Today’s “Mein-MMO asks” tackles a rather unpleasant subaspect of gaming, exploits. When exploits become known in your game, how do you handle it? Do you resolutely distance yourself from any cheating? Do you first weigh the extent of how this error will affect game balance? Or do you plunge right in to gain the same advantages that “the others” have?
What are exploits?
Basically, exploits involve taking advantage of bugs and glitches, allowing players to gain unfair advantages that are not intended by the game developer. Users who exploit game errors are called exploiters.
Especially in online role-playing games and games with competitive elements, the occurrence and exploitation of errors are particularly frustrating, as it can disrupt game balance. The player versus player combat becomes so distorted that one can feel helpless against exploiters and may even have to become one to play the game “on equal terms”. The loot distribution can also be thrown out of whack, undermining the intended design of the developers.
Is it allowed to use exploits?
Just because the vault of a bank is open, it is still not allowed to stuff your pockets with gold, right? At least that’s how game developers see it, which is why it’s usually explicitly stated in the terms of service or conduct rules of a game that exploitation of a known or new problem is prohibited and can result in penalties.
These penalties usually occur in a similar way to penalties for deliberate use of cheats: The ban hammer threatens. Repeatedly exploiting errors can even result in a permanent ban, which is why you should stay away from exploits.
Where do you draw the line with exploits?
Now we want to know from you how you feel about exploits. Is it okay for you to use them if “everyone” is benefiting from it anyway? After all, in today’s internet age, where everything spreads rapidly through YouTube, Facebook, and other forums, such errors cannot be kept small. The more egregious the error, the more it can disrupt game balance, the faster the information spreads across the network.
Even the most sincere players will eventually catch wind of it. How do you deal with exploits?
Ttime says: If you currently type “exploit” into Google, you will be inundated with headlines about The Division. This MMO shooter has been mercilessly plagued by exploits, glitches, and problems over the past few weeks, which is why I want to use it as an example. Even though the developers have managed to resolve numerous exploits under high pressure, dozens continue to grow (Hydra says hello).
Until these teething problems of The Division are overcome, some time will likely still pass. One thing, however, can already be observed in the community: The discontent of the players is growing daily.
The “exploiters” proudly share online what delicious loot they have already received or how dominant they can be in PvP, in the Dark Zone. The decent agents, who resist exploitation, look annoyed and demand penalties or at least compensation. It is clear that this is injustice. And the “good” players vent their anger, as the entire exploit problem is extremely unfair for them.
For my part, I must say that it really bothers me not only as a player but also as an author to have to report on new exploits, glitches, and cheats almost every day. It is not particularly refreshing or varied to write about the community’s discontent almost daily.
By the way, I haven’t benefited from any of these errors so far, because I have no desire to. Honestly. When I turn on the console, I just play happily.
However, opinions on this vary. You can also read time and again that players blame the developers for exploits alone. They have the task of bringing a flawless game to market. If the game allows exploits, one should also be able to make use of them, after all, everyone should be able to play their game as they wish.
However, it should be mentioned that exploits can dampen the enjoyment of many sincere users, which is why a certain consideration and reason should be exercised in online games. It is not without reason that exploitation is prohibited in the conduct rules.
What are your opinions on this?
