I was replying to you KariTR (in a non- hostile conversational way) I was not "attacking" you in any way. We are both on the same side of the fence over this. You seem very familar with the game and its problems and are definately on "our" side.
I have no idea what the answer is either. Its just so damn hard to control the actions of the players (farmers and buyers)
Its a shame what has happened in L2 and WoW. Both are good games but the actions of individuals just screws it up on so many levels for everyone.
I tend to blame the communities because they are ones buying the gold. If they didn't buy it, then no one farm it. A game company working to build safegaurds from this, is just silly. They would be working against the customers because they are the ones buying the currency. The farmers are just exploiting that fact.
WoW, 21 months is a good stretch. I hope you are not leaving us I take a break every now and then. I try other games (wasting good money lol) and seeing just how good L2 really is. What else are you gonna play. EQII??? LoL I would advise against it if you like any sort of remotely interesting gameplay. WoW is "fun" but it has no community and no politics, its mostly PvE and ALL raids at cap (which is easily reached) with they vast majority of PvP happening in safe little instanced zone, even on the PvP servers.
It's actually quite beneficial for NCSoft to ban botters, etc... if they can ban 30,000 accounts, that's means 30,000 new games purchaced, plus again the same subscription fees..... and if the farmers weren't smart enough to pay monthly... then NCSoft would continue to get the remainder of those extended subscriptions (ie. 3months, 6months, 12months)... and the new account subscriptions.
So yeah.. good PR for NCSoft... a win win scenerio... ban botters and look good to the general players... and make more money.
Now, the interesting thing is, supposedly you are not allowed to ever come back into the game, essentially, you cannot create another account... if you were banned... I very highly doubt that is true.
NCSoft could wipe out the problem, or minimize the ebay problem with a few easy steps... NCsoft would pose as sellers, and pose as buyers... NCsoft would buy adena outside of game, then send in a char to pick up the money... either banning them immediately, or tracking where the money goes. NCSoft would pose as a seller, selling adena ouside of game.. when someone comes to pick up the adena, they ban them immediately. Very simple solution, that would most likely slow this activity to a crawl within days, once the word got out.
Funny how simple it is... yet, fat chance in hell that it will happen.
Anyway, I will make some comments on things I read...after reading all that I don't quite remember who stated what by I do remember a few points.
One statement was that the long reptitive grind dosen't encourage RMT. I agree with you here to a point, the only way it would effect it is ppl are getting bored and also get top gear when they hit their next grade maker in order to level faster. Also spamming pots and whatnot. But mainly I was stating that the grind lead to the development of the bots where both farmers and players alike use it. Without bots and farmers though, the grind to high level wouldn't be a big deal because everyone would be legit, meaning everyone would be around the correct level for the time they started and had reasonable gear, unless the truely are 'hardcore'.
I understand the increase of drops, but let me explain that how this game differs from the NA version to the original korean version. Practically all game play is the same except for one major missing link. In Korea the servers carry a lot more players at one time. This is due to both time zone differences and the popularity of it there from marketing. On a korean server it isn't odd to see one full clan of 40 players be on at the same time many times a week. In NA, this is a bit more rare. This means alliances almost everday of the week could have 100+ people playing. With those 100+ people raid bosses are much easier to take in a shorter amount of time. Raids are some of the best ways to make money and gear in this game. Also with 100+ people collecting materials from hunting and spoils clan donations to craft each other weapons are extreamly easier. For example:
I am trying to recraft a SoV (again...don't ask long story). The recipie is 13 mil and blades definately require some time to farm. After an hour of some clannies farming in an area that drops blades and recipes, they get bored and want to hunt somewhere else. So in turn I have to buy that overpriced recipie and blades. Now this isn't too bad but what comes next is almost shocking. The materials are needed in the thousands. My clan which has maybe 8 people on at one time during the time zones that I play and the alliance having maybe 20 can help me greatly with those mats. I can get about half of them (the more common ones anyway). This means I still need 8 million roughly to buy the rest of the materials. 8 million that I do not have. So this happens to many people. Where I am patient and will wait until I do have 8 million, or get those mats, some people are not. They then go buy mats from farmers by usually ebaying adena from those same farmers that he just bought the mats from. Ironic isn't it. You just payed some farmers RL cash to get in game currency to turn around and give it back to them...
So as you can see, the reason farmers are so prevailent is because the player base isn't as large as the one in Korea. Making farming mats and raidbosses for large clans more reasonable. The bad part again is, these same farmers are driving away more players and giving them yet a stronger foothold within the game.
Now I look at the manor system and am like, SWEET, I can get my mats from there. So I purchase some seed and do the whole manor thing to return to a manor manager that isn't buying seeds because all the farmers sold them back for the mats they sell in town. Also many lords don't even set up the manor system correctly or at all!
I wouldn't fix the drop rates if the adena farmers were kicked out of aden. What I would fix is the manor system, and spoil rates from scavengers. This way the market won't inflate so much and more people will play a practically useless class. Manor lords will recieve their castle upgrades from the properly set up manor system, and players will recieve there materials in the quantities that they need for cheaper than market price. Then again I could be completely wrong...lol.
I will agree that I do enjoy playing L2, and that is still why I play it, although many times it is painful...lol. I like the people I play with the most, the only reason why I still play actually. Also when you do hit that one extra level, if feels GREAT! Also when you finally level your stage 9 red soul crystal and it doesn't break...it also feels GREAT! The game definately gives you a rewarding experience, even for the smallest tasks.
Also to mention, yes I would rather have bots than grumpy farmers. There is one good thing about L2, it has the nicest farmers you will ever meet!
Well the one person is right when saying the buyers are just as guilty.If nobody buys then selling doesn't exist.The other problem is that like most other games with PVP it is level based,therefore botting WILL be rampant.They all want to fly through levels so they can own or do anything they want.That is the developers problem for making it level based.There is no skill for a noob other than to hope and prey he isn't killed.He can't run from a speed buff he can't fight a player that's higher level[where is there any skill?]i guess the skill would be for the low level player to seek a high level player to hold his hand, pfftt sad option.
Now that there are so many high level player's ,NCSOFt can still rake in there monthly fee,with no fear of these players quitting all there hard work[well those that didn't bot..rflmao[very few]All of these games operate the same,meaning they do almost nothing when comes to cheating.They always leave it up to the players to whine and complain a million times over just to see a few names here and there booted or suspended.SILKROAD was the biggest joke suspending players for one day IF they were caught,after they prolly booted off 30 levels or more first.I guess one can only assume that the devs also play these games and are prolly the main culprits behind the leak of these dupes and cheats.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Comments
I was replying to you KariTR
(in a non- hostile conversational way) I was not "attacking" you in any way. We are both on the same side of the fence over this. You seem very familar with the game and its problems and are definately on "our" side.
I have no idea what the answer is either. Its just so damn hard to control the actions of the players (farmers and buyers)
Its a shame what has happened in L2 and WoW. Both are good games but the actions of individuals just screws it up on so many levels for everyone.
I tend to blame the communities because they are ones buying the gold. If they didn't buy it, then no one farm it. A game company working to build safegaurds from this, is just silly. They would be working against the customers because they are the ones buying the currency. The farmers are just exploiting that fact.
WoW, 21 months is a good stretch. I hope you are not leaving us
I take a break every now and then. I try other games (wasting good money lol) and seeing just how good L2 really is. What else are you gonna play. EQII??? LoL I would advise against it if you like any sort of remotely interesting gameplay. WoW is "fun" but it has no community and no politics, its mostly PvE and ALL raids at cap (which is easily reached) with they vast majority of PvP happening in safe little instanced zone, even on the PvP servers.
So yeah.. good PR for NCSoft... a win win scenerio... ban botters and look good to the general players... and make more money.
Now, the interesting thing is, supposedly you are not allowed to ever come back into the game, essentially, you cannot create another account... if you were banned... I very highly doubt that is true.
NCSoft could wipe out the problem, or minimize the ebay problem with a few easy steps... NCsoft would pose as sellers, and pose as buyers... NCsoft would buy adena outside of game, then send in a char to pick up the money... either banning them immediately, or tracking where the money goes. NCSoft would pose as a seller, selling adena ouside of game.. when someone comes to pick up the adena, they ban them immediately. Very simple solution, that would most likely slow this activity to a crawl within days, once the word got out.
Funny how simple it is... yet, fat chance in hell that it will happen.
Anyway, I will make some comments on things I read...after reading all that I don't quite remember who stated what by I do remember a few points.
One statement was that the long reptitive grind dosen't encourage RMT. I agree with you here to a point, the only way it would effect it is ppl are getting bored and also get top gear when they hit their next grade maker in order to level faster. Also spamming pots and whatnot. But mainly I was stating that the grind lead to the development of the bots where both farmers and players alike use it. Without bots and farmers though, the grind to high level wouldn't be a big deal because everyone would be legit, meaning everyone would be around the correct level for the time they started and had reasonable gear, unless the truely are 'hardcore'.
I understand the increase of drops, but let me explain that how this game differs from the NA version to the original korean version. Practically all game play is the same except for one major missing link. In Korea the servers carry a lot more players at one time. This is due to both time zone differences and the popularity of it there from marketing. On a korean server it isn't odd to see one full clan of 40 players be on at the same time many times a week. In NA, this is a bit more rare. This means alliances almost everday of the week could have 100+ people playing. With those 100+ people raid bosses are much easier to take in a shorter amount of time. Raids are some of the best ways to make money and gear in this game. Also with 100+ people collecting materials from hunting and spoils clan donations to craft each other weapons are extreamly easier. For example:
I am trying to recraft a SoV (again...don't ask long story). The recipie is 13 mil and blades definately require some time to farm. After an hour of some clannies farming in an area that drops blades and recipes, they get bored and want to hunt somewhere else. So in turn I have to buy that overpriced recipie and blades. Now this isn't too bad but what comes next is almost shocking. The materials are needed in the thousands. My clan which has maybe 8 people on at one time during the time zones that I play and the alliance having maybe 20 can help me greatly with those mats. I can get about half of them (the more common ones anyway). This means I still need 8 million roughly to buy the rest of the materials. 8 million that I do not have. So this happens to many people. Where I am patient and will wait until I do have 8 million, or get those mats, some people are not. They then go buy mats from farmers by usually ebaying adena from those same farmers that he just bought the mats from. Ironic isn't it. You just payed some farmers RL cash to get in game currency to turn around and give it back to them...
So as you can see, the reason farmers are so prevailent is because the player base isn't as large as the one in Korea. Making farming mats and raidbosses for large clans more reasonable. The bad part again is, these same farmers are driving away more players and giving them yet a stronger foothold within the game.
Now I look at the manor system and am like, SWEET, I can get my mats from there. So I purchase some seed and do the whole manor thing to return to a manor manager that isn't buying seeds because all the farmers sold them back for the mats they sell in town. Also many lords don't even set up the manor system correctly or at all!
I wouldn't fix the drop rates if the adena farmers were kicked out of aden. What I would fix is the manor system, and spoil rates from scavengers. This way the market won't inflate so much and more people will play a practically useless class. Manor lords will recieve their castle upgrades from the properly set up manor system, and players will recieve there materials in the quantities that they need for cheaper than market price. Then again I could be completely wrong...lol.
I will agree that I do enjoy playing L2, and that is still why I play it, although many times it is painful...lol. I like the people I play with the most, the only reason why I still play actually. Also when you do hit that one extra level, if feels GREAT! Also when you finally level your stage 9 red soul crystal and it doesn't break...it also feels GREAT! The game definately gives you a rewarding experience, even for the smallest tasks.
Also to mention, yes I would rather have bots than grumpy farmers. There is one good thing about L2, it has the nicest farmers you will ever meet!
.............................................................
Well the one person is right when saying the buyers are just as guilty.If nobody buys then selling doesn't exist.The other problem is that like most other games with PVP it is level based,therefore botting WILL be rampant.They all want to fly through levels so they can own or do anything they want.That is the developers problem for making it level based.There is no skill for a noob other than to hope and prey he isn't killed.He can't run from a speed buff he can't fight a player that's higher level[where is there any skill?]i guess the skill would be for the low level player to seek a high level player to hold his hand, pfftt sad option.
Now that there are so many high level player's ,NCSOFt can still rake in there monthly fee,with no fear of these players quitting all there hard work[well those that didn't bot..rflmao[very few]All of these games operate the same,meaning they do almost nothing when comes to cheating.They always leave it up to the players to whine and complain a million times over just to see a few names here and there booted or suspended.SILKROAD was the biggest joke suspending players for one day IF they were caught,after they prolly booted off 30 levels or more first.I guess one can only assume that the devs also play these games and are prolly the main culprits behind the leak of these dupes and cheats.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.