In the sand park MMO ArcheAge, the exploits have now been confirmed by the officials. The Korean developers are working on a solution, the marketplace will reopen, Apex remains disabled, and Trion Worlds is managing damage control.
The Apex exploit turned a 10-euro item into a barrel of credits that never runs out
The servers were down twice to implement bug fixes aimed at addressing the two now confirmed exploits, which we reported on yesterday. The “free trial and return if not satisfied” for the chests seems to be under control. However, the “Apex exploit” appears to have been a serious problem and not just a hoax on YouTube. With this exploit, players could redeem an “Apex” item, which can be purchased for real money and grants in-game currency credits, indefinitely without it disappearing. Some kind of “cornucopia” or “feed me, Seymour”.
Therefore, for now, the option to redeem “APEX” for credits is still disabled. The Korean developers from XLGames are working on a solution to the problem.
Trion Worlds wants to limit the damage
While XLGames is taking care of that, the publisher Trion Worlds team is working on taking away the advantages from players who exploited. They are also issuing at least 24-hour bans against exploiters. Players who have become part of such a “scam” without wrongdoing themselves shouldn’t be disadvantaged.
Aside from APEX, the in-game shop seems to be active again, and it’s still the same as before: Some hoped that the “Flashy Racing Kits” would disappear from the game (those are the ones with the lightning trees). However, this is probably not something that Trion Worlds can handle alone without XLGames’ help, so we likely have to wait until the box disappears from the regular rotation.
Mein MMO believes: A sandbox game thrives among other things on its in-game economy and the rivalry among players. Within these parameters, anything goes. That’s what makes it exciting. Cheating, deceiving, backstabbing, extortion – everything between players is allowed and desired in a sandbox.
But: It is important for players to have trust in the system, that no one gains advantages through exploits or bugs. This has now happened. Now they can only hope that Trion Worlds will remove these advantages again. Since there will be no rollback (a kind of wipe), players have to trust the publisher’s word that all advantages will be removed and that “honest players” have not suffered any disadvantages. This is an unfortunate situation, especially because the rivalry and competition in a sandbox make players suspicious of each other; no one wants to be the fool sitting empty-handed while others walk away with pockets full of credits.
In the coming days, the next act of the “exploit” drama will likely begin: Players will be banned and swear up and down that they have been wrongly punished. It feels a bit like we’ve experienced all this before.
