ArenaNet delivered a double dose of news this week with a wave of bans for Guild Wars 2 players that engaged in the Snowflake Jewelry exploit over the holidays. The exploit was fixed but several players loaded up on Globs of Ectoplasm by crafting certain recipes and breaking them down for what was apparently a crazy amount of returns. Of course, some players are arguing that it wasnt clear that it was an exploit, so ArenaNet Support Liaison Gaile Gray posted a response on the issue.
Ive seen the numbers, and the damage to the economy could have been substantial, if the exploit wasnt closed down and if these people were allowed to use their ill-gotten gains. People whose accounts were terminated were the worst offenders. Im talking a lot of ill-gotten gains that posed a significant potential impact on the economy.
Any time you take one thing and can make two, and then four, and then sixteen ya gotta know thats just wrong. (I wont quibble on the odds, but overall, that form of doubling was not outside the realm of possibility.) And to perform that action hundreds and hundreds of times? Thats call exploitation, and thats against the User Agreement, the Rules of Conduct, and all that is holy.
I know the OP will disagree. But weve been more than kind, in the past, and everyone needs to own up to his/her errors and recognize: We all are part of the game economy, and those who exploit it are hurting the rest of us.
Exploit closed.
Worst offenders terminated.
Thats what has to happen to make things right for all of us.
In more positive news, Game Director Colin Johanson chimed in on another thread (check out this post too) to tease a little of whats in store for Guild Wars 2 in 2013. In short, the team is working on new features for PvE, WvW, and PvP with the goal of expanding and strengthening the existing game world.
Hey guys,
Just to help provide some clarity on this, well be releasing within the next couple of weeks a high level summary of our big plans for the first half of 2013 to help provide more transparency into our plans with the game going forward. This will include providing more details about our goals for the game, information about the stories and features that youll see in the Jan/Feb/March releases.
To set expectations accordingly, the January release will be a relatively small release that sets the table for the stories and features we plan to roll out with the Feb/March releases and beyond. Also, there will be no new race, profession, or new region with these larger Feb/March releases. One of our major goals with these releases is making our existing world as strong as possible, ensuring there are reasons to go to all the locations in the world weve already built, and strengthening the core game weve provided. In saying this will be an expansions worth of stuff in these releases, were talking about the number of new features that will be rolled out across PvE, WvW, and PvP in early 2013, which usually youd only find in an expansion for a traditional MMORPG.
Johanson vowed that more specific details will be revealed in the coming weeks.
via PC Gamer
Sources: Colin Johanson Post, Gaile Gray Post
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