[Dev Update] Exploits and Bans – 10 January 2008

Yeh thats it Ebony. no one knows what to trust anymore. but i was one of the 117 and thats how its done, you all can believe what you like, i just think it was wrong for Anet to be so harsh when there are worse things in game

I for one am feeling pretty damn remorseful. Spent ^5000 hrs playing (1/2 of that generally helping people who didn't know much about the game) - spent hmm lets see 4hrs to get a torment shield (ooh pretty) and bang, character with 25, going on 30 max titles shot in the head. I mean -= pretty dumb really as I had more than enough money to just grab one I guess.
Still - i'm pretty philosophical about this sort of thing. It is only a game after all. I'm going to miss the people I played with ofc - but there are other games.

Internet scrabble anyone?

And this is where Anet lied to us and said it was a hack

some pics of it..
http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...php?t=10242159

Look progtes, that is EXACTLY how it is done. no hacking at all no 3rd party tools nothing, you all wanted to know how its done and thats what i did.

get Anet to un fix it and try for yourself

I for one am feeling pretty damn remorseful. Spent ^5000 hrs playing (1/2 of that generally helping people who didn't know much about the game) - spent hmm lets see 4hrs to get a torment shield (ooh pretty) and bang, character with 25, going on 30 max titles shot in the head. I mean -= pretty dumb really as I had more than enough money to just grab one I guess.


*sigh* And yet...your reply is full of regret for losing items, titles and money.
Don't get me wrong, but young man/woman..it takes ALOT of gems to get that pretty shield= ALOT of using of the exploit.

The Fact:
-Anet claims it was a Client side Hack, as read on Gailes News Page
-This Outpost is essential for the Mallyx Quest to work, so cant be removed either.
-The Guild Wars Econemy is totally down the drain.

Now if it indeed was a client side hack and it is impossible to remove this outpost, it is still possible to access this oupost even now. You might have to do a slightly different Hack into the Dat file but since its still there its still possible.

Now what truzo 117 said makes sense in a way, since we had alot of GH glitches, the pre-searing glitch, the take someone anywhere glitch, and now this one. So his explanation does make sense. Now Anet would probably have fixed this gltich in last nights update so its impossible for us to check.

The Conspiracy Theory:
So the question is how could Anet benefit from Banning People. Well they made this Banning pretty public IMO, which is very weird. Plus no one acctually knew about this Glitch before Gaile acctually explained it.
What i think Anet is trying to do, is to try and show us that they acctually care about the ingame Econemy. With alot of negativity coming from the longterm players and the high end section, who have and still are very loyal to the game, even through alot of shit anet has done to them, Anet tried to show the acctually care about them.

Plus if truzo 117 explanation was true, it would have made this exploit no worse than the Slavers Exile taxi, or the "GH Glitch".

Just something to think about

P.S. I am in no way involved in this have an active account, never have completed the Mallyx Quest and dont know anyone of the people who have gotten banned

Ok, so in the end, you're basically saying that the people who did Mallyx this way deserve the same punishment as those exploiting Slavers'? If so, more than 110 people wouldn't be banned right now. Also, i'm pretty sure this wasn't a client hack, and if it was, then they should be banned.

This is exactly like the Slavers' Exile glitch for those who didn't hack it, yet it's being handled completely differently. It's not like I knew how the exploit came to be.

exploiting game holes for personal advantage over honest players = ban. u knew u were risking ban and u got it.

i don't see any space for discussions really.

Yeah I know, odd huh? I always did love a glitch - if anything it shows a little bit about how the game is made and kinda makes you smile that they are there. I can only speak for myself but I didn't go down there to screw everyone over by making 10000000 ectos and selling them for 1g each , but to see a cool glitch and go ooooh. Curiosity killed the cat I guess - but if it wasn't for curiosity, computers, games, mmorpgs and the like probably wouldn't exist in the first place and we wouldn't be having this conversation - we'd be huddled up in animal furs eating raw wooley mammoth for our dinners.

15 gemsets = hmm 10 mins of play per set = 150 minutes? Yeah tons lol.


And everyone knows it's easy to get stuff in guildwars - it doesn't really take much skill to pve esp now they've nerfed the whole game with ursan blessing. All it takes is time. And i'm more worried about losing the relationships with the people i've been playing with over the past 3 years or so.

Consider Slavers Exile glitch to have been a warning. This time the ban hammer swung with force. ANET, and a lot of honest players, are getting disgusted with those who continually use exploits for their own gain.

I'll repeat what I said earlier:
To those who knowingly exploited .... glad you got banned.
To those who were unjustifiably banned .... I hope you get your accounts back.

where oh where has Gaile Gray gone? Oh where, oh where can she beeeeee?

seriously, anet response now please. using a bug in game should not be the players fault. it should be the programmers fault for not having a good enough QC process. and no, i did not get banned, and no, i have never used this exploit or any exploit at all.

Yeah thats what i am saying, but of course only if truzo 117 is acctually saying the truth, which in the end only Anet know now. And the chance of them coming out and saying. We lied and made a mistake .............well we know Anet it aint happening

Just out of curiosity, how do you know the leader was saying the truth about this "Hack theory". I dont mean to sound like an ass or anything, but maybe he was just bragging? And only because "Gaile" said something doesnt mean its truth.

My Computer

Whatever your main drive is (Normally C)

Program Files

Guild Wars

GW.Dat

Tada! Not hard to find. Your GW screenies and templates are saved in the GW folder by default.

I was kinda enjoying myself doing it tbh - due to crummy teams putting me off and the fact that I was mainly concentrating on titles DoA was something in the game I had kinda kept on the back burner to look at later and the novelty factor kicked in.

Also. Alot of people did it, but most not for profit. its really hard to find people who knew about to to even make a team. 117 people out of the tens of thousands that play GW..

most of the pople i know did it just for a Torment wep. thats all i did it for i wouldnt ever buy a Torm wep there ugly and you can only put destroyer weps in your HoM so there pretty pointless.

we were title farmers not people selling gold or anything of that nature.

shure there may be people doing it constant but these people i do not know.

as for proffit.. i actually made a loss.. the cost of the consumables evend out half the price for the mallyx weps which i gave to hero's anyways. i have torm weps in my inventory customised. (but that doesnt matter i got a big fat ban >.<)

Ooooook

We have the word of a person who exploited saying that it was a hack - he may be telling the truth or maybe was just covering so he didn't want to tell how it was done

And Gaile - yeah she's always sooooo accurate.

lolololol

I have been remined of an "exploit" that i could be accused of using a while back when i thought it was an update not a bug introduced through the update so i'm going to drop off my high horse and out of this thread now

You really think that anyone who knew about this actually stood there doing that ? lol thats quite funny, Quite on the contrary, a friend of mine said "Hey matt - come down here and check this out - it's really weird, there's a secret outpost where you can farm mallyx over and over.. now if one of your friends did that, what would you do? Well I don't know what you would do - probably post it on guru or something lol, but I for one went ok - lets see and spent the evening farming it.

Now This glitch is so so small compared to the glitches before this one people are taking elite tomes and monk tomes down into presearing during that guild hall mapping glitch and making alot of money off of that one that allows people to do the impossible by letting them get 2 legendary guardian of ascalon and legendary survivor which was impossible before. And since people are paying nearly 200ectos just to do this you think thats not going to ruin the economy. the Slavers glitch started a down hill for the rares in it so it already screwed up its economy other wise the heirophant greens would be worth alot more. I think thier being harsh on the people that did this anyway because none of it screwed up any of the economy armbraces still cost the same im sure that only 117 out of the 100 of thousands that could farm DOA didnt make a difference anyway because people are still making money off of the biggest glitch in the game and thats the little reconnect copy feature those individuals didnt need any skill or need any party to get their money they just had to disconnect and reconnect and yet there are still people out there that have some 20 to 90 stacks of ecto and their not banned. So why are they being so harsh to these people who actually needed some skill to heal or even needed to play the game to make their money. rather than those that needed none.

Oh so you ONLY did it to get yourself a 100k+ weapon without having to pay for it.

You just admited that you used the exploit for personal gain.
That means you should be banned, no ifs, ands, or buts.

I dont think Gaile herself fully understood the exploit either.



Regardless. Exploiting the game is still bannable.

Where am I pleading innocence? I'm guilty as hell. It's just a shame that it had to end like this - with a blanket ban, when i'm sure there are many people out there playing that do far worse than explore holes in the game.

Why is it my fault? I'm not the one banning people. You banned people all act as if it's my fault, but THINK. You ABUSED exploits. On purpose. You knew it was wrong. Now don't come whining here idiots, you deserved your freaking ban and I sincerely hope it will last forever. And as for one, I took the effort to post it on Guru. If I wouldn't have someone else would have one it in time, but don't think that if it wasn't for me you'd be exploiting happily ever after.

[DUPE] guested me to do a malyx run - what did I know about hacks? Nothing until we got to that outpost. We entered the mission, I made the group fail on purpose (Yes you can do that as a monk), we got kicked out and I reported this whole story on guru. Now it is my fault that this exploit was there and that you are banned? Get a grip.

Gaile's not hired as a programmer, or network admin, or designer. Shes the com rep.

She can only tell us what shes been allowed to say. *shrug*

Personaly i think a gloom shield and a Greater guardian spear look 20x better than torm weps

Also - Para's rock the boat you should all give them more of a fair chance lol

tsk. tsk.
STILL alot of " Why is everyone getting bent outta shape over an exploit that made me moniez!!!11one!" responses from the banned kids.
STILL alot of "Why didn't ANet banzorz the Duncan runners?"
To many not bellying up for their wrong doings!
Your banned. get over it.
ANet (and most of the guru posters here) feel your bans are just.
No need for conspiracy theories.. no need to say "so and so said it was ok to run many many many times."
YOU have a brain, and you forgot to use it.
Greed got you by the nads..and you failed.
/end of story.

i went with friends at first not knowing wth this was at all, but im no angel i stayed with it for a while and it doesnt bother me at all. either i work it out with anet or i get new cds. but prog why are you always so evil about this? super hemroids? im totally sorry but anyone who opens thier mouth has to be wearing flame retardent clothes.
and in the end all you spread were rumors from somone you barely know right? am i wrong at all?

this is a forum not ww2

Don't blame gaile for this, bless her. She's a lovely lady and spends all day trying to help people out left right and centre, and when things go wrong it's always her fault - man i'd hate to have that job.

Nope you did the right thing no doubt about that. What the people are saying is that Anet didnt handle this situation very well.
There is a chance they lied to us about this whole thing, to make them look like the "protectors of the Econemy". The kinda failed at that with the duping since there still people with xxx stacks of armbraces in the game.

If the Exploit was indeed a Hack then like i said no mercy, they deserved a ban. But with Anet covering their stories up alot i kinda doubt it was a hack.

Yeh you cant Blame Gaile for this, i just dont think she was fully clued in that it wasnt a hack or maybe she said that because its a easy answer.

but how Anet ban people for this and not for other things thats just as bad is pretty wrong. its wrong for the player who did this and wrong for anet to blaket ban people like that. both partys are to blame

they just need to kiss n make up =)

So, we got the choice between believing Gaile who is saying it's a hack, and one of the banned people saying it's an exploit. Whichever would we believe? <.<

I'm going to do a wild stab in the dark and believe Gaile this time. For the simple reason that they said it was a hack. No software compagny likes to admit it was a hack of their program, so for them to come forward and say it is one makes me think it really is one, and the GH thing was made up.
The exploit hasn't been around for a long time, and surely someone else had zoned to his GH and back in that time, so if was the way the banned guy says, it'd been known for a longer time by now.

BTW, does it really matter if it's an exploit or a hack?
It's like wacking someone on the head with a baseballbat or a wooden bar and taking his money, doesn't change a thing.
Fact is, the people that got banned abused it for personal gain (minus maybe that one guy that says he only did it once and was tricked, might be true...). Abusing an exploit is a bannable offense by itself. Doing it repeadedly doesn't help your case. Saying "I wasn't doing it for the Tormented weapons" doesn't help you. You still abused it. And now you're paying for it. Though luck.

I know she is helpful, but in all honesty she isnt the right person for the job. She works in the community relations deparment, and when she gives out info it should be accurat and she should at least understand what shes talking about.

Its not Gaile Grays fault she doesnt say when to make a massive ban whos blaming her. From what ive seen their blaming anet and the programmers for not making a ban sooner or letting it stay up in the first place like they said she doesnt know any of the game mechanics shes just the anet rep person. Shes the same as taking a bum off of the street telling em what to say and throwing em out on stage to say it all.

Some of the various Pre-searing map exploits were done by using existing in game mechanics of map travel. This exploit also is about map travel.

I think Anet needs to sit down and double-check all their map travel code.

Anet might have believed that a third party program was used to discover the outpost (since this is outside what they can monitor), rather than being accidental.

but remember...regardless of how it was discovered, exploiting is still ban, mmkay?

My 2 cents, you did the right thing and don't let anyone tell you differently!

They are simply looking for someone else to blame because we, as human beings, don't seem to know how to accept that the only person we can blame for our screw-up are ourselves. Some people need to learn to take resposibilty for their own actions and use that squishy grey matter inside their head!

What would be fair, the people who commited this "crime" to get there accounts back with all the cash items and armour deleted, so they still havbe there account and titles. because this is also making alot of people not want to buy gw2 or any other products to do with Arena net. im not talking just the 117 people who got banned. alot of people only play because there friends do and so on. the top 2 alliances in the game are now half buggerd cos of the banning its not so great..

i think a punishment is in order but not a permo ban

Ok third Option, sit down and think for yourself. If it was a hack its still possible now and people would still be able to profit off it. If it indeed was a hack people will find a different way to hack into it. Since i do believe Anet are clever enough to have tightened the securty in that particular part of the DAT file. But that still doesnt change the fact the exploit is still there.

So your saying anyone who used an exploit should get the ban hammer smacked at them? Assume for 2 min that this Hack theory is false. Do you still think they should ahve gotten banned? If the Hack story was false dont you think it brings this exploit down to the level of the slavers bug? Then why did no one who used the slavers bug get banned?

I have to reply to some of this, I simply cant keep quiet, PLUS im extremely bored, as the time I ussually spend playing guild wars, is now being spent lobbying for my account back, and reading this forum.

First let me tell some people, 2 man, fow, hard mode, ever done it? I have never been in a run when I didnt make 10k. NEver, the runs take about 20 minutes. On a good run I might make 100k. *IE gold r9 perfect chaos axe drop*.. 60k an hour is an estimation of averages. OK Another thing< i farm middle of night, when least ppl are on gw. U might think that doesnt matter, but I have recorded 60% better drop rates on ecto and shards during hours when there are less players on.

About my noobedness. Apparently everyone here thinks everyone who "exploited this" did it knowingly, that its a haxor, et etc. My friend last night, got on his alt account, with no hax whatso ever obtained this town again, then left. took dated screen shots to prove it.

OK! bug fixed a net? lie to me more.

I HONESTLY didnt know it was something not allowed. I had done urgoz/the deep. The towns are very simular. I had done all 4 previous parts to this quest. I had no idea you had to re do them over and over, as the ONLY time I've ever done any of it was this way., and then only to the extent of 1 armbrace, which litterally cost me more than i made.

I miss my account greatly. I loved guild wars. I was unkowingly doing something wrong, and I am punished for it. I am paranoid of even playing my alt, becuase if I buy EOTN or play it, and aquire things, How am i to know it wont get banned in a months time>?

It had been a month since I did this mallyx run. I did perhaps a max total of 25 runs, with only 15 success, IE 1 armbrace, in a 2 month time frame. I thought it was an update to the game, a legit town. I was wrong. I am a noob retard, OK .

I am sorry that I used it, I would help a net to find a culprit if there was one, and I would give up all the gold and green malyx weapons on my account for it back.

does any of this help my case, EULA or no? I doubt it. If they end up banning 1000 ppl, who would care? They get to sell 4 million copies.

My 400Dollars or so isnt crap to them. And neither is my honesty, compasion, in game experiance etc. As I stated before, I probably give away more gold than most ppl make in a day.

I do also perhaps make more gold, (than most) but if you farm PST 2 am to 4 am, FOW and UW hard mode 2 man, you will make 60k an hr average. If u have a brain and dont continual fail.

I agree, maybe I was guilty by idiocy. Its happened to many people before, and I stand up and say, what I did was wrong. IT was wrong of me not to realize it was not legit. It was wrong of me to do it.

That said, When I first got urgoz mapped onmy guild hall/urgoz guy (ranger) I kept that barrage ranger in GH/urgoz map status for a year) I guess I should have reported that to anet as a glitch. surely there cant be some hidden super mission where 12 ppl can go! It cant be legit right? NO I took it as a matter of course in the game, just asi I took THE DEEP, URGOZ, Ebon citedel of mallyx.

I really didnt know. Question me all you want, If my alt doesnt get banned, I will even show you all how to farm UW/fow.

but dont call me a liar any more please. I dont lie. I dont cheat.

Thanks for all the posts. The careing shown by a good portion of the comunity has me hopeful of a repeal of the perm ban on my account. If A net doesnt repeal the ban, I guess World or war craft will have to be my vice, if they do, I look forward to buying the pvp unlocks, and learning a part of the game I dont know anything about.

Thanks to everyone, thanks gaile gray, for confusing us further , and most of all, be honest, fair, and have a fun time in a fun game. Stop flaming ppl who are honest, and calling them hacker/cheater/loosers. Most of us arent. to my guildies and my friends,
Some of you guys did perhaps over farm this. I know we didnt realize it was wrong/bannable, but some of you with your rich ass alts now.. pft. ouch. sry gw community I guess
to the rest of you unfairly banned, I wish us all good luck in getting our accounts back. good honest players, Fun to play with, great people. Thanks for making my guild wars experiance unique, fun, and most of all, un noobish.

special thanks to
" Jz husband. I loved playing with you. if one or the other of us dont get our accounts back, please play wow with me, or some other game. Our friendship isnt GW deep.
to
TAGNE= your a stud. lets pound some WOW ppl and show them what gamings about
Chris, both of you, your great guys, looking forward to COD + wow with ya in the future
the guild leader - Sorry you werent online the last 4 months. we missed ya. hope your not in jail.
azaaarr---- pwnage ftw! if any 2 monks in guild wars were as good as you and I , I never met them. TY for all the good farming.
our chinamen, your awsome, even if the caffien does sometimes go to your head. WOW with us?
I know im leaving a bunch out, but I only want to name ones who named themselves, or who i could think of a clever way to name them without anyone elese knowing who they are.. lol

great great group of gamers, the guild wars communities loss if our bans stick.

To all those who say its not a loss, You dont know us, and wont, so dont judge people. in a few months if you get into something that you dont know is wrong, and get banned for it, you wont have us around to console you.

ALL OTHERS, enjoy the game. Its fun.

To all PRE farmers. Its the real joy of the game. dont let it die ever!!

*lvl 15 in pre warrior ftw!!!*

peace.