Star Wars: The Old Republic Bans Follow-up

[Jan 03, 2012, 11:19 am ET] - Share - Viewing Comments

The Star Wars: The Old Republic Website has a follow-up to the report that some users in BioWare's MMORPG were being sanctioned for visiting areas intended for higher level characters (thanks Joao via Rock, Paper, Shotgun). As it turns out, none of these users was banned, they simply received warnings:

First, action was taken against a number of accounts for what's commonly known as 'gold farming' - or in our case, credit farming. These accounts were found to be exploiting the game in a variety of ways to maximize their credits in order to sell them to other players. Our Terms of Service team took action against these accounts and removed them permanently from the game.

Second, a smaller number of accounts were warned or temporarily suspended for exploiting loot containers on Ilum. To be completely clear, while players may choose to travel to Ilum earlier than the recommended level (40+) and may loot containers if they can get to them, in the cases of those customers that were warned or temporarily suspended, they were systematically and repeatedly looting containers in very high numbers resulting in the game economy becoming unbalanced.

None of these accounts were banned for their actions and no accounts have been banned for travelling to Ilum while still relatively low level. By comparison, the number of accounts that were warned or temporarily suspended was considerably lower than the number of accounts banned for 'credit farming'.

It's important to remember that our Terms of Service team is extremely careful and thorough in their investigation of any potential exploit or unusual activity in-game. Working closely with the development team and using extensive metrics based on player activity, they are able to determine what is normal player activity, what is unusual and what is exploiting. Our goal is always to ensure a fair game experience for all players while also protecting the rights of individuals, and if people are disrupting the play experience for others action will be taken.

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50.

Re: Star Wars: The Old Republic Bans Follow-up

Jan 3, 2012, 17:20

Lorcin

Endo wrote on Jan 3, 2012, 17:04: So he may have simply logged off, may have been suspended, or may have been deleted. No way to know. Fair enough - I'll keep checking for him then. Would be interesting to know.

49.

Re: Star Wars: The Old Republic Bans Follow-up

Jan 3, 2012, 17:18

RollinThundr

I think something alot of people who either didn't spend time on the old Bioboards or BW social site fail to realize is Bioware has been moving in this direction long before the EA buy out. It's easy to blame EA as the big bad evil huge publisher but really it's been obvious to me for about the past 5 years or so that BW hasn't wanted to make RPG's for a long time now. They want to make the same cinematic story with minor setting changes (ME, DA, Kotor/Tor) with illusion of player choice (some titles more obvious than others at the lack of said player choice, DA2 comes instantly to mind) blow a wad on marketing and hype and expect to sell 5 million copies every game. I mean does anyone really wonder why some of their oldest employee's have been jumping ship over the last few years, while the ones who remain, The Gaiders or Priestlys just become more and more snarky towards their very own fanbase? Seriously?

48.

Re: Star Wars: The Old Republic Bans Follow-up

Jan 3, 2012, 17:14

Krovven

Rossafur wrote on Jan 3, 2012, 16:45: Krovven wrote on Jan 3, 2012, 16:34: If you insist on finishing every sentence with "lol", please never post again. Nice fail on detecting Fibrocyte's annoyance with KilrathiAce's use of "lol" and a throw-away comparison to WoW. I caught it just fine, thanks captain obvious. He isn't the grammar police, nor is KilrathiAce's opinion any less trivial than Fribrocytes. Clearly you failed at the irony of my post.

47.

Re: Star Wars: The Old Republic Bans Follow-up

Jan 3, 2012, 17:04

Endo

Lorcin wrote on Jan 3, 2012, 15:19: so tried to add him to ignore and the game said he didn't exist. Of course, that doesn't really mean much. One of the current bugs is that players often "don't exist" when they're not logged in. Makes it rather frustrating trying to add your friends to your friends list at times. Especially adding their alts. So he may have simply logged off, may have been suspended, or may have been deleted. No way to know.

46.

Re: Star Wars: The Old Republic Bans Follow-up

Jan 3, 2012, 16:50

nin

This is hardly different than speed limits.

Except they didn't post anything beforehand in this case, did they? Again, what is "too much"?????

"systematically and repeatedly looting containers in very high numbers" is like being told you mined or skinned too much in WOW. It's stupid, and if it's not clearly defined up front, it's not the gamers fault. It's the devs fault for not designing the zone correctly, or clearly stating the terms upfront.




RollinThundr Apr 17, 2013, 12:25: Eh really tossing stuff like that in there only to get your panties all bunched up. If you really want to call that trolling sure. Mr. Tact Apr 17, 2013, 12:33: Pretty sure that's the definition of trolling...

45.

Re: Star Wars: The Old Republic Bans Follow-up

Jan 3, 2012, 16:46

Veterator

You mean the posted speed limits? Do they have signs next to the chests that say you can only loot them x many times an hour/day?

44.

Re: Star Wars: The Old Republic Bans Follow-up

Jan 3, 2012, 16:45

Rossafur

Krovven wrote on Jan 3, 2012, 16:34: If you insist on finishing every sentence with "lol", please never post again. Nice fail on detecting Fibrocyte's annoyance with KilrathiAce's use of "lol" and a throw-away comparison to WoW.

43.

Re: Star Wars: The Old Republic Bans Follow-up

Jan 3, 2012, 16:34

Krovven

Fibrocyte wrote on Jan 3, 2012, 16:14: KilrathiAce wrote on Jan 3, 2012, 13:50: This reminds me of WoW... oh wait this game is basically WoW in star wars theme lol. That's right, it's an MMO lol. Thanks for your input lol. Please don't ever post again lol. If you insist on finishing every sentence with "lol", please never post again.

42.

Re: Star Wars: The Old Republic Bans Follow-up

Jan 3, 2012, 16:25

Dades

Fibrocyte wrote on Jan 3, 2012, 16:19: Just play the game as it was intended. This is not a single-player game where you can exploit something and it only impacts you. Some of your actions in an MMO impact others and you should act accordingly. How the game was intended to be played can't even be properly construed by Bioware apparently, let alone asking the user base to figure it out. People have pointed out several easy fixes they could have implemented rather than just throwing out warnings and bans. You can't do that every time someone stumbles onto one of the many unforeseen ways to play the game. It's an MMO and their actions have an impact on many things after all.

41.

Re: Star Wars: The Old Republic Bans Follow-up

Jan 3, 2012, 16:19

Fibrocyte

Warskull wrote on Jan 3, 2012, 15:14: WyldKat wrote on Jan 3, 2012, 14:30: EDIT: Disregard, apparently according to Bioware via Reddit, low-level farming of Ilum is okay. Unless they decide it isn't. They said if a lowbie goes and opens a chest he won't be banned, but if you repeatedly "exploit" the resources you will be. That is even worse, if you cross some moving, arbitrary invisible line, they can temp ban you. Basically, you can open chests and you only get banned if they feel like banning you. Just fix the mechanic, it is so easy. Level limits on the chests, area, scaling the loot to level, ect. This is the worst of the culture that infests MMOs. If you don't play the way people think you should, you are cheating and should be banned. It is like people who try to put arbitrary "no spawn camping" rules in games. Either the supposed spawn camping isn't a problem or the map is crap and no one should play it. How about not doing it if it isn't what you should be doing? If you didn't know (really?) then you'll get a warning. If you do it again, you deserve a ban. This is hardly different than speed limits. You have the option to go over the speed limit even though you shouldn't - but when you do, you're penalized. Or should the government put governors on all our vehicles? Just play the game as it was intended. This is not a single-player game where you can exploit something and it only impacts you. Some of your actions in an MMO impact others and you should act accordingly.

40.

Re: Star Wars: The Old Republic Bans Follow-up

Jan 3, 2012, 16:14

Fibrocyte

KilrathiAce wrote on Jan 3, 2012, 13:50: This reminds me of WoW... oh wait this game is basically WoW in star wars theme lol. That's right, it's an MMO lol. Thanks for your input lol. Please don't ever post again lol.

39.

Re: Star Wars: The Old Republic Bans Follow-up

Jan 3, 2012, 15:56

Matshock

Warskull wrote on Jan 3, 2012, 15:14: WyldKat wrote on Jan 3, 2012, 14:30: EDIT: Disregard, apparently according to Bioware via Reddit, low-level farming of Ilum is okay. Unless they decide it isn't. They said if a lowbie goes and opens a chest he won't be banned, but if you repeatedly "exploit" the resources you will be. That is even worse, if you cross some moving, arbitrary invisible line, they can temp ban you. Basically, you can open chests and you only get banned if they feel like banning you. Just fix the mechanic, it is so easy. Level limits on the chests, area, scaling the loot to level, ect. This is the worst of the culture that infests MMOs. If you don't play the way people think you should, you are cheating and should be banned. It is like people who try to put arbitrary "no spawn camping" rules in games. Either the supposed spawn camping isn't a problem or the map is crap and no one should play it. Yep, devs now acting more like governments than entertainers...good luck with that BW. The next step is to make buying their products mandatory. How about instead of subscription fees they just lobby for a "digital stimulus" tax on the internet? Just sneak it into something like SOPA- no one will notice.

38.

Re: Star Wars: The Old Republic Bans Follow-up

Jan 3, 2012, 15:27

nin

Lorcin wrote on Jan 3, 2012, 15:19:
I saw somebody disappear from the game within 5 minutes of him starting to work around the profanity filter and throwing around racist rants in the general channel of Imperial Fleet.

I thought it was weird he'd gone suddenly quite because he started strong (not just f words, c words and anti-semitic comments) so tried to add him to ignore and the game said he didn't exist.

Impressive response time as it was about 3pm on a European server.

I would suspect they have admins lurking/playing. Be a little surprised if they didn't.




RollinThundr Apr 17, 2013, 12:25: Eh really tossing stuff like that in there only to get your panties all bunched up. If you really want to call that trolling sure. Mr. Tact Apr 17, 2013, 12:33: Pretty sure that's the definition of trolling...

37.

Re: Star Wars: The Old Republic Bans Follow-up

Jan 3, 2012, 15:19

Lorcin

I saw somebody disappear from the game within 5 minutes of him starting to work around the profanity filter and throwing around racist rants in the general channel of Imperial Fleet. I thought it was weird he'd gone suddenly quite because he started strong (not just f words, c words and anti-semitic comments) so tried to add him to ignore and the game said he didn't exist. Impressive response time as it was about 3pm on a European server.

36.

Re: Star Wars: The Old Republic Bans Follow-up

Jan 3, 2012, 15:14

Warskull

WyldKat wrote on Jan 3, 2012, 14:30: EDIT: Disregard, apparently according to Bioware via Reddit, low-level farming of Ilum is okay. Unless they decide it isn't. They said if a lowbie goes and opens a chest he won't be banned, but if you repeatedly "exploit" the resources you will be. That is even worse, if you cross some moving, arbitrary invisible line, they can temp ban you. Basically, you can open chests and you only get banned if they feel like banning you. Just fix the mechanic, it is so easy. Level limits on the chests, area, scaling the loot to level, ect. This is the worst of the culture that infests MMOs. If you don't play the way people think you should, you are cheating and should be banned. It is like people who try to put arbitrary "no spawn camping" rules in games. Either the supposed spawn camping isn't a problem or the map is crap and no one should play it.

35.

Re: Star Wars: The Old Republic Bans Follow-up

Jan 3, 2012, 14:37

TheEmissary

Cutter wrote on Jan 3, 2012, 14:12: Bhruic wrote on Jan 3, 2012, 13:05: While yes, I agree that they should close the loopholes, it's not a simple matter of "oh, fix that". It has to be tested, vetted, and tested again before they can release a patch on live servers. Having people continue to exploit a system in the meantime can be severely unbalancing to a game. Hogwash, sir! It's easily and quickly remedied. Just have a high level mob spawn with the containers and tether them to it. Or just put a minimal level cap on them. Problem solved. That or they can make the crates invisible to players below a certain level range. They could have been locked until you reached a certain level. They could have easily changed the loot nodes so they can't be looted by the same person if they are in the area by randomly placing it somewhere else or put a short debuff on the player so they can't open or see other crates.

34.

Re: Star Wars: The Old Republic Bans Follow-up

Jan 3, 2012, 14:30

WyldKat

EDIT: Disregard, apparently according to Bioware via Reddit, low-level farming of Ilum is okay. This comment was edited on Jan 3, 2012, 14:36.

33.

Re: Star Wars: The Old Republic Bans Follow-up

Jan 3, 2012, 14:21

Cutter

nin wrote on Jan 3, 2012, 14:14:
Or just put a minimal level cap on them.

Or on the zone itself. This is a design issue, not a player issue.

Exactly. If anyone can get to these things and loot them it is most certainly a design issue and one thats so easily fixed its ridiculous to even bring it up. This is just typical of corporate mentality of passing the blame and avoiding taking responsibility. Hell, these players should sue. They'd likely win.




"Peter, breakfast for dinner is anarchy!" - Lois

32.

Re: Star Wars: The Old Republic Bans Follow-up

Jan 3, 2012, 14:14

nin

Or just put a minimal level cap on them.

Or on the zone itself. This is a design issue, not a player issue.




RollinThundr Apr 17, 2013, 12:25: Eh really tossing stuff like that in there only to get your panties all bunched up. If you really want to call that trolling sure. Mr. Tact Apr 17, 2013, 12:33: Pretty sure that's the definition of trolling...

31.

Re: Star Wars: The Old Republic Bans Follow-up

Jan 3, 2012, 14:14

Alamar

KilrathiAce wrote on Jan 3, 2012, 13:50: This reminds me of WoW... oh wait this game is basically WoW in star wars theme lol. But it has space missions that are basically Wing Commander II in a star wars theme lol... -Alamar

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