There will not be an official statement as it was set up intentionally. There is no game mechanic being exploited beyond a level 1 getting there, or a quest reset. The xp weekends were set up intentionally so as to get as many people to 50, ready for the expansion, as is possible.

 

To curb this would be to lessen the number of expansions, CC items and gear they could potentially sell so there really is no motivation to waste resources on this and turn potential profit into expenditures, especially for a short term "prep for the future" event.

 

Honestly folks, I see no exploit and see no motivation to stop this.

So, are you admitting that people exploited by taking their level 1 characters to Ilum or repeatedly resetting the pylon quest? It sounds like you are. Exploiting a game mechanic is still an exploit.

Edit: this post was created prior to having seen the official post.

I know it's bad when that's the best you got. You've lost twice now. Must make you angry.

No it doesn't. But keep replying and thinking you need the last word.

No it doesn't. But keep replying and thinking you need the last word.

last word(s)

I almost never post, but I will now.

I think you post quite a lot actually. Post History never lies.

Do understand: I did not do this. In fact, I enjoy leveling through the storylines in this game.

But, I also understand that not everyone does. Maybe they've already done all 8 stories. Maybe they're just tired of leveling?

Either way, it's not hurting 'me' at all if they decide to grind to 50 on one planet in one day. It's a hell of a waste in my eyes, but hey, it's not effecting my play at all.

Now, if it gets to the point where I jump into a Flash Point with a Tank and/or Healer who ground to 50 in 10 hours and has no idea how to play his/her class and we wipe repeatedly as a result, then maybe my opinion will change.

But until then, I don't see how this should be an issue for most of the players to get upset about.

2 choices: take action against exploiters or leave it alone entirely. The middle ground is for hypocrites.

Nah, they're correcting *their* oversight. One that really didn't cause any grief to anyone, anyway. If they were actively seeking to grief people in some way, then they should be punished. Leveling in this game isn't a race, it doesn't earn you any accolades by getting there faster. I've seen Blizzard respond to situations of the same ilk by simply removing the mechanic many times over the years as well.

This is like if the vending machine at the office malfunctioned and dispensed two chip packages for the price of 1 for a while. Most likely they'd just fix it, not try to track down every person who got two bags of chips, make them pay for it and fire them.

Yeah, he nailed it, except that he neglected to mention that this is the lazy, wishy washy, mamby pamby approach.

 

Agreed. It's either and exploit or its not. Not "both" as in what EA is choosing to do to "band aid" fix this hole. Unintended results should have been "reported via in game ticket" to alert EA that is was happening in the first place and not wait "days" after to come up with this decission. EA looks weak here. There should be roll backs if it was behavior that was not intented. Otherwise leave it in the game until Makeb comes out. EA should want as many "happy" "customers" to be ready for their expansion.

So Eric, you really need to reverse what you said. Either leave it in the game or take it out and punish those that exploitted the hole since you admitted that it was not intended and by definition with your pronouncement and exploit. Infernixx didn't "get it" he restated and parrotted what you said that is all.

Do understand: I did not do this. In fact, I enjoy leveling through the storylines in this game.

 

But, I also understand that not everyone does. Maybe they've already done all 8 stories. Maybe they're just tired of leveling?

 

Either way, it's not hurting 'me' at all if they decide to grind to 50 on one planet in one day. It's a hell of a waste in my eyes, but hey, it's not effecting my play at all.

 

Now, if it gets to the point where I jump into a Flash Point with a Tank and/or Healer who ground to 50 in 10 hours and has no idea how to play his/her class and we wipe repeatedly as a result, then maybe my opinion will change.

 

But until then, I don't see how this should be an issue for most of the players to get upset about.

Well, if they were sewn with ruched pleats, panties weren't meant to be bunched like this. Otherwise, i haven't the faintest idea why people are in a tizzy about this.

A black-and-white perspective is lovely, as it exists only in your head. The world, on the other hand, is a world of greys.

50 shades of them, to be exact.

Sorry, couldn't resist that one.

So, are you admitting that people exploited by taking their level 1 characters to Ilum or repeatedly resetting the pylon quest? It sounds like you are. Exploiting a game mechanic is still an exploit.

This stuff about level 1s going to Ilum. The Priority Transport Black Hole has a requirement of level 50, and that's the only one I've heard about for this alleged exploit. Is there another way that people are supposedly getting a level 1 to Ilum?

But, I also understand that not everyone does. Maybe they've already done all 8 stories. Maybe they're just tired of leveling?

I'm tired of re-grinding the generic planet quest content.

I wish they'd add something to legacy to increase quest storyline xp by 1000% - that would make me happy as a pig in ****.

Nah, they're correcting *their* oversight. One that really didn't cause any grief to anyone, anyway. If they were actively seeking to grief people in some way, then they should be punished. Leveling in this game isn't a race, it doesn't earn you any accolades by getting there faster. I've seen Blizzard respond to situations of the same ilk by simply removing the mechanic many times over the years as well.

 

This is like if the vending machine at the office malfunctioned and dispensed two chip packages for the price of 1 for a while. Most likely they'd just fix it, not try to track down every person who got two bags of chips, make them pay for it and fire them.

Well said and a great analogy. As Eric even mentioned, the creativity of the tens of thousands of players, will never be matched by a group of developers. They didn't intend this, but it's far from harmful or impactful.

Agreed. It's either and exploit or its not. Not "both" as in what EA is choosing to do to "band aid" fix this hole. Unintended results should have been "reported via in game ticket" to alert EA that is was happening in the first place and not wait "days" after to come up with this decission. EA looks weak here. There should be roll backs if it was behavior that was not intented. Otherwise leave it in the game until Makeb comes out. EA should want as many "happy" "customers" to be ready for their expansion.

 

So Eric, you really need to reverse what you said. Either leave it in the game or take it out and punish those that exploitted the hole since you admitted that it was not intended and by definition with your pronouncement and exploit. Infernixx didn't "get it" he restated and parrotted what you said that is all.

No lol. It's an oversight, not an exploit.

I don't want everyone to get too caught up here on my vocabulary. I simply meant we do not consider it an exploit in that it is not severe to the point that we will be actioning accounts/characters for it.

They all understand Eric, they just want to hear you say the "E" word so they can say they were right and others were wrong. Don't worry about the trolls pretending to read into your words.

I don't want everyone to get too caught up here on my vocabulary. I simply meant we do not consider it an exploit in that it is not severe to the point that we will be actioning accounts/characters for it.

 

Players got creative in a way we did not originally intend, but we do not want to punish you for it. However, we also did not intend for it to be that way so we are making a temporary change to address it until we can get a more permanent solution in place.

This is what people on forums do. They nit-pick at vocabulary, playing 'rules lawyers', ignoring the intent of the message and focus on the wording of the message instead.

This stuff about level 1s going to Ilum. The Priority Transport Black Hole has a requirement of level 50, and that's the only one I've heard about for this alleged exploit. Is there another way that people are supposedly getting a level 1 to Ilum?

buy it from the cartel market. no level requirement that way. Another oversight by the crack QA staff at BEAware

So just to be clear...intentionally using ingame mechanics in a way not intended by the devs, to gain personal advantage - is not considered sploiting then? Good to know.

It may or may not be. Game developers generally encourage their players to find new inventive ways to play their games, and in the same way that it's not an exploit to play <insert current OP class/spec here>, which the devs did obviously not intend to be OP, many other things they did not intend aren't exploits either.

There are some things that are just pure no-nos and obvious exploiting (item duping, creating items out of nothing, making a server crash etc etc etc...), but then there's also other mechanics such as this one that can go either way - either the devs didn't intend for it to happen but feel it's still a cool feature so they keep it, or they realize it's bad game design and change it. Depending on the severity of it, they'll then either declare it as an exploit (warning everyone that anyone that does it from now on will be punished), or if it was very serious (lets say being able to farm a few billion credits/hour on a level 1 char) they'll take action retroactively. If the bug/feature only affects the player using it, it will almost always end up in one of the 3 first categories, never resulting in retroactive punishment.

In this case, there was a special event combined with a bolster system. It would be pretty easy to think that the bolster system was set there and allowed to boost everyone regardless of their level in order for them to be able to participate in the event, and killing mobs is a perfectly legitimate way to level. Most don't use that as a primary route since it takes too long, but it's still 100% allowed.

This is just how MMOs work.

No lol. It's an oversight, not an exploit.

Only based on the clarification Eric provided above your post. It goes to show that Eric and his team have a lot of work to understand "our vocabulary".

As others have stated in this thread and others this doesn't really hurt any one persons gaming experience, so why not leave it in the game. Others have said offer it as a CM unlock. Others have said offer it only after your first 50 as a CM unlock. As Infernixx and others have said, I enjoy leveling when I play MMORPGs so it doesn't effect people like me one way or the other. I am just arguing from the point that if it was allowed for some then it should be allowed for all -OR- if it was not intended then it should be rolled back so that all are on an even playing field. Not to reward "some" for being "creative". One could look back on this day the next time "someone is being creative" and say .. well you allowed us to be "creative before" what has changed this time? See where I am going with this? Prudential judgement and all that.

I don't want everyone to get too caught up here on my vocabulary. I simply meant we do not consider it an exploit in that it is not severe to the point that we will be actioning accounts/characters for it.

 

Players got creative in a way we did not originally intend, but we do not want to punish you for it. However, we also did not intend for it to be that way so we are making a temporary change to address it until we can get a more permanent solution in place.

Um, hello, Eric.

So, you're now saying that there are degrees to which one can exploit the game and that if the degree isn't high enough you'll just say, "Meh, it's okay for those who did it but we gotta stop anyone else from doing it."

Yeah, still seems wishy washy to me, bub.

Um, hello, Eric.

 

So, you're now saying that there are degrees to which one can exploit the game and that if the degree isn't high enough you'll just say, "Meh, it's okay for those who did it but we gotta stop anyone else from doing it."

 

Yeah, still seems wishy washy to me, bub.

 

Agreed. Sometimes it's "OK to be creative" but, othertimes it won't be.

Um, hello, Eric.

 

So, you're now saying that there are degrees to which one can exploit the game and that if the degree isn't high enough you'll just say, "Meh, it's okay for those who did it but we gotta stop anyone else from doing it."

 

Yeah, still seems wishy washy to me, bub.

 

What's wishy-washy? They didn't intend it. They're removing it. What do you suggest they do? Ban people? Close their accounts? Publicly flog them? It was unintended. It's being removed. What more could you possibly want?

They all understand Eric, they just want to hear you say the "E" word so they can say they were right and others were wrong. Don't worry about the trolls pretending to read into your words.

Actually i couldn't care less about this particular exploit, nor punishments regarding it. But i did want to know if this type of behaviour is considered exploiting or not, since other scenarios will come along as time goes by with the exact same system of usage, only a different mechanic

....and now i got the answer i asked for: Yes, this type of behavior IS considered exploting and depending on its magnitude it could warrant action being taken against an account.