What Happened to the Bug Reporting Reward Plan and What Rewards Are Appropriate?

[MYUO]

Does it occur to anyone that currently TC and Origin are less functional at finding the bugs/exploits? Maybe fewer players volunteered to find and report the bugs. Or maybe the incentives for them to do so are not strong enough.

It is indeed a good character for a player to support the game volunteerily. But at the same time, an appropriate reward system that motivate players reporting should be in place. There is nothing wrong about that. Law enforcement agencies around the world use rewards to seek help. UO should do the same.

I remember dev publicly announced offerring rewards to players who first report the bug/exploits but never heard about that plan since then. Anyone know what happened to it?

A reward plan should give player plenty incentive to report any bug but espeically the severe ones (like the dupe). Of course the duper may adopt to keep dirty secret to his/herself. But the damage they cause will be much contained and they will be easier to be identified - 5 dupers will be a lot easier to dealt with than 100 dupers.

So what should be the appropriate rewards?
IMO, for reporting dupes and bugs like npc vendor price rubberbanding, ingot smelt bug, etc that cause tremendous damage to the game economy, the reward should be 1 year or even lifetime free UO subscription. Significant in-game recognition (special items engraved with finder's name) will be nice too.
For less offensive bugs/exploits, such as recall crash bugs, peace timer exploits, etc. the reward should be 30-90 day game time code, choice of any one token or a ingame rehued "bug finder reward" medalion will be appropriate.
For minor bugs (grahpic glitch, text error, etc.), items like a random original tokuno dye, doom artifact, etc. will be attractive enough.

The rewards should be awarded to the first report that is detailed enough to reproduce the bug/exploit. Player can claim the reward by typing the reward code in-game (for items) or on account management page of uo.com (for free subscription).

Even counting in the development time for implementing the reward system, the overall cost to the game should be lower when you have hundreads of players activily finding the bugs. In addition, the quality of the game should be significantly improved.

 

[RavenWinterHawk]

Does it occur to anyone that currently TC and Origin are less functional at finding the bugs/exploits? Maybe fewer players volunteered to find and report the bugs. Or maybe the incentives for them to do so are not strong enough.

It is indeed a good character for a player to support the game volunteerily. But at the same time, an appropriate reward system that motivate players reporting should be in place. There is nothing wrong about that. Law enforcement agencies around the world use rewards to seek help. UO should do the same.

I remember dev publicly announced offerring rewards to players who first report the bug/exploits but never heard about that plan since then. Anyone know what happened to it?

A reward plan should give player plenty incentive to report any bug but espeically the severe ones (like the dupe). Of course the duper may adopt to keep dirty secret to his/herself. But the damage they cause will be much contained and they will be easier to be identified - 5 dupers will be a lot easier to dealt with than 100 dupers.

So what should be the appropriate rewards?
IMO, for reporting dupes and bugs like npc vendor price rubberbanding, ingot smelt bug, etc that cause tremendous damage to the game economy, the reward should be 1 year or even lifetime free UO subscription. Significant in-game recognition (special items engraved with finder's name) will be nice too.
For less offensive bugs/exploits, such as recall crash bugs, peace timer exploits, etc. the reward should be 30-90 day game time code, choice of any one token or a ingame rehued "bug finder reward" medalion will be appropriate.
For minor bugs (grahpic glitch, text error, etc.), items like a random original tokuno dye, doom artifact, etc. will be attractive enough.

The rewards should be awarded to the first report that is detailed enough to reproduce the bug/exploit. Player can claim the reward by typing the reward code in-game (for items) or on account management page of uo.com (for free subscription).

Even counting in the development time for implementing the reward system, the overall cost to the game should be lower when you have hundreads of players activily finding the bugs. In addition, the quality of the game should be significantly improved.

I can tell you the population at origin is really low.
And for me, why help with finding problems when the biggest problem is the 10,000 valorite hammers.

Do I really care if there is a glitch on a publish. Well yeah, but even when everyone said MELISSA was being abused for 25k tickets. What changed? Nada.

 

[Elydir]

The problem has never been finding/reporting bugs. The problem is there is never enough "bandwidth" to fix the issues. (I love how everyone in any IT related field throws that word around now /sarcasm)

 

[Jeremy]

What's the distance on the stage between the lead guitarist and the bassist called?

The bandwidth.

(Sorry.)

The reward program is alive and well, if quiet. We've caught a number of really nasty dupes and exploits, and there are a number of people enjoying UO on Mythic's hospitality at the moment. We are always happy to get more!

 

[MYUO]

Getting multiple 25ks from Melissa using new players or x shard is not really a bug/exploit. Maybe a game design flaw - young players should not be able to enter any dungeons and ghost should not be able to go through those password protected door. With those two limits, there will be much fewer ticket runners. But on the other hand, the rewards for turn in are no-where near overpowering and are just like heritage tokens.

As for the val hammer dupe, like I said in another thread, it is still not too late. The dupers can be traced, the hammers can be made more avialable, and the upcoming weapons/item revamp could at least partially neutralize the damage. Of course, those steps won't prevent the future dupes. That is the point of this thread. I hope dev can learn from the last several dupes that brought UO to its knees.

 

[MYUO]

The reward program is alive and well, if quiet. We've caught a number of really nasty dupes and exploits, and there are a number of people enjoying UO on Mythic's hospitality at the moment. We are always happy to get more!

No where on uo.com websiet nor google search can I find info on the reward program for bug reporting. The info, including the types of rewards, should be listed right on web page for bug submitting, just like FBI puts the $ amount under the photo of the most wanted criminal.
Stratics fourm readers are probably the most informed group of players in UO. How many of you know about the reward program?

 

[Jeremy]

The original announcement was here and I've mentioned it a few more times in the FoF, I believe.

Rewards are at our discretion (and dependent upon our assurance that you didn't dupe up a storm and then try to claim the reward) but game time is a common one.

 

[MYUO]

The original announcement was here and I've mentioned it a few more times in the FoF, I believe.

Rewards are at our discretion (and dependent upon our assurance that you didn't dupe up a storm and then try to claim the reward) but game time is a common one.

Glad to know the program is still running (sadly not working very well). Maybe we should be refreshed every a couple of months about the program. I consider myself pretty informed about UO and I only remember the oringal announcement, which is made 20 months ago.

You need some pulicity about the reward program - put a banner "Get Reward for Reporting Bugs!" on log-in window, UO.com, stratics and other fan sites. Finally, I suggested this before: if some dupe is reported, make official announcement (uo log in and uo.com) listing the name of the duped items and warn players not to buy the duped items. This will greatly limit the spread of the damage, help you pin-point the duper, and protect un-informed players. The vast majority of the UO players are not well-informed.

 

[RavenWinterHawk]

The original announcement was here and I've mentioned it a few more times in the FoF, I believe.

Rewards are at our discretion (and dependent upon our assurance that you didn't dupe up a storm and then try to claim the reward) but game time is a common one.

Jeremy,
Why does the action and rewards have to be so secret. It's kind of silly.

No. No. Im not saying to be told that account name Dave Duper on the atlantic shard with the 2 luna plots was banned and burned.

Or even that Nellie Nice was given a 30 day code for telling us about a dupe.


Why not list...
This month 6 exploits were discovered and repaired and for their input the following rewards were given out and list them. Include how to get in touch with you. Also state total items destroyed. You would really want to make turning in exploits a postive practice.

Yeah, I get you dont want people finding exploits to get rewards... Or would you? I mean what real abuse could happen creating a reward frenzy for finding critical problems.

Whats with the secret nature of the work if you dont include names and accounts?

Anyway, you probably cant answer. More information of what was done and rewarded would be positive.

Do you think 25 valorite hammers on one vendor is odd?

 

[Sarphus]

If I could pick between being rewarded with free UO or being rewarded with a custom, possible item of my choice, I would pick the custom item.

Of course my custom item would probably be a repond slayer scrappers with MR 1 and max LRC