@lt-josh84
I'm so sorry LtJosh. I'm with you on this. You sound like an amazing player that puts your heart into it. I'm the exact same way. What really sucks, is how I was grinding HG levels to get my first HG curse, while others exploited it. I grinded rep for the Athena faction, while others exploited it with the shipwrecks. My crew and I (6-7 of us total) grinded our guild level (currently 268), while others exploited it to lvl 1,000. I'm still grinding for distinction 5 on all the factions (almost there with reapers and OoS), while others exploited it.
More recently, I saw you had to turn in 250 horns to get the Midnight Prowler sails. I put that off while I killed 1,000 skeletons, killed 50 keg-carrying skeletons, 1,000 phantoms , 250 sharks, shot 50 bone-callers at skeleton ships, 1,000 scattershot, hit Megs with scattershot, etc.. Then, I found out there had been an exploit many used to get that achievement done and was now patched (((I noticed the amount of horns needed for the commendation stayed the same, so I knew that number probably wasn't going to change after the patch. I grinded nonstop for a week, starting early in the morning, and kept going until I was tired. I finally turned in the 250, only for the requirements on everything to be lowered a week or so later))).
The fact that I missed out on so much while nothing happened to those who chose to exploit, is frustrating. The fact that you EARNED the amount of gold you've accumulated (I'm almost at 200 million, thru no part by exploits), is a huge achievement that's not only being dwarfed by exploiters, others are going to scoff and assume you exploited as well, leaving a bitter taste. With so many getting away with the exploits I've mentioned, it makes me feel foolish for not taking advantage.
I love this game. The love I have for it, includes having integrity not to use exploits or cheats to get items/levels/achievements I'd love to have. It's having appreciation for the employees who work hard everyday managing, maintaining and creating the game we know and love. Why these players don't receive repercussions is beyond me, because what they've clearly displayed is anything but integrity. Just my opinion from where I'm coming from with 5k+ hours so far.