EVE Devs Admit To Misconduct 122
RidinThoraxes writes "The Escapist has published a complete investigation of what they're calling Jumpgate. The ongoing scandal of dev-backed cheating in the game world is fully explored, complete with a confession from the offending developer, emails from their community managers, and an interview with the enterprising player who uncovered it all."
Several MMOGS cheat (Score:3, Insightful)
If this was seen more in real life (Score:5, Insightful)
All I could think reading this article is I wish people devoted this kind of energy, passion, and dedication to their "Real Lives" (TM). The world would be a much better place...
I mean, these guys quote nuances in the rules (law), expect the developers (gov.) to abide by the law, and strive to make people accountable for their actions. The guy who did it actually took responsibility for what he did!
Re:If this was seen more in real life (Score:3, Insightful)
community (Score:5, Insightful)
as a former AAA MMO programmer... (Score:5, Insightful)
I have to say that I firmly believe that any dev caught tampering with their own game, no matter how small the indiscretion - as long as it is willful and intentional - should be immediately terminated. It's something every dev is tempted to do, but I think it's deeply wrong and hurts the credibility of the whole industry.
With the increasing monetization of MMOs, as well as the real life impact they have for many people, I think the MMO industry should self-regulate with as firm a hand as the gambling industry is supposedly known for. A developer handing out money or favors to his own accounts or friends is not very different from a blackjack dealer helping friends cheat at his table.
I'm sorry if I sound pitiless, but it really seems important to regard these things as important, if we want our customers to have any faith in the credibility of the game.
Re:If this was seen more in real life (Score:5, Insightful)
Weaksauce Confession (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Broken Aspect in Eve (Score:4, Insightful)
Who ever said that cut-throat and capitalistic was fair. You are a bit foolish (a.k.a. middle class) if you believe this.
More info on 0.0 Space (Score:5, Insightful)
- BoB, as mentioned, was two and a half areas in 0.0 space down in the south-west(the top , Querious - see the eve political map) was somewhat contested.
- The new big patch that was a year in the making came out. And it allowed two major changes.
1: Big ships. Before this, the biggest ship you could have was a Battleship. Big, nasty, but not really effective by itself because so many people had them. PvP was pretty well balanced. But they introduced Dreadnaughts and Freighters. These cost 10-20 times the cost of a battleship but allowed you to move cargo around in massive amounts and lay siege to stations.
2: They introduced player controlled and owned stations. Before this, there were often only 2-3 NPC stations in an entire area and that was it. Now, with player-owned stations, you effectively could claim an area for real - as if you really owned it. Of course, the dreadnaughts had the big weapons needed to take on these player built installations.
The jump BoB recieved was huge - it put them always a step or two ahead of everyone else. I really wish I had a map of the game a year ago - there were 5-6 groups in the areas BoB is currently expanding into down south. They had been fighting over the areas for two years, more or less. BoB comes in and in 5-6 months flattens everything. This clearly wasn't possible without DeV help, and we all knew it, but there wasn't any proof at the time.
- Then they released another patch this last fall - 5 months ago. This broke it entirely.
1:They intoduced motherships and carriers. These ships have the ability to do way more damage than anything before them in the right hands AND they can jump from any system to another, bypassing enemy lines. Want to get from the east of the map to the south? Done. What was risky and took time - now you can jump in an entire fleet behind enemy lines with little risk.
BoB, yet again, got a jump on the rest of us by a month or two and it went from 5-6 smaller groups fighting down south to... *BoB*. This combo of patches, knowing exactly what skills to train and have before the patch, plus early access to the ships - they steamrolled over a large section of EvE before we could really react.
In short, being beat to the punch tme after time because a group of players are in bed with the developers takes all the fun out of it - especially when you are *paying* for the privelege of getting beat so badly.
And CCP deletes posts like this routinely. They also delete in-game petitions routinely under the claim that they server got too full - so try submitting again(after the third time in a row - this gets very old)
My take on CCPs response is that they are flat out lying and will run the game like they want - Developers cheating and all. There's nothing illegal about what they are doing, afterall.
For all the insight (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes. I am saying that this is exactly what happens with taxpayer dollars in the Federal Government, the SEC, the stock market, the Federal Reserve, the state governments... And yet we can plainly see how those discussions go.
How can people be so thick-headed?
Re:Game group has policy of breaking the rules (Score:5, Insightful)
The auditors are not as "independent" as you may think. It's the fox guarding the henhouse.
The resulting punishment is just to quiet down the community. There is no intent to punish the developerS responsible. t20 just offered himself up as a scapegoat to get a tongue lashing by the community.
The policy from upstairs is quelch the attention by continuing the deletion of posts and banning of accounts that bring the subject up.
When it blows over they are just going to market the game to boost the subscription base back up.
The problem is that nothing is going to happen internally to any of them so you can stop trying to whine about it. Friends stick together and they treat the community like a cash faucet not as people. They get something from the in game freebies they spawn. So you can continue playing in a game that is rigged with no real oversight or you can go and find someplace else to play and give your monthly checks to. But it really isn't going ot hurt their bottom line much if that is what you are expecting to do.
The way I see it you need to get this thing blogging and in the media. Get someone who has a decent viewerrship (penny-arcade.com) to write this up. Hit a few million readers. Fan the flames until it gets some mainstream press. Pitch it as a chink in the armor of virtual economies so it comes off the recent Second-Life media campaign that just went on. If enough activist comes out about little to no regulation or oversight of these virtual economies they become miniature fiefdoms where the citizenry as little to no chance of fairness.
Oh and I'm not not and insider or anything. I just stayed at a Holiday Inn once.
Re:More info on 0.0 Space (Score:3, Insightful)