Blizzard implements fix for gold duplication bug in Diablo III

[Shawn Knight]

Diablo III’s woes continue as the gold and real-money auction houses have been taken offline by Blizzard after a bug was discovered in the latest patch. Said exploit allowed players to duplicate gold in the auction house with some using the bug to generate billions of in-game currency within minutes.

Blizzard sprang into action with the quickness as the patch was just release yesterday. Within hours, the auction house was taken down but the team realized they needed to bring the game into maintenance to issue a fix. Gold trades were also temporarily disabled in the Americas regions according to an official post on Battle.net

Many outraged gamers called for Blizzard to perform a server rollback but after careful consideration, the team decided against it based on the nature of the dupe, how few players used it and the fact that its effects were limited within the region. Performing a full rollback would impact the community in a greater way as it would require significant downtime and revert progress that legitimate players have made since the patch was released, we’re told.

Blizzard said they have identified accounts that took advantage of the bug and are focusing on taking appropriate actions which may include temporary locks, suspensions and/or bans. As of writing, Blizzard doesn’t have an ETA for when the auction house will come back online or gold trades will be reactivated.

You can download the latest patch for Diablo III here.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/52522-blizzard-implements-fix-for-gold-duplication-bug-in-diablo-iii.html

 

[cliffordcooley]

Blizzard said they have identified accounts that took advantage of the bug and are focusing on taking appropriate actions which may include temporary locks, suspensions and/or bans.

Penalizing players for taking advantage of a bug Blizzard introduced is absurd. If Blizzard is going to penalize anyone, it should be for reasons outside of Blizzard's programing.

 

[psycros]

Yessir, making every game an always-connected, socially networked cash store experience works out so well.

 

[Darth Shiv]

Blizzard said they have identified accounts that took advantage of the bug and are focusing on taking appropriate actions which may include temporary locks, suspensions and/or bans.

Penalizing players for taking advantage of a bug Blizzard introduced is absurd. If Blizzard is going to penalize anyone, it should be for reasons outside of Blizzard's programing.

Mmmm they should just roll back transactions and gold from the bug.

 

[Prosercunus]

They should of ditched the auction house in all forms from the get go.

Man this game just gives me a disappointed feeling every time I see it mentioned, which thankfully is rare.

 

[Timonius]

So was such an exploit used for something like real world money laundering? Just wondering how long before government and law enforcement put their feet down on silly game companies.

 

[Scshadow]

Blizzard said they have identified accounts that took advantage of the bug and are focusing on taking appropriate actions which may include temporary locks, suspensions and/or bans.

Penalizing players for taking advantage of a bug Blizzard introduced is absurd. If Blizzard is going to penalize anyone, it should be for reasons outside of Blizzard's programing.

Its amazing how you rationalize this. How many other things do you rationalize in a similar manner? If a car door is left unlocked do you steal from it? If you find a set of keys in that car, do you drive it away? If someone forgets their phone in a public place, do you take it and keep it for yourself? Some things you just know are wrong, and if they knew they were doing something and they did it anyway, I hope that player gets a permanent bacation.

 

[Littleczr]

Blizzard has disapointed me the last 3 years. SC2 was ok, I have not touched sc2 HOTS , diablo sucks and it takes long for them to make games.

 

[cliffordcooley]

Its amazing how you rationalize this. How many other things do you rationalize in a similar manner?

It's in-game currency designed for in-game items not material possessions, there is a difference. Your analogy is meaningless to me.

 

[Darth Shiv]

Its amazing how you rationalize this. How many other things do you rationalize in a similar manner? If a car door is left unlocked do you steal from it? If you find a set of keys in that car, do you drive it away? If someone forgets their phone in a public place, do you take it and keep it for yourself? Some things you just know are wrong, and if they knew they were doing something and they did it anyway, I hope that player gets a permanent bacation.

Gold generation is not stealing. Completely flawed analogy. Sure what they were doing are "wrong" but there are levels of wrong. If I can rub my pocket and a million dollars appears there, then many people would have the temptation to do it. It didn't get taken from anyone else.

 

[fimbles]

Its in the TOS and therefore is illegal since you signed the contract when you installed the game.

You agree that you will not, under any circumstances: Modify or cause to be modified any files that are a part of the Game in any way not expressly authorized by Blizzard;

 

[Darth Shiv]

Its in the TOS and therefore is illegal since you signed the contract when you installed the game.

You agree that you will not, under any circumstances: Modify or cause to be modified any files that are a part of the Game in any way not expressly authorized by Blizzard;

The exploit did not require modifying files.

 

[Guest]

At least they're implementing some missing features from Diablo 2

 

[fimbles]

The exploit did not require modifying files.

It duplicated gold, I would say that was a modification of game files.

 

[cliffordcooley]

The exploit did not require modifying files.

And thats why I'm saying the players should not be penalized.

I remember Razer standing behind a 90% discount, that was not intentionally issued. They did so because it was considered, the right thing to do by many people. This discount was related to material possessions not some digital game currency. Blizzard should follow Razer on the right thing to do, especially since they were not directly financially effected by this bug.

Edit:

It duplicated gold, I would say that was a modification of game files.

Looking at it from that perspective, playing the game period will modify game files.

 

[fimbles]

Quote: " Looking at it from that perspective, playing the game period will modify game files."

Yup.. with blizzards permission.

 

[cliffordcooley]

I think you are creating a fine line that doesn't exist, where modifying game files are concerned. But then thats just my opinion.

 

[Darth Shiv]

It duplicated gold, I would say that was a modification of game files.

Editing files means taking source files or save files and running another application to change the contents of said files. Like a HEX editor or a save file editor etc etc. Running DIABLO 3 doesn't count! That is NOT modifying the files in an illegal manner. You would be laughed out of court if you tried to enforce that one.

What Blizzard could do was if they had a T&C that said "using exploits to unbalance gameplay is illegal". That is completely different to modifying source files (which I will iterate again, NEVER happened here).

 

[fimbles]

....More from blizz TOS.

"Using or exploiting errors in design, features which have not been documented, and/or "program bugs" to gain access that is otherwise not available, or to obtain a competitive advantage over other players;"

Pretty much says your screwed as soon as you tick the " I agree" box.

And the final nail in the coffin is

"Anything that Blizzard considers contrary to the "essence" of the Game."

 

[Arris]

....More from blizz TOS.

"Using or exploiting errors in design, features which have not been documented, and/or "program bugs" to gain access that is otherwise not available, or to obtain a competitive advantage over other players;"

Pretty much says your screwed as soon as you tick the " I agree" box.

And the final nail in the coffin is

"Anything that Blizzard considers contrary to the "essence" of the Game."

Anything good or fun then?

 

[Burty117]

....More from blizz TOS.

"Using or exploiting errors in design, features which have not been documented, and/or "program bugs" to gain access that is otherwise not available, or to obtain a competitive advantage over other players;"

Pretty much says your screwed as soon as you tick the " I agree" box.

And the final nail in the coffin is

"Anything that Blizzard considers contrary to the "essence" of the Game."

Luckily I live in the UK where TOS doesn't mean anything here other than the companies right to stop you from using their software, but your really not getting it.

No Game files were modified, it is a bug that they (Blizzard) introduced, not anyone's problem that Blizzard did not properly bug check such a crucial system and element of the game.

the TOS of the game states "the essence of the game" since your putting out silly car analogy's I'll do so to...

When I rent a car (Diablo License), I'm pretty sure they wouldn't sue me (or lock me out the car) if the car had a malfunction and allowed me to run on an infinite amount of petrol...

 

[spydercanopus]

You're supposed to let us know BEFORE they fix it.

 

[Guest]

TERMS OF SERVICE have no validity in law. they are just an agreement that you click when playing the game. US/UK other domain law can choose to use the TOS as evidence IF a court case was started. This was based on the current real world trend known as Quantitative Easing.

 

[MilwaukeeMike]

Its amazing how you rationalize this. How many other things do you rationalize in a similar manner?

It's in-game currency designed for in-game items not material possessions, there is a difference. Your analogy is meaningless to me.

I don't play diablo, but my understanding was that you can sell game items for the game currency or real USD. So stealing game currency would allow you to acquire real money through more in-game items.

Secondly, it's people's time. If you're taking something that someone spent a lot of time working on then that's still a d!ck move at worst, criminal at best. Artwork is a good example... there's a ton of artwork that is worthless to anyone other than the artist, but that doesn't give you the freedom to steal it because there's no monetary value. I'm not saying diablo gold is analagous to artwork, but don't make presumptions about what something is worth to someone.

The thousands of dollars in game currency bought every day by real money in multiple games is evidence enough that it has value.

Darth Shiv - You're right, generating gold isn't stealing, but it does devalue the currency. It creates inflation, which makes other's money worth less. Did that happen here, probably not, but only because this bug was used by only a few.

 

[umbala]

Its amazing how you rationalize this. How many other things do you rationalize in a similar manner? If a car door is left unlocked do you steal from it? If you find a set of keys in that car, do you drive it away? If someone forgets their phone in a public place, do you take it and keep it for yourself? Some things you just know are wrong, and if they knew they were doing something and they did it anyway, I hope that player gets a permanent bacation.

Gold generation is not stealing. Completely flawed analogy. Sure what they were doing are "wrong" but there are levels of wrong. If I can rub my pocket and a million dollars appears there, then many people would have the temptation to do it. It didn't get taken from anyone else.

Your analogy is just as flawed. When you make currency appear out of thin air (be it real or virtual) it harms the overall value of other currency that people actually worked for and earned. If a money duplicating machine fell out of a bank's window and you started printing your own money, whose at fault you or the bank? Both. The bank for losing that machine and you as well for going against common sense and taking free money you didn't earn. Just because that money didn't previously belong to anyone it's still technically stealing because you didn't earn it. You're still harming the overall system and reducing the overall value of existing currency.