The WAH, 6/8/09 - Exploiting the Silence of Developers

[PhoenixRed]

PLEASE READ: Discussion of specifics, or links to exploits are not allowed. Please remember this when discussing this article.

When it comes to MMOs in general, trust is a very large part of the entire experience. People trust that when they login, they will have an experience they desire in the game. They trust that developers will be putting in the appropriate amount of effort to ensure that they have that experience. Hopefully, they also trust that if they don't have that experience, fixes are incoming. From a player to player perspective, there's also a level of trust - between guildmates, to ensure teamwork and communication; between alliances, to encourage organization and work cohesively, and also between players on opposite sides, that a conflict between them works within the parameters of the game.

It's no secret that nothing screws with trust as much as when someone breaks the cycle by creating doubt. A player may wonder why they can't kill an enemy, when they show some kind of curious behavior that doesn't jive with what's expected. Guilds and alliances can begin to mistrust each other when doubt is introduced following decisions and processes outside of the norm. Last, but not least, developers can lose trust from their players when bugfixes aren't introduced or progress isn't made dealing with long standing problems.

In WAR's community, we see exploiting accusations nearly every day. Many of these threads inevitably are a never-ending cycle of "he said, she said". In addition to these, the WAR community has been known to have exposed a couple of major bugs and/or exploits though shared perception, speculation, and even actual evidence. While I refuse to give these exploits any kind of publicity by naming them specifically, I will say that there are a great number of anecdotal accounts out there to make them more than just urban legend.

As most of you know, we interviewed Community Coordinator Andy Belford during one of our podcasts, and when the topic of exploits came up, he reiterated a policy of not recognizing or publicly acknowledging exploits to the community. The Mythic stance is to hotfix or silently patch a particular flaw in the engine on which the exploit is dependent. The publicity of the exploit is minimized, the exploit is fixed, and life continues. I wonder, however, if the silence that Mythic exhibits towards these exploits is just as much, if not more, damaging.

I get why Mythic has the policy they do. It's no secret that the official touch of the developers tends to have huge effects on community perception. To name specifically a particular exploit would be to cause a rush of curiosity and interest that, in the digital age, is almost instantaneously satisfied if you know where to look. The players who hardly touch forums, fansites, and blogs, who would normally not know about an exploit would now be aware of one, and the unscrupulous among them will increase its use. I'm unconvinced, however, that not saying anything about an exploit (and instead indirectly referring to it in a hotfix patch note) is the best way to go. If Mythic is concerned about unneeded publicity, that's fine, but silence has a way of carrying word faster than any kind of direct statement.

It's easy to see how this happens when you look at player perception. With no baseline from the developers, players are forced to speculate, create threads and questions, and even seek the exploit itself to see if it's a myth or not. It's not difficult to see that even if we disallow linking to or discussion of the specifics of exploits, that everyone knows about them, everyone is talking about them, and everyone is wondering what is going to be done about it. Even worse is the uncertainty with which people approach common game problems due to exploits. If a player dies in combat multiple times to the same player or their fort siege is somehow compromised, who's to say that exploits might not have played a part in that? This kind of doubt creates chatter about exploits that, even if a false positive, is still detrimental.

In short, the problem with the "running silent" approach is that it is based upon trust and faith that the exploit will be fixed even if it isn't acknowledged directly. Yet this same trust and faith erodes by virtue of its unspoken, hush-hush treatment.

Open communication and community interaction is supposedly one of Mythic's trademarks among MMO developers. I would implore Mythic to apply this same idea to exploits and addressing perception of them. No specifics need to be said, and full disclosure need not be given. However, something in the form of a general note on the Herald ("we are aware of an exploit brought to our attention by the community, and are working to fix it") would be immensely helpful. I'd also implement a system wherein frequently reported exploits are acknowledged via automatic message to the players. Service providers adopt this model in the case of something not working as intended or down, and Mythic should consider doing the same to reassure its customers.

In the end, this issue really comes back to what I talked about in the introduction to this column - trust. It's no secret that among some players, trust in Mythic to fix problems has decreased over the past few months since release. Class balance and stability fixes are understandably more complex issues, but the addressing of exploits can and should be extremely clear at all times. Mythic needs to control part of the speculation by providing some real context to work from with regards to exploits, cheats, and hacks. This one step will go a long way towards building equity among players. While actions speak louder than words, no words at all can sometimes prove to be the noise that drowns out what your actions are trying to say.

[Mamoth]

Nicely to finally see someone openly making statement about this problem.
Now if we could only get a word from someone involved with Mythic/GOA would be even nicer.

[Rer]

Originally Posted by PhoenixRed

I wonder, however, if the silence that Mythic exhibits towards these exploits is just as much, if not more, damaging.

I'd say it is more damaging, by not letting players know that an issue is being addressed, it creates a sense of well... doubt, as you've put it. This current way of addressing issues leaves players with nothing, we have no idea what is happening... which leads to players taking action into our own hands. We become investigators, searching for evidence (something out of the norm in game), starting accusations (flame threads), and then... things go downhill from there, and fast.

Originally Posted by PhoenixRed

It's not difficult to see that even if we disallow linking to or discussion of the specifics of exploits, that everyone knows about them, everyone is talking about them, and everyone is wondering what is going to be done about it.

Ding ding ding! We have a winnah! Discussion of exploitations/hacks will always go on, whether Mythic likes it or not. As I have stated before, it would look much better if an announcement came from Mythic rather than my guildie.

[Ghoti]

The real issue as I see it when it comes to the topic of exploits lies in the general lack of knowledge or willingness to improve upon that knowledge across the player base. Yes, there are many anecdotal claims of exploiting all across the various forums as well as within the game, however, anecdotal claims provide nothing real. Sure, perception is important, but in most cases, when "evidence" is provided, the issues perceived by the player base are very clearly explained.

With regard to one specific "exploit", we've even had the developers do exactly what you have suggested they do and that's acknowledge it and subsequently "hotifix" it. Recently, we even had the developers step up to explain further that what many players are perceiving as an exploit, is actually an issue with how the combat log displays information. Yet, even with this acknowledgment, subsequent fix and additional clarification, players still insist that something more nefarious is behind their perception. They offer nothing tangible to support their further claims, but still continue to make them.

Why? It's because players are lazy. Most don't want to take the time to learn. They repeatedly find themselves in the same situations over and over, being killed by the same players with the same abilities, yet they aren't willing to look just a little bit deeper to learn what is hitting them, how it works, and find ways to counter. Instead, if they are beaten down, sometimes in a matter of seconds, they immediately assume that the other party is cheating, make unfounded claims, provide no support and demand that developers do something about it. Laziness is the problem.

As stated, with the GCD fiasco, this is exactly what has happened. It has spread like Wildfire and snowballed into a monster. The developers have acknowledged the issue, hotfixed accordingly and also provided a clear explanation. On top of everything else they need to do in this game on a daily basis, they must continue to sort through countless claims without anything from which to work or form a frame of reference due to continuous claims of exploiting from players who are just plain lazy. What else should they do? Should they continue to respond to these baseless claims? How many times must they provide an explanation. When they do, will players listen? They don't seem to be listening now, either to the developers or to other players who have learned, when they encourage them to provide clear evidence of their claims.

When the exploit existed and was being abused by the few players that actually abused it, what kind of announcement would you have had Mythic make? They can't get into detail on the exploit as even more players would no doubt attempt to use it. The only thing they could really say, as you suggest, is "an exploit exists and we are working on a fix". What would that accomplish? Those who cared and those who check the forums already knew about it. Everyone else would remain clueless anyway. What else could they have done and how would it change things?

How is that you are certain that they didn't do exactly what you suggested and more? How do you know that they didn't take the time to research the reports, wading through the vast majority which were indeed not exploits and provided nothing tangible, checking their metrics and then formulate a fix before acknowledging, fixing and then explaining? Is it not possible that they did exactly that? Is is possible that perhaps given limited resource allocation, they did just exactly what they could have done but that it wasn't done in a time frame that players demand which is most often, instant?

You read these posts every day and so do I. We still see countless claims of GCD "abuse", but without anything to reference. When we actually do see a screen shot, in most cases, the player posting it just didn't understand the game. Even in the very rare case that we see evidence of a Scorched Earth firing more than once, it maybe happens 2-3 times, and we've received a developer answer to this question. What else can we do? The community makes attempts to educate players, but when it means that the player is mistaken or misinformed, they simply don't want to accept it. Now, if you were Mythic, how would you address this problem? If your player based doesn't want to learn how to play the game, how abilities work, or listen to other players when they try to set them straight, how are you as a developer supposed to address this short of providing a detailed guide for each player on how to play each class?

The bottom line is that players cannot accept the fact that maybe they aren't the victims of an exploit and that perhaps they are indeed lazy, unwilling to learn about the game. That is the truth. The average player also has the attentions span of a gnat. Have you ever heard the proverb of the Samurai and the Soup? Time is the key ingredient. Sometimes things can't just simply be fixed on demand and sometimes, saying something can be far worse than saying nothing at all, especially if additional tangible information is needed from which to draw a conclusion and formulate a fix. I think we've all seen plenty of examples of this in our lives, let alone within a video game.

[PhoenixRed]

Originally Posted by Ghoti

How is that you are certain that they didn't do exactly what you suggested and more? How do you know that they didn't take the time to research the reports, wading through the vast majority which were indeed not exploits and provided nothing tangible, checking their metrics and then formulate a fix before acknowledging, fixing and then explaining? Is it not possible that they did exactly that? Is is possible that perhaps given limited resource allocation, they did just exactly what they could have done but that it wasn't done in a time frame that players demand which is most often, instant?

Actually, from talking with them in Baltimore, I absolutely do know that they take exploits seriously and are actively working to fix them. But not everyone has the benefit of having the opportunity to get such direct access to the developers. As I stated in the article...

In short, the problem with the "running silent" approach is that it is based upon trust and faith that the exploit will be fixed even if it isn't acknowledged directly. Yet this same trust and faith erodes by virtue of its unspoken, hush-hush treatment.

Your points are well-taken, but they are partially dependent on the trust in the developer. For someone that has less trust, something needs to be done to reassure and make players understand awareness of exploits. It needs to be done in a place everyone can access (the patcher notes, or the Herald) and even if the statement is one of placation, the mere act of it can be extremely helpful. It's no secret that even staunch defenders of Mythic had their faith shaken in light of certain exploits that may or may not continue to exist in the game. It's the "how do you know" part of the statement you make that needs to be eliminated or reduced in the equation of uncertainty we currently have with exploits.

[Kheradruakh]

The stick figure falling backward should have orange hair...Couldn't resist

[PhoenixRed]

Originally Posted by Kheradruakh

The stick figure falling backward should have orange hair...Couldn't resist

Our Media Lead put up a better image. That's what I get for doing stuff I'm not good at (like Googling flavor images).

[Helvetica-WHA]

Originally Posted by PhoenixRed

Our Media Lead put up a better image. That's what I get for doing stuff I'm not good at (like Googling flavor images).

Mwuahahahaha!

Er... I mean...

Yeah... Bad Frank. Shame on you... grr!

[Heavenfall]

Well, right now there are about 50 or so commonly used exploits in the game. A post that says they're aware of an exploit being used is pointless, because if they don't mention what it refers to then noone will know what they're talking about (which of the 50+?) and if they do say what they refer to, then every kid and their mother will hit google and you'll see them doing it 5 minutes later in game. Of course that point is moot as soon as it hits the general boards and you don't have to go looking for them.

In my opinion, the problem will never be communication back to users about exploits (unless it is for more information). The problem with exploits will be to 1) build a structure inside the community to pick up the problems (ie listening) and 2) fixing the exploits before anything else (which won't happen because the codebase is huge and who knows what will happen if... and they have to test... and is it even an exploit... and maybe we have no idea how to fix it... and so on).

I am personally using 3 exploits daily. I used to report most exploits I saw or found, but now I don't bother anymore. Mythic failed in both points I listed above, they don't listen (even using their own report system is pointless) and they don't fix the exploits found quick enough.

Well, there it is.

[Anishen]

It's funny to me how when it came to gold sellers Mythic shouted from the rooftops about their plans to wipe them from the face of the earth - but when it comes to exploiters, they go silently into the night?

[Kheradruakh]

Originally Posted by PhoenixRed

Our Media Lead put up a better image. That's what I get for doing stuff I'm not good at (like Googling flavor images).

Always enjoy your articles Red. Very hard to look at the issues plaguing this game and not write something that comes off as an extended rant. Too bad the image was taken down. I was going to doctor it and have three WPs and a KoTBS catching the BW falling backward. Just to be accurate.

[Helvetica-WHA]

Originally Posted by Kheradruakh

Too bad the image was taken down. I was going to doctor it and have three WPs and a KoTBS catching the BW falling backward. Just to be accurate.

Sadly I am not an illustrator, or else I would love to make your idea become reality D=

[Xae]

Is it an exploit?

Mythic bans for exploits, people used the Global Cooldown "mechanic bypass" and where not banned.

Ergo it isn't an exploit.

[Adamn]

This is a great article Red. I have unfortunately lost my faith in Mythic and i cancelled my account over a month ago.

The issue is with how Mythic has coded this game and this massive exploit just proves that their team just isn't competent enough to build a successful, working MMO.

Its not just the exploits either. there are other problem with this game that i don't need to mention, because we all know what they are, but the one thing that most of the issues with this game have in common is sloppy coding.

If the team in charge of coding this game cant handle the job they are paid to do, then its time to hire a new team. we have given then enough money to produce a game far better than this.

[radishlaw]

I have a few points that I wish to make about this situation.

1. There is always a part of any playerbase that are not well versed in the game enough but make accusations. There is a player on our server that doesn't recognize Cave-In is a DOT. There is another that doesn't know a KOTBS tactic enable it to hit a target multiple times. These people, no matter what devs have said, no matter what others have said, they would always blame their defeat on the game, on others, on the devs. I see absolutely no reason whatever the developers do, they would stop these kind of accusations.

2. There are things that developers can do that reduce the witch hunt, by providing more accurate information, that much I agree. For example, more information from combat logs, accepting video evidence, a graphic on the official site for cheaters banned like those for gold-sellers. In this regard, the Taiwan version have done better than other places - they have publicly stated they are using a certain kind of anti-cheat program, and ban people who seem to be exploiting (in fact they bring it so hard there seems to be many cases of false alarms - but that's not related to this issue). They also responded to issues in interviews or in form of posts in the official forum. I understand the reason they don't want to go further - they just can't afford giving the things any more publicity until they are sure they can deal with it in a complete fashion.

3. As you said, it is a trust issue. As it stands, dissatisfication towards various patches has already created a group of "anti-fanboys", spreading fud towards any and each developers reply. I don't see how devlopers' stand on one aspect - exploiting - would stop these people from pointing out 3 past wrongs for every right Mythic has. This would very unlikely change unless Mythic has extensive progress in other areas.

Due to all the points above, I feel that "more information" just isn't the end-all, be-all answer to this particular problem. As some of the posters above me demonstrates, they no longer have the faith and trust in devlopers. It takes some kind of miracle to change that position, and sadly "more information" doesn't cut it. They need to act - they need to act in a quick manner, they need to bring it onto the exploiting players, close up loopholes, and give a few "public executions" to reinforce their point. But we all know that they simply doesn't work quick enough to counteract this - their resources are limited, and their lump approach to patches doesn't help. To use an anology, it is like a bunch of players defending every BO and keep on the map - every single point is vulnerable, and soon or later they will just lose the whole zone to a zerg.