"But at least they have chicken!" The Loudest Scandals in MMOs

MMO games are much closer to our objective reality than any others. That's why, no matter how hard developers try, whatever restrictions they impose — people will find a reason to quarrel.

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Most of them have a local character. They didn’t share the territory, they quarreled, they fought — well, who hasn’t? There are plenty of wars that started with a couple of insults in the vast expanses of virtual universes. But such cases, to be honest, are of little interest to the average person.

We will talk about scandals that have shaken the whole world. Some — are just the world within the server. Many — in the game itself. And some are mentioned around the world from time to time...

[EVE Online](/games?search=EVE Online): "Don't keep all your PLEX in one basket"

EVE Online is mechanically the closest to reality, even though everything happens in space. And this particularly applies to socio-economic relationships. That's why the EVE universe will appear more than once or twice in this list.

The first story is about pirates. Players from the corporation "Method Of Destruction" on a day no different from many others scanned one of the many ships in the Jita system. This system is the center of the entire game economy, and you can buy anything here, so it’s no surprise that it has become popular not only with traders but also with teams of suicide pirates — one kills and heroically dies at the hands of law enforcement, while the other calmly loots the remains of the victim and his mate...

...so, as a result of the scanning, a cargo was discovered that was beyond all reasonable limits. 74 PLEX! Each of them represents 30 days of game time, which in real currency amounts to — attention — 1300 dollars. The unfortunate pilot stocked up on PLEX like there was no tomorrow, hoping to get lots and lots of in-game currency, but it was not meant to be. The pirates, however, were out of luck too: all the PLEX went up in flames. Well, at least there will be something to tell the grandkids.

[Lineage 2](/games?search=Lineage 2): "Everyone loves bots"

All gaming companies whose games are tied to network play struggle with bots to one degree or another. Innova Systems with its Lineage 2. One fine day, the bright minds at Innova decided to radically deal with the bot l2walker... and got a bit carried away. Any mention in chat of the program's name kicked out absolutely everyone who saw it. As a result, during prime time, the number of people was — like at night on December 31. Well, maybe a little less.

Of course, the mistake was somewhat quickly covered up, but this case is still remembered as "the biggest fail of Innova" in the realms of Lineage 2...

[EVE Online](/games?search=EVE Online): "The Great Diversion"

In EVE Online, political squabbles are continuous. Wars? As many as you want. Espionage? Remember, the enemy could be your best friend. But the case we will recall now goes beyond the ordinary.

October 28, 2009, went down in the history of the Curatores Veritatis Alliance as perhaps the darkest day of all. CVA was one of the oldest alliances, which also had a role-playing bent. Without fanaticism, but noticeably more so than its nearest surroundings. So it’s no surprise that the news that it was dissolved, which spread throughout the galaxy, at first glance might have seemed like a prank. 27 corporations, about one and a half thousand pilots, 47 systems, 24 stations. And all of this is gone? You must be joking?

But no. Anyone could search for alliances and see that under the name of the old good CVA was hiding just one person, and that one wasn’t even from the old staff. After all, the creation date was proudly displayed as "October 28, 2009". Nonsense. What was this?

Opinions diverged. Of course, malicious tongues immediately began to speak of betrayal. Others — of corruption, which is roughly the same in the context of EVE. The official position, however, was — hacking.

In fact, the fundamental problem of EVE in this area has always been that dissolution happens instantly. And that’s within the rules. If it were betrayal, the alliance would have remained dissolved.

But, "thankfully" for the alliance, it turned out to be a hack. After some time, it was fully restored by the administration in its original form. You can breathe out.

[Perfect World](/games?search=Perfect World): "Raid on technical support"

In fact, similar stories can be collected by the dozens: technical support is an eternal source of jokes in any game. But this case is so exemplary that I cannot refrain from mentioning it. Especially considering that I was a witness myself.

This story happened in the Russian-speaking PW realm. At that time, a lot of things had not yet been transferred from the original version of the game, so our brother was satisfied with a rather meager set of entertainments. One of them was the so-called Gui Mu, a special type of dungeon in which a group of adventurers is attacked in waves by numerous enemies. The "trick" of Gui Mu is that it is divided into ranks: levels 40-55, then 56-70, and so on. According to the rules, entering a "not your" Gui Mu is not allowed.

Or is it possible?

One fine day, it was discovered (we won’t point fingers, even though it was the Horde clan) that if you first enter a lower rank dungeon, and then shuffle this group of adventurers so that there are high-level characters in it, they will be able to enter. Of course, the guys were a bit taken aback and, to be safe, they sent a telegram to technical support.

What was the response?

Operator10

Added: 24 Sep 2008 10:15 PM

Dear User!

This is a gameplay moment.

As the reader may have guessed, shortly after, when this, ahem, "feature" had already spread (the world is full of rumors) a wave of bans went out. Moreover, according to technical support, for using the same. But now it was no longer a "gameplay moment" but a "bug". Nevertheless, they also suggested a hefty sum for unlocking the account (a common practice in Russian-speaking Perfect World, but this time it was actually the fault of technical support!). Naturally, there was an uproar. Naturally, top clans were already slightly prepared to "slam the door" (the prolonged open beta test did not inspire confidence, and now this too)... It looked something like this.

The ill-fated operator was, as per my information, ultimately fired. But the accounts were not restored. After all, there’s no need to use gameplay moments.

[World of Warcraft](/games?search=World of Warcraft): "Did someone call a doctor?"

Not all mistakes are equally harmful. Some can even, in hindsight, be proudly labeled as "game events".

Long ago, when World of Warcraft had a meager two million subscribers, on September 13, 2005, a boss was introduced. Well, it seemed, a boss is a boss. Only this boss had a rather good spell. A spell that would record him in history. The boss was named Hakkar. And the spell called "corrupted blood" gave this incident its name — "Corrupted Blood Incident".

The essence of the spell was that it spread like a plague at that time. It would send a low-level character to the spirit world in seconds. Higher-level characters could survive it, albeit with losses. Normally, this spell would have been limited to the fact that it occurred in a dungeon, but accidentally or deliberately... in general, teleporting out of the dungeon did not remove the spell from pets.

The result was somewhat predictable: a plague. And not just any plague, but one across the entire Azeroth! At least three servers became nearly entirely mowed down by the disease: even in capitals, they couldn’t last long. Especially in capitals.

Events were so interesting that they even reached the funny. This incident was studied quite seriously by epidemiologists. No kidding. Yes, seriously.

All because it accidentally provided a massive database of human behavior in epidemic conditions. Some — fled. Others — healed. The third group, which is particularly interesting, spread the infection. The latter will go down in history under the common name "terrorists of the World of Warcraft".

Of course, the bug was fixed. Not immediately, at first Blizzard attempted to announce quarantine on the servers... with zero success.

The incident received mixed reactions. Some complained, others were thrilled, some scandalized, and others asked for a repeat. Ultimately, after a long time and very cautiously, Blizzard decided to "repeat". But in a controlled manner. Yes, yes, that was the infamous "zombie plague" in October 2008, before the release of the expansion about the not quite living Arthas. The reaction to it was also mixed, but certainly much less interesting...

[World of Warcraft](/games?search=World of Warcraft): "The Mid-Deathwing Crisis"

In almost all MMOs, the slightest update incites widespread outbursts of hatred. Indeed, pleasing everyone is not that easy. So no one is surprised at this anymore. Displeased players are normal. After all, "the client doesn't even know what they want".

But after the release of the massive "Cataclysm" update, an unexpected reaction occurred. It was even noted by the press. Because this update was different from all the others not just within World of Warcraft, but in all MMOs in general: this update did not add anything new to the game. It changed it. Indeed, virtually razing the entire world to the ground and building something completely new on the smoking ruins is something not every game company would dare to do. Blizzard dared.

And although the ratings for the expansion never fell below 70%, many noted that the developers were playing with fire. Too many foundations were broken. Interestingly, in the year in which the Cataclysm was announced, the number of subscribers fell by five percent. It’s hard to say how connected these events are, but it’s worth noting.

And suddenly, some pandarens appeared. At least this time, nothing was planned to be broken. But it cannot be denied that updates are becoming increasingly... unexpected.

[Ultima Online](/games?search=Ultima Online): "Mad Sale"

Rather just a funny case than a scandal, but that doesn’t make it less illustrative.

Through not particularly complicated manipulations, any player could create as many copies of the “Hooded Shroud of Shadows" as his greed allowed. This robe (a piece of in-game clothing) was released in a limited edition. As a consequence, up until this case, they cost... well, let’s just say: a lot. The economy didn't crash on that very day simply because this robe was a purely decorative item — that is, it provided no boosts to character stats.

After some time, the developers identified all the "illegal" copies of the robes and replaced them with others: “A Monk's Robe". Consequently, the rarity (and, as a result, the value) of the item was restored.

And the new robes, due to their ridiculously low prices (of course they became "a lot" in the world), began to be dumped onto the ground by the dozens. Then, to complete the happiness, one of the NPCs started selling such robes for pennies.

Of course, this caused no fatal consequences (though honest players recalled the hatred that had boiled up on this story). But it’s scary to think what would have happened if something similar occurred not with an almost useless robe, but with, say, some type of mass destruction weapon.

[EVE Online](/games?search=EVE Online): "The Death of the Immortal"

In the EVE universe, there are ships called Titans. Very, very cool ships. The local version of Death Stars. And if today, several years after the expansion with which they appeared, there are already several dozen of them, then at one time the creation of each was a celebration, and the loss — a drama, at least for a month.

Building such a ship can take more than half a year of real time and about 160 billion units of in-game currency. Or, at the then exchange rate on the black market — 20 thousand dollars just in pure financial outlays. A private shipyard, a huge number of parts...

Sizes for comparison. The first titan was the Avatar of the Amarr Empire. In the picture — the second from the top.

Eight months after the expansion was released, the first titan was born. This happened on September 25, 2006, in the AZN-D2 system. The Ascendant Frontier corporation did a great job. But, as is customary in such cases, happiness didn't last long — only a few months later it would cease to exist.

Of course, such a large alliance cannot operate without wars. Band of Brothers, another major combat alliance, attacked the happy owners of the first titan. Perhaps this was the largest war in EVE's history at that time.

It would seem that with such a thing, nothing is frightening.

The forces were roughly equal, but one day during another battle in the C9N-CC system, one observant scout scanned the titan. He fled to the depths of space after firing its doomsday weapon, which all titans were then equipped with. And, what’s most surprising, the pilot was not online. The game mechanics "hold" all ships in space for fifteen minutes after the last aggression.

Naturally, upon learning of this, the command decided to abandon the battle and regardless of the losses to extract the titan. They succeeded. The pilot (who was also the head of the entire alliance) subsequently sent a petition to the administration, claiming that the victory was unfair... but the ship was not returned. The morale of the corporation was undermined, and the Ascendant Frontier quickly disappeared from the political map of the world.

And today, anyone who doesn’t fear such deep space can see in the C9N-CC system the long-cooled remains of the first titan. They’ve been left as a lesson for the descendants and as an eternal memory of the event that impacted the entire galaxy...

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An appropriate dose of negativity is necessary. Just as without evil there is no good, so without a few good quarrels, one cannot truly appreciate the beauty of the world. One can only wish that this dose always remains within reasonable limits...