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Earning Trophies on 3rd Party, Independently Revived PSN Game Servers


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3 hours ago, Sergen said:

I'm looking for the opinions of people who use this website regarding this matter. Most specifically the owner of the website: @Sly Ripper

 

So... I've recently seen that there is a person who was capable of independently restoring the online servers for Bulletstorm, a game that was shut down in 2014. Here is a thread on PlayStationtrophies.org where it was being discussed: https://www.playstationtrophies.org/forum/bulletstorm/323404-anarchy-anyone.html

 

Now, nobody on this website has currently been flagged and said in their dispute "I connected to a revived server for this game" and the person on PlayStationtrophies who made that thread has confirmed that simply connecting to a DNS server that has been made for that game can allow people online. 

 

Currently, it seems like anyone who goes online for Bulletstorm with the revived server still needs to fulfil the requirements for the trophies legitimately and the exploit they use simply tricks the game into thinking it is communicating with Gamespy's servers which have no communication to the PSN Servers. 

 

I did try to look through the ToS of PSN to see if inputting DNS addresses into your console was prohibited in any way and nothing came up with a ctrl + F and search for "DNS", meaning that for someone to simply use a publicly available DNS code and connect to a server that someone else has revived would not be a bannable offence on PSN. 

 

The only rule that currently constitutes a flag on this website regarding online gameplay is "Joining hacked multiplayer lobbies that auto-unlock trophies", but not "playing online on a game that was once shut down and earning the trophies through legitimate play". While I do think white-listing should be applied for games with a modded lobby that auto-pop trophies, a lot of the argument I've seen for not white-listing it is the fact that someone could ask a modder to do it and that you also need to have come into contact with a modder. When you connect to PSN and use a revived server, you would only need to use a DNS code if someone else did all the work getting the game back up and running and you don't need to meet that person or come into contact with them, the information could be publicly available. 

 

Personally, I do not think people should be flagged if they play a game in any way and still earn the trophies legitimately. People have used exploits for various games that require you to change DNS settings to exploit a trophy, the most notable example being Aliens vs Predator which allows people to get the XP based trophies within seconds with various changes to internet settings. I've also seen on the trophy guide for Dissidia Final Fantasy NT the promoted method for achieving the A++ trophies easily is to change the MTU setting to create a bad connection which gets you paired up with AI instead of a human player, this is an exploit of internet connection to gain a trophy, just like if someone were to input specific DNS codes to play a game online. 

 

Thousands, if not millions of people use Google's public DNS to connect to PSN and improve their connection speed and the Google DNS is run with external software, but nobody has ever been flagged for declaring that they use Google's public DNS to play online. 

 

Previously, xLinkKai was declared as "not cheating" if it was used to earn trophies and that is a software that you must download in order to play games online through the LAN option with people worldwide: 

I want this to be discussed before people start being flagged for this, because you can't really go back on thousands of flags. I do think a fair way of implementing it would be that anyone who earns trophies on a revived server also has to record a video or take a picture/screenshot of some of the trophies unlocking, to at least show they had been playing the online for the game legitimately. 

Would really if something like section 8 both verson. Or even better fear 2 

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12 minutes ago, demonviper666 said:

Would really if something like section 8 both verson. Or even better fear 2 

 

FEAR 2 is mine and Sergen's main desire for revival too. In fact, I believe it is one of the most community-wide desired revivals of any shut servers. It would all be possible thanks to this new development. FEAR 2, Section 8s, Unreal tournament 3 etc etc could all be possible again due to this. 

Edited by Potent_Delusions
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@Sergen You already contacted me about this, and I told you that I was talking with other staff about this. You didn't need to make this thread and create a lot of drama around it.

 

This is what I posted elsewhere:

 

Quote

So recently a lot of people have been working on making custom servers for a lot of games, especially relevant is the ones where the official servers have gone down.

 

If people earn online trophies for games where the official servers are down, and they do it using software on PC, is this okay? I wouldn't think it would be okay. While a vanilla server might look innocent, what happens when they start modding it? Isn't it already modding? Is it available for everyone? Same goes for when people earn trophies too fast for what is possible when the servers are down?

 

I see more and more of this, and while I think it's great people get to keep playing the online if they want to, I don't think earning trophies using these servers should be okay. Furthermore, I wonder where this will go when it comes to newer games and modded servers etc. Also, what happens when they don't wanna share server code and keep the server private?

 

Thoughts?

 

 

And IMO, you can do it all you want, but it's using mods and independent custom software etc, it's hacks. I told you pretty explicitly you risk getting flagged if you do this.

 

I even showed Sergen this post before he posted this thread. *smh*

 

8 minutes ago, Potent_Delusions said:

 

FEAR 2 is mine and Sergen's main desire for revival too. In fact, I believe it is one of the most community-wide desired revivals of any shut servers. It would all be possible thanks to this new development. FEAR 2, Section 8s, Unreal tournament 3 etc etc could all be possible again due to this. 

 

Go ahead, have fun, play FEAR 2 if you like with custom servers, but the official servers are down, and you'd be running hacks/mods to do this, so you risk getting flagged for it.

 

And what Sergen talk about is pretty dishonest, as I explained it to him pretty clearly. It's not just changing DNS servers. You'd have to set up custom servers, which is nothing like the original. In the case of FEAR 2, was it even peer to peer, or was it all running on dedicated?

 

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4 minutes ago, MMDE said:

@Sergen You already contacted me about this, and I told you that I was talking with other staff about this. You didn't need to make this thread and create a lot of drama around it.

 

This is what I posted elsewhere:

 

 

 

And IMO, you can do it all you want, but it's using mods and independent custom software etc, it's hacks. I told you pretty explicitly you risk getting flagged if you do this.

 

 

Go ahead, have fun, play FEAR 2 if you like with custom servers, but the official servers are down, and you'd be running hacks/mods to do this, so you risk getting flagged for it.

 

And what Sergen talk about is pretty dishonest, as I explained it to him pretty clearly. It's not just changing DNS servers. You'd have to set up custom servers, which is nothing like the original. In the case of FEAR 2, was it even peer to peer, or was it all running on dedicated?

 

I hope you change your mind because the response in here seems to be overwhelmingly in favor of allowing this given the trophies are earned legitimately (even with video evidence if necessary). You are earning the trophies legitimately and the server hosting has no effect on the earning of the trophies whatsoever. We may as well flag for turbo controllers and boosting if people are going to go down the road of "you're earning trophies in a way they weren't intended" or something.

 

As for the server, I do believe it was a peer to peer server and the only reason the game is unobtainable is because of an authentication server that Gamespy ran. Other than that, it all seemed very basic.

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22 minutes ago, MMDE said:

@Sergen You already contacted me about this, and I told you that I was talking with other staff about this. You didn't need to make this thread and create a lot of drama around it.

 

This is what I posted elsewhere:

 

 

 

And IMO, you can do it all you want, but it's using mods and independent custom software etc, it's hacks. I told you pretty explicitly you risk getting flagged if you do this.

 

 

Go ahead, have fun, play FEAR 2 if you like with custom servers, but the official servers are down, and you'd be running hacks/mods to do this, so you risk getting flagged for it.

 

And what Sergen talk about is pretty dishonest, as I explained it to him pretty clearly. It's not just changing DNS servers. You'd have to set up custom servers, which is nothing like the original. In the case of FEAR 2, was it even peer to peer, or was it all running on dedicated?

 

The person who joins a revived server would only need to put a DNS code into their console. I'd like you to explain why it is declared legitimate for people to use xLinkKai to play LAN with people across the world, while using a revived server and playing online wouldn't be considered legit? Everyone who plays with xLinkKai actually needs to be running the external software on their PC to connect with each other and play the game. People were earning the online co-op trophy on Borderlands when the servers were closed and to do that without having earned the trophy before, they needed to either use someone else's save file on an alt then use 2 PS3s to play the game or they needed to get help from someone who earned the trophy before them and connect to them through xLinkKai. Nobody ever got flagged for Borderlands for using xLinkKai during the server shutdown period, although people intentionally used xLinkKai to connect two PS3s worldwide with external software after the servers had shut down. 

 

FEAR 2 was peer to peer, heck from what a lot of people said even firing a bullet in a match that had a lot of people would make it lag or freeze people's consoles. People boost trophies all the time, no trophy has ever been flagged due to people modifying their network settings on any device to get online on a game in a specific way. There are endorsed methods that are universally accepted on trophy sites that require people to use specific DNS settings. Custom DNS is allowed on PSN and none of it is against the PSN ToS. 

 

I don't know why you're so against this, especially when people would be playing and getting the trophies legitimately, before people start being flagged for it out of nowhere and told that they weren't supposed to do what they did, it needs to be discussed and some regulations need to be applied. I think if someone can prove they were playing the game in a fair manner and unlocks trophies, they shouldn't be flagged. The rules shouldn't be bent over the fact that YOU don't like this idea, you've been the only person who cried out against the idea on this entire thread. A rule against this doesn't exist yet and I personally think what should truly be considered is the community opinion as a whole, because it is something that will benefit more of the community than anything else, considering it is allowing currently unobtainable trophies to be obtainable once again through legitimately fulfilling the requirements that the game expected and most importantly it isn't in breach of any rules in the PSN ToS. 

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3 hours ago, Sergen said:

I'm looking for the opinions of people who use this website regarding this matter. Most specifically the owner of the website: @Sly Ripper

 

No, you weren't. As I already gave you an answer in PM, and I told you I already forwarded it to be discussed with staff like Sly. So this is just bs. You did this to create some kind of motion and sway other people's opinion to affect Sly's decision.

 

 

3 hours ago, Sergen said:

So... I've recently seen that there is a person who was capable of independently restoring the online servers for Bulletstorm, a game that was shut down in 2014. Here is a thread on PlayStationtrophies.org where it was being discussed: https://www.playstationtrophies.org/forum/bulletstorm/323404-anarchy-anyone.html

 

Now, nobody on this website has currently been flagged and said in their dispute "I connected to a revived server for this game" and the person on PlayStationtrophies who made that thread has confirmed that simply connecting to a DNS server that has been made for that game can allow people online. 

 

Currently, it seems like anyone who goes online for Bulletstorm with the revived server still needs to fulfil the requirements for the trophies legitimately and the exploit they use simply tricks the game into thinking it is communicating with Gamespy's servers which have no communication to the PSN Servers.

 

I did try to look through the ToS of PSN to see if inputting DNS addresses into your console was prohibited in any way and nothing came up with a ctrl + F and search for "DNS", meaning that for someone to simply use a publicly available DNS code and connect to a server that someone else has revived would not be a bannable offence on PSN.  

 

This is false. We're not just talking about changing DNS server. All a DNS server does is tell you were to find a certain domain (url). Nah, what they do is run software they've written and runs on a PC, and they use this to communicate with your game and do whatever they want with it. This is a rather huge can of worms you want to open up, and you present it pretty dishonestly as just changing DNS, when we're talking about mods and custom servers etc.

 

No, you're not connecting to Gamespy's servers. You're connecting to some custom software running on some PC. In fact, what you link to is a project called "gonespy", that is intended to run on a PC to pretend to be gamespy servers. This has nothing to do with DNS servers, so you won't find it in the Sony ToS. I'm also questioning how much Sony actually like you doing this, as they barely allowed mods in Skyrim etc.

 

 

3 hours ago, Sergen said:

Personally, I do not think people should be flagged if they play a game in any way and still earn the trophies legitimately. People have used exploits for various games that require you to change DNS settings to exploit a trophy, the most notable example being Aliens vs Predator which allows people to get the XP based trophies within seconds with various changes to internet settings. I've also seen on the trophy guide for Dissidia Final Fantasy NT the promoted method for achieving the A++ trophies easily is to change the MTU setting to create a bad connection which gets you paired up with AI instead of a human player, this is an exploit of internet connection to gain a trophy, just like if someone were to input specific DNS codes to play a game online. 

 

Thousands, if not millions of people use Google's public DNS to connect to PSN and improve their connection speed and the Google DNS is run with external software, but nobody has ever been flagged for declaring that they use Google's public DNS to play online. 

 

Previously, xLinkKai was declared as "not cheating" if it was used to earn trophies and that is a software that you must download in order to play games online through the LAN option with people worldwide: 

I want this to be discussed before people start being flagged for this, because you can't really go back on thousands of flags. I do think a fair way of implementing it would be that anyone who earns trophies on a revived server also has to record a video or take a picture/screenshot of some of the trophies unlocking, to at least show they had been playing the online for the game legitimately. 

 

What people did with Aliens vs Predator I'm not sure, but it sounds like they made themselves connect to an official server a bit further away from where they live, so they got extra latency. My guess is, if the devs cared, they might have banned you from the online for doing this. At least this is what you explain you do in DFFNT, and this might end pretty badly when Square is involved IMO. If what they did in Aliens vs Predator was to connect to a custom server that just gives them tons of exp, then yeah, this is definitely cheating and you should be flagged for it. If what they did was basically just connect to a piece of software that "greeted" the game the way it was expecting, just to give you ton of exp for nothing, I think you get this is cheating. People have done this in various fighting games too, send packets to the game so it thinks you earned/won a lot of stuff you haven't. And yeah, this is what you can do with custom servers, which is why it's not okay. Again, it's not just changing DNS server, it's the fact that you run it on a custom server.

 

16 minutes ago, Sergen said:

 

The person who joins a revived server would only need to put a DNS code into their console. I'd like you to explain why it is declared legitimate for people to use xLinkKai to play LAN with people across the world, while using a revived server and playing online wouldn't be considered legit? Everyone who plays with xLinkKai actually needs to be running the external software on their PC to connect with each other and play the game. People were earning the online co-op trophy on Borderlands when the servers were closed and to do that without having earned the trophy before, they needed to either use someone else's save file on an alt then use 2 PS3s to play the game or they needed to get help from someone who earned the trophy before them and connect to them through xLinkKai. Nobody ever got flagged for Borderlands for using xLinkKai during the server shutdown period, although people intentionally used xLinkKai to connect two PS3s worldwide with external software after the servers had shut down. 

 

FEAR 2 was peer to peer, heck from what a lot of people said even firing a bullet in a match that had a lot of people would make it lag or freeze people's consoles. People boost trophies all the time, no trophy has ever been flagged due to people modifying their network settings on any device to get online on a game in a specific way. There are endorsed methods that are universally accepted on trophy sites that require people to use specific DNS settings. Custom DNS is allowed on PSN and none of it is against the PSN ToS. 

 

I don't know why you're so against this, especially when people would be playing and getting the trophies legitimately, before people start being flagged for it out of nowhere and told that they weren't supposed to do what they did, it needs to be discussed and some regulations need to be applied. I think if someone can prove they were playing the game in a fair manner and unlocks trophies, they shouldn't be flagged. The rules shouldn't be bent over the fact that YOU don't like this idea, you've been the only person who cried out against the idea on this entire thread. A rule against this doesn't exist yet and I personally think what should truly be considered is the community opinion as a whole, because it is something that will benefit more of the community than anything else, considering it is allowing currently unobtainable trophies to be obtainable once again through legitimately fulfilling the requirements that the game expected and most importantly it isn't in breach of any rules in the PSN ToS. 

 

If the game has a LAN option, that is fine. I think Supercar Challenge has this too. You're comparing apples to trucks, and I've told you so in PM, so I feel this is getting kinda dishonest from your part.

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2 minutes ago, itachi-destroyer said:

If you are not bending the rules, you are not cheating.

 

Well, that is the issue. You're running your games on custom software, which may do whatever the person who writes the code running on the server wants to. Sergen is currently presenting it as something entirely different than what it is, and he knows this, because I already told him so in PM before he posted this thread.

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6 minutes ago, MMDE said:

If the game has a LAN option, that is fine. I think Supercar Challenge has this too. You're comparing apples to trucks, and I've told you so in PM, so I feel this is getting kinda dishonest from your part.

 

I always believe multiple people commenting on a topic is more important than one. Here's the thing, xLinkKai tricks a game into thinking that you are playing in LAN at your current location while you're actually running an external software on your PC with another person and playing with them although they're far away from you and what that guy did for Bulletstorm is trick the game into thinking it was running Gamespy's servers. How are they not basically the same thing? They all require you currently to achieve the trophies legitimately and if anyone who uses a revived server plays the game while proving they have legitimately earned the trophies, they shouldn't be flagged because flagging should only apply to cheated/modded trophies. 

 

You never know if people also use xLinkKai to play through LAN and cheat with a modder, but it's still declared as a legitimate means of earning a trophy. As far as I'm concerned, it's not against the PSN ToS so it shouldn't be against this website's rules. 

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27 minutes ago, Potent_Delusions said:

As for the server, I do believe it was a peer to peer server and the only reason the game is unobtainable is because of an authentication server that Gamespy ran. Other than that, it all seemed very basic.

 

What the servers for most peer to peer games did was basically just listing games to easier connect and avoid having to open ports etc. This is true, but they may also have done other things, and what about those games were this isn't the case?

6 minutes ago, Sergen said:

 

I always believe multiple people commenting on a topic is more important than one. Here's the thing, xLinkKai tricks a game into thinking that you are playing in LAN at your current location while you're actually running an external software on your PC with another person and playing with them although they're far away from you and what that guy did for Bulletstorm is trick the game into thinking it was running Gamespy's servers. How are they not basically the same thing? They all require you currently to achieve the trophies legitimately and if anyone who uses a revived server plays the game while proving they have legitimately earned the trophies, they shouldn't be flagged because flagging should only apply to cheated/modded trophies. 

 

You never know if people also use xLinkKai to play through LAN and cheat with a modder, but it's still declared as a legitimate means of earning a trophy. As far as I'm concerned, it's not against the PSN ToS so it shouldn't be against this website's rules. 

 

I already told you that I posted it someplace where multiple people could comment on it.

 

Extending a local network is not the same as emulating a server. 

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7 minutes ago, SnowxSakura said:

The only problem I can see with this is it would be hard to differentiate with people that actually boost it and people that use CFW to achieve the same desired outcome 

 

I think if someone could get onto a revived server once, they could do it again so the best course of action ideally would be for them to prove that they got some of the trophies legitimately. Of course, some trophies are kind of difficult to catch the exact moment of the trophy unlocking e.g. F.E.A.R. 2 has a trophy for playing 8 hours worth of ranked multiplayer but it only counts time that is played in a match. If the game in particular does save people's stats, that would be a thing worth bringing up if the person is flagged and wants to dispute it, but mainly if the person can play the online modes and demonstrate legitimately earning some trophies, they should be unflagged in my opinion. 

 

Also, I'd like to say that I thought flagging was also something that took people off the leaderboards for not only cheating trophies unfairly, but also to award the people who legitimately earned their trophies by not letting their hard work go to waste over people who hack the trophies. As it currently stands, it actually takes more effort to revive a server and play on it than it did to actually get those trophies when the servers were working in the past. 

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2 minutes ago, I-SilentEcho-I said:

This is the beginning of something that all of us trophy hunters have desired for years; a way to legitimately earn trophies that were made unobtainable due to server closures. So many people will be able to go back and finish thier games that they thought would remain on thier profile unfinished. In my opinion this isn't just a good thing, it's a great thing.

 

As you say, the servers were closed. What they are doing is writing their own servers... Imagine the servers being private or it just giving you all of what is required for a trophy to pop? Do you honestly consider this legitimate way to earn the trophies? :S 

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As much as it would be great to play these games again, and get the plats for them it is not worth being flagged for it.

 

as the powers-that-be are against it - I guess there’s no hope. Maybe a vote to see the stats would be a good idea?

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18 minutes ago, Elvick_ said:


Uh, what drama? People are just talking about it. That's not dramatic.

 

Well, he did start this to get everyone to talk about it, even if he claims what he did it for was mainly to contact Sly about it, which I already did, and he knew that. So this was to get people excited about it and more or less force Sly etc. I think that's drama. He also presented it incorrectly, after I already corrected him about it several times. At least @Potent_Delusions seems to understand this better.

5 minutes ago, Hogie838 said:

As much as it would be great to play these games again, and get the plats for them it is not worth being flagged for it.

 

as the powers-that-be are against it - I guess there’s no hope. Maybe a vote to see the stats would be a good idea?

 

I think if any of this should be allowed, it should at least be discussed what is allowed. What Sergen presented in this thread is very misleading. He talks about changing what domain server you contact to know where various web sites are located etc, and extending a local network (LAN) AKA a VPN, with software written by some player running on some PC to emulate a server.

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3 minutes ago, MMDE said:

 

As you say, the servers were closed. What they are doing is writing their own servers... Imagine the servers being private or it just giving you all of what is required for a trophy to pop? Do you honestly consider this legitimate way to earn the trophies? :S 

You have no way of knowing that's what they would be. If people earn the trophies legitimately on these servers regardless of whether they're custom or not, they were earned the way they were intended to be earned. Your argument becomes moot if the people behind the revival have no intention of using them to do what you say they will. 

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7 minutes ago, MMDE said:

 

As you say, the servers were closed. What they are doing is writing their own servers... Imagine the servers being private or it just giving you all of what is required for a trophy to pop? Do you honestly consider this legitimate way to earn the trophies? :S 

 

That's why I believe the regulation should be for people to provide some evidence showing that they could get online and do some trophies for the game, if they could get on the server once then they can do it again. You are currently arguing against people playing a game in the way it was intended because one person has to use a various means to allow other people to connect. People also wrote xLinkKai as a software that does something that wasn't intended by your console, play a LAN mode with people who are across the world. You actually MUST run the xLinkKai software on your own PC as you are playing the game and the other person must do that and anyone playing in your lobby also needs to do that, it is manipulating external software to play online, while this website still considers that as a legitimate means of earning trophies. 

 

I'd also like to mention that some people also used patch blockers for various online games to play an older version of the online, sometimes to use glitches that were patched, like people who wanted to grind XP quickly for Crysis 2 would all use a patch blocker to play online. But although people did that, I have yet to see a single person get flagged for using a patch blocker to exploit an online glitch. 

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2 hours ago, joskeabzu said:

Also putting in " a feature, that you call it", but not allowing it sounds incredible dumb.

Let's face it, I love Sony but they would be one of the first console manufactures to do something like that.  

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8 minutes ago, MMDE said:

 

Bueno, comenzó esto para que todos lo comentaran, incluso si afirma que lo que hizo fue principalmente para contactar a Sly al respecto, cosa que ya hice, y él lo sabía. Así que esto fue para entusiasmar a la gente y forzar más o menos a Sly, etc. Creo que eso es drama. También lo presenció incorrectamente, después de que ya lo corregí varias veces. Al menos @Potent_Delusions  parece entender esto mejor.

eliminated, because my English is not understandable. I am sorry.

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9 minutes ago, Sergen said:

I'd also like to mention that some people also used patch blockers for various online games to play an older version of the online, sometimes to use glitches that were patched, like people who wanted to grind XP quickly for Crysis 2 would all use a patch blocker to play online. But although people did that, I have yet to see a single person get flagged for using a patch blocker to exploit an online glitch. 

 

 

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And it's easy to know who made use of it. Just look at the forums.

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