I am a rather inexperienced player - but I made it to the second large M2-XFE event (you know - the one where the TiDi was one-second=one-hour…) and learned about the CCP policy:
“If it happens in the game - bug or not - it is what it is - do not ask for refunds or fixes!”
Fine - makes sense - we are eagerly paying a company to learn how to build software that works as advertised Our choice - and we make it willingly because there is more good than bad in EVE and we are in it for the community as much as the content.
BUT - today I see this:
It has come to our attention that a small number of Capsuleers have been exploiting a bug allowing capital Dreadnought ships to cloak when using Abyssal Siege Module.
Effective immediately, using this method to cloak Dreadnoughts with Abyssal Siege Module active is considered an exploit. We kindly ask players to refrain from abusing it while we are working on resolving the problem.
If you have witnessed this bug being abused or are a victim, please contact our customer support by sending in a ticket in the ‘Rules & Policies – Exploits’ category. Players who used this exploit in-game are encouraged to reach out to us in the same fashion to soften the applicable bug abuse penalty.
Now - I am not affected, but I cannot help but cry FOUL!
CCP crassly chooses to have it both ways - if you are going to randomly decide to call one of your bugs an exploit - AND START PENALIZING PLAYERS for taking advantage of what you may also arbitrarily call a FEATURE (like TiDi), it makes you look [[fill in condescendingly insulting term here]]!
Worse - the text seems to imply that there will be RETROACTIVE punishment to players that have taken advantage of the (bug | feature) before it became a declared exploit. To quote again:
Players who used this exploit in-game are encouraged to reach out to us in the same fashion to soften the applicable bug abuse penalty.
The way I read this is:
“Email us to apologize to us for the bug we created and beg us for forgiveness for finding it…”
This is … embarrassing? Laking perspective / accountability? Just not taking care of your paying audience?