UO2 NEWS: THOUSANDS OF PLAYERS ALREADY BANNED [Author: Arcadian Del Sol]
The question was raised on the offcial uo2.com boards about players banned from Ultima Online over it’s three year run. The initial question was “If you were banned from UO, would your Origin (uo2) account be flagged?”
G.Bob, our former updater and now the OSI borgified Community Coordinator for The Game With a Thousand Faces responded with a very clear and concise answer:
If you were banned from UO you will also be banned from Origin.
The thread degraded into a scammers vs victims flamewar, and ultimately the thread was locked. Before the doors were jammed shut, both sides had made some valid points, but the final decision does belong to OSI. Personally, I think this is a great idea, and will only serve to get Origin/UWOO/Nexus/UO2 off on the right foot, but will serve to make its first year less of a hassle for players new to the genre. Ultima Online was plagued with unspotted scamming, unchecked exploitation, and rampant cheating – all while OSI turned the other way. This situation damaged the growth curve of UO (while countless hours were devoted to finding solutions to scamming instead of banning the scammers), and the game started bleeding good players like a speared fish. It was coming to a pre-mature end to its life cycle.
When a convicted felon is released from prison, he has paid his debt to society, and can move on with his life. But for the remaining days of that life, he will always be a convicted felon. He could become a husband, a father, and a good employee – but he will always be a convicted felon. Every credit application, every loan request, and every job application, will force him by law to list in detail what his crimes were, and how long he had to spend in prison for those crimes. Banks can deny him a loan on this point, and employers can offer the job to other applicants on this point – and this is just the way it works. If you are willing to cause physical, psychological, and financial harm to others in order to better yourself, then you have to live the rest of your life with the fallout from that egotistical, selfish world-view. Sometimes, the consequences of poor choices are harsh – but without harsh consequences, you make criminal activity just a little more appealing – a little more tempting.
So I vote in favor of this action: Banned from UO? Then Banned from UO2 or any other products that OSI develops. In fact, I’d like them to find a way to ban these players from shopping at the same mall that I do.