With all the grind in the game (and more grind they recently added) they have basically created a pay to win game. A common concept to pay to win is that you make it a heavy grind for those who don't want to pay to get things or you can just use real $$ to pay for what you want. By making everything a grind coupled with the fact that there is zero enforcement on rmt they have created this exact type of system. The sad part... they are not the ones makeing the money!!
The way I look at this is that different people have different thoughts about fun. For some people, fun is to try and develop a new char in a different shard, a tamer of all things, make new friends there etc. Just something to take your mind away for perhaps 2-3 hours a week for most of us, and away from frequently high tension and stress jobs etc. Different people like different things. The fact also is that we got older, and on one hand we don't like a too hard game, and on the other not too easy. If we get bored I bet it is because of the same old thing doing over and over, for years.
I watched this game evolve over the years. It is generally pretty tough game overall, depending on what you want to do. For higher end things, you will need to grind. But you,ll get there if given the time.
The most fun is actually the community in the game, and the interactions with other players.
As for the RMT, to buy high end stuff..it is meaningless to pay RL $ for stuff, since the intrigue, the challenge and the adrenaline of honestly getting your items, is gone that way. They might as well install and play their own sever and make themselves "god" and get every item imaginable, and kill DF in Doom and anything on Roof in just one hit, and being immortal. That is completely silly and pointless type of thing!
Also it is very hard to do anything to RMT. How would you correct that? Hire a lawyer? What would they charge and what the results would be? Over how many years? Anyway RMT is hard to control. I doubt that the devs are happy with the RMT, but right now they are hard to contain. Also I wonder how much "business" they get?
Also I would not be too surprised if the Devs come up with some solutions for this that may work.
I think most of us ignore their spams in game. I think there are probably RMT vendors for every MMO in existence. It is not exclusive to UO. I suspect most devs just choose to ignore them due to the legal complexities and $$$$ it would take to go after them.
Fridge: Have fun and enjoy your game. It is still a fun game. It still is for me, after all these years. Because my goal is not to win. I still have low end items and junk. The objective is to just chill out when I can and have fun.
However I can see people's point about being burned out with the game..Its still cool.
