source taken from UO.Hall

I didnt post from this thread when it came out ,as I didnt see the relevance at the time.After 3 pages of very valid posts Wilki made a comment.I have included both.The rest can be found at the link above,and are worth a read...tabbitha



Comment

My account was 111 months old. I've played Ultima since I was in 7th grade in middle school. I've enjoyed all my time in Ultima. From playing the non-online demo with the glass sword, getting owned by PvPers outside Trinsic Gates, to becoming a PvPer and feeling Like I was the baddest thing to touch Brittania, trying build up mass amounts of gold and farm and hunt alot (Still remember selling 1 Million gold on Ebay once for 200$) and recently in the last 2 years turning into a Roleplayer and playing with a more mature crowd. Ultima Online offers you so many different aspects of the game that you can play for years and years and still just start to scratch at the surface of what it offers you.

Well Recently I went out and bought some artifacts for my mage. I paid 27 Million for a Hat of Magi and 45 Million for an Ornament of Magician. Just a few days ago I was banned. Unlike the exploiters my house still sits, and my account just says suspended. I don't know if thats because I purchased stuff instead of exploited stuff. My question is How were we supposed to know (And I know many people were banned with similar circumstances) The Ornament of Magi didn't say "Duped" and I will admit the price may be around 5M Cheaper then normal but I bought during the Halloween outbreak of cursed items and I figured that was why prices had lowered. I was aware like many people that duping was going on and I avoided the bright colored Shadows of Shrouds ect.

I was totally excited about the bannings at first (I actually wasn't banned till later that night after UO had already posted they banned everyone) I think that alot of people who were cheating the game got what they deserved. I just think that along with alot of those scammers, alot of good long term members went down as well. I emailed and just asked what was the reason of my banning (I just kind of figured it was from purchasing artifacts because I really hadn't done much more other then Roleplay some,and even now I still don't have an answer) I received an email that said they couldn't tell me and not to email back again because I wouldn't receive a response from GM Drake. I just feel betrayed or let down from a company that I gave so much $$ and also gave so much faith too during all the high and low times of Ultima Online.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wilki has confirmed that purchasing a handful of duped items would not have been enough to land your account in trouble.

Speaking of Wilki, you don't want to be telling a sob story on the forums. What you want to do is to e-mail him at wilki@uo.com. He has asked that people who wish to question their ban e-mail him, and he will look into the matter.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wilki_EA VIP
UO Designer
No one was banned for buying duped artifacts, unless they did so in mass quantities. We're ultimately responsible for the bug that allowed the dupe to occur in the first place, so it'd be pretty unfair to ban players who unwittingly bought a few artis or other high end items for personal use, etc.

However, item sellers who bought a LOT of duped items (as in you go to their house/backpack and see a bag with a 3 dozen covetous statues, 20 hats of the magi, 15 ornies, and some "unique" event items thrown into the mix) were given no quarter. While the dupers may have exploited this bug, it was the item sellers who truly did the damage to the game. Any one of them that tries to tell you, "But I only bought items from a supplier, I didn't realize where they came from," needs to be smacked upside the head, and then tarred and feathered.

UO is a GAME, not a freakin' business, and while we don't ban players for selling things for cash, we're not going to look very kindly on those who harm the game in doing so. And honestly, are any of these "trustworthy" brokers and item sellers with "years of UO experience" really going to tell us with a straight face that they didn't know those bags of 125 character transfer tokens and the bags full of extremely rare event items (i.e. bags with more of them than should even exist in all of UO) were duped?

Equine Puckey!

If those people bother to email me, they might as well call just call 976-WHAH, because that's pretty much going to be my reaction when I read their "so sad" emails.

To this date, I've unbanned ONE player, who had ONE account banned (out of 3), where a genuine mistake was made. I've been going through the players who have emailed me so far, one by one, to see if we made a mistake somewhere else. Tonight, I got an email from a "lady" who claimed she had never exploited, and was just a nice mother of 2 who loved UO. Pfft. How about that bag of 30 each valorite hammers, barbed kits and heartwood dovetail saws we found in her house? Or the fact that the account she was trying to keep hidden from us had a bag with 124 hat of the magis in it, along with lots of other artifacts?

To those people: DON'T BOTHER EMAILING ME! I wasn't born yesterday, I don't fall for the lame emo emails, and we're simply not going to release your account with 100's of duped items on it because you spun a really unconvincing story about how you just bought your account from your little brother/roommate/ex-girlfriend and didn't know your house was already being used to store those 500 artifacts. And yes, we DO know about your other "hidden" accounts. And no, changing your IP, using an internet cafe or using different payment methods won't help you either. We WILL find you, so you might as well just stop wasting your time and go find another game to exploit. Or, I have a better idea - how about if you go find something productive to do with your lives? That's the best idea of them all.

And honorable players - please, STOP BUYING from the item sellers who were "out of stock" last week. These parasites wouldn't be perpetuating this fraud if no one bought their stuff in the first place.

If any of this sounds harsh, well, I suppose it is. I love this game, and I really don't like people who try to do it harm.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To OP


Please send me another email with your stratics account on it (along with your uo account name), so I know who you are (if you haven't already.)

I've been busy with other work this week, and haven't managed to get through the dozen or so people who have emailed me claiming they were banned unfairly. I meant to do it much sooner, but other more urgent work has kept me from wrapping it up.

I always say there are two sides to every story and there is the truth. Ithought something was up right from the get go when you hear the sob story. In my line of work I have heard it all, and later 99% of the timet he person was dirty in some way shape or form. I appalud UO and Wilki for not bending so easy when someone complains. If he loved the game so much he would not have even thought of doing anything to get himself banned from it. Just my 2 cents.