Exploits for the week

This last week a mass banning went out across the MMORPG i play, FFXI. Now the issue which caused this was from a few months ago about Exploiting a broken game mechanic. Many of the players banned were "celebrities" of the game. These are the people other players looked to for advice, new ideas, and so on and so forth. This brings up the question of what an "exploit" really entails.

Every game such as this involves out thinking the system as it is, or discovering tricks to the system. The area in question was known for being notoriously hard so there were some who may have seen this as the "key" to making the system easier hidden in the game. However, all those involved kept this a trade secret and also did not ask any game master about it. The company that owns the game supposedly spent the last several months checking logs of groups to find evidence of "duping." Quite suspicious and hurts their case. However exploits can only happen if the maker of the game messes up. Many argue the fault is with the manufacturer for not noticing and dealing with the malfunction.

Furthermore, the company in question is notorious for having fairly broad use of the term "exploit." A "near" undefeatable monster exists and the first successful attempt on it involved using terrain to stop many of its attacks. This defeat was even congratulated by a game master at the time for beating the unbeaten. It turned out later though another group had tried this strategy only a few days earlier to be informed by a game master to stop as this was "exploitation." Since then this monster has been rethought and every time a strategy is come up with (while those involved in all these attempts were never penalized) it is patched as it was "exploitation" of normal mechanics and not the intended kill process.

Regardless many long time players, often in upwards of 5 years of play and hundreds of hours of work are gone. About half involved got temporary suspensions and will apparently be stripped of items obtained from the exploit (though no reports of this have come in yet).

A list of those known to be banned can be found here:
http://www.bluegartrls.com/forum/ffxi-advanced-player-discussion/68852-r-i-p-players.html

While not everyone deserved to get banned from working the system... some were less than
sympathetic about it, much laughter here
http://www.bluegartrls.com/forum/ffxi-advanced-player-discussion/68860-delicious-quotes-original-dupe-fix-thread.html