what the heck is going on? (account bannings)

[THP]

Owning a ''Glacial Spell Books'' will get ya banned iam sure!!!

I used to see a couple of players on Europa parading there glacial spell book at the wbb/ and luna bank.....

Well !!!! im pretty sure this is an OBVOIUS duped item so i stayed well clear of em ...even though there was one for sale in Luna for ages at about 25m!!

KInda anyone with one of these iam pretty sure will have been banned!! and lets be frank dont moan about it if u did...it was a plain simple duped item that u aquired by duping or buying knowing full well it was a duped item u were buying!! [end of story]

 

[Theo_GL]

This worries me. Especially Zofinur's post. You see I have been doing bods for almost since bods were available to do. We have amassed over 4000 (mostly crap smalls). This makes me wonder if I should deposit all of them in the nearest trash receptacle?

4,000? I've got over 20,000. Noob.

They haven't banned me yet - but here is hoping they do. I need a good excuse to put this game in my rear view mirror. Anyone want to buy some bods?

 

[Vyrquenox]

I still go for the idea that the playerbase should have the same tool that allows whomever to see that an item is a dupe. Problem solved. Like norton antivirus or something. "run dupescan on vyrquenox". 2 items detected...items resolved actions 2 items deteceted 2 items deleted. end. that would be much better than paranoia and throwing shadow iron runic hammers out on the ground at the bottom of covetous for Sudiva to eat and running screaming away.

 

[Zofinur]

Anyone want to buy some bods?

Yes!

 

[Vyrquenox]

A quick note to Jeremy:

I think it would ease the situation quite a bit, if you WOULD release details of the bannings...
No account info, nothing that can identify anyone
But an accounting such as:

Account banned, #1. possession of 72 valorite hammers (duped)
Account banned #2. Possession of 27 duped 1mil checks.
Account banned #3. Possession of 129 hooded shrouds of shadows...

get the drift?

Then we all ahve a clear picture of why, what, and what to avoid to keep ourselves out of trouble...

that will not happen anytime soon, because they don't want anyone knowing what they are looking for. sigh.

 

[JoO]

Or simply don't let two items with the same item id exist. Each mobile and item in the world has a "serial number". If another one pops up the first one dissapears. But then they might have to hire some actual staff who can code as any change that incurs coding usualy comes with an explanation of how complex the code is and hints to the fact that they don't know what they are doing.

When the people who staff an MMO don't really care about the game and it is just a 9-5 job for them the game needs to be shut down. UO is long overdue for that in my estimation.

 

[Poo]

Poo-

I've already offered my assitance on Pacific to Tina if she decides to change her mind down the road, and I want to offer the same to you and your guild. If there's anything I can do to help you out in any way, please let me know.

actually we hit Pac months ago.
we made our toons, played and took over factions and have since left the shard.
we have all out toons there still, but we have moved on to the next and the next and the next shard.

but thanks for the offer.


Im rather bothered by the fact that its late afternoon of the next day, i have purposfully NOT been posting while ive been watching from my laptop at work, and i havnt seen ANY responce from ANYONE from EA.

so either something is up, or someone got canned.

and on the ironic side of things.
we where chatting last night in TS and it dawned on me.
Tina has a house on ever shard.
and out of all the houses the ONLY house i actually stored stuff in was the one that got deleted.
isnt that just bad ass luck on my part!!!
hahahahha.
i talked to the other 3 guild mates to see what they all lost.
one guy lost a pair of scissors (ya he was devistated)
another lost a couple items he got off of monsters loot.
the third didnt have anything in there.
and i had 4 chests.
1 of LRC odd pieces for making suits (or leftovers from the suits i made)
1 chest of loot weapons
1 chest of loot armour to be enhanced.
and 1 chest full of odd stuff i just dropped in (like my soulstone frags now that i think of it, arrrggg!)

i know, i know what your all thinking.
"poo you duping *******! it was those damn scissors!!!!"

if i wasnt so addicted id have a temper tantrum and quit the game in protest.
but seeing as winter is fast approaching and i live in canada, im just gonna sit here in my warm chair and yell and pancake and moan about it.

i dont like to think of UO as an addiction, just a hobby that has me by the balls!

 

[Dor of Sonoma]

I completely understand Poo and Tina's actions. UO has lost a wonderful member of the community in Tina Small. Someone who did not dupe but loved UO. We are all the poorer for it.

As I've said again and again.. being held responsible for buying duped items *without letting us know what is duped* is capricious and arbitrary. It creates a poisonous atmosphere in the game, and leaves the paying customers wanting to "shop" elsewhere.

This is no way to run a business. Customer Service and Marketing should be in panic mode this week at EA. The bottom line of their business is being hit.. and hard.

Unless the master plan for UO is to kill it.... might be the single worst thing they have done to the game.


LORD Yalp of Zento, CTDM

That particular line struck me as being quite descriptive.

Well said, sir.

 

[Poo]

i was kinda disheartened last night when i logged into TS and my guild that is comprised of all old vets was chatting up a storm...... chatting up a storm about which game they should all leave too.

poisonous atmosphere is right, and its scaring me.

 

[Lord Kynd]

i know.
its freaking me out!

hell, i got 2 barbed kits for christmas last year, now im thinking that present is not all it was cracked up to be.
cause i know the fella got like 50 of them in a bag from a merchant site.

11 years of play.
thousands of dollers invested.

lose everything from 2 barbed kits locked down in my sewing room in my castle.

load up the car wife, where driving down to EA's office!

now your rolling two deep.
i'm down if such BS happens.

fix the problems, not the people. stop giving in to whiners trying to run other peoples live's and actually fix the real problems, in the software. (also the nerf whiners please )

screw expansions, events and other garbage.. focus on fixing bug's , for at least 6 months. devote all your resources into the software. then see how many cheaters there are when they can not cheat anymore...
time , not players.

all your doing is satisfying the whiner's and scaring the rest of us into not wanting to do anything anymore( playing).. the peopled banned are banned for maybe 10 minutes tops from what i am reading.. ( the time it takes to make some calls to change ip addy's/isp's and credit info.) that obviously is not solving the problem.

as a devoted player i speak for myself, but i am positive many others feel the same way.

 

[Demonous]

Owning a ''Glacial Spell Books'' will get ya banned iam sure!!!

I used to see a couple of players on Europa parading there glacial spell book at the wbb/ and luna bank.....

Well !!!! im pretty sure this is an OBVOIUS duped item so i stayed well clear of em ...even though there was one for sale in Luna for ages at about 25m!!

KInda anyone with one of these iam pretty sure will have been banned!! and lets be frank dont moan about it if u did...it was a plain simple duped item that u aquired by duping or buying knowing full well it was a duped item u were buying!! [end of story]

pretty sure ur wrong... they don't change the game much, just something that looks nice and isnt rare

 

[Kariny]

Jeremy stated that they really love people with the multiple accounts several times at the last Town Hall. Now that doesn't sound so wonderful after this round of bannings.

Regardless of how you play, pay, or do it's enough to make many people narrow down to one account again. Maybe sit back, play another game, and wait for UO to finish getting it's ducks in a row again.
Starts looking at EVE Online

 

[DevilsOwn]

In their eyes, I guess I'm only worthy of a canned answer and having the following put on my account as the reason for banning it: "Suspected Misconduct - Exploitation."

Oh well...I guess that's life and sometimes it just sucks and all you can do is move on.

I'm guessin' you're worth more than that to quite a few, Tina Small


now..... am I the only person upset because of the phrase Suspected Misconduct???

 

[Dor of Sonoma]

I'm guessin' you're worth more than that to quite a few, Tina Small


now..... am I the only person upset because of the phrase Suspected Misconduct???

No, you are not.

*pauses and then tosses out a grandmother phrase*

It eerily echoes McCarthyism.

*shudders*

 

[Maximus Neximus]

one guy lost a pair of scissors (ya he was devistated)

We can all quit worrying now! I found the scissors in my bankbox!

 

[Tewhai]

As i read through the entire articles in this forum. I have to agree with about 99.99% people's opinions. This is by far the worse action ever taken by EA. They mass banned Innocent people/gamers accounts without giving them any chance to either trash those illegal items, or giving them warnings about what items they own are illegal. Who in the world then know what items are illegal or not. Even EA themselves cannot figure out what items are considered illegal, had they figured out, they could have long eliminated those items themselves. We as a players, or consumers, who actually pay 12.99 per month to play this game, supposingly be able to buy whatever we think is cheap or reasonable at any of our favourite vendors. It is EA job to make sure there are no DUPE ITEMS or ILLEGAL ITEMS in the game, so we players can buy whatever we like without worry of being banned or accounts terminated by EA.

ARENT ANY OF YOU GUYS TAKING LEGAL ACTION AGAINST EA?? Let's get a big bite off their ass, so they wont do something so stupid next time.

LOL

 

[Poo]

a day goes by.

no word from high command.

no word from anyone about anything.

its a uncomfortable silence.
not like that uncomfortable silence ya get when ya fart in church, but more along the lines of the one ya get when your waiting for someone who knows something to step up..... and they dont wanna.

 

[Flora Green]

We can all quit worrying now! I found the scissors in my bankbox!

That made me LOL.

 

[GalenKnighthawke]

Warning: This post is long. Skimming it won't work. So if you don't want to read a long post in its entirety, and do your best to absorb it as a total, not selectively, feel free to not read the post at all. Honestly if it's gonna be an issue it's best to not read it at all than to read it selectively.


Oh my, this is a very strange thing......We have a few paradoxes at work here.

Paradox One

72 to 96 hours ago, the boards were spammed with posts to the effect that duping was the #1 issue in the game, it's already too late, why aren't they doing something.

They did something.

Now, the boards are spammed with complaints about what they did.

They cannot act; catching innocents in a net is always a possibility, especially if one is loose enough with the term "innocent. On the other hand, they cannot not act.


Paradox Two

I'm actually a little nervous myself, honestly....I bought a barbed kit at an auction for Galen's in-game wife Joylah to burn through. I got some nice, nice armor out of that, one piece of which is now on Galen's new suit.

Was that kit duped? Did I put my one, solitary account at risk for buying a barbed kit?

I have friends who collect rares and work house campings. Aren't they at risk, by definition? What if you accidentally get what appears to be a server birth rare from a house camping....And it turns out to be duped?

Wouldn't it help to know more about why they ban some people, and not others...To know their criteria. To be honest, we first have to know how they judge honesty. It isn't all about common sense; sometimes common sense can differ from person to person.

But....Wouldn't it also help the dupers to know their criteria? Wouldn't it help them to stay under the radar? To know how to appear honest?

They cannot tell us more, it would tip their hand to foul people. On the other hand, they cannot not tell us, because how can we be honest and good when we're not certain what honest and good mean in this context?


*shrugs* It's a play of paradoxes at the moment.

To say, "this wouldn't be an issue if they just fixed the problems in the game" is a crock of s__t. And everyone with common sense (there's that term again!) knows it.

What does that mean exactly? Fix all the duping holes? You can't. Not in 10-year old coding and I'd be shocked if even WoW didn't have some duping. UO players are very determined, clever, and innovative. Sadly this includes cheaters too.

So have the team spend all of their time and resources on fixing duping holes, which they may not be able to do in any case? Sure, that way we could complain about the lack of content, expansions, etc.


My personal solution? No one I know personally, consider a friend, and trust has been banned. I don't want to impugn the character of others who have posted....But based upon what's immediately in front of me, no one I would personally go to bat for has been hit. Obviously, then, even if the devs did get some innocent people, the brush is discriminating.

So until they get someone I know I feel 100% comfortable going to bat for, what can I do but keep playing? LS has been very populated since the weekend....Probably people wandering the earth, looking after what they neglected to camp Melissa, and being on the lookout for the next stage of the horrors that await this tattered little Kingdom.

-Galen's player

 

[Priam_Sonoma]

I completely understand Poo and Tina's actions. UO has lost a wonderful member of the community in Tina Small. Someone who did not dupe but loved UO. We are all the poorer for it.

As I've said again and again.. being held responsible for buying duped items *without letting us know what is duped* is capricious and arbitrary. It creates a poisonous atmosphere in the game, and leaves the paying customers wanting to "shop" elsewhere.

This is no way to run a business. Customer Service and Marketing should be in panic mode this week at EA. The bottom line of their business is being hit.. and hard.

Unless the master plan for UO is to kill it.... might be the single worst thing they have done to the game.


LORD Yalp of Zento, CTDM

Smart man, smart man....

 

[Speetz13]

<quoted> Wouldn't it help to know more about why they ban some people, and not others...To know their criteria. To be honest, we first have to know how they judge honesty. It isn't all about common sense; sometimes common sense can differ from person to person.

But....Wouldn't it also help the dupers to know their criteria? Wouldn't it help them to stay under the radar? To know how to appear honest?

They cannot tell us more, it would tip their hand to foul people. On the other hand, they cannot not tell us, because how can we be honest and good when we're not certain what honest and good mean in this context? <quoted>

I think one of peoples arguments, and what would be mine if i got really into this whole thing, would be that they shouldn't have banned anyone that didn't DO da DUPIN'. The rest of items should have been deleted, then on with life. Would this cause people to not get in trouble for somethin that they did wrong? Yes. But it keeps more accounts, keeps innocent people from getting banned, or at least a lot more, and you could still at least punish those people w/o banning them. Suspension, items deleted, and gold taken. 2nd offense ban them. Hmm.

If anyone has read the rest of my posts, I've been semi-repeating myself, but no one has yet to answer me on anything... Oh well.

 

[THP]

The last round of burning houses nobody complained because they were ALL guilty as charged....This time is sooo different

However i cant accept anyone would be banned for owning 200-300 1m gold checks... thats stupid as that amount is easily acheived in 7-8 years play legally and legit too!!!

Also most players of 7-8 years will have many many bods too - quite litterary thousands of bods...so that aint gonna be the cause either....

I for one aint buying jack squat form any player or vendor untill the root of the problem as been exposed

 

[Connor_Graham]

The last round of burning houses nobody complained because they were ALL guilty as charged....This time is sooo different

However i cant accept anyone would be banned for owning 200-300 1m gold checks... thats stupid as that amount is easily acheived in 7-8 years play legally and legit too!!!

Also most players of 7-8 years will have many many bods too - quite litterary thousands of bods...so that aint gonna be the cause either....

I for one aint buying jack squat form any player or vendor untill the root of the problem as been exposed

How many different threads are you going to be posting this conspiracy theory in? I've counted 3 so far. Please let me know so I can skip over the next few I run into.

 

[lucksi]

The bannings seem to have been way more random than usual. I´m glad that I haven´t been affected.

Now don´t get the above statement wrong, I do not dupe.

However, I have bought gold. Quite a bit in fact. I also have a big stockpile of arties. Trying to have one of each and several of the useful ones. I have 15 Bkits (bought at around 2.5M each) in my house. To top that, I own the auction house on Origin (the one in Icelyn). So yes, the chances are high that I do have duped items.

So yes, I´m worried.

But not only about getting banned for something I didn´t do, but that EA will simply shut UO down as they did with another of their online games. And that doesn´t seem so far off, UO just has to get them less revenue than they want and we all will be screwed.

 

[Sarsmi]

Hey Tina, I wanted to PM you but you aren't accepting PMs right now. I started playing Vanguard in January, and for a leveling game it is actually pretty fun. There is player housing, it is chock full of quests, and has hidden depths not immediately apparent. The community is fabulous, I have not experimented with any of the pvp (I'm on a non pvp server), but the classes are well balanced and crafting has a difficult learning curve but is generally useful and rewarding.

It's worth checking out anyways, if you want, go to the sony.com website then go to the dropdown menu for "online games" and pick vanguard.

Er, sorry about pimping another game on the UO boards. I play both games! They each have their strengths and weaknesses, but as a fellow housing enthusiast I thought she might like to try something different that also has player housing.

 

[Sarsmi]

Another game that is more like UO (graphically similar, sandbox type) but with leveling is Ashen Empires, which I've played off and on ever since it was Dransik. I haven't played in many months but I believe that it is currently free except for expansions. That game also has player housing, but it is very difficult to attain so I haven't gotten to mess with it yet.

 

[CroakerTnT]

Wow. Makes me glad I'm poor.

 

[Landicine]

What does that mean exactly? Fix all the duping holes? You can't. Not in 10-year old coding and I'd be shocked if even WoW didn't have some duping. UO players are very determined, clever, and innovative. Sadly this includes cheaters too.

I agree. WoW has dupes according a random search on the internet:

http://www.1up.com/do/feature?cId=3146878

"In World of Warcraft, for instance, most duping tricks involve trading gold or items to another player and then getting your character rolled back to the state they were at before the trade, either by entering bugged instances, making a character with an inappropriate name and deliberately having it reported, or just conning a GM. Some are even weirder. If you ever happen to see a pair of priests taking turns mind controlling someone in Alterac Valley, there's a pretty good chance they're up to something."

So a dupe free game is a myth, like a griffin or honest politician.

 

[Tina Small]

Thank you, Sarsmi. I'm pretty sure I won't be trying any other online games for a long time, but appreciate knowing about the ones that have player housing.

 

[Silly Seadog]

And that doesn´t seem so far off, UO just has to get them less revenue than they want and we all will be screwed.

Arrrr, methinks it not be quite so simple. Methinks there be some bright minds a-plannin' on lettin' UO run aground, then makin' the remainin' playerbase an offer what can't be refused to go to Warhammer. Me also thinks such plans be sure to go awry!

 

[RoycroftLS]

Wouldn't it help to know more about why they ban some people, and not others...To know their criteria. To be honest, we first have to know how they judge honesty. It isn't all about common sense; sometimes common sense can differ from person to person.

But....Wouldn't it also help the dupers to know their criteria? Wouldn't it help them to stay under the radar? To know how to appear honest?

They cannot tell us more, it would tip their hand to foul people. On the other hand, they cannot not tell us, because how can we be honest and good when we're not certain what honest and good mean in this context?

What good would it do to provide more information to people who are already distrusting of your policies? All the accused people have to say is some version of "that's not true" and all the information you have provided to the doubters is for naught. For example,

• Devs: Okay, here is a list of items that these people were caught with.
• The Accused: I didn't have those!
• Skeptics: You could be fabricating those lists, could we have the server logs?
• Devs: Sure, here are the server logs.
• The Accused: That's not my stuff!
• Skeptics: Well, you could also have created a false server to get those logs from...
• Devs: Fine, come to the server host and we can show you directly off a server backup.
• The Accused: I didn't have my house decorated that way!
• Skeptics: A dev could have placed these here to frame the accused.

No resolution to the problem, and now the dupers have a ton more information to use to exploit the game.

 

[Yalp]

What good would it do to provide more information to people who are already distrusting of your policies? All the accused people have to say is some version of "that's not true" and all the information you have provided to the doubters is for naught. For example,

• Devs: Okay, here is a list of items that that these people were caught with.
• The Accused: I didn't have those!
• Skeptics: You could be fabricating those lists, could we have the server logs?
• Devs: Sure, here are the server logs.
• The Accused: That's not my stuff!
• Skeptics: Well, you could also have created a false server to get those logs from...
• Devs: Fine, come to the server host and we can show you directly off a server backup.
• The Accused: I didn't have my house decorated that way!
• Skeptics: A dev could have placed these here to frame the accused.

No resolution to the problem, and now the dupers have a ton more information to use to exploit the game.

I'm much more reasonable than your hypothetical example.

Do you think.. for example a more likely scenario...

1) Duper A starts duping item #1.
2) Player A gets wind of it, notifies EA of duping operation.
3) EA places note on Patch page which loosely reads... We are investigating reports of item #1 being duped. Players found to be in possession of said items are in danger of having action taken against their accounts.
4) Players A-ZZZZZZZZ log in, see the note and avoid purchasing or trading item #1.
5) Duper A can no longer sell item #1 on vendor.
6) Duper A stops duping item #1.
7) EA fixes dupe for item #1 and deletes all duped items #1 from game.
8) Innocent Players A-ZZZZZZZ do not get banned for having duped item.

just an idea.

LORD Yalp of Zento, CTDM

 

[RoycroftLS]

I'm much more reasonable than your hypothetical example.

Do you think.. for example a more likely scenario...

1) Duper A starts duping item #1.
2) Player A gets wind of it, notifies EA of duping operation.
3) EA places note on Patch page which loosely reads... We are investigating reports of item #1 being duped. Players found to be in possession of said items are in danger of having action taken against their accounts.
4) Players A-ZZZZZZZZ log in, see the note and avoid purchasing or trading item #1.
5) Duper A can no longer sell item #1 on vendor.
6) Duper A stops duping item #1.
7) EA fixes dupe for item #1 and deletes all duped items #1 from game.
8) Innocent Players A-ZZZZZZZ do not get banned for having duped item.

just an idea.

LORD Yalp of Zento, CTDM

You forgot a couple steps:
6.5) Duper A starts duping item #2, go back to step #1.
and
9) Mass panic and market failure ensues when EA is forced to issue so many advisories that half the items in the game are suspected of duping.

 

[Yalp]

You forgot a couple steps:
6.5) Duper A starts duping item #2, go back to step #1.
and
9) Mass panic and market failure ensues when EA is forced to issue so many advisories that half the items in the game are suspected of duping.

hee. can't argue with that.. in which case... women and children only in the lifeboats! hee. well said.

Yalpers!

 

[THP]

How many different threads are you going to be posting this conspiracy theory in? I've counted 3 so far. Please let me know so I can skip over the next few I run into.

LOL ...Got to hand it to the young uns' they always make me laugh!!