Anyone who has spent any serious time on an online game has likely encountered a particular type of gaming loser: the players who use glitches and exploits to improve their records or levels at the expense of less important considerations like actually playing the game and having fun with with. While nearly every online sports game has its share of potential cheats, loopholes, and questionably shady options available to exploit, with developers and gamers seeking to shut them as effectively as possible, some prove to be harder to fix or can lead to significant ranking disruption before a fix is found.
The online world for Undisputed saw one of the more infuriating glitches imaginable, which, when applied to a game that is not on an annual release cycle, can lead to some highly frustrating levels of record manipulation. Using the surrender glitch allowed gamers to fully manipulate their records, as it resulted in an issue where surrendered matches were actually recorded as wins for the losing fighter. This allowed players to load into a game, get a feel for how they thought the match would go, and, if the answer wasn’t one they liked, bail on the bout not just without consequence but with the same reward on their record as if they had won.
While this was not a totally perfect exploit, as it did not provide the requisite ranking boosts that come with an actual win — meaning you could encounter players with sterling records in the lower depths of ranked play — it was still one of several sources of ranking and record frustration for players.
The long release cycle of the game is a boon for gamers who do not have to buy a new game full price every year to remain in the most active online meta. But it also means players hanging onto results that are so long in the past, they caused some frustration for digital boxers who have moved past their early online struggles. With these considerations in mind, the official accounts across social media for the game held a poll to determine whether the time had come for a full record reset.
After a day of polling, with more than 10,000 votes cast across all platforms, the fan response was loud and clear, and Undisputed will be listening. When the Championship Edition releases on October 28, it will come with a “grand record reset,” which sees all players having their online records reset across quick fight, ranked, and leaderboards. This will allow new players to have a fresh start on par with the existing gamers and also remove any evidence of prior manipulation from the records of players who used exploits to pad their stats even more than real-world future stars building their numbers on the local scene.
Do you agree with the call, or would you rather have seen records remain into the next edition’s release?
