The SF-MMO WildStar became the victim of quite a severe trolling incident that stirred up quite a commotion in the fan base.
When WildStar’s head of public relations, Technical Director CRB_Cougar, logged into social media for the first time on Tuesday, the Chua mess was already steaming. Fans were screaming that this was the absolute last straw. This meant the topic “WildStar” was now completely off the table. They wanted to delete their accounts immediately, sell their dearly held plush Rowsdower on eBay, set it on fire, and generally never hear about this “WildStar” thing again.
What happened? A user claimed on Reddit to have discovered a nasty exploit just before the server maintenance. Players could obtain the coveted Ancestor Gems for free! And AMPs too. This was allegedly already common knowledge, and some exploiters had stocked up for 9 months! A tremendous breach in the delicate balance of the game, which set the fans into a frenzy – especially because they felt disadvantaged since they could no longer access the free loot.
And since the servers were down anyway (most likely to fix this exploit!), it couldn’t be verified whether this was true or not, but it was already too late. Even more suspicious was the fact that no one at Carbine admitted that this exploit even existed. It must have been so significant that merely mentioning it was enough to severely damage WildStar. So it had to be kept quiet.
When CRB_Cougar indicated that he would look into it, fans took it as confirmation of the news. Directly, the originator of this uproar contacted Cougar: He had played a prank. A hoax, a falsehood, set loose into the world. Cougar was undeterred and looked into it more closely, and indeed: There was absolutely nothing to it, just a gag to really hit back at the previously mentioned Chua mess on Reddit.
Cougar later explained in a stream that if this had actually happened, they would have done everything possible to reverse the damage. But there was simply nothing to it. And by the way: Anyone who truly discovers and exploits such an exploit in the game will face the full consequences of WildStar. As Cougar explained: “It’s like I open my front door, and there’s a bag full of cash inside, and you can tell from the paint splatters on it that it probably comes from a bank robbery: I close the door and walk backward into the house, but I take nothing from the bag.”
