Breakfast Topic: To bug or not to bug
by Mike Schramm 
Nov 12th 2008 at 8:00AM
We reported last night that some of the PvP gear was being shown as discounted or even free, and players were reportedly flooding the vendors, trying to pick up cheap gear. Of course, we also warned that taking bugged gear could be considered an exploit, even as some veteran players warned that taking free gear could result in a server rollback, suspended accounts, or even banning.Therein lies the question: did you bite? I can see arguments for both sides: maybe you stood your moral ground, said that that gear wasn't really supposed to be free, and didn't try to take advantage of a mistake one of Blizzard's coders made. Or maybe you said, "well, if it's on the live realms, it must be legit," and looted as much of the gear as you could (and maybe you're paying for it, too, either now or later this week).
So what'd you do? This isn't the first time a game-changing exploit has made loot accessible to players when it shouldn't be, so if given a possible exploit in the game, do you grab away and let Blizzard worry about their own mistakes, or do you decide not to take advantage of mistakes Blizzard didn't mean to make and wait for them to fix it while you do things fairly?
Filed under: Items, Analysis / Opinion, Cheats, Odds and ends, Economy, Breakfast topics
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 18)
geof Nov 12th 2008 8:09AM
I wanted to right click then I realized...I can get banned for this can't I?
frank Nov 12th 2008 8:07AM
Hey my first time being first!
Oh I definantly grabbed it. I'm just sad I don't get to keep it. My alt warlock went from all blues to full seaosn 2 =)
Angry Joe Nov 12th 2008 11:22AM
Fail.
Mooshoe Nov 12th 2008 8:06AM
You know that 99 times out of 100 that Blizz will correct the mistakes they've made. Be it in favor of the player or not. Some people who may have not played the game as long as I have may not know any better and loot to their hearts content...others who have played forever know this was a Blizz screw up and wouldn't have touched it.
hENNIFER pANTALON Nov 12th 2008 9:04AM
It's just made more work for their technicians.
I mean, sure, who's gonna pass up free epics? But honestly- did they really think this would stick?
People got them because they hoped there might be a chance to hold onto them. They were wrong, and now WotLK is being pushed back 3 hours ;)
Although the bugs and the fixes that come would need to be addressed, I'm sure parsing the logs to find out who got one to create a rollback script is a pain in the ass ;)
GG Blizz, see you.. Thursday.. Friday.. Saturday.. Sunday.. one of these days, whenever WotLK hits Live realms ;)
bumble Nov 12th 2008 9:07AM
Since the "free Mojo" bug where I abstained from exploiting yet everyone else got to keep the pet I adopted a "grab all you can" stance.
Naix Nov 12th 2008 9:42AM
Blizzard is a smart company whose main goal is balance in a game. Don't think for a second Blizzard will not go back and review who got what from the pvp gear vendors and remove your exploited epics. Heck Blizzard could even put a 3 day ban on your account. How bad would that suck to not be able to play a game we have been waiting on for months?
Nothing is ever free.
Wotar Nov 12th 2008 9:53AM
It's Blizzard making up for the lovely server downtime :]
joggoms Nov 12th 2008 10:06AM
It's not an exploit, it's a bug. I grabbed all the free gear I could simply because I didn't know if they would let it stand or not.
If I decided NOT to take it and they let the players who did take it keep it, I would have felt like a dummy. So I took it, and they can take it away if they like, I really don't care. I didn't even equip any of it.
I think it would have been easier to just let it all go free, who cares as we are headed to Northrend anyway. That could have saved us more downtime.
And for the morons who think they will ban people- are you aware that they want to sell expansions tomorrow?
Naix Nov 12th 2008 10:13AM
"And for the morons who think they will ban people- are you aware that they want to sell expansions tomorrow?"
I seriously doubt that Blizzard is betting the farm on a few banned accounts not buying the expansion. With 11 million account world wide I am sure it would not put a dent in their profit margin.
So what's your excuse for stealing again?
Damntheman Nov 12th 2008 10:31AM
Not the first, remember the shaman bug on, what was it T5?
shakennotstirred Nov 12th 2008 10:33AM
I seriously doubt that there will be banning or anything like that going on. The gear that most people looted is going to be moot by tonight. As a Warrior, there wasn't anything for free that really benefitted me anyways...
Ardwyad Nov 12th 2008 11:01AM
I thought it was some kind of giveaway for people who hadn't had a chance to gear up.
Fortunately nothing in there that I could afford was even close to an upgrade for me.
Qaen Nov 12th 2008 11:13AM
How can you "steal" from a video game?
Naix Nov 12th 2008 12:20PM
"How can you "steal" from a video game?"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theft
By definition stealing is taking something that is not yours or has not been earned. (theft by deception)
Bootsanator Nov 12th 2008 12:38PM
/agree with Naix
I want a mojo and don't have one, so, why not grab a pvp ring and neck that are almost identical to the ones i have, and that i won't need in about a day when I get an upgrade from a northrend dungeon :P
Qaen Nov 12th 2008 12:52PM
Isn't the idea of "property" in a virtual environment fictitious, by definition? When the information that these "objects" are built of exists in your hard drive, and is merely ratified by the central server -- are you really "stealing"?
Even a child distinguishes between what is 'actually' wrong and what is what is make-believe.
Is there a moral distinction to be made between what is real and what is a fantasy?
Riondi Nov 12th 2008 12:55PM
GIEF POLAR BEAR NOMNOM
Qaen Nov 12th 2008 1:00PM
(and for the record, if you had written "cheating", I wouldn't have an issue with your statement)
Naix Nov 12th 2008 2:51PM
"Isn't the idea of "property" in a virtual environment fictitious, by definition?"
Well why not just hack into a bank and electronically transfer funds from someone else into your account then? After all the "property" in this virtual environment is fictitious, by definition.
When the funds that these number are built of exists in your hard drive from your web browser, and is merely ratified by the central server -- you ARE really "stealing".
If Blizzard did not consider this an exploit "stealing" then why did they take back what was not yours? Even a child can understand that.
The lines between what is digital and what is real have been wiped away in the digital age.