Paying additional tribute to the ‘$50 Million Man’

Standing out in a crowd is not always easy, but to stand out amoung 670,000 Star Citizen users is remarkable.  Being dubbed the ‘$50 Million Man‘ by Chris Roberts is an experience only citizen Wulf Knight knows, aka Accelerwraith.  Wulf Knight seems to have not only stood out among the Star Citizen crowd, but he also has a story we can all learn from.

I’d also like to pay a small tribute to our “$50 Million Man,” Wulf Knight. Wulf is no stranger to those following Star Citizen’s development. He’s been a constant friend to the development team and to the community, and I’m honored to reveal that his purchase of a Constellation ‘Super Pack’ was what pushed us to this incredible level. As a small reward for his service and his symbolic status I’d like to personally award him the Vanduul Scythe that his ship collection is missing! – Chris Roberts

In order to learn from citizen Wulf Knight, we must first get to know him a little better.  In researching him it was discovered that he has spent more than $20,000 in pledges for Chris Robert’s Star Citizen.  Why would anyone spend $20,000 on a video game, well perhaps it is because, “I pretty much owe my career to Chris Roberts, so I’m giving a little back“.

While it is easy to understand an allegiance to someone who you owe your career to, it is more difficult to understand that Wulf Knight also cracked the secret to the developers of the FPS module for Star Citizen months before the company’s name was released to the public.  Perhaps he is the ‘wizard’ they think he is?

Lastly, I would like to give a shout out to an unexpected guest we had last month. Super Star Citizen Wulf Knight somehow discovered our true identity (are you a wizard?!), stopped by to meet the team, and then fed the entire office with pizza! From everybody here, thanks for the grub Wulf! – [REDACTED] aka Illfonic

The ties to CIG don’t end with being dubbed the ‘$50 Million Man,’ pledging more than $20,000, or cracking who the ‘redacted’ FPS module developers were. Wulf Knight has more wizardly ways that stand out.  Wulf Knight also seems to have insider information about ships, “As someone who is actually at CIG, I can confirm this is a hoax.  No 890 tokens have been issued“.  Just when it seems nothing else could make Wulf Knight stand out anymore, Ben Lesnick (Head of Customer Service at CIG) seems to believe that every Citizen will have to bring their best if they find Wulf Knight in the Persistent Universe, “Star Citizen should be a game where I should have to give it my all to battle Wulf Knight.”  What does Wulf Knight know about Star Citizen that other Star Citizens don’t?

Living the Star Citizen dream in a seemingly superhuman way is probably beyond the grasp of most of the 670,000 Star Citizens.  However, one event leads us to ask the question.  Does Wulf Knight know too much?  Is he too close to the develoeprs of Star Citizen?  I ask these questions because during a recent and extremely limited Javelin destroyer sale (11-28-2014), Wulf Knight published a video in which he appears to be exploiting the CIG cart software to gain superhuman advantages over other Star Citizens who are also trying to buy the ship that sold out in less than 15 seconds.

Click here for a backup link to the video, in case the orginal comes unavailible.

This video that he published shows him exploting a weakness in the CIG cart software to repeatedly and automatically ‘place an order’ for a Javerlin destroyer, several times per second, controlled by his PC.  Wulf Knight’s hands are free while taking this video, in which he kindly shares his Star Citizen dog tags that were offered to Star Citizen members and recently delievered.  Wulf Knight did not seem to want to share this bit of wizardly with the rest of the community, as it was posted on a private link to his Youtube channel. Interesting enough, Wulf Knight claims that he isn’t botting or hacking.

Wulf Knight has so much to be proud of.  What would make him want to hide the fact that he was exploiting the CIG website to get one of the most limited, desired, and expensive ships in the game?  Prehaps it’s because he actually was one of the few who managed to purchase the Javelin. Perhaps because his actions clearly violating CIG terms of service.

• Interfere with the ability of others to enjoy playing a Cloud Imperium Service or take actions that interfere with or materially increase the cost to provide a Cloud Imperium Service for the enjoyment of all its users.
• Modify any part of the Cloud Imperium that Cloud Imperium does not specifically authorize you to modify.
• Attempt to interfere with, hack into or decipher any transmissions to or from the servers for a Cloud Imperium Service.
• You must also obey all federal, state, and local laws, regulations and rules that apply to your activities when you use Cloud Imperium Services. Cloud Imperium reserves the right to terminate your Account and to prevent your use of any and all Cloud Imperium Services if your Account is used to engage in illegal activity or to violate this Terms of Service.

It may be beyond most Star Citizens’ ability or desire to develope such an exploit, but certainly other citizens will find it curious that Wulf Knight has profitied from his sales of ships on the ‘grey market’.  The ‘grey market’ is where Star Citizen ships are bought and sold, often well above the orginial value from citizen to citizen.  These ‘grey market’ sales seem to be focused on Reddit, and Wulf seems to have stood out there as somebody who can ‘vouch’ for anonymous seller trying to peddle their entire orginal backer account on the blackmarket as being legitimate.

Wulf Knight’s reddit fame has not matched his Star Citizen status.  He was banned for the following comment referencing a blackmarket Javelin sale, “Fuck off and die.  Thanks.”

Wulf Knight’s status with the developers of Star Citizen is curiously close for someone who was lucky enough to be the ‘$50 Million Man,” discover the redacted FPS Module developement team, who claims to have inside information about ship sales, and who appears to have exploited his way to buying a Javelin Destroyer.  Perhaps his relationship is too close and he is benefiting in a way the other 670,000+ Star Citizens who have pledged over $65 million can’t.  Wulf Knight hides the video of himself exploiting the CIG cart software in a private Youtube link, but he has pictures of himself with Chris Roberts and company on his Facebook profile.  It leaves us wondering if Wulf Knight’s close relasonships with members of the CIG developement team is giving him an unfair advantage?

Ben Lesnik’s claims there was no evidence of hacking or cheating during the Javelin sale seem to ring hollow, information security expert sources tell us this type of exploit shown in this video would have been easily identified in CIG’s server logs.  It seems very unlikely Wulf Knight was the only one using this exploit, since the video he posted seems part instruction manual on how to exploit the cart software and receive an unfair advantage in purchasing a limited Javelin destroyer.  It’s no wonder it only took 15 seconds for all 200 Javelin’s to sell out.  As this video comes to light will CIG enforce it’s terms of service on all the exploiters?  Will they put the Javelin back up for sale to all the citizens and organizations who didn’t cheat and exploit?  Time will tell.