Token Pull Exploit (3/27/17) *Updated (4/12/17)

fmftint

sza said:

Almost a month and no update. Let's all exploit the exploit to progress our rosters - I mean I still see 'certain' rosters that clearly used this exploit continuing to grow there champ levels even after this annoucement. Oh well...

If you know you're going to get boxed eventually anyway, go big

Ducky

My guess is that they are waiting for the exploit to be fixed and then will mass box all at once so they only have to do it once. At least, this is my hope. 

The rockett

Sorry Ducky. I have no faith what so ever they will box the people we have seen do this. Or they will do the lower end people that nobody heard of.  The ones we have seen, still running out there and that have openly talked about it will not be boxed.  If they do, then I will be amazed.  

Daiches

This is staying embarrassing. There's probably a sale coming up and they want the cheaters to spend there first before acting.

keitterman

Ducky said:

My guess is that they are waiting for the exploit to be fixed and then will mass box all at once so they only have to do it once. At least, this is my hope. 

Well you may want to inform them that by dragging their feet, they are spreading ill-will through the forms, and causing the toxicity of this issue to frustrate the users to where they inadvertatly break the forum code-of-conduct and get sanctioned.

sza said:

Almost a month and no update. Let's all exploit the exploit to progress our rosters - I mean I still see 'certain' rosters that clearly used this exploit continuing to grow there champ levels even after this annoucement. Oh well...

WRIGHT3OUS

They probably found out it's the people who buy using the exploit. 

Stax the Foyer

Ducky said:

My guess is that they are waiting for the exploit to be fixed and then will mass box all at once so they only have to do it once. At least, this is my hope. 

Maybe, but there's really no relationship between the two.  If someone is on a naughty list, they should be dealt with ASAP.  Might even discourage people from exploiting in the interim, until the vulnerability can be patched over.

This is a game where every single tab other than the prologue and DDQ has competitive ranking rewards.  Competitive ranking rewards are so baked into the fabric of this game that DDQ has a leaderboard, just because.  Every day that people continue to play with exploited rosters distorts this competitive playfield.

A month-old post that says that "People are exploiting, and we might even do something about it, maybe," and doesn't have any substantive update, should be viewed by the developers the way it's viewed by the playerbase: as a massive embarrassment.

beyonderbub

keitterman said:

Well you may want to inform them that by dragging their feet, they are spreading ill-will through the forms, 

You may want to rethink on who's actually "spreading that ill-will". I'd lay that solely on the feet on bloodthirsty forumites with their pitchforks out, committed to prolonging this witchhunt with clockwork reminders of inaction to stir up those of us who don't condone the use of the exploit but have moved on, don't care, or trust that necessary actions are being planned and taken.

Impatience and propaganda have been more responsible for breeding toxicity on these forums. Which brings me to question "why?" Are you expecting compensation? Did an exploiter bump you out of top placement? Or are you hoping that a good number of members of top finishing alliances/mega alliances will be rolled back/permabanned/put in their place for your schadenfreude? Do you want to see a list? If list is provided and it doesn't have your nemesis on it, will your bloodlust still be satisfied or will you play Abigail Williams and roll out a few more names for the pyre?

keitterman

beyonderbub said:

You may want to rethink on who's actually "spreading that ill-will". I'd lay that solely on the feet on bloodthirsty forumites with their pitchforks out, committed to prolonging this witchhunt with clockwork reminders of inaction to stir up those of us who don't condone the use of the exploit but have moved on, don't care, or trust that necessary actions are being planned and taken.

Impatience and propaganda have been more responsible for breeding toxicity on these forums. Which brings me to question "why?" Are you expecting compensation? Did an exploiter bump you out of top placement? Or are you hoping that a good number of members of top finishing alliances/mega alliances will be rolled back/permabanned/put in their place for your schadenfreude? Do you want to see a list? If list is provided and it doesn't have your nemesis on it, will your bloodlust still be satisfied or will you play Abigail Williams and roll out a few more names for the pyre?

All anyone's asking for is a statement saying they did something, to be reassured that we're currently playing on a level playing-field. The statement so far has been along the lines of "we reserve the right to make it fair again some day". That's a pretty toxic way to address your player-base that cares enough about the game to make a forum account.

Interesting I haven't seen anyone ask for compensation, nor have I asked for it myself. Why are you attempting to demonize people asking for the game to be made fair again?

beyonderbub

keitterman said:

All anyone's asking for is a statement saying they did something, to be reassured that we're currently playing on a level playing-field. The statement so far has been along the lines of "we reserve the right to make it fair again some day". That's a pretty toxic way to address your player-base that cares enough about the game to make a forum account.

Interesting I haven't seen anyone ask for compensation, nor have I asked for it myself. Why are you attempting to demonize people asking for the game to be made fair again?

There were several statements made if taken at face value that the issue was being addressed and results forthcoming. You interpret it as toxic when it's really innocuous at best. 

The transparent motives of those repetitively taking shots at MPQ in the guise of asking for updates are beyond simply asking for the integrity of the game to be restored. Once is more than enough to get your two cents in. The pattern of repetition insinuates trolling shenanigans more than anything to benefit the entire community. You may want to consider why the prevailing trend in these threads is to scapegoat and demonize the devs. 

I should apolgize to you @keitterman and say the sentiment is not singling you out personally. I unfortunately had answered that one quote and attributed it to Team Anti-Dev.  

fmftint

There's a boss event coming, will participation numbers look better or worse with boxing in the preceeding week?

keitterman

There were several statements made if taken at face value that the issue was being addressed and results forthcoming. You interpret it as toxic when it's really innocuous at best. 

The transparent motives of those repetitively taking shots at MPQ in the guise of asking for updates are beyond simply asking for the integrity of the game to be restored. Once is more than enough to get your two cents in. The pattern of repetition insinuates trolling shenanigans more than anything to benefit the entire community. You may want to consider why the prevailing trend in these threads is to scapegoat and demonize the devs. 

I should apolgize to you @keitterman and say the sentiment is not singling you out personally. I unfortunately had answered that one quote and attributed it to Team Anti-Dev.  

Fair enough, I don't mind being the face of team Anti-Dev on this issue. Notice though, that you chastise such a group for interpretation, and then commit the same infarction against those that are angry in the following paragraph? It's been a month, and "we will do something" has worn out its welcome when the season has changed, and the exploiters are already negatively effecting people's standings in PvP rounds that add to the new season's total. This is a pretty serious issue, and this thread is testimony to a lack of the devs taking it seriously.

beyonderbub

keitterman said:

Fair enough, I don't mind being the face of team Anti-Dev on this issue. Notice though, that you chastise such a group for interpretation, and then commit the same infarction against those that are angry in the following paragraph? It's been a month, and "we will do something" has worn out its welcome when the season has changed, and the exploiters are already negatively effecting people's standings in PvP rounds that add to the new season's total. This is a pretty serious issue, and this thread is testimony to a lack of the devs taking it seriously.

Maybe a lack of patience is something we have in common. A month/a season is just fine for me. Do you have proof of the exploiters taking placement spots? I hope you and anyone suspecting foul play is reporting it. I play in slice 5 scl 8 and don't notice the names changing on the leaderboard. It's the same mega alliances and certain folks consistently. So I don't see it.

Maybe I'm on to something then with the seeking compensation part of my theory. If these cheaters are magically disappeared then everyone's standings move on up. So everyone wants resolution before this season ends. 

keitterman

beyonderbub said:

Maybe a lack of patience is something we have in common. A month/a season is just fine for me. Do you have proof of the exploiters taking placement spots? I hope you and anyone suspecting foul play is reporting it. I play in slice 5 scl 8 and don't notice the names changing on the leaderboard. It's the same mega alliances and certain folks consistently. So I don't see it.

The devs have already confirmed that the exploit exists. They have put out a message on this thread saying they "have the right to" do something about it. They've said that they can already tell who has used it. Why would I a) doubt that it is happening, or b) report anyone for it? The season already changed, in fact there are less than 7 days left in the current one. You can tell by the title of this thread that it has been known 3/27/2017, that's 28 days, or four weeks. 2-3 days shy of a full calendar month. That may seem fine to you, but this is the sort of thing that other online games will hot fix asap.

beyonderbub said:

Maybe I'm on to something then with the seeking compensation part of my theory. If these cheaters are magically disappeared then everyone's standings move on up. So everyone wants resolution before this season ends. 

So you are suggesting that to play PvP without exploiters is a form of compensation?

beyonderbub

keitterman said:

That may seem fine to you, but this is the sort of thing that other online games will hot fix asap. 

So you are suggesting that to play PvP without exploiters is a form of compensation?

Just because there is no announcement of actions taken doesn't mean they aren't doing anything about it. Someone earlier posted about a legit player being boxed and then unboxed, assuming it was in conjunction with this issue. So maybe the exploit has not been closed off yet but they seem to be actively taking action against those they deem have used the exploit. I can wait bc I'm confident they are on it, despite a lack of communication re: the matter. 

What I'm suggesting is that maybe we are already playing pvp currently without exploiters. Maybe you are in the current placement tier you should be in based on your gameplay. People earlier in this thread were stating that they KNOW and are watching these cheaters. If you are still seeing them take top spots, then yes, you should be doing your part to report them. Otherwise, you are just assuming that it's still going on and possibly casting aspersions on legit overachievers. 

LifeofAgony

There are known cheaters/exploiters who have boasted about the fact the exploit exists, have been reported, and are still playing.  And anywhere they wind up on the leaderboard is taking placement since they've broken the terms of service.  

Im sure there are tons of exploiters, but there are several well known who have not been meted with any punishment.  This is where the frustration is bubbling from.

beyonderbub

LifeofAgony said:

There are known cheaters/exploiters who have boasted about the fact the exploit exists, have been reported, and are still playing.  And anywhere they wind up on the leaderboard is taking placement since they've broken the terms of service.  

Im sure there are tons of exploiters, but there are several well known who have not been meted with any punishment.  This is where the frustration is bubbling from.

If you are in the know, I can see where the lack of action on the reported cheaters is firing you up. The rest of us are operating in a vacuum because names and instances have not been brought to light. With that said, I don't believe antagonizing devs into action will bring about the results you want; rather, they'll likely take more time deliberating and find ways to justify keeping these exploiters on board. 

Daiches

And now they unstickied the thread without resolution. Sweeping it under the rug as it were.

and BeyonderBub, yes, those of us that keep pursuing this know of high profile players abusing this. But even without high profile players being among the most rampant exploiters, ANY cheater should be acted upon to maintain any reason to spend.

aviral69

Thread was unstickied

AXP_isme

At the risk of drawing ire from certain people on this thread I find that unsticking this thread without any update seems a bit off to me. I'm not sure it invites people to take advantage of the exploit but it's certainly not a satisfying way for this to disappear from view. 

Personally (and this is just my opinion) I would like to have heard that x number of people had been detected using the exploit and that they had been subject to some punishment (rolling back to before the exploit for instance). Justice is usually meted out in public, and remains a matter of public record, so that it's clear that those who can be proven to have broken the rules or laws are seen to be punished. It helps not only as a deterrent but also helps reinforce the views of the group or society that playing by the rules is the right thing for everyone to do. This way of handling the problem leaves the door open to allegations that not everyone is treated equally, which can't be refuted with the available evidence, and doesn't really have much value as a deterrent. 

Maybe it's just me but when something is my problem and I say "I'm dealing with it, I'll let you know" it usually means I don't have all the answers at that point. I fully expect though to be held to account for how I'm fixing it and for making sure I do it. Maybe there's a good reason why the fix and/or censure can't or shouldn't be discussed here but it has the whiff of being swept under the carpet.