MMORPG Ethics Question

[Broom [deprecated]]

I'd like to put something to the floor for input. Recently in a popular MMORPG the game developers added an additional crafting item called adornments. The items added additional stats and various other attributes to armour and weapons. There were several crafters that had leveled to the max and were selling these adornments on the broker to the player population.

After a few weeks the game devs announced that they would be altering these items and refunding the market value to players that had already used the adornments (applied them to various pieces of armour and weapons). Several crafters upon reading this announcement crafted more adornments and applied them to their armour and weapons that they had in storage in the hopes that the proposed "market value" would be refunded to them. Adornments are expensive to craft by the way and some of these crafters were hoping to recoup and even make some money off of the refund as the items would not be worth the current market value after the nerf. After the nerf went live it was found that the devs refunded them at the high end market value and some of these crafters made a windfall of monies.

The question I bring to the floor is this: is what the crafters did an exploit? The nerf was announced prior to the live date so this was public knowledge. Also no one knew exactly what the refund price would be. On the other hand some argue that by crafting these additional pieces and applying them to armour in the hopes of making some extra money is the same as cheating.

Discuss.

Thanks!
Broom

 

[Echolocating]

I consider an exploit to be the action of a player (within the game's mechanics) that produces an unfair advantage. The concept of fairness should be governed by the game's mechanics. Every so often, players will do things that the developers didn't anticipate.

So, yes, this was an exploit. However, I hold the developers responsible for the "unfair" gift of compensation, not the exploiters. In fact, I strongly believe that if the game allows you to do it, then you should be able to do it. It sounds harsh, but it's the developer's responsibility to the players to ensure game mechanics enforce fairness.

 

[Lex Darko]

What the crafters did was fair. They had already made them all they did was apply them. If the devs said they were going to completely disable the ability to make the item in the first place they would have done the same thing.

 

[ReedRichards]

I'd have to say it was an exploit. Can't say I wouldn't have done the same, but it was definite exploitation. Probably couldn't have been avoided by the dev other than by not giving notice ofthe refund, but then you have a bunch of players whose chars are missing adornments but have extra money ot of the blue. Oh well, what are you gonna do?

 

[TrickllE [deprecated]]

Another point: crafters put in game time to level up their skills (I presume,) and that, at the very least, entitles them to some form of compensation.

 

[Tzomg]

I don't know about an exploit, but I'd be very wary of developer leaks if that kind of speculation paid off too often. I think SEC-like auditing of transactions to prevent "insider trading" would scatter a lot of roaches, as absurd as that would have sounded a few years ago. The latest EVE Online scandal demonstrates it to near certainty.

 

[Shannon Drake]

I see it as capitalism. They could just as well have taken a soaking on those expensive components and then they'd be the ones complaining.

Though the developers shouldn't have let it go if they didn't want people taking advantage of it. (Though I play in Space Libertopia, so take everything I say with a grain of salt).

 

[[HD]Rob Inglis]

I'm pretty sure that's not cheating, cause my general game philosophy is that if it is meant to be possible, then it's probably okay. Apparently the forums don't like the dictionary spelling of okay, w/e. Point being that it's not cheating cause the developers would have done something about it had it been bad.