Fractured Online Players Argue Over Permabanned Beta Exploiters

As we all know, the purpose of a beta test is to gather data and feedback on a game or feature and uncover issues including bugs and exploits. Dynamight Studios, however, has banned a group of Fractured Online players for using a memory hack to gain an unfair advantage in PvP. This has sparked a debate within the community on whether permanently banning the players was the right decision given that the game is still in beta.

The banned players apparently used a hack to bypass memory limits and give themselves and other members of their guild 200+ Talent points instead of just 60. This obviously gave them an edge over other players especially in the PK-enabled game.

The team explained that the hack was possible because of the lack of server validation for the functionalities that were used by the exploiters, which they admit was a “bad oversight” on their part. They then proceeded to explain why they decided to straight out ban the offending players.

“This is a beta. Part of its purpose is to receive feedback and develop the game together. Another is to find bugs and vulnerabilities and have them fixed before release,” said Dynamight CEO Jacopo Galleli. “Everyone in the community is therefore encouraged to find bugs, exploits and even hacks, but these are all to be reported immediately and in no way exploited. Failure to do so will lead to a ban that could range from days to permanent, according to the seriousness of the exploit.

“Like all MMOs, we have player actions logging in place,” he warned. “Abuse of a bug will always get caught eventually. We really take no pleasure in banning players, and it feels even worse when it’s very active ones.

The offending guild had reportedly been complaining about Dynamight’s strict rules on PKing, calling non-PvP-oriented players as “PvE carebears” that will ruin the game because of they had too much of an advantage over other players who regularly engaged in PvP.

The incident has torn the community in half between those who are against the banning and those who support the studio’s decision. Those who are against the decision claim that the exploit was reported as far back as 2020 but the developers did nothing to address it, while those who back the studio claim that the offending guild used the hack to get back at the developers for making the PvP sandbox game too “carebear-friendly.”

Regardless of who was in the right, the permabans should help deter other exploiters in the future. Galleli has promised a fix for the hack coming in a big patch next week.

More information can be found on the Fractured Online official forums.