EVE Exceptionalism: Anything goes?

EVE Online Panel

Foundation of Digital Games ‘13 - Chania

Darryl Woodford / dp.woodford@qut.edu.au

@dpwoodford

SUMMARY: RULE INTERPRETATION

• Developer Sanctioned: It’s OK, but players may not like it, and may impose their own sub-rules.

• Cheating: Most agree it’s not OK, but some players may do it anyway. These players can be sanctioned.

• Advantage Play: This is the interesting one that warrants further research. This is within the rules, but considered cheating by somebody. This is the layer at which we define the *actual* rules, vs. the written rules.

EXAMPLE: EVE ONLINE

• EXPLOITS

– An immediate permanent ban of an account may result if:

• Investigation shows that a player has employed the use of an exploit tactic despite a public announcement being made to alert players they will be banned for using it.

• A player who has been previously warned for exploiting and continues to exploit, whether using the same exploit or another.

• An account holder guilty of employing “duping” exploits. Players found to have received the benefits of this exploit may also face reprimand, from removal of the items in question up to, and including, banning of their accounts.

• A player has engaged in activity that intentionally causes others to lose connection, suffer latency issues (lag) or to crash to desktop (CTD).

• A player renders himself invulnerable through the use of a bug.

• A player has created, distributed or advertised an illegal 3rd party program (i.e. macro or cheat program) that disrupts game mechanics, is considered unfriendly or gives an unfair advantage by misusing game features in a way for which they were not intended.

– Severe offences may result in an immediate ban without warning; however, warnings may be given for first time offenses, followed by account suspensions of varying degree and ultimately a permanent ban if a player:

• Creates a character using a name that is misleading and causes others to believe he is a fair target, such as a non-player pirate or other NPC entity.

• Is discovered to be employing the use of a third party program to macro illegally. Funds or goods received from the benefits of macroing are subject to removal from the player’s inventory.

• Is aware of an exploitable bug and fails to report it to Game Masters and/or distributes the information to other players.

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Spamminghttp://evenews24.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Screen-shot-2012-03-01-at-10.02.50-PM.png

EXAMPLE: EVE ONLINE GM RESPONSE

• Official Warning From: GM Bunyip

Sent: 2012.10.10 21:16

To: Redacted

• Greetings, GM Bunyip here.

This is an official warning that a large number of your alliance members have been caught exploiting the chat invite system to gain an unfair

advantage in PvP.

They have been confirmed as exploiting by sending multiple chat requests to characters in an effort to give themselves an advantage. This

incident occurred on 2012.10.02, from 10:40:00 onwards, in the WV-0R2 system.

• Note that exploiting in such a way is against the EULA and Terms of Service, and could ultimately result in action being taken against their

accounts. Additionally, dealing with these incidents takes us a great deal of time – time that could have been better spent helping players with

genuine problems.

We have treated this incident with great lenience. All that has happened at this stage is every individual involved has been warned and had

their account marked for future reference.

• Future violations may not be treated with the same lenience. Please inform your alliance to cease this activity at once or risk action being

taken against their accounts.

If you wish to dispute this, do not reply to the EVE mail. Instead, file a petition.

Best regards, GM Bunyip

Advantage play

• Term from gambling industry, but similar concepts in games.– Humans always seek to optimize.

• Koster (“Theory of Fun”) details how players seek to optimize their path through games, even when that differs from designer intention. If the code allows them to do something, they will.

• Gamblers (or some gamblers) seek to maximize profit. If the code allows them to do something, they will.

• In Gambling context, advantage players will always seek to maximize EV (expected value). A standard AFL/NRL/NFL bet at 1.91 has ~-5% EV, players look to make that positive -- handicapping or tech.

EVE COMMUNITY

• Unclear:– Whether something is an exploit if the code allows it.– Whether something is ‘known’ or ‘unknown’.– Exactly what the implications of any ambiguous in-game action

will be.

Not everybody agreeshttp://evenews24.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Screen-shot-2012-03-01-at-10.02.50-PM.png

ACKNOWLEdGEMENTS

• ARC Centre for Excellence in Creative Industries and Innovation (CCI) - http://www.cci.edu.au/

• Social Media Research Group, Creative Industries Faculty, Queensland University of Technology -- http://socialmedia.qut.edu.au/