Guild Wars 2

Healix.5819:

whiteflower.9425:

But aren’t people exploiting to sell it?

Basically. People aren’t supposed to be able to join in-progress instances, but it’ll let you join for a second, so you simply do that at the end to enjoy your free event rewards. The problem was putting the token as event rewards instead of having them in the daily chest.

It’s funny to see them allow the use of an exploit and allow the use of pet botting in the same day.

Yeah. They allow something that you can’t even speak about because when you tell how to do it they just remove your posts.

Well I hope this is fixed pronto. After slogging for a few hours through W2Z3 today and suffering easily 200+ deaths… yeah, allowing this just doesn’t seem right.

DeWolfe.2174:

I see this as a good thing where players are helping players achieve. Where players are using their skills and abilities together and compensating each other. In the end, both parties are happy and successful. Much like how our entire civilization functions in real life.

What I see as a bad thing, is the elitist “buut… it’s my shiny” people trying to deny this from occurring. And, this is not just with SAB but, every time new content comes out. It’s utterly selfish behavior and should not be promoted in game as it is not in real life.

Thank you for clarifying Chris. Glad Anet see’s the common sense in allowing this.

I think you are mistaking “playing by the rules” with “elitist buut… it’s my shiny”.

I’ve been working on the SAB collections since it is out again, finished the green weapons last weekend and in the evenings after work and am finishing the yellow ones this weekend. I’m no speed runner but also not slow at it and had to practice to achieve that, so yes: these are my shinies and I earned them “the hard way”.

That doesn’t mean I’m elitist or an egoist though. I’m helping out my friends in tribulation mode by showing them the path through it, showing them alternative routes if they want to get through there without being able to do a dodge jump, etc. – i.e. helping people within the limits of the user agreement and therefore spending much more time in there than needed. Contrary to the exploiters, I gain nothing by doing that besides some tears of gratitude… :-P

The people who exploit and sell tribulation mode though, are focused on their own gain and get quite a lot of gold. People who don’t use exploits missed out on that gold – deliberately and in the hope that the ban hammer would come (as it did for far “lesser” exploits). So it’s understandable that these players might not be so happy with the decision by ANet to not do anything about it (apart from a fix that might or might not come “soon”)…

Day Trooper.3605:

Well I hope this is fixed pronto. After slogging for a few hours through W2Z3 today and suffering easily 200+ deaths… yeah, allowing this just doesn’t seem right.

Yeah, we should just buy/sell anything like others because in fact we are just dumbs to not benefit it. We have to suffer hours and hours to get something when we can just use your moneys in order to get them.

Next time people find exploits, profit. It’s allowed.

Healix.5819:

whiteflower.9425:

But aren’t people exploiting to sell it?

Basically. People aren’t supposed to be able to join in-progress instances, but it’ll let you join for a second, so you simply do that at the end to enjoy your free event rewards. The problem was putting the token as event rewards instead of having them in the daily chest.

It’s funny to see them allow the use of an exploit and allow the use of pet botting in the same day.

But at least we’re getting posts here on the forums!

But seriously, I agree with this. Both just feel cheesy and I have to wonder why someone would bother, just log into that single player game and enter the codes for God mode… what’s the point if you can just afk and pay your way through content that has to be hotfixed to work as intended so people don’t get rewards that clearly weren’t intended to be gotten that way..? Where is the glory? The sense of accomplishment?

However, I will be 100% honest in that I’m pleased on the communication front. It may not be what I want to hear, and I certainly don’t agree with either “policy”, but we didn’t have to go to Reddit to find it. It’s interesting to see Reddit users commenting on this issue though. Unlike the AFK pet/minion farming, which GW2 Redditors largely seem to think is just fine, they’re not so pleased with this SAB thing.

FWIW, I never finished SAB last time it was in game, but I completed the baby SAB mode tonight.. without fudging it, go me.

SRoode.7318:

Tribulation mode is earned huh? How many of you did it with a guide?
I see no problem with this at all.

Oh so that is what I should do then!?

I am going to fork out alot of money to buy my drivers lincence instead of learning how to drive. I did Tribulation mode with a guide and spent almost a full day in W1, I am really happy for my achievement but now I feel like my Green greatsword is just like any legendary weapon… People will surely think that my sword was bought. I am realy sad.

EdgarMTanaka.7291:

SRoode.7318:

Tribulation mode is earned huh? How many of you did it with a guide?
I see no problem with this at all.

Oh so that is what I should do then!?

I am going to fork out alot of money to buy my drivers lincence instead of learning how to drive. I did Tribulation mode with a guide and spent almost a full day in W1, I am really happy for my achievement but now I feel like my Green greatsword is just like any legendary weapon… People will surely think that my sword was bought. I am realy sad.

you got your weapon why would you care if people thought you purchased it? You could run around with Twilight and people can think the same thing. Don’t let people being jelly make you sad.

Chris Cleary.8017:

Alright, it’s about time I commented on this.

As of now we don’t have a problem with players doing this. While the late join is unintended, if players want to pay for this service, that’s fine. It does trivialize the skins some, but this isn’t any different than the skins from purchasing a raid run or a dungeon run (which we also are ok with). As long as the transaction is completed and players are getting what they paid for, fine.

However, that doesn’t mean that we aren’t going to fix this. A fix is in the works right now, and that fix may happen before SAB closes or be there for the next time the festival opens.

I feel this situation should be treated more severely.
Prior to this SAB was one of the few protected pieces of content I.E you could not cheat at it at all. It was effectively solo content.
That gave it value, thus making it worth peoples time, now it has been reduced to a 240g achievement for king toad.

Aside from that these people are literally cheating in your own game system, you designed it to prevent this from happening and they circumvented it, if that’s not an exploit (of the worst kind its not just speeding up content people could already do, its worse it’s giving people access to rewards they shouldn’t have), which your policy said you’d have a hard stance on then I don’t know what is.

It would have been nice if you’d said they get no buying protection, that way we’d be free to scam the cheaters out of their gold and at least gain something out of it or exact a little vengeance.

Chris Cleary.8017:

Alright, it’s about time I commented on this.

As of now we don’t have a problem with players doing this. While the late join is unintended, if players want to pay for this service, that’s fine. It does trivialize the skins some, but this isn’t any different than the skins from purchasing a raid run or a dungeon run (which we also are ok with). As long as the transaction is completed and players are getting what they paid for, fine.

However, that doesn’t mean that we aren’t going to fix this. A fix is in the works right now, and that fix may happen before SAB closes or be there for the next time the festival opens.

If players were using an exploit to solo a raid and selling runs for it, would you say the same thing? That it’s “OK to do this” and fix the exploit whenever without taking action against people exploiting it?

And you say the fix might not happen until the next time SAB is available again. So, 2.5 years from now?

Sure. With SAB it’s just for some silly weapon skins. But I bet if it happened to raids you’d be pretty ticked and put out a hotfix ASAP for it.

This may have been about SAB only, but people can interpret what you said as it’s OK to do this type of stuff for anything in the game.

This is really, really, getting out of hand. Tons of people selling SAB Trib runs in the LFG tool.

Conski Deshan.2057:

It would have been nice if you’d said they get no buying protection, that way we’d be free to scam the cheaters out of their gold and at least gain something out of it or exact a little vengeance.

Wait, so it’s only the buyers that are exploiting this system? You don’t feel those selling it are doing anything wrong? A fool and his gold soon parted kind of scenario?

See, I think both should know better personally.

Chris Cleary.8017:

Alright, it’s about time I commented on this….

Chris, I want to thank you so very much for having broken the silence and giving us an official Arenanet stand point.

In practical terms your response maybe a small thing, but the fact that by replying you have

1) acknowledged that this is a legitimate concern for quite a lot of players
2) that you recognized that in this case a simple communication could take those concerns away;

I respect you for that. So thank you, again.

Yes, Guild Wars 2 is only a game, is it in the grand scheme of life all that important? Probably not, but the emotional involvement of people in the game and with their accounts is very real.

At least now everyone can make their choices and be confident that they are not going to compromise their account if they do decide to join a sell or a guildie offering.

Be happy, be healthy, be safe, be you

Hope everyone has a fantastic day and see you in the game!

It’s ANet’s game, so it’s really up to them to decide how they want to handle it. It might be inconsistent with previous decisions or it might not.

The big problem I see is that this sets an expectation for players about how to handle exploits. The previous stance was zero tolerance: use an exploit for personal gain and you’ll be punished. The new stance is apparently more nuanced, making it difficult for anyone to understand what is or is not allowed.

I really don’t understand the difference between using this exploit to sell paths (since that is otherwise impossible) compared to using exploits in dungeons to get to the end more quickly and sell the path more often. In other cases, the seller has to use the exploit for their “business model” to be effective. Arguably, the trib mode path sales are worse, since at least in dungeons, it’s possible to get credit for late joiners without exploiting, while in trib mode it’s not.

tl;dr it’s ANet’s game and they can decide whatever they want. However, I think they would be wise to reconsider.

Disappointing to see this kind of true exploits being allowed.

Siobhan.5273:

Conski Deshan.2057:

It would have been nice if you’d said they get no buying protection, that way we’d be free to scam the cheaters out of their gold and at least gain something out of it or exact a little vengeance.

Wait, so it’s only the buyers that are exploiting this system? You don’t feel those selling it are doing anything wrong? A fool and his gold soon parted kind of scenario?

See, I think both should know better personally.

Oh I agree 100% both are in the wrong , I think they should all have their SAB skins blanket relocked as punishment.
I was more talking about a player method to punish them within the rules which I can’t think of one to inflict on the buyer. I guess you could double join the party and kick to wreck the run but I think thats considered against the rules too.

Chris Cleary.8017:

Alright, it’s about time I commented on this.

As of now we don’t have a problem with players doing this. While the late join is unintended, if players want to pay for this service, that’s fine. It does trivialize the skins some, but this isn’t any different than the skins from purchasing a raid run or a dungeon run (which we also are ok with). As long as the transaction is completed and players are getting what they paid for, fine.

However, that doesn’t mean that we aren’t going to fix this. A fix is in the works right now, and that fix may happen before SAB closes or be there for the next time the festival opens.

Can you make it so that gear bought with unearned tokens just disintegrates after 30 minutes, or turns into a clown outfit?

Conski Deshan.2057:

Siobhan.5273:

Conski Deshan.2057:

It would have been nice if you’d said they get no buying protection, that way we’d be free to scam the cheaters out of their gold and at least gain something out of it or exact a little vengeance.

Wait, so it’s only the buyers that are exploiting this system? You don’t feel those selling it are doing anything wrong? A fool and his gold soon parted kind of scenario?

See, I think both should know better personally.

Oh I agree 100% both are in the wrong , I think they should all have their SAB skins blanket relocked as punishment.
I was more talking about a player method to punish them within the rules which I can’t think of one to inflict on the buyer. I guess you could double join the party and kick to wreck the run but I think thats considered against the rules too.

Ohh, I see! I gotcha now.

It’s a double edged sword for sure. I do like your skin lock idea though!

I just don’t get it. I am super horrid at jumping stuff, partially why my husband mains a Mesmer, lol, but of course, sometimes, I just have to stand, or jump, as it may be, on my own two pixelated feet. The sense of accomplishment is enough for me more often than not, but a reward like these skins or auras at the end would just be awesome. I’d be peeved if I worked hard like alot of you people are doing, and someone with some cash burning a huge hole in their pocket got very easily, what took me so long to work for. It’s supposed to be an accomplishment, right?

Heck, I won’t even buy the infinite coin right now.. I’d rather spend cash on my Mustang, what can I say, girl has to have a hobby, and this girl wants a nice detail after the winter we’ve had. It’s time to get outside and enjoy the spring.

• edit the kitten monster got everything I wrote for some odd reason, lol

Chris Cleary.8017:

Alright, it’s about time I commented on this.

As of now we don’t have a problem with players doing this. While the late join is unintended, if players want to pay for this service, that’s fine. It does trivialize the skins some, but this isn’t any different than the skins from purchasing a raid run or a dungeon run (which we also are ok with). As long as the transaction is completed and players are getting what they paid for, fine.

However, that doesn’t mean that we aren’t going to fix this. A fix is in the works right now, and that fix may happen before SAB closes or be there for the next time the festival opens.

Hope you realize that you just gave carte blanche for people to exploit anything. Using a bug to enter an instance that should be off limits is an exploit and you are now condoning that exploit. This is not the same as buying a dungeon run where people can enter and leave at will.

Eulolia.2467:

Can you make it so that gear bought with unearned tokens just disintegrates after 30 minutes, or turns into a clown outfit?

+1 for anything you post, ever.

lol half a dozen “Selling tribulation mode” entries in the LFG Menu with W2 maps going below 10g a run.

Can’t wait to see the morning news on tv.

Headline: Butt hurt people mad over a company’s stance on a bug.
In other news Flint still in water crisis.

Wozniak.7304:

Can’t wait to see the morning news on tv.

Headline: Butt hurt people mad over a company’s stance on a bug.
In other news Flint still in water crisis.

That might not be enough. We might have to start one of those dumb internet petitions.

DoctorDing.5890:

Wozniak.7304:

Can’t wait to see the morning news on tv.

Headline: Butt hurt people mad over a company’s stance on a bug.
In other news Flint still in water crisis.

That might not be enough. We might have to start one of those dumb internet petitions.

Get Trumps support maybe BLM also because this bug is super serious.

Don’t worry, they’re working on a fix and it’ll come out April 19th. :P

Dondarrion.2748:

Don’t worry, they’re working on a fix and it’ll come out April 19th. :P

Praise Lord Colin

Chris Cleary.8017:

Alright, it’s about time I commented on this.

As of now we don’t have a problem with players doing this. While the late join is unintended, if players want to pay for this service, that’s fine. It does trivialize the skins some, but this isn’t any different than the skins from purchasing a raid run or a dungeon run (which we also are ok with). As long as the transaction is completed and players are getting what they paid for, fine.

However, that doesn’t mean that we aren’t going to fix this. A fix is in the works right now, and that fix may happen before SAB closes or be there for the next time the festival opens.

Aaaaand one of the only non-grind/non-trading post based reward systems in the game is reduced to a trading post reward system.

CrashTestAuto.9108:

reduced to a trading post reward system.

It’s not that easy, but fyi, you could always buy a TM run (not a guide) regardless of this exploit, including the achievements or whatever else.

SRoode.7318:

Tribulation mode is earned huh? How many of you did it with a guide?
I see no problem with this at all.

100% blind run. 20~ hours marathon, at end I was like zombi, very happy zombie.

Incognito.3529:

SRoode.7318:

Tribulation mode is earned huh? How many of you did it with a guide?
I see no problem with this at all.

100% blind run. 20~ hours marathon, at end I was like zombi, very happy zombie.

Also ran it blind with a guild mate the first day Tribulation mode was ever available. Gotta say, this decision is highly disappointing, and considering all the other problems I’ve had with the game lately I don’t have much faith or respect left for anet.

Sad to hear. Been slogging through w2z3 only need 10 more tokens and for what? I could have bought the tokens or hell even sold a few runs and cashed in. Casuals will always find a way to cheese content.

Sird.4536:

Sad to hear. Been slogging through w2z3 only need 10 more tokens and for what? I could have bought the tokens or hell even sold a few runs and cashed in. Casuals will always find a way to cheese content.

When there is a money we always find a way :>

Wozniak.7304:

Sird.4536:

Sad to hear. Been slogging through w2z3 only need 10 more tokens and for what? I could have bought the tokens or hell even sold a few runs and cashed in. Casuals will always find a way to cheese content.

When there is a money we always find a way :>

And people say elitism is killing this game when it’s the casuals all along.

I’m happy to see the decision from Anet, feels like it’s moving in the right direction.

(I personally didn’t abuse this being scared they would take actions.)

Sird.4536:

Wozniak.7304:

Sird.4536:

Sad to hear. Been slogging through w2z3 only need 10 more tokens and for what? I could have bought the tokens or hell even sold a few runs and cashed in. Casuals will always find a way to cheese content.

When there is a money we always find a way :>

And people say elitism is killing this game when it’s the casuals all along.

yeahp because people finding more ways to spend money on gold then spend gold on stuff is killing the game :| logic

If this is their stance on the exploit, then instead of fixing it, I’d say it’d be better to just remove the restriction on joining in progress. At least that way the people buying their runs have essentially wasted their money, while all the legitimate players who don’t feel like they’re able to beat Tribulation mode and refuse to exploit don’t get left out.

On the plus side, since this exploit has been given the green light for abuse, guess I can start handing out free runs without worry. Got a few guildies who’d appreciate it I’m sure.

Kanaima.2546:

If this is their stance on the exploit, then instead of fixing it, I’d say it’d be better to just remove the restriction on joining in progress. At least that way the people buying their runs have essentially wasted their money, while all the legitimate players who don’t feel like they’re able to beat Tribulation mode and refuse to exploit don’t get left out.

On the plus side, since this exploit has been given the green light for abuse, guess I can start handing out free runs without worry. Got a few guildies who’d appreciate it I’m sure.

I agree with just removing the restriction.

Lulleh.6714:

I’m happy to see the decision from Anet, feels like it’s moving in the right direction.

(I personally didn’t abuse this being scared they would take actions.)

But this is exactly why it’s the wrong direction. This is an exploit, and its something ANet doesn’t want to be done (which is why they’re fixing it). By giving the okay they’ve opened the floodgates to people like you who were scared to do the exploit.

I am baffled that ANet would give an okay on something they know is an exploit that they are going to fix. This is one of the few times where silence was actually useful.

The thing that seems strange to me is how player to player trading is vehemently discouraged for protection of the buyer/seller, except when it comes down to selling runs the discouragement is dropped.

Glad to see some comms on this though. I don’t agree with the stance, but it doesn’t really affect me since I don’t pay for runs and I don’t really put much thought into how other people got their “shinies”.

Randulf.7614:

The thing that seems strange to me is how player to player trading is vehemently discouraged for protection of the buyer/seller, except when it comes down to selling runs the discouragement is dropped.

Glad to see some comms on this though. I don’t agree with the stance, but it doesn’t really affect me since I don’t pay for runs and I don’t really put much thought into how other people got their “shinies”.

I do care about where other people get their “shinies”, because I think it’s nice to reward effort/skill. However, I wasn’t really bothered by this particular issue because it was a bug and it wasn’t like ANet had intentionally reduced the value by sticking the skins in PvP chests or something.

But now ANet have actually made the situation worse. It’s gone from “Huh, it’s an annoying bug but whatever” to “Wait, what? Why the heck did ANet just intentionally help devalue these?”

I’m all for ANet communicating more, but surely that doesn’t mean we praise them whenever they say anything, including when what they say actually encourages exploits…

Sird.4536:

Wozniak.7304:

Sird.4536:

Sad to hear. Been slogging through w2z3 only need 10 more tokens and for what? I could have bought the tokens or hell even sold a few runs and cashed in. Casuals will always find a way to cheese content.

When there is a money we always find a way :>

And people say elitism is killing this game when it’s the casuals all along.

Traffic going both directions down a 1 way street.

This thread deserves a new popcorn meme

http://i.imgur.com/i0FX2go.gif

Kanaima.2546:

If this is their stance on the exploit, then instead of fixing it, I’d say it’d be better to just remove the restriction on joining in progress. At least that way the people buying their runs have essentially wasted their money, while all the legitimate players who don’t feel like they’re able to beat Tribulation mode and refuse to exploit don’t get left out.

On the plus side, since this exploit has been given the green light for abuse, guess I can start handing out free runs without worry. Got a few guildies who’d appreciate it I’m sure.

That’s not a bad idea at all. ArenaNet has always been OK with people selling runs for dungeons and whatnot as long as players don’t start scamming each other all the time.

SAB Tribulation mode is extremely hard, even looking up a guide on how to do it. I managed to do world 1 zone 1 solo using Dulfy’s guide, mainly to get to the furniture shop for that achievement. It was incredibly frustrating.

Some players are really good at it and others want to do it but aren’t very skilled. So I agree – remove the restriction of joining a party already in progress and let players sell runs for it. It would actually reduce frustration in the game among players and everyone could benefit from it.

The main issue here is that a lot of people consider there to be an exploit and Chris said they’re OK with people doing that. My only concern is that some players might misinterpret what he said. Most players do have enough common sense to understand what he meant though.

Charrbeque.8729:

Most players do have enough common sense to understand what he meant though.

After reading most of this thread I don’t know how accurate that statement is.

“Selling SAB W1Z1 3g”
“Selling SAB W2Z3 10g send gold to xxx”

This is literally all I see in LFG right now. Tribulation mode is a joke right now, where is the sense of achievement when you could drop money and get something that is locked behind skill? Ever since the confirmation that this Exploit is legal, everyone and their mom starts to do it.
Goodjob Anet, you once again prove yourself to be a wonderful company. /s

JMeth.8063:

“Selling SAB W1Z1 3g”
“Selling SAB W2Z3 10g send gold to xxx”

This is literally all I see in LFG right now. Tribulation mode is a joke right now, where is the sense of achievement when you could drop money and get something that is locked behind skill? Ever since the confirmation that this Exploit is legal, everyone and their mom starts to do it.
Goodjob Anet, you once again prove yourself to be a wonderful company. /s

Its glorious, the redistribution of wealth is great ;D

And I was just done with both collections…
Way to make all that hard work feel meaningless.

Why did you have to say you were fine with people using the exploit? Simply confirming it as an exploit would have been enough for people to get scared and stop using it.

Well I hope you don’t hold it against me for all the SAB listing I reported last night… Still feels kitten wrong to me.

Sariel V.7024:

Well I hope you don’t hold it against me for all the SAB listing I reported last night… Still feels kitten wrong to me.

It’s trivialising the content. Chris even said it himself.

Honestly saying nothing about this until a fix was actually implemented would have been preferable. If only to act as a deterrent. Giving the okay to this will now only encourage the practice further. It doesn’t just trivialise the skins & infusions, it trivialises all the players who are completing tribulation mode the intended way.

I hope a fix is implemented sooner than the end of the festival. It should really be a priority.

Mordeus.1234:

Honestly saying nothing about this until a fix was actually implemented would have been preferable. If only to act as a deterrent. Giving the okay to this will now only encourage the practice further. It doesn’t just trivialise the skins & infusions, it trivialises all the players who are completing tribulation mode the intended way.

I hope a fix is implemented sooner than the end of the festival. It should really be a priority.

Yep. I opened LFG yesterday to advertise a group for the daily and saw the amount of SAB sells. For a second I though of selling w2z3 as that is what I was farming but thought against it as it did not seem right but now I am going to cash in big time which still doesn’t feel right but hey, it’s allowed.

Chris Cleary.8017:

…

However, that doesn’t mean that we aren’t going to fix this. A fix is in the works right now, and that fix may happen before SAB closes or be there for the next time the festival opens.

Return of SAB confirmed