Guild Wars 2

[Flex]

They weren't just buying weapons. They were then salvaging them to get high end crafting materials that no one should really have access to in those quantities just yet. Or they were taking them and using the mystic forge go combine into incredibly powerful weapons that ... no one should have access to yet. If all of those materials were released into the economy, it would have fucked things up pretty badly.

The economy is days old, not removing any of the trade goods would have zero long term effect.
ArenaNet could forcefully remove all gains obtained from this situation, apologize to the players for their mistake and then release a statement stating if it seems too good to be true in the future it is and don't partake in it.
And then they can say that they will be permabanning those 500 accounts that were botting.

My biggest issue is their extreme response since the players did not use any game mechanic in a way that they weren't designed.

[Sagara]

In an unrelated tidbt, it is currently impossible to buy digital copies of the game on their website.

Not bad!

[Gracerath]

The economy is days old, not removing any of the trade goods would have zero long term effect.
ArenaNet could forcefully remove all gains obtained from this situation, apologize to the players for their mistake and then release a statement stating if it seems too good to be true in the future it is and don't partake in it.
And then they can say that they will be permabanning those 500 accounts that were botting.

My biggest issue is their extreme response since the players did not use any game mechanic in a way that they weren't designed.

Or. Players could just not exploit. Bizarre concept, I know. No statement necessary. It should be common sense.

[Flex]

Or. Players could just not exploit. Bizarre concept, I know. No statement necessary. It should be common sense.

To me it simply is not an exploit if you buy items for their listed price.

[Gracerath]

And we've gone around in a circle.

[aureon]

indeed, permabans are a little too harsh.
anything else would've been a technical challenge, though.

[Flex]

indeed, permabans are a little too harsh.
anything else would've been a technical challenge, though.

Their appeal process with placing all the power on the user to abide to the "get rid of everything you gained" makes me wonder what state their backed tools are that they can't rollback or do it themselves.

[Fridmarr]

But really because the game is less than a week old, they amount to a 5 day ban, a bit more demoralizing because you have to redo content, but still that's the amount of effort that is wiped out.

I do disagree with how they handled this, botting is a clear and purposeful use of exploits which should be an automatic permaban. It's inconsistent punishment, which really is the worst type from a management perspective.

[aureon]

indeed, permabans are a little too harsh.
anything else would've been a technical challenge, though.

Their appeal process with placing all the power on the user to abide to the "get rid of everything you gained" makes me wonder what state their backed tools are that they can't rollback or do it themselves.

Okay, let's get real.
The damage to the economy would've spreadout and incontrollable.

The chinese farmers were on this immediately, and what stopped an outbreak of currency and l80 stuff was the small window of opportunity - and better, the deactivation of all means to move currency.
At 100+ weapons bought, it's not up for discussion that you were aware of it being a bug.
I've bought a single weapon myself, from another vendor, at 6k karma - and i fully believed it to be legit. I'd be raging if i got any punishment that wasn't giving me the karma back and removing the weapon.
But seriously, thinking L60 rares could legitimately go for 21 karma? That's like trying to buy a car for ten bucks, after reading it on an ad.

[bldavis]

I've bought a single weapon myself, from another vendor, at 6k karma - and i fully believed it to be legit. I'd be raging if i got any punishment that wasn't giving me the karma back and removing the weapon.
But seriously, thinking L60 rares could legitimately go for 21 karma? That's like trying to buy a car for ten bucks, after reading it on an ad.

this is my point all along
if it seemed reasonable, than by all means egg on the face of the dev if something is fishy
but extremely low price, and mass amounts of weapons bought show you obviously knew something was up and were trying to take advantage
that to me is exploiting

its one thing if someone posted on the trading post for an insanely low price and you happened to scoop them up, that is someone being an idiot and you happen to be in the right place at the right time

but purposefully seeing a bug/issue ingame and deciding to not question it or report it, but to use it for your own means
how much more exploitative do you need?

[Arkesh]

In an unrelated tidbt, it is currently impossible to buy digital copies of the game on their website.

Not bad!

That's intentional I'd guess. Mike O'Brien said they'd turn off sales on their site if continued sales were likely to cause server load problems so they have time to get new servers up and what not. The interview is here.

[Eltiana]

Banning players for the developer's mistakes isn't something I'm keen on.

Why? Sure the developers made the mistake, but it was the players who chose to take advantage of that mistake.

If I leave my wallet in a store by accident, that is my mistake. If someone chooses to pickup and walk away with my wallet, it was my mistake that led up to that occurrence, but it doesn't make that person who walked away with my wallet any less an asshole.

[bldavis]

got curious as my engineer is 34, and nearing the first tier of cultural armor and weapons
so checked the wiki and say 798 for 1hd and 1197 for 2hd (karma for weapons)
check in game -
both 1hd and 2hd are 9800 karma...for lvl 40
lvl 60 is 32k
and lvl 80 is 64k

my charr is lvl 34, has done 4 completed zones 100% (every heart, evey dynamic event i come across, everything) and i only have 3780 karma

how the fuck are we supposed to get the weapons at level at those prices?

[Gracerath]

The amount of karma you get scales as you level up. You'll have more than enough. I get nearly 200 karma per event at ~45ish. Just keep an eye out for more events. I've probably gone through almost two sets of armor and weapons and I still have about 3k banked at this point. What is interesting to me is you can buy cultural armor for gold but not cultural weapons.

Here is a real kick in the fucking balls. I did the shatterer event last night and was present and active for the entire fight and did not get any credit at all. Other people who were alive the whole time and doing damage were only getting bronze. I'm not sure if it was a bug or maybe I was just too low level. Another person said he didn't get any credit either and was two levels lower than I was. Also they must have tuned it down a bit because it was a LOT easier and a bit less epic feeling than watching it a year ago. The event seemed like it was much more dangerous and lasted a lot longer. Oh well.

[Era]

I'm level 64, and I don't have enough karma for the level 60 weapons (35k) even now. I have about 20k karma, and that's with 35% of the world explored and sparse spending (I craft most of my gear). So definitely overpriced, imo. By the time you can afford them, they'll be redundant, and to be fair - most of the skins aren't even uniques.