Ubisoft vows to punish exploiters, but is it possible?

Ubisoft announced on The Division forums that exploiters of the glitch found in Falcons Lost (a raid) have used to gain an immense advantage over players who follow the rules. The question that remains is how are they going to find and punish such exploiters? Is it even possible?

A glitch that provides easy loot

The glitch players have exploited and what Ubisoft is attempting to clamp down on is found in the Falcons Lost raid which released with the Incursions update earlier this month. The glitch allows players to bypass the boss altogether and gain the loot.

Just to make things worse, players can use it repeatedly. This exploit caused players to gain an enormous advantage over honest players. It has allowed exploiters to gain powerful items and equipment that exceeds those who don’t use the glitch.

It gives them an overwhelmingly overpowered advantage when participating in PVP. To further worsen the issue, players who are against using the exploit get the boot out of groups. This pressure tends to force players into using the glitch, turning innocent and honest players into exploiters themselves.

Exploiters state they won’t stop

Since the announcement, the thread on the forum has become the grounds of criticisms towards Ubisoft. The criticisms come from honest players and exploiters alike. Some are stating that blindly punishing players isn’t the way to go about it.

Others have gone on to say that such an exploit shouldn’t be in the game to begin with, and that the raid needs a temporary shut down until a fix is applied. One bold poster admitted to using the glitch and has stated they aren’t going to stop using it.

They say it is far more fun to play using the exploit that it is to actually play legitimately. It is not just this one individual who has shown a particular dislike towards the raid. Many throughout the thread have also expressed their displeasure with it, calling it boring.

Can they be stopped?

MMO’s have always had trouble with punishing players who are breaching the rules. Finding who the players are is tough. Attempting to slam the hammer down blindly often leads to players who always follow the rules receiving a ban.

Indeed, a lot of MMO’s have a log of player activities that is saved to the server. Looking for each and every record of a game that has millions of players on a daily basis is impossible. If Ubisoft is going to put down the hammer of justice on this, there are going to be innocents caught in it.

The only possible way to stop this particular exploit would be to shut down the raid until the fix is applied. It is, technically, the only way to ensure that exploiters can no longer use this particular glitch. 

Will those who have already exploited the glitch be caught and punished? It is most likely they will get away with it. It is, however, going to be interesting to see how Ubisoft deals with the situation.

What are your thoughts on the situation? Do you think Ubisoft can put a punishment in place? Do you think it’s possible to catch the exploiters? Let me know in the comments below.