Duping (gaming)
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Duping refers to the practice of using a bug in a
video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...
to illegitimately create duplicates of unique items or currency in a persistent online game, such as an
MMOG A massively multiplayer online game (MMOG or more commonly MMO) is an online video game with a large number of players to interact in the same online game world. MMOs usually feature a huge, persistent open world, although there are games th ...
. Duping can vastly destabilize a
virtual economy A virtual economy (or sometimes synthetic economy) is an emergence, emergent economy existing in a virtual world, usually exchanging virtual goods in the context of an online game, particularly in massively multiplayer online games (MMOs). Peop ...
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. Duping is usually considered to be a game cheat.


Effects

The effect of duping on a game's economy depends on whether an item or currency was being duplicated and to what degree the duping took place. Currency dupes cause
inflation In economics, inflation is an increase in the average price of goods and services in terms of money. This increase is measured using a price index, typically a consumer price index (CPI). When the general price level rises, each unit of curre ...
and conversely item dupes cause the item to lose value. On 7 November 2003 in the
MMORPG A massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) is a video game that combines aspects of a role-playing video game and a massively multiplayer online game. As in role-playing games (RPGs), the player assumes the role of a Player charac ...
''
RuneScape ''RuneScape'' is a fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed and published by Jagex, released in January 2001. ''RuneScape'' was originally a browser game built with the Java (programming language), Java progr ...
'', an extremely rare item, the Magenta 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 ''EverQuest II'' is a 3D fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) originally developed and published by Sony Online Entertainment for Microsoft Windows PCs and released in November 2004. It is the sequel to the original ...
'', 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'' (''Galaxies'') is a discontinued '' Star Wars-''themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) for Microsoft Windows, developed by Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) and published by LucasArts. The open worl ...
'' 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 or supplies may refer to: *The amount of a resource that is available **Supply (economics), the amount of a product which is available to customers **Materiel, the goods and equipment for a military unit to fulfill its mission *Supply, as ...
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 A virtual economy (or sometimes synthetic economy) is an emergent economy existing in a virtual world, usually exchanging virtual goods in the context of an online game, particularly in massively multiplayer online games (MMOs). People enter t ...
. 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 A counterfeit is a fake or unauthorized replica of a genuine product, such as money, documents, designer items, or other valuable goods. Counterfeiting generally involves creating an imitation of a genuine item that closely resembles the original ...
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 Galaxies ''Star Wars Galaxies'' (''Galaxies'') is a discontinued '' Star Wars-''themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) for Microsoft Windows, developed by Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) and published by LucasArts. The open worl ...
'' some players learned how to dupe the currency.
Sony Online Entertainment Daybreak Game Company LLC is an American video game developer based in San Diego. The company was founded in December 1997 as Sony Online Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Computer Entertainment, but was spun off to an independent investor in ...
(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 A player character (also known as a playable character or PC) is a fictional Character (arts), character in a video game or tabletop role-playing game whose actions are controlled by a player rather than the rules of the game. The characters tha ...
s involved away from the demonstration area. A popular online
urban legend Urban legend (sometimes modern legend, urban myth, or simply legend) is a genre of folklore concerning stories about an unusual (usually scary) or humorous event that many people believe to be true but largely are not. These legends can be e ...
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'' 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 establish ...
''. Another method to mitigate the effects of duping would be a
rollback In political science, rollback is the strategy of forcing a change in the major policies of a state, usually by replacing its ruling regime. It contrasts with containment, which means preventing the expansion of that state; and with détente, ...
, 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. Alternately, 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,
SEGA is a Japanese video game company and subsidiary of Sega Sammy Holdings headquartered in Tokyo. It produces several List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises for arcade game, arcades and video game cons ...
could not remove the duping glitch, and the online game was filled with duped items and money. In the
Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the Xbox (console), original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was officially unveiled on MTV on May 12, 2005, with detail ...
game ''
Forza Motorsport 2 ''Forza Motorsport 2'' is a 2007 sim racing, simulation racing video game developed by Turn 10 Studios for the Xbox 360 console. It is the second title in the ''Forza'' series, and is the sequel to the original ''Forza Motorsport (2005 video game ...
'', 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.


See also

* Cheating in video games * Cheat cartridge * Missingno.


References

{{reflist Cheating in video games Video game culture