TC Bulletin and Policy Change 10/18/09

[GestorterEngel]

It's still one thing to accidentally find an exploit, and go "Oh, this is wrong, let's report it." and never use it again... Then to do what Ashur and his crew did, and abuse it, grief others, and continuously take advantage of it even after reporting... I can understand letting people who come across these help, but there has to be some kind of line to where you've gone overboard on abusing what you shouldn't...

[Kyle]

Originally Posted by GestorterEngel

It's still one thing to accidentally find an exploit, and go "Oh, this is wrong, let's report it." and never use it again... Then to do what Ashur and his crew did, and abuse it, grief others, and continuously take advantage of it even after reporting... I can understand letting people who come across these help, but there has to be some kind of line to where you've gone overboard on abusing what you shouldn't...

Hence the unequivocal and absolute change to the policy. Clarification so we can remove people that abuse it permanently in accordance to the policies.

[mijom]

Originally Posted by Kyle

It is more like an unofficial volunteer position.

Thanks for confirming that Kyle.

I hope the select few will be worth the trust and their word.
There is alot of good the team can come up with for future and for SC. And since it's not Official staff position they don't get of the staff privileges and are closely monitored by staff.

I think you all should calm down bit and just see how it goes before making any conclusions.

[Z Ray]

who cares who has jedi or who has what leet items or a plethora of badges. its a test center, its all going to be wiped many times over.

[five9]

...including ban time, a zero tolerance policy, and then weaseling there way back into the game.... are some still able to play at all?

While many many other players are still chugging out rumors?

They may not have pressed a magic button and unlocked, but speed hacking sure sped the process up a lot faster then those of us who unlocked legit, and those who are still trying.

Originally Posted by Anakis

From a Development perspective, we NEED players to find these exploits and hacks and inform us about them, so that we can code the server to prevent their use in the future live servers, like Thoop said.

We cannot have players being afraid to find and report such things out of fear of being banned/deleted. We all know that once this is live, there will be plenty of those types hacking away and disrupting play on a live server if they can. We need to find and fix these issues before we get there.

We are definitely not giving the green light here for the exploiters to run wild. What we are saying is that you won't be banned, no questions asked, if you perform an exploit on the TC.

How I interpret this policy change is like this. It is okay to perform an exploit on TC as long as:

1. Your actions are not griefing other players.

2. You immediately (and privately) report all details of how you performed the exploit to the appropriate staff and do not tell anyone else about it.

3. You DO NOT continue to perform the exploit on the TC, even after reporting it.

You find it, you report it, you keep quiet about it to your friends and you don't use it again.

Unfortunately, we have had staff members misbehave in the past. If you think that Staff are not watched for these sort of things, you are mistaken.

I fully understand we cant have players afraid to report things out of fear of being banned....

I fully understand this is a touchy topic and there truly cannot be a form of perma banning those who exploit on accident or to test and report.......

But cheating on purpose without reporting it only to "see the light" and turn around and mulipulate a way back in? Thats the cheaters mentality..... the end does not justify the means in those cases.

Its one thing to stumble upon, or test something to see if it can be exploited AND THEN REPORTING IT....

Its another thing to defraud the system with intent.

Purposely digging through the source code with intent, or using 3rd party programs, no matter what the excuse or knowlege gained does not warrant reinstatement...at best let them play when released after thinking over what they have done to alienate themselfs by cheating.


come on does this sound reasonable?

defendent - "excuse me your honor, but, but, this is how I robbed the bank"

judge- " oh great thanks for telling us, this will better the banks security in the future, not only can you return to society, but here keep all the money you stole to"

most games ask the non-cheating community to look for and inform of any cheat programs or exploits and hmmm BAN cheaters...its a well known working way......some even reward those who report 3rd party programs that could be used to exploit a system.

When you let people back for exposing how they cheated so they can regain what they earned because of their greed, you are indeed giving them and others the geen light.



The only thing I'm afraid of is saying stuff and instead of it being took for what it is, in hopes it could shed some light onto things as a devils advocate.......that hardships are seen and I am punished for my words.




where is the Thunderheart of the swgemu?

Where is that someone to hear and stand up for the community reguardless of which side the community and devs take and voice the concerns of the community?


take a poll, you will be surprized of the outcome I am sure

"zero tolerance ???????? "

Im sorry but this has the "good ole boy network" written all over it and is just setting the stage for lost hope in the future.

(now remeber, one has to look outside the box at all angles when approaching a delicate matter such as this, so please dont hold this personaly against me......)

Originally Posted by Kyle

Hence the unequivocal and absolute change to the policy. Clarification so we can remove people that abuse it permanently in accordance to the policies.

I am confussed.... wasnt that the purpose of the zero tolerance in the 1st place?

[Kyle]

Originally Posted by Z Ray

who cares who has jedi or who has what leet items or a plethora of badges. its a test center, its all going to be wiped many times over.

Exactly. And if we can uncover a bunch of exploits this go around, all the better! When things get to suncrusher, there will be an absolute 100% Zero-Tolerance policy, and with this team, hopefully protections in place to stop people in the first place.

[mpv]

Good move dev team, this step was essential prior to any launch of a live server.

/tiphat

[five9]

Originally Posted by Z Ray

who cares who has jedi or who has what leet items or a plethora of badges. its a test center, its all going to be wiped many times over.

your right in a way,

but outside those of us who are playing to test, and reporting things....... there are those who are purposely cheating so they can gain everything that goes against the purpose of being here.......



there was once a saying about how soe failed-

"Players began to leave not because of the changes themselves but because of the enormous pile of bugs and inconsistencies SOE introduced"


I love this game, and appreicate those bringing it back, and I hope the past doesnt come around again.

[nkcm]

Originally Posted by Kyle

If people leave, that is their loss.

Before I "complain" I'd like to say THANK YOU to all the devs for your hard work and allowing me to play a game that I missed since NGE.

With that said and with all due respect, do you work for SOE? I ask this because SOE had a penchant to ignore the community. It appears that some of the staff here have fallen into that same trend.

It's not about having an Exploitation team or change in policy; it's about the questionable character of a member on said team.

[roodypooh]

Originally Posted by Kyle

Exactly. And if we can uncover a bunch of exploits this go around, all the better! When things get to suncrusher, there will be an absolute 100% Zero-Tolerance policy, and with this team, hopefully protections in place to stop people in the first place.

until another buddy or same buddy is caught yet again on SC and the good ole boy higher ups make him yet another member of the team and create another "team" to check this or that and let him off scott free again

[Lazerbrick]

Kyle, do you really think that the benefits that this team provides outweigh the fact that "your" community is once again full of the people that make such a team necessary? Is the project this desperate that your "negotiating with terrorists"?

[Yhor]

Originally Posted by roodypooh

until another buddy or same buddy is caught yet again on SC and the good ole boy higher ups make him yet another member of the team and create another "team" to check this or that and let him off scott free again

I think this sums up many people's concern. It certainly is my point of view.

[MarlonB]

About damn time ...

[Vlada]

This actually makes much more sense.

Though the community and developers don't always see eye to eye, sometimes unpopular measures are needed to ensure further improvement of server security and overall project progress.

[leimrey]

Ok, so you think that certain people are the pioneers of these hacks hahaha these are the henchmen. Do you really think they created these hacks its most likely a simple 3rd party program that works for many games. What good would it do to hire the henchmen that simply downloaded and hit a hotkey?