The Proper Punishment for Thieves

Like finding out you were thieved and immediately accused another alliance of thieving you only to find out it wasnt that alliance, then never administered an actual apology other then going *oopsy* on gc? I can see how you find it amusing. 

Popularity contests, how to end this?  get rid of GC heh

I'd guess it's safe to assume that those that vote "Nothing - it's all good" and "Return the stolen stuff - the universe is in balance again" thieve active players and want minimal punishment when they are caught. And conversely those that want to raze them from existence probably think thieving shouldn't even be part of the game.

There have been lots of comments about the proper punishment depending on the situation, so here's my story.

I am a relatively small player, 12K pop. Most of my time is spent trading on the market and sending care-a-vans to new players that speak up in GC. I take the wealth I've earned through trading and invest it in my military and diplomatic defenses (I constantly run deep negatives in taxes...so I gotta keep trading!). I actually have a few thousand defensive thieves at the moment and keep my runes locked and loaded.

In the past week or so I was hit by 14K+ orc plunderers, more than my entire population.

Twice.

Across those two raids my runes smoked 650 plunderers, but my defensive thieves were apparently overwhelmed - they did nothing, slack-jawed layabouts that they are - and I had about 20MM in advanced resources stolen. That is a considerable portion of the total wealth I've built. The thief made out like a bandit.

However, during the second raid I managed to track the thief back to their home with the help of a large contingent of very generous players (thanks guys!). With time-stamped screen shots along the way we have proof beyond a reasonable doubt as to the thief's identity.

After consulting with veteran players, I reached out to the thief and his alliance leadership saying that if he admitted to the theft and returned 3x what was stolen, what I felt was reasonable recompense for the 24 hours I had to spend tracking the thief, I'd laugh it off and we'd be done. My intent was to give the resources received as "punitive" damages to those that helped me along the way, as they gave a fair amount of their own time and energy to this stranger's cause.

The thief didn't respond, but his alliance leader did, acknowledging the theft and saying he'd return what was stolen and that I should feel lucky to get that back. Given the circumstances, that struck me as being considerably...less than charitable. However, I thought maybe I was thinking about things differently than most others might and therefore put together this poll. This poll and the associated comments has confirmed to me that my thinking is generally in line with the community. 

Now, I believe I received that borderline-hostile response from the alliance leadership for the same reason I was thieved - because I am perceived as weak. (I hesitate to consider the other option, that the alliance leadership supports their members thieving active players and this is their way of mitigating losses from being caught.)

However, there are a number of alliance heads that have heard my story, many from those that helped track the thief, and I've gotten offers of help to seek redress from no fewer than 6 alliances now (that number seems to grow each day). Apparently some of those alliances that talk about defending the weak on their profile are actually willing to put their money where their mouth is!

I have hesitated to make the identity of the thief (and his alliance) public because frankly given the fact that he preys on players 1/5 his size I imagine it would be highly embarrassing for him (and for the alliance who saw fit to give him a medal). And, of course, I still have hope that my request for 3x recompense will be heeded.

However, that hope is fading...and it might just be that this gets turned over to those that are looking for an excuse for some "good, clean Illy fun". I hear every day how there's lots of big armies with bored generals out there just itching for a bad guy to take down or a just war to fight...they may get their wish.

And here we are...it will be interesting to see what happen's next....