Duping
Encyclopedia
Duping refers to the practice of exploiting a bug
in a video game to illegitimately create duplicates of unique items or currency in a persistent online game
, such as an MMOG
. Duping can vastly destabilize a virtual economy
or even the gameplay itself, depending on the item duplicated and the rate at which duplication occurs. Modern persistent world games include automated detection of duping.
and conversely item dupes cause the item to lose value.
5 years ago in the MMORPG
RuneScape
, an extremely rare item, the Pink Party hat (now the Purple Party hat) was duped well over 2 million times; the effects are still seen today in the game's economy. While Jagex
, the game's owners, did everything they could to ban the duping users, the duped party hats are still circulating. Due to the fact that the discontinued items, party-hats, were no longer available, the purple party-hat being duped caused it to become the cheapest hat. While its price is still high for an item, it is considered "the noob's party-hat".
When currency is duplicated, it increases the overall amount of money
in the virtual economy and increases prices in player-to-player transactions. In a 2005 case of currency duping in EverQuest II
, the game's developers noticed an unexpected 20% rise in the total money found in the economy over a 24 hour period following the dissemination of the dupe. A significant currency dupe in Star Wars Galaxies
was found after the designers compared how much money was created versus how much money was destroyed and noted that, despite more money leaving the system than entering, they observed no shortage of money in the virtual world.
Item dupes generally have the opposite effect, causing the price of the duped items to drop as the supply
of that item increases.
In addition to the effects on the game economy, the sudden influx of currency or items also affects players involved in real-money trading. In the EverQuest II case, the dupers attempted to sell the illegitimate currency on Station Exchange
for real money and supposedly made over US$70,000 from online auctions. Dupes are highly prized among those involved in real-money trading, and in this form it has been likened to counterfeiting
except with reduced risk.
some players learned how to dupe the currency. Sony Online Entertainment
(SOE) banned players who possessed duped currency. It is alleged that people who were not directly involved in the exploit, but who accepted duped currency in legitimate trade were also banned. In reaction to what was perceived to be an unjust punishment, several players joined a mass demonstration
at a central location in the game world. SOE responded to the disruption caused by the large gathering by teleporting
all player character
s involved away from the demonstration area. A popular online urban legend
is that many player characters were teleported into space, essentially killing them. Although evidence as to whether or not this occurred cannot be substantiated, it has been voiced in many popular gaming avenues, such as Penny Arcade
.
Another method to mitigate the effects of duping would be a rollback
, in which game data is reset to an earlier data backup prior to the first known instance of duping. This can include all game data or be limited to specific items, characters, or other means determined to be involved in the duping. Significant rollbacks can be a highly unpopular decision with the players and is best done before much time has passed. Similarly, SOE was able to track and remove the duped currency in EverQuest II.
The virtual world designers may find more natural ways to remove the offending currency or items from the game. In Star Wars Galaxies the legitimate economy had been losing money faster than money was being created due to a variety of money sinks. After the dupe bug was fixed and trillions of potentially duped in-game currency deleted, the designers decided to let the economy to continue running at a net loss until the levels could return to normal.
An immediate, although often temporary, step to prevent further issues from duping calls for aspects of the game to be disabled until the exploit can be addressed permanently. SOE stopped Station Exchange auctions to prevent the dupers from selling the illegitimate EverQuest II currency.
could not remove the duping glitch, and the online game was filled with duped items and money.
In the Xbox 360
game Forza Motorsport 2
, there was a duping glitch which enabled the player to sell car upgrades they had not yet purchased. By selecting an upgrade, and quickly pressing X, the player is able to have the option to sell the upgrade, without having to buy it first. This caused the Auction House to become flawed, because players who had earned their money via the glitch, were able to out-buy players that only had money they have gotten through races. There is a patch to fix the glitch, but players can still perform it, and transfer the money onto another account.
In the Playstation 3
game Gran Turismo 5
, there is another duping glitch that requires two separate PSN accounts to use. On the main account, the player can copy the save file to the game to a USB flash drive, then the player can perform trades to the alternate account. The player then backs up the save on the main account, and makes the trades again to the main account. However, while the amount of trading is unlimited, only one car per game day can be traded, but up to five paints and vehicle upgrades can be traded per game day. This has been used to get high level vehicles from Random 1000 tickets, such as the famous Red Bull X2010 Prototype, and Level 21-24 tickets while
gasoline prices continue to gain during the fluxuation.
Exploit (online gaming)
An exploit, in video games, is the use of a bug or design flaw by a player to their advantage in a manner not intended by the game's designers. It is often colloquially abbreviated sploit. Exploits have been classified as a form of cheating; however, the precise determination of what is or is not...
in a video game to illegitimately create duplicates of unique items or currency in a persistent online game
Persistent world
A persistent world is a virtual world that continues to exist even after a user exits the world and that user-made changes to its state are, to some extent, permanent...
, such as an MMOG
Massively multiplayer online game
A massively multiplayer online game is a multiplayer video game which is capable of supporting hundreds or thousands of players simultaneously. By necessity, they are played on the Internet, and usually feature at least one persistent world. They are, however, not necessarily games played on...
. Duping can vastly destabilize a virtual economy
Virtual economy
A virtual economy is an emergent economy existing in a virtual persistent world, usually exchanging virtual goods in the context of an Internet game...
or even the gameplay itself, depending on the item duplicated and the rate at which duplication occurs. Modern persistent world games include automated detection of duping.
Effects
The effect of duping on the game's economy depends on whether an item or currency was being duplicated and to what degree the duping took place. Currency dupes cause inflationInflation
In economics, inflation is a rise in the general level of prices of goods and services in an economy over a period of time.When the general price level rises, each unit of currency buys fewer goods and services. Consequently, inflation also reflects an erosion in the purchasing power of money – a...
and conversely item dupes cause the item to lose value.
5 years ago in the MMORPG
MMORPG
Massively multiplayer online role-playing game is a genre of role-playing video games in which a very large number of players interact with one another within a virtual game world....
RuneScape
RuneScape
RuneScape is a fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game released in January 2001 by Andrew and Paul Gower, and developed and published by Jagex Games Studio. It is a graphical browser game implemented on the client-side in Java, and incorporates 3D rendering...
, an extremely rare item, the Pink Party hat (now the Purple Party hat) was duped well over 2 million times; the effects are still seen today in the game's economy. While Jagex
Jagex
Jagex Games Studio, based in Cambridge, is the UK’s largest independent developer and publisher of online games. Jagex is best known for RuneScape, the world's largest free-to-play MMORPG....
, the game's owners, did everything they could to ban the duping users, the duped party hats are still circulating. Due to the fact that the discontinued items, party-hats, were no longer available, the purple party-hat being duped caused it to become the cheapest hat. While its price is still high for an item, it is considered "the noob's party-hat".
When currency is duplicated, it increases the overall amount of money
Money supply
In economics, the money supply or money stock, is the total amount of money available in an economy at a specific time. There are several ways to define "money," but standard measures usually include currency in circulation and demand deposits .Money supply data are recorded and published, usually...
in the virtual economy and increases prices in player-to-player transactions. In a 2005 case of currency duping in EverQuest II
EverQuest II
EverQuest II is a 3D fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game developed by Sony Online Entertainment , based on EverQuest, and shipped on 8 November 2004...
, the game's developers noticed an unexpected 20% rise in the total money found in the economy over a 24 hour period following the dissemination of the dupe. A significant currency dupe in Star Wars Galaxies
Star Wars Galaxies
Star Wars Galaxies is a Star Wars themed MMORPG for Microsoft Windows developed by Sony Online Entertainment and published by LucasArts.-History:...
was found after the designers compared how much money was created versus how much money was destroyed and noted that, despite more money leaving the system than entering, they observed no shortage of money in the virtual world.
Item dupes generally have the opposite effect, causing the price of the duped items to drop as the supply
Supply and demand
Supply and demand is an economic model of price determination in a market. It concludes that in a competitive market, the unit price for a particular good will vary until it settles at a point where the quantity demanded by consumers will equal the quantity supplied by producers , resulting in an...
of that item increases.
In addition to the effects on the game economy, the sudden influx of currency or items also affects players involved in real-money trading. In the EverQuest II case, the dupers attempted to sell the illegitimate currency on Station Exchange
Station Exchange
Station Exchange is the official Sony Online Entertainment auction service that provides players a secure method of buying and selling the right to use in game coin, items and characters in accordance with SOE’s license agreement, rules and guidelines....
for real money and supposedly made over US$70,000 from online auctions. Dupes are highly prized among those involved in real-money trading, and in this form it has been likened to counterfeiting
Counterfeit money
Counterfeit money is currency that is produced without the legal sanction of the state or government to resemble some official form of currency closely enough that it may be confused for genuine currency. Producing or using counterfeit money is a form of fraud or forgery. Counterfeiting is probably...
except with reduced risk.
Response
As with other exploits, a common response to duping is to ban the involved players. Banning players for duping can be controversial though depending on how the game developer determines a player to be "involved" in the dupe. In Star Wars GalaxiesStar Wars Galaxies
Star Wars Galaxies is a Star Wars themed MMORPG for Microsoft Windows developed by Sony Online Entertainment and published by LucasArts.-History:...
some players learned how to dupe the currency. Sony Online Entertainment
Sony Online Entertainment
Sony Online Entertainment is a game development and game publishing division of Sony that is best known for creating massively multiplayer online games, including EverQuest, EverQuest II, The Matrix Online, PlanetSide, Star Wars Galaxies, Free Realms, and Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, DC Universe...
(SOE) banned players who possessed duped currency. It is alleged that people who were not directly involved in the exploit, but who accepted duped currency in legitimate trade were also banned. In reaction to what was perceived to be an unjust punishment, several players joined a mass demonstration
Demonstration (people)
A demonstration or street protest is action by a mass group or collection of groups of people in favor of a political or other cause; it normally consists of walking in a mass march formation and either beginning with or meeting at a designated endpoint, or rally, to hear speakers.Actions such as...
at a central location in the game world. SOE responded to the disruption caused by the large gathering by teleporting
Teleportation
Teleportation is the fictional or imagined process by which matter is instantaneously transferred from one place to another.Teleportation may also refer to:*Quantum teleportation, a method of transmitting quantum data...
all player character
Player character
A player character or playable character is a character in a video game or role playing game who is controlled or controllable by a player, and is typically a protagonist of the story told in the course of the game. A player character is a persona of the player who controls it. Player characters...
s involved away from the demonstration area. A popular online urban legend
Urban legend
An urban legend, urban myth, urban tale, or contemporary legend, is a form of modern folklore consisting of stories that may or may not have been believed by their tellers to be true...
is that many player characters were teleported into space, essentially killing them. Although evidence as to whether or not this occurred cannot be substantiated, it has been voiced in many popular gaming avenues, such as Penny Arcade
Penny Arcade (webcomic)
Penny Arcade is a webcomic focused on video games and video game culture, written by Jerry Holkins and illustrated by Mike Krahulik. The comic debuted in 1998 on the website loonygames.com. Since then, Holkins and Krahulik have established their own site, which is typically updated with a new comic...
.
Another method to mitigate the effects of duping would be a rollback
Rollback (data management)
In database technologies, a rollback is an operation which returns the database to some previous state. Rollbacks are important for database integrity, because they mean that the database can be restored to a clean copy even after erroneous operations are performed...
, in which game data is reset to an earlier data backup prior to the first known instance of duping. This can include all game data or be limited to specific items, characters, or other means determined to be involved in the duping. Significant rollbacks can be a highly unpopular decision with the players and is best done before much time has passed. Similarly, SOE was able to track and remove the duped currency in EverQuest II.
The virtual world designers may find more natural ways to remove the offending currency or items from the game. In Star Wars Galaxies the legitimate economy had been losing money faster than money was being created due to a variety of money sinks. After the dupe bug was fixed and trillions of potentially duped in-game currency deleted, the designers decided to let the economy to continue running at a net loss until the levels could return to normal.
An immediate, although often temporary, step to prevent further issues from duping calls for aspects of the game to be disabled until the exploit can be addressed permanently. SOE stopped Station Exchange auctions to prevent the dupers from selling the illegitimate EverQuest II currency.
Other notable cases
The video game Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II had a duping glitch, which was activated by talking repeatedly with a walking NPC and a merchant. Because the characters and data of the game were saved on memory cards, SEGASega
, usually styled as SEGA, is a multinational video game software developer and an arcade software and hardware development company headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan, with various offices around the world...
could not remove the duping glitch, and the online game was filled with duped items and money.
In the Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
game Forza Motorsport 2
Forza Motorsport 2
Forza Motorsport 2 is a racing video game developed by Turn 10 Studios for the Xbox 360 console. It is the second title in the Forza Motorsport series, and is the sequel to the original Forza Motorsport and is followed by Forza Motorsport 3 .The box art features a tuned Nissan 350Z...
, there was a duping glitch which enabled the player to sell car upgrades they had not yet purchased. By selecting an upgrade, and quickly pressing X, the player is able to have the option to sell the upgrade, without having to buy it first. This caused the Auction House to become flawed, because players who had earned their money via the glitch, were able to out-buy players that only had money they have gotten through races. There is a patch to fix the glitch, but players can still perform it, and transfer the money onto another account.
In the Playstation 3
PlayStation 3
The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
game Gran Turismo 5
Gran Turismo 5
is the fifth edition of the Gran Turismo racing video game series. Developed by Polyphony Digital and published by Sony Computer Entertainment, it was released for PlayStation 3 on November 24, 2010...
, there is another duping glitch that requires two separate PSN accounts to use. On the main account, the player can copy the save file to the game to a USB flash drive, then the player can perform trades to the alternate account. The player then backs up the save on the main account, and makes the trades again to the main account. However, while the amount of trading is unlimited, only one car per game day can be traded, but up to five paints and vehicle upgrades can be traded per game day. This has been used to get high level vehicles from Random 1000 tickets, such as the famous Red Bull X2010 Prototype, and Level 21-24 tickets while
gasoline prices continue to gain during the fluxuation.