Passive-aggressive marriage exploit

[Joc]

I browsed Reddit and they were being super excited and positive about a newly discovered, very simple to perform exploit, that lets you reject a marriage proposal while letting the other person's game think you accepted it. This causes the marriage to go through on the victim's side, while nothing actually happens on the exploiter's side. They then do this to many people in a row.

It can't be patched in an update because it relies on the way the device communicates with the app. Fortunately, it doesn't corrupt anything, unlike MyMeets. So it's purely passive-aggressive.

Still, it's sad to see the app's date place get dragged through the mud like this. I hope Bandai Namco will get better at detecting and banning these sorts of people.

 

[Joc]

I just realised that this exploit can be combined with MyMeets to corrupt many people's saves in a row.

Do not use the online date place anymore. It's no longer worth the risk.

 

[Nazotchi25]

Oh wow, this is pretty interesting.
What kind of things happen with the corruption? Does it just affect your App data or the toy itself?

 

[Joc]

Oh wow, this is pretty interesting.
What kind of things happen with the corruption? Does it just affect your App data or the toy itself?

MyMeets corrupts the save data of the device itself. (To be clear, the marry-multiple-people-in-a-row exploit is separate from MyMeets. It just becomes especially scary if they're combined.) I don't know all the ways the corruption can manifest itself. (Things I've read are characters not growing and sudden device resets, but these may not be related.) Bandai does try to detect if your data comes from MyMeets and ban you, but apparently it's not watertight.

As for thwarting MyMeets (which works by spoofing the official app), I think they would need to add some kind of authentication between the device and the app, so that you cannot pretend to be the official app. Obviously this can't just be implemented with the existing devices.

As for thwarting the marriage exploit (which works simply by "accepting" a proposal and then refusing to reconnect the device), maybe they could have the app remember that the data transfer failed and force you to try the connection again if you try to use the date place again. Or by asking for a reconnect before the marriage starts, but this obviously can't be done with the existing devices either.

The app probably wasn't designed with security in mind. Bandai just forgot how much adults like breaking stuff.

 

[Moosestatue]

I actually thought this was a very good idea- the trick doesn't harm other devices and both parties are happy! The other person got the genes they wanted and the person who didn't go through with the connection can keep searching for the genes they want while making other people happy. I don't really see any reason to stop this? Unless of course they're a mymeets user, but majority of them have been kicked off the app and you can check for corrupted data by looking through the family trees (eg tamas without eyes, black blobs etc)

 

[Finneari]

I actually thought this was a very good idea- the trick doesn't harm other devices and both parties are happy! The other person got the genes they wanted and the person who didn't go through with the connection can keep searching for the genes they want while making other people happy. I don't really see any reason to stop this? Unless of course they're a mymeets user, but majority of them have been kicked off the app and you can check for corrupted data by looking through the family trees (eg tamas without eyes, black blobs etc)

Plus there's the fact there are a lot of people who are either looking for something specific or who just aren't interested in the tamas who propose to their tama. I have no idea how many proposals I tried before I managed to find someone who said yes. Do I know if they also ended up with an egg? No, nor do I care. I was just happy to get my own egg.

This is pretty much the opposite of passive-aggressive. It's player cooperation. It makes for a friendly atmosphere, and it makes finding a match a lot less frustrating than it would otherwise. MyMeets aside, if it doesn't hurt anyone and it makes everyone happy, then why is it an issue?

 

[Joc]

I actually thought this was a very good idea- the trick doesn't harm other devices and both parties are happy! The other person got the genes they wanted and the person who didn't go through with the connection can keep searching for the genes they want while making other people happy. I don't really see any reason to stop this?

Plus there's the fact there are a lot of people who are either looking for something specific or who just aren't interested in the tamas who propose to their tama. I have no idea how many proposals I tried before I managed to find someone who said yes. Do I know if they also ended up with an egg? No, nor do I care. I was just happy to get my own egg.

This is pretty much the opposite of passive-aggressive. It's player cooperation. It makes for a friendly atmosphere, and it makes finding a match a lot less frustrating than it would otherwise. MyMeets aside, if it doesn't hurt anyone and it makes everyone happy, then why is it an issue?

It's passive-aggressive because the other person thinks you accepted it. What you basically want is to get rid of the proposal mechanic; just show a bunch of people who are currently logged into the app and breed with them at will without them noticing. I'm pretty sure most people would find that less fun, and it also makes no sense from a story perspective.

Unless of course they're a mymeets user, but majority of them have been kicked off the app and you can check for corrupted data by looking through the family trees (eg tamas without eyes, black blobs etc)

That's a useful tip!

 

[Finneari]

It's passive-aggressive because the other person thinks you accepted it. What you basically want is to get rid of the proposal mechanic; just show a bunch of people who are currently logged into the app and breed with them at will without them noticing. I'm pretty sure most people would find that less fun, and it also makes no sense from a story perspective.

And I would argue that the other person probably doesn't care whether you accepted it or not. People tend to be more focused on their own game than on what other people are doing. This is facilitated by the app itself: player interactions in the app are extremely limited, and when you accept a match on your own device you leave that part of the app entirely because the focus is now on your own device. There are people who propose to people accepting all proposals who then either lose connection for whatever reason or back out of it themselves. There is no egg produced in these circumstances. No data is exchanged on either device. Both players simply remain in the app and continue doing whatever they were doing.

Nobody's saying anything about breeding with anyone without them noticing. If you're accepting the proposals, they're the ones who propose to you, not the other way around. If you're the one proposing, you're the one who wants the egg for your own game.

 

[Akenja]

I'm so confused with the verbage of this post. There are no victims (mymeets aside) and everyone is happy. I don't understand what's passive aggressive about it?  They didn't want your genes?  So what. This is literally a kids toy and is supposed to be fun,  and what's more fun than getting the genes you want rather than being rejected because they don't want yours. It eliminates elitists and helps people with early stage genes. If they don't have my egg it doesn't affect me,  I have my own egg. I'm so confused how beyond the mymeets issue (which is easily avoided) anyone could be upset about this.

 

[Pingasatchi]

I actually thought this was a very good idea- the trick doesn't harm other devices and both parties are happy! The other person got the genes they wanted and the person who didn't go through with the connection can keep searching for the genes they want while making other people happy. I don't really see any reason to stop this? Unless of course they're a mymeets user, but majority of them have been kicked off the app and you can check for corrupted data by looking through the family trees (eg tamas without eyes, black blobs etc)

I'm actually just randomly popping in here after reading your comment because the parents of a tama I just married has no eyes...am I, like, screwed now? What even is mymeets anyway? 

 

[Joc]

I'm actually just randomly popping in here after reading your comment because the parents of a tama I just married has no eyes...am I, like, screwed now? What even is mymeets anyway? 

MyMeets is an application that spoofs the official app and lets you send fake data to your device. If you marry a fake character created with it, your data becomes corrupted as well. I hope you ran into an innocuous glitch, otherwise you'd need to reset

Nobody's saying anything about breeding with anyone without them noticing. If you're accepting the proposals, they're the ones who propose to you, not the other way around. If you're the one proposing, you're the one who wants the egg for your own game.

I meant that in the system I described people wouldn't even need to notice.

It eliminates elitists and helps people with early stage genes.

Are there superior late stage genes? Now that sounds elitist...

 

[Eggiweg]

I'm actually just randomly popping in here after reading your comment because the parents of a tama I just married has no eyes...am I, like, screwed now? What even is mymeets anyway? 

I think it is unlikely bandai will do anything to your device, considering mymeets genes are so prevalent within the app.

 

[Joc]

I think it is unlikely bandai will do anything to your device, considering mymeets genes are so prevalent within the app.

I wouldn't worry about being banned either (you'd hope they only ban the MyMeets users themselves), but that's not the problem. The problem is your data being corrupt, which means you need to reset.

 

[Joc]

I realised that a way to prevent this from being done to you, is not sending a proposal, but waiting until you receive a good proposal from someone else (because you know you actually accepted it). Still need to look out for MyMeets then.

 

[Ginjirotchi_lover]

i tend to receive many proposals while in the app, but i usually have specific goals for genetics in mind, so i usually do this to share the genetics i have with people that want them to make them happy while i continue searching, since i know it is frustrating when a proposal is rejected, and i want to help other people reach their goals, too

as for story reasons, maybe my tamagotchi has just had children with multiple different partners, it happens, haha

i also sort of doubt anyone who would do this with mymeets genes would be doing so maliciously to corrupt people's data, i figure if anything they probably like that they got a tamagotchi with rare and interesting genes, like the station-exclusive ones, and want to share them with others who might want them, and might be unaware of the data corruption, and i don't personally mind since it makes it easier for everyone to get the station genetics, and corruption is avoidable by looking for things like missing eyes in the family tree (although i personally wouldn't mind too much if i got one with corrupted genes myself, just because i've always liked playing around with glitches in games)

 

[hwd45]

I realised that a way to prevent this from being done to you, is not sending a proposal, but waiting until you receive a good proposal from someone else (because you know you actually accepted it). Still need to look out for MyMeets then.

Has it not already been proven by this point that the MyMeets panic was largely fuelled by misinformation? As I recall, there were two ways in which the MyMeets application was incompatible with the main app:

* Using MyMeets to obtain as-of-yet unreleased characters would cause the app to prevent the player from accessing the Plaza, the "banning" people often talked about. As such, the creator of the application no longer releases new character genes until they're officially released.

* Using MyMeets to force a non-adult character to marry an adult would supposedly cause some level of data corruption which may be passable through the app - as I understand this is the corruption people spoke of, but the issue wasn't "MyMeets genes" as many put it. The extent of this corruption seems to have simply been a bizarre visual glitch on the family photo screen but not much else - many people have falsely attributed glitches such as the Peter Pan glitch to "MyMeets genes" but as of yet there's zero evidence for a connection. The creator of the application has since released a patch which disallows non-adults from marrying, circumventing any potential corruption.

 

[Penguin-keeper]

Has it not already been proven by this point that the MyMeets panic was largely fuelled by misinformation? As I recall, there were two ways in which the MyMeets application was incompatible with the main app:

* Using MyMeets to obtain as-of-yet unreleased characters would cause the app to prevent the player from accessing the Plaza, the "banning" people often talked about. As such, the creator of the application no longer releases new character genes until they're officially released.

* Using MyMeets to force a non-adult character to marry an adult would supposedly cause some level of data corruption which may be passable through the app - as I understand this is the corruption people spoke of, but the issue wasn't "MyMeets genes" as many put it. The extent of this corruption seems to have simply been a bizarre visual glitch on the family photo screen but not much else - many people have falsely attributed glitches such as the Peter Pan glitch to "MyMeets genes" but as of yet there's zero evidence for a connection. The creator of the application has since released a patch which disallows non-adults from marrying, circumventing any potential corruption.

This is a really good update on the situation - thanks for posting it. It's interesting to hear what went into the concerns that did the rounds in the first place.

Going off on a very minor tangent, the way that people attributed pre-existing glitches to genes reminds me very very slightly of a very old series of virtual life games called Creatures (the ones with the Norns, which were popular at around the same time as the original 1996/1997 Tamagotchi, if anybody here knows them - as distinct from the much older and unrelated Creatures for the Commodore 64), and also of the follow-ups to the original Dogz and Catz when they were still Windows desktop applications by PF Magic (long before Ubisoft bought them and turned them into console pet simulations), which also implemented genetics. Of course, back then, people had to share genes via dial-up internet, in software that was never designed for it. It's interesting how far we've come with this stuff.

 

[Joc]

I was still at generation 1 until a few weeks ago because I was too scared of anything happening to me, but I decided to use it anyway.

At first it seemed okay, but then, at generation 3, it happened to me, I think.

I realised that a way to prevent this from being done to you, is not sending a proposal, but waiting until you receive a good proposal from someone else (because you know you actually accepted it).

So, this doesn't even seem to be the case. I received a proposal, accepted it, and then when I visited the park with the baby afterwards, the father was still there, unmarried!

At first I thought, maybe it's a bug that he still appears there, but no, he then gave my baby a Like, meaning he was actually online with that character. That shouldn't normally be possible, right? I really hope it's just that this guy's device crashed at the most unfortunate moment, because otherwise it means that some people are spending all their time baiting people into accepting fake proposals...

I guess it technically doesn't matter (doesn't seem like MyMeets was used), but still, I'm currently leaving my Meets in a drawer while I think about what to do.

When I searched for my own thread to make this comment, I discovered that Reddit actually responded to this thread. My favorite comment is the one that called me a "gene hoarder" despite me still being at generation 1 at the time... I had my username changed as a precaution.