You cannot turn your head to cheating because the game population is low.  That is a pretty silly idea.  Then the decent members of the community get sick of it and leave.  

There IS more to the story here, as some readers may have guessed.

Mrddt has left out the part where he went into the logs and got info just to try to win an argument in mIRC.  He insisted that another player had suicided to avoid fighting him.  Someone else said the player did not.  Mrddt promptly dug through the logs using the test client and posted the info in mIRC.

He used log info from the test client to locate a wolf and warn members of his guild about its presence.

He told an entire mIRC room how to use the test client to bind their bleeding wounds (which is not implemented) and how to use the logs to find other players.  It just so happens that many of the people in that mIRC channel had knowingly obtained the test client in an unauthorized manner, and were using it without authorization.

Those same people were banned.

It was not a case of a couple people trying to avoid using the patcher for convenience.  People were CHEATING.  Of course they say they didn't. 

It is amazing to me that people who secretly obtained a test client they knew damn well they weren't supposed to have, and secretly used it, knowing damn well they were not allowed to, will sit here and try to justify their actions, all the while claiming they never used it to cheat.  And some of them were previously punished for cheating.

Oh yeah, and some, including Mrddt, are still breaking rules by coming back into the community against their ban with "anonymous" new identities.

People, stop believing the crap these clowns are feeding you.

Every player is looking for different things in a game, and no one game will suit everyone.  Players who seek instant gratification will most likely not enjoy RomaVictor, and should go elsewhere.

However, the game has a lot to offer for players who are more goal-oriented.

Make no mistake, RomaVictor is progressing slowly.  However, over the past 4 months there has been steady improvement and progress. 

Features and content are being added almost weekly.  Bugs are being fixed (albeit slowly).  Though game performance still has quite a ways to go, it has dramatically improved over the past 6 months.  This past week there were events furthering the storyline, after a very long wait.

Playing RV still requires a lot of patience, but it IS moving forward, slowly but surely.

Players intentionally did something they knew they were not supposed to do.  The "reasons" are irrelevant. 

They got caught.  They got punished.  For several, it was not the first time. 

Now, they should get on with their lives.

Edit

I have edited my posts.  I do not retract any of my statements.  In fact, I believe I paint a very accurate picture, and the facts I point to are 100% correct.  But I should not write an opinion piece about RomaVictor out of anger and frustration.