If there’s one thing I learned in my time working in MMO support, those who are suspended or banned always do something to warrant it. There are usually enough checks and balances to ensure that if someone is seen doing something they shouldn’t, their suspension or ban is well deserved. The unfortunate side affect is that these people are always able to go public with their version of the story while the GM’s hands are tied and aren’t allowed to comment publicly about what the idiot really did.

Even though the game is less than a month old, The Old Republic has already had to endure its first PR nightmare caused by an exploited who played the victim to the whole Internet. Over the weekend an email appeared online from someone who claimed that he was permanently banned from the game for going to Ilum before he was level 50. He even produced a screenshot of his “banning”, which people were immediately able to peg as fake due to him simply writing an email out in Outlook and taking a screenshot of the text.

As you’d expect from such a claim, the Internet exploded with fears of unfair bans in The Old Republic. As the CS department isn’t allowed to speak up for themselves, the Community Team had to douse this fire by making a board post explaining that, yes, the dumbass was suspended (not banned) but it wasn’t just for going to Ilum prior to level 50. It turns out the guy was actually exploiting the chests on the planet, which caused a big problem with the economy on his server.

So in summary; an idiot gets caught exploiting in TOR, he fakes an email to make BioWare look bad and him the victim, and then BioWare reveals to the world that the guy is an exploiter who deserved his suspension. For all the trouble and the PR nightmare his falsified email caused, maybe a stronger penalty is deserved?