Curse

Keeper of Birds · Mar 13, 2006, 05:21 PM // 17:21

As some posters have pointed out, some game publishers do engage in this business. It seems to come down to a question of whether you believe Anet when they say that they condemn this type of behavior. My understanding is that their condemnation is based on their desire to have a fair and functioning economy in the game, where the behavior that they want (presumably, playing alot and buying additional chapters) is encouraged.

What is the result of farming and ebaying gold? Inflation, pure and simple. More gold to go around, the items that are in demand will soar in price. If I were Anet, I would not want this, because it would take away from the enjoyment of the players I want, since it is now less easy for "honest" players (those who get their money through playing themselves, or individual level farming) to buy what they want. So I think Anet as a company would be undermining what they are trying to achieve by going this direction.

As for rogue Anet developers using their knowledge of the code to do this sort of thing, I just don't see it. Get caught and lose your job, pure and simple.

But it is a thought-provoking topic- credit to the OP for that.

Loviatar · Mar 13, 2006, 05:37 PM // 17:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by bushe

which means that they will either play the game longer themselves or pay someone else to play the game longer for them. which makes for more people playing, more accounts
.

you seem to forget that one of their biggest ongoing expences is the amount of time online playing.

if the people play longer Anet/NCsoft make LESS profit per account NOT MORE.

conspiracy headache number 3678854567 shot down

Sunai · Mar 13, 2006, 06:02 PM // 18:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by Keeper of Birds

[...] As for rogue Anet developers using their knowledge of the code to do this sort of thing, I just don't see it. Get caught and lose your job, pure and simple. [...]

Since when does getting caught stop people from taking risks?

Count to Potato · Mar 13, 2006, 06:06 PM // 18:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tarkin

Before

Protective Spirit
For 5...19 seconds, target ally cannot lose more than 10% max Health due to damage from a single attack or Spell.

If arenanet nerf this way...

Protective Spirit For 5...19 seconds, target ally cannot lose more than 10% max Health 50...20 points due to damage from a single attack or Spell.

Stop farmer machines, and speel still working...

Nice idea, but think about the repercussions to the economy? I wouldn't complain because ectos would be as low as ever, i would get FoW armor and then everything would be better right? Wrong, the people's job in CHina would be terminated and would be even poorer?

thunderpower · Mar 13, 2006, 06:11 PM // 18:11

Let's see.
Who do you think that came up with the 55 monk build? Some1 uterly stupid or some1 who was realy intrested in farming?

iceypain · Mar 13, 2006, 06:15 PM // 18:15

Most gold on ebay is fake. I just took a look at some of the sellers, one has around 10mil selling throughtout the pages - all of his 11 feedbacks are no longer registered and all have similar names - coinsidence? I doubt.

Medion · Mar 13, 2006, 06:21 PM // 18:21

Isn't it possible that someone has several auctions at the same time running for the same Item(gold) at Ebay?

I mean, If I would buy gold from Ebay (I Don't!), I would just select a random auction. The person with more auctions running at the same time, would have a bigger chance that I hit his auction, thus buying from him.
(I don't have any knowledge on Ebay, Im assuming it's something like a Guru-auction system)

Also, I agree that it would be way easier to sell on their own site for a low price if Anet would want to do this. (I hope they never will)

Quote:

And lets face it nothing stays a secret in this day and age.

Not the secrets you know of, there may be many secrets, but as they are secrets you don't know they exist

Ninetail Trickster · Mar 13, 2006, 06:22 PM // 18:22

A nice theory, interesting read, at least, but I can't say I agree. Look at it this way-
1 Guy with one high-powered computer bot-farms.
Nets $60 US on Ebay.
Buys another account.
Dual-Clients- 120 Dollars a day; Buys ANOTHER account-
Tri-Clients- 180 Dollars a day. (At least)
Botting.
So it just keeps going. And going. And going. He could let it run for a week, then sell.
30k+ a year. That's dang good, right there, for something that's not a job that doesn't get you arrested.

...now, if ANet did this, it would be infinitely more effective- let's assume that they use botting methods. They would have access to as many characters as they wanted.
They'd be raking in too much for someone not to notice. They'd've already been caught at it.

Just my reasoning, likely flawed.

danakin · Mar 13, 2006, 07:18 PM // 19:18

I honestly think devs run some of the auctions to catch people. In fact, I seem to recall one of them saying that they do in a log somewhere.

RaabTheGuru · Mar 13, 2006, 07:35 PM // 19:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tarkin

Before

Protective Spirit
For 5...19 seconds, target ally cannot lose more than 10% max Health due to damage from a single attack or Spell.

If arenanet nerf this way...

Protective Spirit For 5...19 seconds, target ally cannot lose more than 10% max Health 50...20 points due to damage from a single attack or Spell.

Stop farmer machines, and speel still working...

Best idea I've ever heard. This definately would get rid of all the monk bots and farming machines out there, yet the skill would still be of use to normal PvE players. This should be taken into affect, but you'll never see the 55 monk nerfed...WHY? Because the uproar that Anet would get from nerfing this would cause so much BS hysteria that the game would just go on a downward spiral.

All the people that farm 10+ hours a day would have to find a new game or develop a new method of farming, or farm with warriors which is even more tiredsome and tedious than monking.

Maybe I'll quit complaining and wait for factions to come out. If that irritates me as much as some of the aspects of Prophecies, then I'll just quit quietly.

I guess MMORPG's aren't my thing, I can't stand the community.

RaabTheGuru · Mar 13, 2006, 07:36 PM // 19:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by danakin

I honestly think devs run some of the auctions to catch people. In fact, I seem to recall one of them saying that they do in a log somewhere.

Running a fake auction in Ebay can get you in trouble. You can't advertise selling something and then not sell it without any reprocussions. There's a liscense agreement with Ebay too, and Anet has no special privelidges.

Wayne0205 · Mar 13, 2006, 07:39 PM // 19:39

Quote:

I guess it's useless for me to come on this forum hoping for an actual dignified discussion about something. I'll let you kids yell at eachother some more.

I don't usually equate dignified discussion with conspiracy theory, but in any case, it makes no sense to do something that blatantly ruins your own game.

They spent a large chunk of cash to get GW up and running and continue to spend to keep it going. They wouldn't intentionally sabotage their own investments.

Reference the article about sweatshop farming. As long as people can make money by doing this, there will always be someone there to do it. Just not Anet.

It all sounds pretty silly to me

Inde · Mar 13, 2006, 08:05 PM // 20:05

Well you say that Wayne but look at EQ2's Sony Exchange. It made so many upset but really, it was brilliant. Since they couldn't fight the gold-selling, they just incorporated it and supported it.

More game developer companies could go this route and just offer up a similar system for members of the community to exchange gold, items and characters.

And while I know it would pain any of us to think of game developer companies supporting gold-selling, there are publishers that work in conjunction with these businesses and actually get a kick-back for simply ignoring the problem.

The secondary market is said to be around $880 million+ a year.

If any of you want to view in-depth discussion on these topics and more, I highly recommend the terranova blogs (where you will recognize many developer's names from around the industry.)

Caveat Emptor · Mar 13, 2006, 08:08 PM // 20:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by iceypain

Most gold on ebay is fake. I just took a look at some of the sellers, one has around 10mil selling throughtout the pages - all of his 11 feedbacks are no longer registered and all have similar names - coinsidence? I doubt.

This is a common practice for some Ebay sellers - they create an account, sell items to other accounts of theirs and leave positive feedback. Most buyers are wary of sellers with negative or no feedback, but don't take the time to look at the actual feedback that was left so this is pretty effective. If they should happen to receive negative feedback for whatever reason, they just kill the account and start over.

As to the original topic, Anet may buy gold to then ban the accounts, but I doubt very much they are involved in selling. I'm sure they're much more interested in the sellers than they are the buyers. Also, if Anet did the bulk of the selling, the price wouldn't fluctuate like it does when a new update comes out.

Kakumei · Mar 13, 2006, 08:11 PM // 20:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by RaabTheGuru

Maybe I'll quit complaining and wait for factions to come out. If that irritates me as much as some of the aspects of Prophecies, then I'll just quit quietly.

I guess MMORPG's aren't my thing, I can't stand the community.

Why on earth would you quit a game because other people like to devote their lives to it?

Manic Smile · Mar 13, 2006, 08:14 PM // 20:14

Quote:

Originally Posted by RaabTheGuru

Best idea I've ever heard. This definately would get rid of all the monk bots and farming machines out there, yet the skill would still be of use to normal PvE players. This should be taken into affect, but you'll never see the 55 monk nerfed...WHY? Because the uproar that Anet would get from nerfing this would cause so much BS hysteria that the game would just go on a downward spiral.

All the people that farm 10+ hours a day would have to find a new game or develop a new method of farming, or farm with warriors which is even more tiredsome and tedious than monking.

Maybe I'll quit complaining and wait for factions to come out. If that irritates me as much as some of the aspects of Prophecies, then I'll just quit quietly.

I guess MMORPG's aren't my thing, I can't stand the community.

I suggested this a while back in another thread and got the response..."it'd just lead to an overabundance of two man farming...as if we don't have enough already"...so unfortunately I'd have to agree that wouldn't fix the problem entirely

VampiricuS · Mar 13, 2006, 08:22 PM // 20:22

in my opinion the only way to stop it from being sold on ebay is for anet to make some sort of agreement with ebay to not allow it to be sold. but thats highly unlikey to happen i think due to the freedom to sell bla bla. but it does piss me off, just last night a guy was braggin about his million gold he just bought on ebay and opening trade windows to flaunt it. I work hard for my gold and to be honest, when i put on a new weapon or kick ass armor, i appreciate it more. buying gold etc takes the fun out of it for me.

On the flip side, with so many people buying gold, how can you keep up with them because all those people will have better weapons and armor than the honest people? especially in PvP.

Anet needs to seriously (if they can) look at logs. or have a program running that notifies them when a huge amount of gold get traded without trading anything for it. Look at the players history and if its obvious, yank their account.

Another good idea which was already mentioned was have Anet guys buy the gold from ebay, and once the transaction is done, yank the account.

people who buy their gold dont realize that they are actually screwing the game up not just for the honest people, but for them as well in the long run. Ignorant.......

Pandora's box · Mar 13, 2006, 08:36 PM // 20:36

A funny discussion!

No, I don't believe in a conspiray. A game that sells over 1 million copies won't need income like that! For the rest... Selling on ebay will exist as long as people are willing to buy. I'm amazed this is considered a problem in GW. For in this I have to agree the unique skill based concept is usefull: You can buy as much gold as you want, getting run to whatever point in the game, buy all items you need... But if you are just a lazy rich kid without any skills, you won't accomplish anything!

Wayne0205 · Mar 13, 2006, 08:59 PM // 20:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kakumei

Why on earth would you quit a game because other people like to devote their lives to it?

because some people get so wrapped up in things around them that don't matter that they forget why they're there in the first place.

MSecorsky · Mar 13, 2006, 09:03 PM // 21:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by VampiricuS

in my opinion the only way to stop it from being sold on ebay is for anet to make some sort of agreement with ebay to not allow it to be sold. but thats highly unlikey to happen i think due to the freedom to sell bla bla. but it does piss me off, just last night a guy was braggin about his million gold he just bought on ebay and opening trade windows to flaunt it. I work hard for my gold and to be honest, when i put on a new weapon or kick ass armor, i appreciate it more. buying gold etc takes the fun out of it for me.

On the flip side, with so many people buying gold, how can you keep up with them because all those people will have better weapons and armor than the honest people? especially in PvP.

Anet needs to seriously (if they can) look at logs. or have a program running that notifies them when a huge amount of gold get traded without trading anything for it. Look at the players history and if its obvious, yank their account.

Another good idea which was already mentioned was have Anet guys buy the gold from ebay, and once the transaction is done, yank the account.

people who buy their gold dont realize that they are actually screwing the game up not just for the honest people, but for them as well in the long run. Ignorant.......

You know... a screen print and a report will make that million go away rather quickly.