This honestly is beyond infuriating to me. As a player who has paid, to see someone able to hack their way to things others worked for or paid for, and then have perblue turn around and say “bad bad don’t do it again” is a slap in the face. How many people have had rewards taken from them, or lost diamonds they should have had (which do have a value) because of just this one person. So knowing this is how they handled this one case, which is the one we all know of, what has happened with others I’m sure we don’t. This isn’t just a disgrace for the paying players, but for the f2p also.
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I believe that the players name should be pointes out for three reasons:
1: Perblue will know exactly who they are to be looking at.
2: If a person by that name appears in my server, I will be able to warn my server.
3: People shaming? This whole post is about person shaming. Shaming a cheater and hacker in game. If your conscience can’t handle the name then fine. But he/she isnt on the forums and this would be shameful to thwm if it was regardless of how you wanna put it.
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This type of thing definitely needs to be stopped and whatever exploit that allows a hack absolutely must be plugged and those using it permanently banned.
I agree that we as a community we must be vigilant and report such abuse and unsportspersonlike behaviour as it ruins the enjoyment for many others who are both F2P and those who choose to contribute to supporting the development of this game.
Thanks for sharing @Ludgate
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It doesn’t matter what you believe, people aren’t bringing up the name because it isn’t allowed here, not because we care or don’t care about the player. If you look at the post you will see the OP has already reported the person to PB.
No one said don’t warn your friends, I’m saying you bringing attention and making a post specifically about the person’s name will get this topic locked or deleted.
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Who the player is or their ranking in his guild, arena or col doesn’t matter at all. It is the sense that a player fully confessed to cheating not only the game and it’s developers but his fellow player and is open with how to do it and how others in that very server are more than likely doing the same thing and PB to give him a slap on the wrist is disgraceful.
Any cheater, hacker or abuser of bugs should be punished to the maximum possible extent and should be reported to Apple/Google depending on his device and be permanently banned from both. As I said before anyone who is this shameless and open about their cheating will more than likely have done so on other games.
“Jailbreaking” a device is commonly something done to an electronic device to allow for different 3rd party programs to be ran. Some are benign such as emulating an older game no longer sold or availible on market or allowing some sort of direct capture recording to be done with the device. However it can also lead to malicious programs such as the individual in question is using. I believe depending on the country of residence this can also be charged as some sort of crime along the lines of fraud although I am no legal expert to say so with confidence. The very underwhelming response both in the support and on here has left a bad taste in my mouth personally. I would highly recommend everyone keep on the lookout for other such fraudulent players and report on sight.
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We have not changed our policies about cheating. We do monitor the game data for cheating, and take action against players who we find to be violating the rules.
When we find someone violating the rules, they get a warning for the first offense. I know that’s frustrating when someone is affecting ranking, rewards, and status, but when we created our game policies, we felt that was the best way to go.
For players who continue to cheat after a warning, the punishment does escalate quickly to a permanent ban. Those players have shown they don’t intend to follow the rules, and are toxic to the game experience.
Many people don’t realize the impact their cheating has, and once we give them a warning, they stop cheating, and continue to enjoy playing the game. People make mistakes, and we’d like them to have the opportunity to learn and grow. It would be a shame to lose them as members of the community for a single offense.
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It’s not like they unknowingly cheated… they purposely used a version of the game to gain an advantage. As a player who’s VIP16 and lost my rewards multiple days to someone who knowingly violated the terms of service, this is a complete slap in the face.
You guys have lost a large number of the beta players faith after the handling of this situation. You’ll see it once refunds start rolling in, as I know a number of players who have filed them.
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I hope you guys will learned from this and grow too. Maybe after more refund or review bombing on both store, upper management will notice? What the hell is this answer, it is fine to cheat until we are caught and get a warning?
I mean no offense towards you or anyone in PB when I say this but I find this policy to be entirely counterintuitive. A person who is cheating doesn’t do so accidentaly. The only case where that might be is if someone finds a bug an with said bug does something they shouldn’t have been able to. For instance say someone found a bug similar to the Quorra Bike bug. If they then reported it than that could be considered an accidental advantage.
However this is not an example of this extremely unlikely niche case. This is a guy who went into full detail of the hack, how it worked and then proceeded to offer the tools to use for someone else. Not only is this a cheater this is someone who very well may have developed or distributed said cheats. Also in no other medium who cheating be excused. If someone in the Olympics was found to be using some sort of performance enhancing substance they wouldn’t get a warning and be told, “Hey come back for the next Olympics!”
That sort of thing just doesn’t happen and for good reason. I think your policy should be ammended to a zero tolerance stance. “If found guilty of cheating a permanent ban will be enacted immediately, no questions asked and any monetary resources are hence forfeit for breaking our tems and conditions.”
As it stands @Polaris this exists as a precedent to have cheaters able to abuse the game as their pleased. I understand this may not be your or PB’s intention, but that is how many players, myself included, will view this.
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Hypothetical. We have a segment of the community who is young. They hear about this cool tool that lets you have unlimited energy. Someone in the guild offers to help them get it working. The kid tries it out, and bam. No more game. No warning, just a permanent ban. The kid has never done anything wrong in the game before, and now they’re out for good, losing connection with friend, and missing out on a fun game.
I understand this particular case doesn’t fit into those parameters, but our game policies were created with the entire community in mind. No rules are going to be perfect in every situation, but we have to enforce them the same on all accounts, in order to have a consistent experience.
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Hypothetical. A grown adult is playing this game, trying to play catch up to people who’ve been playing 5 months longer than them. They gets frustrated at their lack of progress despite putting some money into the game. They knowingly research how to cheat and find this same tool. They install it, use it, and abuse it.
Over the course of a month, they fast track their way through arena and coliseum, gaining extra rewards each day. They use those extra rewards, gained at the expense of honest players, to get further ahead.
Once caught, they are told by the game developers “Naughty naughty. Just don’t do that again.”
Meanwhile they continue to profit from their unearned rank.
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I understand the hypothetical and agree with it. Perhaps zero tolerance was a touch harsh. Being all inclusive is something I feel PB and this game in general does do fairly well. However since both sides have conceded that this case in particular is especially heinous, could I ask a favor, on behalf of the community, for this case to be reopened and reevaluated as to this persons punishment and ask that support/developers get in contact with the individual in question and make an attempt to find whatever hack/ who made said hack and make an attempt to shut it down and perhaps if they cooperate they have their account knocked down a whole division on both Col and Arena from say Plat 5 to Gold 5 and keep their account monitored for an unspecified amount of time to see if they indeed stay the course.
Then perhaps in the future have accusations of cheating handled on a case by case basis and look into it to see if it indeed was a child wrapped up in someone elses misguided attempts to cheat the system and see if they will be of assistance of how they got a hold of said tool or in cases like this have them permenantly banned from the game for their actions.
If nothing else we know that this wasn’t an accident like proposed in the hypothetical and in this case where proof was provided in dividends (props to OP for doing so) and was clearly intended and malicious in execution and should be punished accordingly.
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The hypothetical situation used by Polaris doesn’t fit. If I could be allowed to analogize to theft, his hypothetical would be akin to a child stealing candy from a store, whereas this case is more along the lines a willful and intentional theft.
The punishment should fit the crime. This person not only admitted to cheating, but explained how AND encouraged others to do so. They continue to benefit from their illgotten gains.
Meanwhile, a few months ago I had a guild member get their account suspended for a week. At the time, they were a top 5 account on server 1 and had spent a few thousand dollars. They were never given a reason for the suspension, nor an apology, nor any kind of compensation. In that time they lost out on a weeks worth of growth, rewards, and dailies. It’s sad when a developer treats cheaters better than honest players.
We monitor chatter about the game, and are aware of many of the hack and cheats used in the game. We work hard to detect them, and prevent players from using them, but it’s a never-ending battle. As we adjust, cheaters find new ways to cheat.
We don’t suspend people ‘for no reason’. We have policies and procedures that we follow and apply to all accounts that violate the rules. If someone is unclear what they did to violate the rules, support is happy to discuss it with the account owner. We want people to play the game, and randomly banning people doesn’t make sense.
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I think PerBlue is handling this situation in all the right ways! You guys need to understand they are running a business and there are laws to follow! Yes this guy is knowingly cheating but they can’t ban him due to policy! If you don’t have a policy in place then PerBlue would be held to discrimination lawsuits! They can’t assume who the person is and their reason for cheating! There are a ton of people playing this game the last thing they can do in generalize people! These individuals will be warned and flagged and if they cheat again they will be punished properly! For those of you that spent money and didn’t win that’s tough luck and simply a bad investment if you know there are cheaters and are spending just to win rewards that is your gamble! Thank you @Polaris
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@AshMac we don’t need to assume why they cheated. By their own admission they knowingly and willingly violated the TOS.
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@Polaris, I didn’t consider this situation and appreciate you sharing the logic behind the cheating policy. I think in the context of a younger or naive player who fits your situational description, the policy is well thought out and very considerate. Afterall, DH was initially developed and aimed with younger players in mind.
As the game has risen in popularity over the past ~year, an influx of older players / experienced gamers have joined and unfortunately some have developed or found the means to cheat, cheated, and actively tried to convince others to do the same.
Considering this now reported situation and the fact that the intended audience of the game has evolved to include a significant number of experienced gamers, can the initial cheating policy evolve along with the game to address?
As an example, amending the current policy to outline the more severe repercussions for a player that demonstrates intent and comprehension of their reported cheating. This update would ensure both types of cheating (accidental and intentional) are covered.
If those with intent are not addressed, this type of cheater will receive a one-time warning and be allowed to remain in the game using the benefits they did not rightfully earn to compete against those that spent time and/or money. Not to mention, when there is knowledge of their cheating, the result is rampant animosity.
This player may not cheat again after their slap on the wrist, but the damage has been done - they have achieved what they wanted and can continue to play. What repercussions are applied or lessons learned in this situation other than the ability to successfully skirt the rules?
Although I know any update to a policy is rarely able to be applied retroactively to past behavior, my hope is PerBlue will update the cheating policy soon in order to address intentional cheating ongoing.
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Yes and due to that violation they only derseve a warning! For as long as there is a competition there will be a cheater welcome to reality! What you guys are asking PerBlue to do by banning them immediately is unlawful due to an appropriate policy!
According to the TOS, PerBlue can terminate an account for cheating, without warning. They are CHOOSING to let this player get away with it.
“Termination. PerBlue may suspend or terminate Your account or Your use of the Game at any time, without notice, for any reason or for no reason. ”
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@Polaris I initially didn’t think much about your hypothetical story, but then realized, you might be absolutely right. In fact, I think I know exactly what you are referring to, (and forget hypothetical)—Boyz n the Hood. I mean, I get it, say Doughboy doesn’t get arrested for shoplifting but is explained that what he did has consequences. We both know Doughboy probably doesn’t end up in a murdered, but maybe, just maybe Doughboy, instead, gets to go fishing with Tre, gets a better chance at life and passes on some wisdom to the bext generation. So yeah, in a way, perblue has kind of a duty to go out and save Doughboy. (This is where I always break down…that ending…poor Doughboy!)