I hear there was a protest in SWG

[Shawn]

From what I hear, it went something like this: Some players figured out how to "dupe" credits in the game. They used these duped credits for all sorts of things, including trading with other players and tipping them for services rendered. SOE discovered this bug and decided that the best way to handle the situation was by banning everyone who possessed duped credits - whether they knew they possessed them or not.

Many players were justifiably upset about this action. They staged a protest on Naboo, hoping SOE would see the error of their ways and correct their mistake. Typically, situations like this in an MMORPG are handled by simply removing the duplicated item and banning the persons responsible for exploiting the bug in the first place. Instead, SOE told players to "Stop it or else". When they did not stop it, the GMs started teleporting players to random locations - including outer space. Yes, that's right: When the people wouldn't accept their unjust decision, they teleported them into space. When even this failed to calm the uprising, they simply shut the servers down.

I'd just like to congratulate SOE on their impecabble job of handling the situation, and offer my hope they continue this trend of excellence in customer service. (:rolleyes)

[imported_Grev Drasen]

From what I've heard it wasn't SOE's call.

Lucasarts is responsible.

[Travis North]

What did space look like?

[Khendon Sevon]

It really doesn't matter who made the calls, it's bad business.

That's really sad, I know UO alternate shards (i.e. free ones) that have more understanding and intelligent staff than that.

[Marcus Telcontar]

This actually happened? That's insane.

[imported_Grev Drasen]

Originally posted by Khendon Sevon
It really doesn't matter who made the calls, it's bad business.
It is bad business, but a lot of people are trashing SOE when there's really nothing they can do about it.

[Shawn]

It was SOE CSRs who told the protestors to stop, who teleported them around and who banned them, as far as I know. I could be wrong, but I don't believe Lucasarts has any input on the game at all.

[Darth Viscera]

Lucasarts authorises SOE to use classic star wars characters (vader, luke, leia, etc) in events sometimes, in theory. They haven't authorised SOE to do it yet :p otherwise, again theoretically, we'd have CSRs spawning themselves in Coronet as Darth Vader and leading walkers and stormtroopers around, kicking some rebel butt. SOE is too antipathetic to care about such things as fun though, so I'm sure it's the case they just haven't thought to ask.

Yeah, lots of people had friends who were banned unjustly, so they protested. During the dupe, a duper would just need to walk into Coronet and run a macro to auto-target and /tip 1000000 all 200 or so people there, and bing bang boom, all 200 of those accounts are now flagged by SOE customer service and suspended pending a week-long investigation. There were 200 actual dupers, so imagine the results.

The problem with the protests, from a developers' point of view, is SWG's servers are crap. If you get 2,000 people crammed in one place, it will cause severe lag, and probably crash the server. Hence why customer service got all peeved about the protests, I imagine. That, and the evil bastards enjoy clamping down with an iron fist on customer dissatisfaction.

[Travis North]

I say it was a good call with all the nagging CSRs get in one day. And they get yelled at by players waiting for their tickets to be answered when the ticket system is overflowing. I mean there is like only 100 or so CSRs running around the servers.

[Jacen Parami]

They're very ban-happy. I got banned for trying to help fix a problem...:(

[Shawn]

Well, if they didn't just outright ban everyone who was in possession of duped credits, there wouldn't have been protests in the first place. Duping has been a problem, at one point or another, in every other MMORPG and it's usually handled by simply removing the offending items. Then they look at their logs, figure out who was responsible for it and ban those individuals.

Sometimes, I've even seen leniency given to someone who only duped 1 or 2 items, since it's possible that they did it by accident. Then tend to only ban those individuals who've heavily exploited the bug.

[Master Yoghurt]

The CSRs are in my experience incompetent morons who either cant or wont help you with whatever ingame problem you might have. Theire extremely unwieldy to deal with, and even for the most obvious requests they lack comon sense and flexibility. When they finally get to the point of replying to a support ticket (which may take all day, or worse), their usual response usually is they cant help you for either technical or policy reasons, "please delete ticket at your convenience, have a nice day!".

Thats why I prefer to deal with them as little as possible. Instead of complaining all day, I chose to play the game.


The problem with the protests, from a developers' point of view, is SWG's servers are crap. If you get 2,000 people crammed in one place, it will cause severe lag, and probably crash the server.

Excactly. For all I care, people can protest as much as they want, but when the demonstrations risks causing a server crash, its gone too far. Judging from the screenshots, the spamming was horrific. Although, SOE customer service in general is absolute crap, I believe they did the right thing here.


Typically, situations like this in an MMORPG are handled by simply removing the duplicated item and banning the persons responsible for exploiting the bug in the first place

Although I agree with this method in principle, its not so easy. If exploiter X "donates" large amounts of money to his friend Y, and Y knows these are duped credits, should Y be let off the hook? Of course not. Although Y may not have participated in the initial bug exploit, he is just as guilty in gaining an unfair due to a game exploit. The difficult task of course is determining if Y knew these were duped credits or not.

The other problem is, once the credits been duplicated, the exploiter is likely to try laundrying the money before the account is frozen. Partly the goal is pulverising the ingame bank account to appear innocent, but more to the point; this complicates the tracing of the duped credits. If the credit duper succesfully can circumvent the filters and hide the money, he/she can create a new account and become filthy rich upon return.

How rich? 550,000,000,000 credits. Thats how much was confiscated in total. It would have utterly destroyed the ingame economy if prompt action did not take place. SOE may have been swinging the ban hammer heavy initially, but it looks like they succesfully stopped it from spreading.

There have been an appeals process after the bannings, reviewing each case. The players deemed innocent had their accounts restored, credited for the play time lost, and received an apology.

[Travis North]

I totally agree with the above speech. I'd also like to include this quick plug. Not having to do with CSR or Protestors at all but Galaxies in general.

The new cover for JTL. http://www.8ung.de/userdaten/18116538/bilder/cover.jpg

[Darth Viscera]

me and chili here are going to totally pwn you guys in space

[Malcolm Trippen]

*kicks his radio* sorry...my L337 translator is playing up...

Either you're going to trade me in for money, or film me having some fun and games some hot alien chick. Unfortunately, its probably neither of those. :(

[Darth Viscera]

Just break down and left if you hear a blood-curtling growl through the teamspeak.

[Malcolm Trippen]

Which one is left?

[Darth Viscera]

left is the direction in which you turn in order to throw off your attacker's innate trajectory analysis processors. if you break right and up to evade an attacker who's on your 6, he'll be able to more easily continue on your 6. left and down is harder to pursue, so it's a better evasive maneuver.

[Malcolm Trippen]

I get WHY I go down and left...but which way is left? Do I need to go towards the little green flashing light on my wing, or the little red one?

[ReaperFett]

http://www.penny-arcade.com/images/2004/20040825l.jpg :D

[Dasquian Belargic]

Well just start killing Bothans. I'll tell you when to stop.

That made me laugh so hard first time I read it ^_^;

[Pierce Tondry]

Me too. :)

[Lady Vader]

LMAO! Awesome comic!!! :lol

As to the bannings, I hope I wasn't banned. I haven't been playing in awhile, but goodness only knows what goes on when i'm not there. ^_^;

[Dan the Man]

I hope you were banned, so you'd spend more time here instead :)

[Khendon Sevon]

That was a great, great comic. A piece of art :)

[Jacen Parami]

Wow...an Imperial policy I actually agree with...is that possible?

[Lady Vader]

Originally posted by Dan the Man
I hope you were banned, so you'd spend more time here instead :)

Well, seeing as how I haven't been spending much time on SWG as of late, that really wouldn't change my status here. :p

[Charley]

Time to poison your significant other :)

[Lady Vader]

Oh don't blame him. He's usually on the computer when I come home anyways (well, his computer).

I just tend to veg and relax when I get home after a LONG DAY AT WORK. :p

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Psh, *I* find time to RP, and I spend my time at work running around. :mneh

[Lady Vader]

Eh, maybe I just don't feel it anymore. What can I say?

And I too am up and running around. The guys here are very demanding. Also, do you have an hour commute to and from work??? Hmmm?????

[Pierce Tondry]

I do have an hour to make such a commute. The trip to my job only takes five minutes, though, so I usually keep the other 55 in case there's something I want to do. :)

[imported_Firebird1]

Originally posted by Malcolm Trippen
Which one is left?

Ctrl-Alt-Delete....

Bah who am I kidding. But this protest is only the latest stunt in a long line of insane decisions that SWG has had happen to it...


EDIT: Read the DEV Forum on this Credit Dupe...

And they are worried about hyper inflation...

I wonder how many accounts they accutally banned in order to stablize their precious economy...

[Jacen Parami]

Originally posted by Firebird1
Ctrl-Alt-Delete....

Bah who am I kidding. But this protest is only the latest stunt in a long line of insane decisions that SWG has had happen to it...


EDIT: Read the DEV Forum on this Credit Dupe...

And they are worried about hyper inflation...

I wonder how many accounts they accutally banned in order to stablize their precious economy...

Chilastra already has uber-inflation...one of the most expensive forums out there. :(

[Darth Viscera]

i dunno about that. a suit of 90% armor would go for millions on the trade forums of another galaxy. on chilastra, it would go for less than a million.

[Travis North]

It's cause Chilastra is so uber we sell 90% armor for less. Inflation only hurts the weak. In the words of Kol "Chilastra owns Bria." and my addition, "And every other server."

[Silus Xilarian]

All i know is, everyone has more money than me on any server I play on.

[Alex]

I don't. But the person who makes my wardrobe does...damn my clothes addiction. :(

[Master Yoghurt]

Tailors are not particulary wealthy though. Chefs, armorsmiths and weaponsmiths are.