It would appear that some mass gold duping was going on in Star Citizen recently as a result of an exploit found within the recently released alpha 3.23.1 patch, which resulted in CIG suspending over 600 player accounts.
The specifics of the exploit were obviously not detailed, but CIG claimed that it was severe enough that it “compromised stability and negatively impacted the in-game economy,” forcing the ban wave as well as the removal of “illicitly gained” credits from the game. “Cheating and exploiting undermine the integrity of our game and the efforts of our dedicated backers who help us build Star Citizen,” the studio states. “We take these actions seriously and assure you that we are continuously developing additional measures against cheating and exploitation.”
CIG does point out that finding an exploit and reporting it is not the same as finding and utilizing a bug. “Identifying, testing, and reporting exploits is acceptable and encouraged,” CIG clarifies. “However, once an exploit is identified and confirmed, continued abuse for personal gain will not be tolerated and will result in action on our part.”
Digging further into player replies on both the official forums and Reddit, these suspensions appear to have been targeted against accounts that were engaging in RMT activity. Player reactions also suggest that the problem of an emergent RMT marketplace is far more widespread and that more accounts should have been caught in the blast.
Of course there are others who are arguing that caring this deeply about economic changes for an unreleased game isn’t as vital as CIG is making it out to be, and other replies bring up the fact that this exploit was identified and communicated during public testing but still went out anyway. Regardless, it looks as if things are rinsed away, at least initially.
