CITIZENS PROTEST IN LUNA

Some citizens are irate about what they believe to be "duped" items.
These items are supposably being illegally produced and sold for huge profits!

A "SIT- IN" is being staged outside of a specific vendor house inside the city of Luna.



The specific item that seems to be causing all the excitement are the coloured Shrouds that can be seen throughout Britiania.



Neon Blue, Purple and other colours have begun to pop up in dungeons and city streets. Protesters seem to be lobbying for devine intervention! They seem unsatisfied by the simple removal of these ungodly items, many citizens are heard to be praying for the heavens to open up and remove the offending citizens from our very streets and inns!

Howlin
TW

RTLFC

On this subject, I've listened to a lot of arguments on both sides. Some very passionate ones and I have a couple of problems with this whole thing.

Number one, for as far back as I can remember, people, heck entire guilds, have been banned for duping. Duping is WRONG, period. It always has been. If you let one duped item in, then what is the difference in letting the rest in? Because this one in particular has no properties? So? It's still an ILLEGAL use of game mechanics to make an item that was never intended. Key word being ILLEGAL. If someone can dupe one item, trust me, they can dupe others. It's just a matter of time. Where do you draw the line between being an ok dupe and a not ok dupe? Number of properties? The fact they didn't crash the shard to do it? Cost? Rareness?

There are items in game that are rare for a reason. Would I give my eye teeth to own a few of these items? Heck yes. I'll admit that. I'll even admit that some of the colors on the shroud are "cool" looking (the deeper colors for example) and, if there were a LEGAL way to obtain these, I'd probably consider owning one, provided I could stop dying long enough to afford it. LOL But making these shrouds is still illegal. If you tell someone this one is ok, then what about the others? I don't understand how it can be illegal to MAKE these but not to OWN them. That is a circular argument. In order to own something, it had to be made or it wouldn't exist. Therefore, if it is illegal to MAKE it, it is illegal to OWN it.

Number two, at this point, if the devs go through and delete the shrouds, once again, who gets hurt? Not the dupers. Not the people who sold these for insane amounts of gold. The people hurt will be the ones who bought them. Buyer beware? Sure. But, while this goes on, the ones doing the illegal activities are getting richer while the ones buying them are left in the cold if they are removed. Should they have known better than to buy them? Possibly, but that's a rather narrow view. By now, yes, most people know that these items were made using an illegal method. But, we have to admit, there are many, many players that don't read Stratics. There are those who haven't heard the uproar and see this item and think to themselves "Wow, a shroud! And someone figured out how to color it!" I think it's a bit arrogant to assume that everyone who owns one knows it was duped. I'd say a good many of the people were themselves "duped" into believing they were buying something rare. In fact, many of the sellers are now saying, the devs said it's ok. I've heard this line myself.

I'm not saying these shouldn't be removed. They should. But we've seen too many times where things are allowed to go on for far too long and the ones hurt when they are taken care of are NOT the ones who knowingly did the act. They still sit on their piles of gold while the only thing accomplished is some poor sucker is out several million that they may have worked very hard to earn. Until the time comes that the ones doing these activities are PUNISHED, the only ones getting hurt are the people that buy these items. It was the same with the tokens a while back. The only people hurt by that were the ones who bought the tokens. Not the sellers.

And what if, now, they fix the way the shrouds are being made and DON'T delete the ones in the game? Let's look at that side of the issue. If that happens, these existing shrouds are going to go up in value. You think the dupers aren't smart enough to figure THAT out? I'd be willing to bet that there are some hanging onto some shrouds in the hope that that's exactly what happens. And once again, the dupers and cheaters win.

Something has to be done to monitor this and STOP IT as soon as it happens. Not wait weeks and months for the damage to be done. These things get reported quickly for the most part, we see emergency publishes happen all the time. Is the problem here because, like the tokens, if you delete the duped ones, you will delete all the shrouds in the game? Ok, fair enough, wait, get the fix right. BUT, in that case, put the word out that these are illegal and put it out loud and clear. Let it be known that the SECOND a feasible resolution is in place, these shrouds are going buh bye. Then let the citizens of Stratics help spread the word far and wide. That or, like with the PURE white cloth, come out and say, we didn't intend this but it's ok to do it and let everyone and their brother make them.


And for the love of Sosaria, please, please, DEAL WITH THE DUPERS. Send a message that this will NOT be tolerated and then stick to it! The longer this goes on, the longer the message becomes, "Dupe away, you'll get away with it."

Just my opinion and feelings, for what it's worth......

What is that?

R..eply
T..o
L..ast
F..or
C..onvience

I know silly isn't it...some people use this to try and avoid flame wars. This way people don't feel a post was directed at them. Another way to avoid the issue is just reply to the Original Contributor.
Hope this answers your question.
TW