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This isn't the time for benevolence and beating around the bush. This is a time for brutal honesty, taking the bull by the horns and making sure the past does not repeat itself. It seems to me that you are allowing your known distaste for AJ to make you dismiss anything he says out of hand, whether he actually has a point, or not. Don't do that.
[/ QUOTE ]I totally agree!
Donavan: You and I have had our fundamental differences over the years. Hell, great wars of wit and logic have been waged between us in this very forum! But yet, you and I still respect each other. Please do the same for AJ.
I don't necessarily agree with his view on the AFK situation; it could very well be I've become jaded and have learned to accept AFK gameplay as "here to stay". But I do agree with one thing: Cheaters are not cool, no matter what the cheat is. To me, loading up a lot with zombies, exploiting a game feature, and circumventing timeout are no less admonishable than running bots.
With that said, I'm not draconian enough to suggest that everyone who overrides timeout should be banned from the game. I acknowledge it is wrong, but leaving a sim to skill unattended or leaving a store open until he or she drops is a petty issue in the grand scheme of things. I would personally like to call their moral values into question, but since they are not really harming anyone, I'd rather the timeout feature be removed than criminalize this group.
MY biggest complaint regarding the AFK issue is against those who go above and beyond simply circumventing timeout; those who knowingly abuse an exploit in the game in order to get ahead of their competition are reprehensible creatures as far as I am concerned. To that end, I refuse to do business at any store that employs such tactics, and categorically refuse to enter stores that are in the top 10 or appear to have artificially-inflated hours unless I personally know the sim and know that he or she does not resort to such means.
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Understand this:
How I personally feel about another poster does not necessarily reflect how I feel about their opinion - I can dislike someone and still agree with the gist of what they are saying, and vice-versa.
Personal animosity had nothing to do with my replies to the poster in question, and "respect" is not something I am denying him as much as it is something he threw away. Rather, my replies were aimed at the poster's motivation, given his posting history.
Beyond that, I'm at a loss to figure out a way to explain it any further, in a way that will not get me suspended.
If you would like to grant me a temporary immunity from certain forum rules, I would be happy to elaborate.
On topic:
Prior to EA Land, I was against long term AFK in stores - especially if accomplished thru the use of bots or otherwise disabling the time-out feature.
Now, however, the catalogue has been gutted and many necessary items are ONLY obtainable in stores. If there are no stores open, game experience declines. I, for one, don't want my game screwed up for want of some stupid little bauble. "For want of a nail, the horse was lost..., etc."
So, in my opinion, long term AFK store owners are not just acceptable, they are necessary, and the devs should devise a so-called "legal" means for them to stay open so everyone will get off their backs.
The "list" is a different story. It no longer serves a purpose to the game in general, and in fact, is detrimental, in that a "phone book" type of listing would better serve the majority, and also, it encourages the phoney 'visitors-in-hiding' which doesn't do anything for the game in general except fuel forum wars.