Just a bit of background (and a bit of a short story if you have time lol). It's a 2 part story which pieced together had me arrive at my random thought.
Yesterday I was working from home and it was a light day so I decided to keep playing after I logged in to upkeep my thorn plants. I went to do Underwater because I saw someone in chat say they needed more people. I did that (only took about 15min) and someone said they had more keys so come back in 30min. So I parked that character for 30min and logged in with my blacksmith to claim some BODs.
Out of the 3 BODs, I wanted to bribe up 2 of them (one was 20 non-exc copper armor / other was 20exc copper armor). I usually go to Fel Brit Smith by the graveyard... upon my first bribe attempt I got a message that their guild was watching (ie someone already max bribed) so I recalled to another spot. Long story short I ended up recalling to 5 different blacksmith shops (mix of Fel/Tram) with the shops either have already been max bribed OR some very high bribe rate (it was 21k for the non-exc copper & 45k for the exc copper to be bribed up). Someone was obviously running around bribing around that time but honestly this isn't even close to the first time this has happened; in fact it's been very expensive to bribe for anything (first bribe on BOD and first from me on the NPC). It's almost like bribing is going on non-stop so the vendors never have a chance to reset their prices because there are a few (secret) places where I can bribe these same bods for under 1k each and I could probably get to Valorite before seeing 20k+ per bribe.
After running around trying to bribe literally only 2 BODs for 30min I went back to UW for the next round. This time around I saw like 4 obviously "new" toons down there which did not have mounts (ie no ethys) / had basic gear on (robe of eclipse & generic imbued non-max luck armor) / and were only casting greater heal (couldn't res anyone). To me this was obviously a single person (or 2) with 4-5 support accounts casting heal to get looting rights. Right/wrong/indifferent doesn't matter for this particular thread....
So my random thought based some other threads about the UO population: Wouldn't it be ironic if the "UO population" really just consisted of like 100 actual players and then like 5-6 people mass scripting all content from BODs / resource gathering / dynamic events / EM events which the 100 actual people playing simply buy from since the people scripting are able to do the same content with 5-10 (EJ) accounts at a time (ie they are getting many more chances at goodies per hour played)?
Yesterday I was working from home and it was a light day so I decided to keep playing after I logged in to upkeep my thorn plants. I went to do Underwater because I saw someone in chat say they needed more people. I did that (only took about 15min) and someone said they had more keys so come back in 30min. So I parked that character for 30min and logged in with my blacksmith to claim some BODs.
Out of the 3 BODs, I wanted to bribe up 2 of them (one was 20 non-exc copper armor / other was 20exc copper armor). I usually go to Fel Brit Smith by the graveyard... upon my first bribe attempt I got a message that their guild was watching (ie someone already max bribed) so I recalled to another spot. Long story short I ended up recalling to 5 different blacksmith shops (mix of Fel/Tram) with the shops either have already been max bribed OR some very high bribe rate (it was 21k for the non-exc copper & 45k for the exc copper to be bribed up). Someone was obviously running around bribing around that time but honestly this isn't even close to the first time this has happened; in fact it's been very expensive to bribe for anything (first bribe on BOD and first from me on the NPC). It's almost like bribing is going on non-stop so the vendors never have a chance to reset their prices because there are a few (secret) places where I can bribe these same bods for under 1k each and I could probably get to Valorite before seeing 20k+ per bribe.
After running around trying to bribe literally only 2 BODs for 30min I went back to UW for the next round. This time around I saw like 4 obviously "new" toons down there which did not have mounts (ie no ethys) / had basic gear on (robe of eclipse & generic imbued non-max luck armor) / and were only casting greater heal (couldn't res anyone). To me this was obviously a single person (or 2) with 4-5 support accounts casting heal to get looting rights. Right/wrong/indifferent doesn't matter for this particular thread....
So my random thought based some other threads about the UO population: Wouldn't it be ironic if the "UO population" really just consisted of like 100 actual players and then like 5-6 people mass scripting all content from BODs / resource gathering / dynamic events / EM events which the 100 actual people playing simply buy from since the people scripting are able to do the same content with 5-10 (EJ) accounts at a time (ie they are getting many more chances at goodies per hour played)?
. Sure theres some but in my experience ain’t many of us left. The long tradition of cheating in this game (eventually getting caught if u do) combine w having to keep the account open continually has dwindled those accounts to small (if not VERY small) numbers. Most everyone I know w those type accounts (most, not all) bought them as a novelty from vets that quit playing .
^^^
Tens of thousands moved on to other games where they felt cheating was properly addressed.
I was sick of competing w 95% of PvPers I knew that used ‘illegal’ 3rd PP’s
. I spent couple wks training, outfitting in top end gear, & learning the programs I would use. I played that EJ account exactly 2 days
in the field. I simply don’t want to play a game where cheating is necessary. I can’t do it.
The account still has items/gear worth more then many players will ever see. I won’t log on it.
. No, you can’t have my stuffs
.