Hey All,
Just thought it would be interesting to share. We of course want this game to not fail and to be good. One of lesson to be learned and used as a case study for launching a new IP is probably what is going on with Massive and "The Division." While the game can be soloed for the most part, it was created as a sudo MMO. Unfortunately the current state of the game it appears to be dying a slow death even after several record breaking sales of for a new IP. Don’t get me wrong, this is a fun game still, but the for me, the shine is coming off not because people are cheating, but because it feels Massive really could care less about enforcing any anti cheating mechanics like using a software that detects any manipulation or not even cracking down on cheaters and allow them to keep on cheating. Cheating and glitching is so bad in “The Division” the devs took a server down to “Fix” the source of the exploit only to have 2 new exploits accomplish the same goal within 2 hours of the patch. You can read the reddit posts and see all the fun.
It may be an oversight on Massive’s part too, but, the current state of the game appears to be rewarding cheaters, while punish those to actually play the game. There are two current examples. There was two “random” items that were on sale that so happens to be classed and the two best items in the game. The only way to obtain those are either you cheated or grinded like you have no life in order to get them (I fell in the second category) Massive said it was just coincidental, but the items will rotate out by the end of the week. Another example is the were was exploting the weekly reward system to get the best items. Massive's response was to disable the reward system, but allow people who got the rewards to retain the items. This in turn prevents people who legitimately wants to gears up from even getting the gear while the exploiters get off free and like the example with the two best items of the game. This created a perception that the people who has careers, family and in general played the game without cheating are being punished because they can’t earn these items while the people who did cheat get off with two of the best items. At this point Massive had several choices, but only could make one; either rollback all items so the cheaters will not be able to have the best items and potentially make people like me mad who legitimately got to that level, make the items available for an extended period of time for others to catch up, or just go with the system that has been implemented and let the pieces fall. In both cases, Massive went with option 3 and that created a lot of bad will towards the developer.
With CoT being a new IP, how can the CoT team prevent a case like this from happening?
1. Have a PTS: For some reason The Division does not have one and whatever exploit is available, will make it into the live game
2. Have a Program to detect cheating: Programs like PunkBuster, etc should be with CoT’s launch
3. Have a enforceable cheating time table: Something on the lines if you get caught cheating you get a ban and stats rolled back, cheat again and your account is terminated
4. Have a Ticket/System in the Game easy to use: If you want to report someone cheating in “The Division” there is no real way to contact the dev/support team with in the game.
I know this is a long post, but I just don’t want CoT to start crumbling due to exploiters, hackers, etc within the first month of launch. Any ideas or thoughts to better improve the system so CoT won’t end up like the current state of “The Division?”
i've mentioned this a while back, where analytics are used to flag questionably Rapid Gains, for further Moderator, Dev, etc.. review.
I hate to always harp on monetization, but remember this sort of stuff costs money to implement, maintain, and enforce. It's not free. I agree that measure need to be taken to prevent exploits and cheating though.
R.S.O. of Phoenix Rising
I understand everything comes with cost, but you need to think of the long term effects. MWM spend some 2+ years and your kickstarter money to create this project. All that effort would be undermined if hackers/exploiters are running around ruining the game. This is where I actually feel sorry for Massive. "The Division" is a very good game concept wise, story wise, and graphically wise. You can take any snapshot of the real life Manhattan, look at in the game and the attention to detail is there granted somewhat destroyed due to a pandemic smallpox outbreak that made New York crumble. With all Massive have put in this game, they are undercut from the exploiters and Ubisoft/Massive lack of action against them. If you look at a snapshot of the PC version with Steam data, The Division lost 35.8% of their user base since launch and they just released a free expansion last week:
http://steamcharts.com/app/365590
That is not right, a free expansion is supposed to drive up the numbers, but with all the hackers/exploiters and Massive's current response, it is obvious people are getting turned off by this game. Will "The Division" survive? Yea, eventually they will because they do have the backing of Ubisoft. CoT is not in that situation and a 35% population loss within the first month can be pretty devastating.
I would agree that when developing any new game it's always worth looking at what other current games are doing to see if there are any "lessons learned" worth paying attention to. But I would say that many of the things you have mentioned about The Division may not be a factor for (or even apply to) a game like CoT.
The first big point is that CoT will not be a "gear" based game. There won't be any single "BFG" type weapon or device that everyone will be able to get to make their characters instantly and/or amazingly better than anyone else. And when it comes to "cheaters/exploiters" for CoT the main things they'll be looking for are people who exploit farming scenarios that are too easy. Again there's not going to be any specific item(s) they'll be farming for - it'll just be situations where if you can earn too much IGC per hour the Devs will nerf it to make it harder to do.
Also another big thing that CoT will likely have going for it is the INABILITY to mod anything that might have any kind of effect on combat capability. There won't be any third party key macro scripting or auto-queued attacks or any of the other cheesy tricks that tend to plague FPS type games. CoH had plenty of problems with its version of PvP but people "cheating" while playing wasn't one of them.
Finally CoT will more than likely have a PTS and a systematic method to "report" people to a GM. CoH had these features so there's no reason to think CoT won't.
Again while it's worth comparing CoT to other current games there are so many differences between The Division and CoT that it's almost an "apples and oranges" situation. It'd probably be far more useful to compare CoT to other pure MMOs and/or superhero games.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
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