There’s something of an uproar occurring in the Dual Universe community involving two players, the game’s RDMS system that powers who has access to certain permissions for a construct, and a developer-built location in the game.
Here’s what went down: Two players, Ooberjuice and Scoopy, found that a dev-crafted base known as Market 15 had its permissions set to be far more open than they should have been. A Reddit post details the pair’s probings of Market 15, first with a message of “pls no ban” written in voxels, then with some items added and shifted, and finally with some items and blocks lifted from Market 15. This, reportedly, started a bit of digital looting as players started to grab assets from Market 15, effectively destroying the build.
Novaquark officially responded, stating that all players that were involved in the heist would face permanent bans from the game, as the theft was against the game’s EULA and “the intentions of beta.”
Here’s the wrinkle: DU’s own support site says that theft via RDMS isn’t a bug but an allowed and understood feature, and the team even cautions players to ensure their construct’s permissions are set accordingly:
“We advise you take the time to get to know and understand the system and be cautious when making a construct or element usable by unknown players, including the use of your friends list. Not every player has your best interest at heart. We can not get involved with permission based theft, whether as an individual or an organization. We encourage you to review your friends list each time you add or remove someone and ensure your construct permissions are set accordingly.”
On the one hand, the help section being referenced by many players in response to this matter is pretty succinct. On the other hand, the “pls no ban” message seems to suggest that the two players that found the permissions setting mistake were aware that their actions would have some manner of consequences. Be that as it may, many players are pushing back against the permabanning, while others are saying that Novaquark is justified, assuming that Ooberjuice and Scoopy didn’t report the problem, something that Scoopy himself refutes.
The whole affair is summarized by YouTuber Yamiks in the video below, which also contains another statement from Scoopy about the event.
