Recent RMT/Leveling Bans/suspensions

[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.

[Daloon]

I remember back on EQ Live I won Torpor off Emperor in Old Sebilis. I sold it for 65k platinum back when 10k = $200. Winning torpor in Kunark era literally meant a you just won 4 figures lol. Good times.

[Canelek]

SoE didn't start to crack down on EBay item and account sales until sometime in Kunark. Some people made some money, sure, but I think if you look at total time invested it may just tell a sadder story.

[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

[magnetaress]

You already missed out if the need to RMT kicks in. You're no longer on the EQ journey and are back in the real world. You've lost your immersion.

Is it possible we just had a lot of immersed players with nothing better to do than get a FAKE elf mask? I guess. Any thoughts on whether it was just the same 10 people over and over on multiple accounts? I am feeling like it was at least a few hundred individuals dedicated to elf imitation. By the way way I am flattered...

How long would it take a population of 1000 math wise to reach a 90% loot rate certainty anyway? Curious.

[Jimjam]

If the game is such a boresome chore you’d rather pay someone else to play it then perhaps you oughtn’t be playing it afterall.

Remember this is a social rpg. I know it’s a meme, but it really is about the friends an adventures we make along the way and not having a ‘finished’ min max character.

Frankly it flabbergasts me that ‘paying not to play’ is such a successful model in modern gaming.

[Pint]

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

If the game is such a boresome chore you’d rather pay someone else to play it then perhaps you oughtn’t be playing it afterall.

Tbf it's p reasonable to look at the list camps as a grown adult and decide that your time is worth more then that. Those camps and their mechanics guaranteed that they would get farmed by resellers and sold to ppl who think hundreds of dollars is a fair price to not miss out on a few good night's sleep.