Corwan

Whether this has happened due to a bug (i.e. Marketplaces were never supposed to use RDMs but be "hardcoded, which IMO is highly unlikely due to the fact everything in the game uses the same systems that players use, even market tiles are claimed using territory units) or due to incorrect settings in RDMs, the whole thing has been blown out of proportion. Did the players make a mistake by making and publicizing the "ultimate heist" on Reddit? Possibly. Most likely yes. However that only sets the scenery to what is essentially a "make or break" decision on the NQ's side.

Had NQ reacted in good humor, fixed the problem, and owned up to their mistake, they'd actually build and reinforce trust of their community. They would've come out on top, as a team that can take responsibility for their mistakes and fix them. As someone with years of community management experience, I'd go a step beyond that: I'd create a "ruin of a marketplace" with a memorial plaque that would say something along the lines of "MP15 has fallen prey to a legendary group of bank robbers", to make it part of the lore. Then I'd build a new Marketplace next to it, and recover lost items to the unfortunate players who had their stuff listed. The lesson is simple: Does it seem like bad press? Take ownership of it, turn it around, make it work for you.

It's very unfortunate that instead NQ reacted the way they have. Their response, and reaction of Discord moderators who started handing out mass bans for even mentioning the incident is what creates bad press. I mean, it's their choice to make. Just not a choice that I'd make as community manager.

UPDATE TABLE du_marketorders SET market_id='[NEWMARKET15]' WHERE market_id='[OLDMARKET15]';  

Agreed. To quote from EULA, "You must refrain from behavior that ... could harm one or more users or have a negative impact on their gaming experience ..." 
Now, if I say that getting attacked or in any way engaged in PVP has a negative impact on my gaming experience because I'm a PVE player (trader, crafter, builder), will NQ punish whoever attacked me? 
Mind you, I'm not saying that I want them to do that - but the vague wording really leads to that.

Whether this has happened due to a bug (i.e. Marketplaces were never supposed to use RDMs but be "hardcoded, which IMO is highly unlikely due to the fact everything in the game uses the same systems that players use, even market tiles are claimed using territory units) or due to incorrect settings in RDMs, the whole thing has been blown out of proportion. Did the players make a mistake by making and publicizing the "ultimate heist" on Reddit? Possibly. Most likely yes. However that only sets the scenery to what is essentially a "make or break" decision on the NQ's side.

Had NQ reacted in good humor, fixed the problem, and owned up to their mistake, they'd actually build and reinforce trust of their community. They would've come out on top, as a team that can take responsibility for their mistakes and fix them. As someone with years of community management experience, I'd go a step beyond that: I'd create a "ruin of a marketplace" with a memorial plaque that would say something along the lines of "MP15 has fallen prey to a legendary group of bank robbers", to make it part of the lore. Then I'd build a new Marketplace next to it, and recover lost items to the unfortunate players who had their stuff listed. The lesson is simple: Does it seem like bad press? Take ownership of it, turn it around, make it work for you.

It's very unfortunate that instead NQ reacted the way they have. Their response, and reaction of Discord moderators who started handing out mass bans for even mentioning the incident is what creates bad press. I mean, it's their choice to make. Just not a choice that I'd make as community manager.

Yeah so like - without the relational model of the DB you have no idea what how many tables you need to touch or what other restrictions are involved that may cause key dupes etc - I don't want to drag this off on to a tanget, but I've been in far far too many situations in RL where a 'simple db change' like the above is in reality incredibly complex to implement. 

NQ is clearly and quite clever actually spinning the events by using phrasing to make it _appear_ they have information that shows this was both malicious and premeditated which I simply do not buy as we _know_ that several players reported that market 15 was open and they were able to enter build mode on Discord and also, in these instances, generally the more obvious explanation is the correct one.. And that is a dev made a booboo and forgot to lock down the construct after moving it .
 

So to summarize how I perceive this after all these posts.
 
A. If Aphelia (NQ staff personification in game) did mess up RDMS settings, and it was really just a matter of pressing B. Then I think it is no different then emptying a player base with wrongly set RDMS, and there should be no punishment. In fact it could be considered the MMO heist of the century, and the stuff legends are made of. So NQ should have played into it, and used it to add some meat to the game lore.
 
B. If some kind of exploit was used, then there should definitively be punishment. But since historically these types of exploits have been ignored up until now, it should not be a permban. I am pretty sure that if NQ had set a precedence for punishing exploiters earlier, this would not have happened as it did.

Agreed. To quote from EULA, "You must refrain from behavior that ... could harm one or more users or have a negative impact on their gaming experience ..." 
Now, if I say that getting attacked or in any way engaged in PVP has a negative impact on my gaming experience because I'm a PVE player (trader, crafter, builder), will NQ punish whoever attacked me? 
Mind you, I'm not saying that I want them to do that - but the vague wording really leads to that.

Once again NQ fails to learn from other games.
 
https://massivelyop.com/2015/10/03/the-game-archaeologist-the-assassination-of-lord-british/
 
This could have been the same epic tale - instead it's just stupid drama....

Whether this has happened due to a bug (i.e. Marketplaces were never supposed to use RDMs but be "hardcoded, which IMO is highly unlikely due to the fact everything in the game uses the same systems that players use, even market tiles are claimed using territory units) or due to incorrect settings in RDMs, the whole thing has been blown out of proportion. Did the players make a mistake by making and publicizing the "ultimate heist" on Reddit? Possibly. Most likely yes. However that only sets the scenery to what is essentially a "make or break" decision on the NQ's side.

Had NQ reacted in good humor, fixed the problem, and owned up to their mistake, they'd actually build and reinforce trust of their community. They would've come out on top, as a team that can take responsibility for their mistakes and fix them. As someone with years of community management experience, I'd go a step beyond that: I'd create a "ruin of a marketplace" with a memorial plaque that would say something along the lines of "MP15 has fallen prey to a legendary group of bank robbers", to make it part of the lore. Then I'd build a new Marketplace next to it, and recover lost items to the unfortunate players who had their stuff listed. The lesson is simple: Does it seem like bad press? Take ownership of it, turn it around, make it work for you.

It's very unfortunate that instead NQ reacted the way they have. Their response, and reaction of Discord moderators who started handing out mass bans for even mentioning the incident is what creates bad press. I mean, it's their choice to make. Just not a choice that I'd make as community manager.

Whether this has happened due to a bug (i.e. Marketplaces were never supposed to use RDMs but be "hardcoded, which IMO is highly unlikely due to the fact everything in the game uses the same systems that players use, even market tiles are claimed using territory units) or due to incorrect settings in RDMs, the whole thing has been blown out of proportion. Did the players make a mistake by making and publicizing the "ultimate heist" on Reddit? Possibly. Most likely yes. However that only sets the scenery to what is essentially a "make or break" decision on the NQ's side.

Had NQ reacted in good humor, fixed the problem, and owned up to their mistake, they'd actually build and reinforce trust of their community. They would've come out on top, as a team that can take responsibility for their mistakes and fix them. As someone with years of community management experience, I'd go a step beyond that: I'd create a "ruin of a marketplace" with a memorial plaque that would say something along the lines of "MP15 has fallen prey to a legendary group of bank robbers", to make it part of the lore. Then I'd build a new Marketplace next to it, and recover lost items to the unfortunate players who had their stuff listed. The lesson is simple: Does it seem like bad press? Take ownership of it, turn it around, make it work for you.

It's very unfortunate that instead NQ reacted the way they have. Their response, and reaction of Discord moderators who started handing out mass bans for even mentioning the incident is what creates bad press. I mean, it's their choice to make. Just not a choice that I'd make as community manager.

This is the worst case scenario. Where the official response to an issue that has been plaguing the general community for the longest time is "It's not our problem" until the devs get hit by it.

Can you see what kind of precedence you are placing by putting yourselves ABOVE the players this way? SPECIALLY since there was NOTHING in the rules stating that this would be a violation.

Simply assuming that people will work by your own definition of "common sense" is folly. Specially when your view excludes the "common sense" of other people in the first place.

My own interpretation of "common sense" here, is that if you allow one person to exploit the system in unintended ways against another player, you should expect this kind of behavior to apply to EVERYONE. you included. If you fail to protect yourselves properly against this, then it falls strictly to YOU for failing to do so. If you do not like this, then you need to apply and enforce stricter rules protecting EVERYONE from these unlawful exploits.

Heed my warning: If you are going to play favorites, this project will end in bankrupcy.

The proper way to handle this, would be a slap on the wrist of the people responsible, and working on fixing the issue for everyone.

Oof. Find bug, make sure it's a visible problem. Get banned.
 
I guess it's time to cancel my sub. Been an interesting time guys, but if you want to completely hammer a promising game into the ground and punish people exposing issues while doing so is pretty much a total no-go from me. I'll watch the dumpster fire from the sidelines.

And with it, NQ killed off some really cool and emergent ways of playing, like hauling containers for customers by maneuvering them on your ship and off again at the destination. All because they do not want to put effort into actually dealing with exploits. Once more those who abuse mechanics win and everyone else loses.