The MMO Experience

I'm somewhat surprised that someone actually bothered to talk to me, let alone someone that works on a game I've reviewed/play. However Spencer Chi, Producer of Aeria Games & Entertainment responded to a few questions I had about Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine regarding some of my suggestions and complaints.

While it's not a ton of information, I was still pleased with my answers.

I had asked questions about the run speed, explaining it was too slow considering the size of most play areas, and that it needs to be tweaked to some extent. While my answer here wasn't exactly what I wanted to hear, I did get some nice information.

SpencerC -You'll be able to increase your run speed with the Item Mall item, Orb of Speed. If you don't want to spend AP, you can also get to level 20 and get a mount. When you have a mount, you'll travel faster.

Apparently also you can let your mount auto-pilot you where you want to go by clicking on the mini-map, which I thought was kinda nice.

Then of course, I had to ask about the disconnect issues. I know myself and a few others were constantly getting booted, especially if trying to do an instance.

SpencerC - We're working on the disconnects and we almost have it fixed--probably within the next 2-3 days.

Lastly, I had asked about the alt+tab glitch. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, when you alt+tab out of MegaTen while playing in full screen mode you can't go back into the game without it crashing.

SpenserC -As for the alt+tab issue, you're right that playing in windowed mode avoids this. We'll see what we can do about it not exiting in full-screen.

You can view the very brief posts between us here.

As many EVE players probably already know, there is an exploit within the game that has been used on a massive scale. However what many probably don't know is that this exploit has been in the game for about 4 years. Now I won't go into detail on how the exploit is performed. Suffice it to say it has generated well over 3 trillion ISK according to Scrapheap Challenge. While this amount is roughly equal to the amount of ISK traded daily, that's a huge chump of change.

CCP games, the developer for EVE online, has started up an investigation and had meetings with the player elected officials known as the "Council of Stellar Management"(CSM). Some Q/A was released from this meeting and made known to the public. If you wish to read the minutes of the meeting please go here.

It is interesting to note if you read the main points of the discussion CCP isn't ready to whip out the banhammer. While there will be obvious punishments toward those that participated in the exploit, what about the players that purchased the exploited items? With over 35% of the Ferrogel market coming from this exploit, how bad have these players hurt the economy?

According to the 4 banned players(please read the minutes of the meeting if you have no idea what I'm talking about) they reported this exploit years ago and nothing was done about it. While this hasn't been verified, if they are telling the truth should they even be punished? Obviously they have hurt the game to some degree. However if CCP games did NOTHING about it after being told about an exploit, is that not a silent nod to continue said exploit?

Here is a few of the more important questions/answers..

A banned player posting on the unofficial EVE Online forums, Scrapheap Challenge, claimed the exploit had been running for four years. Is four years an accurate timeframe?

CCP's Lead Economist Dr. EyjoG (Dr. Eyjólfur Guðmundsson) stated he's able to confirm that the exploits started in March 2008. The minutes indicate that 'the bulk of it' became operational in May and June of 2008. As to how far back this exploit actually reaches, the minutes state that "CCP is in the process of restoring older data and will mine that data for information over the next two weeks." Furthermore, CCP Games knows that the exploit itself existed before March 2008, but (thus far) hasn't found evidence of players using it until March. (Note: EVE developer CCP Diagoras stated that the exploit was possible, code-wise, from at least February 2007, but until the older data is restored the devs do not have a definitive answer on whether this truly began four years ago.)

If this market manipulation was happening on such a grand scale, why wasn't it detected until now?

Dr. EyjoG said the exploit wasn't used on a grand scale until this year, and thus the economic effects were gradual. Also, not all of the materials gained through the exploit were sold on the open market. Indeed, most of the materials were either used directly for production (manufacturing) or traded outside of the market. He also added that CCP is reviewing how they operate in terms of Quality Assurance, market monitoring and data mining to see if there's more they can do to detect exploits in the game.

How much of EVE's resources were produced through the starbase exploit?

Although the full extent of the damage to EVE Online's economy still isn't known, CCP Diagoras gave a rough estimate of the share of overall production the exploit accounts for: 35% of the Ferrogel market, which was the most exploited material. Other materials were produced with the exploit, but to a lesser extent than Ferrogel.

The forum poster on Scrapheap Challenge claimed the exploit netted between 2.5 and 3 trillion ISK. Is that figure accurate?

CCP is holding off on breaking the exploit down by ISK amount estimates for the various materials, namely to let the market speculation die down, and of course because they don't have the full picture yet themselves. However, Dr. EyjoG believes the exploit did generate a few trillion ISK. He noted that the daily trade in EVE is about 3 trillion ISK, downplaying the views of the impact as being catastrophic, but he reiterates that it is significant.

What impact did this amount of ISK gained through the exploit have on the outcomes of 0.0 warfare?

Dr. EyjoG said this is unknown, and in all probability cannot be estimated.

Which alliances and characters were directly involved, or benefitted from the starbase exploit in some way?

CCP Games, specifically CCP Arkanon, said the company policy is to not release information about a player or a player's account to third parties. As such, there won't be a name-and-shame of the players, corporations, or alliances who knowingly took advantage of the POS exploit. It seems they're aware of the fact that this will not sit well with some of the playerbase.

What guarantees does the playerbase have that the guilty parties were punished, and that innocent parties (those not directly aware of the exploit) are not punished?

This is a tricky issue, and one on which CCP Games is asking for input from the CSM. Essentially, CCP is wondering how far they should go in terms of punishing people who may have unknowingly benefitted from exploit, or otherwise helped the exploiters profit. (Such as those who purchased the materials produced by the exploit.) CCP Games appears to be taking an "innocent until proven guilty" stance on their investigations, rather than issuing blanket banhammers.

Was this truly petitioned by the now-banned player(s) 4 years ago and disregarded all this time?

CCP has not provided a definitive answer on this yet. Dr. EyjoG said they're still trying to verify this. The petition system has changed and CCP apparently outsourced customer support at that time (specifically, with an outsourced email system according to CCP Xhagen), although they are looking through the old databases.

Were CCP employees connected with this exploit in any way?

CCP Arkanon said that there is no indication that a CCP employee was involved, but stated that investigations are ongoing, particularly as they dig deeper and they get a more complete picture of the situation.

Grab something to drink, sit down, and lets discuss this. What should CCP do toward those that simply purchased items from the exploiters? What actions should be taken to try to fix the damaged economy?