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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsParagon: We're sorry we cheated
by Fox Van Allen 
Dec 6th 2011 at 1:00PM
Paragon had come up with a plan to run the Raid Finder multiple times, once for each raider. While executing the plan, they noticed and exploited a bug that allowed the raid the ability to loot passed gear -- a violation of Blizzard's rules. The exploit has since been hotfixed.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.
Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with patch 4.3. Review the official patch notes, and then dig into what's ahead: new item storage options, cross-realm raiding, cosmetic armor skinning and your chance to battle the mighty Deathwing -- from astride his back!
Filed under: Cheats, News items, Raiding
Reader Comments (Page 10 of 11)
scorcherbrennan Dec 6th 2011 4:25PM
@ emberdione
And what about the casuals who don't openly check these thing, I know a lot of people who see WoW as just a game and don't have time to check every last detail blizzard post, in fact some people might not know how!
But of course WoWinsiders community once again disappoints me,
your lack of real vision that this is "JUST" a game to some people shows fail as people and as gamers,
have fun kissing blizzards ass, but just to let you know, they dont give a fuck about you!
furrama Dec 6th 2011 4:45PM
You missed your mark.
Also: Flame language never wins you any friends. As I agree with you, don't drag me down with you.
(cutaia) Dec 6th 2011 5:21PM
Lemme just make sure I understand the scenario you're laying out:
A group of "casuals" who doesn't know anything about Blizzard's rules because they're too casual too care, also happen to formulate a system of running through LFR, in a full guild group, dozens of times in one week with different combinations of alts and mains to best maximize gain, then figures out a way to -- by passing on loot, leaving the instance, and reentering the instance...something you would never, ever do under normal circumstances -- distribute loot to people who otherwise wouldn't be able to loot the boss?
Those are some super dedicated casuals...
Believe me...nobody who's casual enough that they couldn't guess Blizzard's stance on this practice is going to be banned...because nobody in that group would have been doing this. If you did this to help gear for a world first heroic attempt, you're clearly more familiar with Blizzard's rules on exploiting than your average player. It's not "Blizzard ass-kissing" to recognize this simple, simple logic.
emberdione Dec 6th 2011 6:30PM
Comment system fail...
But regardless, Cutaia said it best. :)
If you were so casual that you had no idea that you should only get loot from a raid boss once a week, you probably aren't in LFR or doing weird cycling to get the ability to pass that loot out.
Also, OMG, I GOT FLAMED ON WOWINSIDER!!! Does this mean I have made it as a commenter? *squee*
CapnSkillet Dec 6th 2011 6:33PM
Paragon and other guilds who exploited should be disqualified from all world firsts this patch. They knew better. They chose to do it any way. They may be sorry they got caught, but they are not sorry they tried to get an edge. They knew the punishment would not be that severe. I wonder if the super extended maintenance today is because Blizzard is trying to remove all the cheated gear. If so, and I was Blizzard spending all these resources on that, then I would seriously punish them much worse than a 3 or 8 day suspension.
Keveline Dec 6th 2011 4:55PM
"We're very sorry we got caught cheating."
There, fixed it for them.
AdamAldaine Dec 7th 2011 2:08PM
At least four other people "fixed it for them" before you did. ;-)
DarkWalker Dec 6th 2011 5:41PM
Here is the fun thing: even without this exploit, those high end guilds with plenty of time to burn can still drastically increase the amount of loot they can get with the LFD:
- Assemble a raid with 3 main characters that don't share loot, and the rest alts.
- Have the 3 mains get everything they can use. They should get roughly 8x more gear than normal.
- Change the mains to the next 3, rinse and repeat.
In practice, it's as if the guild could run the LFR, for loot, about 8x per week - and that's without the exploit.
The same thing can be done in the normal modes, but given the raid lock, each player would need one alt for each extra run the guild is making, whereas in the LFR all that is needed is the main and one alt.
In the end, the limit on gearing speed, for normal mode gear or lower, is already mostly non-existent for high end guilds. Paragon simply got too greedy.
Warren Dec 6th 2011 6:04PM
"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."
On a side note, does anyone else wish Wall Street bankers would declare a statement like this to congress? Instead of getting bailed out with our money?
yagamimoon Dec 6th 2011 6:16PM
Punishing people by banning them.
Punishing people by giving them their life back.
What am I doing wrong about thinking all this in my head? o_0
radiationcowboy Dec 6th 2011 6:17PM
side note-
best article header image Ever!
Michael C Dec 6th 2011 7:04PM
It makes me wonder if they also cheated when they were the first to down Ragnaros. That should be looked into.
asad Dec 7th 2011 5:28AM
well they most popular guild they have to give them chance the thing u can do is to reset them to before 4.3 patch position if they like all 391 ilvl gear getting them ban instantly is not reasonable to top most guild
Sicamony Dec 6th 2011 9:04PM
I notice (cutaia) flagged up Vodka as being a top guild who didn't exploit. Anyone else know of any others?
I'd rather give those people a mention than hand the authors of this worthless apology more of the notoriety they crave for their sponsors.
Bapo Dec 7th 2011 12:53AM
I think the commenter Heather(?) mentioned Blood Legion? I personally haven't heard of them, but they may be another one to look into.
Blessthemartyrguild Dec 8th 2011 2:06PM
Vodka, Blood Legion,Exodus, TG all did it legit running 4the or more 25 man normals to get a hefty gear advantage.
shaunping Dec 7th 2011 12:56PM
I find it rather amusing and incredibly ignorant that people actually think you have to have no life to be a top raider. We push HARD when content first drops but when everything falls into place and we know the fights, progression is only an hour or 2 a night depending on the raid group. Its just funny how people have to try and rationalize why they arent a top raider. Instead of blaming it on the fact that you "have a life" or cant raid "24-7" maybe take into consideration that this level of gaming is beyond your ability. For all of the players that don't raid or havent tried it...man, you dont know what you are missing. The game doesnt even get started until max level. LFR is a great tool for casuals to see all the end game content but you havent played until you hit a good heroic raid....
Atticus-XI Dec 7th 2011 1:25PM
Lest we forget - many of these elite guilds have a ton of advertising on their web sites/de facto sponsorships. Getting that "world first" translates into money for some of these guilds. That needs to be part of the examination. Legit guilds making money if fine with me, IMHO, but the cheaters with a track record for this should get far more than a several-days-long ban. Instead, hit 'em in the pocketbook. Kick them for a month - somehow these guilds always seem to find the exploits (reportedly) rather quickly. I would not be surprised if they actively/systematically search for exploits as standard operating procedure.
sonatasun Dec 8th 2011 10:29AM
Paragon posted a mature and reasoned response to their ban by way of public apology. Compare their apology to Endidia when Blizzard censured them.
A permanent ban is unreasonable and just plain mean. The penalty serves to correct the competitive imbalance created by the exploit.
Steve Dec 9th 2011 4:12PM
A high-end raiding guild...that needs 384 ilevel gear? As opposed to 391 ilevel gear from the Firelands heroics I'm sure they were farming? Being a high-end raiding guild and all.