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

# 241 elbomberoloco @ 06/30/16 09:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WaitTilNextYear


	I don't play online and I already have all the rosters I need, so your hypothetical actually wouldn't affect me at all. Hence, me not having a horse in the race still...

you are letting your self defined moral compass pull you in the weeds, get off the who is right and who is wrong here. The man is suppressing someone next time it could be you, as consumers everyone should come together and expect more transparency and corporate responsibility than is being shown. They do have a monopoly on the market after all...

# 242 KBLover @ 06/30/16 09:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by elbomberoloco


	I would think we all have a little horse in the race here. What if tomorrow you account is baned with no explanation? Please don't come back with, "oh I don't cheat not concern for me...", because cheating has not clearly been defined here.

Well, if they start banning offline franchise players (for...what? Because they can?), then, yeah, I'll just move on to OOTP (if The Show is a monopoly...does that mean OOTP is not a baseball video game?)

Or go back to playing MVP 05 or figure out how to get BBPro '98 working. Or that might be the final push I need to play PYS or Jikkyou (more baseball console video games).

I'll live and find my baseball video game fix if I have to play Baseball Stars with "modified" ratings.

# 243 KBLover @ 06/30/16 10:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by oski96


	I agree with this. I am very certain that if the actual transactions histories are analyzed, it will be fairly easy to differentiate an accidental use of the glitch and an intentional one - the transactions in question will look very different for each of these groups.

Which makes you wonder why they either didn't do that in the first place (analyze the user "fingerprints", so to speak), or if they did...why did they catch innocents in the first place?

I know in mobile games when stuff like this comes up, they have logs of what the players did so they can "trace the clues" and see what happened. I remember asking support of a Japanese app game (no I don't know Japanese - they understood the google translated message evidently and I used that to translate their response), and they were able to tell me exactly what I was doing, when I did it, and if the result was intended or if I got a bug.

I would imagine SDS could do the same thing, but I guess not?

# 244 dickey1331 @ 06/30/16 10:14 PM

Good grief this is getting interesting. Good thing I'm an offline only player.

# 245 TheBigTee @ 06/30/16 10:48 PM

I can understand people's frustration here. When I first read about these bans I was at work thinking "I hope I didn't get banned." I had not done anything against the rules but from reading these threads it appears others were not aware if they were doing something against the rules either. I have flipped cards and I have used the website so I thought it was possible I could have been banned. But fortunately I was not and don't have to deal with what some of our peers are dealing with.

The show is literally the only reason I owned a PS3 and now the only reason I own a ps4. I would be very disappointed if I were unfairly banned from playing my favorite game and a game I support annually. I just think we should not rush to judge anybody, put ourselves in their shoes, and see where this goes before casting any aspersions.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

# 246 HeavySaucer @ 06/30/16 11:24 PM

I'm listening to Pitching Rebel's segment of the Ban Tapes now. I don't know how many stubs he is accused of gaining from the exploit, but the information he provides is somewhat vague. How many of the transactions were closer to 8,200? If 20 were for 8,000 that's 160,000. That's not chump change to me.

Now if I would do an exploit like this, I would spread out the transactions. Make a couple of small bids so later I could say 'why would I even do that?' I would think that the huge transactions would be an instant red flag. Instead, I would flood these bogus transactions with thousands of legit ones, using both the console market and the mobile market equally. Make it look like an accident, as they say. And if you ever do get caught, you'll probably get away with a slap on the wrist.

But I would never do something like that.

Sent from my SM-G930P using Tapatalk

# 247 oski96 @ 06/30/16 11:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HeavySaucer


	I'm listening to Pitching Rebel's segment of the Ban Tapes now. I don't know how many stubs he is accused of gaining from the exploit, but the information he provides is somewhat vague. How many of the transactions were closer to 8,200? If 20 were for 8,000 that's 160,000. That's not chump change to me. Now if I would do an exploit like this, I would spread out the transactions. Make a couple of small bids so later I could say 'why would I even do that?' I would think that the huge transactions would be an instant red flag. Instead, I would flood these bogus transactions with thousands of legit ones, using both the console market and the mobile market equally. Make it look like an accident, as they say. And if you ever do get caught, you'll probably get away with a slap on the wrist. But I would never do something like that. Sent from my SM-G930P using Tapatalk

lol. Do you know how stupid that sounds?

Yeah,"I'm going to to hide these few cheating transactions by making thousands of legitimate ones that end up making 1000x more stubs than the cheat to begin with."

"Since I assume that I will be caught, I will make sure to plan this out real good so that I can explain it away later and get my permanent ban overturned."

Solid.

# 248 HeavySaucer @ 06/30/16 11:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by oski96


	lol. Do you know how stupid that sounds? Yeah,"I'm going to to hide these few cheating transactions by making thousands of legitimate ones that end up making 1000x more stubs than the cheat to begin with." "Since I assume that I will be caught, I will make sure to plan this out real good so that I can explain it away later and get my permanent ban overturned." Solid.

I heard one guy was accused of stealing 30 million stubs. What is 30 million times 1,000? Yup, sounds pretty ridiculous to me as well.

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# 249 kehlis @ 06/30/16 11:57 PM

I think everyone needs to take a deep breath and step back from this thread for the time being until things are sorted out.

# 250 Tatze @ 07/01/16 12:17 AM

I read the podcast. Yes, i have also 600 Sites Transactions. And yes, it is possible to have 2 Millionen Stubbs or more without put real money in the game for stubbs and without cheating!!! I Think this is the reasion, why i was banned and it makes no sense to ask Ramone or?

# 251 Tatze @ 07/01/16 12:20 AM

What is card flipping? Excessive use the marktplace?

# 252 redsox4evur @ 07/01/16 12:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tatze


	What is card flipping? Excessive use the marktplace?

No. It's buying a card to sell it. So you think Mike Saunders is going to be upgraded this week you buy him even though you don't have a need for him. But you are going to sell him for more stubs. You've most definitely been doing it if you have those transactions and stubs. You didn't get banned for that, as Sony has said on the TSN forums.

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# 253 WaitTilNextYear @ 07/01/16 01:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by elbomberoloco


	you are letting your self defined moral compass pull you in the weeds, get off the who is right and who is wrong here. The man is suppressing someone next time it could be you, as consumers everyone should come together and expect more transparency and corporate responsibility than is being shown. They do have a monopoly on the market after all...

It has nothing to do with a moral compass. I am just trying to weigh the substance of the arguments for and against and there isn't a lot of substance to weigh right now. Just a lot of outrage on one side and not a lot of communication on the other.

A lot of people are making hypotheticals (like your hypothetical about what if I got banned) and weak arguments based on bad/biased/no data, but when the arguments get debunked by people playing devil's advocate (like me), people are reacting emotionally and making it into a personal attack. Like I said before I don't really care if you or someone else got banned or not. I just hope for the mystery to be solved at some point. Like I said before, my interest is in the unraveling of that mystery and checking the assumptions/wild speculations that people are making to see if they can withstand scrutiny.

I also don't equate a tiny dev studio like SDS to the man. Some of these comparisons are just plain overboard.

# 254 baseballsim @ 07/01/16 01:12 AM

Pretty sure Tatze was being facetious but it certainly seems like excessive activity may have been a contributing factor in some cases.

# 255 oski96 @ 07/01/16 01:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HeavySaucer


	I heard one guy was accused of stealing 30 million stubs. What is 30 million times 1,000? Yup, sounds pretty ridiculous to me as well. Sent from my SM-G930P using Tapatalk

Yes it does. If you had read my previous posts you would see that I believe that guy was cheating.

What about a guy who makes over 5 million in the market, but only makes about 10k "exploiting" the cheat?

I'm sure you have a strong opinion on that one.

# 256 ubernoob @ 07/01/16 01:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by oski96


	Yes it does. If you had read my previous posts you would see that I believe that guy was cheating. What about a guy who makes over 5 million in the market, but only makes about 10k "exploiting" the cheat? I'm sure you have a strong opinion on that one.

If they knowingly did the exploit, then yes.

# 257 oski96 @ 07/01/16 01:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NYGiants4Natic


	You sure are working over time defending the banned folks....HAHAHA Until they are proven innocent they are cheaters PERIOD

I haven't done any "defending" because I don't know the facts - and neither do you. I am asking for answers and speculating with others based on their stated experiences.

SDS has not explained the exploit and their so-called methodology for detecting the "cheaters." So, without knowing any of the individual facts or the method for detection on a system that has been riddled with bugs from developers that first stated they are 100% sure, but have since stated they are looking at it again - you are sitting here calling people "cheaters" as if there is anything more to it than the fact it just provides you perverse pleasure to do so.

It seems to me that you are the one that is overdoing it.

# 258 oski96 @ 07/01/16 01:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ubernoob


	If they knowingly did the exploit, then yes.

Correct. Yes, if they knowingly did the exploit.

And, if you look at the transactions, it should be fairly obvious as to whether the glitch was triggered intentionally or accidentally because the nature of the orders would be significantly different.

For example the pitching guy (rated number 1) some of this offending transactions were for only a few hundred stubs. His entire list of transactions is more than 10,000.00 for millions of stubs.

If you can't see the difference between that and someone that just cleared, re-loaded, cleared, re-loaded, cleared, etc. a bunch of over market bids - I would suggest you wouldn't make for a competent detective.

# 259 WaitTilNextYear @ 07/01/16 01:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steven78


	Pretty much waiting on SDS at this point. This is going nowhere until then.

The longer they take, though, the messier this gets. They'll need to either double down on their initial stance or figure out what they did wrong and how to backtrack pretty soon I'd imagine.

# 260 HeavySaucer @ 07/01/16 02:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WaitTilNextYear


	The longer they take, though, the messier this gets. They'll need to either double down on their initial stance or figure out what they did wrong and how to backtrack pretty soon I'd imagine.

It seems like they are waiting for the initial uproar to die down a bit, but it doesn't look like it is.

On a side note, I decided to play a game of MLB earlier after not playing for a couple of weeks. Ten minutes in to my session, my internet goes down for the first time in a year and is still down as we speak. It's hard to speculate why my internet has gone down. It's just weird.

Sent from my SM-G930P using Tapatalk

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