It seems that most people here are more concerned with the relative punishment rather than the actual punishment. Personally, I don't care if you are a newb or if you have been doing this for years - if you abuse game mechanics you can expect to be punished. Quite frankly, it seems more like your ego was bruised than anything else. Once again, ignorance is no excuse.

Ego? this is everquest you bacon wrapped asshat

Yes people should be forced to learn every pathing bug here that differs from classic before they start playing, I agree

More like players who know better shouldn't talk their friends who don't know any better into exploiting.

But I realize that isn't as entertaining as blaming Amelinda.

See, we all have different objectives when we play video games. Personally? I haven't had my ego wrapped up in a video game, let alone EverQuest, is quite a few years... I guess that is what happens when you graduate college and get a job.

If the rules were enforced so thoroughly and consistently at the end-game, nobody would have a problem with this. But as things stand, end-game raiders are afforded every opportunity at self defense with infinite rebuttal and extraordinary lenience when caught en masse.

Not to mention the bustling RMT economy that nobody gives a shit about cleaning up. God forbid some group of newbies exploits their way through level 4, but the IB exodus and everyone's favorite EC RMTer may as well auction prices in USD.

If you want to enforce the rules, enforce them on everyone. Don't pick on newbies because you know they won't give you hell about it. An exploit in Blackburrow means nothing to the vast majority of the server. Literally millions of plat changing hands via RMT? That effects everyone. End-game hacking, exploits, training, ninja looting, and general douchebaggery? That effects more than half the server's population.

Issue a no-tolerance warning then perma-ban a few of the big time RMTers and the first few asshats that break the raid rules. Server will be cleaned up in no time. At the moment, nobody fears losing their account. There's no sufficient risk associated with breaking server rules.

IDK, a week having to level an alt or play an old abandoned toon is pretty harsh.

A week for what? What did you even do to earn the week (read: 5 days) of raid suspension?

Nothing special is the answer. The end-game is allowed to get so toxic that eventually the GMs just lash out and it's invariably unfair and inconsistent. 9 out of 10 times a train doesn't get you raid suspended, but fuck you if you're Train #10. Why the entire guild? Why just a random train? Nobody knows.

The solution is to instill some fear. If you think you very well may get banned and lose thousands of hours worth of pixels for training your competition, you won't train them. And if you do, you'll pay the consequences -- not your entire guild. And it'll take you weeks to get back to a point where you can be a factor in the end-game again, assuming you don't quit.

The GMs made a decision to target the guilds, which was a mistake. You target the individuals. Nobody is taking an account ban on the chin for their guild.

You know what would prevent a whole lot of this?

Just agreeing to weekly rotations on mobs and sticking to it.

99% of problems gone.

For all of you that complain? A lot of others find this (well ANYTHING) to be worth it.