BioWare explains recent spate of SWTOR bans

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 3 January, 2012

Vows to adjust Ilum to "discourage" exploits.

BioWare has explained the recent spate of Star Wars: The Old Republic bans - and promised to adjust areas players are exploiting.

Last week a number of players were banned from playing the sci-fi MMO for looting containers in planet Ilum at too low a level - a move that sparked outrage from the game's community.

Community manager Stephen Reid took to the SWTOR website to explain what had happened.

He said those who had been warned or temporarily banned "were systematically and repeatedly looting containers in very high numbers resulting in the game economy becoming unbalanced".

"To be completely clear, while players may choose to travel to Ilum earlier than the recommended level (40+) and may loot containers if they can get to them, in the cases of those customers that were warned or temporarily suspended, they were systematically and repeatedly looting containers in very high numbers resulting in the game economy becoming unbalanced," he said.

"None of these accounts were banned for their actions and no accounts have been banned for travelling to Ilum while still relatively low level. By comparison, the number of accounts that were warned or temporarily suspended was considerably lower than the number of accounts banned for 'credit farming'.

"It's important to remember that our Terms of Service team is extremely careful and thorough in their investigation of any potential exploit or unusual activity in-game. Working closely with the development team and using extensive metrics based on player activity, they are able to determine what is normal player activity, what is unusual and what is exploiting. Our goal is always to ensure a fair game experience for all players while also protecting the rights of individuals, and if people are disrupting the play experience for others action will be taken."

Reid added that BioWare may reverse a ban decision if the case merits it - but warned against taking online player reports at face value.

"While we will not discuss the details of any individual action, whenever we take action against an account we believe they have clearly broken our Terms of Service," he explained. "Any action taken against an account can be appealed and in some cases actions have been rescinded.

"While we understand people's concern about actions taken against accounts, please remember the Terms of Service team exists to help ensure a balanced and fair game experience for all. When you see reports of actions taken against someone's account, remember they are choosing to tell their version of the story - and there are two sides to every story."

BioWare vowed to adjust Ilum "in the near future" to "discourage" exploits. For now, though, the planet remains open to anyone who wishes to travel there.

"The goal of the Star Wars: The Old Republic team is to maintain a service for our customers that is fun to play and equitable for everyone," Reid concluded.

"Critical to this goal is making sure that gameplay is fair and reasonable and we are constantly on the lookout for anything that would prove to be a detriment to your gameplay experiences."

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (34) Latest comment 2 months ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Eraysor #1 2 months ago

    I'm sorry Bioware but you can't blame the players for part of your game being broken...if it's in the design players should be allowed to do it.

  • INSOMANiAC #2 2 months ago

    If i'd paid for a game and got banned for travelling to an available area and opening some boxes I'd want my money back and would never play the game again.

  • SikoSoft #3 2 months ago

    I agree Eraysor.

    I will never understand this demonizing of people who use exploits. Now, I'm not the type to use them (design exploits yes, technical exploits no), but that doesn't mean I think they are all evil kiddies needing to be banned.

    They are adhering to the games logic. The source of what is and isn't allowed. The whole point of programming logic and rules is so you don't need to say "do this, don't do that".

    If people end up exploiting the nature of logic that wasn't well thought-through, then we should be in an outrage over the people who didn't think it through, not the people exploiting it.

  • roquey Verified Lead Quality Assurance Tester and Compliance Specialist, Universally Speaking #4 2 months ago

    Wes, why on earth would you place half of a paragraph, into a smaller paragraph just before it, it just makes shit reading. #baffled

    I just don't see why players would get temp banned just for using something that is available to them. i know id go to higher areas and loot if i needed money in any game. It just how it works. if you want people to play the game the way you want then don't make an MMO unless its linear, and nobody wants that.
    Edited by 1 at 03/01/12 @ 14:49

  • Crovax20 #5 2 months ago

    They didn't ban someone who opened some boxes. They banned people who specifically traveled to an available area and opening boxes over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. Or at least thats what I got from the article. Basically people that were exploiting a gap the developers missed, and I doubt they got instabanned without a warning first, unless they were "chinese gold farmers"

  • TeaFiend #6 2 months ago

    Would the better answer not be to adjust those areas to have scary monsters/aliens/ghosts to stop people being able to get to those boxes with such ease? I remember doing something like this in Phantasy Star Online, joining high leveled games and going to a cleared area to nab any leftover loot that was worth far more than what I could make at lower levels.

  • Shikasama #7 2 months ago

    Hang on, I'm confused. I don't play SWTOR and it seems that there are only two scenarios this makes sense in:

    1) Players can travel toa certain area, even though they aren't really supposed to be there until level 40, at a much lower level. Whilst there, they can open containers that drop items. These containers respawn meaning low level characters can get higher level gear to sell relatively easily.

    I don't see anything that even vaguely warrants a warning, much less a ban in that scenario. This seems to be what the article is saying happened.

    2) Players can travel to the area at a lower level and due to a big there is an infinitley spawning chest that comes back almost immediately after being opened. Players have been using this chest to obtain a large number of items they can then sell.

    Now this would be taking advantage of something clearly outside of the design, so I could see it in these circumstances and it wouldn't be uncommon in any other MMO.

    Can someone who plays the game shed any light on this because the account that Wes gave makes it sounds ridiculous.

  • Canyarion #8 2 months ago

    Remember how you could be banned in WoW for entering beta places that Blizzard never bothered to remove or completely wall off?

    Insane.

  • Spekingur #9 2 months ago

    @Shikasama It's repeatedly and systematically going to these chests. Think 'gold farmers' level of farming. They are not banning or warning players that have done this 10 times, it's more like those who have done it 1000 times. That's how I read it.

    They apparently want anyone to be able to open these chests and want anyone to be able to travel to any planet. Either they are going to have to place a character level limit on these chests or a timer so players can't farm them.

  • miiiguel #10 2 months ago

    The source of what is and isn't allowed.

    But it isn't allowed. If the guy say they're just taking measures against accounts who broke the TOS, it isn't allowed.

  • Shikasama #11 2 months ago

    @Spekingur

    Holy shit, so they are being banned for doing the same action over and over again..in an MMO!?

    I still don't get it. They are able to access the area through normal gameplay, they are able to open the chests normally, but if they do it lots that is a bannable offence?

    How does this make any sense?

  • digitalash #12 2 months ago

    Disgraceful. Make a balanced game.

    The whole idea of a game is to "beat" the systems by learning how to use and exploit them. Don't ban your players for winning.

  • magicpanda #13 2 months ago

    They banned people who specifically travelled to an available area and opening boxes over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.
    So they banned people for playing an MMO.

  • cowell #14 2 months ago

    Surely you just stick a bunch of mobs near the chests that only characters of the required level can handle?!

  • Whitster #15 2 months ago

    Wouldn't it be nice if all the people who unbalanced the real economy could be banned from life.

  • arcam #16 2 months ago

    As I understand it, this is a PVP area, with loot (slicing nodes) given when an area is capped. People were running two characters, camping out one of the zones and constantly flipping the objective cap with their characters from alternate factions. Every time it is capped, the loot respawns.

    Low level players going to Ilum and grabbing high level loot are not being banned, only people using multiple characters to cap a point back and forth all day, constantly grabbing loot with no challenge to do so.

    It's not playing within the game rules, it's like 4 players ganging up on a poker site online and showing each other their cards. It's an exploit plain and simple, and it couldn't be allowed in this any more than it would be allowed in any other MMO. Bioware will fix it, presumably by giving the loot or the zones themselves a respawn timer of some kind.

    There's no excuse in saying that the game design allowed it to happen, that's missing the point - players doing this are shitting in the sandbox that everyone else has to play in. Getting rid of them is the best response for everyone.

  • jonfon #17 2 months ago

    @digitalash
    I'm not sure the idea of a game is to "beat the system via exploits", at least not in the context of what Exploit generally means in an MMO.

  • linksdad #18 2 months ago

    Over and over and over again. Thats MMORPG isnt it?

  • Shikasama #19 2 months ago

    @arcam

    See THAT makes sense.

    Why couldn't a bit more context have been put into the article for crying out loud. Cheers arcam.

  • Spong #20 2 months ago

    I think a better title for this article would be "BioWare bans paying customers for participating in unofficial QA that the company should've done themselves"

  • silversun #21 2 months ago

    really enjoying the game, does not suprise me that that people are exploiting/taking advantage of the system (whichever one you prefer)
    For me i seen this enough in past in online games but the way starwars works as an online game this issue really not effecting me as i can get by without the greatest weapons in online games , i guess for some it an issue though.

    starwars great so far.
    people may take advantage of a system but why would they want to it just drains all the fun out of a well made online game , it would be same if they tried this with guild wars however a game like say eve or even final fantasy 11 online i can understand why it would cause problems.

  • aplatheos #22 2 months ago

    They spent gazillion of millions of dollars to make the game and yet, it has major flaws in its design. Now they are banning people for the mistakes in the design of their game.

    It's like putting unlimited gold in an area and telling people that they are not allowed to get it, or else they will be banned. And all that shit after they have already done it. Job well done Bioware. Job well done.

    For the people who say that SWTOR is awesome etc, what if they ban you in the near future because of their fault? Will you demand your money back? Will you start to flame them? Nope. Because you are fanboys and fanboys don't complain.

    Happy new year everyone :)

  • Ramboness #23 2 months ago

    Did people receive perm bans?

  • poteb #24 2 months ago

    I think this is good! Why? Because it makes MY gaming experience better.

  • darc #25 2 months ago

    ANOTHER banning controversy with a Bioware game??* Will these guys never learn? It's turned into self-parody over there.

    And they're punishing paying customers for doing things that their own software allows? Call it an exploit if you like, but I'd sooner call it a failure to properly implement their rule set. i.e.:

    "we are constantly on the lookout for anything that would prove to be a detriment to your gameplay experiences"

    But rather than coding for said detriments, we will rush the product to market, and then slap your hands if you notice it's broken.

    Proving that banning customers is easier than software development... until those customers wise up and stop buying their games.


    * Last year EA/Bioware were banning people from playing Dragon Age 2 if they were too rude on the forum website. Of course, it turned out the game was bad they were doing those customers a favor. :)
    Edited by 1 at 03/01/12 @ 21:04

  • shadowdogg #26 2 months ago

    If people can do it, they would - your fault Bioware for not patching it.

  • jyrque #27 2 months ago

    By comparison, the number of accounts that were warned or temporarily suspended was considerably lower than the number of accounts banned for 'credit farming'.
    I wonder what EA considers farming. If looting those Ilum chests is okay unless you do it too much, then what is considered 'too much'?

    I think it was mentioned at a credible source that there is an exploit that involves two parties on both Republic and Sith side working together to reset those valuable chests for optimized time in resource gathering. I can understand these cases' parties being warned but EA's wording doesn't really seem to make clear what is all right and what is not.

    It's not unheard of outright banning people who abuse glitches or - in TOR's case - game design in MMOs. Bioware should instead have taken heed of past examples of social design and build their game around that.

  • rudedudejude #28 2 months ago

    This about gold / credit farming guys, not looting the odd container or two.

  • Sutorcen #29 2 months ago

    Since when is Exploring and Suicide Runs for loot a game braker, especially when your faulty design allows them to do just that? You EA and Bioware forget that you exist only because we choose to spend our money on your products, but keep it up and that can rapidly change.

    Just focus on making the game better. That would make everyone's gaming experience better. Oh and also fix the damn AH and crafting schematics while you're at it.
    Edited by 1 at 04/01/12 @ 10:16

  • Spekingur #30 2 months ago

    @Sutorcen Read the comments and you would have found out that this has nothing to do with Exploring and Suicide Runs.

  • Hakster #31 2 months ago

    @Sutorcen Except it's not. What people are being banned (not suspended - banned) for is for exploiting a game mechanic by using 2 characters, one on each faction, in order to cause level 40+ items to spawn at an exponentially faster rate than they should be, on a PvP world. By definition, PvP should be competitive, however what these people are doing is the same as Arcam described, and it is causing quite serious upsets in the game economy at all levels, given how much money the offenders are able to make in such a short time.

  • FortysixterUK #32 2 months ago

    That is absolute bollox, If an item is available for looting and you can get to said item, then more power to the person with the ingenuity to get to said item.
    Sounds to me like either EA or BW being total c*nts about people playing the game that THE PLAYERS have paid for and THE PLAYERS have subscribed to with THEIR money.

    Shit....maybe I'll dial back my 6 month membership to just a single month.....

  • craziii #33 2 months ago

    read comment #17 :p

  • BlinkeredAxis #34 2 months ago

    Fixing bugs in huge games is a big challenge - you need programmers, testers, all sorts of staff to make it happen. In the meantime, Bioware are rightly taking steps to stop irresponsible people from spoiling the game for their (paying) customers.

    Thank you Bioware, you are doing the right thing.