Whenever a reported exploit appears in the community, it causes a big ripple. Why is something an exploit? How do you know if you’re doing something against the terms of use? Since we’ve had a few exploits appear in the past month, this is a good time to review these issues and how they are dealt with.

Defining Exploits

An exploit is generally defined as something a player does that isn’t allowed by the rules of the game that gives that player some type of advantage or allows the player to do things in they game they shouldn’t be able to. If the exploit makes it possible for one player to have a big advantage over others, the exploit is considered particularly serious.

There is a system defined by the game rules that already makes higher-level characters more powerful than lower-level characters. And players who know the game better than others will have a different type of advantage over those with less experience. This is how the game is supposed to work.

Things that work outside that system are considered unfair to those who don’t work outside the rules. We do our best to ensure these holes don’t exist, but in hundreds of thousands of lines of code, they’re likely to appear. Therefore, we have to work with the Customer Service Representative team do deal with exploits when they come up.

Recognizing Exploits

When a report comes in that a player has received disciplinary action for abusing an exploit, some players worry that they’ll unknowingly use an exploit and be suspended as well. There’s really no reason to worry about this, as it’s a relatively rare occurrence that this happens and, even if it does, it’s relatively easy to remedy the situation.

Probably the most obvious way to know that an exploit exists is if there’s an announcement or message of the day (MOTD) in game stating the fact. We usually do this for a problem that is easy to reproduce, but isn’t obviously an exploit. For example, when one version of the Q-Gun continued to do too much DOT damage, we posted information about it. While a knowledgeable player might have realized the gun was doing an excessive amount of damage, it isn’t expected that players would know it by using it. Therefore, CSRs were instructed to talk to players using the gun only after we posted messaging about the problem.

In other cases, there will be a number of seemingly unrelated things you have to do in order to activate a hole in the system. For example, if you could create an unbreakable Evade Shield by doing a spacebar-jump at a certain point in the activation timer, that would be an exploit. (No, this doesn’t exist in the game, as far as I know.) It’s pretty obvious that the game isn’t supposed to work in this manner, even if there’s never been an announcement about it.

The White Rooms

No, the White Rooms don’t necessarily confer any special advantage to players who find their ways to them. So why do we consider entering one an “exploit”?

There are two reasons. The first is that someone has to break out of the game “grid” in order to access a White Room without the help of a team member. There are many other places a player outside the grid can access that they shouldn’t, so it is considered exploiting for that reason alone.

Second, is that the White Rooms were built for CSR and team use only. If a team member has a use for one, there is an important reason for it. What happens if a player suddenly appears in the room and interrupts what’s going on? Not only could it cause a problem for a CSR attempting to talk to a player, but it could even ruin an in-game event being run by a team member.

When players are found in the White Rooms, a CSR will first warn them and ask them to leave. Ignoring that warning or any CSR or team member warning is against the rules as well. Therefore, you’ll find folks who have been suspended in these situations are those who were asked to leave but ignored the warning.

The terms of use are established to make the game a good experience for everyone playing, not to arbitrarily punish people. If a CSR or team member asks you to do something, there’s a reason for it.

If You Think You’ve Found an Exploit

If you do something in game that results in an unexpected behavior, especially one that gives a combat advantage, you should report it using the /bug command. You can even repeat the actions a few times if you want to get repro steps you can report it. Just don’t continue using it after you’ve figured out it works.

In fact, even if someone is found using an exploit, a single use isn’t enough for more than a warning from a CSR. Even if it’s a widely known abuse, a player will only be suspended for exploiting. Only if someone repeatedly abuses an exploit after being warned, or is abusive to a CSR warning them, can the road lead to longer suspensions or an account ban.

Exploits and Forums

As we’ve stated many times, the forums are not a place to discuss exploits or disciplinary actions. For exploits, revealing the details only leads to more players abusing them and, as a consequence, running into trouble because of it. For that reason, we ask that you don’t discuss the details of a possible exploit and report it to us using the /bug command instead.

Disciplinary actions should be handled between the player and the CSR staff directly. It should be obvious that we don’t want to suspend players unless absolutely necessary. Therefore, players who have been suspended or banned can always go to the Station website and use the tools there to discuss the situation with the CSRs. If there was a mistake, it will be rectified.

Also, you’re generally only going to get one side of the story from someone who has been suspended from the game. This often leads to hard feelings between the community and the CSR team, who are only doing their jobs as laid out by the rules. If someone has been suspended or banned, there was a reason for it and if a mistake was made, it can be rectified by the player.

Everyone here at SOE is working to make sure players enjoy the games they play—that, in the end, is our job.

See you on the other side next week.

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