Blizzard To Ban Overwatch XP Farmers

[Neverhoodian]

snip

Yeah...the concept of Loot Boxes themselves is something he's weighed in on. He hasn't weighed in on Blizzard banning people for cheating to get more loot boxes. That's the "issue" that you've raised with this topic, and it's completely different from the issue of loot boxes being a form of gambling.

Fair enough. That said, I suspect he wouldn't take Blizzard's side on this either. I could be wrong of course...

For one: I'm pretty sure people using 3rd party programs to cheat is primarily a PC issue, so console players probably don't have to worry about this (as much, I'm fully aware that there are ways to cheat on consoles).

Other than that, you still seem to be ignoring the fact that this is cheating. And most games tend to issue out bans for cheating, regardless of the company that's running the game.

If Valve, masters of the "hands-off" approach to a fault, could solve the issue in an equitable way, surely Blizzard with its large and active dev team could do the same?

Except that everyone already received their warning. Once again: it's not news that Blizzard has a Zero Tolerance Policy against cheating. It was announced when the game launched, and confirmed with the numerous massive ban-waves that Blizzard has rolled out to ban cheaters. Blizzard hasn't done anything other than uphold the rules to their game. If Valve plays by different rules then that's Valve's business.

Suppose you're a casual gamer who just picked OW off the shelf and haven't paid any attention to any news surrounding it, so you haven't heard of the massive cheater ban-waves that Blizzard has rolled out. You take it home, install it, get some cheat programs, and start playing. You still know that you're cheating, and you should still be fully aware that if you get caught you will get punished. Whether or not you're aware that being perma-banned is irrelevant.

Except these aren't third party programs like Steamstats was for TF2. I just used that as an example of how a different developer handled a similar situation in a more equitable way. This on the other hand was part of the recently introduced server browser feature for both PC and consoles.

Blizzard gave players a toolbox with all sorts of customizable features, including the means to create idle servers. They did this knowing full well that people might "take advantage" of it, yet they did it anyway with no warnings or caveats. The way I see it, they have nobody to blame but themselves. Punishing players for using features they knowingly and deliberately put into the game is a dick move.

Furthermore, who the fuck cares? So players find a way to farm loot boxes? For what? Shitty sprays? Skins? It doesn't affect the gameplay or balance in anyway so what difference does it make?

It's still cheating. Blizzard has made it quite clear that they're taking a Zero Tolerance Policy when it comes to cheating. Ergo, regardless of how harmless the cheating is, if you're cheating, you're going to get banned. That's kinda what a "Zero Tolerance Policy" stands for.

I have to echo CritialGaming here. How exactly is this "cheating?" By obtaining cosmetics that have zero impact on gameplay faster? I'm sorry, but how is that hurting other players' enjoyment of the game? Blizzard themselves haven't given a satisfactory answer for this, which indicates to me that this action is solely based on keeping their sweet Loot Box gravy train rolling and nothing else.

 

[TheFinish]

This is literally just Blizzard being mad because people found a way to farm Loot Boxes, which means Blizzard gets less income. And so, even though Loot Boxes only ever give cosmetics (and therefore, do not unbalance the game) and the fact that XP is meaningless (because all going up a level does is give you Loot Boxes), Blizzard went and banned the people doing it as well as changing the way XP works in custom matches. Because doing only the latter was, apparently, not enough. And so, people who were harming no one's play experience get the short end of the stick thanks to Blizzard being mad.

Well done Blizzard, well done.

 

[Maximum Bert]

XP does nothing in this game at least from what I remember so I see no problem with people farming it like this and honestly even if it did then its Blizzards fault for overlooking a pretty obvious loophole in their system.

This doesnt change the balance of the game at all all it means is people can get more crates faster which may have an impact on how many spend money on the terrible things. Just a corporation acting like a big baby over potential loss of revenue on a horrible system they implemented in their game so nothing new.

 

[RJ 17]

The first rule of public programming. ALWAYS assume people will cheat.

Yeah...and Blizzard did...that's kinda the reason they said from the very start "We're taking a Zero Tolerance Policy when it comes to cheating. If you cheat, you will get perma-banned."

In this case, it isn't even cheating. It's just idling. People are not breaking code, they aren't breaking the game, or even abusing mechanics. They are using the custom game maker in every intended way. This just happens to be a custom game where everyone afk's. Not against any rules, or any terms of service, because it isn't exploiting or cheating. It's just a way to farm xp.

It's still an exploit, which is the same as cheating. There's a number of areas that have been found where you can get outside of a map, allowing you to shoot others without getting shot yourself. You're not breaking the game or using a 3rd party program, but you're still intentionally exploiting a flaw in the game to cheat. Ergo: you're a cheater, and subject to being perma-banned.

The same thing could happen in a normal quick game if everyone just stopped playing. This just happens to be a room for it.

Actually it can't, because there is indeed an afk-kicker specifically for that reason. There's a reason this exploit only works in Custom Games.

Or ultimately just remove XP gain from custom games. Because quite frankly, putting a stop to this method, will not stop players from finding ways to make custom games with special ideas to farm exp and boxes.

Well from the sound of things they are removing xp from custom games, so that fixes that problem. As for people who continue to seek out ways to exploit the game - be it via flaws in the game itself or the use of 3rd party programs - they'll just keep getting banned.

Wrapping this back around to the point of this topic: no, this ban-wave wasn't about greed, it was about maintaining the consistency of their Zero Tolerance Policy, which once again states that if you get caught cheating you will be banned.

I have to echo CritialGaming here. How exactly is this "cheating?" By obtaining cosmetics that have zero impact on gameplay faster? I'm sorry, but how is that hurting other players' enjoyment of the game? Blizzard themselves haven't given a satisfactory answer for this, which indicates to me that this action is solely based on keeping their sweet Loot Box gravy train rolling and nothing else.

Jumping to this bit since it ties into the previous bit of your post.

The reason it's cheating is because it's an exploit. Remember Mei getting outside the map on the 3v3 map? Remember Reaper getting into that pillar over Point B in Anubis? If you were found to be intentionally using those exploits, you got banned. As I said to Critical: intentionally taking advantage of flaws in the game itself (i.e. realizing that Blizzard didn't fully think through their new server program in that it would allow for the creation of these idle servers in the first place) is still cheating.

The guy who gets his car stolen because he left it unlocked and running in the driveway may be a god damn moron for doing so, but that doesn't change the fact that someone broke the law when they stole his car.

Look, I'm with you in that I think the Loot Boxes themselves were made purely for greed, and I even concede that a side-effect of this ban-wave does make Blizzard's gravy train on that note more secure since it removes an easy way to farm up the loot boxes. What I disagree with is the notion that this ban-wave was made purely for that reason. In order to say you have a Zero Tolerance Policy against cheating, you must maintain consistency in both implementation and in punishment. By banning anyone that knowingly uses this exploit, they are maintaining that consistency.

 

[shrekfan246]

How exactly is this "cheating?" By obtaining cosmetics that have zero impact on gameplay faster? I'm sorry, but how is that hurting other players' enjoyment of the game? Blizzard themselves haven't given a satisfactory answer for this, which indicates to me that this action is solely based on keeping their sweet Loot Box gravy train rolling and nothing else.

Artificially inflating your level means that you're being grouped up with people in a different bracket of the game, generally speaking. The matchmaking in Overwatch is pretty lenient about level, sure, but the only time I've been matched with, say, double-Prestige people is in Arcade (where matchmaking is basically a free-for-all) or if they're grouped up with someone that they're helping out.

Whether this constitutes "cheating" is, of course, debatable; for my money, I find things such as smurfing to be incredibly obnoxious and unfair to new players, and so the reverse is equally questionable in my eyes. Though I have to admit that I find the elitism inherent in the idea to be objectionable as well--the idea that someone's level corresponds to their ability at the game isn't necessarily true in a game where you don't have a particularly hard time leveling up regardless of win/loss rate.

 

[IceForce]

Not meaning to pick on this post specifically (because lots of people are saying something like this in this thread), but this quote was just simply short and convenient.

Just a corporation acting like a big baby over potential loss of revenue on a horrible system they implemented in their game so nothing new.

I'm not really seeing why so many people think that OW has a "horrible system". Indeed, one of the things that drew me to OW was the fact that the game doesn't shove the end of a vacuum hose in your pocket every time you want to play, and that they don't pull skeevy and scummy tactics like so many other multiplayer shooter games do.

Want to play on our new map we've made? Sorry, but that'll cost you $10. Want to be able to play our new hero? Sorry, but you have to buy this $30 expansion pack to do so.

^These sorts of things are what put me off so so many other games. And when OW was first announced, the devs said they wouldn't be doing any of the above shite, which impressed me quite a bit.

Keeping a global server farm running and maintained (which is horrendously expensive, in case anyone here didn't know) kinda needs a constant revenue stream. And the way OW handles this is - after the initial purchase of the game - you can optionally spend money to get cosmetic items. Or don't, it's up to you.

As far as I'm concerned, that's not a "horrible system", it's a system that should be applauded.

 

[Maximum Bert]

snip

I am not implying there are not worse systems out there because there definitely are the fact they keep it purely cosmetic is actually good it would be far worse if they as you mentioned charged for characters or stages and aggresively pushed that like say Street Fighter 5.

However I still think it is a horrible system simply because of its lottery like nature yes you can eventually pay for exactly what you want with duplicates but not until you have had a shed load of them. You could spend an absolute fortune and not get what you wanted which just preys on people who get sucked in by collecting shit like this. If loot boxes were unable to be bought for real money I would be fine with it I would also cut them more slack if the game was free or/and had a more robust package but it is not instead it offers a barebones package at a premium price that locks cosmetic content behind a roulette wheel hoping that people will spend money to ease its acquirement.

If they want to keep charging for DLC in their game I feel it would be better to just say ok here is all the new stuff for this quarter or whatever you can get loot boxes in game as usual or you can buy it all for 10/20 quid now but they wont because they know they will get more money from the gambling RNG bs system they have now and that they would lose players simply because if they can get it all straightaway they will get no sense of progression and so move on leaving only those who actually like the core gameplay foremost.

I have yet to see any microtransactions in a game that are good this honestly is probably one of the least egregious but the game would still be better without it as far as I am concerned.

 

[IceForce]

.

Fair enough. I will agree that the RNG aspect of the system is one of its faults (possibly it's only fault), but as you say, Blizzard likes it because it generates them more revenue in the long run.

I wish they'd just give us the option to purchase in-game coin with real money, but unfortunately that's highly unlikely to happen.

 

[Orga777]

It is funny that Blizzard is always defended by people when their crappy loot box gambling system is abused. If Blizzard was that stupid when it came to developing such an easy exploit into their system, then they should be the one's kicking themselves and it should not be resulting in such a crass move as banning players for this. It isn't even cheating in this case. This is Blizzard failing in the play-testing department.

 

[McElroy]

Artificially inflating your level means that you're being grouped up with people in a different bracket of the game, generally speaking. The matchmaking in Overwatch is pretty lenient about level, sure, but the only time I've been matched with, say, double-Prestige people is in Arcade (where matchmaking is basically a free-for-all) or if they're grouped up with someone that they're helping out.

Whether this constitutes "cheating" is, of course, debatable; for my money, I find things such as smurfing to be incredibly obnoxious and unfair to new players, and so the reverse is equally questionable in my eyes. Though I have to admit that I find the elitism inherent in the idea to be objectionable as well--the idea that someone's level corresponds to their ability at the game isn't necessarily true in a game where you don't have a particularly hard time leveling up regardless of win/loss rate.

This is not true. Your level really has very little to do with your mmr (match making rating) and even that little it has is only a correlation with the low amount of playing time (low levels match with low levels). For me it was around level 100 when even the 3vs3 mode that really tries to set up even fights started finding people for my matches from anywhere between levels 50 to about 400. In a ranked match once we got to play with a guy nearing his 10th prestige, and that was in plat when I was below level 100 myself.

Also smurfing isn't much of an issue in Overwatch, since the accounts aren't free. And let's face it, the game is also much simpler than DotA or even LoL. An old fps master will be really good right from the start.

 

[IceForce]

Artificially inflating your level means that you're being grouped up with people in a different bracket of the game, generally speaking. The matchmaking in Overwatch is pretty lenient about level, sure, but the only time I've been matched with, say, double-Prestige people is in Arcade (where matchmaking is basically a free-for-all) or if they're grouped up with someone that they're helping out.

Whether this constitutes "cheating" is, of course, debatable; for my money, I find things such as smurfing to be incredibly obnoxious and unfair to new players, and so the reverse is equally questionable in my eyes. Though I have to admit that I find the elitism inherent in the idea to be objectionable as well--the idea that someone's level corresponds to their ability at the game isn't necessarily true in a game where you don't have a particularly hard time leveling up regardless of win/loss rate.

This is not true. Your level really has very little to do with your mmr (match making rating) and even that little it has is only a correlation with the low amount of playing time (low levels match with low levels). For me it was around level 100 when even the 3vs3 mode that really tries to set up even fights started finding people for my matches from anywhere between levels 50 to about 400. In a ranked match once we got to play with a guy nearing his 10th prestige, and that was in plat when I was below level 100 myself.

You're both kinda right. Low-level players will almost always be put with other low-level players. But after they've played for a bit (level 100+ perhaps? I'm not sure of the exact specifics), it opens up the matchmaking to a much wider pool of people.

Kaplan himself talked about this in a forum post a couple of months ago:
https://us.battle.net/forums/en/overwatch/topic/20753325729#post-3

A lot of our truly new players will complain if they see players higher level than they are (account level, not SR). So at the very lowest levels, we try to match you in a pool of "new" players.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

I don't get how cosmetic dlc can turn into a money maker for them when it doesn't affect the game and you can get it for free eventually. It sounds silly if they're really making this much money off of it that they'd wanna go to these lengths to protect it.


Then again I don't really play this game so I guess it's just not my cup of tea. I did play tf2 a bunch ages ago, before it had hats, that one was fun.

 

[MHR]

It's hard to feel sorry for anyone doing this. Yeah, it sucks to be punished as bad as an aimbotter, but, like... too bad? A logical argument might be, "what if that had been you or someone you know?" No, I never attempt to tamper with anything suspicious to get an edge, so I would never do that, and fuck anyone that I know that would get caught in such a scheme. If my own brother did it, I wouldn't do anything other than stand over him and do the Nelson "Ha-Ha!"

You think you're trying to be clever by finding a way around Blizzard's skinner-box racquet, but you don't go to a casino and fuck with their revenue stream by cheating, do you? If you did, your chips would be confiscated and you'd be thrown out; BANNED, if you will. Hardly anyone is going to feel sorry for you then, and nobody should feel sorry for you now.

 

[Cid Silverwing]

And so Blizzard continues to be a bunch of petty out-of-touch angry fucks with zero respect for customer satisfaction.

And how's the bear-shitting-in-the-woods index?

 

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

I think a ban is a bit too much since I think just suspending them or something would be just as effective.

That aside, I'm really not surprised about this. Blizzard has always had zero tolerance for players farming. I mean, WoW and Diablo are notorious for having gold farms, and people doing it as a way to get money. So, them going after farmers is just par for the course, and I could see why they would do that.

I don't get the outrage over this, but hey, different strokes for different folks.

 

[Avnger]

And so Blizzard continues to be a bunch of petty out-of-touch angry fucks with zero respect for customer satisfaction.

And how's the bear-shitting-in-the-woods index?

Cheating the spirit of the game by abusing loopholes obviously not meant to be used has absolutely nothing to do with "customer satisfaction" that deserves to be respected than any other type of cheating in a multiplayer game.

edit: If you purposely abuse game mechanics in a multiplayer setting, you deserve anything and everything that the devs decide to throw at you in response.

 

[DudeistBelieve]

the loot boxes only contain skins so I don't know why everyone's panties are getting in a bunch. They just change how the character looks.

You barely even get to enjoy this btw, as it's a First Person game.

I will say though, I won't waste my time playing any part of the game that doesn't give me XP so this essentially nullifies this part of the game for me... but just as well, I'll stick to competitive.