Creative use of mechanic, or exploit

[Drizzit]

There is no speedlimit posted so you go 200 mph in a suburb. Law is graciuos enough to not take your drivers license, and instead puts a 25mph sign up.
You can choose at the next suburb with no sign to go 200mph, you might keep your license you might not, however you knew it was risky when you did it.

A nun was driving 3 other nuns. A cop pulls them over. The Cop says to the nun that you are going too slow the speed limit is 55 not 10. The nun says that the sign says 10 (as the nun points to the sign). The cop says that is the route number not the speed limit. The cop then looks in the back seat and see that 3 nun are scared and pale like they seen a ghost. The cop asks the driver why are they like that. The driver says oh we just got off of route 138. :P

[Sanctume]

So, is this an exploit, or creative use of game mechanic?

http://www.wowhead.com/?quest=1957

!)(Secret)(Secret)(Secret)(Secret)(!

Always hear about Mage AoEing is the best thing since sliced bread? Never been able to REALLY do it? Now you can! Go to the Dustwallow Marsh to receive this quest, Mana Surges, but be aware you would have to complete the quest to go to Uldaman before you can gain access to Mana Surges. This is a really nifty trick that I have never heard anybody talk about. I just happened to find this out on my own and startd to use it on my mage. With this nifty trick you can gain up to 55,000 xp/hr at level 40-45 easily, and yes, solo. Here's what you do:

1.) Make hundreds of food/drinks.

2.) Accept Mana Surges quest.

3.) Walk outside near the two torches and buff up. (Mage Armor, Dampen Magic, Arcane Intellect, Mana Shield)

3.) DELETE THE QUEST! (This is the most important part.)

4.) The mobs spawn, 2 sets of 2's, 2 sets of 3's, 2 sets of 4's, all the way up to 2 sets of 5's. The mobs will spawn 1-5 seconds after they die. So AS SOON as the mobs die, run away and start resting up for the next set of AoEs.

5.) Your able to AoE these mobs and get as much XP as you possible can, for 10 minutes, then the mobs despawn. After this, go back to step number 2.

Repeat all of the above steps to get some of the best xp in the game.

What about Baron in Strath--that an exploit too?

[Suvega]

So, is this an exploit, or creative use of game mechanic?

http://www.wowhead.com/?quest=1957

!)(Secret)(Secret)(Secret)(Secret)(!

Always hear about Mage AoEing is the best thing since sliced bread? Never been able to REALLY do it? Now you can! Go to the Dustwallow Marsh to receive this quest, Mana Surges, but be aware you would have to complete the quest to go to Uldaman before you can gain access to Mana Surges. This is a really nifty trick that I have never heard anybody talk about. I just happened to find this out on my own and startd to use it on my mage. With this nifty trick you can gain up to 55,000 xp/hr at level 40-45 easily, and yes, solo. Here's what you do:

1.) Make hundreds of food/drinks.

2.) Accept Mana Surges quest.

3.) Walk outside near the two torches and buff up. (Mage Armor, Dampen Magic, Arcane Intellect, Mana Shield)

3.) DELETE THE QUEST! (This is the most important part.)

4.) The mobs spawn, 2 sets of 2's, 2 sets of 3's, 2 sets of 4's, all the way up to 2 sets of 5's. The mobs will spawn 1-5 seconds after they die. So AS SOON as the mobs die, run away and start resting up for the next set of AoEs.

5.) Your able to AoE these mobs and get as much XP as you possible can, for 10 minutes, then the mobs despawn. After this, go back to step number 2.

Repeat all of the above steps to get some of the best xp in the game.

What about Baron in Strath--that an exploit too?

Easy way to figure this out, ask yourself 2 questions:
1) Did the developers intead for this to happen, or is it a bug?
2) Does it give you a gain over anyone who does not know of this "trick"?

"Exploit" or "Creative use of game mechanics" or "Bug" are all the same thing, just classified in different levels of severity.
You -probably- will never get banned for using these explots / bugs / tricks / etc, however if you find one that is -exceptionally- beneficial, you might want to be careful. S'all I'm saying.

Hell I use http://www.wowhead.com/?item=18284 for every progression raid. Probably isn't spossed to stak with every spirit buff in the game (except mistletoe), but I use it anyways. Obviously this will prob get changed in the future, however the impact is small IMO (10mp5 in a boss encounter).

Now if you find a method to walk through walls to pull to C'Thun (people got banned)
Or to dupe items (Ban)
or to kill same side faction with your totems (small bans)
or wall jumping (ban)
or getting around the starting gate in ZA (ban)
or communicating with people of the opposite faction in game through the use of babelfish (ban if you use it. Developer asked to stop development)
... etc.

If they ban people for using an addon to communicate back and forth with horde, why do you think finding a way to level 5* faster then the other 'shmucks' couldn't?

[Sanctume]

So, is this an exploit, or creative use of game mechanic?

http://www.wowhead.com/?quest=1957

!)(Secret)(Secret)(Secret)(Secret)(!

Always hear about Mage AoEing is the best thing since sliced bread? Never been able to REALLY do it? Now you can! Go to the Dustwallow Marsh to receive this quest, Mana Surges, but be aware you would have to complete the quest to go to Uldaman before you can gain access to Mana Surges. This is a really nifty trick that I have never heard anybody talk about. I just happened to find this out on my own and startd to use it on my mage. With this nifty trick you can gain up to 55,000 xp/hr at level 40-45 easily, and yes, solo. Here's what you do:

1.) Make hundreds of food/drinks.

2.) Accept Mana Surges quest.

3.) Walk outside near the two torches and buff up. (Mage Armor, Dampen Magic, Arcane Intellect, Mana Shield)

3.) DELETE THE QUEST! (This is the most important part.)

4.) The mobs spawn, 2 sets of 2's, 2 sets of 3's, 2 sets of 4's, all the way up to 2 sets of 5's. The mobs will spawn 1-5 seconds after they die. So AS SOON as the mobs die, run away and start resting up for the next set of AoEs.

5.) Your able to AoE these mobs and get as much XP as you possible can, for 10 minutes, then the mobs despawn. After this, go back to step number 2.

Repeat all of the above steps to get some of the best xp in the game.

What about Baron in Strath--that an exploit too?

Easy way to figure this out, ask yourself 2 questions:
1) Did the developers intead for this to happen, or is it a bug?
2) Does it give you a gain over anyone who does not know of this "trick"?

"Exploit" or "Creative use of game mechanics" or "Bug" are all the same thing, just classified in different levels of severity.
You -probably- will never get banned for using these explots / bugs / tricks / etc, however if you find one that is -exceptionally- beneficial, you might want to be careful. S'all I'm saying.

Hell I use http://www.wowhead.com/?item=18284 for every progression raid. Probably isn't spossed to stak with every spirit buff in the game (except mistletoe), but I use it anyways. Obviously this will prob get changed in the future, however the impact is small IMO (10mp5 in a boss encounter).

Now if you find a method to walk through walls to pull to C'Thun (people got banned)
Or to dupe items (Ban)
or to kill same side faction with your totems (small bans)
or wall jumping (ban)
or getting around the starting gate in ZA (ban)
or communicating with people of the opposite faction in game through the use of babelfish (ban if you use it. Developer asked to stop development)
... etc.

If they ban people for using an addon to communicate back and forth with horde, why do you think finding a way to level 5* faster then the other 'shmucks' couldn't?

I think the main difference between that you listed is that power leveling does not hurt the economy, or directly impact other player's gaming experience.

Your spirit buff is not an exploit, it is what it is--a benefit for some negative.

The rest griefs other people's play or a huge impact on the economy.

Easy way to figure this out, ask yourself 2 questions:

1) Did the developers intead for this to happen, or is it a bug?


That's not my job. I pay to play. Given, that it's Blizzard's rules; they can intend things whatever they want.

2) Does it give you a gain over anyone who does not know of this "trick"?



Now that sounds too general. You can apply that to raiding progression because each event has their own tricks. It don't differ with leveling, power leveling, or raiding.

[Stabface]

If getting 55k XP an hour solo at 40-45 is an exploit, I'd better stop doing quests!

[Vyndree]

If getting 55k XP an hour solo at 40-45 is an exploit, I'd better stop doing quests!

Just to clarify -- the 55k XP/hour solo is from a quest in Dustwallow that can be abandoned before completion in order to spawn mobs continually for 10 minutes. This is questionable, but not severe (since, as you mention, you can get similar xp/hour from doing quest normally).

The XP you could get from Zolo pre-nerf was much, much higher.


Powerleveling doesn't hurt the economy, but it does hurt the rest of the leveling playerbase when one player uses an exploit to gain experience that is substantially higher than ANY other method. They cannot realistically compete, and while you won't be flooding the market with items, you will be flooding the populace with newly-dinged 70's at a faster rate than anyone else.

[Suvega]

I think the main difference between that you listed is that power leveling does not hurt the economy, or directly impact other player's gaming experience.

Your spirit buff is not an exploit, it is what it is--a benefit for some negative.

The rest griefs other people's play or a huge impact on the economy.

Easy way to figure this out, ask yourself 2 questions:

1) Did the developers intead for this to happen, or is it a bug?


That's not my job. I pay to play. Given, that it's Blizzard's rules; they can intend things whatever they want.

2) Does it give you a gain over anyone who does not know of this "trick"?



Now that sounds too general. You can apply that to raiding progression because each event has their own tricks. It don't differ with leveling, power leveling, or raiding.

This is worthless, you can't honestly say with a straight face that you can't see the difference between exploits and tactics?
Why are you even arguing, other then to convince yourself that dragging mobs around to enable infinite mob spawns, evading mobs, etc to gain a leveling advantage is NOT an exploit.

Stop trying to defend shady activity with arguments that have no factual background.
"That's not my job. I pay to play."
Are you serious? You have to actually think longer then 5 seconds on wether zolo was an exploit or not.... Come on, wake up.

[Vyndree]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q u o t e:
There are several inescapable facts about people, in general.

They will not read user agreements.
They will break rules they are ignorant of.
They will circumvent rules they are aware of if they think they can get away with it.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Aye. Which is regrettably why we've implemented penalties, albeit some more guided toward reformation. Education is a hand only offered once, though.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/th...63073&sid=1#22

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q u o t e:
Did not know because how the system is set up once your reported you gain nothing past that point. Also if you do nothing for 5 minutes you are afked out. With those rules in place i would interpret that i could do whatever i wanted outside of use a 3rd party program or exploiting game mechanics with are obvious offenses. And the other reasons that i have posted that logically its very hard to justify non participation. I actually thought that if you got the afk debuff it kicked you out of the game. It was friend that told me no that you just don't get honor past that point. So i should just stand there and move around every so often because they do it all the time. And none of them are suspended at all. Hell every game i get in there is at least 7 people that have 0 damage and 0 healing and do nothing.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ignorance is not absolution, and your interpretation is incorrect.

Regardless, this issue was very publicly announced and discussed months ago:

Battleground Non-participation Account Action
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/th...81821974&sid=1

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/th...719563&sid=1#8

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q u o t e:
Hey

Recently i got a 72 hours account suspension because i abused of the Steam Tonk bug that bypass normal casting speed and give advantage up other World of Warcraft players.

I understand i did something wrong but i think you have to understand how frustrating is playing a Mage at PvP with resto Druids and Disc Priests around (lets not talk about the others, just this 2 are enough).

Im not trying to justify, i know i did something wrong, i wouldn't do it again but i think 72 hours is really too much because this is my first account action by using "exploit", i never used it before allways played clean.

I send a mail to Account Administration but i think i got ignored.

Im happy that Blizzard punish people that exploit but i think you are beign too hard with a good player like me because of a minor bug exploit that im sure 90% of the Mages are using it or used it least 1 time.

Thanks,

Undersky Undead Mage - Altar of Storms
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Actually, I think you're mistaken. First, this is not 'minor'. I keep seeing that word bandied about in reference to various forms of exploitation. One of the methods that people use to justify use of an exploit is the mistaken belief that 'everyone else does it too', or that it's only 'minor'. I assure you, they really don't, and it isn't. Even if they did, it would remain equally wrong, and equally a violation.

There are no justifications or mitigating explanations for exploitation. There are rules within World of Warcraft, and part of the agreement when you opt to play World of Warcraft is to follow those rules. It's quite simple really. For reference:

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/legal/termsofuse.html

Disputing the matter with Account Administration is the only available course, but given the nature of the situation, it is highly unlikely that this action will be overturned.

The penalty suits the severity of the issue by our standards, and those are ultimately the only standards that we apply.

[pinotnoir]

[Elili]

While I can agree with both points, I think it's beyond reasonable for anyone to think Blizzard would ban you for acting out a readily available game mechanic. Even if we were to assume that Blizzard is against the idea of using "Zolo like encounters" for boosting in this manner, Blizzard, as a company would not want to assume that all players, from this day to the end of days, would know that they even Hot Fixed Zolo. Until the day Blizzard makes the blanket rule "You may not use summoned creatures during an encounter to gain endless experience without moving." then there is nothing that makes it an exploit, or against the rule.

Intended or not this is a function of the game. In all reality, this is no different then a paladin running into the SM Cath, smacking the last boss in the face, then running back quickly to the door, and killing every mob in the zone in less then a minute. The fact is this was a known game mechanic. A party of 5 could have killed skeletons that Zolo summoned until their fingers were numb from playing if they so desired, long before a person used it to boost characters. Even still you can do that. Blizzard attempts to discourage things, not ban them, as such they will most likely continue to discourage more "Zolo like encounters" as well as further continue to discourage boosting in general.

I think we have to come to the realization that this isn't a stand by Blizzard against using encounters like Zolo to your advantage. This is a stand by Blizzard to attempt to further discourage boosting. Boosting is not an intended part of any game to the best of my knowledge. Blizzard has been kind enough not to make it so it's not impossible to boost, just discouraged it. They could easily just make it so any group with a party member X+ level's higher, causes the group to receive next to no XP, and suddenly boosting is over. No one is going to boost a party if they get 3 XP a kill. We should take this for what it is, it's Blizzard tweaking the game so that people have to work to earn their levels, rather then quickly rush through them, not make a policy statement.

**Edit** I'm adding to this because I feel it came out not saying exactly what I wanted. I need to learn brevity.

In no way do I want to sound like I support the use of this type of encounter. I believe that common sense and logic should have said this wasn't an intelligent thing to do, but I stand by it not being an exploit. Blizzard (And any other company) keep their EULA somewhat vague and open to interpretation for the same reason the Constitution is sometimes vague and open to interpretation. Because things change. Blizzard, just like anyone else, can not predict the future. They cannot predict what new and interesting ways people will find to do things, or to break the rules. By leaving the EULA vague something such as the Zolo encounter can just as easily be banned for, as hot fixed. This isn't to say Blizzard would, it's bad business to ban for something 'You' failed to account for, so they attempt to avoid it at all costs. Had the Zolo encounter somehow effected the rest of the world (Say all the skeletons dropped loot, and suddenly you just rained the Auction house with items from it) their decision may have been different. We don't know, we aren't Blizzard, and as such cannot speak for them. When you signed the EULA, you put yourself into a contract, that has only one exit. Quitting the game. If you did not agree with this contract you were offered a refund, their decisions will be final. Your free to break this contract, so long as your willing to pay the penalty (Being banned).

With all this being said, I've put together a very simple flow chart that I believe illustrates how to approach this type of situation.