Exploits, exploiters and bans.

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

I have read a number of posts about banned exploiters (not just on this site) and how they get numbers of defending posts. I want to address this issue in a calm concise manner (in other words if you don't have a constructive point in either argumentative direction please hold your thoughts).
I feel I must define exploiting first before moving on. Exploiting: when you use either bugs or design flaws in any game to further yourself in the game experience, whether be it boosting rank, level or gear, or otherwise progress against intended fair play. In multiplayer PvP matches this means gaining an unfair advantage over the other team/players (e.g. the rock bug in MW2's map "fuel"). I won't list all versions but that should give an idea of what I mean.

Finding and reporting an exploit is one thing, making dev's aware of it and (hopefully) they fix the problem. Otherwise I don't see how you can defend someone for getting banned for using flawed mechanics to their advantage. Sure, dev's may have missed that particular flaw/bug/whatever. Remember there are people out there who live solely to cheat or grief or otherwise win at any cost.
Here's another example. There are rules to chess matches (live chess matches not computer-based matches, you know the ones with the ACTUAL PHYSICAL PIECES). Were one person to exploit the fact that you can physically move a piece in any direction as many spaces as they wanted regardless of what the rules state, that still would be an illegal move. Even tho the board doesn't prevent a pawn from moving 3 spaces forward, for example. The only thing hampering the player from cheating is whoever's watching him AND his/her on conscience. Yes I said cheating, because exploiting a "design flaw" is still cheating.

So when a moderator or whatever decides to ban a player for exploiting a design flaw, it is in essence what would happen if a player decided to cheat in any other game. Call it disqualification, banning, what have you, its the same thing.

Skill does not equal how many exploits you got away with last match.

 

[Olrod]

The problem arises when players are unaware that a particular situation/method isn't the way the developers intended for the game to play.

Oh, you can grind on these respawning monsters for experience. Oh wait, no you can't - it's an exploit. BAN.

Even worse is when you get banned for "an exploit" where none exists, where no actual details are forthcoming about whatever the hell you're supposed to have done in the first place, and when there's no ability to appeal. Dungeons & Dragons Online's Hallowe'en event "Mabar" (aka Maban) is one example of that. Dozens of players got banned for "an exploit" that didn't actually exist.

 

[mjc0961]

It all depends on what the exploit was and if the developers try to stop it.

For example, if you use an exploit to get outside of the map in a FPS game, and you can freely shoot other players but they cannot hit you, come on. If you weren't expecting a ban and/or stat wipe for using that repeatedly, you are a buffoon. If you did it once by accident, oops. You shouldn't be banned for that, and the right thing to do would be going to the official forum for the game (where the devs are paying attention) and say "I did this and wound up outside the map" so that they can fix it.
Or the Team Fortress 2 hat thing; how did you NOT know that running a program that would allow you to not play the game but get bonuses would result in losing your items? You knew damn well that you were running a piece of third party software not endorsed by Valve, and you knew that you were trying to actively avoid playing the game, but still get rewarded as if you had been playing. If anyone truly thought it wouldn't end in trouble for them, well I am sorry but I feel they are just stupid (can't really think of a nicer way to say it). And then to go on and defend your actions and say you shouldn't have been punished? STFU and GTFO, please.

But then there are other exploits. One that comes to mind is this exploit that was in Dead Rising, and maybe it still is (I have no idea, and it's not like I can easily check). This exploit allows you to get an achievement for free if you do things in a certain order and then turn off your game and turn it back on again. Instructions are as follows, from GameFAQs:

Spoiler

Indoorsman & Outdoorsman At The Same Time

Start a new game and hang around the Entrance Plaza BEFORE the zombies break in. Wait for two real-life hours and you will unlock Indoorsman. Continue on with the game and let the zombies break into the mall. Go to the security room and save your game. Shut down your console and start up Dead Rising again. Load the save you just made and you will get a message saying you've unlocked Outdoorsman.

Nobody should get banned from Xbox Live for that. Two reasons why I feel this way:
1. If Capcom doesn't want you to do it, they can patch the game to disable this. Microsoft shouldn't be stepping in and dropping banhammers on people over it.
2. It's all single player, so it doesn't really matter anyway. Other players aren't having their fun with the game ruined. And before anyone says something about getting their achievements legit, all you do for this is just leave your game on for a few hours while you do something else, because you would never get via normal gameplay. So even if this glitch wasn't there, you didn't work super hard to earn something that somebody else just glitched too; you just left Dead Rising on in your 360 and did something else for a couple hours. Guides for getting these achievements without a glitch are as follows, from xbox360achievements.org:

Spoiler

Indoorsman
Start a game and go right into the security room. Stay put for 2 hours REAL time (24 hour in game time) to get this achievement. A good thing to do here is to scotch tape your control stick forward having Frank run in a corner to help with your Marathon Runner achievement.

Outdoorsman
Start a game and stay on the roof. Stay put for 2 hours REAL time (24 hour in game time) to get this achievement. A good thing to do here is to scotch tape your control stick forward having Frank run in a corner to help with your Marathon Man achievement.

Also, someone might point out that all you are doing in the hat example above is not playing the game, and that's what you do for those achievements. Difference is, I don't need to download 3rd party software to leave my 360 on and playing Dead Rising for 2 hours. Whereas you need the special program to keep you cheating at Team Fortress without being there to play for yourself, and it may have still hurt other players.

But yeah. It all depends on the type of exploit and how much you use it. Again, I wouldn't ban a player for going out of a map on accident once. But if he did it constantly, I say drop a banhammer on him.