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

[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.

[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.

[kackle85]

What exactly was the exploit?

[redsox4evur]

I haven't played this years game but I agree with this post from Reddit. Mill, tweeted out the link to it (@MilleniumOS).

Spoiler

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[jyoung]

Quote: Originally Posted by kackle85

What exactly was the exploit?

People found a loophole in the shownation website that was tricking the buy/sell order system into giving them free stubs.

Sony San Diego closed that loophole a while ago. But they just now completed their investigation of everyone who chose to exploit that trick and have finally handed out bans/suspensions to the most egregious offenders.

Spoiler

[BruinsHockey08]

I think this is great. Part of the reason I don't play online is because it seems to be filled with cheaters who only care about stats on a freaking video game. I play against my friends usually when I am online, there is nothing worse than getting cheated, not because of wins or losses, it just cheapens the experience and takes away all the enjoyment.

[dalger21]

I'm guessing this was more of an issue for people that played DD since you can use stubs to buy the high value cards to compete?

[Finn]

Or attempt to sell stubs for real world currency I guess.