Taking gold from members for unnamed "exploit"?

WalkingCodex

Yesterday, I received an email from customer support saying that I received some gold connected to an in game exploit and so the game took the gold back. The exploit was unnamed and the amount of money taken from me was negligible. I requested more details and was content to wait to hear back.

Until today. Today I answered a message in guild chat and discovered a dozen very unhappy people in my situation to the tune of tens of millions of gold.

So we need to know. What exploit? And when? Because the email doesn't say and it doesn't tell us how to avoid this mysterious exploit in the future.

Because giving me warm regards doesn't make me feel better about this situation. There are a lot of us who want answers.

So, if you have had this happen to you, post it. Otherwise, would like an official response about this.

Thanks, Sarah

SirAndy

Major_Lag

It's probably something related to the major gold duplication that happened during the guild trader multibid disaster.

Nestor

Are you on the EU Server and do Kiosk Bids? There was a recent glitch related to that and people got gold they should not have.

Other than that I am not sure what it could be

Dark_Lord_Kuro

I know there was a problem with new multi bid system giving back millions of gold more than it was supose to

Maybe they tracked that gold back and took it back

It could something else entirely too

xWarbrain

WalkingCodex

We are all on the na server.

WalkingCodex

Geez. Xbox. My bad.

VaranisArano

The multibid situation was only on PC/EU, as far as I know. The recent PC patch notes mentioned exploit fixes, but no details.

Which means that, to be perfectly frank, we can't help you here on the forums.

You'll have to start a Support Ticket, or if you got an email already, reply to that one. You can then post that ticket number here and tag the Devs, but all followup will be done privately instead of publically discussing what's, rightly or wrongly, a disciplinary issue.

Sorry. I'd get the ball rolling with Support, bearing in mind that its a Friday afternoon here in the US, so Dev attention might be sparse over the weekend.

WalkingCodex

Already replied to that and waiting for a reply. The email specifically said it was not intended to be disciplinary.

Dusk_Coven

Maybe you were incidental in some botter or exploiter's transactions and they just didn't want to argue too much. If the amount of gold is smallish, then it might be part of a wide investigation tracing transactions.

In general, though, NOT telling you what your role in the exploit is unacceptable because there's no preventative measure you can take to ensure it doesn't happen again.

BigBragg

In all honesty, I'm fairly certain that you won't get a detailed reply you are looking for from support. They don't discuss disciplinary actions with other players. They also won't give out details about things that they deem to be exploits. Both of these things are for good reasons.

So on your end where did they gold come from, was it somebody handing out gold or was it laundered through a common guild trader? If it is the latter, I would ask support to replace the items sold.

idk

Sorry for your predicament but Zos will not say what the exploit was since that just helps people figure out how to exploit. They also don’t share who did the actual exploit since there are legal issues involved.

redspecter23

I believe that all players have a right to know what they did wrong if they will be facing repercussions for that action. Punishing players without stating a reason is no better than punishing with no reason at all (from the perspective of the player) and punishment without a reason is not something ZOS or any other game company should want to make a regular habit of doing.

Dusk_Coven

idk wrote: »

Sorry for your predicament but Zos will not say what the exploit was since that just helps people figure out how to exploit. They also don’t share who did the actual exploit since there are legal issues involved.

No game company will PUBLICLY announce the details of an exploit for the reasons you stated.
But they should privately tell the individual. Because the person could otherwise just go on doing what they are doing thinking it is not an exploit.

That said, often exploits are blatant. But in the OP's case, clearly they don't understand what they did.

WalkingCodex

I don't want to be told how to exploit something. But there is a difference between saying "you used the ABC exploit" and here are the 1-2-3 steps you took to exploit. Right now, I have been robbed of gold just because they say say something happened. It is too arbitrary, I deserve more of an explanation and so does everyone that they take gold from.

Taleof2Cities

WalkingCodex wrote: »

I don't want to be told how to exploit something. But there is a difference between saying "you used the ABC exploit" and here are the 1-2-3 steps you took to exploit. Right now, I have been robbed of gold just because they say say something happened. It is too arbitrary, I deserve more of an explanation and so does everyone that they take gold from.

Except the forums isn’t the venue to air your (and your guildies’) side of the story ... even though you may be in the right.

Follow up on your ticket persistently but politely.

This thread will probably be locked soon.

Tandor

Given the original post description it seems pretty likely that some form of exploit resulted in dodgy gold being passed on and you happened to be the unwitting recipient of a small amount of it, hence (a) it being removed from the game and (b) you not being disciplined over it.

Expecting to have the nature of the exploit explained to you isn't realistic, for what must surely be obvious reasons.

idk

Dusk_Coven wrote: »

idk wrote: »

Sorry for your predicament but Zos will not say what the exploit was since that just helps people figure out how to exploit. They also don’t share who did the actual exploit since there are legal issues involved.

No game company will PUBLICLY announce the details of an exploit for the reasons you stated.
But they should privately tell the individual. Because the person could otherwise just go on doing what they are doing thinking it is not an exploit.

That said, often exploits are blatant. But in the OP's case, clearly they don't understand what they did.

You are assuming Zos did not handle whoever was doing the exploit.

redspecter23

Tandor wrote: »

Given the original post description it seems pretty likely that some form of exploit resulted in dodgy gold being passed on and you happened to be the unwitting recipient of a small amount of it, hence (a) it being removed from the game and (b) you not being disciplined over it.

Expecting to have the nature of the exploit explained to you isn't realistic, for what must surely be obvious reasons.

I don't think a full explanation would be needed but even if they said exactly what you said, it would allow the player to at least know what action caused the exploit even if they don't know how to exploit themselves.

All they said was "Someone did something bad. We're taking your gold as a result of that. No hard feelings, bro." I'd be a bit upset as well, mostly because I'd have no clue how to prevent it in the future and as a result of that, it would affect my future enjoyment of the game.

Elsonso

Dark_Lord_Kuro wrote: »

I know there was a problem with new multi bid system giving back millions of gold more than it was supose to

Maybe they tracked that gold back and took it back

This is what I am thinking. Gold moved around from player to player, probably innocently (guild trader purchases, raffle awards, etc) Seems like quite a bit of attention to detail on the part of ZOS, if this is the case.

Dusk_Coven

idk wrote: »

Dusk_Coven wrote: »

idk wrote: »

Sorry for your predicament but Zos will not say what the exploit was since that just helps people figure out how to exploit. They also don’t share who did the actual exploit since there are legal issues involved.

No game company will PUBLICLY announce the details of an exploit for the reasons you stated.
But they should privately tell the individual. Because the person could otherwise just go on doing what they are doing thinking it is not an exploit.

That said, often exploits are blatant. But in the OP's case, clearly they don't understand what they did.

You are assuming Zos did not handle whoever was doing the exploit.

wrong

Gilvoth

Tandor wrote: »

Given the original post description it seems pretty likely that some form of exploit resulted in dodgy gold being passed on and you happened to be the unwitting recipient of a small amount of it, hence (a) it being removed from the game and (b) you not being disciplined over it.

Expecting to have the nature of the exploit explained to you isn't realistic, for what must surely be obvious reasons.

i gotta go with this ^

well said, and ill bet that's right on the money as to what happened.

idk

Dusk_Coven wrote: »

idk wrote: »

Dusk_Coven wrote: »

idk wrote: »

Sorry for your predicament but Zos will not say what the exploit was since that just helps people figure out how to exploit. They also don’t share who did the actual exploit since there are legal issues involved.

No game company will PUBLICLY announce the details of an exploit for the reasons you stated.
But they should privately tell the individual. Because the person could otherwise just go on doing what they are doing thinking it is not an exploit.

That said, often exploits are blatant. But in the OP's case, clearly they don't understand what they did.

You are assuming Zos did not handle whoever was doing the exploit.

wrong

So you know exactly what occurred and how Zos handled it but you are merely being coy with your replies. Got it.

Ackwalan

How did you receive the gold in the first place? Did you sell something or did the sender just send you gold and tell you to hang on to it? If it's the second, you should have been suspicious.

Vhozek

Devs punishing players for their faults. Mort, game design director, from Riot Games gave me this super responsible idle to look up to when he said people abusing bugs, exploit, or glitches shouldn't be punished because it's not their fault those things are in the game and accessible to players.

Gilvoth

Vhozek wrote: »

Devs punishing players for their faults. Mort, game design director, from Riot Games gave me this super responsible idle to look up to when he said people abusing bugs, exploit, or glitches shouldn't be punished because it's not their fault those things are in the game and accessible to players.

and they also shouldn't be upset and make 10 million stupid threads on the forums when those glitches and exploits are fixed. but they do, things like the alliance locks and fixing game glitches in pvp and fixing non intended features involving how we use skills.
but they come up with MASS excuses why it should STAY ingame, and they flood the forum with complaints and anger the entire community with it daily.
it's very disturbing but they do it, and it needs to stop.

idk

Vhozek wrote: »

Devs punishing players for their faults. Mort, game design director, from Riot Games gave me this super responsible idle to look up to when he said people abusing bugs, exploit, or glitches shouldn't be punished because it's not their fault those things are in the game and accessible to players.

If they are saying players finding things to exploit that are clearly not intended should not be punished even though they choose to exploit it to no end instead of reporting it then that seems pretty brainless.

That is just plain dumb and if that person really did say that they do not have the intellect to manage an ant farm. I seriously doubt any dev/designer working for an online game said such a thing.

VaranisArano

Vhozek wrote: »

Devs punishing players for their faults. Mort, game design director, from Riot Games gave me this super responsible idle to look up to when he said people abusing bugs, exploit, or glitches shouldn't be punished because it's not their fault those things are in the game and accessible to players.

I never quite understood this idea.

In ESO, you agree to the TOS and Code of Conduct that you won't abuse or exploit bugs and glitches, but will instead stop using them and report them to ZOS.

Maybe its the teacher in me, but I'm always a little confused why people act like they shouldn't be disciplined for breaking the rules they agreed to.

YaYaPineapple

Another player must have gained gold through an exploit, then used that exploited gold to purchase something from you, thus laundering the gold.

Nordic__Knights

If they could track the gold to you they could track how you got it have them give you back the item or items sold for the gold