About 6 months after Diablo II came out, I was a master trader. Maybe not the best, but like I’ve said previously on this site, I was honest and fairly fair, which automatically disqualifies me from being #1. The ones with the most money/loot/whatever worked on a different moral and ethical system than I did. I simply cared about one thing. Getting the best stuff I could for my character, which I then played with.

So this early in the life cycle of Diablo II, there was still an element of mystery about the very best of the best weapons. I played an amazon as my first character almost exclusively. I learned great long range skills from playing Diablo and preferred that method to any other. Obviously the amazon’s specialty weapon is the bow, and this was still at a time when the very best unique bows weren’t yet created, or much less rarely, dropped. It was still all about the damage of the Rare and random weapon with great additional stats.

At this time there were no runes, was no expansion, and with a good bow you could rip through anything the game had to offer. So I traded other items for the currency back then, which were the unique rings called Stones of Jordan (are they still?). A Stone of Jordan (SOJ) was a powerful thing back then. There were few and I’m not sure if they were being duplicated yet and put back into the market, but I believe they were. Either way, just one SOJ could buy you a lot.

I had accumulated several extra SOJ’s in addition to all of the other unique gear at the time. How I got rich off this system and how you can too in Diablo 3 I’m saving for another post. I also just got lucky in a trade. Fantastically lucky. There was someone selling a rare bow with significantly more damage than I had ever seen. He had just found it and was selling it off. I of course was right there to ask what he wanted for it, and we were able to make a deal.

So I had this brand new bow I was anxious to try and a pretty good bow that I had been using and would now use as a backup. I had mostly great and difficult to acquire “uniques” on me, and just amazing dual mana leech/health leech rings… which they discontinued not long after due to their power (but what rings you had you got to keep). These things were rare and probably some of the best things I ever saw in the game with many other stats besides the leeching powers.

I was a powerhouse amazon, easily able to beat the game at any setting.

Then I got a /whisper.

Now Diablo II at this time was guaranteed to be hack free. Guaranteed to be secure from the things that plagued the original Diablo. So I listened to the whisper with interest.

“Want to learn how to dupe your stuff?”
I replied, “You can’t.”
“There is a way. Want to learn?”

A strange anxiety began to well up inside. I grinned because I felt safe in Diablo II and what could they possibly do if I didn’t want them to. But deep down there was a real anxiety about playing with all that wealth it took me hours upon hours of trading to accumulate. Greed and curiosity won out. It wasn’t an intense greed, but more the answer to the question, “what if I could keep my current stuff, but also have it duplicated to sell for even more?” I joined him and a few other strangers in the starting town.

It was disbelief from the start. I never did believe they could do anything without my consent. They started out friendly and all near me in the center of town. The “leader” asked me to show him what I had. Impressed with my gear, I did.

Then he explained the method. For whatever I wanted to duplicate, I needed to use that to fill my inventory, and fill any extra slots with potions or miscellaneous stuff so that every slot was full.

Then as he explained, we would just go right outside of town because it only worked out there. Immediately I became nervous but of course he had an answer. He showed me his “duplicated” stuff. It was pretty good stuff, too, so I allowed myself to believe.

With all of my best unique and rare armor, a phenomenal bow and backup, and dual leech rings on, I followed.

If anyone is familiar with Diablo II, I’m sure you’ve already guessed exactly what happened. It is a classic. Immediately they turned aggressive on me, killed me instantly, and to my sheer amazement, I was back in town, naked, while all of my belongings “popped” off - because of the inventory problem - for them to pick up.

The messages on the screen immediately flashed that a couple people left the game, and the leader came up to me in town to say “so long!” Me, immediately aware of the gravity, with mouth open completely in disgust and anger and tremendous sense of loss, said, “Wait, please!” He had the presence to say “what”. I said, I know you guys won’t give me back my stuff, but can I please have the worse bow back? I have nothing…

From out of his inventory, a sole reminder of this experience, popped the bow. Then he was gone.

I sat staring at the computer for at least 2 minutes. I could not believe that after all that work I put in trading for my gear, it was suddenly and completely, all gone. I had made trades for tradeable items for tradeable items for the items I eventually got. Time after time.

So this is what I did. I exited the game. With finality. I was so addicted to it up to that moment, had such a time investment and stuff to show for it. But when like a flash it was all gone, any addiction to the game, any emotional tie was violently severed. Any feelings I had for it from that time on were of disgust and shame on myself for having fell for a scam.

I did not turn the game back on for 6 months. Not once. When I returned, there were some new items, new people, and a way to start over. There were also the same scams. But now I was experienced.

When I started to get great items again, I got offers to dupe them. I obligingly joined their game, pretending to be unaware. However, this time I asked for a bit of trust first. I had “heard of” something about a scam on the game, and to be sure I wasn’t about to get scammed, I wanted something from them. In return for an item as a gesture of trust, I would do as they asked.

Reluctantly, they would always give me something decent that they showed in the trade window. It was then that I said, “thanks” and “so long” and went back to trading.

Did I truly have a better perspective on things after this? Well, it taught me a couple of things. Don’t be emotionally invested in business transactions. It can affect your judgement. Another is, protect your assets. Do you have assets that you are emotionally attached to? Protect them. Back them up, or make sure that they’re secure. It can save you frustration and heartache that you will likely never have to face if you do.

Thanks for reading and see you next time.

Tags: diablo, lessons learned, losing wealth