Recent RMT/Leveling Bans/suspensions

[Alfina]

Originally Posted by Pretzelle [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Sorry, Guild652. I know that it upsets you when we use the wrong name. Maybe you could instruct more people on how to alter their files to cheat?

Dannnngggggg looks like TSS has found their RNF legs. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[Ripqozko]

Originally Posted by Pretzelle [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Sorry, Guild652. I know that it upsets you when we use the wrong name. Maybe you could instruct more people on how to alter their files to cheat?

Sorry Aftermath hurt you so bad. I’ll be your friend. No need to hold in the anger for so many years. We are sorry.

[Blingy]

Things that haven't been mentioned yet but are also viable things regarding RMT.

Credit card charge backs are a real thing with online communities. Even if Nilbog and Roegen aren't directly implicated with stolen credit card numbers and RMT, places that deal with financial things can swoop in and start making things uncomfortable for them even if they didn't have anything to do with the transaction. This by itself makes stopping RMT an easier thing to do than dealing with the powers that be.

Slightly more weird is how places like the IRS handle online purchases for virtual things. So if somebody purchases Windows 10 from Microsoft they'll pay $100 for the software plus some tax. The IRS will see the entire thing and process things accordingly. If I and another willing party wanted my PID for Win10 we could mutually agree to conduct a financial transaction for my product key. I would be required to disclose by law the sell of my PID key. If I made a profit I'd be required to file an income report based on that sale. This is a virtual item, kinda similar to say and earth staff or white dragon scale for example. So if an earth staff is worth $700 some uppity bean counter that wants to make a name for themselves could swoop in and loudly proclaim that Roegen and Nilbog are generating $500k/year worth of virtual items.....um, ridiculous but there's also barely enough truth to this statement that it could make their lives a bit uncomfortable.

Lastly, it's easiest to just ban RMT outright rather than say "RMT is fine in this situation but not in others". Some might think it's ok for a level 2 bard to be running around in a full suit of bronze that cost the owner 10 minutes worth of work at a tech job but slippery slopes are, well......slippery.

[Morikaidin]

There is something else that happens with restricting RMT. Not allowing a second source of "payment" helps to keep the economy in check. When the only thing that has value within the game is time played, items get up to a certain value (which does go up over the years, at a steady rate), but this value is lower that it is if you are also able to pay for items with RL cash.

When you look at Daybreak servers like Mangler where RMT is common you find that items quickly become inflated in price to beyond what just the "time invested in game" people can afford, unless they are also Wall Street level traders and/or multiboxers on the side.

(As a side note, multiboxing also manipulates the economy of payment in the same way, effectively allowing one person's time investment to be multiplied by a factor of 6 or more per hour.)

I'm guessing that, as has already been mentioned, the folks in our demographic have overwhelmingly more RL money available than time available to spend on the game.

This leads usually to debates over whether it is more "morally" acceptable to waste hours of your life on a video game via time in front of the pc, or time working a job that gets turned into pixels. Obviously, both are equally wasteful and silly.

The way out of both traps is to enjoy the minute-by-minute with friends or solo, without focusing on illusory "outcomes". Let the items come or not come. If you aren't enjoying your trip day by day you're screwed, because this bus literally has no destination.

[shuklak]

Originally Posted by Sethius Marlowe [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Here's my take on that. It's really just a matter of relativity, it's not all that crazy.

Money means different things to different people. I could be wrong but it's probably not a 34 year old that works for minimum wage at mcdonalds dropping 700 bones on a cloak of flames. I could see someone who maybe lives on the dole dropping that for an item for a game that they play 10 hours a day that makes them happy. That's honestly just kind of like buying a decent mattress. Pretty similar concept.

Then also you need to consider that the game we play is made up of mostly people who grew up and were 14-40 the first go around. Now they're 34-60. They don't have the time or energy that they used to, but they do have money. And money buys "time" in that sense. Because you don't need to farm for like two weeks full days to make enough money to buy a CoF if you've got kids and a job and a partner and stuff. You just can't do it. But you're still fiending for that nostalgia.

And also also, like, the game is made up of nerdy people. Nerdy people skew towards some pretty high end salary tech jobs. If I'm making 200k a year but want an EQ fix, my paychecks are 12k take home a month. 700 bucks for an item that will make me happier when I play for a few hours for a few months even though I'll MAYBE get banned down the road, and if that happens I'll just pivot to something else to get my joy from. (Speaking metaphorically, I sold money when I was a kid in original EQ but haven't done RMT since, cept maybe a few blizz tokens for convenient gold for tradeskill shit.)

I mean. Everything is just what you value it as.

$700 to one person is a life changer. $700 to another person is spare change. You could pay to house someone in a 1bedroom for a month in like Pittsburgh, or have once nice evening at a pricey restaurant.

Relativity, folks. It drives everrrrrything. That einstein guy knew what was up

Lol no the eq nerds buying shit are not 1%ers with little free time. They are basement dwellers splurging on another poor life decision.

[Uuruk]

Originally Posted by galach [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

In 2017, I discovered and did the audit research on an internal white collar crime of $150,000 at my company over a couple years. They were purchasing Ipads & other devices and photoshopping credit card statements and not balancing their reconciles. We ended up recovering around $110,000 of the stolen goods. Looking through electronic statements, balance sheets, reconciles and other accounting worksheets is natural for me.

I only wish we could do the same to the people that I catch selling goods on Project 1999. It is truly mind blowing that some people would pay $700+ for a single item. If you are going to purchase something for money, remember that I will catch you eventually and you will only regret it down the line. People purchasing stuff in early December only to level, get to 50 and their account gets banned. Don't sell, don't buy, don't RMT. Simple.

I never got caught

[Mblake81]

Originally Posted by Morikaidin [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

This leads usually to debates over whether it is more "morally" acceptable to waste hours of your life on a video game via time in front of the pc, or time working a job that gets turned into pixels. Obviously, both are equally wasteful and silly.

If its so wasteful and silly why are they bothering to occupy their time with something wasteful and silly. Find a better hobby that amuses them, lord knows I wanted to after seeing what it has become.

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[cd288]

Originally Posted by galach [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

RMT seller = perma ban all accounts

RMT buyer = perma ban

Boxing on green = perma ban


Don't break the rules.

So the people who have said it’s historically been a suspension for first time boxing offense are incorrect? Can never tell for sure what the rule is on that

[Bryan2856]

I think the problem exists that there aren't very many people that can sit on a /list for 3 days or longer without sleep verifying that they are present every 10 minutes or so. This most likely caused a lot of those RMT problems. that FOMO kicks in.

[Bardp1999]

I understand the sellers, I have no idea WTF the buyers are thinking