A
Arutius
Guest
So I've played UO since T2A and quit about 3 years ago. I always knew I would eventually come back. After much thought, I decided to come back to UO today. As I was loading up the software, I began to get excited; hoping to have some of the same magical experiences that I once had with my old characters.
It's kind of funny how one does get attached to their UO characters. For many of us, they are somewhat alter egos that we've spent years cultivating. These characters have been with us through expansions and new territories; have etched out game history through guilds and friendships; have overcome conflicts and wars. Even when RL changes, it seems that UO characters remain constant. And even when you leave them for several years, you know that all it would take is to reload the software and your friends would be there waiting.
Or at least I thought.
Extremely excitied to hang out with my old avatar/palladin "Joshua Lionheart" once more, I reactivate my account, only to find that here's not there. Not only is he not there, but Rory-my ninja/archer, Kroni-my mule, and Hedgepeth-my drunken homeless RP extrordinare are all erased from my account.
I've been hacked.
Now I know that this unfortunate event is common to the point of cliche, but still can't help but to wonder why! My moral compass understands victimless crimes; things like running red lights when no one is around. Heck, I can even forgive someone if they do me wrong as long as they have some sort of motive. If the hacker would have just looted my accounts and been done with it, I could have actually shrugged it off, convincing my mind that the hacker's intention was to sell off all my wares and use the money to buy food for his kids.
But why the hell would you erase someone's characters? What's the benefit in that?
Such acts prove to me that there are evil people in the world, or at least card-carrying *******s that seriously need to have some courtesy beat into them with a police baton.
And to completely add insult to injury, the hacker recreated a new character on my account called "Player Hater," who, by the way, is a rogue. The hacker even took some time and really establish his M.O. by running that character into a dungeon and die so when played him, I would get the idea that the only thing I owned in the game was a burial shroud.
Clever. At least this jerk has style.
But it makes me wonder exactly how many people he's done this to. I'm guessing several. I don't believe in Karma but now I'm hoping that it exists. It helps ease my frusteration if I picture Player Hater one day dying and coming back as a pile of horse crap.
It's kind of funny how one does get attached to their UO characters. For many of us, they are somewhat alter egos that we've spent years cultivating. These characters have been with us through expansions and new territories; have etched out game history through guilds and friendships; have overcome conflicts and wars. Even when RL changes, it seems that UO characters remain constant. And even when you leave them for several years, you know that all it would take is to reload the software and your friends would be there waiting.
Or at least I thought.
Extremely excitied to hang out with my old avatar/palladin "Joshua Lionheart" once more, I reactivate my account, only to find that here's not there. Not only is he not there, but Rory-my ninja/archer, Kroni-my mule, and Hedgepeth-my drunken homeless RP extrordinare are all erased from my account.
I've been hacked.
Now I know that this unfortunate event is common to the point of cliche, but still can't help but to wonder why! My moral compass understands victimless crimes; things like running red lights when no one is around. Heck, I can even forgive someone if they do me wrong as long as they have some sort of motive. If the hacker would have just looted my accounts and been done with it, I could have actually shrugged it off, convincing my mind that the hacker's intention was to sell off all my wares and use the money to buy food for his kids.
But why the hell would you erase someone's characters? What's the benefit in that?
Such acts prove to me that there are evil people in the world, or at least card-carrying *******s that seriously need to have some courtesy beat into them with a police baton.
And to completely add insult to injury, the hacker recreated a new character on my account called "Player Hater," who, by the way, is a rogue. The hacker even took some time and really establish his M.O. by running that character into a dungeon and die so when played him, I would get the idea that the only thing I owned in the game was a burial shroud.
Clever. At least this jerk has style.
But it makes me wonder exactly how many people he's done this to. I'm guessing several. I don't believe in Karma but now I'm hoping that it exists. It helps ease my frusteration if I picture Player Hater one day dying and coming back as a pile of horse crap.
