I remember a time when hackers were so few and only appeared situationally. They were usually hired to take on exploiters either by virtue or revenge…

So you never really had to worry that much about them as long as you played fair or stayed out of the huge clan wars. If you saw them, don’t say anything, don’t fight them, let them kill you if they feel like it and kept your mouth shut.

About the only exception were clans that enjoyed live viewers; but they were easy to combat because they sucked at the game for the most part - these weren’t associated with the “regular” hackers. You could get passed the speed hacking easily and remove them from a server.

It was largely a small issue for the majority. But then again, this was a time when servers had higher populations and much variety in players; you weren’t fighting the same people every playthrough. Sure there was still bad blood.

If you remove the hacking element as it is now it’s a different game. Entrenched alphas would still be a thing but you wouldn’t have to watch your loot and back constantly in fear of those anomalies. So many have left the game entirely because of the hacking, it’s the biggest reason. The second is the ToC; my gosh what a tragedy. Then it’s game mechanics.

For those who are fresh going into PVP being raided your first night is almost like a right of passage. If you can’t deal with it perhaps you weren’t meant to be on PVP.

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