Banned for getting an ATH eh? lol
I can see where most people are coming from here, but for a moment try to forget the hurt, pain and jealousy you feel when you see this guy's 5 (almost 6) figure loot, and try to look at this logically:
This person most likely used an exploit to get this loot. Chances are he probably knows it is an exploit, but that's sort of irrelevant.
What IS relevant, however, is the fact that MA do not make it clear enough what is an exploit and what is not. If there was an 'exploits list', for example, which said in clear text "Do not use the Araneatrox Trap at xxx,yyy, it is an exploit and you will be banned for using it", everyone who goes there has the same information.
This exploit is well known, and has been around for a long time. I still know plenty of people who know nothing about it. MindArk have had many, many opportunities to fix this, if it's so important to do so. After 3 years, it remains the same.
Would it be fair if this avatar was banned without having this information? No! It's possible that he could get into the required position without even knowing the mob was trapped. Unlikely, but possible.
The fact that MA sent a guy to stand there all day warning people is simply not enough. Unless MA are there 24/7, how can you ever come to a fair and just conclusion about whether his actions were right or wrong?
Legally, almost any case where the defendant can prove he was not provided with full and easy accessible information at the time the event happened is thrown out of court. Chances are, this guy CAN prove it, as there's every possibility he never came across this information.
The mob trapping system is ridiculous, and wastes a hell of a lot of peds for many people when hunting. It's a cheap and nasty workaround for a limitation in the AI system of the attacking mobs. MindArk should have concentrated on fixing it by now, because quite frankly it's not good enough.
I don't know about anyone else, but when I want to kill an araneatrox stalker, I can do it one way or another without trapping. Prove that this guy didn't TP back to the spot every single time. All you need is a decent enough weapon, a bit of luck and a TP chip!
Innocent until proven guilty I say. Go over the possibilities in here all you like -- MA can't reasonably ban this guy for anything, because nothing can be proven.
On the other hand, that's never stopped them before. There's no fair trial before a banning order, whether fair or not. This is something I've been on the receiving end of, as some of you might remember.
Until MindArk get their heads out of their buttholes, and see that you have to treat people equally and fairly, and share enough information, sadly they cannot (justly) ban many abusers of the system.
I'm of the school of thought that says in a game like this exploits themselves should be dealt with as quickly and professionally as any other bug. As soon as it's discovered, there should be a reward to the person who discovered it, an immediate workaround to prevent it being used, and a very clear communication to ALL PLAYERS of what the exploit is, and what they're doing to resolve it.
If this means putting a huge building on top of the araneatrox trap then who cares.. There are thousands of quick and dirty workarounds they could perform here to prevent araneatrox trapping in this area. Even move the spawn for Gods sake!
There's another side to all of this too.. With all the different strengths of mob available, different average/highest loots are attributed. With weak mobs, your expenditure is lower, and so is your loot expectation.
With bigger mobs, often the loot expectation covers a smaller percentage of your outlay, yet the big prizes are much, much bigger.
Could it not be simply that this guy chose to bet with bigger money? Forget the fact that you can't normally kill them and bring into perspective the fact that he probably had to spend a buttload to get the loot -- then the trapping aspect maybe doesn't seem quite so important.
I say grats to this guy.. He's just looted a portion of the peds lost by people due to the crappy trapping system. At least MA haven't got it
MindArk have to seriously review how their game works, and have a clearly defined exploit procedure which everyone understands. Bring back rewards for discovering them, if they think it'll help.
