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Exploits are bad Mkay...

With the launch of every MMORPG there will inevitably be some bugs and exploits that creep through the cracks of development. Funcom has made it clear that using exploits for personal gain may result in severe consequences up to and including a ban. Across some forums you can see the outcry from some players who have already been smacked with the ban stick so Funcom isn't messing around. Some of you may have noticed the message from Gaute Godager in the AoC patcher referencing exploits...

Dear Players

As you might have read in the update from our head of Customer Service here. we take exploits and game balance cheaters very seriously. As a result of this we have been forced to crack down for the first time in Age of Conan on certain individuals cheating and destroying the balance. These individuals will have their accounts suspended or banned!

We do this to make the game fair for you. You, our esteemed player, who want fairness and predictability. We do this for you who are not on purpose trying to break or destroy the gaming fun for your fellow Hyborians!

We apologize for the inconvenience and I write this to let you know we police the fairness of the game as much as we can!

Gaute Godager
Game Director

A recent post by Tarib explains Funcom's view on exploits...

Greetings all Hyborian adventures,

Launching a game like Age of Conan is always a very interesting experience. Seeing how the players endorsing the game and giving it life in a new way is thrilling and exciting. Unfortunately, there is one thing which is always a big challenge when shipping an MMO, and that's what we want to address today. You know it as exploits, we know it as “destroying the game balance”. Today I therefore wanted to update the community on what Funcom is doing in regards to addressing and removing exploit as fast as possible.

As you know MMO games are huge, and catching exploits before they reach our live servers is always a challenge. Sometimes they slip through our systems. We deem it extremely important to address these issues immediately, but sometimes players are able to take advantage of exploits before we are able to publish fixes. This is especially true if the fix is considered a high risk, for instance where the fix introduces new bugs, and thereby risking “breaking” the game. If we rush out new versions to fix something, it can potentially make the situation a lot worse, and we naturally want to avoid that by all means.

Seeing we are not able to instantly fix, or even know about, all exploits, it is imperative to let you know that exploiting in Age of Conan is a violation to the EULA, and something we take seriously. If the offense is grave we will not hesitate to ban players, and even entire guilds. We have a dedicated team analyzing all the data from the game, and when anomalies occur we will react. We have and will continue to have a ZERO tolerance to exploiters. This may sound harsh, but it is essential to maintain the balance in the game.

We believe our community does not want cheaters in the game, but there are of course exceptions. We need your aid on finding those exceptions!
Seeing we have just launched we are now prone to find issues we did not discover during Beta. Over the last few days we have therefore found guilds and players who systematically use exploits to get benefits or to reach higher levels in the game. This is unacceptable, and whenever we get reports, information or discover such behavior we will do our uttermost to address this.

As a part of discovering players who have exploited the game on purpose we often hear the exploiters excuse their behavior by saying they thought it was “working as intended”. We are normally able to see through this, and we would like players to think twice and rather ask should they discover things which are “too good to be true”.

As a result of the focus on catching exploiters, and finding the bugs which trigger them, we are working on improving our test server. This is where we test all versions prior to sending them out on the live servers.
We are now working on establishing a test community on this essential server, which will be open for everyone who wants to test new versions before they go out to the public. We will release more information on this shortly.

Still, even though we apply the best testing routines we can, there may be issues we did not discover. Therefore please be vigilant, and aid us in making Conan as exploit free as it can by asking or reporting. If you think you found an exploit or have any questions regarding this topic, report it by using /petition or send us an e-mail at exploit@ageofconan.com. We appreciate any feedback we can get on this.
Remember, it's not against our EULA to report exploits or to ask questions!

All doom and gloom aside, for almost everyone playing Age of Conan this is not an issue, and most seem to just want to play the game as we intended it. I therefore hope everyone will have a great experience playing, but, don’t cheat, and respect the need to have a balanced game.

Regards,
Mathis
Customer Service & QA Manager
Funcom

If that one wasn't clear enough I think Waldgeist sums it up nicely here.

Important: If you find an exploit, do not continue to use it, report it to exploits@ageofconan.com. Note that using an exploit will have severe consequences!

Please do not report or describe exploits in the forums as those threads will be removed.

Please use english when reporting exploits, because most of the developers know english and translating lots of reports takes up a lot of time.

Thank you for your assistance! - Waldgeist

Along with a followup from Tarib...

As a reminder: if you find an exploit or see that another player is taking advantage of one then please send a message to exploits@ageofconan.com. Our GMs will then investigate and take action if needed.

It is important to know that if players keep using obvious exploits it is seen as a severe breach of the EULA and might lead to those players being banned from the game.

We are working on fixing these exploits as soon as possible to remove them from the game but in the meantime your input and feedback about any of them you can provide is of course very welcome.

Thank you for your help and cooperation.

If you find an exploit be sure to report it. Don't make use of it to further your own needs lest you incur the wrath of the Hyborian gods of Funcom.