Thankyou donbzm; you made your point factually and constructively, and it looks like many people are now starting to come out of the woodwork to support you on it. Look Im going to be forth coming here in saying that I personally dont play online. However, I have been on the forum long enough now that I have seen some of the fallout from these issues. And I can tell you now, I have seen it turn good constructive members into bitter and resentful ones, and I have seen it drive good players to leave the game through sheer frustration. Some of the biggest concerns I have been hearing about for god knows how long now are cheating and exploiting (on PvP especially), and blocking locations on PvE.
So I guess it ultimately all boils down to what should we do about this. I am not going to pretend to be an expert at managing online mediums and affairs, and as most members have come to realise over time, I have a very black and white, clear cut perspective in the way I analyze things. So if any of these sound like stupid or far flung ideas, well…I did give fair warning.
*I would like to see Funcom (who I respect and care about more than they realise) assign either one, or a handful of dedicated employees to investigating reports of online cheating and exploiting on a week to week basis. I dont care how many or how few they get through in the course of a single day or a week. It is not about catching every single last troublemaker, as such a thing is beyond their scope as a company. It is about saying the nonsense stops here; we will be checking claims and servers at random, and if we find proof that you are cheating or exploiting, you WILL be punished!
*For anyone found cheating or exploiting (or on PvE blocking off locations), do just that. Punish them accordingly and consistently across the board. My suggestions? You get one (1) warning. Accompanying this warning, the offenders should then recieve periodic checks, and the offenders characters skin colours are changed to fluoro pink, baby waste brown, or some other aesthetically reprehensible colour for a fixed period of time. Not only will they stand out like a sore thumb in PvP, the rest of the server can more easily monitor them accordingly. A second offence should be a mandatory ban from all official servers. All cheaters and exploiters should be eliminated without mercy. People will say but…but we will lose a lot of players. We have been and are continuing to lose a lot of players now because of these issues! And ask yourselves: if we must lose one or the other, which class of player we would rather see go…??
*Create a clear set of rules and guidelines for each mode and add them to the games menu. Set a date, and make it abundantly clear to all players on officials that if you are in violation these rules after that date, you will be punished accordingly.
For the record here, I think that Funcom is a great company, and they doing a great job proportionate to the size of their company. They actively listen to their player base, are very approachable, have a great business model as far as new content goes, and take feedback and suggestions onboard. And I love this game sooo much! I dont claim to have all the answers. And this may seem harsh, but it has to start somewhere, it has to start sometime. Draw a line in the sand and follow through with it.
PS-sorry for the wall of text…