Bug Abuser Justice
As you all probably know, there was a glitch within the Crucible this past week (actually the second major glitch within the Crucible since it has been released) that players were able to abuse. It was a duplication glitch that allowed you (if you had max cash within your money pouch and a full inventory) to get double the fee that you paid to enter. You would enter the Crucible with nothing on, costing you 500k each time to enter. Then you would leave the Crucible and claim your fee back from the banker whilst you have max cash in your money pouch and a full inventory. When you claimed your fee back, the coins would appear on the ground in two piles, the cash you were supposed to get back from your fee (the 500k) plus an additional 500k because of the glitch. The glitch was also done through the duel arena, and through alching. It was a glitch where if you had a full money pouch and a full inventory, any coins that went to the ground from any cause would be duplicated. Once this glitch was discovered, players immediately started abusing it. Rumors stated that over 800b was duplicated and kept for players own use, moved to a different account for future use, or sold for real life money. This obviously being a major problem, flooding tons of gold into the game which in result made all of the items in the game rise in price, and also making people tons of money in real life, had to be taken care of immediately. The glitch actually lasted for 5 days until scratching the surface and after a full day of Jagex knowing about the glitch, it was patched (August 6th, 2012).
Pretty crazy that something like that can happen right? The question is, what are the consequences?
I, for one, have never abused a bug or taken a part in any bug abuse or glitching. I've witnessed a lot of bug abuse and glitches throughout my time on this game and I've seen the consequences that people have suffered. Recently though, the bugs or glitches that have been abused, have had no serious punishment what-so-ever. I've witnessed the Corporeal Beast/Ring of Wealth glitch (upon the Ring of Wealth update on March 15th, 2011) where players would receive a Sigil after every kill if you had a Ring of Wealth equipped and were using lootshare. After the bug had been patched (30 minutes after the update) there was no rollback for people who continuously received sigils or any other drops from other bosses for that matter. I've witnessed the Loyalty Reward Shop glitch (upon the first batch of new loyalty items released into the store) where players who had points could click "buy" on any reward shop item that they had enough points for, and buy them without losing any points. Many players unlocked all of the shop rewards after this glitch (one being a video maker showing that they had all of the loyalty program items) and didn't get rolled back or a removal of what they had purchased. I've witnessed the Dungeoneering Runecrafting glitch (upon the release of Dungeoneering) where players would buy rune essence within a dungeon and get full xp for crafting the runes on the altar. Many players received 99 Runecrafting from this glitch, others 200m xp. This was patched about an hour after Jagex saw the spike in Runecrafting levels/xp. They rolled back anyone who received 200m xp from this glitch, but many accounts slipped under the radar and were able to keep the levels they gained. I've witnessed the Branches of Darkmeyer Agility glitch (more of a bug that gave too much xp) which allowed players to jump across a specific ledge repeatedly and yield around 80-100k xp per hour (besting the Advanced Barbarian Agility courses xp per hour). Players who did this were not rolled back or punished, Jagex just decreased the xp you get from jumping across the ledge severely. Also, I've witnessed the first Crucible glitch (upon the release of the Crucible) where if you didn't type in your pin (and closed out of the screen) it wouldn't charge you the fee of 500k but when you claimed your fee, it would give you 500k. Meaning players could just keep claiming their fee back and make a lot of money per hour. This was patched an hour after the update and many players got rolled back but no serious action was taken. These are just the recent bugs that I remember off the top of my head.
So what would be the punishment for this glitch? If recent glitches or bugs had been abused, and there has been no serious punishments or consequences, the most being a rollback, what would stop you from abusing? The answer is nothing. If the most you're going to get is rolled back, why wouldn't players try to be the one account that slips under the radar?
The answer to what the punishment for this glitch was, is banning, and not only banning, public embarrassment. I tip my cap off to Jagex and give them a giant round of applause. This specific bug abuse, bringing over 800b gold into the game was a serious problem that needed to be fixed and punished for. What did Jagex do? They made an entire news post about how they know exactly which accounts abused the glitch and that they are banning all of the ones that abused it and resetting any accounts who received money from the bug abusing accounts. They named, shamed and banned 16 accounts that heavily abused the glitch, and banned many others that abused the glitch in general. Not only does this negate the money that was brought into the game, it got rid of some of the bug abusers within the game and it also sent a message to any potential bug abusers in the future. Now that there has been a public and severe consequence to the action, players are going to think twice before bug abusing. Great job Jagex, you really took a major situation and handled it in the way and manor you were supposed to which really spreads a message around the game saying that you will not stand for abusing bugs.
It also gives me hope in the future that there won't be much bug abuse, not only because they did this, but because Jagex listed that they, "have a new way of analyzing data to be very sure of who was, or was not, abusing the bug. We will be using this new data system to help us deal with other issues in the very near future". They definitely gave us non-rule breaking players hope that justice will always be served in situations like this. Also, they said a very firm statement at the end of the news post which said, "nobody likes a cheat and actions must and will be taken".
I'm very happy that one player in specific got banned for abusing this bug. His name was "RS Completed". He had a Completionist Cape and High Level Forum access. On the HLF he posted a thread, title being; "Rollback? Over 800b dumped" and the context being; "Won't happen". Implying that nothing (rollback or ban) would be done about this glitch to the players who abused it. Thankfully justice was served, and this player in specific, got humiliated on the home page and "mouthed" by Jagex.
Maybe Jagex will ban Mx799 and Cls Product next, who post videos and evidence that they lure, scam, and deceive players on this game for their own personal gain. Those kind of people ruin the community and make innocent players cry over Skype and lose what they worked hard for. Doing that would really send a message to rule breakers, lurers, scammers and gamblers around the game.
Link to the news post about Bug Abusers being banned:
http://services.runescape.com/m=news/bug-abusers-banned