So since the beginning of July, we were tipped off to a player who had been committing a series of exploits with the Meeroos. We had been conducting a stealth investigation, monitoring activity, watching the hands that Meeroos originating from this player passed through, who they were passed too, and how frequently they were committing the action. We were also able to tell who else connect to this exploit ring were conducting this behavior.

We did not tell anyone that we were aware of this or that we were investigating because it would have compromised the integrity of the data we were gathering. We did not want to tip the offenders off, and the more they committed the act, the more information we were able to glean with regard to HOW they were doing it. That was the key for us, we needed to know the who/the how details. It was critical for us to get a firm grasp on these details before we could be proactive and fix it.

During our investigation, which spanned many, many days and nights and unusual hours of monitoring from our side, players also discovered the anomalous behavior. We knew this would happen, as the moment someone click to investigate a Meeroos lineage (Which breeders often do before they make a purchase from the Secondary Market) they would see the parents had actually have many, many babies on their first breeding cycle. In some cases, as many nests as days old! There is a reason this information is visible to players, partly so they can pinpoint exploits. Let's face it, our system doesn't allow people to get away with much without it being evident from our website details. You can see number of births vs. days old and easily see when something is not right. It was another player who actually pointed us toward this, which spurned our comprehensive investigation. The key for us was to understand how it be being achieved before we let the individual responsible know we were aware so we could effectively stop it, and them.

We have now completed our investigation. We now know how this exploit was being achieved. Now, we are banning the players responsible permanently from the game, and removing their meeroos from the grid.

We have also, through our moderation, been able to tell exactly who all was conducting this behavior. We cannot delete the meeroos that they sold to other players who unfortunately paid large sums of their own money. It would be unfair of us to penalize them for being the unwitting recipient of the exploits. If you purchased a Meeroo from these suspicious origins, do not be alarmed, you are not in trouble, your meeroo will not vanish.

We had to work quietly and diligently in order to get the results required for progress and swift action, both for the protection of our company and the community of honest players, of which most are. To you, we apologize for this inconvenience, and that you had to experience this act of criminal behavior along with us.

We now have the ability to closer moderate situations such as this one, and to react more quickly. We can now see things much clearer from our end and we will, without hesitation, ban players who engage in exploitative behavior. Our community has had their trust compromised, their trust in the secondary market has been compromised, but please know, we will never tolerate this kind of activity. We are on your side, and determined to protect the quality of your experience and the fairness of the game we have invested over a year developing.

Now that this exploit has been fixed and the users have been permabanned, we can move forward. Thank you all for your patience while we dealt with this matter. We at Malevay Studios appreciate all of the help and support we have received from our community as we discreetly conducted our investigation.

Catherine