Exploits in a sandbox MMO almost always follow the same progression of events. Exploit is discovered, run into the ground, and is eventually fixed with the developers either removing the ill-gotten gains or banning the more explicit offenders. The forums are then awash with a combination of two types of players; those who used the exploit and those who either wanted to use the exploit and didn’t have the cajones to risk their account getting banned, or didn’t hear about the exploit until it was too late. Those who did get caught and either had their gains removed or were outright banned, never seem to take blame for their actions, and the issue of “it was clearly intended,” sprouts up.
Perpetuum Online is not unlike Eve Online on the ground, with mechs, and inevitably the same issues that spring up in Eve will show up in Perpetuum. In this case, the same insurance fraud scheme that hit Eve has just been patched in Perpetuum, and players are taking to the (virtual) streets to pretty much remove any doubt that they are unapologetic cheaters.
In Perpetuum, players can insure their mechs, for a return if the mech is destroyed. The reimbursement is based off of market prices over two weeks, making the system more difficult to game. However, lesser traded mechs can be manipulated to higher prices, to a point where a player can make a profit by building a robot and blowing it up as it exits the manufacturing facility. The exploit has been patched up and the devs responded by removing all of the ill-gotten money from the economy.
Of course, it probably isn’t in their best interest to give the go ahead on exploiting this system, and then expecting less of an uproar when they change pace and retroactively apply the new rule. As for the players, don’t expect much sympathy when what you were doing, albeit within the rules at the time, was as ethically dubious as insurance fraud.
MMO Fallout 