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

# 101 Jason_19 @ 06/29/16 01:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by countryboy


	This thread... First people were like Then SCEA was like: Then the people were like: Then SCEA was like: And now people are like:

Yeah, that's soooo hilarious.

I don't understand the mentality of people feeling the need to type laughter at the expense of others. Actually, I do understand that mentality, but we won't go into that because that'll just get my comment flagged.

# 102 countryboy @ 06/29/16 02:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jason_19


	Yeah, that's soooo hilarious.

It is hilarious. People got caught cheating and are now trying to blame the system for their actions instead of taking responsibility.

Quote:


	I don't understand the mentality of people feeling the need to type laughter at the expense of others. Actually, I do understand that mentality, but we won't go into that because that'll just get my comment flagged.

I'm laughing at those who are guilty of wrongdoing that are trying to pass it off as though they did nothing wrong and SDS is to blame for their actions. If that isn't you, then my post wasn't directed at you. If it was you, well then....

# 103 Jason_19 @ 06/29/16 02:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by countryboy


	It is hilarious. People got caught cheating and are now trying to blame the system for their actions instead of taking responsibility. I'm laughing at those who are guilty of wrongdoing that are trying to pass it off as though they did nothing wrong and SDS is to blame for their actions. If that isn't you, then my post wasn't directed at you. If it was you, well then....

Seemed to me you were saying that everyone banned is guilty of knowingly doing whatever they're accusing people of doing. Thanks for clarifying that though.

Edit: To clarify, your emoji filled comment was way too vague. The SCEA stamping that "banned" paper part of your comment represents something that was done unjustly to me.

# 104 Speedy @ 06/29/16 02:34 PM

Excuse the ignorant question here.

What exactly was the exploit? Even though you cancelled the transaction, you still received Stubs? I don't use that part of the game at all but I'm presuming you would know what happened and the system didn't do it correctly, right?

I remember back on the PS1 days with MLB:1999 (and old SDS game) that if you got close enough to another fielder and tossed him the ball, you could fling the ball in the air and if you caught it, the game would register an out. As a 9-10 year old boy, I knew it was wrong but I still did it because I thought it was funny and in my mind, I could justify it because the AI cheated me. I would consider THAT an exploit if it were in today's game and I was playing online.

# 105 redsox4evur @ 06/29/16 02:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Speedy


	Excuse the ignorant question here. What exactly was the exploit? Even though you cancelled the transaction, you still received Stubs? I don't use that part of the game at all but I'm presuming you would know what happened and the system didn't do it correctly, right? I remember back on the PS1 days with MLB:1999 (and old SDS game) that if you got close enough to another fielder and tossed him the ball, you could fling the ball in the air and if you caught it, the game would register an out. As a 9-10 year old boy, I knew it was wrong but I still did it because I thought it was funny and in my mind, I could justify it because the AI cheated me. I would consider THAT an exploit if it were in today's game and I was playing online.

You received double the stubs. So say you had a 20 stub order you received 40 stubs by cancelling twice.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

# 106 Ghost Of The Year @ 06/29/16 03:02 PM

I admit I don't buy or sell but Sony maybe standing on very weak grounds here.
So say I put in an order to buy. Then I see the cost goes up. I cancel my order on the ps4,
see it's still showing as an active order on my phone or pc, try to cancel again thinking it didn;t cancel correcttly the first time. Even if I did this multiple multiple times, is Sony claiming I (& everyone else) did this to defraud them, even if I had zero intent to do such? I think this has the potential to get very ugly for Sony. They may want to get some damage control going, as far as public perception. I smell a class action lawsuit coming.

# 107 SmashMan @ 06/29/16 03:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Speedy


	What exactly was the exploit? Even though you cancelled the transaction, you still received Stubs? I don't use that part of the game at all but I'm presuming you would know what happened and the system didn't do it correctly, right?

They haven't exactly said yet, unless I missed it. A popular theory making the rounds is, as redsox4evur said, cancelling an order on the PS4 and also on the website would apparently give people double coins because it either didn't register on one device or it was just slow to sync up? It's unclear at this point.

But again, I think this is all still unconfirmed. I'd guess they're making sure they have things locked down before informing people what the details of the exploit were and how they (knowingly or not) triggered it.

# 108 extremeskins04 @ 06/29/16 03:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by redsox4evur


	You received double the stubs. So say you had a 20 stub order you received 40 stubs by cancelling twice. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

And people would use their mobile device and another screen to do it fast. Some people placed an order and then cancelled it twice...like 50-100 times or even more which is how some people got millions of stubs.

It's the reason why it's hilarious how people are crying innocence because you actually have to know the exploit to do it so many times like people have been.

# 109 Finn @ 06/29/16 03:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ghost Of The Year


	I admit I don't buy or sell but Sony maybe standing on very weak grounds here. So say I put in an order to buy. Then I see the cost goes up. I cancel my order on the ps4, see it's still showing as an active order on my phone or pc, try to cancel again thinking it didn;t cancel correcttly the first time. Even if I did this multiple multiple times, is Sony claiming I (& everyone else) did this to defraud them, even if I had zero intent to do such? I think this has the potential to get very ugly for Sony. They may want to get some damage control going, as far as public perception. I smell a class action lawsuit coming.

The issue would be how many times the user did this so that it became a flagrant abuse of the system. The numbers being quoted say it was done by some users upwards of 30 or 40 times and for very large sums of stubs equaling large sums of money. By that point the user has very likely realized that cancelling the order is exploiting a glitch and not just saving the user from the odd over payment for a card. However I don't know the length of time between the use of each device or submission for a cancellation that the glitch would be active for.

# 110 Ghost Of The Year @ 06/29/16 03:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SmashMan


	They haven't exactly said yet, unless I missed it. A popular theory making the rounds is, as redsox4evur said, cancelling an order on the PS4 and also on the website would apparently give people double coins because it either didn't register on one device or it was just slow to sync up? It's unclear at this point. But again, I think this is all still unconfirmed. I'd guess they're making sure they have things locked down before informing people what the details of the exploit were and how they (knowingly or not) triggered it.

Sony has backed itself into a corner. Since the bannings, their option for saying we banned you for unknowingly triggered this doesn't hold up. What Sony IS doing is saying, through the bans, that evryone that did this, did it intentionally. I don't see Sony backpedaling on this.

# 111 Speedy @ 06/29/16 03:26 PM

Surely then, if we can use logic, SCEA wouldn't ban a user for cancelling an order a few times but rather set a threshold where a player was banned based on either a certain number of cancellations or stubs received.

# 112 redsox4evur @ 06/29/16 03:30 PM

In the thread in the DD subforum I posted 6 tweets from Russell telling people how many times they did this and for how much. It was like people said 30 times for over 100K stubs. I'll quote the post here later on my phone right now.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

# 113 Ghost Of The Year @ 06/29/16 03:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Speedy


	Surely then, if we can use logic, SCEA wouldn't ban a user for cancelling an order a few times but rather set a threshold where a player was banned based on either a certain number of cancellations or stubs received.

If doing this a few times is okay with Sony, I don't know how they can ban you for passing a threshold that they haven't stated, "Don't exceed this limit, you will be banned".
What Sony should have done was fixed the damn glitch, moved on with no bans, eat their real or imagined loss, and be done with it.

# 114 Finn @ 06/29/16 03:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Speedy


	Surely then, if we can use logic, SCEA wouldn't ban a user for cancelling an order a few times but rather set a threshold where a player was banned based on either a certain number of cancellations or stubs received.

I would think and hope that was the case. When numbers that are quoted in tweets are has large as they are you would think that there was a significant threshold but then you have other members stating they have no idea why they were banned. Without some listing showing the frequency each user exploited the glitch and for how much its hard to both determine what that threshold was or determine if there may be other issues at hand catching people up in this in inadvertently.

# 115 Finn @ 06/29/16 03:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ghost Of The Year


	If doing this a few times is okay with Sony, I don't know how they can ban you for passing a threshold that they haven't stated, "Don't exceed this limit, you will be banned". What Sony should have done was fixed the damn glitch, moved on with no bans, eat their real or imagined loss, and be done with it.

I think in the case that they did allow a few times to pass without a ban, it is the user being given the benefit of the doubt not admission that it is ok.

And the losses could be very real if the number of stubs being exploited are as high as they seem they might have been.

# 116 woodjer @ 06/29/16 03:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ghost Of The Year


	I admit I don't buy or sell but Sony maybe standing on very weak grounds here. So say I put in an order to buy. Then I see the cost goes up. I cancel my order on the ps4, see it's still showing as an active order on my phone or pc, try to cancel again thinking it didn;t cancel correcttly the first time. Even if I did this multiple multiple times, is Sony claiming I (& everyone else) did this to defraud them, even if I had zero intent to do such? I think this has the potential to get very ugly for Sony. They may want to get some damage control going, as far as public perception. I smell a class action lawsuit coming.

I think doing it once, maybe twice, is understandable. If you keep clicking and don't bother to report that it's not working, you start treading into murky water. Suddenly, you have a lot more stubs than you did before and you just go ahead and use them, it gets kinda tough to have people believe you didn't do it intentionally if you still reaped the benefits of it. That's not to say that it WAS intentional...just that it gets harder and harder to prove that it wasn't. Basically, it's what they BELIEVE your intent was. Whether that was actually true or not is something that you need to work out.

Think of it like depositing a check electronically. If you do it once and it doesn't show in your account so you keep doing it 10 times trying to get it to work and then just give up and never call. Then suddenly you have a bunch more money in your account so you go out and buy a new TV with the extra cash. The bank is going to report you for fraud first and then use their data to prosecute you. Now the burden is on you to explain why their data is incorrect. If you just tried twice, reported it, and/or didn't spend the money when you noticed it, it's much easier to say it was an accident.

# 117 NDAlum @ 06/29/16 03:39 PM

Just give people the option to make Sony "whole". Pay for the stubs you "stole" and all is right and get re-instated.

Or just have to give them back before you can earn any.

# 118 extremeskins04 @ 06/29/16 03:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ghost Of The Year


	If doing this a few times is okay with Sony, I don't know how they can ban you for passing a threshold that they haven't stated, "Don't exceed this limit, you will be banned". What Sony should have done was fixed the damn glitch, moved on with no bans, eat their real or imagined loss, and be done with it.

Come on, there's a logical difference between someone doing it a couple of times versus 30 or 50 times.

There shouldn't need to be a limit that is set by Sony. People should use common sense. Don't cheat and you have nothing to worry about.

By your logic, if I robbed a bank, they should have fixed their slow response time, moved on with no prison time and the bank should just eat the loss.

# 119 Speedy @ 06/29/16 03:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by redsox4evur


	In the thread in the DD subforum I posted 6 tweets from Russell telling people how many times they did this and for how much. It was like people said 30 times for over 100K stubs. I'll quote the post here later on my phone right now. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Here you go:

Quote:

Originally Posted by redsox4evur


	Here's 6 tweets from 2 days ago of Ramone calling people out Twitter...and I found them all in under 5 minutes. So there's definitely more out there. Spoiler @djro22 33 exploits for a total over over 500k in stubs — Ramone Russell (@Ramone_Russell) June 28, 2016 ****** async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"> @trevteepz Yup you did you also did the exploit for over 3 million in stubs. — Ramone Russell (@Ramone_Russell) June 28, 2016 **** async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"> @trevteepz Your PSN did the exploit 41 times for 3 Million stubs you were in the top 1% of exploiters — Ramone Russell (@Ramone_Russell) June 28, 2016 **** async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"> @MattBolich You did the exploit 32 times — Ramone Russell (@Ramone_Russell) June 27, 2016 **** async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"> @philip_sopiarz your account exploited 58 times for a few hundred thousand stubs — Ramone Russell (@Ramone_Russell) June 27, 2016 **** async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"> @RW_Robert yeah you exploited over 1 million in stubs — Ramone Russell (@Ramone_Russell) June 27, 2016 ****** async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8">

I was expecting the number of transaction to be a bit higher but >500K is a ton.

# 120 ubernoob @ 06/29/16 03:43 PM

One quick trick to get your stubs! Find out why developers hate him!

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