Elder Scrolls Online (ESO) has an Player versus Player mode in the open world Cyrodiil zone. In theory, players of the different Alliances fight each other over territory and are rewarded with Alliance Points (AP) which have various uses, such as milestone rewards as they earn points, and buying special goods with the points as a currency.
How AP Boosting works is indicative of an environment that not only allows but encourages exploiting and cheating. Instead of a lone player hoping their secret advantage will go unnoticed or that they can talk their way out of it, AP Boosting requires collaboration in order for the results to be as spectacular as they are. Many players must be "in on it". And clearly, none of those players are at all afraid that this open secret will result in any sort of action taken against them for exploiting.
The Bad Option: Investigation
Obviously it is useful to get reports from players about who's doing what exploit, such as AP Boosting. And they can of course be useful leads as to whom to investigate (even though just looking at the leaderboards for each Cyrodiil campaign can yield the same leads right away). However, this is definitely not the best approach because the investigation can spend a lot of time and yield no result.
Step 2: Eliminate the system that allows exploiting
If the incentive to exploit cannot be removed, then the ability to exploit is the next target. Player versus Player exploits involving collaboration between players is tricky to handle because both parties are Players and therefore not in the game developer's control if they willfully choose to subvert the game systems.
Step 3: Put the reward somewhere else
The open world nature of Cyrodiil makes any investigation into exploiting and cheating trickier because it could happen anywhere at any time and with any number of hapless bystanders that could get caught up in an investigation. A closed environment with limited participants would not only afford a greater chance of detection but sharply narrow an investigation.
The reality is that there is substantial collaboration that exploits the game mechanics. Players arrange essentially mock sieges to trigger substantial AP rewards at a rate far beyond "intended" gameplay. This is called "AP Boosting".
- Why AP Boosting must be eliminated
- The Bad Option: Investigation
- Step 1: Reduce the incentive to exploit
- Step 2: Eliminate the system that allows exploiting
- Step 3: Put the reward somewhere else
How AP Boosting works is indicative of an environment that not only allows but encourages exploiting and cheating. Instead of a lone player hoping their secret advantage will go unnoticed or that they can talk their way out of it, AP Boosting requires collaboration in order for the results to be as spectacular as they are. Many players must be "in on it". And clearly, none of those players are at all afraid that this open secret will result in any sort of action taken against them for exploiting.
To have gotten to this point, players in ESO must already have felt they do not need to hide exploiting and cheating. More than that -- they can talk openly about it and recruit others without fear of consequence.
And to allow it to continue is to encourage others to join them or to use some other exploit or cheat. Whatever the rationale they invent, underlying their decision to do so is the proof that other players are exploiting and they are getting away with it.
This steadily breeds a culture of exploiting and cheating. It simultaneously erodes the remaining player base that does not want to exploit or cheat, and makes them bitter because there is no advantage to playing by the rules when the "authorities" do nothing.
The Bad Option: Investigation
Obviously it is useful to get reports from players about who's doing what exploit, such as AP Boosting. And they can of course be useful leads as to whom to investigate (even though just looking at the leaderboards for each Cyrodiil campaign can yield the same leads right away). However, this is definitely not the best approach because the investigation can spend a lot of time and yield no result.
The reason is AP Boosting can look like normal play, so two things can happen:
- Guilty players can play dumb and say they just happened to be there when it happened and had no intention of doing it.
- Innocent players can genuinely say they just happened to be there when it happened and had no intention of doing it. Which is true because if you just happen to be there or nearby, you would also get some AP when the reward condition is triggered.
When both the innocent and the guilty can give you the same response, you have a very big problem of who to believe. And the safest course to avoid punishing the innocent is to let everyone go.
Net result is wasted time.
Instead of treating the symptoms, work on eliminating the cause. Which is not to say clear cases shouldn't result in sanction. But handling AP Boosting through investigation alone is extremely time-costly with chancy results.
So how do we eliminate AP Boosting? And in the process show that exploiting the game will be addressed even if we can't catch all the perpetrators.
Step 1: Reduce the incentive to exploit
AP Boosting seems to be interested in accumulating a vast amount of AP for whatever reason. For example, that currency could be ultimately converted into gold and from there sold in illicit Real Money Transactions which in turn could be tied to money laundering.
Whatever the reason, we can as a first attempt to solve the problem reduce the incentive to exploit. And in doing so we will necessarily cause legitimate players to suffer reduced gains, so we need to try to mitigate that.
One possibility is to delay all AP rewards (including milestone rewards such as Rewards for the Worthy) and award them weekly. At the end of the week, the accumulated AP score is converted into the currency awarded by some diminishing returns function, such as a logarithmic scale. That processed score is then used to determine rewards.
The scale should be such that the expected legitimate play benchmark will result in reduced or no reduction. But scores beyond that start to get flattened so that it takes a very large score to get a small to moderate award.
Even with such a diminishing rewards scale, AP Boosting could continue. It may even be that the currency itself is not important but the other results are important (e.g., skill points, position on the leader boards, etcetera). In that case, we can escalate to a more severe solution.
Step 2: Eliminate the system that allows exploiting
If the incentive to exploit cannot be removed, then the ability to exploit is the next target. Player versus Player exploits involving collaboration between players is tricky to handle because both parties are Players and therefore not in the game developer's control if they willfully choose to subvert the game systems.
Typically PvP collaboration exploits revolve around getting rewards as easily as possible. So a drastic solution is to simply remove the reward system. If there are no rewards, there is no point exploiting the game for rewards.
However this is basically completely counter to having a "game". Without some kind of measurable reward, players are unlikely to simply participate for personal satisfaction. Some might -- like playing a friendly game of basketball with friends -- but in an MMO, we can estimate that most players will simply stop.
And from a revenue-generation point of view, this is clearly not acceptable. So we need a third step -- an alternative for players to go. Preferably this alternative is developed to some extent before the existing system is closed, so there is already some migration.
Step 3: Put the reward somewhere else
The open world nature of Cyrodiil makes any investigation into exploiting and cheating trickier because it could happen anywhere at any time and with any number of hapless bystanders that could get caught up in an investigation. A closed environment with limited participants would not only afford a greater chance of detection but sharply narrow an investigation.
There already exists an instanced PvP mode in ESO: Battlegrounds. And that mode already awards AP. It could be expanded to include maps that mimic various Cyrodiil situations such as resource or keep captures; and expanded to adjust for the number of participants on each team.
Of course win trading and collaboration is still a possibility, but not only is the investigation helped by the closed instance of limited participants, but the rewards are capped for each match.
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