Time to End Account Buying/Selling?

[Uggme]

It seems a very large majority of the server would like to see account selling / trading put to a halt somehow, and for that I applaud the community!

There are a few posts listing some very compelling agruments as to why this needs to take place for the overall betterment of the server. As a whole and I agree with all of them! Most specifically, the reputation arguments. The fact that it took a considerable amount of time to level meant that your reputation was exceedingly valuble. Messing it up intentionally or being underhanded almost always led to the shunning of said individual, and the community itself behaved better to avoid being shunned themselves. What better way to save our caretakers time than by making it easier to police ourselves?!

To the person who made the argument stating "I've leveled to 60 three times already and shouldn't have to do it again": you sir are rediculous. You don't want to level to 60 a 4th time? Fine. Then DON'T DO IT! Using your massive plat bank as a means to forgo the intended time sink in leveling is certainly not what Verant (or hardly any other players back then) had in mind. Might I suggest getting some sun, or perhaps working on your career. I know this is supposed to be classic EQ but I'm pretty sure that doesn't mean you should move back in to your mother's basement and play 14 hours a day.

[xCry0x]

What is the difference between buying a level 40 account for 30k or paying someone 30k to pl you to 40?

I think the real problem is that people have had time at this point to obtain tons of level 60 raid geared accounts to park all over the place and there is no real fix to that problem. If you were to ban account selling then the same people would just set up massive pl farms to level accounts to meet the same end result.

If anything, selling accounts helps distribute wealth. Anyone can go level to 50+, get some planar gear and then sell their account for 60k+. To some people that might be a better/more enjoyable way to make money than camping crypt/fungi days on end.

[Uggme]

Originally Posted by xCry0x [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

What is the difference between buying a level 40 account for 30k or paying someone 30k to pl you to 40?

I think the real problem is that people have had time at this point to obtain tons of level 60 raid geared accounts to park all over the place and there is no real fix to that problem. If you were to ban account selling then the same people would just set up massive pl farms to level accounts to meet the same end result.

If anything, selling accounts helps distribute wealth. Anyone can go level to 50+, get some planar gear and then sell their account for 60k+. To some people that might be a better/more enjoyable way to make money than camping crypt/fungi days on end.

What's the difference? The difference is still time. It takes time to power-level a character to 40. The person on the recieving end must be present and active, and the person providing the service must act as well. Additionally, power-leveledd person at 40 still has the hardest and longest part of the game to level and complete - 40 to 60. This means his or her reputation and things they do from that point forward are still of substancial value. This holds true even if someone is Powerleveled from 1 to 60. It would still take a lot of time to get there - you'd go to dungeons, interact with groups, other people, and camp named mobs for possible loot. Thus, the powerleveled individual is still earning a reputation, either good or bad.

The issue here isn't "distribution of wealth" at all. We already know that anyone with the proper time (interesting how there's a corrolation between time and growth in eq, eh?) and knowledge can make mountains of plat in EC tunnel in a relatively short amount of time, or by camping the proper mob drops for sale, or by getting in good with a guild and selling stuff that gets replaced. To bring in account sales as a means of making the plat available to anyone is a justification only, not a legitimate reason to keep it around.

[Dirtnap]

I like how all the people for account sales are ultimately saying "It should stay allowed because I enjoy it and it is fun for me!"

If we just follow that logic for everything we should just allow 6 boxing and MQ, and ShowEQ and any other cheating software. Whoever is doing those things enjoy it, so why are you ruining their fun?

[Rhambuk]

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

I like how all the people for account sales are ultimately saying "It should stay allowed because I enjoy it and it is fun for me!"

If we just follow that logic for everything we should just allow 6 boxing and MQ, and ShowEQ and any other cheating software. Whoever is doing those things enjoy it, so why are you ruining their fun?

its the exact same thing on the other side! its ruining my fun stop it!

if it went that way he server would be in a full rotation which im sure most are for but even that would hurt the server. belive it or not.....

[xCry0x]

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

What's the difference? The difference is still time. It takes time to power-level a character to 40. The person on the recieving end must be present and active, and the person providing the service must act as well. Additionally, power-leveledd person at 40 still has the hardest and longest part of the game to level and complete - 40 to 60. This means his or her reputation and things they do from that point forward are still of substancial value. This holds true even if someone is Powerleveled from 1 to 60. It would still take a lot of time to get there - you'd go to dungeons, interact with groups, other people, and camp named mobs for possible loot. Thus, the powerleveled individual is still earning a reputation, either good or bad.

The issue here isn't "distribution of wealth" at all. We already know that anyone with the proper time (interesting how there's a corrolation between time and growth in eq, eh?) and knowledge can make mountains of plat in EC tunnel in a relatively short amount of time, or by camping the proper mob drops for sale, or by getting in good with a guild and selling stuff that gets replaced. To bring in account sales as a means of making the plat available to anyone is a justification only, not a legitimate reason to keep it around.

Is your entire case against selling accounts based on having people who appear at level 60 without any social network or reputation?

I find it hard to believe that anyone is going to walk into the server and buy a level 60 account unless they RMT, which in that case RMT is the issue not buying accounts with plat.

Now if you think someone is going to log into the server and have their friend hand them a lvl 60 account, well that is never going to get caught unless we only allow 1 ip per account which would 1) be unmanageable 2) make people who play from home & work unable to do so.

If you think it is about time, there are multiple PL services who can get you to lvl 50 in a few days if you have the money. Spending the 'time' to sit in get pl is probably easier than spending the 'time' farming the 50-60k it would cost to buy a lvl 50 account.

When I was leveling up I kept asking all the 'rich' people how they made money, 9/10 times it was someone who had leveled to mid 50s, sold their account and re-rolled a twink or someone who had a 60 main and leveled up alts to sell. If this is taken out of the game now then all the new players are essentially short changed a way a large amount of others have used to make money.

I just feel like this goes into the long list of things that people have been abusing since the server was created, yeah it should have never existed in the first place but removing it now only hurts new players as others have made millions abusing it already. If that is what everyone wants, awesome. I just feel like everyone is doing what the masses typically do and jump to some illogical conclusion because on the surface it makes sense.

[letsallkillandy]

I have a hard time siding for the sale of accounts seeing as it encourages RMT to happen. Theres no good reason to keep it. Theres no negative effect if we got rid of it.

[Woahnelly]

Reading this late. Somebody posted "how would they ban selling accounts tho?"

What if there were no password changes allowed? Nobody would buy an account if the former owner could access it also, right?

[Stinkum]

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

Reading this late. Somebody posted "how would they ban selling accounts tho?"

What if there were no password changes allowed? Nobody would buy an account if the former owner could access it also, right?

Yep.

Nobody's gonna buy any accounts if there were no PW changes allowed to EQMU for LS passwords.

Who the hell would trust the seller not to just come back and steal all the items you put on the character? Or straight up delete him? Or resell him a second time? Third time?

Remove password changes will effectively gut account selling/buying, and is extremely doable.

[Swish]

The thread is at a dead end really... I think the point has been made that its too far down the road (not to mention more work for the volunteers) to ban account selling.