagine with rage for quite some time. Update: Microsoft's been sending out the following statement from Stefan Weitz, director of Bing: We use multiple signals and approaches in ranking search results. The overarching goal is to do a better job determining the intent of the search so we can provide the most relevant answer to a given query. Opt-in programs like the toolbar help us with clickstream data, one of many input signals we and other search engines use to help rank sites. That's pretty ambiguous, so ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley pressed for a followup and was flatly told "We do not copy Google's results." We're sure there's going to be a lot more analysis and discussion to come -- this ought to be fun.
ModNation Racers for-pay cheat unlocks everything, coming tomorrow
The latest of what we like to call "lazy gamer" cheats -- downloadable unlocks that open up entire games, for a price -- is actually inbound from Sony for ModNation Racers. It's called the "Career Unlock All Key" and, for $3 tomorrow on the PlayStation Store, evidently does what its name suggests. Given the ultra-creative nature of the game, we can't really knock the idea of having access to all of the stickers, karts, tracks, themes and other various parts on the disc (and those added by DLC, if you've already bought it). Then again, if you've already sunk $60 into the retail release and more into DLC, you'd think the least Sony could do is throw in some seat covers a code.
Three plus eight equals Yoshi: How to cheat at Brain Age
If you're having some trouble whittling your Brain Age down to that elusive 20-year-old benchmark, a clever player named Ryuto has developed a sure-fire method of lowering that all important number: Cheat. Or, better yet, cheat while drawing fun doodles of Nintendo trademarks.
Dead Space's Isaac Clarke playable in Skate 3
Got Skate 3? Want to bust kickflips as everyone's favorite outer space engineer, Isaac Clarke? By inputting the code "deadspacetoo" into the Cheats area under the Extras section, you'll unlock the Dead Space protagonist for use in Free Play mode. Who knew he could be so nimble in that outfit? Keen observers may notice Clarke riding on a futuristic board. That's because, by inputting the code, you'll also gain the new deck. Sorry, it's non-transferable between skaters -- we tried.
