Warframe devs say datamining had to be shut down due to malicious use

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Update June 26, 2017: Warframe lost its main datamining source. Here’s why.

The ongoing saga of what happened to Void_Glitch, the largest datamining source for ever-popular shooter Warframe, continues. In a new statement, live ops and community producer for Digital Extremes Rebecca Ford explains that the way the data was being used became the problem.

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“Unfortunately, recently, this data-mining operation colluded with other parties to reverse engineer the game with the intent to scam trade, forge items, and create third-party servers. Players were about to get caught in the crossfire of tolerated data-mining and malicious use of data-mined information.

“We sought legal counsel when hacking took place and evidence piled up, never before then. We acted to stop the willful and selfish compromising of the game’s code for personal gain. How Digital Extremes decides to share its information is not up to the discretion of lone individuals. More than 35 bans and multiple Cease and Desist letters were sent out to the parties involved in the malicious use of data-mined information.”

She goes on to say that the promised developer-maintained and automated official page for information will be available after the TennoCon community event on July 8. No specific date is given, but she also says they’ll “be working on revealing the damage stats you can’t see (ex. Exalted Weapons) which we may rely on adding to the Wikia (however temporarily) all in the name of empowering our players who value these stats to build as detailed as they want.”

They’ll be announcing when the work to get all this up and running has been finished on their end. Expect more news some time next month.

Update:After posting our story earlier and reaching out to Digital Extremes’ PR team, we were pointed to another Reddit thread by one of their in-house PR people. Posted yesterday, the representative explains their side of it.

In the post, through community manager Rebecca, the company explain that they got the resource taken down due to fear of spoilers.

“For almost three years we turned a blind eye knowing that the parts of the community found value in these [statistics],” Rebecca says. “Then our unreleased quest scripts got datamined which we spoke on in this subreddit – we encouraged people not to read it and continued working on what we hoped would remain a surprise.

“Then Umbra Screenshots and Primed Streamline screenshots appeared. Then we investigated how those things came to be. Then our blind eye was forced to act when our game was being directly affected in extremely dangerous ways.”

She goes on to say that the team are trying to figure out a way to show the numbers, perhaps via a Wikia. This will be a good faith move to show they don’t have sinister intentions such as hiding ridiculous odds. Still, the spoilers thing is a strange excuse, since even games as big as GTA Online and Overwatch suffer from datamined spoilers.

Since that post, VoiD_Glitch has posted their own response.

“Is there any way that we could come to a compromise on which information is allowed to be published on GitHub and which information is not? You must understand that the only reason I ever uploaded those files in the first place was because Warframe, the game itself, failed to outline or explain such information,” he says.

“Maybe uploading Languages.bin is it a bit excessive, but there is mass desire for DropTables and MissionDecks as I am told. Under your legal constraint, I cannot actually upload without fear of a lawsuit, but I only do this to help the community, not to damage your game or to slander your company.”

As VoiD_Glitch points out after, the creator was not responsible for the story leaks, though they feel like they’re being punished for it regardless. They are hoping to start a dialogue with the developers on the subject.

We haven’t heard back from the PR team yet, but we did get this reassurance from the support team that the conversation isn’t over.

Original Story: Digital Extremes have seemingly sent a letter to the creator of one of Warframe’s most popular community resources, resulting in it being shut down. The Void_Glitch Repository was used by thousands of players to track RNG stats, loot probability, and more.

In a post from the website creator, via 4Chan, VoiD_Glitch says, “Yes, I deleted the repository. I talked to some friends about the decision beforehand (this wasn’t just me having a crazy thought then pulling the plug) and they told me it was safer to actually follow the letter’s instructions than to abstain from handling the information. So, for now at least, the information won’t be up.”

The Warframe community aren’t happy with this as they argue this information should be readily available so players know their odds.

As oneRedditor points out, at one point, Kubrow Eggs wouldn’t give a special item if found – there was only a chance of obtaining the item if the eggs were purchased. The community figured this out via datamining, the same process that builds the resource. Without that datamining this issue would have lingered.

We’ve been in touch with Digital Extremes and are expecting an official response later.