@The_Big_K Your statement isn't true in the slightest. There are plenty who were banned for running completion during this time. They offered the rewards back and still got banned.
One guy on here was banned running 6 times through master to complete the last chapters. He provided screenshots and times for proof and got his thread deleted and his forum account banned.
The bans were not consistent to all summoners and they did not thoroughly investigate: it took 6 days because of the sheer number of people who were on during the exploit.
[/quote]
Wasn't it mentioned on the forums that there was an issue and not to take advantage of it? Or would you just have preferred they shut the game down completely while they figured it out and fixed it?[/quote]
If that is true (I hadn't heard that nor remember seeing anything in game or mail) then good for kabam for at least getting the message out there I guess.
@The_Big_K Your statement isn't true in the slightest. There are plenty who were banned for running completion during this time. They offered the rewards back and still got banned.
One guy on here was banned running 6 times through master to complete the last chapters. He provided screenshots and times for proof and got his thread deleted and his forum account banned.
The bans were not consistent to all summoners and they did not thoroughly investigate: it took 6 days because of the sheer number of people who were on during the exploit.
Prove it...please post the screenshots in question. I've seen on Line app several of the guys that were not banned but lost out on t1 alphas for completing medium and heroic. My guess is your friend is not being truthful or is being busted for being a multiple time offender like @Mcord11758 suggested.
@The_Big_K I don't have the screenshots, I don't save people's posts (that would be weird). I saw it this morning and decided to post regarding my friend after as I was curious if anyone else had been banned despite already offering the rewards back and not running the shortest paths over and over.
If players can farm t2 alphas and knowingly do so to progress their account farther because of the glitch then that is an exploit. If you collect the rewards just doing your questing like normal instead of 200 times than you aren't exploiting the glitch
@The_Big_K I don't have the screenshots, I don't save people's posts (that would be weird). I saw it this morning and decided to post regarding my friend after as I was curious if anyone else had been banned despite already offering the rewards back and not running the shortest paths over and over.
I mean you no disrespect, but your friend is not being 100% truthful. They only banned people running the same path over and over in master. Everyone else just lost out on extra rewards.
@Deadbyrd9 I completely agree. What I'm saying is there were a lot of people who did not complete the quest an inordinate amount of times but still got banned despite offering the rewards back.
Kabam did not treat all summoners fairly and were not consistent with their punishments despite their posts.
If it was clear you ran the shortest path to farm resources fair enough ban people, but a lot were banned despite that not being the case. It's inconsistent and unfair.
Kabam said they only banned the top 7% of players that had the glitch and ran it multiple times. No one in my alliance had the glitch so I'm unaware whether or not people got banned unfairly or if they are just lying about not exploiting it
Wasn't it mentioned on the forums that there was an issue and not to take advantage of it? Or would you just have preferred they shut the game down completely while they figured it out and fixed it?[/quote]
If that is true (I hadn't heard that nor remember seeing anything in game or mail) then good for kabam for at least getting the message out there I guess. [/quote]
So if an ATM
gives me more money than what I asked for. is it ok to exploit it?
And if a banks atm is not working correctly do they just leave it there and allow customers to use it at their own risk? In my experience if I use an atm and it charges me like I took money but it didn't dispense they fix the machine and give me back my money. They don't just let people gamble on if it work correctly
Wasn't it mentioned on the forums that there was an issue and not to take advantage of it? Or would you just have preferred they shut the game down completely while they figured it out and fixed it?
Not everyone is on the forums and Kabam is fully aware of that.
And yes, they have shut the game down many times for emergency maintenance to fix issues that benefit the players only.
@MagicBenton that picture doesn't say that players ran the paths 200 times to get the rewards and open the crystals so it's not even the same situation
@MagicBenton that picture doesn't say that players ran the paths 200 times to get the rewards and open the crystals so it's not even the same situation
I think he means they should of took the game offline until it was fixed.
Yeah, I didn't think of it that way. But either way people will be mad. If the game goes offline someone will complain about arena or aq health
Except we already know they have the ability to notify players in game via mail and to schedule maintenance window 24 hrs in advance. That way anyone in AQ/AW at the notified maintenance time is clearly taking their own risk.
@MagicBenton that picture doesn't say that players ran the paths 200 times to get the rewards and open the crystals so it's not even the same situation
I'm not sure if you were around then but the people who did exploit the bug did so in the same manner as this one.
This was when 5*s first came out and were almost impossible to get, but people ran the quest over and over to get enough shards for multiple 5*s (which they opened and ranked up). I don't remember exactly how many shards were awarded but it was small enough that they had to run it MANY times to get a single 5*, let alone multiple. They also got loads of 4*'s that were not removed from their account (when 4*s were a rare commodity). I know people who were banned this time around for far worse rewards (the Normal level exploration rewards). So overall, yes I would say it's pretty much the same situation.
But this is also pointing out the way the issue was handled. They found out about it, stopped the quest (didn't have to bring down the game), fixed the issue and then went and adjusted the accounts to make sure they did not alter the balance of the game. That's how it was handled in the past, and that's how it should have been handled this time.
@ContestOfNoobs if an ATM gave you more money would you offer it back or try your luck on another £20?
Many summoners did actually offer the rewards back once they realised from the exploit but still got banned regardless.
That's not exactly true. Many summoners who ran quests to 100% completion and received the rewards had merely the rewards taken. The bans were for the people that were running the quick routes of the master difficulty quests over and over. Don't be fooled...kabam is far smarter than you give them credit for. There is a reason the bans came almost 6 days after the issue was resolved. They do thorough investigations.
but people kept on doing it, so intent to abuse and gain rewards.
From what I can gather, If a game bug costs players resources it's deemed acceptable. If bugs cost kabam game resources it's cause for a ban? I've done none of the above but this still bothers me.
If this is something you feel strongly about, then it is entirely within your power to fix it. When the game exploits you, ban the game in the same way the game would ban you for leveraging an exploit.
Hi everyone just gonna step in here to address a few things.
Exploits and bugs are not the same thing, and have to be handled differently. Many Summoners in this thread have already pointed out the differences, so we aren't going to dive further into that topic.
We often see players that are banned from the game take to community spaces to 'rally' fellow players behind them. Their hope is that they can somehow sway us to change the decision made regarding their punishment within the game. They often do not present the full facts to the people they're trying to get behind them, and we are not in the habit of arguing publicly with them since we won't publicly discuss details of a specific Summoner's account. This is why we also remove these conversations - they're one sided, do not present all of the facts, and this is not the place for them as indicated in our rules.
We receive no benefit from banning a player that has been following the rules and playing within The Contest fairly. There is no financial gain for us, it could potentially have a negative impact on our community, as well as a negative financial impact by alienating such a player even after their temporary ban is over, and it costs us money in the form of time it takes us to investigate and handle the ban - not to mention any subsequent customer service tickets submitted as part of an appeal, or forum moderation required to handle their reaction in public spaces.
We spent a considerable amount of time investigating this matter prior to taking action. We came to the conclusion that actions had to be taken to reclaim items gained from taking advantage of this exploit since the exploit, and items gained from it, allowed some players to gain an unfair advantage over the rest of the community. The clean-up that is required to remove items from accounts gained via this exploit will also require time, which is why it is being done in phases. We did not take action against Summoners lightly, and the punishment has only varied in a few specific ways: if there was no evidence to suggest that a Summoner intentionally took advantage of the exploit, we simply removed the items.
Comments
One guy on here was banned running 6 times through master to complete the last chapters. He provided screenshots and times for proof and got his thread deleted and his forum account banned.
The bans were not consistent to all summoners and they did not thoroughly investigate: it took 6 days because of the sheer number of people who were on during the exploit.
Wasn't it mentioned on the forums that there was an issue and not to take advantage of it? Or would you just have preferred they shut the game down completely while they figured it out and fixed it?[/quote]
If that is true (I hadn't heard that nor remember seeing anything in game or mail) then good for kabam for at least getting the message out there I guess.
Prove it...please post the screenshots in question. I've seen on Line app several of the guys that were not banned but lost out on t1 alphas for completing medium and heroic. My guess is your friend is not being truthful or is being busted for being a multiple time offender like @Mcord11758 suggested.
I mean you no disrespect, but your friend is not being 100% truthful. They only banned people running the same path over and over in master. Everyone else just lost out on extra rewards.
Kabam did not treat all summoners fairly and were not consistent with their punishments despite their posts.
If it was clear you ran the shortest path to farm resources fair enough ban people, but a lot were banned despite that not being the case. It's inconsistent and unfair.
If that is true (I hadn't heard that nor remember seeing anything in game or mail) then good for kabam for at least getting the message out there I guess. [/quote]
https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/16846/regarding-repeat-quest-rewards-exploit-clarification-added#latest
That was the message I went off of. I know he posted something even earlier regarding it though.
Not everyone is on the forums and Kabam is fully aware of that.
And yes, they have shut the game down many times for emergency maintenance to fix issues that benefit the players only.
I think he means they should of took the game offline until it was fixed.
Except we already know they have the ability to notify players in game via mail and to schedule maintenance window 24 hrs in advance. That way anyone in AQ/AW at the notified maintenance time is clearly taking their own risk.
I'm not sure if you were around then but the people who did exploit the bug did so in the same manner as this one.
This was when 5*s first came out and were almost impossible to get, but people ran the quest over and over to get enough shards for multiple 5*s (which they opened and ranked up). I don't remember exactly how many shards were awarded but it was small enough that they had to run it MANY times to get a single 5*, let alone multiple. They also got loads of 4*'s that were not removed from their account (when 4*s were a rare commodity). I know people who were banned this time around for far worse rewards (the Normal level exploration rewards). So overall, yes I would say it's pretty much the same situation.
But this is also pointing out the way the issue was handled. They found out about it, stopped the quest (didn't have to bring down the game), fixed the issue and then went and adjusted the accounts to make sure they did not alter the balance of the game. That's how it was handled in the past, and that's how it should have been handled this time.
but people kept on doing it, so intent to abuse and gain rewards.
If this is something you feel strongly about, then it is entirely within your power to fix it. When the game exploits you, ban the game in the same way the game would ban you for leveraging an exploit.
Exploits and bugs are not the same thing, and have to be handled differently. Many Summoners in this thread have already pointed out the differences, so we aren't going to dive further into that topic.
We often see players that are banned from the game take to community spaces to 'rally' fellow players behind them. Their hope is that they can somehow sway us to change the decision made regarding their punishment within the game. They often do not present the full facts to the people they're trying to get behind them, and we are not in the habit of arguing publicly with them since we won't publicly discuss details of a specific Summoner's account. This is why we also remove these conversations - they're one sided, do not present all of the facts, and this is not the place for them as indicated in our rules.
We receive no benefit from banning a player that has been following the rules and playing within The Contest fairly. There is no financial gain for us, it could potentially have a negative impact on our community, as well as a negative financial impact by alienating such a player even after their temporary ban is over, and it costs us money in the form of time it takes us to investigate and handle the ban - not to mention any subsequent customer service tickets submitted as part of an appeal, or forum moderation required to handle their reaction in public spaces.
We spent a considerable amount of time investigating this matter prior to taking action. We came to the conclusion that actions had to be taken to reclaim items gained from taking advantage of this exploit since the exploit, and items gained from it, allowed some players to gain an unfair advantage over the rest of the community. The clean-up that is required to remove items from accounts gained via this exploit will also require time, which is why it is being done in phases. We did not take action against Summoners lightly, and the punishment has only varied in a few specific ways: if there was no evidence to suggest that a Summoner intentionally took advantage of the exploit, we simply removed the items.