That honestly depends on how easy to use your bug reporting tool is. Ultimately I’m pretty lazy so if I need to take screenshots, find the right email to send it to, then compose an email with the screens and logs attached then I will probably not bother. That is of course once the game is live, in Alpha or beta a certain amount of bug documenting is part of the experience.
I would recommend adding a bug report tool button that automatically takes a set of screen shots and snags bits of the log then allows a player to enter 500 words or so description. Even if we even lazier and only type “Bug” you at least have the screen and the log on your trouble shooting database.
In my experience exploits are rarely actually beneficial and just annoying.
NEVER! I have discovered a huge number of exploits over the years in almost every title I played. If I discover an exploit - or what I think might be an exploit - the first thing I do is try to reproduce it. ONCE and only once. If I can reproduce it, I will usually try to contact someone immediately via in-game tells/whispers. If I know a guy (ahem), I have actually phoned them. I have also been fortunate enough to perform analytics on a couple of MMOs and can tell you, math can find an exploit where no one ever thought to look. There will be a few folks that insist that a graphics glitch like this is no big deal. There are plenty of games out there where folks use certain apps to explore undiscovered zones etc. that give them an advantage once a zone goes live. I don't do this and urge others not to do it.
I suppose the reasoning for me is that I am a game purist. Cheating in a game is like unwrapping your Christmas presents two weeks beforehand and then wrapping them back up. When Christmas finally does come, the adventure and magic of it all is gone. Everyone should try to have a little magic in their lives.
You are bound to be tempted to have a brief look around, but for me, I would definitely report it very quickly.
Exploits often have severe consequences for the balance of the game and I would feel terrible if I was responsible for damaging Pantheon, which I'm hoping will feel like my second home.
Well, I would use it as part of my fact finding investigation and then report it. Now if I found a cool weapon or something, I would try to keep it. After all I found it exploring. But I would report and let the GM decide. I perfectly happy earning my way, but there is nothing wrong with a little luck along the way from time to time.
First I see if I can duplicate it, and explain it (assuming screenshots don't really explain what happened or how it happened).
If I can duplicate it, I will report it. If it seemed like a 1 time glitch, I just go about my business, and may come back another time and try again to see if it can be duplicated.
I would use it and tell all my friends about it. Games with quirks like this seem to be more enjoyable in a comedic way. That's if I get "stuck", but if it happend too often I might see it as bad game design and think of the game being cheap which would then lead me to report it.
I used to be of the mind that I would report the bug/exploit and move on trying to not use the new "feature" to make the game easier or to "get rich quick." However, after playing more MMO's then I care to admit I have become less and less of the shinning knight in this regard. This is mainly due to the devs unfortunately. What I mean by this: there would be known exploits in MMO's and a small group of people would take advantage of the exploit. When the devs finally acted, nothing was done to the people (some got a 1 week ban and lost a portion of the gold gained through the exploit, and by portion I mean 10-20%, most got a “do not do this again”). Fast forward and another exploit emerges, more people do the exploit and more “warnings” are handed out by the devs. Rinse and repeat until 90% of the player base (made up number) is exploiting because if they do not they will fall behind and the worse that will happen is being told “do not do it again.”
So for me, if there is an exploit the Devs have 1 chance to set their tone on how they are going to handle the situation. That tone will decide how I (and I am betting others) will handle exploits when they pop-up.
During all phases of the game (Alpha/Beta/Live) I will report any and all bugs/exploits that I come across. However, if the devs are not going to be harsh on people exploiting the game, then why would I not take advantage of a situation that can increase the power of my character when others are gaining the advantage with no repercussion?
Depends on the game and the stage it's in.
When I'm participating in a Beta I'll immediately report it regardless of being able to reproduce it or not. I would feel obligated to do so. And I would absolutely tell everyone about it to see if more people can reproduce it.
If the game is live and it's a single player game, reporting something like this isn't worth the effort because it's unlikely to get fixed and it's usually not that easy to report issues to begin with.
If it's a multiplayer game that's live, it depends on how well-maintained or bug-ridden it is otherwise. If it's an otherwise polished game or one that the developers are clearly invested in fixing, I will report the exploit and won't tell anyone else about it.
If the game is a buggy mess that's beyond saving or if it's something I have already reported months ago and I find it's still in the game, I might send a report if I feel like it (but probably won't) and won't have any qualms about going public with it to pressure the devs to step up their game or to have a laugh about the sorry state the game is in.
Either way I won't continue to abuse exploits. I'll only occasionally check to see if it's still there after updates have been made to the game (I'm aware this sort of stuff isn't part of client side patches, but when client side patches occur then there's definitely changes on the server side as well).
I would report it and not use it for my advantage.
Partly because by nature I tend to be more and more lawful good in orientation.
Partly because I don't consider it fun to get things by cheating - I would be endlessly tempted to delete the character and start over to see what I could accomplish *honestly*. This is a game, I don't need to compromise to get more shiny virtual pixels, the way real life is full of compromises.
Partly because I do not view the game as a competition with other players. I am not a raider and being excluded from "endgame" content because my character isn't as well equipped as others that want the choice raid slots is no threat to me - I don't want those slots. But if I did want them I admit to a lot of sympathy for what Chogar said.
I would immediately report it. Taking care to give all pertinent information including if it was repeatable and under what conditions etc. Furthermore if it was a localized phenomenon, depending on the potential for abuse, relative proximity to significant named/raid mobs, how wide spread the information already was etc, i would notify my guild leadership and determine if this needed to be made a point of guild PvP focus until the matter was resolved.
Reasons being, imo it is everyones responsibility to maintain the integrity of the game. Anything, that even a single person can do to better, maintain or improve the game as a whole must be attempted.
Kilsin said:Scenario - You get stuck in an exploit (not your fault) that allows your character to see and move through walls and terrain, do you report it or use it and do you tell anyone or keep it to yourself? Please give reasons for your decision #MMORPG #communitymatters
I first try to figure out how/why this happened so that when I report it I can provide sufficient detail to allow the developers to recreate the scenario and get the same results. I hate exploting bugs or glitches as they do nothing but harm the game. i've seen money/item dupe exploits that devastated a game's economy and the economy never recovered. 3rd party application exploits like ShowEQ or MacroQuest also had long term detrimental effects.
Developers can get their revenge, and be snarky about it, when players exploit content. Back in EQ1 a guild used some geometry, zone design and levitation to reach Lord Inquisitor Seru, bypassing the required key quest. The GMs retroactively changed an item he dropped to this:
They also changed the zone so that levitation buffs of any kind were dispelled upon zoning into Sanctus Seru.
I report it immediately (with the goal of helping the game remain incredibly difficult and challenging). I do NOT like to see games eased-down whether it’s via exploitation or persistent whining from a tiny minority of players.
#communitymatters #makenightmatteragain
I remember when my son was fighting the gnolls in Highpass after a server patch and one of the gnolls dropped the Writ of Innoruuk. There were other great drops, but that was the best one. I guess someone jacked up the loot tables. oopsies...
With all sincerity, it depends. I went through a wall, was it suppose to be that way or is it an illusory wall covering a secret door? Don't know. Now if I stop in the middle and see visual artifacts, then yes you'd get a ticket cause I can see the bug.
Now I kill a rat and get a rod of lordly might from it's loot, then yes, you are going to get a ticket asking if that's right.
Accuracy of my report will also depend on how reporting is done. If I'm in a running fight I might not even notice, if there are roaming mobs and I don't dare take the time to stop and report, well it'll have to wait. Which means by the time I get a chance to report it I will have forgotten unless it's very memorable event.
If I can actually repeat it I would definitely report it as in this day and age once you discovered it you'll probably be able to see whose abused it and repeat offenders may feel the ban hammer. I'd rather not take the chance.
I would like to think people would report it. But this won't be the case and the peopel actively on these forums are 100% the type of people that WILL report it. And as Trasak said, making the bug reporting easy is the best. Now, how do we account for the people NOT on these forums that will be coming into the game after development. There will be people that would exploit, but the general community for Pantheon I think will not.
So with this in mind. When it does happen what measures will be taken? Will characters that benefited from it rolled back? These are important factors to consider and a fine line to walk. Because you don't want to feel like you are "punishing" people. But people will play coy and be like "ah, I had no idea it was an exploit!!!" But in reality most will know.
That's just my thoughts.
Kilsin said:Scenario - You get stuck in an exploit (not your fault) that allows your character to see and move through walls and terrain, do you report it or use it and do you tell anyone or keep it to yourself? Please give reasons for your decision #MMORPG #communitymatters
Yes I would , I would try it a few times . one never knows if its a bug or exploit .
Reason = I had this happen in a game i was testing . Guild leader found wall to safe area and found the chest to be clickable even without killing named . ( constant clickable ) .
Was telling eveyone in guild and others to come get your chars geared with the best available at that time in development . I listened for hours then send report about it all .
This was game breaking not only to game itself but developers , economy and those who did not take advantage of it .
So answer Yes and Yes again .
I'd report it, hopefully knowing how it happened or what part of the zone "glitched". I might say something to my group/guildmates that I "fell" through the world but I wouldn't use it to exploit. Now if it was something that has been in the game for years that everyone knows about and isn't hurting anything, I might check it out for fun. One of the reasons i pledged for alpha/beta is to help find things like this before it is live.