Raid Finder Loot Exploit Suspensions
Blizzard finally commented on the Raid Finder Loot exploit resultingin multiple accounts suspensions in a lot of guilds.
Originally Posted by Bashiok (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Shortly after patch 4.3 was released, we became aware that some players were abusing an exploit to obtain loot from the same Raid Finder bosses multiple times in a single raid lockout period (one week). The Raid Finder loot mechanic is of course intended to only allow a person to roll on boss loot drops once per raid lockout period. The raid lockout mechanic has been a mainstay of the World of Warcraft rules since Onyxia and Molten Core, ensuring that no one can obtain loot from a boss more than once per lockout. Due to the nature of the exploit and the clear intent of those who abused it, they've been issued notices and given temporary suspensions from the game. We’re also working to remove all Raid Finder items from those who used the exploit.

It's also worth noting that Paragon posted an apology on their website

An LFR Apology
There has been a lot of misinformation going around, so to clear things up, here is a truthful account of what exactly happened with the LFR and what we have to say about it:

The patch hit EU servers on Wednesday. We started off with our 5x Firelands runs to wrap up legendaries and called it a night. For Thursday, we had an elaborate plan to run a personal LFR raid for every main character to get the maximum amount of loot.

As we were doing the first few runs, we noticed an unrealistic amount of tier pieces on some guilds' armory profiles, which we thought was unattainable through normal means. We started looking into it, and found out that you can loot passed gear from bosses, regardless of save status, if you zone out and back into the instance. This did not provide the raid with any extra loot, but it did eliminate a major portion of the RNG that would have been involved in simply doing personal runs for everyone.

We acknowledge that using this unintended behavior, which was quite clearly a bug, to our gain, was wrong. The fact that others were using it as well is no justification for doing it ourselves. We apologize for doing it, and accept whatever consequences follow.
This article was originally published in forum thread: Raid Finder Loot Exploit Suspensions, Paragon Apology started by Boubouille View original post
Comments 480 Comments
  1. mmocf784f6d87c's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by macnuke View Post
    so they take a week off.
    they log in and still have more loot than anyone.

    strip em i say.
    then let em gear up like everyone else is supposed to.
    take the loot, give em a week off and take it from anyone that was in there doing that as well.

    they're "leet".. they will get over it.
    They are indeed leet, but the name is now tainted
  1. Inimicus's Avatar
    They do have the alts to run 25 different main toons through LFR, that shouldn't be a surprise in itself really.
  1. Rummer's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by greyghost View Post
    Cheat-loving failures can sit there and laugh at Blood Leigon / Vodka getting world firsts, but the vast majority of us will cheer them on, because they got to where they are legitimately.
    I agree completely with this. There are a bunch of jaded fanboys out there that try to stick up for the guild they like as if it's a sports team they're cheering for. Cheer for the ones that get stuff done legitimately without any kind of bug exploits, not the ones that cheat their way to the top.

    I'm pretty impressed with guilds like Blood Legion and Vodka to be honest, not using this exploit when they knew it was there and that they would likely need it to compete properly. Kudos to them for being fair and I hope they do well in the coming weeks.
  1. Bullarkie's Avatar
    It was Blizzards bug. The WoW test team should've caught it. I don't care about what Blizzard "intends". If you can do it in game it's fair game.
  1. segoots14's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Awfulx View Post
    Hopefully this knocks Paragon out of world firsts in every way shape and form. They knew they were cheating.
    I would guess that most other guilds that would have challenged Paragon for the world first partook in this behavior as well, meaning that Paragon will most likely still get world firsts out of it.
  1. Ivirus's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by qwikz View Post
    No need trying to save face paragon, youre now branded as cheaters
    Apologising for cheating won't change the fact they cheated now and many times before or lessen the punishment. Just deserts.
  1. Gritalian's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Goliad View Post
    Does their cheating affect you? Why can't people play this game for their own amusement? Who cares how many guilds exploited, they will get their punishment and it will affect you exactly 0%. All these people saying glad they got suspended or glad they got their comeuppance are just being silly. 99% of the people who play wow do not care, will not care, heck most do not even know who paragon is, nor do they care. It's a game, have fun playing your game. If your game is made better by other people's misery, then you need a new game.
    It's similar to Tournament Theory. Paragon is at the top, they are promoted as the best guild, which in turns creates an environment where 10,000 guilds strive to play at that level where reality is maybe 10 guilds actually have that possibility. But as such, it creates a sense of competition that is then applied to servers, where you have guilds who finish weeks if not months behind Paragon, yet are competing against guilds on their server for server firsts.

    Paragon is the figurehead for competitive raiding, as they are on the top. Raiding guilds striving to be first just on their server are influenced by the best guild(s) in the world. It's the same way kids in little league look up to MLB players. Then you find out that the guild that inspires you to perform better is cheating and taking short cuts, and it kind of diminishes what they are all about.

    If they are cheating for LFR gear, you have to question what other tactics they've used in the past. Ensidia fell out of favor with the WoW community when using the saronite bombs on Lich King, I imagine this will result in the same for Paragon.
  1. rabbimojo's Avatar
    While I don't approve of the cheating at all myself, I think it's entertaining how many people don't seem to get that the upper echelons of competitive *anything* are rife with "cheating". It's simply the most effective way to be competitive, especially if others are doing the same. Finding ways to cheat without being caught is the norm, sadly. C'est la vie.
  1. rhofactor's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Inimicus View Post
    They do have the alts to run 25 different main toons through LFR, that shouldn't be a surprise in itself really.
    Agreed! I was just thinking about that right before you posted it.
  1. Drekavac's Avatar
    I think the funniest thing about all this is the people that actually care.... those who actually care about getting "world firsts" in a f'n game...and those will never have a chance at getting them being fanboys for those who do. It's a game...go take your "world firsts" to a job interview and see if they respect you for it. Get a life people, you need to rediscover what "game" means.
  1. mizuno's Avatar
    The fact that this was a bug and many people were taking advantage of it, would of Blizzard noticed it? You are punishing those over a bug that it is basically Blizzards job to fix can't say Blizzards loves blaming others than themselves. I find it funny that Paragon apologized that still won't get them away from the fact of being banned seriously if i were them I would of written things differently. "It was there I took advantage of it, not my fault Blizzard didn't fix this in the Ptr and if it was seriously out there basically in every server how could you of not noticed it? I feel I shouldn't apologize because being the top guild means competition and that's basically why we must take of advantage of every opportunity." If Blizzard can't manage the problems they see they shouldn't be punishing others for it simple as that. Luckily I didn't do the LFR but actually did a real raid in my ten man, and surprisingly normal Dragon Soul is a lot simple than Firelands. I can predict by the time Panadaren comes out Blizzard will lose more than half of there subscriber. Games die in due time and W.O.W is heading there.
  1. rhofactor's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Drekavac View Post
    I think the funniest thing about all this is the people that actually care.... those who actually care about getting "world firsts" in a f'n game...and those will never have a chance at getting them being fanboys for those who do. It's a game...go take your "world firsts" to a job interview and see if they respect you for it. Get a life people, you need to rediscover what "game" means.
    lawlz. you sad bro?
  1. Ademptio's Avatar
    The fact they knew fully well it was a bug and still exploit it pisses me off... but hell I dont care about them anyways lol. I guess its only appropriate they said sorry.
  1. mmocae1868ef01's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by ripslyme View Post
    pure bullshit.. i got 8 days while others got 3 while others got nothing
    You could have got nothing aswell but decided to do it anyway. Why so sour?
  1. hyphnos's Avatar
    A just punishment for each and every one of these guilds would be to lock every guild that exploited out of heroic mode until someone who didn't exploit gets world first Deathwing kill. That would be something that would matter to them far more than a suspension when heroic isn't even live yet.
  1. Kronicles's Avatar
    Breaking news, the number one raiding guild, in the World of Warcraft, cheated.
  1. Mammoon's Avatar
    Wow so many people in this post acting like Paragon and other guilds have no skill and only get any heroic kills because every single heroic mode kill they have exploited.....

    Also, LOL @ "PERMA BAN THEM!"
  1. Garbaldi's Avatar
    Blizz is terrible at testing there games, i feel disappointed i didn't find this out on tuesday i would have geared out both my main chars using this bug. Society rewards and teaches us to be as ruthless as we can in gaining any type of a advantage and use it, it's all just a big competetion so fuck the rules.
  1. fylth's Avatar
    first of all, no one cares about world first crap (or these high-end guilds for that matter). second, Blizzard fucked up. They had all the time in the world to test this stuff and make sure it was working right and they didn't (or did to the best of their knowledge) and someone found a bug, got a few extra pieces of fancy loot, big deal. They were going to get it anyways. and fourth, what a dick move to take the loot back because of Blizzards own screw up. If anything they should thank them for finding holes in their work so it didn't become wide spread.

    By the way, ALL of you would have done the same thing, don't even try to say you wouldn't. If you noticed you could loot more stuff you would turn a blind eye to it, and if you got busted you would probably say something along the lines of "oh wow I didn't really notice that, I was just having fun with the new raids blah blah blah"

    ---------- Post added 2011-12-06 at 08:01 PM ----------

    Quote Originally Posted by Drekavac View Post
    I think the funniest thing about all this is the people that actually care.... those who actually care about getting "world firsts" in a f'n game...and those will never have a chance at getting them being fanboys for those who do. It's a game...go take your "world firsts" to a job interview and see if they respect you for it. Get a life people, you need to rediscover what "game" means.
    hahaa that's awesome man!
  1. mbellofatto's Avatar
    First they are every other guild/players should be banned permanently, they knew they where cheating and still did it. Blizzard will not ban them for lack of guts and not wanting to lose more paying customers, cause if they did ban them others will quit in protest, because they (though they wont say soopenly)are ok with cheating.This incident is just a glimpse into the current sate of society in a whole, where everyone wants everything for nothing and have not the desire to actually work for it.How many times dose this have to happen before Blizzard grows a pair and bans the guilty for life with no chance of ever getting back in.And you have to ask if the guilty where not in top 10 guilds would it be a temp. ban or lifetime, i am betting a guild in the lower 10% and not top 10, they would be banned for good.

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