Was this exploit ever really an issue?
Bryman187
Member Posts: 204 ★
Let me start by saying yes, I did recieve punishment for using the exploit. No, I am not upset at all. I am starting this discussion because I am curious to get the communities opinions on this line of thinking.
To clarify, I NEVER ran a single line more than once. I simply completed and explored difficulties as usual. I DID use multiple energy refills to to accomplish this faster. Clearly Kabam took more into account than just "running the same line 100+ times" when deciding on who was an offender. Again, I am not complaining.
The thought that I'd like to see discuses is the idea of "unfairly exploiting this bug". I chose to utilize the exploit under the assumption that there was absolutely ZERO chance that anyone who reaped benefits would get to keep their rewards. This type of thing has happened in the past and rewards were reversed. That being said, I fully expected not to keep any of the rewards I gained and collecting the extra shards and opening all the crystals was, for me, just a fun day of seeing what it felt like to open dozens of high value crystals. Again, I was under no illusions about keeping the rewards. As we've seen in the past Kabam clearly has certain checks and balances in place to flag unusual activity in the game such as exorbitant rewards being given or mods and cheats. So my question is this; if we know that Kabam has checks and balances in place to alert them to activities such as these and we know through previous experience that they will unquestionably take back all the rewards then how was this exploit ever going to cause any long term imbalance or unfair advancement in the game? And if it was never going to result in any real unfair advancement or imbalance then what is the moral judgment about using the exploit based on? Anything anyone gained whith any exploit is always inevitably going to be reveresed so why is there a need for excess punishment? I realize that some small short term personal gain may be attained by using exploit rewards to complete content or temporarily strengthen AW/AQ teams, but as we've seen, most if not all of this can be reversed. It seems like there is an argument to be made that these types of exploits are not as deeply harmful as Kabam makes them out to be. Pleas politely and respectfully weigh in. I think there is an interesting discussion to be had here.
And PLEASE AVOID USING THE "B" WORD SO THIS DISCUSSION DOESN'T GET CLOSED!
Thanks
To clarify, I NEVER ran a single line more than once. I simply completed and explored difficulties as usual. I DID use multiple energy refills to to accomplish this faster. Clearly Kabam took more into account than just "running the same line 100+ times" when deciding on who was an offender. Again, I am not complaining.
The thought that I'd like to see discuses is the idea of "unfairly exploiting this bug". I chose to utilize the exploit under the assumption that there was absolutely ZERO chance that anyone who reaped benefits would get to keep their rewards. This type of thing has happened in the past and rewards were reversed. That being said, I fully expected not to keep any of the rewards I gained and collecting the extra shards and opening all the crystals was, for me, just a fun day of seeing what it felt like to open dozens of high value crystals. Again, I was under no illusions about keeping the rewards. As we've seen in the past Kabam clearly has certain checks and balances in place to flag unusual activity in the game such as exorbitant rewards being given or mods and cheats. So my question is this; if we know that Kabam has checks and balances in place to alert them to activities such as these and we know through previous experience that they will unquestionably take back all the rewards then how was this exploit ever going to cause any long term imbalance or unfair advancement in the game? And if it was never going to result in any real unfair advancement or imbalance then what is the moral judgment about using the exploit based on? Anything anyone gained whith any exploit is always inevitably going to be reveresed so why is there a need for excess punishment? I realize that some small short term personal gain may be attained by using exploit rewards to complete content or temporarily strengthen AW/AQ teams, but as we've seen, most if not all of this can be reversed. It seems like there is an argument to be made that these types of exploits are not as deeply harmful as Kabam makes them out to be. Pleas politely and respectfully weigh in. I think there is an interesting discussion to be had here.
And PLEASE AVOID USING THE "B" WORD SO THIS DISCUSSION DOESN'T GET CLOSED!
Thanks
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This discussion has been closed.
Comments
I didn't come down on one side or the other, I asked a question to hear peoples opinions. And to be fair, regardless of what traits a bug manifests, in this case an exploitable one, the engineers will always have to weed through the effects and rectify them. Even if they were not caused by the players. I do agree that it's unfair to add more work for them though, yes.
Edit: Also, I was more addressing the community's point about unfair gains and imbalance.
TBH I thought the "B" was dumb as well, but you can't do whatever and be surprised at other people's reactions to you trying to essentially rip them off. IDK how saying "but I knew you'd catch me" is supposed to be a viable defense.
I agree, there was clearly intent, but that doesn't mean that you can't intend to gain with the expectation of the gains being quickly reverted. Honestly, opening all those crystals was the most fun I've had in this game in a while and as I said I didn't expect to keep any of it. I appreciate your opinion too.
I agree with this. Opening the crystals implies intent. It's one thing to run paths and just let the rewards sit, but if you open crystals and rank champs, it's a different story.
I wouldn't call it a defense. I'm just saying no one was going to keep anything. I don't think there was ever any doubt about that. And I wasn't surprised at the community response at all, just wanted to offer an idea for discussion. That's all. Thank you.
Again, no one is contesting intent. I absolutely intended to gain rewards and I absolutely expected them to be swiftly removed.
The problem with these posts is people that exploit and cheat always post on here trying to justify their actions and hopefully have people tell them they did nothing wrong. Bottom line is these people cheated, period.
Sorry if it sounds like I'm coming at you directly, but I'm just talking about the people that were saying this was unfair etc after they basically got caught trying to steal things.
That 3x emergency patch screwed up my hood arena grind, so I'm not thrilled that they pulled the plug on the servers for something they were going to go back and fix anyway.
I disagree, but I respect your opinion. I have no interest in someone deciding if I'm right or wrong. Just wanted to see a discussion on the topic. Thank you.
I completely agree. I don't think there is any room for outrage or complaining here and I didn't take anything you said as a direct attack. I'm just offering counterpoints to some of the responses I'm getting and I'm glad to see the interest in the topic.
I mentioned this the minute servers went down and everyone was scratching their heads in alliance.
"There must be an exploit they have to patch asap. They wouldn't turn these off for our benefit."
Spidey event was giving out too many shards and they pulled the plug then too. But NC not switching stance, Dorm's link not working properly, and many other bugs all get lumped into one monthly fix at best.
Thank you for the opinion. My only counterpoint to that is that, again, I'm not arguing intent. I'm questioning what was the worst possible outcome knowing there was no way the rewards would stick. Thank you though.
Edit: other than creating more work for the engineers(which I agree isn't fair) I don't see the moral downside against players if we were all going to be set back to the even playing field that existed before the exploit manifested promptly.
Just a thought here, and I know it might sound crazy. How about the game just functions properly? Or if there is a bug treat it the same across the board. If extra resources earned for bugs need to be returned than the extra resources used for bugs should be returned as well. They are saying the exploit isn't fair, is it fair that I have to spend 2000 units because the game crashes 8 times in one night? Now, I did not receive anything from this bug; I just find them using the word "fair" in relation to this issue is beyond laughable.
Lol. Thank you for your polite and respectful opinion. For the record, I used exactly none of my temporary gains to advance through anything, but I take your point.
There's no way to completely erase the effects that they had on the game in those 2 days even if they do take back the rewards.
I'm sure some people lost wars or ranking in arena/aq because others suddenly had much high ranked champs than they did the day before. One guy I know opened a few new 5 stars during that time. That makes a very big difference in an arena grind. I'm sure some completed 5.2 or other high level events that they couldn't before, which gives them additional rewards/advantages that may not be taken back. Hell, I'd take a 7 day ban if I got to be Uncollected going forward and receive the better crystals etc.
Parry not working, Champs getting freeze and not doing a thing, sudden crashes, server downtimes... that's how the contest "works as intended"
All very good points. Thank you for your contributions.
The only real exploit is that of kabam, it's servers and there lack of compensation for constant glitches, bugs, exploits etc. Take things away from ppl who did exploit agree. Being banned for something the developers who allowed it should be fired anyway instead. Start punishing your internal staff and not the ones paying your salaries.
If a bug made 2000 units magically disappear, then they would return them. You spent 2000 units because there was an issue with the game, and you refused to stop putting quarters into a broken machine. I agree that it's nonsense that they'll crash the server to kill bugs that hurt their bottom line, but they drag their feet to fix the ones that cost us.
Ultimately, it's on you to stop giving them units/cash when the game is buggy though. They have all the power in this relationship.
You are correct, but they kept saying on here it was back up, only to go down again and I was on a time limit to get a path cleared. I'm not particularly upset about the 2000 units, I never expected compensation for them. Just pointing out their hypocrisy. I enjoy this game to a point, mostly because I don't take it too seriously. But my experience with it and their "customer support", leaves me knowing that I won't ever use another kabam product again. First and last product from them.
These events are unrelated and days apart. You can't really be expecting them to let you know about glitches that cost them money or to stop sending out basic reminder messages just because they had a bug that week.
All I am saying is there is not much of a discussion to be had. In one sense or another, you are looking for some type of support for your justification. People that exploit and cheat know better. They know it is wrong and not intended by the game, but they take advantage anyway. There are consequences. Whether or not you know you will be caught so who cares is a flaw in reasoning. Yes, Kabam is partly at fault for allowing it to happen, but that does not give freedom for people to take advantage.
Oh they are definitely hypocrites here so hope I don't sound like I'm defending them. I just know I'm going to keep playing anyway so I don't like to complain about an abusive relationship when I'm still sleeping with them.
Customer service here is a joke. I sent them before and after screenshots with time stamps to show that dorm was just closing my game out in AQ and taking half my health with it after I just spent a health pot. They just sent me the "Oh man that stinks! I play too so I know how frustrating this can be. Unfortunately, we will do nothing for you." form letter. I also would never support another Kabam product, but this game has me hooked.
No, I am not looking for any justification whatsoever. What good would that do? What's done is done. As I said already, I'm not interested in someone deciding if my personal actions were moral or not. That's for me to decide. I just wanted to get some more opinions on the extent to which the exploit would ever really have affected the contest. If you feel there isn't a discussion to be had then feel free to exit the discussion. Thank you.
Edit: Also, you keep bringing up the idea that being caught is irrelevant, but in this case it's not. I am not disagreeing that cheating for personal gain is immoral, but if there is absolutely no possibility of ultimate personal gain because you will not keep what you get, there is no moral effect on the contest(with the exception of the limited benefit on AQ/AW that was mentioned by another poster and I agree with it)