Item Stack Resale Exploit

That doesn't matter. It does nothing to add to the temporarily banned state of the account. It's one thing to take away their game time. That's the thing closely associated with an exploit. You should also remove those credits and the influence which was gained by fraudulent activity.

However...



is simply too much. No other MMO developer in history will ever go this far, they know it hurts them way too much. You cannot take away legitimately gotten stuff from an account without feeling major consequences to your image. The issue here is that the steps mentioned above do nothing at all to add to an already lengthened ban.

You can remove all ill-gotten items and ban them for a period of two months. That's enough time to ponder their behaviour. The ill-gotten influence has been removed, resulting in no gain, while at the same time giving the person the opportunity to come back and play it right this time. I'm not saying some damage hasn't been done, but that's it. Just like our justice system. At least here in Europe. Our system isn't mean to condemn criminals and lock them away forever, it is a system targeted to rehabilitate criminals into society.

You'll just create a paranoid climate around this game if there's always a chance for all your stuff to be removed when accidentally stumbling upon an exploit. Yes, this has been proposed by some.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiE4CJ7D0C8

Bioware is essentially doing the 4th sketch here. They are, once again, applying punishment completely disporportional to the crime.

People here are complaining that this is just a slap on the wrist. That is what a temporal ban should be. A simple reminder not to do it again. Do it again? Then you perma-ban them. This is a sledgehammer approach once again. Bioware has no idea about moderation.

I didn't care, or even know, for that matter. I have had no incentive to play this game outside of my team's scheduled weekend raids.

Honestly, what are people still doing in this game?

and with the record for the most meaningless non-punishment was set today

I can't believe how poorly some people are at reading comprehension.

In my post you quoted, I clearly stated exploiters should be actioned, and only suggested that EA / Bioware would need to consider the value of an account against the exploit in determining what action to take, not that they should take no actions.

If as you stat, the only people who exploited were those that do not contribute to this game's revenue, they will most likely ban them permanently.

However, if some of the people who exploited are subscribers and CM customers and thus contribute to this game's revenue, then suspensions from the game are more likely as EA / Bioware will want to retain them as paying customers.

Simple business logic - totally baffling I'm sure for those incapable of grasping EA is a for-profit company which earns money by providing SWTOR as a paid service, and thus filters decisions against impacts to their finances.

Those things take forever and are quite costly to get to 50 now.

You couldn't be more wrong. There's significant economic impact to Influence 50 and having accounts out there with 20 alts with 6+ max Influence companions would have been a serious issue from this exploit. It needed to be part of the solution, so bravo.

I didn't care, or even know, for that matter. I have had no incentive to play this game outside of my team's scheduled weekend raids.

Honestly, what are people still doing in this game?

Hey folks,

Here is the first update on use of the stacked item sale exploit. As of this afternoon we have sent out our initial set of warnings, suspensions, and permanent bans for accounts participating in this exploit. I say initial, because it was important to action the accounts and prevent any further damage to the economy.

WARNINGS?!? You gotta be kidding me.... Just like the chair exploit... 3 day ban and back at it... What are you guys the Raiders? If you ain't cheating you ain't trying?

So, you are saying that whales will get off lightly if they happen to be one of the more egregious exploiters simply because they drop stacks of cash on the game? I'm sorry but the idea of that is sickening to me. If anything, banhammering a couple of whales would go a long way towards making it clear that cheating and exploiting of any kind will not be tolerated no matter who you are.

Does BW have the balls to do it? Would we even know if they did? We may never know the answer to either of those questions. I would hope BW would have the stones to back up their policy with action. I'd also wager if a whale (or whales) were to be heavily actioned (all credits etc wiped) or permabanned, they would go public somewhere with cries of "You can't do this to me! I spend thousands of dollars on packs every day!!!!" I would welcome the chance to laugh at them.

I would also give Bioware an epic high-five for having a spine and showing some integrity. It's a lot easier to support a company like that with my sub fee than one who lets people slide simply because they choose to throw cash at them.