Exploit (online Gaming) - Response

Response

Developers may find it difficult to identify and respond to an exploit because a player who discovers a vulnerability in a game may be reluctant to inform the game's developers, in order to continue exploiting. However once developers do find exploits the response may include banning players who took advantage of the exploit, changing the game's rules to combat it, or even embracing the exploit. Positive opinion of the exploit can lead to the designers embracing it as emergent gameplay, such as when skiing in the Tribes series of games gained developer support. Otherwise the developers may try to fix the underlying problem or discourage use of the exploit if the issue cannot be clearly addressed by technical means. In severe cases players may be banned. Further, the game state of the world may need to be reset to restore game balance. For example, following a serious currency dupe exploit in EverQuest II, the developers removed large amounts of duped money from the game to address the rampant inflation it caused in the game's virtual economy.