The Duplication scandal, commonly referred to as the duping of pets, was an incident that occurred during mid-2021, where several highly valued pets in Overlook Bay started getting duplicated by cheaters through the means of exploits and loopholes. No official statement came from the developers regarding this occurrence, and thus, it is difficult to tell whether this exploit has been patched by now, or if it even existed.
Perpetrator[]
It is believed by a majority of the community that there was one main person carrying out these acts, a user that joined Roblox just a few months before the incident. Since pets in Overlook Bay have tags on them that display the name of their original owner, it was quickly discovered that a large number of mythic Rainbow Shiny and Shiny pets belonged to this person in the past, which led to the community assuming that they would be the player behind these actions. According to the experiences of many players, these duplicated items were further distributed amongst members of the community, which could have been either normal players, or just alternative accounts looking to trade these pets further to legitimate members of the community.[1][2][3]
It has been reportedly believed that this player has been infinitely banned from accessing Overlook Bay due to their actions, though no official statements have been given out by the developers.
Victims[]
Lady Bugs, Mermaids, and Celebration Dragons were mainly targeted during this scandal, where the rainbow shiny version of these pets were being distributed among members of the community via the means of alternative accounts. Players were being offered a ridiculous or unbelievable amounts of pets in exchange for minute items as a way to reel them into accepting the duplicated pets.[4] These occurrences caused widespread panic amongst the community where members were constantly vigilant while trading. Eventually, due to the supply of these pets increasing more than their demand, their apparent "demand" fell, and they were constantly overlooked upon due to this misconduct. It has been vaguely stated by several community members that these duplicated pets were not entirely removed from the game due to logistical errors, but there is no proof suggesting this statement to be true.
Outcomes[]
This duplication scandal went on for months, and led to many mythic and desirable pets being duplicated and distributed amongst players and alternative accounts. It led to a widespread panic among the community which eventually made Wonder Works Studio step in to resolve the issue by taking strict measures. On September 1, 2021, the gifting feature was removed from Overlook Bay and the Post Office eventually became a defunct area of the map on September 17, 2021. Although the reason to this was never properly justified or disclosed by any developer, it is widely believed that the duplication exploit was based around somehow loopholing the gifting system into changing the values of the gifts that a player receives, which would have led to multiple instances of the same pet being created over and over again, thus, implying the effect of potential "duplication".
Notes[]
- Generally, players that heavily exploit a game get their account(s) terminated on Roblox. However, the player, who reportedly caused this whole "scandal" to occur has not had their account(s) terminated, which also makes granting them the status of the person that exploited Overlook Bay to duplicate pets questionable and debatable.
- The developers not making any official statements relating to this may also summarize the fact that this may have been caused due to a bug or a glitch. Which means that no actual exploit may have taken place at all.
- The gifting system may not have been permanently removed from the game and Wonder Works Studio might be considering to rework it to prevent any further incidents such as this one.
- It is believed that duplicated mythic pets did not give the player any boosts, such as Luck boosts from the Celebration Dragon, fish and fishing XP boost while fishing with the Mermaid equipped, etc.
References[]
