Confirmed, Hackers banned for 3-10 days. [Statement from Smed] - Page 4

**Smed** · 2013-02-25, 09:28 PM

Originally Posted by Assist

Ah, it didn't read like that. If that's the case then ok. The context the response post was in most people would consider him to be talking about hackers not 'cheaters'. I'd consider some of those acts griefing, not cheating but to each their own.

OT: You mean using mines on allied Sunderers? Or mines on stationary Sunderers?

Originally Posted by Wahooo

This actually kinda pisses me off. If we are to take this seriously where the hell was this response 4-5 years ago when a couple of these pay to cheat sites took off and started making money and at the same time KILLING PS1???

From ~Jan - June of 2009 the population drop in PS1 was friggen staggering due to the rampant cheating and SLOW response. Many of the worst granted were writing the scripts themselves and sharing free to others who included many of the 'subtle' hackers we all knew about and were reported with video evidence time and time again. BUT... the pay to cheat sites were there then. The pay to cheat sites were stealing SOE's money by killing the playerbase then. PS1 was an alive game that had 1, 2 sometimes 3 pop-locked continents daily to the constant 3-way cyssorside it remained for the last 3 years of its life. That probably represents a couple thousand players actually that quit over a period of 6 months MOSTLY due to hacking.

Remember in June of 2009? They started responding to tickets in minutes, 24/7 hackers were being banned, coming back and being banned sometimes 3-4 times and the banning and GM response was better than i've seen in almost any game... but it was too little and too late the damage had been done. I know the outfit I was in at that time lost 75% of its palyers between april and may, and the next outfit I was in went from platoons to 1/2 squads during that period and neither ever recovered. GM's actually doing GM stuff in a timely manner in June? Just not enough.

SO SMED,
If these sites are some new revelation to you and you feel NOW it is time to act? FUCK YOU! This threat and action is about 5 years to late in my book.

Ok. I guess I should consider myself fucked.

Seriously things change over time. Including the law and precedent.

PS2 is a different game at a different order of magnitude. Complain about the past or help us work on the future. If all you're going to do is bitch about the past you aren't moving things forward IMO.

Smed

CrazEpharmacist · 2013-02-25, 09:33 PM

Originally Posted by Smed

Ok. I guess I should consider myself fucked.

Seriously things change over time. Including the law and precedent.

PS2 is a different game at a different order of magnitude. Complain about the past or help us work on the future. If all you're going to do is bitch about the past you aren't moving things forward IMO.

Smed

When PS1 goes free to play do you guys plan to have a couple GMs monitoring the game for hackers? Because even now, when the game is completely dead there are still a few hackers that sub regularly.

**Smed** · 2013-02-25, 09:39 PM

Originally Posted by CrazEpharmacist

When PS1 goes free to play do you guys plan to have a couple GMs monitoring the game for hackers? Because even now, when the game is completely dead there are still a few hackers that sub regularly.

Here's the truth - when PS1 is F2P maybe 100 people will play it.

That's about 10x what we have right now.

No I'm not kidding.

PS1 is a ghost town and it's going to likely stay that way.

hard truth but there it is.

Tatwi · 2013-02-25, 09:43 PM

You really should go the cheaters homes, like you joked about. The trouble with this though is that cheating has become part of the North American culture, from Harvard to Halo, folks have no shame. The up hill battle here is convincing people that using "cheat mode" in a single player game is not the same thing as cheating in a multi-player game. There is a whole culture surrounding this issue and it's something the gaming industry as a whole in going to have to address.

In any event, I hope your lawyers improve the situation. Suing the PS3 Linux guy was wrong, because oh no, people could run Open Office in their livingroom (like they were allowed to do when they bought the original product...). But suing people who are actually hacking revenue generating programs, causing paying customers to leave, well, that's a genuine problem for Sony.

"Pick your battles" they say. This is one of them. Kindly win it.

CrazEpharmacist · 2013-02-25, 09:47 PM

Originally Posted by Smed

Here's the truth - when PS1 is F2P maybe 100 people will play it.

That's about 10x what we have right now.

No I'm not kidding.

PS1 is a ghost town and it's going to likely stay that way.

hard truth but there it is.

I think you severely underestimate the demand for ps1. Your sequel is very taxing on even some high end pcs. Not every one has a good enough pc to play pS2, so for those players they can have ps1. Plus all the other people that straight out hate ps2 and want to come back to ps1. I think you will have a dedicated player base that can pop lock at least the one server you have up and running, when it goes free to play.

To clarify though, are you planning on implementing a cash store for free to play, or just switching the reserves system back on? (Edited because it seemed harsh.)

Also, if you truly think PS1 will remain a ghost town, why even bother making it free to play? Why not just shut the server down?

Zulthus · 2013-02-25, 10:19 PM

Originally Posted by Smed

Here's the truth - when PS1 is F2P maybe 100 people will play it.

That's about 10x what we have right now.

No I'm not kidding.

PS1 is a ghost town and it's going to likely stay that way.

hard truth but there it is.

I respectfully disagree. There are tons of people who want to go back to PS1, even if just for a while. The main reason everyone left late in its life was because of all the hackers. They were rampant, and the game wasn't playable some days.

Also, edit. Out of curiosity, do you want PS1 to stay alive? You seem to have no faith in it anymore. I see no reason why PS1 and PS2 can't coexist like EQ1 and EQ2. I personally play EQ1 all the time because it's so much better than EQ2 IMO.

What I'm saying is there's room for the niche games. PS2/EQ2 are games for the masses and casuals, whereas EQ1/PS1 are more..."in depth" maybe? They just take a more focused gamer to have fun in them, there's no instant gratification. I'm probably making no sense, but eh. You could probably make some profit off of PS1 if you gave it a small dev team. Hell, you could even let the community create content.

Ghodere · 2013-02-25, 10:21 PM

Until it actually happens, everything is speculation. People and their motivations are complex; if you want to know how many people will play PS1 over the long term when it's made F2P, you have to make PS1 F2P and see. No way around it.

CrazEpharmacist · 2013-02-25, 10:22 PM

Originally Posted by Zulthus

I disagree. There are tons of people who want to go back to PS1, even if just for a while. The main reason everyone left late in its life was because of all the hackers. They were rampant, and the game wasn't playable some days.

Also, the sub is still 15 dollars. That's a lot for a game that soe gave up supporting. It used to be 10 but they actually raised it to 15 even though support had been dropped by that point. Who knows why though? Almost like they want the game to be dead, and judging by smeds post above I think that is all but confirmed.

Electrofreak · 2013-02-25, 10:25 PM

Originally Posted by Smed

Here's the truth - when PS1 is F2P maybe 100 people will play it.

That's about 10x what we have right now.

No I'm not kidding.

PS1 is a ghost town and it's going to likely stay that way.

hard truth but there it is.

Smed, first off, thanks for posting out here. A lot of rage in this thread but I do see the actions of the GM team paying off. It's rare I see a blatant cheater and those I suspect tend to disappear after a while.

As for PS1, I'll respectfully disagree. The reason it's a ghost town is because of the subscription and because it's a ghost town. Now, a lot of PS1 worked well, and we're seeing more and more of that come into PS2 (like the dynamic kill XP in GU2, which seemed to be come straight out of the post in my signature, sans dynamic capture XP) so I'm glad to see it. But a lot of PS1 was bad too. I think something that will help PS2 is for people, when they're in a rut and thinking about quitting the game, to play the original for a little bit and realize all the improvements that have been made. That said, some people just don't like change. They'll play PS1 no matter how good PS2 gets because it's PS1, or just for the nostalgia.

I know I'd log in and play PS1 occasionally myself. Gotta have my Rocklet Rifle fix now and then!

Hamma · 2013-02-25, 10:42 PM

Guys enough with the damn PS1 talk. This isn't about PS1..

DirtyBird · 2013-02-25, 10:43 PM

Thanks Higby and Smeds for clarifying it for me at least.
I've had success in the past with reporting various cheats and it looks like that will continue if needed.

Hamma · 2013-02-25, 10:43 PM

Originally Posted by CrazEpharmacist

I think you severely underestimate the demand for ps1.

I really don't think he does.

CrazEpharmacist · 2013-02-25, 10:47 PM

Originally Posted by Hamma

Guys enough with the damn PS1 talk. This isn't about PS1..

Yeah sorry, I initiated the PS1 talk when my thread got merged into this one. It's been since restored so yeah we can stop with the PS1.

SKYeXile · 2013-02-25, 11:09 PM

The guy looks legit.

Wahooo · 2013-02-25, 11:19 PM

Originally Posted by Hamma

Guys enough with the damn PS1 talk. This isn't about PS1..

I used PS1 as an example of what a lack of attention can/will do to a game when it comes to cheaters.

A few things on this. First of all I still believe the hacking issue is being taken care of fairly well on PS2. I have seen only a few ACTUAL no doubt hackers. I have seen MANY very good players that a lot of people swear are cheaters. I have seen quite a few I'm suspicious of.

I am still obviously very pissed about the lack of attention this issue got in PS1. But as I said it is the past experience we have to go by with this company.
I do guess things do change, and I personally appreciate the effort they are making in this game. I THINK I personally see it. Of all the shooters i've played in the last several years I have seen fewer signs of blatant cheaters in PS2 than any other save for Global Agenda for the first ~5 months of that game.

I still think there is more that can be done, but as has been pointed out in this thread cheat PREVENTION is kind of a misnomer as they are always working to get around whatever blocks can be made and it means it is cheat RESPONSE and PS2 has been IMO better than PS1... BUT I stand by my anger over the lack of response PS1 had AND that this really does seem like SMED has only recently seen the reality of the pay to cheat sites... AND I also strongly disagree with his numbers estimate... but his estimation will be probably over the amount that will play if there is no GM support and PS1 becomes a hacker-fest.