Feeling Very Frustrated

[Tina Small]

About a month ago, I started working on a peace tamer on the Yamato shard as something new to do. A couple of nights ago, something happened that should have left me feeling good about UO and the people who play it, but instead has left me feeling very frustrated and disappointed.

As I was running into the main room of Destard to farm some more leather to donate at the library for the Birds of Britannia talisman, I ran by a character standing close to a wild greater dragon. Just as I went by, the dragon blasted her and she died at its feet. I ran back the way I had come in, hoping she'd follow so I could give her a rez. She did. Got her rezzed and she said something to me in Japanese. I explained that I don't speak Japanese. After she got dressed and ran back to her body, I told her I'd try area peacing if she was trying to tame the dragon. We gave that a try for about ten minutes, but to no avail.

After the tamer had died two or three more times, I offered to try taming the GD using honor. Four failed attempts later, I said, "Come with me" and gated her to a stable. I retrieved a spare greater dragon I had in the stable and gave it to her, explaining it wasn't all that great but at least it would get her started. She stabled it and then she put up a gate and said, "Come." Curious, I followed her and found myself at what I assume was her house. She went inside and sat down by some chests. Next thing I know, she was giving me some articles in the trade window. I accepted the trade because I thought it would be rude not to, especially because I had no clear way to explain that I didn't give her the dragon expecting some kind of payment. We sat for a few more minutes, not saying much and then I had to leave. I wanted to see if I could try to get her the dragon she'd originally been trying to get, because it was slightly better than the one I gave her at the stable.

Luck was with me and I managed to tame the original dragon using honor. I gated it back to the tamer's house, however, she wasn't there. Over the course of the next hour or two, I recalled to her house a couple more times, but didn't see her again.

The next two nights after that, I couldn't log on to play because I was busy working on a photography project. Finally had time tonight to look into something about this whole situation that has been nagging at me.

You see....this nice lady handed me a couple of items that I think might have been duped. There was a skull mug, a worldgem bit, and a stack of academic books.

I don't trade in rares and have never had any desire to collect them. Yet, tonight I found myself combing through U Hall, the Trader forum, and the Rares forum trying to find information about these items. The only one that I know anything about is the Academic Books. I think they spawn in Bedlam and are used to make the new craftable/fillable bookcases. I didn't know much about the worldgem bit or the skull mug, but in the back of my mind I kept thinking that I'd read SOMETHING about them and that it wasn't good.

After a good half hour to 45 minutes of searching the forums, I gave up. I found almost no posts mentioning either one and nothing that addressed if they are dupes. Yet, I could swear I read something not so long ago about someone reporting an exploit involving the worldgem bit.

After that bit of digging, I decided it just wasn't worth the risk to hang onto these items. I pitched all three of them into a trash can at the bank in Zento. Even though I don't recall ever hearing anything here in U.Hall about an exploit involving the academic books, I figured if the other two items were created via some exploit, there was a good possibility the books were also of suspicious origin.

I think I did the right thing just trashing the items, but I surely don't feel good about it. I thought about paging a GM to see if they could tell me what to do, but I've heard one too many horror stories here of that process backfiring on people.

The whole situation has left me feeling unsettled. Were the items really bad or did I overreact? If they were bad, did the person who gave them to me know? If yes, what kind of thank you is it to hand those items off to someone who was trying to help you? Should I have just refused the trade when it was offered, even though it felt like an extremely rude thing to do because I couldn't explain why I was turning it down?

I'm still shaking my head over the whole situation. It's very frustrating that there seems to be nowhere "official" that you can go to find a current list of items to avoid. The Q&A in the Knowledgebase that lists illegal items (http://support.ea.com/cgi-bin/ea.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1053) doesn't show either of these items. So are they good or are they bad? How is someone like me who has no interest in rares and doesn't want to innocently get caught holding onto illegal items protect themselves, other than just discarding anything that seems questionable? And if the official answer is, "Page a GM and ask," can I please get some kind of assurance that doing so isn't going to royally backfire on me somehow?

Sorry this is so long and more or less a rant. I know the U.Hall regulars really can't help me. Guess I just felt the need to vent. I'm irritated that I got put in the situation of having to destroy what was meant as a gift and I'm also concerned that if the items really were bad that I even had them in my possession for a few days, putting my account at risk. Arrrgh.

 

[Poo]

stop playing on the HK shards and come back to the dark side.

all is good on the dark side.

and we have cheese whiz!!!

 

[AesSedai]

- Great story / recount

1. Don't worry about it
2. What happens, happens for a reason
3. Yeah, I've heard about the possibility of these things being duped (~illicitly gained) so please refer to #1
4. It was quite nice of you to accept the gift.. Do not want to offend fellow people
5. From what you are saying, I see it is hard; but please, just try to walk away and know that you did what you did because you knew it was the best thing to do
6. Refer to #1-6



Peace,
AesSedai

 

[Harlequin]

Academic books I know, but I don't know enough about the other 2 items to comment.

However, this would be a good time to learn 2 very important Japanese words -

"Free! Free!"

Ok, not exactly Japanese, but should be universal enough

 

[hawkeye_pike]

You are very clearly overreacting.
While I doubt that anybody would bother duping such items, nobody got banned or punished because he owned a duped item. People get banned either because they are caught duping, or they regularly own duped items, or they own duped items in large numbers.

 

[Bomb Bloke]

There's no way for players to know if those items are duped, at least to my understanding. Keep in mind I used the term "know", as opposed to "suspect".

What little I've heard about those items is that if someone is willing to give them away for a mere dragon, then either they don't know their value, all they know their value all too well.

Even if your friend knew them to be dupes, it's possible she didn't know them to be "risky" items. It seems the PR given to the japanese shards differs from the PR given to us.

Given the poor state of the documentation concerning what's legal and what's not, and the fact that the GMs are known for banning first and asking questions later, there's plenty of room for confusion.

I note this written on the page you linked to, for example:

Game Masters will not discuss the legality of an item.

And the GMs seem to know it. It's frustrating when EA reps refer people towards them.

In fact I would be very surprised if the GMs had the tools to tell if those particular items were duplicated or not.

 

[Lady Aalia]

Tina,

I can tell you the following... maybe it will make you feel better...

At least the scull mug and the world Gem have been Itmes of ummm well discussion of latly.

Both can be "reproduced" from the new stealables that you can get of Monsters now.
There was a big warning about it on the log in page about it, at first you where able to tell them apart from the originals by their rehue.

But i am not so sure about the rehue anymore since at least to ME it looks like the "bad guys" figured out a way around that too...

from personal expirience i can tell you this, my buddy seen a skull mug for sale and wanted to buy it , it was nicly priced and he didnt have one yet.
He had heard about the rumors thou and wasnt sure since the vendor was at a ummm bad Reputation vendor Mall.

I emailed Mesanna about it and here is what i got back:
"If this is blue then its one of the stealables from monsters."

So he went out and bought it ...only to see it restocked within the day.

here is a quote from Robert Mull

Meanwhile, we are aware of other “rares” appearing that are generic versions of more common items – these will be dealt with as exploits.

We've received multiple reports that new, supposedly "rare" items are appearing across the servers. These are not sanctioned items from the recent content patches or events, and in some cases even take on the appearance of server-birth rares.

If you find these suspicious items for sale, or see them being offered, please use the in-game reporting tool to page a GM.

Please enjoy your post-holiday vendor shopping, but beware of deals that are too good to be true.

hopefully it helps you out a bit.

 

[LadyNico]

Tina, the cheese whizz is extra good on Europa.

Message me with a shopping list (pets & otherwise) and I'll have a good rummage through me schtuffs.

 

[InspectorGadget]

You did the right thing by trashing them,

The academic books although there is no know exploit involving these, as they came in the same package as a highly exploited items, its a safe assumption they where in fact duped.

The gem and mug are exploited stealables from the new monsters, they have the same image as those server birth tru rares and as such have been heavily exploited. They are illegal so destruction is the best proccess. May be a bit late but you may want to send an e-mail FULLY explaining the situation, your action and the person involved to EA/Mythic and let them sort it out. Make sure you explain that the items are no longer in your possession and you have destroyed them(then hope they dont tell you they where the real deal )

 

[RavenWinterHawk]

Keep playing as you do.
All those things of concern have been going around UO forever and it sounds like you got items created in a way that also created feathers, fishing weights etc.

There all over altantic right now. I just dont buy them. I ignor them. And wander the land.

Tame away and be glad you made a friend. She gave you something out of kindness and you dont know how she acquired them.

Lets see... Ive given friends furs before and people said they were duped years ago.

Ive given people purple robes and ice colored pickaxes when it was said you can make them that its illegal but feel free to own them.


Dont discount meeting someone over what the items may or may not be.

 

[TheScoundrelRico]

*cough*nodupingonsiege*cough*...la

 

[Theo_GL]

You are probably overreacting....

Let me clue you in about a few things about the overseas shards from having played on a few for years...

1 - If there is an exploit or loophole in the game, they will find it. Go look at faction points on Asuka for example.
2 - Gm's are few and far between
3 - A good deal of the GM's play on the shards as well. I've played with a couple.
4 - GM's are tough to find when you need one and generally there are little rules over there. Its even worse than here.

Odds are you could have kept the items without issue. But then, if you didn't know what they were and they obviously aren't used to tame/hunt/etc then who cares if you trashed them? Just pixels.

Everyone gets way way too excited about 'exploits' like this. I mean, its an item in a video game with an unusual tag. Wow. Its not like murder or something.

Could it be cheating? Yea but so what? Its not like even if they sold it UO gold has any value anymore.

I'm sure people will start the flame wars and claim I'm one of them, thats a bad attitude, cheaters never win etc. The bottom line is a mug with a weird title does not impact my gameplay whatsoever.

Unless I can throw it at a peerless and it drops dead from it - the value to me is zero.

 

[Maplestone]

Unless I can throw it at a peerless and it drops dead from it - the value to me is zero.

Just because something has zero value to you doesn't mean it's zero value to everyone else.

 

[Theo_GL]

Just because something has zero value to you doesn't mean it's zero value to everyone else.

Let me put it this way - I don't see it as giving someone an unfair advantage in the game.

Compare it to tree stump hacks, field hacks, speed hacks and other things give players an advantage and those are far more troublesome in the game than odd named deco items.

I guess it comes down to what this game is all about. If it really is about collecting items to put on your wall then we ought to get rid of dungeons, monsters, champs, PvP and just sell pink torches on vendors.

I'm sure the 'rares' collectors will be up in arms about that being a playstyle but you need to look no further for UO's current subscription pit if they are competing against every other dark ages MMPORG by being a game to collect colored items.

Until the devs will PUBLISH a list of BANNED items - nothing should be actioned upon. The casual player can't tell a rare from a quest item.

The funny part about it is if they really cared - it would be as simple as searching the items database for items that don't fit a certain profile and deleting them. If they need - I can help them locate some great data quality tools for this purpose. {grin} Its really a simple solution.

 

[Tina Small]

Thank you all for the replies!

At least the scull mug and the world Gem have been Itmes of ummm well discussion of latly.

Both can be "reproduced" from the new stealables that you can get of Monsters now.

There was a big warning about it on the log in page about it, at first you where able to tell them apart from the originals by their rehue.

But i am not so sure about the rehue anymore since at least to ME it looks like the "bad guys" figured out a way around that too...

from personal expirience i can tell you this, my buddy seen a skull mug for sale and wanted to buy it , it was nicly priced and he didnt have one yet.
He had heard about the rumors thou and wasnt sure since the vendor was at a ummm bad Reputation vendor Mall.

I emailed Mesanna about it and here is what i got back:
"If this is blue then its one of the stealables from monsters."

So he went out and bought it ...only to see it restocked within the day.

Avenhar, the skull mug was silver/pewter color. The worldgem bit was white and looked exactly like one of the baubles you pick up from the ground in Ilshenar. The Academic Books were hued dark brown and said they were Rarity 8.

The lady had two vendors at her house that had a few items on them. Just going through them quickly, they all seemed to be stealables from the fan dancer's dojo. I'm assuming she has a thief and picked up the items herself. If that's the case, she can probably also steal from monsters.

Given what else you've said about the mug and bauble items, I really don't know what to think now. Guess I won't be trying to find this person again and give her the better dragon.

<------- Dee ("Tina") this morning.

 

[Maplestone]

Let me put it this way - I don't see it as giving someone an unfair advantage in the game.

"Advantage"? What game are you playing?

 

[Sarsmi]

Thank you all for the replies!

At least the scull mug and the world Gem have been Itmes of ummm well discussion of latly.

Both can be "reproduced" from the new stealables that you can get of Monsters now.

There was a big warning about it on the log in page about it, at first you where able to tell them apart from the originals by their rehue.

But i am not so sure about the rehue anymore since at least to ME it looks like the "bad guys" figured out a way around that too...

from personal expirience i can tell you this, my buddy seen a skull mug for sale and wanted to buy it , it was nicly priced and he didnt have one yet.
He had heard about the rumors thou and wasnt sure since the vendor was at a ummm bad Reputation vendor Mall.

I emailed Mesanna about it and here is what i got back:
"If this is blue then its one of the stealables from monsters."

So he went out and bought it ...only to see it restocked within the day.

Avenhar, the skull mug was silver/pewter color. The worldgem bit was white and looked exactly like one of the baubles you pick up from the ground in Ilshenar. The Academic Books were hued dark brown and said they were Rarity 8.

The lady had two vendors at her house that had a few items on them. Just going through them quickly, they all seemed to be stealables from the fan dancer's dojo. I'm assuming she has a thief and picked up the items herself. If that's the case, she can probably also steal from monsters.

Given what else you've said about the mug and bauble items, I really don't know what to think now. Guess I won't be trying to find this person again and give her the better dragon.

<------- Dee ("Tina") this morning.

Meh I'd rather avoid getting into a big diatribe about cheating and cheaters, I don't approve, but I do know some nice people who have bent the rules. I know that not everyone has the same awareness of the rules, or the same attitude toward the rules and you'll find people who will do casual things they consider more to be easter eggs than actual cheats.

Lots of nice people do things that aren't strictly legit, ingame and in life, it doesn't mean you shouldn't be friends with them. But that's up to you and how you feel about what they do. I'm kind of live and let live, I don't like cheating and feel like it affects everyone who plays, but I'm not going to stop being friends with someone just because I find out they *insert method of cheating here*. I guess because it is their choice to play that way. I wouldn't be in a guild with them, I still remember the old days when one cheater could get a whole guild banned.

And as someone else said, PR on non american shards is different than on american shards. They may be more lax about that kind of thing than over here.

It can be a little depressing to find out that someone you know and play with is a cheater. It's happened to me a few times over the years. It doesn't make them a bad person, just someone who has a different viewpoint or moral code than you do.

 

[Heimi]

Thank you all for the replies!



Avenhar, the skull mug was silver/pewter color. The worldgem bit was white and looked exactly like one of the baubles you pick up from the ground in Ilshenar. The Academic Books were hued dark brown and said they were Rarity 8.

The lady had two vendors at her house that had a few items on them. Just going through them quickly, they all seemed to be stealables from the fan dancer's dojo. I'm assuming she has a thief and picked up the items herself. If that's the case, she can probably also steal from monsters.

Given what else you've said about the mug and bauble items, I really don't know what to think now. Guess I won't be trying to find this person again and give her the better dragon.

<------- Dee ("Tina") this morning.

The skull mug and world gem bit could well have been the actual stealables - depending on your connection to that particular shard, occasionally item descriptions will 'lag' and label the items with their original tags, in this case a skull mug and a worldgem bit, instead of the updated tag assigned to the stealable items. Did you log out anytime after you moused over them and then check them again when you logged back in?

 

[ColterDC]

Seems kind of rude to throw away the gifts your new friend gave to you.

You probably hurt his/her feelings.

 

[Tina Small]

The skull mug and world gem bit could well have been the actual stealables - depending on your connection to that particular shard, occasionally item descriptions will 'lag' and label the items with their original tags, in this case a skull mug and a worldgem bit, instead of the updated tag assigned to the stealable items. Did you log out anytime after you moused over them and then check them again when you logged back in?

The descriptions on the items on the day I threw them away were the same as when I received them several days earlier. I've noticed surprising little lag connecting to Yamato from here in the western United States.

 

[HD2300]

LMAO. So much can change in 9 months.

 

[GarthGrey]

If this ends up being a story simply to get you into the Beta, shame on you..

 

[Tina Small]

If this ends up being a story simply to get you into the Beta, shame on you..

Do you really think Chrissay would fall for something like that?

 

[Lyconis]

Great job throwing the items away Tina!

I agree with the posters in this thread, things like this don't affect players they are only selling for 10 mill each and before the fix could be produced at an easy 50 items per hour. Can't everyone make 500 mill in an hour? pfft!

Below is a handful of the items from the "worldgem bit exploit". Missing images of dates and whatever else players were creative with.