Character Retorals

[Zanagodly]

I was told this guy in platinum got his old warrior restored. From what I was told, someone who he shared his Account Password , rerolled his character to level 0. Apparently he left for like 8 months or so, and comes back fully restored. A lot of people are happy he's back, but others seem pretty pissed off because he has admittingly shared his password and so many people have been brushed off before when asking for restorals of charcters/items lost due to someone messing with their account. Anyone have opinions either way based on this information or further information you may know on the matter? Seems like another case of favoritism, but again, I only know the facts mentioned.

Mike

[Soulpieced]

If "any" character gets restored for any reason, I believe there has to be some amount of favoritism. However, plat sucks so nobody in the general populous of prime gives a damn.

[Zanagodly]

lol, can't agree that plat sucks. The only thing prime outweighs plat in is population, and based on what I read just on these boards, I'm thankful.

[Soulpieced]

Exactly the problem. If there are maybe 30 people in plat all day vs. the average of say 700 in prime, something like a character restoral in the smaller population means less. Also because plat has been existence for much less time.

[Zanagodly]

I think the restoral means more in a smaller population, because the large population in prime is so impersonal. A character played in plat fairly regularly is at least always recognized if not well known by the rest of the community.

[Kurili]

Which also means, if someone in Plat decides 'you dont belong there', you can either become a hermit, or leave.

[Zanagodly]

Exactly. Blacklisting is obviously much easier, and people will make your life hell if they choose to.

[Ben]

I think with as much money as people pay for platinum they should restore your character and give you a happy ending (if you know what I mean).

[peam]

Platinum's the suck. A waste of resources that caters to a very, very limited group of players, specifically a few who like to whine about how "YE OLDEN DAY" has been lost.

Platinum should be closed, and the resources it uses should be used to enrich the real game with events/merchants.

That is all.

[Toad]

If Platinum wastes resources on those who whine about the olden days (and it likely does...) then Prime wastes resources on people that play a role-playing game yet couldn't role-play out of a paper bag. Hopefully we'll soon have Gemstone: The Fallen, so we can waste resources on people who like playing a glorified chatroom.

Each type of person has their own type of fun. Gemstone was created as much for those Platinum mooks (if not more so) than it was for you.

[Drew2]

I don't think restorals is a word. I think you're looking for restorations.

-Tayre
Putting his 2 cents in, wanted or not!

[Dighn Darkbeam]

I also am eagerly awaiting the release of Gemstone: Shattered. I will not bother to play a single minute in there, but it will remove from the game a large part of the players I would rather not play with.

I am not insulting anyone that would play, as I could see how a gaming environment like that could be large amounts of fun. Even some roleplayers might head over there for some random acts of violence, but that only means they will get it out of their system and come back to GS:Prime looking for some meaningful interactions.

Kris na Su'ta

[Captain Amby]

that makes me pissed off that he got everything back. I've been hacked uhh 3 times. Once was my fault, my boyfriend at the time wanted to get me a ticket to Ebons gate for my birthday present. I didnt realize he changed *all* my info when he got me the ticket, to himself just in case things didnt 'work out' between us. The other two times now have been hackers. I woke up once in a different town with absolutely nothing on my character's body and no money. The Gods did nothing to help.

[peam]

The only way Gemstone: Shattered will draw away troublemakers in Prime is if the GMs actually crack down on actions that are against policy in Prime.

Just opening the gate and giving the herd the option of moving isn't enough. They're going to have to take the whip to them.

[Weedmage Princess]

For one, I'm gonna say thank GOD for Platinum. With all the morons running about (and there are PLENTY), the Gemstone I enjoyed so much (when I started playing) turned into something else. I tried starting over in Prime, and was miserable. The people who were too busy being OOC, powerhunting, etc. BY FAR outnumbered (and still do, I have been in there recently) the people who actually bothered to stay in character and interact with others.

Some might call it whining about the "Good Ol' Days", and that's your opinion, but lots have changed since then, and in the opinions of some (not all, but I will include myself in that category) it's changed for the worst. Atleast we have the option of enjoying the game again, although we have to dig a little deeper into our pocketbooks. I resent being told Platinum should be done away with because YOU don't like it. I know quite a few people who feel that way about Prime too..heh. Quite frankly, I rerolled an 85th level character, and even if I could get her back, I ***STILL*** wouldn't go back to Prime.

Onto the subject at hand. I really don't know how I feel about it. I mean, I am genuinely happy for the person who got his character back. I rerolled my level 85 ranger in frustration, and have regretted it very much after that, so on that level, I can appreciate the "loss." However, like already mentioned, so many others have been (or claimed to have been, atleast) in the same situation, and have been denied.

I'll say what I do know. Simu has ways of determining if an actual "hacking" took place, as in, the account was entered unwillingly...or if it was a matter of someone with access doing the owner of the account dirty. Also, as also mentioned, the character base there is a lot smaller, so it's easier (I'd imagine) to investigate a situation like that, and do a restoral, if need be.

Those are just possibilities...I don't think anyone outside of Simu staff knows for sure, so all this is, is empty speculation really. It would be nice if Simu would come out and give a reason for what they've done...to quote someone on the Plat boards, though we might be happy to see this person back, it leaves others kinda feeling like the red-headed stepchild...and the less that is said, the more it looks like another case of "who you know."

[Edaarin]

Didn't Blades go demonic...? Or was that just some crazy rumor?

[Weedmage Princess]

Originally posted by Tayre
I don't think restorals is a word. I think you're looking for restorations.

-Tayre
Putting his 2 cents in, wanted or not!

Restoral is a word; a noun in fact. You can look it up at Merriam-Webster online. Means the same thing as restorations though. Heh.

[vigilante]

Originally posted by Edaarin
Didn't Blades go demonic...? Or was that just some crazy rumor?

Blades was in the Landing last night. He never exactly went demonic....but he had some GM 'assistance' on the night he originally said he was leaving, about 2 to 2 and a half years ago. The whole thing was roleplayed out, with Titaniia groveling for the spotlight as usual... Then he returned a few months later and confused everybody. Funny how that works. Whether the Blades that was at HS last night is really him or a zombie of him is unknown, I didn't ask because I really don't care anymore.

[Drew2]

Originally posted by Weedmage Princess
Restoral is a word; a noun in fact. You can look it up at Merriam-Webster online. Means the same thing as restorations though. Heh.

Doesn't matter either way cause he said retorals, so there!

[peam]

I'm pretty sure Blades is Blades. I've seen no change in his behavior that would indicate otherwise.

Platinum is still a waste of resources.

[Captain Amby]

I tried plat for a while. I found it so boring and obnoxious I gladly returned to Prime.

[Soulpieced]

The main reason nobody cares about Plat is because it lacks a real history. According to the plat peons, people such as Blades, Starsnuffer, Bleeds, Oghier, Dreamweaver, etc. never existed. Hell, half the names of the streets in the landing are named after ice agers.

[CrystalTears]

They should have created plat to mirror how Gemstone used to be when it first started. Since they "love" how things "used" to be, let them deal with living in just a couple of towns, renaming all the streets, and creating their own history.

[Soulpieced]

And I agree that your idea (CrystalTears) would have been much better than the "separate but not" entity it is. I still feel the whole thing is not, and never will be, the "real" Gemstone.

[Prestius]

>> Platinum is still a waste of resources. <<

Actually, I'm glad Plat (and premium, for that matter) are there. Do you really think that the marginal cost between running Plat and Prime is anywhere near the fairly high marginal price difference?

No way. It costs almost nothing to run Plat, compared to Prime. The way I see it, Plat (and Premium) subsizes a lot of the rest of Prime. You can thank them for keeping your Simu bills down.

As for Shattered, I have a log I'll post later from the Beta Test the other day that looked to me like a preview of the behavior we'll see in GS: Shattered.

-P

[Weedmage Princess]

Originally posted by Tayre
Doesn't matter either way cause he said retorals, so there!

Bah! And again I say, Bah!!! :flamed:

Hee

[Dinara]

This didnt only happen in plat. There is a whole thread in the prime Rivers Rest folder about some girl who recently got her account hacked and her character sent demonic being restored.

And I personally love plat. Dont have to compete for a hunting area, I can power hunt or sit and rp as much as I want without someone whining about it, and snerts dont last very long because decaying there actually means something. As for the history we do have a separate history but it just doesnt start the same as prime because they have had 16 years to develop histories there and only what 5 here in plat. We have a museum dedicated to the storylines and events that have happened in plat and its growing all the time. The current WON is even different than what is happening in prime. But to each its own you dont have to love plat.

[Weedmage Princess]

Actually, I think the idea of having Plat not have the other areas is pretty stupid. As far as half the town in the Landing being named after Ice Agers, and these Ice Agers not being in Plat..I think that point is pretty silly as well. A counter argument can be made that the TOWN itself already existed, it wasn't "founded" by people currently residing there.

[Dighn Darkbeam]

Until reading this post I would of gladly switch to plat if I could take Dighn (levels and all) over without penalty. Though the points made about the characters such as Starsnuffer and what have you never existing has brought up serious doubts. Much of what Gemstone consists of is the history of those that came before us.
Having to pretend they never existed is like a history class reviewing just the events and leaving out all the actual people.

Also Dighn's player will at times get drunk and cross the line a bit farther then his norm, angering alot of people. Im guessing that would come back to haunt me alot more in Plat then it would in Prime. Oh well

Kris na Su'ta

[Weedmage Princess]

I don't know, like I said, I always thought of it as the town already existing, before the current residents came there. Those people passed on, moved on, etc. That doesn't mean the town no longer exists, just those people who founded it are no longer there. That was my counter argument, and how I always perceived it.

Also, I'd like to point something else out about Plat...something someone brought up to me in IMs a short time ago. People tend to think Plat is just a bunch of RP elitists. (a la the Hearthstone Step-sitters) That couldn't be further from the truth. You don't have to be this outstanding RP'er or anything of the sort. All that's asked pretty much is you stay IC, from my experience. As far as your "player" crossing the line when drunk...well I can't say I know exactly what you mean by that so I can't make any comments on it.

[Parkbandit]

Isn't someone that remains in character considered a good roleplayer anyways? Or must they involve themselves in quests and PROs to be considered good roleplayers?

[Dighn Darkbeam]

I don't know, like I said, I always thought of it as the town already existing, before the current residents came there. Those people passed on, moved on, etc. That doesn't mean the town no longer exists, just those people who founded it are no longer there. That was my counter argument, and how I always perceived it.

Who cares what Helga or that teller behind the bank did when there was not any adventurers around? Sure the BASE history was there, but that is often static. The players make the living history, adding more than even the best doc can do.

Its a bit odd to think that in plat, without the Dhe'nar becoming official, the Dhe'nar could represented by only one or two people that cannot point to any works of the Obsidian Tower as background without claiming it as their own. Im sure there would be loopholes and such to allow for them, but seems like alot of work instead of just taking a snapshot of Prime's history and using that the first day Plat came about. People come and go from public sight all the time, their deeds do not become erased just because they arent around to brag about them.

Kris na Su'ta

[Weedmage Princess]

Originally posted by Parkbandit
Isn't someone that remains in character considered a good roleplayer anyways?..

Right. Note in my post I used the words "ELITISTS" and "OUTSTANDING", not good. ;)

Dighn, I'm not exactly sure how to address your point, not having much knowledge about Dhe'nar, their history, or what the people who play Dhe'nar in Plat make of the Obsidian Tower, I can't even say for certain that they acknowledge it in Plat. I might it may be regarded as a landmark, but not sure...I don't believe it's part of a PRO or anything though. (anyone who knows feel free to correct me if I am wrong)

[Kurili]

There is no Obsidian Tower in Plat. The Dhe'nari there refer to Sharath or Rhoska-Tor, since they are in the official documents. Unlike the Great Houses which are used for running messages...the Tower just isnt there.

[Dighn Darkbeam]

I have once before visited a very well designed website regarding the Platinum Dhe'nar playerbase. It seemed to include a caste structure similiar to the Tower and had a very good amount of information regarding the culture.

I realize this doesnt mean much as sites like these get created and abandoned nearly every day. Shame, as the idea of heading over to plat was for a time always bouncing around my mind.

Kris na Su'ta

[Jenisi]

Well to get back on topic, I'd like to say that I highly HIGHLY believe in GM favoritism, I have seen it personally. And if somone gets restored.. It really upsets me. I got hacked a few years ago by a few ladies .. (watch out for Oceanette's player, don't accept files from her *smirk*) Anyways, i had a file sent to me with a virus attached, no one else had my password and I didn't log on with the website or have my password saved on my computer, they locked out the people involed.. but refused to do anything for me. Even though it was proven I hadn't shared any information and that I had been indeed sent a virus. Anyways, if that wasn't reason enough for a charachter restoral, I don't think anything is. They claim they only do it for if there is a error in the system that cost you to lose your charachter due to simutronics's fault. Anyways, just my little story. I quit for a good while after that happend.

Angela - Jenisi

[Captain Amby]

had the same experience as you, Jenisi. And I really believe there is favoritism. For the GMs suspected who did that to me. And did nothing cept fine him 2 million silvers. Oh.. and they put a GM to watch over all my conversations and record them. They later wrote to me about several of my personal conversations as 'proof' that I somehow knew the hackers. Which I did not and do not still today.

[Zanagodly]

Its no wonder she hacked you Jenisi, I sent you a picture of her and you posted it on amihotornot.com her average was like a 1 out of 10.

[Edited on 16-Jul-2003 by Zanagodly]

[Captain Amby]

::Laughs!:: She must have been so mad. That's too funny...

[Jenisi]

I did that afterward.

[Jenisi]

And it was 3.2.

[GS4Gurl]

post the log post the log!!!

[PassinBy]

I think the bottom line is that Simu is a business. When they realized the player wasn't such an addict and did NOT recreate the character (in effect, starting over), Simu did what they had to do to keep the income from his account.

Really, its not unusual. Simutronics allows the rules to be bent very easily when they stand to lose accounts completely, especially the high end, platinum, accounts.

How do I know that? My plat accounts are bought. Simu knew they were being sold, they laid down some simple requests for me to follow (keep out of sight for a few months, rename the character during that time, stay off the fame lists). Hell, they are even letting me change the characters names back after that time.

[Bobmuhthol]

Stop using the word hack. Nobody gets hacked.

[Xcalibur]

Originally posted by ElanthianSiren
The most frustrating thing about being hacked and having to deal with SIMU is that they have a "You are guilty until proven innocent" policy which is a second slap in the face if you've been hacked cuz you're already pretty upset.

I'm not sure how to feel on this issue. On one hand, I find it pretty aggitating that someone was hacked and all was fixed in an unarguably favoritistic fashion (opinion based on my own experience of having to corner a low-life and pay him money to get stolen property back after being hacked by person unknown to be prior to being hacked).

However, on the other hand, I'm really happy for the person who had their character restored because I know what it feels like to have your character messed with. Also, on the other hand, the night I had the property returned, I had several GMs watching the ass that hacked me while I confronted him. I don't know if they put pressure on him, and will never know, so I just tell myself they did and were looking out for me (he gave the property in question back for about... 1/5th of its worth), and occasionally, it makes me feel better.


-Melissa

by the way, i think it's not just simu that think that you are guilty until you proved otherwise. Internet seems to bring that huge paranoïa everywhere.

[Bobmuhthol]

I told you not to use the word hack. It's really a blatant lie when you say hack in almost any sentence.

[Bobmuhthol]

<<And Bob, if nobody got hacked, Semantics and McAfee wouldn't have the business that they do. People get hacked everyday. You can go to their websites and look up the statistics as well as the their assessment of the threat of a particular virus to your system. After the anti-viral to what I was sent came out, it was listed at very high risk for individual users.>>

Viruses aren't hacks. If you had IP and port blocking software, you stop the risk of being 'hacked'. Too bad you never WERE hacked, and hackers go after websites. Then they write a message saying the website was hacked. And it's a big competition to see who can hack the most/best. I doubt someone 'hacked' you and managed to take your Simutronics password.

[Red Devil]

Originally posted by Captain Amby
::Laughs!:: She must have been so mad. That's too funny...
. . . musta been real funny when you were hacked in another town with no items huh? i'd just like to say stfu.

[Bobmuhthol]

Nobody knows what hack means...
:( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :(

[Bobmuhthol]

A hack is a forceful connection to another system. What you have is a file. A plain little keylogger file. Oh, boo hoo. I have a keylogger, too. I didn't hack myself, did I? SHIT!

[Bobmuhthol]

Get Norton. Didn't you think of that before you even got a computer?

[PassinBy]

Well to get back on topic, I'd like to say that I highly HIGHLY believe in GM favoritism, I have seen it personally. And if somone gets restored.. It really upsets me.
--------------------------------------

I dont know if I would call it favoritism or not. I know that some folks would scream that I got preferential treatment by being allowed to buy Platinum accounts, however, I dont know any GM's, I dont go to the Cons, none of the normal "Favorite" type of stuff.

I DO however keep a pretty low profile...Im just here to have fun, not to be involved in the storylines, not to piss and moan over every little change that comes along, Ive never been warned, only assisted a couple of times, I guess that I am just below average in the attention wanting/getting area. So when I told the GM's that I was buying accounts from a person who WASNT quiet, DID complain about every change, who pissed and moned, then it was seen that I was a good choice. Simu kept two accounts active and if the person I bought the accounts from ever comes back, they can get his money for new accounts too.

Pretty good business sense.

[Red Devil]

Originally posted by ElanthianSiren
I had 3 things:

A keystroke recorder
A remote program
And a sniffer.

They all came in one neat java script.

I assume you'd want us to call it cracking or a cracker? Sounds too much like a derrogatory word for a white person.

-Melissa

no cracking is cracking cd-keys for programs and shit its called getting nailed by a little dumbass n00b who got your dumbass n00b self to download the freakin keylogger in the first place