And then people wonder why we can't have EM's anymore... and special event items.

Think of all of the time and headache that went into the dev's time to actually design a fix for the vine cord sandals problem. Look at all the people who know about the issue, and further lost respect for the devs because of the duping problem.

What could have been developed in the time it took them to fix this problem? What could they have been talking about had those sandals not been a topic of discussion?

Gah. Sometimes we're our own worst enemies out here. Something "special" happens... and the mob exploits it, and then blames the game.

Personally, I'm immensely pleased the devs took some time to come up with a solution to even just one of many problems. It restores my faith in a game that for far too long the powers that be would turn a deaf ear and let the Mob rule. Thank you Draconi and team. May your hard work be rewarded with more contented gamers in the future. I hope for future fixes that make honest play worth the effort, and maybe even a well thought out EM event with balanced rewards for all who participate.

Very eloquently put, I always try to convey this point as well. If people would stop abusing the game in extreme ways, we would have alot more content, fixes to PvP and factions, and many other things that people have been asking for.

Weren't the vine cord sandals duped through the changeling bug or something? I seem to recall that changeling dog thing has been accused for duping certain items. If that's the case, the original owner is not always to blame.

they are when they allow it to be replicated and don't report it...

UO got its flaws soo deep from the beginning.. first it was released to early as all mmos.. second it was the first big MMO.. alot of the flaws are auto fixed in other games at start.. Since UO got so many flaws already sometimes one fix creates 2 other flaws(bugs) .. and so it goes on..

Now they got alot of fixes but each fix brings more and more bugs. UO will always be full of exploiters and abilities to dupe. It wont change.. Ever. Since it sits too deep.