Exodus Suspended, Oh My!
Posted by 
iTZKooPA on Tuesday, June 30, 2009 - 26 Comments Tags: 72 hour suspension, ban hammer, banned, bugs, cheating, ensidia, exodus, exploits, guild fighting, hotfixes, old god, suspended, temp ban, world first, yogg-saron
iTZKooPA on Tuesday, June 30, 2009 - 26 Comments Tags: 72 hour suspension, ban hammer, banned, bugs, cheating, ensidia, exodus, exploits, guild fighting, hotfixes, old god, suspended, temp ban, world first, yogg-saron 
I don't know about you guys but even though I am a far cry from the hardcore raiding base, I still live through them vicariously. I follow the MMO-Champion's Hall of Fame, I check up on all the "top guild" websites here and there, and I even report about the major events in the top echelon of raiding. Instead of freaking out over the conditions surrounding the King of Pop's death this weekend, I was busy reading into the death of an Old God. None other then Yogg-Saron+0, the last undefeated Ulduar encounter, bit the dust a few days ago. Like Jackson, as soon as The Beast with a Thousand Maws uttered his last whisper claims of a mysterious death were uttered.
Turns out that the cries of shenanigans against Exodus were just, as the guild openly admits to using a newly discovered, by them, exploit after getting banned from the game. The banhammer notice, details of the exploit and trash talking are all included in the guild's official statement.
In our many attempts at trying to figure out a way to defeat Yogg zero watcher, we found a way to use bugged game mechanics to make phase 3 easier in zero watcher then one watcher.
The bug is when someone is left inside the brain room of Yogg-Saron, they can still get aggro on the adds that spawn in phase 3. That means if you have someone getting healing aggro in the brain room, they will get aggro on the adds, which cause them to evade in place and allows for all of your raids dps to be focused on Yogg.
We discovered this mechanic on a wipe, and decided to see if we could actually get it to work. The first attempt after that wipe, we realized it worked, and went with it and killed it on that attempt. We also filed a formal bug report on Blizzard's website.
Blizzard's EULA clearly states that using an exploit to gain an unfair advantage is against the rules. Exodus doesn't deny that they exploited, or complain about the temporary ban, at least not directly. Nope, Exodus cries foul of favoritism by Blizzard amongst the hardcore raiding guilds. The team alleges that Ensidia and Nihilum have used "clever game mechanics" before, even citing a few Ulduar examples, but haven't been meet by the same backlash from other hardcore guilds, or, and more importantly, Blizzard. At the moment the team is riding out a 72 hour ban and it makes me wonder who at Blizzard makes these decisions. It's obvious that the issues are handled case by case, so does that mean there is a higher up who oversees the GMs? Or is it at the discretion of a server's lead GM? Any readers have that much insight?
The guild mud slinging really brings me back though. In the vanilla days of World of Warcraft, whenever a new first kill was announced on Magtheridon (US) everyone would respond that "Feared killed Onyxia first." The quip was due to a long standing debate between who killed the dastardly dragon first, Horde or Alliance. I don't see it anymore so it must have died during The Burning Crusade's heyday, as that is when the old guild disappeared.
Slap on the wrist and name calling aside, claiming that you have the right to exploit because the fight is unbeatable is an incredibly lame justification. In case you are wondering, the exploit has already been hotfixed.
What's more interesting to you, the temp ban or the possibility of unequal treatment?
Reader Comments (26)
Wait a minute...There are bugs in wow? This is news to me.
Before some one types something stupid here...id like to say i think that a ban was maybe a little hard handed.
The ban is a little odd, why not just remove their achivement and/or loot they got from the fight and yell "do over!" I mean, if they really did file an offical bug report, then its really no harm done other than a waisted night of raiding.
"The first attempt after that wipe, we realized it worked, and went with it and killed it on that attempt. We also filed a formal bug report on Blizzard’s website."
So they went ahead with a bannable exploit that they knew about, and THEN filed the bug report. Sounds to me like they wanted to get that advantage before Blizzard hotfixed it.
Should it have been a 48-hr punishment instead of 72-hr? Probably, but still deserving of a temp-ban.
There are many examples of loopholes that exist in the game that are taken advantage of as "creative usage of current game mechanics". I think the distinction here is that it is pretty obvious that when a mob evade bugs that you are exploiting.
I agree the ban was necessary, mainly because they admitted to knowing it was an exploit and still went ahead and used it. 72 hours is actually far less than what they would have gotten for other EULA infringements.
What bothers me is the fact that Exodus seemed quite content to not tell Blizzard that other guilds had used exploits up untill now, and that Blizzard only banned Exodus, even when other guilds had similar advantages.
lol I cant believe that Blizzard banned someone for their own mistake in game mechanics. Thats completely rediculous.
In the old raids people exploited any mistake that blizzard overlooked and it made the harder bosses a lot easier. Now im not saying I did but...
I'm on Exodus' side, Ensidia and others have done the same things and received praise; it doesn't make sense to have this double standard. Honestly though, with all the news of other crazy bans, I think whoever judicates these matters is either bored or incompetent.
who got hit with banhammer this time
72 hours? now i am not saying that blizz should have punished exodus for taking advantage of blizzards mistake but 72 hours? you might as well have slaped them on the wrist infect that would be much worse punishment its only 3 days whats the point of even punishing them if your not going to do anything what are they trying to accomplish here what will happen when tehy discover another bug is 3 days of not being able to play the game supostu stop them from taking advantage or are you just going to increase the punishment whats it going to be next time a week long ban his ban is a joke all your doing is wasting thier time and yours
That ensidia guild cheats but thats ok.....
honestly i think exodus has every right to complain if what they are saying is true....if ensidia and other top guilds out there have been using exploits to get world firsts id be pissed to if when i finally got something i got banned for it just because i wasnt in ensidia....not saying that its right to use these exploits because its not but if these other guilds have been using the same exploits they should be punished as well
It's one thing to have a bug, but to intentionally abuse a bug is obviously wrong and thus I don't think a ban, especially a 72 hour ban, is all that bad.
And if other guilds are doing it too, then yes, that is wrong. But you can't justify your own wrongs just because someone else did it too. Just because Group A cheated/exploited doesn't mean its OK for Group B.
But that's just my opinion. Not like 3 days without WoW is gonna kill anyone.
hey, i was in Unforgiven on US Magtheridon! We had the server first Nefarion kill, but I dont recall who the debate was over for the Onyxia kill, was it DAT? Defiance? Ascention? Pain Train?
The thing is, when they first killed the boss, they said that "no, it has not been nerfed, no bugs or anything" (can't remember the exact wording).
one of the examples with Ensidia, where they used "Flower Power for hodir hardmode, they clearly went out and stated that they did it, and why. (The boss had been buffed after a few other guilds had killed him, but before Ensidia did, plus it wasn't a bug, it was clever use of game mechanics)
@Blightear
All That Remains, who's former members started Unforgiven for the most part after some guild drama.
The difference is, on the hodir fight the "exploit" ensidia used did not come near to trivializing the hodir fight, in fact it actually made it harder coordination wise
What Exodus did trivialized it, basically took away all dmg from the third phase so they could just dps yogg and turn around during lunatic phase.
Also, ensidia didnt try to pass it off as a legit kill...>Exodus did and they flat out lied to the community pinning their success on luck and skill...they make me sick
@Crusade
Cheating is cheating. I don't care how they did it they both cheating. Neither should have ANY of their firsts count towards their world rank and should have all their gear and loots removed.
If what Exodus said is true and they reported it, they have more respect in my book than Ensidia. They tried to hide their exploit and it wasn't until someone noticed the bug on their posted video that they were caught.
One thing i don't like is that they ban first and ask questions later, this guild (or any other guild) might have mistaken that bug for a regular part of boss encounter, a unique mechanic that gives players a strategy to use. Is it Exodus's fault the bug was there? No it's Blizzards fault, they filed an official report but who knows wat really happened and if they realized that the trick they discovered was a bug b4 or after the kill. GM's should have gotten testimonies from several different members before dishing out punishment.
if someone puts drugs in your hand does taht neccerly means you have to use am them? thier is no excuse no way to justify what ensidia and exodus did if person A and person B both use the drugs but and person B useless less then person A does taht mean that persons B ppunishment should be any less savear they both broke the law both should be punished
It's the same concept of "It's only illegal if you get caught".
If they exploited the bug, then they should have let Blizzard find out on their own. If they wanted to file a bug report, they shouldn't have exploited it, then report it.
I think Blizz's reputation thrives on spreading fear. "Oooh, they banned exodus, maybe we shouldn't exploit the same bug". It's just a way to make the game as fair as possible, even if it means a 72 hour ban.
I love your using Magic cards to illustrate your banhammers ^^
Wait, 72hour ban was just banning them from the rest of that lockout, yeah?
That's not too harsh. :S
did they really think they would get away with something like that? I thought they knew better >_>
72 hours is nothing. 3 freakin' days. Whatever. I hope they use that time to sleep, go outside, and shower...and quit bitching.