ArenaNet Suspends Digital Sales of Guild Wars 2

kungfugleek writes "Throughout the launch of subscription-free MMO Guild Wars 2, ArenaNet has stated that the player-experience is their top priority and, if necessary, they would suspend digital sales to protect their servers from crushing loads. While the launch has been considerably more stable than most big-budget MMO's in recent months, some players, especially those in Europe, have experienced trouble logging in and getting booted from servers. So yesterday, ArenaNet held true to their word, and temporarily suspended digital sales from their website. Personally, I think this is an incredible show of customer-centered focus. To turn down purchases, especially first-party purchases, where the seller gets a higher percentage of the sale, during a major title's first week of sales, would be inconceivable by other companies. Is this a bad move for ArenaNet? Will there be enough of a long-term payout to make up for the lost sales? And does this put pressure on other major studios to follow suit in the face of overwhelming customer response?" New submitter charlieman writes with related news: "Yesterday ArenaNet banned players for exploiting an error in their new game Guild Wars 2. The so called exploit was in fact an error on ArenaNet's side, leaving weapons at a low price from some vendors. Players saw this and started making profits buying and selling the items. Should players be penalized for errors committed by the game developers? Taking in account that the game is fairly new, the economy hasn't stabilized yet and most don't know the value of things. Today they've given these players a 'second chance', but shouldn't they be apologizing instead?"

Comments

"Banned for exploiting" isn't a good reason?

[idontgno]

And I suppose being arrested for receiving stolen goods after taking advantage of a shady boot sale is also terribly unfair?

There's this little voice in your head that says "this is too good to be legal," and you're supposed to listen to it.

If you're a gamer and you found a way to make the game do something it clearly shouldn't let you do (i.e., teleport across the battlefield, buy high-end gear at unreasonably low prices, disconnect other players, etc.), you're exploiting. Period. And if you keep doing it, you're knowingly and intentionally exploiting. And a lifetime ban is simply the kindest thing you deserve.

Contrary to popular opinion, "whatever you can get away with" is not a valid ethical choice, and if you get busted, whining about it just looks douchbaggish and immature.

Seriously?

[OverlordQ]

The so called exploit was in fact an error on ArenaNet's side, leaving weapons at a low price from some vendors. Players saw this and started making profits buying and selling the items. Should players be penalized for errors committed by the game developers?

Sorry, no sympathy. The people who got banned bought *thousands* of weapons. That falls *squarely* in the realm of exploiting game mechanics, it doesn't matter where the fault lies. This comment on Reddit says it best:

There is no hard and fast line saying "this is not a bug, this is".

However, there is a very clear line between "this is a bannable exploit, this is not".

If you are in the gray area just playing the game the way it's meant to be played, even if you do take advantage of a bug once or twice, no one is going to ban you for it. In fact, Arenanet said people had abused it up to 50 times without getting anything.

Now, if you find something that is obviously too good to be true, and run it into the ground, doing it hundreds and thousands of times: your very actions show you KNOW it's a limited time deal that will soon be fixed and you are trying to rack in as much ill-gotten gain as possible out of it. Then you get banned.

Re:Some important missing details

[cyber-vandal]

Reading what ArenaNet have done has made me very pleased that I bought the game. I've seen MMOs destroyed because exploiters and cheats were allowed free reign. The devs didn't seem to understand that if you tolerate the dickhead players then decent players leave. This then leaves a game full of arseholes that no-one new would ever stick around in. When the arseholes get bored and head off to destroy another game, the original game dies. ArenaNet clearly don't want this to happen and I personally think it's great.

Unexpected boon

[argStyopa]

I know I didn't anticipate it, but one of the unforseen benefits of a "no monthly fee" game is that they can do this - flat-out BAN players who exploit the game, or who ignore repeated warnings.

Anet has made a significant effort to warn people about names like Penishead or FloppyTitLover as inappropriate, giving them 72 hours to think about it when they don't change.

And they've aggressively suspended accounts for people shouting 'faggot' over general chat.

Now they flat-out ban people that are obviously exploiting the game.

I don't care if it's dull as checkers, I'm going to buy their next expansion just to show me support for this behavior.

What I find particularly pathetic is that people are having so much trouble over this. "But there's no stated POLICY that I couldn't name my toon 'D1cksm0ker'!" and
"They didn't rez me, so I got angry and called them a faggot on chat, so what, free speech!"
If you sincerely have trouble understanding appropriate conduct and inappropriate conduct in these obvious circumstances, either your parents failed or you're starting to believe the internet libertarian lawyer brigade who assert that if it isn't specifically prohibited, it's practically mandatory.

Personally, I prefer a world in which there ARE social norms like saying please and thank you, and not calling someone a "cocksucker" just because they play better than I do in pvp. I don't find the behavior boundaries that hard to conform to, nor do most people.

Re:Slashdot vs reddit reactions

[nschubach]

Being an avid reader of both Slashdot and Reddit, I find that it's a maturity thing. There are some immature people here, but the average maturity level of Reddit I'd place far lower than here. People here would be quicker to point out how exploiting the cost of an item could be detrimental and can follow the path of consequence better than Reddit.

Also, Reddit is more easily gamed. The perception that Reddit is not happy with something can easily be just one person with an army of followers (human or programmatic) that are not happy. It's harder to influence mood here because not everyone gets mod points at the same time. It happens a bit, but trolls (in this case, people looking for validation) quickly move on to other forums where it's easier to game the system.