n3rfed: THIS UPDATE IS A DUPE

While I was away...

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Someone duped some dupes into thinking there was a WoW dupe. Or did Blizzard dupe the duped dupes and cover up the dupe? Um, something appears to have happened. Let’s backtrack, complete with some funky flashback music, to get into the nitty-gritty...

It all starts when this screenshot is pasted across all the internets, backed up with posts like this that state a dupe bug can be recreated when you take advantage of a client-server sync error in dungeons.

Scores of Dr Twister wannabees – you know, abusing the game for the good of the game of course, suckas! – now feverishly attempt to enter and exit Maraudon. It is not clear whether the ever-increasing throng of people repeatedly disappearing into Maraudon are people who are making this bug happen, people who are trying to get the bug to happen and can’t, or are just abusing the system another way and teleporting their level 30 characters to chest spawns. It must be noted that in threads such as the one linked above, posters replying to the original message cannot recreate the bug.

Focus now rested on the official WoW forums, now aflame with discussion and accusations about said screenshot and dupe. Blizzard remains tight-lipped thereby fuelling talk about rollbacks and bannings. It is here in my travels that I questioned the validity of the rollback comment – I do not think Blizzard would do a rollback, days after the last patch which is meant to have introduced this dupe, that affects the entire playerbase just to get rid of some cash that seems to have been made by only a very, very small percentage of the population. Or, at least, I hope they wouldn’t be that stupid. The cries of people losing a week’s worth of playtime would be louder than any generated by a dupe bug.

Now, I further interrupt here to ask a question – Did no one wonder why the fuck with a supposed bug that allows you to dupe money – twice your current cash with every time through it that could potentially earn you millions of gold – the screenshot was instead of someone selling multiple Krol Blades? Why would you bother going through the motions of putting items up for auction to get gold from them if duped gold was already at your beck and call?

Enter stage left someone with zoom skills who shows how the Krol Blades screenshot is, ironically enough, duped. Yes, it is a fake.

War still rages on the WoW forums between those who say there is no dupe (Blizzard would never allow that! (Hello Diablo 2)) and those who say there is a dupe (OMFG. I quit! Not like last time. This time I really quit!) until someone from Blizzard finally decides to show their face.

I understand that this is a very serious concern for you folks. Rest assured that we are actively investigating the reports of a duping exploit. There is currently no legitimate evidence of duping taking place at this time or in the recent past. This does not mean that we have concluded that no such exploit occurred, however; we are still actively pursuing all leads. Should we find conclusive evidence of such exploits taking place, we will take action as dictated in our policies. Naturally, we are very much aware of the potential impact such a bug would have on the game, and are doing everything in our power with the tools available to us to uncover the exploit, should it exist.

I must also apologize for not speaking with you about this before now. We were away, and this issue sprang up in our absence. You should have received communication about our stance and the actions we were taking earlier than this. I recommend that, should you find any evidence of this exploit, you eMail [email protected] to inform our team. As I'm sure you understand, the potential damage a duping exploit can bring to a game can be devastating. It is my hope that you will aid us with any information you may have. Thank you.

“We were away”? “We were away”? For fucks sake. Call me kind of crazy – it’s happened before – but if I was someone in power at a company that currently most of the PC gaming population is looking at and observing – and what a magical time it would be. Free icecream on Fridays for everyone – I’d freakin’ make sure someone would be available each day to comment to my customers on issues important to the game and the playerbase. You know, it’s kind of like a job. Even if it involved giving the hacks and someone from the programming team to give clarifications, that is so much more useful than silence followed up with a weak-sauce explanation. And when this comes from a company now known to have poor communication with it’s MMO customers, well, it just multiplies the issue.

In any case, our little story seems to end here, with Caydiem stating that no dupe bug exists.

I have been informed that the investigations have more or less concluded (they’ll still be watching, of course, but the labor-intensive scouring of data is complete). It has been determined that there is not a repeatable dupe exploit. You should not worry about rampant inflation; the majority of what has been floating around is rumor and image manipulation. Furthermore, it should be noted that causing any realm instability in such a fashion (like jumping in and out of instances repeatedly in an attempt to exploit or otherwise cause something not intended by Blizzard) is an actionable offense and we will be watching for offenders. Feel free to report people you see doing this to the GM staff.

And that seems to be where our story will stay. Subsequent posts on the issue have fallen into the deep dark depths of the forums or have been closed. Posts regarding battlegrounds have now taken center stage. Fuck.

In other news, WoW reached 3.5 million subscribers thereby meeting my prediction it would smash through the Lineage barrier. With 1.5 million Chinese subscribers coming in just over 1 month and new areas still yet to be tapped, it seems the 5 million mark could be the next to go.

Oh, hang on, this perhaps explains the “We were away” bit.

Snorting white lines off the stomachs of hookers.

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SOEbay was officially launched, allowing EQII players to buy their way to the top and leaving lawyers salivating over the first person who wants to sue because of a lost item.

SOE sent out a press release that gave a small breakdown of the types of sales that occurred during a two week testing phase.

Now, I know they state only a small number of people were involved, but the small numbers they state in terms of the average amount people spent, the amount of total plat sold (with 1/6 of it coming from one single sale) and the average cost of characters (much lower than any listed on IGE or similar sites) makes me questions just how successful this will be.

Looking at the EQII forums, these questions are starting to be strengthened as I glance over a quiet Station Exchange board and posts referring to an absence of people playing on the 2 new servers. In fact, across all the internets that includes EQII guild and fan sites, talk about the Station Exchange seems to be conspicuously lacking.

Then again, when you’re charging big fees for someone to sell on your server, does SOE really care?

So, now that SOEbay has reared it’s ugly head, what’s next in store for the company constantly on the lookout for pushing ~~gameplay~~ marketing?

Well, as one long-time EQ player found out, how about GMs giving away information about your private conversations with them to other players?

Our second story of the day starts right here with a Monk player a bit miffed that someone else was asked to go to the EQ Communit Summit to represent his class that he feels he has worked so long for. Now, I'm not here to question the decision. That's up to SOE. I know shit about either of the two players involved. But in any case, it is a big deal to those involved so the player in question decided to comment to a EQ GM about the matter.

A few days later, on a message board frequented by the player who messaged the GM and the player who ended up going to the summit, it was revealed that somehow mysteriously Nedrom knew that Homer had talked to a GM about the community summit and had mentioned him.

How was this so? How could a player find out information that was in a private message that are always assumed to be taken in strict confidentiality?

Homer fired off a firey email or two to SOE and received a response.

Dear Mr. xxxxxx,

My name is Christina Delzer and I am the Community Relations Manager for
EverQuest. I have looked into the allegations you have made that an SOE
employee, particularly Rashere, has given out personal information about
you to another community member. I can assure you that neither Rashere
nor any other SOE employee has done so. We here at SOE value our
customers and their privacy. We appreciate that our customers desire to
keep their personal information private and that when there was a
possibility that someone within our company breeched that trust you
brought it to our attention so that we could ensure this did not occur.

Sincerely,

Christina Delzer ~ Kytherea
Community Relations Manager
EverQuest

Ok. So you take personal information including private discussions with your GM staff very seriously? Ok, my mind is at ease now.

Wait a fucking minute. No, it isn’t. And neither was Homer’s. That still didn’t explain how one player found out information about a private message to a GM. Another email to SOE, complete with screenshot evidence, produced this revision of SOE matters.

Mr. xxxxxx,

While Rashere may have shared the conversation details, he did not share
any personal information.

Sincerely,

Christina Delzer ~ Kytherea
Community Relations Manager
EverQuest
[email protected]
http://eqlive.station.sony.com

Oooh. So, that’s alright then. SOE employees can discuss player emails, messages and in-game conversations to other players as long as they don’t mention who wrote it? Clearly that makes perfect sense and everyone who wants their messages to be kept private can rest assured that although other people will find out, no one will know they said it as long as they lie low.

SOE – Causing complaints since 1999 so you don’t have to.

Comments

Fake dupes are better than real ones.

Why on earth would the Dev have told the Summit Rep about any of that stuff?

I'm betting a GM forward of the IM with a text message of nothing more than, "LOL!!11!'...

Nedron prolly used his leet Guide skills to look Homer up. The frist comment from Nedron "I know who you are"... Not "You complained about me". Nice job Sony.

Posted by: D-0ne | July 25, 2005 at 09:04 AM

Players do not deserve special treatment... ever.

That includes you, Mr 6-Year Account. Yes, you may be a nice loyal customer. But ya know what, SoE doesn't owe you anything. If they wish to invite one person over you, that's their choice. And ya know what? They don't have to answer to it. And it's the GM's conversation TOO, not just yours. So if the GM wishs to share with other people a conversation HE had with someone else. Well then why can't he?

Okay enough of that. My beef is this. You don't deserve special treatment just because you've been playing longer. Everything doesn't belong to you just because you were involved in it. And finaly, People can't have their eyes on everything, all the time, instantly. It takes a lot of people to keep track of everything and anything going on and for the most part, what seems like years is really just hours and if the Community is in an uproar over a bug, they tend to get very upset if someone offical doesn't say anything in oh say.. 3.2 minutes. Impatent is the word.

Look, in general, While I can agree these games can be frustrating at times, I tend to think a lot of players get too involved, they tend to think they are too important too.

Just because a few people think your real important to the community doesn't mean the company knows jack about who you are or what you do. SUck it up and live with it.

Tony

Posted by: Tony Hoyt | July 25, 2005 at 09:39 AM

That's all well and good Tony but.
http://sonyonline.com/tos/privacy.jsp
"General, aggregated, demographic, and non-personal information may be collected by SOE. It will not be linked to any of your personal information, through cookies or other means, without your consent."

Plus if you're SOE why not have *TWO* *different* Privacy policies?

http://eqlive.station.sony.com/support/customer_service/cs_security_notices.jsp

"Sharing of Information with Third Parties: We will not give any of your personal information to any third party without your express approval. The only personal information we will ask you if you want us to share with third parties is your name and e-mail address. If you don't want us to share your name and e-mail address, you can tell us that by clicking on "No" in the box at the time you register as a member on the Station or each time we request information from you or at other points. We sometimes share aggregated (not personal) information with third parties about our user base, but that information does not include any individually identifiable material."

I doubt Homer whated the GM to tell another customer specifically how unhappy he was. Kind of personal info there.

It isn't the GMs conversation, the privacy policy makes that clear.

Whee!

Posted by: D_0ne | July 26, 2005 at 04:16 AM