[UPDATE #2] DDO: Endless night or endless bannings?

That may be the most awesome (if impractical) idea I've ever heard.

They use to do that in EQ (don't know if they still do) minus the execution part, you would get a message "You are summoned by the Gods" after which you would be ported to a small cell where a GM would explain your crimes and allow you time to explain your side of things.

Oh I miss those days. :-p

UO had a Prison for this, if you were found AFK Macroing, you were teleported to "Jail", they also used it for discussing sensitive matters with people in public places. It was frequented by GM's and Counselors for private meeting as well.

Turbine also did this in AC(1), but the rooms were just boxes.

this would be feasible if turbine actually hires enough GMs for poring through the offenses. now assuming if turbine really does fork up the money, i'd love to see this implemented

Ah, yes, I too wish we would make a come back to the jail system.

Let's see... Ragnarok online had a jail, if you botted/afked/hacked/etc... but your account wasn't considered for a perma ban, they'd warp you to a jail where you would be stuck for up to 3 months (with a talkable NPC that would tell you much much longer to go). People could come and visit the jail and have a change with you, during this time PMs were disabled.

Darkages(by Nexon) actually had a 3 fold justice system. One was player justice, the second one was GM justice and the last one being Admin justice. Players could gather votes from other players to become guard, and when you became a guard, you could exile from certain territories other players, but these were strictly reviewd by GMs. Players who became guards/guard captains/judges had to gather evidence and punish the player if he was AFK or stand a trial. Those were the case for bottings, but in cases of murdering (such as healing an enemy or debuffing a player that ultimately caused the unfair death of the player).

GMs could only jail you for X hours/days and you'd gain a permanent Legend(achievements of your character) saying you got jailed for X reason. Admins could only perma-ban your account, but players could exile you from huge territories for months, and in cases of murder, get you executed by Sgath which would leave a permanent scar (reduces maximum health by X, I think there were other bad stuff).

Astonia 3, if I recall, had a jail too.

Would you also be allowed conjugal visits :-o

You could however allow people visitors and let them talk through a communication device with their guildmates while a guard stands by watching them.... throw in a little "unwanted man love" and you'd have it.

You ban people for exploiting because they profit from cheating. If the didn't know they were exploiting, then they weren't consciously farming through the exploit (probably they weren't farming at all), and thus they didn't benefit. No point banning.

Ignorance of the law is no excuse for breaking it. It is the responsibility of each individual to make themselves aware of the laws. In this case, however, it sounds like the laws were not made available to the players and thus they could not be aware of them.

I agree with the stamping foot part. Three days is no big deal.

WhyTF is this grayed out? it's the sanest comment here.

My LOTRO lifetime account was stolen, and they didn't permaban it. It was a pain in the ass to get it fixed, and they never did get me my stuff back, but they did compensate me in gold. Not as much as I lost, since the thief also wiped out my house chest, but it was enough to repurchase my potions and hunter oils and the like and get back to the fight.

I wouldn't say I was happy with Turbine's solution, and I was pissed that they threw the blame for it on me (upfront stating that there was no way it could've been a hack into their system so it must've been something I did. It wasn't). They took too long; they didn't roll back my characters to the pre-theft state; and they tried to blame me for it. But I am back in the game.