@huxle: Even if it was just an excuse for some Transformer love, its still important.

DaiMacculate

LOL!!! LOVE the pic, Luke.

DARTH_TIGRIS

Mommy, what's an Everquest2 ? Is it something that old people do?

Jonn

As a guild raid leader in Everquest, I know how stupid people can be with unfounded drama, so I guess we'll see how this goes over (I don't' play EQ2), but I am all too familiar with the baloney people try to play off.

The scary part is that some people think the falsities they spout are actually true! You get to see just how nutty people can be when you're in a position of leadership in a MMORPG guild.

I'm not saying it's not true, but I've had enough experience with drama in a MMORPG to know not to take it for granted as true.

Zunnoab

@Morberis: Even if you only play an MMO a little this concerns you because if allowed to proceed could potentially lead to an unbalanced economy and game.

While some MMO's have their classes balanced better than others, there will never be an MMO with a "balanced" economy.

In MMOs, coin is constantly added to the game through quests and/or mob drops. Prices on everything go up as more money enters the economy. This is called Mudflation, and has been around a long time before the term "MMO" was ever used.

In the real world (outside of some South American and African nations), we have a finite amount of currency and new currency is only created as old currency is destroyed. That helps currency retain it's value.

As for this situation? I'm not surprised. Devs and GMs have always showed favouritism towards particular guilds in every MMO.

Doshu

@huxle: Oh man. Why? Why? 3 months, and you already screw it up. You had 3 followers, and you have go and blow it all on this.

Repent now, seriously. Hopefully, if you apologize fast enough, Plunkett might let you slide.

But probably not.

Kirbytheslayer: Click the + to the right of my posts for cake

Is this really newsworthy? Really? -.-

huxle

Out of the goodness of their hearts or not, SOE has created an unfair situation. What about the other testers on the test server? I am sure there are others who tested as much as they did. Its unfair to show preferential treatment to any group if you are a dev.

Scazza

@Witzbold:

I wasn't a fan of the character models either, but the SOGA models are awesome.

No edit button, sorry :(

AdeptVoice

@Morberis: An unbalanced economy in a MMO? Impossible!
I hate to break it to you, but the most popular MMO in the world suffers from both problems you mentioned, and it hasn't had any scandals like that.

@EnigmaNemesis: But it still doesn't explain how it affects other players. A couple of hundred guys do 1 extra damage to the boss at whatever cave, big deal?

Kirbytheslayer: Click the + to the right of my posts for cake

@landonweber:

Spare me this mockery of justice!

AdeptVoice

I totally hated the character models in EQ2 not to mention what they did to some aspects of the game that made the first one great.

I used to be excited about EQ2 till I bought it and played it. Canned my account a few months later.

Witzbold

@Kirbytheslayer: Click the + to the right of my posts for ca...:
Yeah but if they just allow it to go it sets a precedent, saying that cheating is ok as long as you have inside help. It also means that if they allow this the next cheat may go even further. It's the case of a slippery slope.

Even if you only play an MMO a little this concerns you because if allowed to proceed could potentially lead to an unbalanced economy and game.

Morberis

@Kirbytheslayer: Click the + to the right of my posts for ca...:

And there is PAYING money to play a game to guarantee none of this stuff happens like it does in free games, and the very one's you pay money too are doing the acts in which you pay partial security for.

EnigmaNemesis

@AdeptVoice: Me too. It's actually a lot of fun. After WoW burnout, it's perfect.

aphex242

So these testers were working to improve the game as in make it a kiddie MMO? Even more childish than WoW!

EnigmaNemesis

Guilty or innocent?
Innocent.

Feed them to the Sharkticons.

landonweber

Who cares?

SOE will forever be known for caving to LucasArts corporate for fucking over SWG.

I don't see them as anything shorter than the devil, so this stuff isn't really surprising.

BD

"it's just a shame nobody cares about Everquest 2."

Agreed.

syl1985

So what if they helped some guys cheat?
MMO's have been doing this since Ultima, it's nothing new.

And then there's the fact that if the MMO is that important you, you need to re-evaluate your life.

There's devotion and dedication, and then there's madness.

Kirbytheslayer: Click the + to the right of my posts for cake

I recently started playing EQ2 again. I'm enjoying it.

AdeptVoice

So, some people got their characters ported? And? The rules of the game were broken and that's it? It's their game. If they want to add 1000000 gold(or whatever Everquest money is) to loyal customers then what's wrong with that? They probably deserve it. More companies should reward devoted players.

collinc

I don't care what the actual article is about, I'm only commenting to express my love for the Transformers: The Movie.

gunstarhero

Show kindness to valued customers....

Bottom line is they broke their own rules. Instead of saying "yes we made a mistake", they try to explain it with their logic behind it.
Being buddies with Devs must have it's perks. Those guys that got moved still levelled twice as fast due to test server rules, special items or not.

I thought days of rule bending by Devs would be a thing of the past. Guess that lesson hasn't been learned yet.

ghamilton

Yeah EQ2 sucks... EQ1 (before PoP) ruled.
Thankyou Sony Online Entertainment.

xiphos

yup, its definitely changed for the better. There's tons of stuff to do now, with the expansions and what-not. It seems like they have tweaked the player models over time to be a little more realistic... or maybe I have just gotten used to them. I hated them at first...

trigger2

Seriously, I may get banned for this, but it's driving me crazy! Okay, here's the deal:

As far as I have researched, in America, corporations are considered a single entity, and as such they are written to be singular, not plural, like the Kotaku writers have done. Now, if Mr. Crecente is British (but he's a fellow city of Denver) that's understandable, since they write it in the plural sense. However, if anyone does quick research on the old 'tubes on it, fairly quickly it becomes clear that corporations are considered a single entity.

If I'm flat out wrong on this, please someone let me know, but "Sony Respond to EQ2 Cheating Allegations" sounds ridiculous to me.

VAvenger

@Witzbold: Witz I didn't play it when it launched because I heard all the substantiated stories about how awful it was, you couldn't solo, terrible grind, etc.

From what I can tell, most of that's been eliminated. Honestly I'm not even remotely hardcore about these things and am really enjoying playing EQ2. Granted I have a total of about 15 hours experience with it, but I can say it's quite a lot of fun. And I know there's plenty of other people saying it's changed for the better dramatically in the past 2 years.

Just food for thought ;) Might dust it off. hehe

aphex242

I'm so glad I've hated Sony since before it was fashionable.

I truly hope all these folks who accept this (Collinc, etcetera) get dicked over by a gaming company in the very near future.

yonderTheGreat

@VAvenger:

1. Luke Plunkett posted the article

2. He's Australian.

3. That means he's not American.

4. Sony are not responding to any single company, as far as I'm aware.

Libo

Sick people, THEY SHOULD BE BANNED AND SUED FOR ANY RARE ITEMS.

tehFluffzComeback

Morberis hit the nail on the head with the "slippery slope" comment.

Yes, it's petty. Yes, it's an MMO. But that's why you stop it happening here, before it catches on and becomes widespread to other MMOs or areas.

The fact that it IS an MMO is almost more troubling - if you feel the need to cheat just to get ahead of others in a grinding game that is supposedly based on enjoying the game as you progress, I'd hate to see what you pull in a real life situation.

Stop the problems now before they become big.

Saxboy

@logicaldefense:
lol Exactly.

TC

MMO-drama. . .
get back to reality please.

logicaldefense

Here's my question: How did this 'scandal' affect the day in, day out gameplay of an average EQ player? To my knowledge, EQ2 doesn't have a shiny player driven economy, or what have you. This isn't going to cause massive inflation in the market place, Norrath (had to wiki it) isn't going to run out of monsters all the sudden. So... aside from that fact that "they got something nice and we didn't!", what's the problem here?

Perhaps I am ignorant of the subtleties of EQ2... but it basically sounds to me like 3 years after release, most of the people still playing EQ2 take it WAY too seriously.

@Plunkett:
Plunkett uses STFU on VAvenger!
It's SUPER EFFECTIVE!

InsomniaBob

@Kirbytheslayer: Click the + to the right of my posts for ca...:

Its a pshychological effect, Test Players:

SOE tells testers very clearly, don't bother and stop asking to be move to Live from Test, it will never happen because effectively it would be unfair.

Then they quietly move an entire guild from test to live. Now the biggest reaction would be from the rest of the players on the test server. Why did this entire guild get a free pass to move their characters over with all their gear and why aren't the other test server playeres allowed to do that as well. (moving players from live to live servers cost 50 dollars mind you, and all 50 accounts -> 90 avatars were moved for free).

So the first problem, SOE needed to find someway to explain why this guild was rewarded like this to the other test players which leads to this question "So whats the criteria we need to hit to get a free move from test to live?" which obviously SOE can't answer becase the move was most likely a move done because someone in SOE had some kind of link to the leader of the guild.

Then SOE comes out with a stupid statement to defend their decision -> "to show kindness to some valued members of our testing community who have been working diligently to improve EverQuest II for the last three years."

Which is a slap in the face to other testers that weren't given this 'reward'. I.e. if these people that were 'rewarded' are so valued tell us what this guild did that was so different to other players/guilds thats been on test for just as long, what set of 'criterias' did they fulfil to get this 'reward'.

The psychological effect, Live players:
This entire guild has just showed up out of no where, with many many suspicious gear on them. Which supposedly a few of those pieces of gear was 'found' with the help of GM, GM-powers. As long as even 1 gear is proven to be the case, especially with the Guild leaders dodgy reputation, ALL gear found on these people become suspect and thus all the players in the guild becomes suspect, because theres no way to tell whether they got their stuff fairly or not. I.e. no reason why other people on the live server should trust them AND trust that a GM or someone with GM-powers won't continue to give favourable treatment to them while on LIVE.

Thats the damage done to the player base, the fact that players don't feel like they can trust SOE or are being treated fairly. Also trust towards a guild which is suspected of attaining some of their gear through cheating effectively (it would be cheating on Live, on Test who cares.... its a test server), why should they be trusted that they won't continue to have that kind of access and help even on live, even if a few or even most of the guild members may be totally innocent they become guilty by association which is unfortunate.

charsuipau

@VAvenger: If you're motivated enough to criticize me publicly, you'd have thought you'd also be motivated enough to know there are areas in which American and British english differ. This is one of those areas.

But then you didn't even check to see who wrote the post. So I guess not.

Plunkett

@INSOMINABOB:
This affected me zero. If this would have been a PvP server where items count, then maybe it would have been major..it was not...just so many hold SOE in contempt over the SWG debacle, that they hold a grudge to this day..

The issues with this move also lies in the fact that the players who WERE transferred were all like "We deserve it" and "Yes, we got moved, we rock" type of attitudes..and argued with everyone on various forums about why they deserved it...when they should have just shut up..

Finally, a lot of people are always saying EQ2 sucks, blah, blah...yet, the metagame at it's core has changed over the last 3 years, that is totally different, and is now miles above other MMO's in play mechanics..I know, as I was a hater for 3 years..it truly shines versus WoW, LOTRO or any other MMO now..

This is why this situation is the saddest of them all..and puts the game in a not so nice light...makes me wonder if the game is finally done...I hope not.
Cheers

openedge1

I will never touch an SOE game untll they apologize for what they did to us starwars galaxies players. I refuse to buy any of the games on the playstation store that are associated with SOE, such as : Cash guns chaos or Any of the arcade games.
Hayden Christiansen is an asshole that needs to be put in his place.

gitrooman

@Kirbytheslayer: Click the + to the right of my posts for ca...:

I should have been more clear, I don't mean the money in the game I mean the market for high end goods which had never been touched by farmers because they're rarely ever co-ordinated enough to get them. I also said the game may become inbalanced, in one group suddenly gets GM weapons to 'test' content on the live server thats pretty unbalancing and as I said relates to the slippery slope.

Morberis

@Witzbold: Agreed. I liked it at first, but after so many severe class changes, I couldn't take it anymore. I just don't care what EQ2 does to EQ2 players, the game sucks. Why anyone would want to spend 10-15 hours camping for some quest to level up their guild level (making the guild leader beholden to every single person in the guild in a very nasty way) is beyond me. Glad I left and will never be back. Especially since they pretty much legalized in game trading of items on their special servers. I didn't agree with that and felt it sent the wrong message.

Godstar

Its a PvE game. Yes, someone got preferential treatment, but thats not affecting me in any way, so why should I care? Nobody is being hurt. A guild got help. As said, if this were a PvP server, THEN there would be a problem. As is, the guys who got transfers got a little head start. I can get to the same place by working for it. I'm sure if I knew a GM or the guild, I would have gotten the same thing. All I can say is "oh well".

KaneTaker

I can read the epitaphs now.

"Here lies Jack Mehoff. He died trying to enrich a digital world that he cared so dearly about. All the while making the lives of real people around him worse for living."

If you are one of those people who play this game and care severely about this issue take a moment to reflect on how this is really effecting your life. Take all that energy, volunteer for Habitat for Humanity, and really make a difference in a world.

invictus

Oh no... what for ever shall I do? You mean SOE allowed a guild and some of their things to move from a test server to a live server? GASP! Now they have an advantage towards "beating" this endless game before I do. How dare they ruin the competition of nothing!

branwheatkillah

"it's just a shame nobody cares about Everquest 2."

Apparently you do Luke, apparently you do. =)

It is a good game, 1up just gave the latest expansion 9 out of 10. Perhaps you could play on your cross country trek, it would help pass the time.

Brenlo

cheating? big deal, its an MMO. unless they flooded some virtual economy whats the big deal, even if they did if it affected somebody's pocket book then they probably weren't playing the MMO as a GAME anyway

in short BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAW

SwordandSorcery

I remember trying EQ2. I ran through some huge massive city for half an hour, passing by a few NPC guards and 1 live person. Then I went to go do some fetch quest and got all but the last item I needed. To get the final item I had to kill a leader of some group of enemies, but he was surrounded by 5 other enemies, and if I so much as attacked a single one of them, it triggered the whole lot of them into attacking me. After about 7 attempts I realized that the designers were trying to force me to group with other players in order to complete this quest. If there were other players to group with, it might not have been an issue, but the world was so empty that it was a deal breaker.

D00mM4r1n3

EQ2 is a great MMO in my opinion. If I had the playtime to dedicate to any of them it would be EQ2. I hear Kunark is fantastic.

Jabbertrack

@krunkjuice: LMAO that first lesson is supposed to say "last".

krunkjuice

@krunkjuiceThat was the first and lesson true lesson I learned from my short stint with WoW. They don't care about you...only your money.

krunkjuice

@EnigmaNemesis: They don't charge money in MMORPGs to keep things fair and even and safe...they charge you money because you're dumb enough to pay a monthly fee for a game you already paid 50 bucks for.

krunkjuice