Board Thread:Game Discussion/@comment-29746749-20180810171303/@comment-35520790-20180810203147

For exploits, I think it depends on why you play the game. When I run a LM 10-lapper, I’m not doing it for a realistic “racing” challenge (I win every time and can do it while watching TV). I’m doing it to get the resources I need to to keep buying/winning and upgrading cars. When I spend hours chipping away at a WTT it’s a very inefficient way for me to earn gold (because I’m too slow) but it’s super challenging. It’s racing.

Both are unquestionably part of the intended use of the game, so it seems reasonable to surmise that just because something yields resources efficiently and is also simple, boring, or unrealistic it’s not enough to say it shouldn’t be done. If you’re playing for pure challenge and competition then it would be counter-productive for you to do it, but for at least some of us, at some times, there are other reasons and ways to play the game.

That’s not to say that everything technically possible must be allowed, or that it’s ethical. But to play in a way that is purely focused on earning (“that’s not what a racing game is about!”) can’t be disqualified just for that reason.

We have only two good ways to determine what “intended use” includes. The first is that if it’s made impossible by the way the game is coded (and requires a hack to implement) it’s clearly not intended use. The second is to refer to specific rules that FM/EA have published (obscene livery is a good example: it’s possible in terms of how the game is programmed, but not allowed based on their guideline). For anything outside of what is not possible or what they have explicitly said is not allowed, we’re just guessing. And sometimes you guess correctly, but it’s still not the same thing as knowing.

So I would say that if the game is being used in ways that are not intended, it’s up to them to either adjust the code to remove the possibility or clearly state the boundaries. That’s the line that divides their responsibility from ours.