tbc-classic Bans Going Out for Ogri'la Quest Exploit, Up to 6 Months + Hilarious Hotfix Consequences

[Starym 3,800]

 

We have some significant bans being handed out for the recent exploit of a bugged quest in Burning Crusade Classic, as players are reporting some pretty hefty forced time-off being given out by Blizzard! In addition to that, the attempted quick fix for the bug caused even more confusion.

The quest big itself was pretty simple and VERY obviously an exploit - normally you can get one Unstable Flask of the Beast in order to complete the quest, but due to the bug players could instead get an infinite amount. And of course plenty of players actually took those flasks and then sold them on the Auction House (or to a vendor)!

Elblasc reported receiving a 6 month ban after having taken and sold THOUSANDS of flasks!

Many other players chimed in and listed their suspension length and amount of flasks/gold received (also an important thing to note is that previous infractions might also have affected suspension length):

you sold hundreds didnt u xd i took 9 and had no issues - pm_me_ur_gold_cap ... Made about 10gold... 24 hr ban. - alelock ... Sold for about 200g to vendor and did about 10 filled mails to an alt. Banned til sept 20. - monstertugg ... I made around 200g and got a week ban - Meeha ... Thousands for me, 30 day ban. Were any of you the Shaman on Sulfuras last night? - AfflictedFox

In case you were wondering, the flask vendors for 23 silver, so it was a pretty risky move for not a lot of reward. We don't exactly know how much the Auction House ones were selling for on the various realms, but we did see some go for around 3 gold.

Even more interestingly, the quick/temporary fix to the exploit was a very fast disabling of the method used to obtain the flasks, rendering the quest un-completable - which in turn caused other players to want to get the flasks from the Auction House so they can turn them in for the quest that way BUT the flasks were ALSO changed from BoE to BoP, making them useless for the quest!

 

In any case it's a pretty good lesson to learn in general - if something is clearly broken and you can benefit from it... maybe don't abuse it!

[Rhokdelar 1]

play stupid games, win stupid prizes

[req0 9]

They *filtered* up (Blizzard), not players. It is like in real life - circumventing the law to get benefits. All are doing it. So players did. It is not their fault but developer that they provide gap in their product. 

[Netzwerg 14]

34 minutes ago, req0 said:

They *filtered* up (Blizzard), not players. It is like in real life - circumventing the law to get benefits. All are doing it. So players did. It is not their fault but developer that they provide gap in their product. 

In many jurisdiction in the world, there is a "spirit, not letter of the law" doctrine, where circumventing a law isn't seen too kindly by the judges, and you still get a guilty verdict. 

 

Play stupid games, win stupid prices. If you get a few flasks because the channel doesn't stop, thats normal gameplay. If you take hundreds or thousands of flasks, you are asking for it.

[FelPlagued 13]

25 minutes ago, Netzwerg said:

In many jurisdiction in the world, there is a "spirit, not letter of the law" doctrine, where circumventing a law isn't seen too kindly by the judges, and you still get a guilty verdict. 

 

Play stupid games, win stupid prices. If you get a few flasks because the channel doesn't stop, thats normal gameplay. If you take hundreds or thousands of flasks, you are asking for it.

In most places for example,if an ATM has an error and starts spitting out money, you are required to turn it into the bank and tell them the issue, depending on how the bank is they may pay you as thanks.

But if you took all that money and ran, while yes the money was "given" to you. It was because of fault, and they would take the money back. Also depending on the location you could be hit with a fine, jail time, or just being banned from the bank chain.

 

People are supposed to realize something is wrong and report it, abusing a flaw is usually seen as an evil act.

Its like saying "hey the woman left her money on the counter while she went to the bathroom, it's not my fault I took it!"

Edited September 17, 2021 by FelPlagued

[jinsu2301 273]

1 hour ago, req0 said:

They *filtered* up (Blizzard), not players. It is like in real life - circumventing the law to get benefits. All are doing it. So players did. It is not their fault but developer that they provide gap in their product. 

Abusing that "gap" is against ToS. You signed the contract. If you break the contract, you get suspended.

[Sabejnos 10]

So typical. 

[SidonisAntares 290]

3 hours ago, req0 said:

They *filtered* up (Blizzard), not players. It is like in real life - circumventing the law to get benefits. All are doing it. So players did. It is not their fault but developer that they provide gap in their product. 

 

License Limitations. Blizzard may suspend or revoke your license to use the Platform, or parts, components and/or single features thereof, if you violate, or assist others in violating, the license limitations set forth below. You agree that you will not, in whole or in part or under any circumstances, do the following:

1. Derivative Works: Copy or reproduce (except as provided in Section 1.B.), translate, reverse engineer, derive source code from, modify, disassemble, decompile, or create derivative works based on or related to the Platform.
2. Cheating: Create, use, offer, promote, advertise, make available and/or distribute the following or assist therein:
   1. cheats; i.e. methods not expressly authorized by Blizzard (whether accomplished using hardware, software, a combination thereof, or otherwise), influencing and/or facilitating gameplay, including exploits of any in-game bugs, and thereby granting you and/or any other user an advantage over other players not using such methods;

[Qisapa 12]

1 hour ago, SidonisAntares said:

 

License Limitations. Blizzard may suspend or revoke your license to use the Platform, or parts, components and/or single features thereof, if you violate, or assist others in violating, the license limitations set forth below. You agree that you will not, in whole or in part or under any circumstances, do the following:

1. Derivative Works: Copy or reproduce (except as provided in Section 1.B.), translate, reverse engineer, derive source code from, modify, disassemble, decompile, or create derivative works based on or related to the Platform.
2. Cheating: Create, use, offer, promote, advertise, make available and/or distribute the following or assist therein:
   1. cheats; i.e. methods not expressly authorized by Blizzard (whether accomplished using hardware, software, a combination thereof, or otherwise), influencing and/or facilitating gameplay, including exploits of any in-game bugs, and thereby granting you and/or any other user an advantage over other players not using such methods;

Is there anything about automating gameplay… because I see a lot of bots breaking the tos every day and they are not getting bans…

[req0 9]

6 hours ago, Netzwerg said:

In many jurisdiction in the world, there is a "spirit, not letter of the law" doctrine, where circumventing a law isn't seen too kindly by the judges, and you still get a guilty verdict. 

 

Play stupid games, win stupid prices. If you get a few flasks because the channel doesn't stop, thats normal gameplay. If you take hundreds or thousands of flasks, you are asking for it.

For sure bro =D tell me about companies like G* or Ap* paying taxes as supposed to :). You make me laugh. Thank you! But of course. We are righteous... 

[req0 9]

5 hours ago, jinsu2301 said:

Abusing that "gap" is against ToS. You signed the contract. If you break the contract, you get suspended.

And how about then delivering bad product in terms of law? I guess it's correct. They /spit into your face but you don't care :). 

[ADXE 0]

2 hours ago, Qisapa said:

Is there anything about automating gameplay… because I see a lot of bots breaking the tos every day and they are not getting bans…

They actually do get banned, you just need to report them.  Blizzard does not have a way to Ban every account playing every day, there are millions.  

 

[ADXE 0]

59 minutes ago, req0 said:

And how about then delivering bad product in terms of law? I guess it's correct. They /spit into your face but you don't care :). 

It is actually not a bad product.  Evident by the amount of players and history. 

I'm sure you play for hours each day.  Or do you want to lie to us and tell a different story? 😉  

[Shadehallow 8]

They go for this but not the people OBVIOUSLY botting or the people selling runs for $20? I guess

[Dreamcatcher 66]

1 hour ago, req0 said:

And how about then delivering bad product in terms of law? I guess it's correct. They /spit into your face but you don't care :). 

Then why do you care. Go and play "good product" and leave WoW for us

[Netzwerg 14]

2 hours ago, req0 said:

And how about then delivering bad product in terms of law? I guess it's correct. They /spit into your face but you don't care :). 

A minor flaw in an otherwise intact product is not a faulty product. In fact, for software there are (again, depending on jurisdiction) quite a few things that have to go wrong to label the whole product faulty. Since I'm a software dev, I'm somewhat versed in what does and does not constitute a faulty software product in my jurisdiction. This doesn't. You are paying for access to the game, which you get. In order for any judge to see the product you are getting as faulty, you would need to have far more severe error then one quest being bugged.

If you get 100k$ via wire transfer into your account and don't know where it is coming from, it is *your legal duty* to report it and preserve it (not spend it) and to find out if a mistake has been made. If you spend the money of unkown origin that is theft, even if it was mistakenly wired to you.

I'm sorry that the real world doesn't work as you think. In the real world, people are seen as *responsible adults*. As such, you should know better and realize the quest is bugged. If you pretend you don't know better, well, you get what you ask for.

Tax laws being stupid and not to your liking has no relevance at all. Vote for a different party if the tax laws in your country suck.

 

[SidonisAntares 290]

3 hours ago, Qisapa said:

Is there anything about automating gameplay… because I see a lot of bots breaking the tos every day and they are not getting bans…

They ban in waves, also usually after they have a chance to trace down the mule accounts as well as any players that can be identified as purchasers, because without demand there is no supply.

As far as identifying them goes, the naked eye is always going to be better for the time being at spotting bots than an algorithm, unless the bot software does something they've already learned to reliably detect and identify as such.

[SidonisAntares 290]

2 hours ago, req0 said:

And how about then delivering bad product in terms of law? I guess it's correct. They /spit into your face but you don't care :). 

You're welcome to sue them in any legal district the game is available to play if you think you can win. But if someone could prove that, they already would have and the entire MMO industry would have been forced to reshape things.

Or you could just, you know, cancel your subscription. Speak with your wallet, they're a business first and foremost.

[SidonisAntares 290]

34 minutes ago, Shadehallow said:

They go for this but not the people OBVIOUSLY botting or the people selling runs for $20? I guess

The naked eye is always better at spotting these things, and unless you want them to raise subscription prices under the guise of hiring more human eyes to observe and investigate, report them so that the existing staff that works on this has more intel. 25 million potential reporters according to the most recent earnings call, and it takes five seconds to right click someone, choose cheating, and type in bot.

[jinsu2301 273]

4 hours ago, req0 said:

And how about then delivering bad product in terms of law? I guess it's correct. They /spit into your face but you don't care :). 

if you are not happy with the service, don't pay for it.

[VictorVakaras 83]

With the mass exodus on-going, they really shouldn't be banning anyone. 

[Netzwerg 14]

3 hours ago, VictorVakaras said:

With the mass exodus on-going, they really shouldn't be banning anyone. 

With the mass exodus going on, they really shouldn't care about the quality of the game experience, and let botters and cheaters ruin the economy so that the exodus gets worse. Check.

[Shadehallow 8]

On 9/17/2021 at 1:42 PM, SidonisAntares said:

The naked eye is always better at spotting these things, and unless you want them to raise subscription prices under the guise of hiring more human eyes to observe and investigate, report them so that the existing staff that works on this has more intel. 25 million potential reporters according to the most recent earnings call, and it takes five seconds to right click someone, choose cheating, and type in bot.

It takes significantly more man power and time for an employee to sift through all the reports to verify if a character is botting or if its actually a human though plus there's griefer reports. They could literally have a handful of GMs do the old job they used to do and go into the game where hotspots of bots exist and manually ban the literal trains of them performing the same motions prior to re-entering dungeons.

They've had players and streamers doing the job for them for YEARS and they're not able to capture the majority of them because they refuse to do any "boots on the ground" type of work. *filtered* they could even give what many have been asking for and vest players with pseudo GM status. If they want the work done for free why the half measures? Plenty of games allow for players to have GM status and this would immediately address the bot issue.

The fact of the matter is if players were able to get good chunks of gold in classic it removes the artificial friction the game uses to force higher player interaction time with the game. Blizz has not given half a *filtered* about the ToS when it comes to bots and cheats that increases their bottom line but as soon as a player finds an exploit that aids the gameplay its damn near immediate bans.

[CaperfinWoW 21]

As a beta tester/ptr tester, I can confirm that many of these bugs are indeed found out and reported. This one was in fact quite heavily reported by many testers and talked about in /world chat. Blizz simply chose to ignore this bug even though it was the golden boy of bugs.

Edited September 22, 2021 by CaperfinWoW