Curse

VGJustice · Mar 14, 2006, 07:07 AM // 07:07

To the GWGuru staff: if you feel that this is too much of a flame bait, please lock this on sight.

Well, we've survived the biggest bug GW has seen since release. But, it may not have needed to be so bad.

Last time there was a vendor reset, it wasn't such a big deal. Some people got lucky at the right time and made a fortune, but it wasn't wide spread enough for A.Net to feel the need to do anything about it. It was reported as a bug, and as such was fixed before it got out of hand.

This time, it must not have been reported right away. If I'm understanding this correctly, it went on for a while. LOTS of people charged in and bought 250 Ectos/Shards/Sup Vigors/Sup Abs or whatever they could fill their inventory with. It was going to be so bad later on, A.Net decideds to go with drastic measures, and rolls back everyone's accounts, regardless of where they were or what they were doing.

So, here's my intelectual food for thought: Suppose there's another accidental vender reset (or, the game gets hacked, as the rumors are going). Would you send in a bug report? Or would you try to buy as much as possible?

I ask that there be no flaming or judging on this topic. To each their own, I say. I'm no saint myself, I ran to the storage so I could buy more stuff and get rich. I'm sure I was thinking like most players, that A.Net would freeze the venders and then fix the price, but leave the accounts alone. But, maybe they would have if it was reported sooner. So, I guess next time I'll be typing out /bug instead of losing my mind.

So, what's your guys' oppinions? Bug report, or buy and hope you don't lose it all?

Juicey Shake · Mar 14, 2006, 07:10 AM // 07:10

buy buy buy.

Dav85 · Mar 14, 2006, 07:10 AM // 07:10

bug report. or even better, log off the game and report the bug, then spend a nice evening with your girlfriend without thinking at gw.
it's nice to know than if we have a merchant reset a.net will roll things up so it's just uselff to buy things desperatly hoping to keep them.

really a great job a.net did tonigh

Evan The Cursed · Mar 14, 2006, 07:13 AM // 07:13

/bug.

And then immediately start buying in hopes you can get some loot before they lock things down. What I won't lie?

Hockster · Mar 14, 2006, 07:15 AM // 07:15

Just some consistency. Last resets were left alone. Some items that were bugged were changed right in characters inventory while other items were simply changed and earlier models fetched outrageous amounts. Anet needs to make up their minds and not make decisions on the fly like this. The only ones screwing up the games are themselves.

Zakarr · Mar 14, 2006, 07:20 AM // 07:20

10/10 for Anet because of rollback. That is all I want to say.

Evan The Cursed · Mar 14, 2006, 07:22 AM // 07:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zakarr

10/10

What does "10/10" mean? Ten slash ten? Ten divided by ten?

JiggyFly · Mar 14, 2006, 07:22 AM // 07:22

Quote:

Let me clarify that "exploiting" the trader reset wasn't necessarily intentional. We don't mean to paint everyone with a dark brush of evil doing. For some players, perhaps for the vast majority, they saw low prices and bought. I have to say, though, that if I had been in the game and seen those prices, my first thought would have been to check the website and when I didn't see major news about an intended change to the game economy, or an overall financial reset, I would have figured something just wasn't right.

It's human nature to react impulsively to "opportunities" like the trader glitch presented. It's noble to report them, which is what some players did, and we're grateful for that. Had we had earlier reports, we might have prevented the need for a reset, but by the time we learned of the situation, we were forced to do the roll-back.

Several months ago we had a much smaller-scale incident, but the numbers were low and the gains relatively minimal. We did not do a roll-back, thinking that it would be a kindness to avoid a roll-back when so few had exploited and when the damage to the economy was so small. This time we did not have the luxury of that same decision.

Thanks again for understanding the need, and for supporting the roll-back.

News flash, last time they reset after changing up the vendor system, last time was on purpose, last time it happened not at peak times, and last time the prices went up as more and more of an item were bought...so instead of Superior Absorbtions staying at 250 gold for an hour, the first time there was a reset the prices got higher and higher as more were bought.

So that's the only reason there even was a "first" time, and it was meant to be an "only" time. The first time wasn't a bug and it wasn't because people didn't report it, the first time was intentional.

Zakarr · Mar 14, 2006, 07:26 AM // 07:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by Evan The Cursed

What does "10/10" mean? Ten slash ten? Ten divided by ten?

It means 10 of 10 points. They did exactly the right thing.

Evan The Cursed · Mar 14, 2006, 07:29 AM // 07:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zakarr

It means 10 of 10 points. They did exactly the right thing.

Ahhhh, I getcha now.

Vermilion Okeanos · Mar 14, 2006, 07:29 AM // 07:29

I think this also had something to do with the past experience of "watching people get rich" from the vendor. (Also, last time it wasn't really a bug if I remember correctly, but an intentional implentation of vendor NPC to make market easier, and to speed the market to the standard)

Since those people previously had not recieve any drawback, it was natural everyone now would think they can grab for their own sake. Even the most virtue man/woman would grab a few THEN report, so he/she wouldn't be left behind with the crazy price when there weren't a single drawback.

Now that everyone is taught a lesson in the drawback of greed, you can expect the next time this happen again, the virtue ones would "report first, grab later".

This event had nothing to do with human virtue, only greed, as virtue was THOUGHT to be "not rewarding"; therefore, greed took over.

If you want to identify the virtue and greed in this event, I suppose the best way is to ask "Did you grab more than your character actually need?"

JiggyFly · Mar 14, 2006, 07:34 AM // 07:34

By the way, hasn't Anet said in the past that they don't even bother reading /bug reports anymore because of how many of them end up being questions, or people complainging about scammers?

Vermilion Okeanos · Mar 14, 2006, 07:37 AM // 07:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by JiggyFly

/bug reports

Pretty sure that was removed since awhile ago, or something. Don't remember exactly, as I didn't bother to check =/

Duckchow · Mar 14, 2006, 07:45 AM // 07:45

I'd do the same thing as when I saw black dye going for 1 gold that one time... Just sit there not blinking and my mouth open, and after a minute or two think to myself "Uhhh, what the....?"

Swehurn · Mar 14, 2006, 07:48 AM // 07:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gaile Gray

Several months ago we had a much smaller-scale incident, but the numbers were low and the gains relatively minimal. We did not do a roll-back, thinking that it would be a kindness to avoid a roll-back when so few had exploited and when the damage to the economy was so small. This time we did not have the luxury of that same decision.

Going by this part of Gaile's quote, it sounds to me like the first reset wasn't intentional. Of course, I could be mistaken - but that's the way it reads to me.

So...today's apparent lesson (with just a hint of sarcasm)...if there's an oops that allows a small portion of the population to become inordinately wealthy, that's okay...but when something larger-scale happens that allows a huge chunk of the population to play catch-up, that's a no-no.

Don't get me wrong - I was at work through today's whole debacle. I didn't profit today, nor did I stock up during the first reset. The extent of my purchasing frenzy during the first reset was 5 black dyes for my armor.

I just think that (and obviously, it's waaaaay to late to do anything about it now) we should have also had a rollback after the first reset. If the playing field is to be level, that's the sort of thing that should be enforced consistently, not selectively.

Yes, in the bigger picture, today's actions were absolutely necessary. I just disagree with the apparently selective nature of ANet's decisions when it comes to many game-impacting issues. HoD weapons, anybody? 20/20 Rockmolders? 15% FFS? Any non-bugged item along these lines?

Sorry for going a little off-topic, but the damage was already done by including these items in-game...IMO, the playing field would have been left MORE level if those items just stayed. Complaints about PVP balancing? Add them to the PVP weapon list. If EVERYBODY had access to these items, the game would have a greater potential for equality than it does now.

Ah, well...just my thoughts.

strcpy · Mar 14, 2006, 08:05 AM // 08:05

Buy as many as I can and then report. I don't really see anything wrong with that. Maybe, like last time, it was intentional and I have no intention of missing something that isn't an exploit (like I did last time). If it's a real bug then they will fix it. If they don't and declare it a bug I don't know what I would do, probably keep the money and feel somewhat bad (it is not real money after all, the "dishonest" in keeping real money is that you are depriving someone else of thiers for your betterment).

I wasn't on for this one or for the last price change. For either one a roll back was acceptable. I have a *really* strong suspecion that two things caused them to do it here and not then.

One is that they learned. In the first case it caused quite a few problems in the economy and HUGE complaints (this round of complaints is very small) but was really too late to fix by the time they learned.

Secondly I would guess that this one would be much larger. Given how long it took to do the fix and rollback I'm betting the bug would have been open for *hours* with those items selling for 250g. Much different scenario from the first time. Had it just been a price reset it probably would not have been worth the downtime and such - hours of the most expensive items in the game being that cheap would be VERY bad.

This cost A LOT of real world dollars to do, so did the change to the axe thing a while back (though I would guess not nearly as much as this one). However disruptive something is determines the level it will get fixed based on how much it would cost them not too (that is, a totally and permamently destroyed economy and the games is gone - do whatever it takes, HOD sword isn't very disruptive so cheap fix, the axe was very disruptive so more expensive fix). If you think any company is going to do different, you will never run a succesful company. Nor should you expect developers to have your exact set of priorities, just because you didn't understand doesn't mean they had terrible reasons.

Gonzo · Mar 14, 2006, 08:14 AM // 08:14

Buy buy buy! However, I was killing Glinnt and went offline straight after that, so I missed the fact that the prices were reset. The more concerning thing is that we killed Glinnt at about 21.15 GMT.

Can't login now because I'm at work, but I have strong suspicion that I'll have to do it again. I just hoped I capped the Necro skill before 21.00 GMT.

Avarre · Mar 14, 2006, 08:25 AM // 08:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by Swehurn

I just think that (and obviously, it's waaaaay to late to do anything about it now) we should have also had a rollback after the first reset. If the playing field is to be level, that's the sort of thing that should be enforced consistently, not selectively.

So Anet made a mistake back then. Hindsight is 20/20... but they didn't make the mistake again. That's praiseworthy by itself.

Rollback ftw.

Ninetail Trickster · Mar 14, 2006, 08:31 AM // 08:31

(If you want to skip a related story that does not directly answer the question, see end of post. ^_^)

If I had enough gold on me, I would've probably bought a few. There are some runes I'd like.

BUT.

...I am a noob. I got a Ranger to level 14 with my stats at three, four or five across the board for attributes, and sold a lot to afford Drakescale Armor... in Yak's. While I already had fur-lined. I had no concept of elemental damage in an MMORPG. (That was back in October, when I first purchased Guild Wars)

If someone had told me 'OMG, RUNES 250g!', I would've responded, 'Um... 'kay?' And gone about my business hacking apart those wretched Devourers. I have little concept of what runes are worth. I can't willingly exploit much, because I'm still learning what's good to do legitimately.

Long Story Short- I would report it and sit out for a while. Besides the moral implications, what's the point in 'BUY BUY BUY!' if there's to be a server rollback?

M1h4iL · Mar 14, 2006, 08:38 AM // 08:38

I am also glad Anet decided to do a rollback because it would really ruin the economy, I wasnt there at the time of this glitch but even if i was i would still be glad of what anet has done.