A Support/Hackers Discussion

[Nickolino]

The process is, and will most likely always be: report them to support.

What if supports ignore your obvious hackers reports? None of my tickets got answer until now and cheaters keep playing.

Following a lengthy discussion within the moderation team and, with some input from staff at Expansive Worlds, it has been decided that any new threads/posts relating to cheating are going to be removed immediately and without exception. The reason behind this decision is the fact that such threads, given the passion people feel towards the matter, always result in high levels of toxicity and posts which violate the code of conduct. If you believe someone is cheating please report them by sending an email to [email protected]. If you see someone's hunt history and believe they have harvested more animals than is possible without using an exploit or cheat, please report them to support. Please do not feel the need to create another thread about cheating. It will be removed immediately.

I can confirm that staff at Expansive Worlds are aware of the current situation. There is no need for people to continue to discuss the matter, or debate whether or not Expansive Worlds know, or care about the situation. The matter will be dealt with in due course and an official update will be given by a staff member when more information becomes available.

Expansive Worlds are aware of the current situation, right. Know, and care? 7 months later and we still don't have any signal of action, update or even a staff's post about the theme. As @pnShen said, we're only getting surpressed. Could we at least we get an offical response? It's probably easy to get staff's atention if we make a "hey this is a great update we love you guys" kind of post.

Red Kangaroo and Reindeer competitions are doing great right now.

[DSL]

Funny talking witch hunt, the game is full of hackers.

I entered the Kangaroo competition and there is a hacker, no action is taken, I reported two of them in the same previous competition and no response to the ticket, since 15 days.

Do not Bother TheHunter be full of hackers? If the system does not recognize those who slaughter tens in a few minutes in the same coordinate of the map, what about those who are using stealthily to find great score of animals.

The certainty of impunity has encouraged many to use some kind of hacker in the game.

They are offering and selling hackers on servers.

[caledonianblues]

Expansive Worlds are aware of the current situation, right. Know, and care? 7 months later and we still don't have any signal of action, update or even a staff's post about the theme. As @pnShen said, we're only getting surpressed.

If that were true this thread would be deleted, not responded to. Expansive Worlds has acknowledged that they are aware of the situation. Nobody knows whether the developers are working on a solution in the background. Perhaps it has been put on the back burner. I would imagine the latter, given the amount of work and effort that is no doubt going into the upcoming reserve.

Could we at least we get an offical response? It's probably easy to get staff's atention if we make a "hey this is a great update we love you guys" kind of post.

The official response can be found here. This is not the place to get the attention of Expansive Worlds staff, for the record. This is a forum for players to hang out, share game experiences, make new friends and talk about the game. The fact staff members frequent the forum is just a bonus, and I can assure you that the level of interaction between this community and the developers is almost unprecedented in the gaming industry. If a staff member happens to read your post and respond, great. They are not obligated to read every post though, and Expansive Worlds definitely doesn't have the resources available to respond to everything. If you're waiting on confirmation that something is being done about cheating, you may be in for a long wait. I would advise making your peace with that. In the meantime, continue to report suspected cheaters to support and rest easy knowing you've played your part.

[Nickolino]

The official response can be found here. This is not the place to get the attention of Expansive Worlds staff, for the record. This is a forum for players to hang out, share game experiences, make new friends and talk about the game. The fact staff members frequent the forum is just a bonus, and I can assure you that the level of interaction between this community and the developers is almost unprecedented in the gaming industry. If a staff member happens to read your post and respond, great. They are not obligated to read every post though, and Expansive Worlds definitely doesn't have the resources available to respond to everything. If you're waiting on confirmation that something is being done about cheating, you may be in for a long wait. I would advise making your peace with that. In the meantime, continue to report suspected cheaters to support and rest easy knowing you've played your part.

It's better to read a direct answer like that, even it is far from I wanted. Would be great if support responded in the same way and efficiency of our moderation. It's okay, I'll try my best to keep reporting misconducts.

Also, it is pretty stressful theme for all of us

[Tanngnjostr]

Would be great if support responded in the same way and efficiency of our moderation.

Please don't forget that support is just one man. Blame it on EW for not hiring some extra support personnel, but don't blame it on him.

[BCKidd]

Having the forum members doing the shaming, and publicly reporting anyone they think is cheating or hacking will just be a big witch hunt and totally counter productive.

Yes, if it can't be proven I would agree. However if it can be proven and EW proves it, then I somewhat agree with Pnshen's post. There should be a list of the cheaters for the public forum users to see. I think if these cheaters are banned for a short time and are allowed back to theHunter game and forum, their names should have a couple of asterisks (**) or another means of identifying them- as once being banned for CHEATING. Those that are banned due to forum policies shouldn't have to live through that type of embarrassment, cheaters tho'- dang right they should. Peace.

BCKidd.

I am sure that anyone banned for using a hack will not be back, and if they somehow did come back it would be under a different name, so shaming the name banned would only make them feel like they got away with something. The true hacker wants the notoriety that comes with showing how to cheat a game and why they get posted on the net. Silently shutting them down takes that away.
As Tod1d said, they should be removed and quickly forgotten.

The only time I could see some leeway would be if a player ended up capitalizing on a game mechanic that doesn't work properly. Now if they go out of their way to do this over, and over it is an exploit, shooting an animal stuck in the trees I feel is not. Going to a spot where animals are always stuck over and over is. Even then there should be a warning and a close observation of the player after that.

As for the guests being segregated and only getting GM$, that is more for the incentive to get them to become members, and a side bonus of some not using the hacks.

Point understood. I guess there is no harsher punishment EW can bestow on those that cheat and hack. We'll all jus' have to live with repeat offenders- since all one needs to do is signup with a new name. I would have thought ISP's would also be tagged. Switching service providers to only come back here and cheat again makes no sense. But, I guess people do it. Peace.

BCKidd.

[DSL]

I would suggest the following:
That support for accusations against hackers should have priority response.

For the hacker is earning trophies, IN $ and remains active in the bedeviling the lives of those who spent money and play fair.

Denounces made to 16 days, no response and the hacker is playing right now, keeps winning trophy and $ IN just see the history of it.

[xyl]

First of all I'd like to say I love the game and love being in the comps. In the Hirshfeldan comp I played almost every day. Hunted some long hunts, and got some really high scoring animals. The closest I could get to the top was 265. Either ther are some really good players or one heck of a lot of hackers. People on the first day of the comp with scores of close to 1700. How is that possible? I wouldn't know how to catch one if I fell over him. It is really discouraging to hunt all this time, be selective with what you shoot, and shoot some really high scoring animals and not even come close.

[Trackfield]

For reporting hacking/cheating make sure you are using the right email address.

[email protected]

Second in the subject line put something like : Possible cheater/hacker

Include the name of the suspected player, and if you can, copy and paste the times/date of the suspected hunts.
I use steam so hard to do that, but highlight the hunts in question and Ctrl C to copy. In your email you can just right click and choose paste.

I usually do this and I normally get an answer, within a day or two that the account was investigated and appropriate action taken.
Its not fast enough to stop the player in question, if they are cheating from winning a comp, but they do respond.

[SamJH]

I can assure you that the level of interaction between this community and the developers is almost unprecedented in the gaming industry.

I'm getting really annoyed when I read that, because it's absolutely the opposite!

I also use a different simulator, FSX, and when I see the number of responses from CEO and developers on a forum of a company like OrbX, then it becomes really clear what excellent communication truly means: http://www.orbxsystems.com/forum/

Yes, there is communication when it comes to theHunter... it's called ONE-WAY communication for a HUGE(!) part, heck the only time we can ask them something directly is when THEY decide every few months to open a thread in which people can then ask questions. If you happen to have a question weeks later, you're going to be out of luck for the most part.

I don't know how many times over the last couple of years I saw members getting into a heated argument, when just a quick response of the developer could have ended the argument.

Now take an issue like this for example: https://youtu.be/ck2piy7hupw?t=4m45s

Why earth do the developers refuse to respond? Lots of people spent money on that crossbow and its scope, not cheap either when it's not on sale, isn't then a more than polite thing to do, to respond to the issue? For Pete's sake, look a that video, it's truly ridiculous that they have not responded to such foolishness of its ironsight that zooms as much as the scope of a tenpoint, while its scope zooms as much as the tenpoint's ironsight!! Their refusal to respond makes me truly mad, it shows that they absolutely do NOT care!

And take a for example the 12 GA Blaser F3 Game O/U Shotgun with its iron sign that is not centered and also mentioned as a negative by several viewers on this forum, but the developer refuses to respond.

Then there tons of times when weapons are nerfed and nothing is communicated to the buyers. When we spend tons of money (in many cases hundreds of dollars), is it then really so hard to share with us what was nerfed? Instead we have to use the shooting range to get some answers.

On top of that, there are tons game play mechanics that we would like to know more about, things that are not covered in the wiki. Seldom these things are share on the forum, seldom!

Sorry, caledonianblues you seem like a nice guy and a helpful too, but in this case I strongly disagree with you!! Also the fact that a lot of us have spent close to $1,000 on this game, should be more than enough reason for them to be more open. Saying "the level of interaction between this community and the developers is almost unprecedented in the gaming industry" completely and I mean COMPLETELY boggles my mind, but on the other hand, we could have expected this knowing your relationship with the company.