I hear because of the gold dupe that they might do this, any proof on this?
"Proof" and "Might" don't go hand in hand
A rollback of like 12H/24H might happen. That or they better have a kickass way at detecting dupes (and ban) but what if people just transfer their money ?
Best options is a rollback followed directly by a ban.
Pretty sure the real money AH isn't coming out tomorrow lol. They will need one week to make sure they took care of this bug before they let us play around with real money.
Since all data is server stored, it is fully possible to use targeted correction methods, assuming that there indeed was such an exploit. Remember all the questionable accounts of being hacked with an authenticator a few weeks back? I wouldn't assume something is true until an official word from Blizzard.
Even if it is true and there was an exploit used to dupe items/gold, Blizzard has the tools to fix the problem. You can see all the bids/auctions you've put up on your AH page. Blizzard can see a lot more than you and with this they have the ability to see which accounts have been exploiting through their AH history. They also have the ability to detect all the accounts that you played with for non AH trading. A simple database search will give everything they need. There's no way you can launder your gold without a trail no matter how many times you pass it along through another account.
Does "rolling back" the servers mean "loading a saved game from XX hours ago"? If so, what if someone just finds an amazing item worth millions of gold, then it rolls....
The real problem here is that the people who exploited to get more gold could then have bought anything and everything they wanted on the AH, potentially at ridiculous prices, and then all those transactions would have to be tracked and reversed... And the gold from those could have been used for something else, and blah blah blah it goes on a huge number of steps and completely "innocent" people are suddenly coming into spontaneously created gold, and the economy is heavily altered. Sure they could potentially track it all down, but while they're doing it more steps are being added, so they'd most likely have to take down the AH completely during that time, and disable trading too....
A rollback for everyone is really the best answer here.
How can exploiting an AH timer by your system clock be the act of an innocent user? Its not something you do accidentally, especially more than once. A quick database search of auctions that were cancelled by this method would come out in a single search string and it certainly won't be 99.8% of the accounts!
Edit: Its likely they will track rather than reset. Its doable and they have the tools for it. Its just stored database info. The AH and trading will not need to be disabled. Just a team of IT people running queries on archived data to isolate which accounts have been exploiting. If they reset whenever there's a problem there's a terrible precedent and they will be more inclined to press that reset button again in the future.
I hope there isn't a rollback since it sets a bad precedent. When there are alternative options, we shouldn't be looking at rollbacks. After all, when do you stop? Rolling all the way back to May 15?
The guilty will pay the price. Anyone not involved in the exploit but profited from it through illegally obtained gold is simply fortunate. There will be no inflation considering how much virtual wealth will simply disappear with the banwaves.
This is what I suspect will happen
Query 1: All accounts that used this AH exploit. This is hereforth known as the banlist. List gets banhammered.
Detailed clean up begins
Query 2: Sort banlist accounts by exploit frequency. Gold status. AH history. Trade history. Played with history.
IT team starts churning through accounts, separating the hardcore exploiters from the simple ones. If there is a need to trace laundered gold it is done here. They will know if you went out of your way to amass, trade, buy gear or launder that gold. Its all tied to your account and in easily searching data. Normal accounts will be done in 4-8 queries back, hardcore launderers will take longer but there's nowhere they can hide.
We haven't deployed any hot fixes this evening. As far as we can tell the supposed exploit never worked, but we'll continue looking into it. Yes, changing the system clock can change auction times, but that doesnt dupe gold. It's pretty easy to see how much gold people have, and we have no indication anyone has/had that much.
Assuming Blizzard is telling the truth and I see no reason to doubt them.
1. Gold dupe is a lie
2. They are aware of people resetting AH timers
There isn't going to be any bans for duping since it doesn't exist. AH timer bans are at the decision of Blizzard and any speculation/opinion we have is irrelevant.
Just curious why people want a possible item dupe to be true so bad? People seem bent on Blizzard failing, I just don't understand.
You're missing the point completely. It's not about Blizz failing at all *facepalm*
I'm pretty sure I didn't miss my own point, I'm just staring in awe at the people that are dancing around in joy because they think Blizzard made a mistake. They want the mistake to be true so bad that they are getting trolled really hard.
"Proof" and "Might" don't go hand in hand
A rollback of like 12H/24H might happen. That or they better have a kickass way at detecting dupes (and ban) but what if people just transfer their money ?
Best options is a rollback followed directly by a ban.
Even if it is true and there was an exploit used to dupe items/gold, Blizzard has the tools to fix the problem. You can see all the bids/auctions you've put up on your AH page. Blizzard can see a lot more than you and with this they have the ability to see which accounts have been exploiting through their AH history. They also have the ability to detect all the accounts that you played with for non AH trading. A simple database search will give everything they need. There's no way you can launder your gold without a trail no matter how many times you pass it along through another account.
A rollback for everyone is really the best answer here.
Edit: Its likely they will track rather than reset. Its doable and they have the tools for it. Its just stored database info. The AH and trading will not need to be disabled. Just a team of IT people running queries on archived data to isolate which accounts have been exploiting. If they reset whenever there's a problem there's a terrible precedent and they will be more inclined to press that reset button again in the future.
The guilty will pay the price. Anyone not involved in the exploit but profited from it through illegally obtained gold is simply fortunate. There will be no inflation considering how much virtual wealth will simply disappear with the banwaves.
This is what I suspect will happen
Query 1: All accounts that used this AH exploit. This is hereforth known as the banlist. List gets banhammered.
Detailed clean up begins
Query 2: Sort banlist accounts by exploit frequency. Gold status. AH history. Trade history. Played with history.
IT team starts churning through accounts, separating the hardcore exploiters from the simple ones. If there is a need to trace laundered gold it is done here. They will know if you went out of your way to amass, trade, buy gear or launder that gold. Its all tied to your account and in easily searching data. Normal accounts will be done in 4-8 queries back, hardcore launderers will take longer but there's nowhere they can hide.
Blue Post Incoming!
Sorry to disapoint you, I did this trick (well not a lot though ;)) and can guarantee you I'll still be around in the game
1. Gold dupe is a lie
2. They are aware of people resetting AH timers
There isn't going to be any bans for duping since it doesn't exist. AH timer bans are at the decision of Blizzard and any speculation/opinion we have is irrelevant.
Don't feed them and sad trolls remain sad.
I'm pretty sure I didn't miss my own point, I'm just staring in awe at the people that are dancing around in joy because they think Blizzard made a mistake. They want the mistake to be true so bad that they are getting trolled really hard.
Blizzard Crew who worked on D3 are really average.