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Goons 4x4ing through the Sandbox - Market Manipulation on a Grand Scale

First post First post First post
Author
Cipher Jones
The Thomas Edwards Taco Tuesday All Stars
#1761 - 2012-06-22 22:27:56 UTC
Aryth wrote:
It's more than that. To justify seizing everything, and even assets unreleated to FW, they have to be saying, using their own game mechanics, and the design they were repeatedly told was bad, is an exploit. That is what is so chilling about it.

This isn't the CCP of 2 years ago. Sonyfied CCP is not the CCP we know and love. They are something different now. It wasn't until it hit PCGamer they took actoin.


The CCP of 2 years ago couldn't pay it's bank loan.

The Dude wrote:
Yes, Walter, you're right. There is an unspoken message here. It's "**** YOU"

internet spaceships

are serious business sir.

and don't forget it

corestwo
Goonfleet Investment Banking
#1762 - 2012-06-22 22:28:18 UTC
Aryth wrote:
Lyron-Baktos wrote:
why are people shocked that CCP is removing assets? They've done it in the past and they'll do it again. What's more shocking is that Goons did this in the first place. You had to have known you would not be allowed to keep everything


I know people might not believe me. But I really did expect to be allowed to keep it. This was well within what I consider the boundaries of the game. Many people agree, this is EVE.


Indeed. "Manipulate a market?" Check, legit action. Gain LP from FW? Check, a legit action. Combine them both? Should be legit in the sandbox, CCP says no! Or maybe Sony says no? Who knows. Eve has changed.

This post was crafted by a member of the GoonSwarm Federation Economic Cabal, the foremost authority on Eve: Online economics and gameplay.

fofofo

Lord Zim
Gallente Federation
#1763 - 2012-06-22 22:30:30 UTC
Paint wrote:
asd3452 wrote:
Paint wrote:
Lyron-Baktos wrote:
why are people shocked that CCP is removing assets? They've done it in the past and they'll do it again. What's more shocking is that Goons did this in the first place. You had to have known you would not be allowed to keep everything


Actually they haven't that I know of. The only time they took away anything that I can remember is when they took away the gm/dev generated T2 generated BPOs that were given to Bob.

If you think this is similar at all you probably need serious help.


CCP also did nothing about the trillions (with a 'T') isk worth of profit BoB and their CCP allies made off the BPOs, 'player' events, etc.


True they never took away all the motherships that Bob/some others exploited out of the those events before they sacked all those player gms either did they.

And they didn't do squat about the billions of units of nocx made from PA either, when we notified them of the problem.

Cyno's lit, bridge is up, but one pilot won't be jumping home.

RIP Vile Rat

Aryth
University of Caille
Gallente Federation
#1764 - 2012-06-22 22:30:37 UTC
Cipher Jones wrote:
Aryth wrote:
It's more than that. To justify seizing everything, and even assets unreleated to FW, they have to be saying, using their own game mechanics, and the design they were repeatedly told was bad, is an exploit. That is what is so chilling about it.

This isn't the CCP of 2 years ago. Sonyfied CCP is not the CCP we know and love. They are something different now. It wasn't until it hit PCGamer they took actoin.


The CCP of 2 years ago couldn't pay it's bank loan.

The Dude wrote:
Yes, Walter, you're right. There is an unspoken message here. It's "**** YOU"


Are you saying they sold out?

Leader of the Goonswarm Economic Warfare Cabal.

Creator of Burn Jita

Vile Rat: You're the greatest sociopath that has ever played eve.

Preceptor Stigmartyr
Deep Core Mining Inc.
Caldari State
#1765 - 2012-06-22 22:30:44 UTC
asd3452 wrote:
Tokclik wrote:
Better Than You wrote:
By goons mentality, we all should be dropping to our knees and thanking Osama Bin Laden for tighter security at the airports.


Making a comparison between someone who helped kill thousands and someone who found a loophole in a videogame is moronic.

A better comparison is the best people in IT security all started out as hackers and respect the up and coming hackers teaching them new things.


A better example would be a Farmer selling Strawberries for $2 less than the local store, and me telling the farmer this, and him not changing the price. Then, I buy all his strawberries and he hits me with a shovel. CCP is the angry dumb farmer with a shovel.


Has anyone considered that Goons just get a wild kick out of watching people get groped in a conga line?

**4/19 **NEVER FORGET ಠ_ಠ

Sven Hammerstorm
Royal Amarr Institute
Amarr Empire
#1766 - 2012-06-22 22:32:41 UTC
It is pretty clear that next time someone finds something like this, the last thing they should do is to try help and tell ccp. Ironic isnt it :P
corestwo
Goonfleet Investment Banking
#1767 - 2012-06-22 22:33:11 UTC
Aryth wrote:
Cipher Jones wrote:
Aryth wrote:
It's more than that. To justify seizing everything, and even assets unreleated to FW, they have to be saying, using their own game mechanics, and the design they were repeatedly told was bad, is an exploit. That is what is so chilling about it.

This isn't the CCP of 2 years ago. Sonyfied CCP is not the CCP we know and love. They are something different now. It wasn't until it hit PCGamer they took actoin.


The CCP of 2 years ago couldn't pay it's bank loan.

The Dude wrote:
Yes, Walter, you're right. There is an unspoken message here. It's "**** YOU"


Are you saying they sold out?


Sounds like it. I'm inclined to agree, really.

This post was crafted by a member of the GoonSwarm Federation Economic Cabal, the foremost authority on Eve: Online economics and gameplay.

fofofo

Haquer
Vorkuta Inc
#1768 - 2012-06-22 22:34:01 UTC
Welp. This is a little more than ridiculous.
Large Collidable Object
morons.
#1769 - 2012-06-22 22:34:16 UTC  |  Edited by: Large Collidable Object
Lol - well played goons - I think it's kinda funny - CCP fucks up FW even more than it vwas by making changes totally unasked for and goons check it out. As usual, CCP messed things up and goons take advantage of it. CCP should join my corp, but instead they 'punish' goons. Yeah - right Roll.

A game mechanic is legal as long as it's not labeled an exploit.

Duh - doesn't take a genius to give it a try each time they change something fundamental because they mess it up 80% of the time and and usually never admit it for years - see general plexing mechanics in FW, Dominion, or Winmatar boredom in general.
You know... [morons.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gjOx65yD5A)
corestwo
Goonfleet Investment Banking
#1770 - 2012-06-22 22:35:59 UTC
Sven Hammerstorm wrote:
It is pretty clear that next time someone finds something like this, the last thing they should do is to try help and tell ccp. Ironic isnt it :P


"Teacher teacher, I found a small knife in my lunch, my mom must have given me hers by accident, I just wanted to make sure it's kept safe."

"YOU'RE EXPELLED!"

This literally happened at a local school. That is literally what's happening here. Won't tell other players about legitimate but unintended mechanics like this in the future, but I definitely won't be telling CCP either.

This post was crafted by a member of the GoonSwarm Federation Economic Cabal, the foremost authority on Eve: Online economics and gameplay.

fofofo

Totalrx
NA No Assholes
#1771 - 2012-06-22 22:36:04 UTC  |  Edited by: Totalrx
Tokclik wrote:
Better Than You wrote:
By goons mentality, we all should be dropping to our knees and thanking Osama Bin Laden for tighter security at the airports.


Making a comparison between someone who helped kill thousands and someone who found a loophole in a videogame is moronic.

A better comparison is the best people in IT security all started out as hackers and respect the up and coming hackers teaching them new things.


Agreed on the terrorist comparison. That was in poor taste and a poor example overall. Using Charles Ponzi would have made for a better example.

The old days in the newsgroups of the phreakers.

Yes, M$ used us and we used them. It was mutual. So did Norton (after M$ stole defrag from them) as well a McAffee, Dr Solomon's, as well as a few other corporations who were making firewall and security software. They kind of looked the other way when we'd open our FTP's for accounts and anon's.

The problem started when some of the 2600 peeps decided they wanted to see how far they could push it. A portion of the Regulators decided they were so influential in the system that they could be above the law and protocol.

It backfired. All of the phreaks involved suffered due to the over-exploitive actions of a percentage of the group. Let me tell you, getting phone calls and certified letters from the legal counsel of major corporations whom you used to laugh & joke with while helping them find holes was no laughing matter. It was no laughing matter for one of my closest 2600 contacts who had a choice - the military or prison. He went into the Marines.

Your comparison fits in one aspect - attitude.

I've sat back and ate my popcorn on this one. You exploited the system to your personal gain. While I do agree that a programmed mechanic in Eve's economy should be CCP"s responsibility, I can't blame them for backlashing Goonsquad. The title of the thread, the way it was written up, etc all have a "look at how we put CCP in their place - HAHA!"

IMHO - petitioning the exploit to CCP would have been the "helping CCP out" thing to do. Instead, you had it planned pre-patch and went for weeks until you had amassed and ungodly amount of ISK in a very short period of time. Then you flaunted it and taunted CCP.

CCP shouldn't take pre-exploit assets, as long as it can be proven by server logs that they were pre-exploit, but you should not have entered into a cyber-ego competition with CCP. They will win simply because they author this piece of software and it's their call who wins.

Back tot he popcorn....yummy Big smile
Sven Hammerstorm
Royal Amarr Institute
Amarr Empire
#1772 - 2012-06-22 22:36:46 UTC
It isnt really a secret that many a corp have gotten their titan/titans from exploiting FW before inferno. As long as you dont go public its ok Pirate
Haquer
Vorkuta Inc
#1773 - 2012-06-22 22:41:37 UTC
Sven Hammerstorm wrote:
It isnt really a secret that many a corp have gotten their titan/titans from exploiting FW before inferno. As long as you dont go public its ok Pirate


You can be sure that things like this will never go public again.
Talon SilverHawk
Patria o Muerte
#1774 - 2012-06-22 22:43:08 UTC
Sven Hammerstorm wrote:
It is pretty clear that next time someone finds something like this, the last thing they should do is to try help and tell ccp. Ironic isnt it :P



No they should tell CCP but before they exploit the cr*p out of it.

If you walk in through an open door a nick some ones TV and goods, then a month later walk in and say, hey you kept leaving your door open and that's why your stuff keeps getting nicked, then are they going to :-

A. beat the crap out of you and call the police
B. turn around and say thank you very much for pointing that out and teachibg us a lesson, heres a cookie.


Tal


Better Than You
Doomheim
#1775 - 2012-06-22 22:43:18 UTC
Makes me wonder why there are removing other assets outside of the faction warfare ones... RMT much little goonies?
Veryez
Hidden Agenda
Deep Space Engineering
#1776 - 2012-06-22 22:43:28 UTC
Aryth wrote:


The test quickly became even bigger than anticipated because upon release, FW turned out to have a bug that rewarded LP for both dropped and exploded cargo, doubling the rewards. So we went to work, [/b]sending hundreds of billions of ISK worth of highend minerals to Yulai to be blown up. Why Yulai? Anyone enlisted in faction warfare gets shot at by faction police of the opposing factions. Yulai and its entire constellation are owned by CONCORD, which is neutral territory. Thus, both FW alts could move through peacefully. Also, Yulai has an “Inner Circle” station, which was just plain funny. How fitting that Yulai, once the most important system in Eve, finally becomes relevant again.

[b]CCP reacted quickly and patched this out, but the damage was done
(not that it really mattered since it would merely have delayed the inevitable); the cabal had our “seed” LP.


I would have applauded your ingenuity at a very elaborate and well conducted scheme. And while it might not have been a big part of your plan, you pretty much stated you exploited this bug rather than report it. Maybe you actually reported it first, but failed to mention that part in your writeup. I think your statement kind of forced CCP's hand. It's a shame you didn't completely pull this off, as it would most likely shown people what's possible in eve and brought more in.
Inspiration
#1777 - 2012-06-22 22:43:55 UTC  |  Edited by: Inspiration
Aryth wrote:
Lyron-Baktos wrote:
why are people shocked that CCP is removing assets? They've done it in the past and they'll do it again. What's more shocking is that Goons did this in the first place. You had to have known you would not be allowed to keep everything


I know people might not believe me. But I really did expect to be allowed to keep it. This was well within what I consider the boundaries of the game. Many people agree, this is EVE.


But...you do know those players in corporations exploiting moon go reactions (where the goo wasn't consumed) were all banned. Now we can discuss semantics and if this is identical (in a way it is, but not in all aspects), but just getting assets nuked doesn't seem the hardest of actions CCP could take in that context.

CCP loves meta gaming and Goons excel at it and thus CCP loves Goons. I think that if some smaller unknown entity had done this to this level they would all have been banned! The assets nuked not part of the recent gains might just be a way of rectifying what cannot be 100% perfectly rectified (due to trades, conversions and whatnot).

As for you honestly expecting to keep it all, well, to be a little blunt...there are personality disorders named after such social blindness to effect on other people. No disrespect, I think you did a great job of putting CCP fail on the spot and maybe they start listening next time, but i have my doubts.

My first reaction on reading the whole thing...they must fire the CCP people responsible for this! But I know devs, i am one (not for games or CCP) and worked with many devs throughout my career. One this is certain, nearly all are blind for their own mistakes and many are so self-content with what they make they disregard input from others. This is the typical dev profile, great devs however are totally different in the listening to aspect, while still a little blind to their own mistakes. But thats human i suppose and in a sense a good thing, we don't want devs to be machines, now do we?

In saying so, I think CCP has not a good mix people to set game mechanics and a questionably track record in such matters. This drama was all avoidable in the first place, by both CCP and Goons.

I am serious!

Jonni Favorite
Red Slice Enterprise
#1778 - 2012-06-22 22:44:17 UTC
corestwo wrote:
Sven Hammerstorm wrote:
It is pretty clear that next time someone finds something like this, the last thing they should do is to try help and tell ccp. Ironic isnt it :P


"Teacher teacher, I found a small knife in my lunch, my mom must have given me hers by accident, I just wanted to make sure it's kept safe."

"YOU'RE EXPELLED!"

This literally happened at a local school. That is literally what's happening here. Won't tell other players about legitimate but unintended mechanics like this in the future, but I definitely won't be telling CCP either.


Or the case of a travelling salesman with a gun license in Indiana trying to check in his weapon at a convention in NY. He is now facing a gun charge. Goes to show it's better to apologize later than ask permission..
Meno Theaetetus
Aliastra
Gallente Federation
#1779 - 2012-06-22 22:44:20 UTC
I presume CCP have claimed assets so that they can isolate damage whilst an investigation is on-going.

This is not an exploit, we need to draw a distinction between an exploit and a market manipulation. What was done was within the rules of the game, it was all done within the confines of set game mechanic.

Consider a very wealthy player buying out an entire market of an item, to simulate demand and to raise prices. This is market manipulation, as is buying out a faction warfare items to change the average value of an item. This is part of EVE, and to prevent people from doing this would completely break the sandbox dynamic.

Part of the FW mechanics meant you could blow up your own stuff and get LP for it, this was well know, and it was spelled out to CCP that this would happen. They patched out part of it but didn't realise this left it open to market manipulation.

You can not punish someone for taking advantage of market manipulation, just the same as you cannot punish someone for taking advantage of a game mechanic that CCP knew well already existed. It is not the job of the players to judge what is 'reasonable' amounts of ISK to be making from a game mechanic.

If CCP deem the amount of isk generated excessive and damaging then they are right to take action, but considering no rules were broken the players involved should have ONLY the isk they generated taken away, and they should to compensated for the time they spent playing eve online within the mechanics sold as part of their monthly subscription.



Aryth
University of Caille
Gallente Federation
#1780 - 2012-06-22 22:44:29 UTC
Talon SilverHawk wrote:
Sven Hammerstorm wrote:
It is pretty clear that next time someone finds something like this, the last thing they should do is to try help and tell ccp. Ironic isnt it :P



No they should tell CCP but before they exploit the cr*p out of it.

If you walk in through an open door a nick some ones TV and goods, then a month later walk in and say, hey you kept leaving your door open and that's why your stuff keeps getting nicked, then are they going to :-

A. beat the crap out of you and call the police
B. turn around and say thank you very much for pointing that out and teachibg us a lesson, heres a cookie.


Tal




People DID tell CCP before it was released in another thread. That is the point.

Leader of the Goonswarm Economic Warfare Cabal.

Creator of Burn Jita

Vile Rat: You're the greatest sociopath that has ever played eve.