Elite: Dangerous and the game within the game (or why 13th Legion are heroes)

MissMeYet

M
Something just clicked today. Remember the WannaCry ransomware attack last month? It was made possible because the NSA had a store of Microsoft zero-day exploits that were leaked, and bad people used them. OK...bear with me...

The 13th Legion had their own zero-day exploit for Engineering G5 components using G1 materials. It was "leaked" maybe by someone disgruntled with the group, similar to the NSA leak. FD had no idea about the exploit, just like Microsoft had no idea, until the NSA let them in on the secret about a month before the exploit made it onto a listserve. Now FD knows, and is developing a fix.

So, not everyone will appreciate this, but in its own way the Elite: Dangerous world of 3303 is a very good representation of our real 2017, and I respect that. I don't really like it, and the folks affected by WannaCry probably feel the same way, but luckily this is just a game and no one is getting hurt.

Cheers
 

Shadowdancer

Shadowdancer
You are lauding an extralegal organisation putting people at risk on a global scale through negligent handling of vulnerabilities and a total failure of security. If I were you, I'd see to have my morals and values inspected.

Weren't the 13th Legion also the fellows getting coverage for their rather swastika-adorned and definitely not Buddhist TS server?
 
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Arthur Shappey

Arthur Shappey
Hercules said:
Something just clicked today. Remember the WannaCry ransomware attack last month? It was made possible because the NSA had a store of Microsoft zero-day exploits that were leaked, and bad people used them. OK...bear with me...

The 13th Legion had their own zero-day exploit for Engineering G5 components using G1 materials. It was "leaked" maybe by someone disgruntled with the group, similar to the NSA leak. FD had no idea about the exploit, just like Microsoft had no idea, until the NSA let them in on the secret about a month before the exploit made it onto a listserve. Now FD knows, and is developing a fix.

So, not everyone will appreciate this, but in its own way the Elite: Dangerous world of 3303 is a very good representation of our real 2017, and I respect that. I don't really like it, and the folks affected by WannaCry probably feel the same way, but luckily this is just a game and no one is getting hurt.

Cheers
Click to expand...

You are right that there are some similarities. Humans are humans after all, and groups of humans (as they get larger) tend towards common behaviours - as crowd modelling demonstrates time & time again.

But I don't think the scale or stakes entirely warrant comparison.

What it does expose is that perhaps FDev should improve on transparency of what other players are up to across the galaxy. How many assets have been accumulated, how much money has been earned, how quickly, how far travelled, how many top-5% mods have been applied and so on.

Because, surely the lesson from Wannacry, is that secrecy was the heart of the problem?
 

Ziggy Stardust

Ziggy Stardust
They'd be good community folk if they'd alerted this exploit before making use of it for a year. That would show they'd care for a better game. As it is, they're pretty damn far from heroes, seeing how they made sure they were the only ones profiting for it and never gave a second thought about the state of the game or players outside of their little sowing circle.

They're regular selfish human beings. As so many of us are.
 
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Deareim

Deareim
Let's be honest - and I will be - . If I would not be in Colonia actually, I would do it. No need to be hypocrite.
 
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MissMeYet

M
Arthur Shappey said:
Because, surely the lesson from Wannacry, is that secrecy was the heart of the problem?
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I agree 100% with this. If the NSA had let Microsoft in on the threat, say after a period of time when the NSA used the exploit for its own purposes, then wannacry would not have happened and life would be better for thousands of people. That didn't happen. 13th Legion could have used the exploit until their ships were 200% max Engineer, then let FD in on the problem. That didn't happen either, just like in real life. Cool.
 

MissMeYet

M
Rubbernuke said:
Its not being heroic in any sense holding onto this secret. Report them as you see them and not exploit it.
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The "heroic" thing is that 13th Legion is actually behaving like the secret organization it is. It's not the Elite: Dangerous version of the NSA, but when they get ahold of an advantage, like the NSA they hold onto it. And then it leaks, like things have been leaking from the NSA for the past 4 years. And then script kiddies build wannacry, and Microsoft issues patches. Like every Elite player is rushing to test the exploit, and FD is developing a fix.
 
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iFred

I
Erm... there were a lot more people aware of this bug, some had the balls not to use it and just reported it... others didn´t...

But that´s always a risk in an online game. The difference to other online games is that nobody cares and nobody was affected by it. I don´t care if an SDC´s ship goes 3 ly more on a jump or not, because I will never see these guys ingame. And there´s no "save the princess"-scenario they could complete sooner than I can. So nothing has happened, except they missed the fun of gathering materials.

Well. Fun I said.

*runs*
 

Theodrid

Theodrid
Heroes? - no, been given a free pass along with like-minded groups and individuals to exploit the hell out of the next meta exploit? - yes.

Frontier lack the will, possibly the ability and almost certainly the meatballs to do what virtually every other developer does with exploiters. Rollbacks combined with temporary and/or permanent bans where appropriate are needed, place a sticky at the top of these boards listing known exploits and stating that use of them will be punished.
 
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Rubbernuke

Rubbernuke
Hercules said:
The "heroic" thing is that 13th Legion is actually behaving like the secret organization it is. It's not the Elite: Dangerous version of the NSA, but when they get ahold of an advantage, like the NSA they hold onto it.
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I don't give a monkeys about any meta excuse. You have players spending hours to get decent upgrades while others cheat and loop endless G5 rolls for flimsy reasons. Its cheating, pure and simple and it needs to stop, and have players act responsibly and report these bugs.
 

MissMeYet

M
Ziggy Stardust said:
Uhm ... isn't that exactly what they did?
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No, they let the world know about the exploit. They could have sent a very nice email to FD directly, and then a fix is made, and no one knows about what happened. That's what the NSA could have done with their own Microsoft zero-days, but didn't. Instead it was leaked to the world and wannacry happened. Just Like Now. Awesome parallel.
 
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lokvette

lokvette
Hercules said:
The "heroic" thing is that 13th Legion is actually behaving like the secret organization it is. It's not the Elite: Dangerous version of the NSA, but when they get ahold of an advantage, like the NSA they hold onto it. And then it leaks, like things have been leaking from the NSA for the past 4 years.
Click to expand...

Heroic
having the characteristics of a hero or heroine; admirably brave or determined.

Reading anything in the OP makes me believe the group mentioned in the OP in anyway acted in any shape or form heroically, determined maybe but not in the context of a hero in the true sense of the word.
 
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