Neverwinter Online Bans Many Streaming Players for Using Exploit

[Grilka8050]

On June 26, 2018, Neverwinter Online launched its Ravenloft module. This included a new spin on the Hunt mechanic that the developers have been fine tuning since the beginning of Chult last year. However, this new hunt system in Ravenloft had a huge exploit that went unchecked for quite some time. 

The exploit wasn’t fixed until the patch on August 29th. That’s two months of a patch going unchecked. Apparently, some players even reported the exploit while it was still on the preview server, so the developers were aware of the problem before it went live and waited until two months after to fix it. 

I feel like it’s important to explain the difference between a bug and an exploit. A bug is something that occurs without doing something different than you normally would while playing the game. For an example, this would include a certain Scourge Warlock power dealing extra damage in certain situations. An exploit is a situation where a player benefits from doing something they normally wouldn’t do and gain a benefit. For example, (and this isn’t real) if you were to jump three times on the bottom step right before battling the final boss of a dungeon, log out and back in, and you’d get a super buff. Exploits are bad, and they are bannable offenses according to the Terms of Service. This particular exploit is bad because it disrupts the game’s economy, thereby affecting the entire player base even if only a small percentage participated.

The exploit in question allowed players to use Tarokka Cards on their hunts without consuming them. The most notable form of hunt exploitation allowed players to farm Astral Diamonds without consuming the poster or the card, effectively only costing them time. There wasn’t the Rough AD cap to slow players down, and without requiring any additional resources, this was an unlimited source of AD. 

Cryptic’s response was to issue a huge wave of bans. Unfortunately, this included many of their big streamers, which is why this ban wave has gotten so much attention on Neverwinter news reporting sites and social media. I can’t find any official sources to confirm how many accounts were banned, but it’s rumored that over 1,000 players were banned for using this exploit. It didn’t help that one of the top Neverwinter News sites explained how to do the bug either.

I think this whole situation is bad, and everyone deserves a little blame. Cryptic should have fixed the bug before launching the module on the live server. NWO shouldn’t have explained how to do the bug. Last but not least, the players shouldn’t have used the bug, and I think they are ultimately responsible for their bans. Cheaters ruin games for everyone, and I think they got what they deserved. 

Sources: Arc Games,  MMORPG.com, Neverwinter Uncensored

Back to original news post