4Game

Allow me a few moments to tell you a little story about cheating in Elite Dangerous.

I have been playing Elite Dangerous since it was released in 2014 on the xBox, and I had everything…

• I've been to Colonia and Sagittarius A
• I've discovered worlds and had my name added to the 'first discovered by..' tags
• I reached Elite in Trade and in Exploration, Dangerous in Combat
• I had unlocked all of the engineers in the Elite Dangerous (xBox) game
• I'd reached King in Imperial Navy, and Rear Admiral with Federal Navy
• I had my Grade 5 engineered Cutter and Grade 5 engineered Corvette
• I'd done my fair share of grinding for credits and reached 3.5 Billion

I had everything… Except a fleet career.

I played Elite in the 1980s as a 9 year old (yep – showing my age now) and was so happy when the magic returned all these years later.

Sure I was disappointed when Frontier made the decision not to proceed with further developments of the game on console. I so wanted to walk around stations and ships and such like.

In a moment of weakness I thought I could lift my spirits by owning a fleet carrier, but I was just a Billion or four credits away… I couldn't face the grind.

So I sought help by purchasing credits in a real world trade online – I cheated.

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For two days I had a fleet carrier – I felt like a 9 year old again. Crazy!

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Yesterday – Thursday 20th April, 2022 – Frontier banned my account.

Everything I have listed above, all of those seven years of grinding, everything – all gone!

In the past 24 hours I've had mixed feelings of shame, pain and deep regret – but also a sense of comfort, reassurance and respect in knowing that Frontier is active in preventing cheating. It feels good to know that earning credits, ranks, and all of the other attributes in this game requires dedication without cheating.

So – what now? What next? What would you do?

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Well I've started a new profile, I've gained my first Python (one of the best ships in the game in my opinion) and am plodding along. I cringe when I think of unlocking the engineers and gaining my Imperial and Federation ranks again… But it's humbling – you know?!

So – if you're driven to distraction by the grind, if you're looking for an easy way to get your first carrier (or whatever you desire in the game) then don't consider cheating… It's not worth it. It's really not.

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(My apologies if I have posted this with errors… My second day using Reddit!)