Groo The Wanderer wrote on Oct 11
th, 2013 at 1:04pm:
Like I said before if there are no repercussions for those who duped other than a vacation then screw that I am duping my balls off next time. Now if there are repercussions, well in all honesty that isn't to be unexpected.
They didn't even bother to delete ill-gained loot in the past - I remember people bragging about pages of +3 tomes a few years ago with the challenge chests. Some consistency around there would be a good start.
Given that I played maybe 2 of the past 6 months and expect to play even less in the future, I don't have much to lose. It's all just zeroes and ones. If they delete ill-gotten gains, no big deal. If they delete legitimate loot, that's one less reason for players like me to ever return or spend money with them.
It becomes a business decision for Turbine. How many people like me are there, and how much do we affect the game? I would guess that jaded players have a lot less impact than we would like to believe, but probably more impact than Turbine would prefer to see.
The scale-based economy is likely permanently dead, and if even 1% of the dupers slip through the cracks, the other 99% of inventory cleanouts will be a failure. Partial punishment and inconsistent responses breed more resentment than no consequences at all.
Going hog-wild deleting other items will only reduce the odds of people like me ever coming back or spending money on the game. That's three premium accounts in the family, total spend of around $500 in the past four years including 3 MoTU. If they hadn't screwed up the game so badly over the past year or so, I'd still be good for $50-100 a year on my account.