Hot Take: Did Perfect World use Huntgate to Cleanse ADs and the Content Creator Scene?

Ok so right off the bat, let me say that this is a hot-ish topic and most likely not true. So prepare your tin foil hats for this one and ride along! In this article I’m picking up a comment by YouTuber IntegrityGames, who sat down with GalacticUnderwear to talk Mod 15, the Trickster Rogue, and Huntgate. The whole podcast is a great listen, so make sure to check out the video below. But the part I’m specifically referring to starts around the 00:53:00 mark.

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Cleanse the Community?

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In case you’re lazy, here’s a quick recap of the theory IntegrityGames put out. So we assume that the devs knew about the exploit for a while and didn’t fix it. What if they did it intentionally to lay a bait for the endgame community, because they knew that “we” would eventually start exploiting the bug? IntegrityGames reasons that the game puts an emphasis on getting new players in and that this might have been a strategy to get out with the old and in with the new. Additionally endgame players own the vast majority of Astral Diamonds in the economy. So banning them directly fights the ongoing inflation.

This might sound crazy, but logically makes total sense. Note that many veterans have been banned on their first infraction, which feels a bit harsh. We also reported that Perfect World used that weird reasoning of banning based on number of Hunts exploited, and not necessarily currency gained. So maybe this was a welcomed opportunity to get some players and their large amounts of ADs (that they’ve mostly earned legitimately) out of the economy.

“Healthy” Streamers

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The other aspect IntegrityGames touched on was the streaming scene. With FNHUSA57 one big name was perma-banned and others at least received suspensions. Some users and mods on the official Subreddit celebrated these actions because they hoped it would open the door for more “healthy” streamers to take their place. The term “unhealthy” has also been used by Community Manager Julia to explain why they can’t work with the current set of content creators more closely. So according to representatives of the game, it would be better to replace the current guys and bring in new ones that are doing what they want them to do more positive.

In a very scary way this makes way too much sense. You can always point to the endgame players and streamers being cheaters while you follow a completely different agenda. Many players reporting that more ADs got stripped from accounts than they have exploited. Any some even got banned without even participating in bugged Hunts.

Does It Make Sense?

So tin foil hat and all, does this make sense? I don’t hope so, but Cryptic Studios and Perfect World didn’t help themselves with how they’ve handled the situation. It might sound like a broken record, but if you’re being so nontransparent about, well everything, then you make yourself vulnerable to such opinions. Proof the opposite, state your approach and ban numbers, and call it a day. You might still have guys that complain and bitch and all, but at least you have something to point to. Otherwise opinions like the one from IntegrityGames might be unlikely, but certainly not unreasonable.


What’s your take on this topic? Did the devs use Huntgate to silently strip ADs from the community and remove unloved content creators? Share your thoughts on our social channels, in the comments below, or visit our message board!

Neverwinter UN:Blogged is always looking for writers to contribute to the blog. If you are an active player and search for a way to spread your opinions, analysis, diaries or reviews to more than 75,000 regular visitors, then don’t hesitate and get in touch with us on our contact page or message board! We are currently especially looking for console and PVP content, but that’s not exclusive. There is no frequency requirement, you post how often you want.

j0Shi

j0Shi plays the Neverwinter MMORPG since the open BETA in 2013 and is a regular contributor to the blog and the whole UN:Project. Originally a Guardian Fighter, he has built up ALTs of all classes and plays on BIS/near-BIS level.

19 thoughts on “Hot Take: Did Perfect World use Huntgate to Cleanse ADs and the Content Creator Scene?

  • October 7, 2018 at 12:08 pm
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    Tin FOUL hat?

    ROFLMAO!!

    • October 7, 2018 at 1:54 pm
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      Ha! Nice catch… Looks like something got auto corrected that didn’t need to. Cheers!

  • October 7, 2018 at 12:14 pm
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    NWO:UN has a thread linking a (now removed) video from FNHUSA57 showing some bank exploit that he streamed a few years ago. It’s called something like “FNHUSA57 is Hilarious”. So maybe he’s not as innocent as he claims. Streaming or uploading a video of an exploit, for whatever reason, is just dumb.

    Do you have a list of all the streamers, Twitchers and YouTube content creators who got banned, the ban duration and how many currencies were removed?

    🙂

  • October 7, 2018 at 12:18 pm
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    Robert Heinlein might have observed “You have attributed conditions to villainy that simply result from stupidity.” When you add laziness to stupidity you get an equally probable set of causes. On the other hand since the team shows consistent and strong signs of attachment to punishment as a preferred mode of player interaction your explanation can not be ruled out. Particularly in relation to AD. Every time the community complains about something they think isn’t working for them it leads to a smokescreen of you said we listened garbage while the change actually addresses something that is not working for the devs. They have been consistently trashing the AD economy so that clearly is not working for them.

  • October 7, 2018 at 12:29 pm
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    Hmmm….normally Occam’s Razor would suggest that Cryptic general level of lazy half-assidness would make any kind of trap laying behavior on their part unlikely, but…Cryptic’s culture is riddled with dishonest, unethical behavior so its really difficult to rule out some kind of plot on Cryptic’s part.

  • October 7, 2018 at 2:19 pm
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    “Additionally endgame players own the vast majority of Astral Diamonds in the economy.”
    But still had to exploit the RAD, I guess he/you referring to the not so bright endgame players.

    “Any some even got banned without even participating in bugged Hunts.”
    Haven’t these cases been resolved? If not, then yes, this indeed seems suspicious but again there is a history of unjustified bans so maybe this also may not been suspicious after all.

    Anyway i think this joke has gone too far for no reason because most comments I have read and even Integrity and other streamers don’t back up the exploiters (at least not in public).

    So pls let’s move on and stop making them look like they are the victims.

    And I don’t think that,at the PC community changed something after these bans.

  • October 7, 2018 at 3:18 pm
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    A perpetrator is a perpetrator whether you sympathise with the victim or not.

  • October 7, 2018 at 3:18 pm
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    In Australia if I park my car in a public place and leave it unlocked I would get a fine. The reason for this is I am inviting someone to commit a crime against me so I can benifit ( insurance fraud) this behaviour has negative effects on society, increasing insurance preminiums, wasting police time and creating bad situation for vulnerable at risk desperate people in society.
    It seems the company was playing the honey pot game and waited till they felt they would benefit the most from this situation. At anytime on pc they could have warned the community not to do the exploit, they could have just moved the campfire to inside the tent. But instead they stayed quite and let it build up so much on console that the zone chat was congested with people organising glitched hunts and that this behaviour was the norm and accepted by the game developers.
    Why did the some players go overboard?
    Well if you could make a months worth of rough astral diamonds in one day than you could just sit back and enjoy the game without having to grind your rough every day.
    Obviously refinement points that you could sell.
    My opinion company must be desperate if this was there intention to try and fix the in game enconomy and I hope the game can stay profitable as I really enjoy this game
    Cheers

    • October 7, 2018 at 11:11 pm
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      Wow, that’s actual law in Australia? Very interesting.

      • October 8, 2018 at 12:46 am
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        I think it’s also compulsory to vote in Australia. They can also vote for “None of the Above” on their ballot papers, whereas in Britain it is compulsory to REGISTER to vote, for council tax checking, and we can only spoil our ballot papers if all the candidates are bozos.

        😉

        • October 8, 2018 at 3:01 am
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          Yeah compulsary voting people that don’t care vote for silly names micro parties with no idea where the preferences go, some call it a donkey vote. Everyone either votes or gets a small fine. Australia loves fines lots and lots of infringements, tickets, licensing etc.

  • October 7, 2018 at 4:06 pm
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    Cryptic/PW will never win public opinion on these things because they do not fight back (nor would I). There is no way to intelligent argue ill intent unless you can gather the information to support your argument. Behaviors like past infractions undoubtedly contributed in their decisions.

    Maybe a better argument would be that your current in game wealth contributes to an assumption of past guilt in exploiting. Therefore those with less in game wealth were given more credibility in punishment determinations. This would mean that their decisions weren’t made to target the rich, but rather caused a bias that led to a firmer hand on the rich.

    Either way we will not get our answers here or anywhere else. The only ones that have access to the data is Cryptic/PW and I’m confident they aren’t going to be stupid enough to try defend their actions.

  • October 7, 2018 at 4:16 pm
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    The Terms of Service were violated by these players, correct? At that point it’s at Cryptic/PW’s discretion to suspend, ban, or whatever.

    I have a very hard time believing that people were banned for their first ever offense or there are people suspended or banned that didn’t even take part in the hunt exploit. They have logs of everything. They see all. Stop cheating and you won’t have a problem.

    • October 8, 2018 at 8:06 am
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      sorry but i personally know multiple people who have been permanently banned and this is absolutely their first offense. not only that, i had more than 3 million ad stripped from my account which is 5 times the amount of ad i made from ALL hunts… also, i would suggest reading the ToS, you don’t need to violate anything for them to ban you. its written multiple times that they reserve the right to terminate your account for any reason or no reason at all.

  • October 7, 2018 at 4:29 pm
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    The discussion is not about whether players breached the terms of service but the trustworthiness of Cryptic and its “discretion”. This is only their latest of a long list of poor behaviour by Cryptic only some of which had any relationship with terms of service (aka whatever I feel like at the time). The only gainers by “moving on” or by focusing on the behaviour of those they have chosen to attack is Cryptic and its dubious brand of ethics.

  • October 8, 2018 at 9:36 am
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    I think you’re creating conspiracies where none are to be found. Cryptic doesn’t like a streamer? Don’t work with them. Help and support the ones they do like / approve of.

    As for players losing more AD than they exploited – no sympathy from me. They should be thankful that a suspension and fine is all they got, as opposed to an outright closing of their account.

  • October 8, 2018 at 11:30 am
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    The whole “Huntgate”(?) theme is ridicoulous.

    People abused like hell the hunts,made millions by it,and were so dumb that they posted it on twich /youtube,while knowing that recently cryptic decided to be more open to twich and streamers.

    Now the same people talk abount a huntgate.There was no huntgate ,there were some idiots that thought that were above the others.
    I am tired of their ridicoulous excuses ,their excuses are beyond dump ,not even a 12 year old would use this.

    “It was not patched fast enough” .yeah like they play this game for first time ,and dont know how slow Cryptic is
    “They should have notify us” .Ok this is so stupid i am not comment on it.
    etc etc…

    There was no huntgate.There were some companies of morons that abused the system day and night for weeks,twiched it,streamed it,uploaded it made millions of it,and now it is.. “Craptic!!I am not putting anymore money into this!!! dam you craptic!!!This was not an exploit!I am not satisfied!”

    Bad news is ,as far I learned some mega toons ,historically toxic ones got their bans suspended.Cryptic please ban them again please.
    We so not need these players in our community.

  • October 8, 2018 at 5:12 pm
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    I think your all wrong. I think it was just ham-fisted move to take back I’ll gotten gains.

    I believe they identified all exploiters and took a snap shot of the amount of ad they had on a specific date and time. They then removed all rough ad and any additional ad above the identified date. I say this because I was an exploiter who received a 3 day ban. My main character lost all of his rough ad but no regular ad. I just happened to purchase an expensive item on the TH in the intervening time. My alts lost everything(not much really).

    This would explain the wide variation to what happened to different individuals. I know another player who tried to move all their ad to toons that never exploited but lost it all because the ad was suddenly higher when they did the second look.

    My theory anyway. Enjoy

  • October 8, 2018 at 11:22 pm
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    My conspiracy theory is that PWI wanted to get rid of free-to-play players who were caught in the honey trap. PWI is really making it harder to earn AD from the game and that started with the 100K daily RAD account limit. I have 20 characters so I used to be able to refine 720K daily. It sounds like they are going to lessen AD earned from professions and remove RAD earned from salvage. I know multiple people who did the glitch and were not banned. One guy was saving a bunch of donjon boxes and he was able to keep them. I am ok with my three day ban but I don’t know how they determined that 1M RAD should be clawed back. I don’t agree with the clawback of RAD since 1/3 of my AD resulted from invocation. I don’t understand why they would even care about RAD since the players only get 100K daily, a pittance.

Comments are closed.