Honestly, the whole issue just makes me sad.
We play this game for the enjoyment of doing fun things with people we like. Yet everyone complains about how dull XP is, how difficult it is to claim an HNM or a land king or whatever, how boring it is to do missions. If you don't want to put effort into that stuff...then just don't play.
If you enjoy the game then play it honestly. Do you value anything in the game you didn't have to work for???
My group beat U/O on our first serious try...that was awesome because we didn't even expect to beat it. We didn't cheat, we just used our game skills that we learned along the way and got very very lucky. It wasn't even a perm or group of ppl who knew each other well. That was very fun....that's why we play.
My LS came very close to beating Tiamat in a straight up toe-to-toe fight the other day. That was great fun. Yeah we all died a lot and we didn't quite win in the end...but we did it honestly and fairly and used the skills we learned in the game. We didn't whine or complain afterward, we just launched into a discussion about how to finish off that last 2% next time.
If you're cheating to beat something...where is the fun in that? What is the fun in a guaranteed win?
Likewise, what is the value of having an item that you acquired dishonestly? Did you earn an item if you or someone in your group cheated to claim the mob that dropped it? Did you earn an item if you unfairly earned the gil to buy it or whatever?
Basically, who the heck are you cheating if you don't play honestly? You are cheating yourself out of enjoying the game. It's pretend money or items on a make-believe character in an imaginary world. It doesn't have any intrinsic value outside of the game. (Well unless you sell your character on Ebay which facilitates someone else's cheating...) The value of an item is really the value you assign to it by your effort.
More importantly, if you do something that cheats other people, then you ruin your ability to play with those people because you've got a bad reputation. Then basically you might as well quit the game, because you can't do much alone after you've alienated everyone.
Does this post do anything to further my campaign to be elected as Server Mom?
