I think I shouldn’t reply to rage threads, but in this case my curiosity is bigger than my restraint.
Imagine OP gets what he asks and several dozen (hundreds?) of players get reset to level 16. Would that make OP and anyone else feel good about the game, themselves and the players that have been demoted?
How would the demoted players respond? I’d expect them to rage as well.
Does anyone think demoting players to 16 is a reasonable and nice thing to do?
I don’t of course, but I’m curious how far out the feelings of some can be to request something like that to be done to fellow players.
I’ll bite. We agree that there was a bug preventing the normal xp loss from being in a raid. Those who entered SM Cath with 10 people chose to take advantage of that bug and gain a volume of exp that Blizzard did not intend to award. This is the definition of an exploit.
I suppose this means I’m an angry rager too ¯\ (ツ)_/¯
No you are speaking quite rationally and not berseking about the place asking for people to be banned and frothing at the mouth.
So it was a bug, big deal. The notion that everyone that joined a raid group to farm like that was exploiting is a fabrication though, most people just though “oh so this is the new meta”
because for many, surprisingly, max level is where their preferred gameplay begins. Some like to auto attack boars for a whole, others like raids, and PvP with full skillset.
For example I regret I missed the train for that. I hate levelling with passion. IN any game, any time. Not Classic specific issue.
the very article you linked trying to be a smarty pants says
" Exploits have been classified as a form of cheating however, the precise determination of what is or is not considered an exploit can be controversial. This debate stems from a number of factors but typically involves the argument that the issues are part of the game and require no changes or external programs to take advantage of them."
This controversy is clarified in Blizzard’s official stance on exploiting: It requires you to go out of your way to abuse it. Passive gameplay isn’t seen as abuse. For example, nobody enters SM Cath in a 10-man raid group, ever, until now. Until the bug’s discovery, there was no discernible reason to do so (Except if a 5-man became a 10-man just so they could clear it, but clearly, that’s not what’s happened here).
A change in your gameplay is required to take advantage of the bug, because running 10-man SM Cath cannot otherwise reasonably be considered a thing. Bassen linking you that, while perhaps insulting in nature, was reasonable I’d say
There was a blue post only a week ago talking about how they wanted to keep raids open for all dungeons up until BRD because that’s how it was back then so i don’t see how you can say Blizzard’s official stance on this is it’s an exploit.
Not one time have they used the word exploit or said that people are in danger of having their accounts banned or suspended or even acknowledged it in any way what so ever.
With that said i understand why people are upset about it. It should never be in the game, and it was a bug but to start stomping your feet because other people played the game more (cause that’s all this is tbh) is really quite sad.