Creative use of mechanic, or exploit

[Stabface]

I'll go one further, just to be completely silly!

We know that Blizzard in WotLK is changing the amount of XP needed to level from 60-70. They have already in the past changed the amount of XP needed from 1-60.
Leveling from 1-60 previous to the change was not an exploit since we didn't know it wasn't working as intended. Leveling from 1-60 now is not an exploit, since it's now working as intended post-fix. However! If we level now from 60-70 under the current level formula this *is* an exploit, since Blizzard does not intend you to earn that many XP points and will be changing the mechanic.

:P :P

hey ! not in the face with the rotten fruits!!!

[Knobley]

However! If we level now from 60-70 under the current level formula this *is* an exploit, since Blizzard does not intend you to earn that many XP points and will be changing the mechanic.

Crap! And since it's now knowingly, I guess that means I have to quit leveling.

[Eteocles]

I'd have used Zolo had I known about it...but that's because, yknow, I've played since launch and know every alliance quest by heart without silly little paid guides or mods that hold your hand ;p and have levelled the early stuff enough as it is...cuz technically it's not an exploit...but technically it's not quite "in the spirit" either.

Stab, retroactively doesn't that make us all exploiters since our 1-60 was changed?

"Creative Use" is a blanket term that can and will be abused as Blizz sees fit; roofing in Azeroth = Exploit; Roofing in Outlands = "Creative Use of Terrain Mechanics"; same for arena pillaring and druids HoT-kiting sadly(aka a crutch for you pansy-asses ;p); Boxing falls under "creative use" right now too Not to mention...as a Boomkin I can fly up to the Scryer Tier, land on the fountain in the middle, and as long as I keep the guards Rooted, they can't Banish me nor do they go into Evade mode..I've killed many of them in this manner ;p Unless Blizz says otherwise...or it's FREAKIN OBVIOUSLY WRONG...go for it! It's game, have some damn fun if it's not at others' expense

[Vyndree]

In any case folks can still go to zolo and fight him just like they did before the last patch, so THAT wouldn't be exploiting. (although who would want to?).

Correct. The exploit wasn't the way it was done -- it was the end results achieved (XP).

If you were to find a new way to get the same XP out of Zolo, as was done pre-patch, that would be the exploit. I'm not saying killing (or grinding) Zolo was the exploit -- but the massive amount of XP gained for the minor amount of effort (I hear many people claiming the important part to Zolo is jumping often so that your other characters don't go AFK). Don't pick on semantics -- you know I've never had a problem with Zolo pre-nerf, but just post-nerf the same result should not be achievable without expecting retribution from blizzard. Nobody did Zolo in that fashion "just because I wanted to see the encounter". They did it because of the massive amount of XP gained.

The exploit of Zolo was the advantage of XP per hour per effort. Not the encounter itself.

[Vyndree]

BG-non-participation was warned about before they started putting people in time-out for it BTW.

It was literally done consecutively with a banwave, or within a day of the announcement. I remember only because I trolled the Customer Service forums back then too -- the amount of QQ "but you didn't warn us!" quickly flooded the forums.

[Sanctume]

Blizzard may be a benevolent deity at times, and choose not to hastily ban for things like this, but I wouldn't count on their benevolence continuing now that they've made their stand. They've hotfixed both situations.

I never said Zolo was an exploit THEN. I'm saying Zolo, or Zolo-similar encounters, would be an exploit NOW.

Everybody needs to read this again.

There are still a few Zolo-similar encounters in the game. But in order to get that thing going takes some initial time sink.

And I suppose, it is enough of a time-sink that grinding or questing elsewhere in the same amount of time will net about the same exp.

[Zaelar]

There was no bug with zolo, it was just poorly balanced with specific conditions.

That rogue talent that lets them live and take 90% less damage for a few seconds got nerfed. It is still possible with the right gear to obtain nearly the same effect it had before. It must be an exploit.

Shaman's lightning bolt is getting a lower co-efficient in wotlk. Using lightning bolt now is ok, and using it after is ok, but stacking spell power to get the damage back up will be an exploit.

People were clearing the level 60 5-mans too easily with 10 people so they lowered the max number of people allowed to 5. Anyone clearing these instances quickly now must be exploiting.

People were getting 100-200g/hour by killing Jania Proudmore pre-bc. These people even got 3-day suspensions apparently. Anyone getting near this amount of gold per hour is exploiting.

And if the only "bug" here is the exp/hour, then looking for zolo-like encounters should be fine as long as they don't give too much exp, and how much exp is too much exp is for blizzard to decide when regarding "exploiting".

[Suvega]

How can you even argue this keeping a straight face?

Zolo was a leveling EXPLOIT. If you searched for it on google, how would you find it? (Yes, searching for exploit).

What's the difference between exploit and creative use of game mechanics? Impact.

If I found a "Creative use of game mechanics" way to duplicate items in my bag, do you think I'd get banned? @#$@ yes I would. Doesn't even cross my mind.

Alot of exploits are considered "non-bannable" however are NOT DISCUSSED (infact intentionally removed from posts on forums to hide it), as blizzard does the following:

1) How big of an impact is it, does it effect visual apperance, or large effects on the economy?
2) How many people are doing it? Will I ban 10% of my player base if I start actioning on it?

For Zolo, obviously (2) was big enough to say "Hey it isn't actionable right now, but lets not share this info k?", until they could get it fixed.

If (1) was big enough where you had some far reaching impacts, you could guarentee that bans would be inc.
Remember the "Insert way for a shaman to kill same faction people here" exploit? Banable. (Because it impacted many people)

Finding "creative use of game mechanics" to do ANYTHING in this game is risky. You know what blizzard intends or doesn't, it's not freaking hard to figure it out. Don't play stupid (Wuut you mean they didn't want me to level at the rate of GOD when I move this npc to this one and start aoeing?). You just make yourself look ignorant.

[Zaelar]

If you found a way to duplicate items you'd only get banned if you spread it through the economy. If you told a GM about it and didn't do anything with it I doubt anything would happen other than losing the items. As you said, impact is an important factor.

The shaman bug is an obvious bug that did things that weren't supposed to be possible(killing allies)(and wasn't this fixed?). The only thing unintended with zolo is how well it worked. So, how fast are we allowed to level? Standard instance 1-pull aoe power leveling is ok, athene/zolo aren't. That's a pretty wide gap of uncertainty.

[Kayley]

How can you even argue this keeping a straight face?

Zolo was a leveling EXPLOIT. If you searched for it on google, how would you find it? (Yes, searching for exploit).

I can find multiboxing by searching google for exploits too

It was a design flaw obviously, it wasn't serious enough to have the lolbans but it was enough for a fix. I'd argue that it was a creative use of game mechanics though - if people tried to recreate it? then I would expect a more firmer stance on this particular 'exploit'.
(I really just think people have a different view on what an exploit is)