Duping (gaming)
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Duping refers to the practice of using a bug in a
video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...
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, often hundreds or thousands, on the same server. MMOs usually feature a huge, persistent open world, although there are ...
. Duping can vastly destabilize a
virtual economy 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 th ...
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 general price level of goods and services in an economy. When the general price level rises, each unit of currency buys fewer goods and services; consequently, inflation corresponds to a reduct ...
and conversely item dupes cause the item to lose value. On 7 November 2003 in the MMORPG ''
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; it was lar ...
'', 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 Jagex Limited is a British video game developer and publisher based at the Cambridge Science Park in Cambridge, England. It is best known for ''RuneScape'' and ''Old School RuneScape'', both free-to-play massively multiplayer online role-play ...
, 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'' was a ''Star Wars'' themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) for Microsoft Windows, developed by Sony Online Entertainment and published by LucasArts. Released on June 26, 2003, to much critical ac ...
'' 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 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 in confidenc ...
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 emergence, emergent economics, economy existing in a virtual world, usually exchanging virtual goods in the context of an online game, particularly in massively multiplayer online games (M ...
. In the ''EverQuest II'' case, the dupers attempted to sell the illegitimate currency on
Station Exchange 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 ...
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.


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'' was a ''Star Wars'' themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) for Microsoft Windows, developed by Sony Online Entertainment and published by LucasArts. Released on June 26, 2003, to much critical ac ...
'' 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 characters involved away from the demonstration area. A popular online
urban legend An urban legend (sometimes contemporary legend, modern legend, urban myth, or urban tale) is a genre of folklore comprising stories or fallacious claims circulated as true, especially as having happened to a "friend of a friend" or a family m ...
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 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, w ...
, 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 ''Phantasy Star Online'' is an online role-playing video game, role-playing game (RPG) developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega in 2000 for the Dreamcast. It was the first Online game, online RPG for Video game console, game consoles; playe ...
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 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 original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generati ...
game
Forza Motorsport 2 ''Forza Motorsport 2'' is a 2007 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) and was followed ...
, 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 The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on November 11, 2006, in Japan, November ...
game
Gran Turismo 5 is a 2010 racing video game developed by Polyphony Digital and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was released for the PlayStation 3 on November 24, 2010 in Europe and North America, and November 25, 2010 in Japan and Australasia, and ...
, 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 fluctuation.


See also

*
Cheating in video games Cheating in video games involves a video game player using various methods to create an advantage beyond normal gameplay, usually in order to make the game easier. Cheats may be activated from within the game itself (a cheat code implemented by ...
*
Cheat cartridge Cheating in video games involves a video game player using various methods to create an advantage beyond normal gameplay, usually in order to make the game easier. Cheats may be activated from within the game itself (a cheat code implemented by ...
*
Missingno. , short for "Missing Number" and sometimes spelled without the period, is an unofficial Pokémon species found in the video games ''Pokémon Red'' and ''Blue''. Due to the programming of certain in-game events, players can encounter MissingNo. ...


References

{{reflist Video game culture Cheating in video games