Every so often I hit up the MapleStory fan-forums just to see all the bullshit I’m missing out on now that I’m rehabilitated. Apparently lately there’s been a bug in a few of the donation NPCs that have basically allowed packet editors to generate garbage items in unlimited amounts in seconds, which you can then sell to an NPC to effectively generate massive amounts of in-game currency out of thin air.
The perpetrator of this action decided to go through and buy up everything in several of the in-game markets, effectively crushing the economy but also drawing attention to his/her actions. What’s interesting is the publisher’s response, which appears to indicate they have some kind of an item/transaction log now, and are working to reverse all the broken transactions. It sucks for people caught up in it, because many of them were very adversely effected, but at least they obviously have a way of telling what is going on with your items other than just the current state of your inventory.
Ages ago when I lost some $300 (that’s real currency, USD) worth of imaginary shit, there wasn’t a damn thing they could do about it. It’d be nice if they had a way to return that to me, but they basically won’t ever do it, particularly since I liquidated all my stuff and quit. It was a bitch tracking down someone willing to buy gold online from a complete stranger, but once I did the transaction went smoothly. Imaginary property and imaginary currency paid for my kid’s stroller, so it’s all good.