ArenaNet Suspends Digital Sales of Guild Wars 2 233
kungfugleek writes "Throughout the launch of subscription-free MMO Guild Wars 2, ArenaNet has stated that the player-experience is their top priority and, if necessary, they would suspend digital sales to protect their servers from crushing loads. While the launch has been considerably more stable than most big-budget MMO's in recent months, some players, especially those in Europe, have experienced trouble logging in and getting booted from servers. So yesterday, ArenaNet held true to their word, and temporarily suspended digital sales from their website. Personally, I think this is an incredible show of customer-centered focus. To turn down purchases, especially first-party purchases, where the seller gets a higher percentage of the sale, during a major title's first week of sales, would be inconceivable by other companies. Is this a bad move for ArenaNet? Will there be enough of a long-term payout to make up for the lost sales? And does this put pressure on other major studios to follow suit in the face of overwhelming customer response?"
New submitter charlieman writes with related news: "Yesterday ArenaNet banned players for exploiting an error in their new game Guild Wars 2. The so called exploit was in fact an error on ArenaNet's side, leaving weapons at a low price from some vendors. Players saw this and started making profits buying and selling the items.
Should players be penalized for errors committed by the game developers? Taking in account that the game is fairly new, the economy hasn't stabilized yet and most don't know the value of things. Today they've given these players a 'second chance', but shouldn't they be apologizing instead?"
Apologies? Nah... (Score:4, Insightful)
Virtual Reality mirrors Reality (Score:4, Insightful)
Exploiting errors (Score:5, Insightful)
As a general statement, of course not. But these players *should* be penalized for knowingly exploiting those errors for profit - that goes against the spirit of the game, and lowers the general quality of play, things that should be greatly frowned upon when done intentionally.
"Banned for exploiting" isn't a good reason? (Score:5, Insightful)
And I suppose being arrested for receiving stolen goods after taking advantage of a shady boot sale is also terribly unfair?
There's this little voice in your head that says "this is too good to be legal," and you're supposed to listen to it.
If you're a gamer and you found a way to make the game do something it clearly shouldn't let you do (i.e., teleport across the battlefield, buy high-end gear at unreasonably low prices, disconnect other players, etc.), you're exploiting. Period. And if you keep doing it, you're knowingly and intentionally exploiting. And a lifetime ban is simply the kindest thing you deserve.
Contrary to popular opinion, "whatever you can get away with" is not a valid ethical choice, and if you get busted, whining about it just looks douchbaggish and immature.
Why is it ArenaNet's fault? (Score:5, Insightful)
I've heard this shit several times that if the developer doesn't produce magical bug-free code then dickheads have every right to exploit the shit out of the bug and ruin the game for everyone else as it's the 'fault of the devs' for 'letting them do it'. I've seen other MMO economies trashed by such stupidity on the part of the players and so at the very least temp bans should be handed out to discourage such retards from wrecking other people's enjoyment.
Some important missing details (Score:5, Insightful)
About sales: the game is still available in box form from game stores and online (such as Amazon). The digital sale stop was not meant to completely stop incoming player population, just to slow it down.
Furthermore on this topic, ArenaNet has been trying to keep the number of servers low so they don't end up with a lot of empty servers when the initial hype dies down. Though, due to player and guild names being globally unique, doing server merges are much easier compared to other games.
About bans: ArenaNet is banning for exploiting because they want to send a very clear message that exploiting design errors will not be tolerated. If something seems too good to be true, it probably is and shouldn't be taken advantage of. There was an item for that that was selling for a fraction of its expected cost, so some people bought hundreds (or thousands) of that item to be used for other purposes (crafting and mystic forge). ArenaNet banned those player. People that did around 50-100 purchases just got a 3 day suspension.
To add, people that were banned are being given the option to submit a customer service ticket and have their account unbanned and converted to a 72-hour suspension instead. They must also promise to delete any items or money they gained through the exploit. This was done as it was the first exploit found in the game.
ArenaNet is doing all this to send a very clear message on how they expect their players to behave, and I'm happy they are.
Re:Virtual Reality mirrors Reality (Score:4, Insightful)
Though i agree the game is rigged against the common trader, that's not what happened in the recent case where misconfigured HFT algo blew $440 million in 45 minutes. They had to eat their losses.
Re:Some important missing details (Score:5, Insightful)
Reading what ArenaNet have done has made me very pleased that I bought the game. I've seen MMOs destroyed because exploiters and cheats were allowed free reign. The devs didn't seem to understand that if you tolerate the dickhead players then decent players leave. This then leaves a game full of arseholes that no-one new would ever stick around in. When the arseholes get bored and head off to destroy another game, the original game dies. ArenaNet clearly don't want this to happen and I personally think it's great.
Re:Exploiting errors (Score:4, Insightful)
What planet do you live on? You'll be waiting a long time if you think you're ever going to live in a world where people will just do the right thing out of principle.
It was Areanet's mistake. Of course people took advantage of it, and you really can't punish them for it.
Obviously, you can.
Re:Virtual Reality mirrors Reality (Score:5, Insightful)
This is more akin to a bug in an ATM causing it to give you free money. It may be the fault of the bank but it's theft for you to exploit it and if you do get caught then you will be punished.
Re:Some important missing details (Score:2, Insightful)
About bans: ArenaNet is banning for exploiting because they want to send a very clear message that exploiting design errors will not be tolerated. If something seems too good to be true, it probably is and shouldn't be taken advantage of.
To me, the legitimacy of the bans falls on the answer to one question: did ArenaNet make all players aware that the exploit existed, or did they just ban the people who found it incidentally?
If the former, than I totally understand the ban; "Hey guys, there's a problem with this particular game mechanic, don't exploit it or we'll ban your ass." == fair enough.
If the latter, than it's utter bullshit. It's not the gamer's fault that the game had such a major flaw, and if ArenaNet never told them "hey, that's an exploit, don't do it" prior to the bans, then ArenaNet is quite obviously the one in the wrong. If this is the case, it would be as though Wal-Mart accidentally dropped the price of Avatar to $1, then had everyone who purchased said movie at said price arrested for theft (there's a term for that kind of con, though the specifics escape me at the moment).
ArenaNet is doing all this to send a very clear message on how they expect their players to behave, and I'm happy they are.
Again assuming they didn't announce the existence of the flaw prior to initiating bans, what message is that? "Take advantage of a seemingly legit game mechanic that we later discover/decide is not legit, and we'll block you from using the product you paid for?"
Re:Exploiting errors (Score:4, Insightful)
Why not? It's their server. They can do what they like. Should they allow their game to be ruined by the actions of stupid players. It's happened so many times in other games. If exploiters get banned early and often then that discourages other exploiters and keeps the game fair and the economy healthy.
Unexpected boon (Score:5, Insightful)
I know I didn't anticipate it, but one of the unforseen benefits of a "no monthly fee" game is that they can do this - flat-out BAN players who exploit the game, or who ignore repeated warnings.
Anet has made a significant effort to warn people about names like Penishead or FloppyTitLover as inappropriate, giving them 72 hours to think about it when they don't change.
And they've aggressively suspended accounts for people shouting 'faggot' over general chat.
Now they flat-out ban people that are obviously exploiting the game.
I don't care if it's dull as checkers, I'm going to buy their next expansion just to show me support for this behavior.
What I find particularly pathetic is that people are having so much trouble over this. "But there's no stated POLICY that I couldn't name my toon 'D1cksm0ker'!" and
"They didn't rez me, so I got angry and called them a faggot on chat, so what, free speech!"
If you sincerely have trouble understanding appropriate conduct and inappropriate conduct in these obvious circumstances, either your parents failed or you're starting to believe the internet libertarian lawyer brigade who assert that if it isn't specifically prohibited, it's practically mandatory.
Personally, I prefer a world in which there ARE social norms like saying please and thank you, and not calling someone a "cocksucker" just because they play better than I do in pvp. I don't find the behavior boundaries that hard to conform to, nor do most people.
Re:busted... (Score:4, Insightful)
no they fix problems and punish people who abuse an obvious flaw.
Re:busted... (Score:4, Insightful)
So if I exploit bank software and take all you money, it's legal?
How about exploiting a flaw in your router and moving all your data to my machines, is that legal?(Note I said mv not cp)
No, abusing obvious exploits is rude, and it's wrong. Note everything need to be codified into a strict rule book. Welcome to a society, watch you manners and have fun.
Re:Slashdot vs reddit reactions (Score:5, Insightful)
Being an avid reader of both Slashdot and Reddit, I find that it's a maturity thing. There are some immature people here, but the average maturity level of Reddit I'd place far lower than here. People here would be quicker to point out how exploiting the cost of an item could be detrimental and can follow the path of consequence better than Reddit.
Also, Reddit is more easily gamed. The perception that Reddit is not happy with something can easily be just one person with an army of followers (human or programmatic) that are not happy. It's harder to influence mood here because not everyone gets mod points at the same time. It happens a bit, but trolls (in this case, people looking for validation) quickly move on to other forums where it's easier to game the system.
Re:Exploiting errors (Score:5, Insightful)
Arenanet.
As I understand it, you had to buy "a significant number" of these things before you got banned. I'm not sure what it was, but it was established that if you bought 50 (which goes far beyond the normal use case of maybe 5, if you got one of each weapon type for your class) you got a 3-day suspension.
Apparently people were buying thousands, vendor trashing them, and using the gold to buy Gems (Real-Money credits). Personally, that's why I think Anet is being as harsh as they are. They're screwing with the Real Money shop.
Re:Apologies? Nah... (Score:5, Insightful)
Had I been playing this ArenaNet game I would have thought that was the case.
Uh. No. This is not Wing Commander privateer where iron is bought low on a mining asteroid and generates a modest profit when resold at a refinery world.
This is more on par with buying iron low at the mining asteroid, selling it for a modest profit at the refinery, then noticing the refiner is listing the raw iron you just sold it for half what you paid at the asteroid. So you buy it all back, and then notice the refinery will pay you their original purchase price to buy it all back... so you sell it back to them at enourmous profit without any travel or risk at all.
Then you see they are again selling it a fraction of the price you just sold it to them... so you stand there and repeat until you are wealthy enough to buy the refining world outright. Meanwhile telling yourself that there was nothing wrong with this because buying low and selling high and being a trader is a legitimate mechanic.