MLB The Show 16 News Post

SCEA Bans Many Players for Using Exploits in MLB The Show 16

12:07 PM - June 28, 2016 by RaychelSnr

If you've been on Twitter lately, you've no doubt been seeing Ramone Russell answer fans inquiries about why they were banned over the past couple of days.

Over the weekend, Ramone also posted in the SCEA Forums reiterating that breaking the rules and standards of the community could result in a console and PSN ID being banned.

Quote:


	"If a player is found cheating, exploiting, harassing other players, or breaking the rules in game or here on The Show Nation forums, we will suspend the account for a limited time or even permanently ban the ID and console. This isn't new and we've always been on the lookout for these types of players, but it's important to remind the community of the potential consequences that may await players if they decide to travel down the dark path."

Also of note via TheShowNation (Victor_SDS)

Quote:


	There was an exploit related to cancelling transactions on the marketplace. If someone took advantage of this exploit egregiously, their ID would have been flagged and banned. Flipping cards on the market is not an offense. Buying and quick selling is not an offense. It had more process than just cancelling an order.

A number of players were banned in the past few days according to Ramone's Twitter Feed:

"We banned a number of users who exploited community market transactions. Bans will not be reversed, fyi flipping cards IS NOT an exploit.

Flipping cards doesn't get you banned, we encourage flipped cards, flipping cards is good for everyone."

Several users were quick to claim innocence but it appears Russell came armed with info, telling at least one user they were in the top 1% of offenders of the glitch. In fact, the SCEA investigation into the matter was three weeks long and involved multiple runs and checks of the same data.

This was a bold move by SCEA to protect the online gaming experience for many MLB The Show users. While bans are nothing new in the online gaming world, it does appear SCEA has taken some pretty dramatic steps in order to safeguard the online experience for gamers. While some of the bans are permanent, others are temporary and will last anywhere from days to weeks to months.

What do you think of the bans? Was SCEA right? Is this a good move?

UPDATE (6-30): via Twitter

Quote:


	We hear your concerns. This is very important to us. We are looking into it. We thank you for your patience. More to come soon.

Game: MLB The Show 16Reader Score: 8/10 - Vote Now
Platform: PS3 / PS4Votes for game: 23 - View All

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Member Comments

# 41 extremeskins04 @ 06/28/16 09:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cardinalbird5


	Not to mention the fact that many that were banned admitted to spending 500 plus on the game. Why would they cheat and risk that? In reality, this is SDS fault and not the consumers. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I don't know. I blame players. I don't care if they spent $1000 on the game, cheating and exploiting should be banned for doing it.

By your logic, if I spent $2000 on a new computer at the store, I should be able to steal a 70" LCD TV, a bunch of appliances, and a car stereo for my vehicle that would normally cost me more money.

It does not matter how much people have spent on a game getting stubs or whatever, that doesn't make them excusable for cheating, stealing, or exploiting.

Period.

# 42 cardinalbird5 @ 06/28/16 10:04 PM

Well we will see then. Either SDS has wrongfully banned some guys or many of my friends are liars and cheaters.

It seemed like you just countered each of my arguments just to defend SDS on this one and assume thousands of people are lying, even my own friends and people I know. I understand your doubts, trust me. People are crappy and will exploit things but this is just different.

And the fact people spend money on the game does not really give anyone a right to judge or assume. Some people rather spend money than grind. It does not make them crazy.

I love OS but this whole mindset that every person that plays online is a cheeser or willing to exploit is somewhat annoying on here. Believe it or not, people outside of OS are not all scumbags and incompetent.

Anyways we will see what this leads to.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

# 43 oski96 @ 06/28/16 10:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by iamgramps


	They knew exactly what they were doing. SDS is not in the business of giving away free stubs. As soon as they knew they were getting something for nothing, that should have been a red flag that a glitch had occurred. I'm not buying the "I didn't know" story, especially if the glitch occurred over 30 times as reported by SDS.

What does "30 times" even mean?

For example: (I got banned, so get that out of the way) if you clear a slate of old buy/sells from a computer and somehow that triggers the glitch and say there were 10 buys in your queue - is that 10 times? Or, is it one time?

I probably cleared my queue 5 - 6 times from a computer total. Is that 50 - 60 times, or 5 - 6 times? Of course, if you look at my transactions history, you will see thousands of transactions over 3 months. So, say I cleared the queue from my computer twice per month (BTW I do almost all my transactions on the console - the CAPCHA on the computer makes it a PITA).

Are you still sure people would not know if the glitch was triggered?

I will certainly agree that if you see the following, there was cheating:
1. Whole list of buys cancelled.
2. The list was for buys OVER the current price and in round numbers (e.g. 35,000 bid on a 10,000 item).
3. The activity showed: cancel buys, re-load, and cancel immediately thereafter, etc.

I believe we can all agree that any poster showing items 1 - 3 would raise a red flag, and one with two or more are cheating intentionally.

Yet, I am confident most of the people that got banned will not show these traits - instead, they are probably just high volume traders that are constantly trading and checking on their order when away from the PS4 (like me - I check when at work or when my son is playing the PS4).

In my case, since all my orders were legitimate, there may be 10 buys and 10 sells in each queue - some for diamond equip, some for gold, some for silver. So, we may be talking about a gain of 10k stubbs? (I don't really know). My point is, that I do a lot of transactions; I don't keep exact count of my stubbs (I just wan to keep a range of between 20 and 50k -when it goes over, I buy a diamond or complete a collection). So, unless the "glitch" put me over, say 50k, I would probably not notice at all.

Anyhow, I have not heard anything from SDS on this yet - I believe if they actually look at the transactions it will be clear I had no idea of this glitch.

# 44 cardinalbird5 @ 06/28/16 10:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by extremeskins04


	I don't know. I blame players. I don't care if they spent $1000 on the game, cheating and exploiting should be banned for doing it. By your logic, if I spent $2000 on a new computer at the store, I should be able to steal a 70" LCD TV, a bunch of appliances, and a car stereo for my vehicle that would normally cost me more money. It does not matter how much people have spent on a game getting stubs or whatever, that doesn't make them excusable for cheating, stealing, or exploiting. Period.

Yea i never said that at all.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

# 45 bkrich83 @ 06/28/16 10:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cardinalbird5


	I love OS but this whole mindset that every person that plays online is a cheeser or willing to exploit is somewhat annoying on here. Believe it or not, people outside of OS are not all scumbags and incompetent.

My online experience says otherwise.

# 46 WaitTilNextYear @ 06/28/16 10:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cardinalbird5


	Well we will see then. Either SDS has wrongfully banned some guys or many of my friends are liars and cheaters. It seemed like you just countered each of my arguments just to defend SDS on this one and assume thousands of people are lying, even my own friends and people I know. I understand your doubts, trust me. People are crappy and will exploit things but this is just different. And the fact people spend money on the game does not really give anyone a right to judge or assume. Some people rather spend money than grind. It does not make them crazy. I love OS but this whole mindset that every person that plays online is a cheeser or willing to exploit is somewhat annoying on here. Believe it or not, people outside of OS are not all scumbags and incompetent. Anyways we will see what this leads to. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

To pin this on SDS, I think the piece that your argument lacks is a motive. What is the motivation for the company to ban a bunch of fine and upstanding people that use the game as intended? What do they gain by banning people who didn't do what is being claimed?

So it boils down to either some/all of them (maybe some are your friends) are doing the exploit despite what they are saying or that SDS has some sort of faulty data/flawed interpretation of the data. I stated that pretty clearly (I think?) and I'm not sure where I called anyone scumbags etc...

I do still think that the microtransaction modes empower, aid, and fuel compulsive behavior. Being compulsive doesn't make someone a scumbag until they get to Pete Rose's level. And there are certainly other ways to act compulsively outside of playing a video game. Hundreds or thousands of dollars is a lot of money to spend on something like this.

Believe me I would be the first to agree with you that OS is no bastion of virtue--I make rosters for OS every year and deal with the [often unfair and misguided] backlash of dissatisfied/non-paying customers every year.

# 47 SmashMan @ 06/28/16 10:32 PM

Everybody here that was banned has contacted SDS, right? From what I gather they haven't replied to emails yet; but I assume you've at least contacted them.

# 48 oski96 @ 06/28/16 10:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WaitTilNextYear


	I think people have proven they will "grind" for any amount of stubs no matter how small or large. Although I still really don't understand what the actual exploit is/how it worked, if it was just cancelling an order and getting stubs, this could be done relatively quickly so 100 stubs in a few seconds is not a bad deal at all. .

It is a bad deal when you can easily make 10 - 50k a day just by flipping cards legitimately.

That is why this makes no sense. It is painfully easy to make stubs flipping stubs - and it is a relatively passive activity that you can do during a regular gaming session. I cannot see anyone jeopardizing all of their regular market earnings for a few hundred stubs.

I am guessing you will see a number of parties that clearly intentionally exploited the glitch have really large gains which outstrip their normal daily gains.

I am guessing you will see that the majority of those banned will show relatively small, sporadic gains which make up a tiny fraction of their gains. Those people will be high volume traders and given their volume of activity it is easy to take the raw data out of context. 30 glitched transactions (to just use a number) out of thousands of legit ones doesn't scream intentional exploit to me.

# 49 extremeskins04 @ 06/28/16 11:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cardinalbird5


	Yea i never said that at all. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

So I re-read your original post again and my apologies. You never said what I interpreted it as. So I am sorry.

But, players found an exploit in the system and you know how online gamers are, word gets out FAST, within a few hours. And the way people think, they're like "well it's a loophole in the SDS system so it's not my fault if they're system is exploitable so I'm going to take advantage of it...".

Now, when SDS said well we're banning you guys, people are upset and throwing their hands in the air complaining.

While I don't play sports games online, I've played probably every single MMORPG out there since 1997 when UO came out and when people find exploits, they use them and then blame the company for having glitches in their system. It happens a lot with MMO's.

Then, people get banned and complain about it. So yea I'm not blaming every person that got banned as I'm sure some are innocent, but I bet a lot actually knew what they were doing.

# 50 Sandule @ 06/29/16 12:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Armor and Sword


	I applaud them. Exploiting the game to gain stubs illegally is stealing. Plain and simple. People pay real money to get stubs as well as flip cards and use the market properly. Here you have a group of players who found a way to exploit the market system to get free stubs. Theft. Plain and simple. Good for SCEA for weeding out those that were blatant offenders. Good riddance.

It's SCEA's fault for making an exploitable game. I personally didn't do it, but it's human nature to exploit things. Calling them criminals is hilarious. I think SCEA are criminals for increasing the market tax rate (where people like me spend real money). Stubs are digital currency and they don't cost SCEA anything so for them to tax my transactions is criminal. They have gotten super greedy this year so it's the pot calling the kettle black!

Don't get me wrong, I have been a big advocate of the show since the first PS3 title, but I am extremely disappointed with this years game. It's more than obvious SCEA spent more time finding new ways to make money from in game transactions than on gameplay, which is why I gave them my $ in the first place. This has been by far the buggiest game in the last few years. But that's what happens when your have no competition, they can do what the want and f*&k who ever they want.

# 51 extremeskins04 @ 06/29/16 12:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sandule


	It's SCEA's fault for making an exploitable game. I personally didn't do it, but it's human nature to exploit things. Calling them criminals is hilarious. .

In the video game world, you will NEVER win the "it's the company's fault for making an exploitable game" argument. You're about 15-20 years too late bro.

It does not matter if the company has glitches in the game. If you KNOWINGLY exploit them, then you (the player) are at fault and it's stealing.

I know from seeing this kind of thing all the time from games over the years that if you do find a glitch or loophole, you report it, you don't exploit it ..then blame the company for having glitches.

# 52 SmashMan @ 06/29/16 12:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by extremeskins04


	But, players found an exploit in the system and you know how online gamers are, word gets out FAST, within a few hours. And the way people think, they're like "well it's a loophole in the SDS system so it's not my fault if they're system is exploitable so I'm going to take advantage of it..."

You can actually sense this as an unspoken point in a lot of the posts across here, Reddit, ShowNation, and Twitter. A lot of them are usually accompanied by a "why would I do this?" thing. I'm not sure if it's a subconscious attempt by some to misdirect, but it's interesting once you notice it.

That being said, it's possible (maybe likely) that some people were mistakenly flagged for this and if they were I hope they get things resolved. But if SCEA says they investigated these accounts before banning, I find it less likely that false positives made it through both levels before being struck down.

# 53 Sandule @ 06/29/16 12:17 AM

In the end it's SCEA's fault for not testing properly. To ban people for their mistake is ridiculous. They should have just fixed the exploit and moved on. But then again it's US corporate culture to have no accountability when it comes to their mistakes and criminal activity! In my opinion, it's just KARMA for SCEA's increased greediness this year.

# 54 kehlis @ 06/29/16 12:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sandule


	In the end it's SCEA's fault for not testing properly. To ban people for their mistake is ridiculous. They should have just fixed the exploit and moved on. But then again it's US corporate culture to have no accountability when it comes to their mistakes and criminal activity! In my opinion, it's just KARMA for SCEA's increased greediness this year.

So where does user accountability come in when it's stated pretty clearly in the TOS what can or can't be done?

But then again it seems to be basic culture to blame anyone but themselves when they've done something wrong.

It's kind of like someone who continually overdraws their bank account and then blames the bank about the fees for allowing them to do so.

# 55 SmashMan @ 06/29/16 12:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sandule


	In the end it's SCEA's fault for not testing properly. To ban people for their mistake is ridiculous. They should have just fixed the exploit and moved on. But then again it's US corporate culture to have no accountability when it comes to their mistakes and criminal activity! In my opinion, it's just KARMA for SCEA's increased greediness this year.

Really odd to claim a company has no accountability while absolving users who knowingly exploited a system.

# 56 redsox4evur @ 06/29/16 12:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kehlis


	So where does user accountability come in when it's stated pretty clearly in the TOS what can or can't be done? But then again it seems to be basic culture to blame anyone but themselves when they've done something wrong. It's kind of like someone who continually overdraws their bank account and then blames the bank about the fees for allowing them to do so.

Also when this is posted about a week ago to remind everyone that you can get banned or suspended for doing this type of stuff.

Spoiler

# 57 Jason_19 @ 06/29/16 12:25 AM

Feel free to use me as example, SCEA, because you'll only expose your poor standards for this decision in doing so. I didn't knowingly do anything and I pay pretty close attention to my stubs. For all of you people accusing everyone of knowingly doing that, feel free to keep clinging to your false beliefs.

# 58 Sandule @ 06/29/16 12:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by extremeskins04


	In the video game world, you will NEVER win the "it's the company's fault for making an exploitable game" argument. You're about 15-20 years too late bro. It does not matter if the company has glitches in the game. If you KNOWINGLY exploit them, then you (the player) are at fault and it's stealing. I know from seeing this kind of thing all the time from games over the years that if you do find a glitch or loophole, you report it, you don't exploit it ..then blame the company for having glitches.

Why would I report a loophole. They don't pay me to test for bugs. Maybe some people like to work for free but I don't. If their testers can't find them that's SCEA's problem not mine. Corporations continuously exploit people and situations and they have no issues with it, in fact when they do it it's called competitive advantage! But when the tables are turned all of a sudden they start using the word criminal. I find it hilarious. I didn't personally use the exploit because I didn't know about it, but I paid money for a game and if that game I received has an exploit, then I will use it as that is what I paid for. Again, it's their fault, not mine.

# 59 extremeskins04 @ 06/29/16 12:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sandule


	Why would I report a loophole. They don't pay me to test for bugs. Maybe some people like to work for free but I don't. If their testers can't find them that's SCEA's problem not mine. Corporations continuously exploit people and situations and they have no issues with it, in fact when they do it it's called competitive advantage! But when the tables are turned all of a sudden they start using the word criminal. I find it hilarious. I didn't personally use the exploit because I didn't know about it, but I paid money for a game and if that game I received has an exploit, then I will use it as that is what I paid for. Again, it's their fault, not mine.

It's not your job to find bugs, you're correct, but it's also called stealing or cheating when you knowingly exploit a loophole in a game.

So because you paid money for the game, if it has an exploit, then you'll use it because that's what you paid for? You can't just ignore the exploit or bug and play legitimately?

Your logic is insurmountably ridiculous man. Like I can't even....

# 60 kehlis @ 06/29/16 12:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jason_19


	Feel free to use me as example, SCEA, because you'll only expose your poor standards for this decision in doing so. I didn't knowingly do anything and I pay pretty close attention to my stubs. For all of you people accusing everyone of knowingly doing that, feel free to keep clinging to your false beliefs.

You've been very contrite, honest, and understanding with your comments today..

It had to be hard seeing all the posts you've seen and very easy to get defensive about them but you haven't.

I think you have to understand that most of the negative posts you're seeing are with regards to the masses and not necessarily your specific scenario. The only posts I've seen specifically directed to you have been a resounding ideal that we all hope that if you were wronged, it will be righted.

The only posts I've made this evening have been with regards to people blaming SCEA for allowing the exploit to happen. To me that's a copout.

I truly both hope and expect that if mistakes were made they will be rectified.

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