There is a bit of trouble with the sandbox MMORPG Albion Online regarding internal data. How is Sandbox Interactive handling the mini-crisis?
In Albion Online, the economy is fully in the hands of players, making it a delicate topic. What happens when players get wind ahead of time that game balance is about to change, causing market prices to fluctuate?
If someone knows days in advance that an item will become stronger, they can hoard the resources and sell them for huge profits when the patch is released.
A player recently appeared on Reddit saying: We have a developer from Albion Online in our guild. He revealed to us what will be nerfed in the next patch. Additionally, some of our officers have access to a test server, so they already know pre-release information about nerfs and buffs. This gives us an informational advantage. It grants us benefits in Albion Online.
This informational advantage was discussed in the forum, and people felt that it isn’t right for someone to have such advantages.
Albion Online: Not as bad as portrayed, but still a problem
Albion Online has also commented on this. It turns out it’s not as bad as portrayed. The information does not come from employees of Sandbox Interactive. Nor are they “highly confidential, strictly secret information” that is circulating. This just does not happen. Everything is kept under wraps. Employees of the company who play Albion Online privately do so in a way that does not jeopardize the balance.
There is indeed a closed test server where changes are tested. In theory, the testers should keep silence about what is being tested, but there could be potential leaks, they admit.
However, they have never made a secret of these tests. They have existed for a long time, but so far, they have only allowed a few players. That was fine for the beta, but now they want to open it up.
Tests are still supposed to be closed, but more public
In the future, they aim to keep the test server more public. They will announce when they conduct these tests. Anyone can apply. Additionally, they will provide information in the forum about what is being tested and what results came from the tests.
Thus, everyone who wants the informational advantage will have it.
- Ironically, Shroud of the Avatar had the exact same issues a few weeks ago. How they solved it, you can read here: Shroud of the Avatar: Players benefit from insider information
- Our review of Albion Online can be found here: Albion Online Review: Complete Freedom or Endless Grind?
