I think this is a case of very poor judgment on the part of the IMM and the player involved. It seems that this loan of l33t eq had been made for temporary purposes, and that it was for RP purposes. I'm sure the IMM and the player thought that what they were doing was harmless.
Quote:
Kura tells you 'OOC You recall I had the suit before, right? Well then I had to take a trip for a couple weeks, and the inactivity meant that the system would respawn the armor on Ephialtis. I informed Algorab of the situation, and it was agreed that I could get it back, given the circumstances, if I RPed well. Basically, I had it, Algorab took it away, then gave it back following Rp'
> Kura tells you 'OOC I'll have it for only one week, then he takes it away again'
The fact that it was motivated by RP doesn't actually make it any better, though. The fact that it's temporary . . . I guess kind of makes it better? The fact that the player had gotten the l00t legitimately before and lost it to eq wipe . . . might make it a little better, but the fact is that as Trag mentioned, people lose EQ to eq wipes or just BUGS all the time, and to my knowledge, no IMM ever has restored anyone's EQ. This is just an example of blatant favoritism, and it has had a negative impact on some players' playing experience.
All in all, I guess it can all be attributed to an honest mistake that was born from short-sightedness. The matter is, of course, not helped by the fact that the player in question seems to be constantly surrounded by IMM RPs and such, and was even given that [REDACTED] Hand of Terror item. Nor is the situation helped by the dozens of examples anyone could point to of IMMs stating very clearly that they simply can't restore anyone's loot for them. Gestalt exploiting the infinite backstab bug to full loot syn would probably be my favorite example. I've also personally lost my hard-earned loot to a bug, and the IMM I spoke with explained that while it was unfortunate, nothing could be done about it.
I think the proper thing to do would be to restore the EQ on the NPC in question. Especially since the RP plotline surrounding the whole thing makes no sense.
Quote:
Kura tells you 'OOC Kura has a score to settle with her nemesis, Dame Vakria and another player. Dame Vakria helped Kura defeat Ephialtis, so Kura gets to rub it in her face and hopefully kill her using it. It's tieing up all the loose ends here at the end of Kura's life'
That'd be cool and sinister and all, but I guess Kura forgot that Vakria never logged on to help out with the original DS trip in which the l00t was gathered, so uh, she didn't help Kura defeat Ephialtis. Oh well. I'm sure that won't stop Kura from saying something very clever before getting murdered the next time they duel.