Favoritism causes more problems then it creates. I cannot claim friends with GMs, Devs, or others in charge, and what I lost was a gift from a friend of mine who, to the best of my knowledge, earned the money completely legally. I'm not bothered by this; However, if someone could keep legally obtained funds just because they are friends with the people up top would bother me to no end: Just because I haven't made the right friends, they were spared from something that effected me. I would think "What unfair favoritism!", and probably be writing the exact opposite of the post you just made, complaining that if I got wiped after someone else abused something, so should everyone else.
I wasn't even online when one person abused the bug and ruined it for all the honest players. However, I'm fine with losing the money--I'm not completely broke, and still have some money, and it's a recoverable loss. Certainly an easier thing to recover from then the huge inflation that would inevitably happen after that many trias entered the economy all at once.
However, the general view that we as players are all likely to cheat at the first opportunity isn't true; unfortunately I find this is a prevailing view among those who're in charge of keeping cheaters down in mmorpgs. I can understand the need to be suspicious due to those few who ruin it for the rest of us, but the prevailing idea that everyone can't be trusted is a bad one. Much better to consider what is known about the player before assuming they are going to cheat, lie, and steal to get ahead in a game. It's again a case of a few ruining it for the rest of us, but if it's just a few, then don't allow people to abuse that, but don't then act like everyone is guilty. The few are guilty, everyone else is perfectly fine; I'm willing to sacrifice things to prevent a few from abusing them, but I'm not willing to then be lumped into the group with those few in the minds of those in charge, at least openly. It's like if the police take you into custody because you might fit a vague description of someone who committed a crime, and you know you're innocent. It's an inconvenience, sure, and a pretty scary experience, but you'll be out of there soon enough, and afterwards there's likely to be one less lawbreaker on the streets. The police don't treat you like a potential criminal once you've been cleared as someone who isn't a suspect though, they apologize for the trouble they caused, and send you on your way. It'd be nice if those running mmorpgs could do the same; apologize for the inconvenience caused by a small minority of cheaters, and have everyone move on.
Edited to add:
You can't trust the public. Ever. Individuals have the potential to be good, but the public as a whole are evil, selfish, greedy and stupid- which is something you can count on.
I actually find the public more reliable to do the right thing then individuals, when faced with the fact that what they're doing is, at it's heart, wrong. A major incentive against committing a crime or preforming some other bad deed is social pressure--something that the public creates, which I think needs to be heavier while on the web... many think they can do whatever they want on here, because nobody will see them--this is individuals causing problems, not the public as a whole..
