Easy way to combat the loser gold buyers.

Nerf09 · October 2006

A graph public to everyone that examines your character: (total value of items + your character level) over hours played. If any loser buys videogame items or gold with real world items then a large spike in the graph will occur, then we, who are not loers, could mock them and ignore them in game for being such losers. As it stands now you can't tell the losers from the non-losers, unless they admit, "I bought this much gold today."

Gameloading · October 2006

"Losers"? grow up. you don't have to agree with gold buying, but calling people losers for doing it is just sad.

OwenMcQ · October 2006

There are times I will hook up a friend who is new to the game, or a guildie, or sometimes give all my stuff away when I quit the game (like I did in EQ2). Therefore I don't think it's a definitive solution.

SnaKey · October 2006

I would actually classify gold buyers as the oposite of being a "Loser"

I mean.... ffs. I wish I had $200 (or $1000+ for character buying) to blow on virtual items.

Your system doesn't work btw. What if you find an extremely rare drop? When I played WoW I had about 10g then I killed Vultros and sold the dagger for 50g.

OwenMcQ · October 2006

Originally posted by SnaKey
When I played WoW I had about 10g then I killed Vultros and sold the dagger for 50g.

You just gave me a flashback.

Infliction · October 2006

How about a system that asked a bunch of random easy questions to players at random time intervals? These questions would have to be answered within a few minutes or the player would be booted from the game. Of course this system would detect movement to tell whether or not the player was AFK, and there'd be a ton of questions added regularly to deter people from attempting to make auto-response bots. This wouldn't get rid of gold buying/selling entirely but it certainly would cause harm to the botters.

SnaKey · October 2006

Originally posted by Infliction
How about a system that asked a bunch of random easy questions to players at random time intervals?

WoW:
"8hrs of raiding and this DAMN BOSS is almost dead!!!!!!"

"What color is the sky?
-Red
-Blue
-Green
-Yellow"

"FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now I have to run back to my corpse before eveyone dies! I was the healer!"

EVE:
"Haha, got you now you stupid pirate"

"What does USA stand for?
-United Sucking Arabs
-Unified Stinky Animals
-United States of America
-Uncontrolled Supermen of Antartica"

"NO! I will not pay your ransom! Go ahead and pod kill me and get it over with"

Get the point?

Infliction · October 2006

Originally posted by SnaKey
Originally posted by Infliction
How about a system that asked a bunch of random easy questions to players at random time intervals?

WoW:
"8hrs of raiding and this DAMN BOSS is almost dead!!!!!!"

"What color is the sky?
-Red
-Blue
-Green
-Yellow"

"FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now I have to run back to my corpse before eveyone dies! I was the healer!"

EVE:
"Haha, got you now you stupid pirate"

"What does USA stand for?
-United Sucking Arabs
-Unified Stinky Animals
-United States of America
-Uncontrolled Supermen of Antartica"

"NO! I will not pay your ransom! Go ahead and pod kill me and get it over with"

Get the point?

It also wouldn't be hard to implement it so the system could tell what zone you were in. For example a raid instance would be exempt, or any other potentially problematic areas.

edit: also the question wouldn't have to be answered immediately, you'd have 3-5 minutes or so to answer. More than enough time for a quick multiple choice (you could just hit a number on your keyboard to answer).

ianubisi · October 2006

This is a retarded idea.

neuronomad · October 2006

Idea

Jizhak · October 2006

Well, if that happened maybe the playing times ab out players account should also be visible to all.

Then we could pinpoint the actual losers who spend majority of their life to play computer games.

Stupid idea.

neuronomad · October 2006

Originally posted by Jizhak
Well, if that happened maybe the playing times ab out players account should also be visible to all.

Then we could pinpoint the actual losers who spend majority of their life to play computer games.

Stupid idea.

Good one. Yeah if you are going to point out those people that have far too much money than they know what to spend it on and buy gold, then you also should point out the people that have far too much time and spend it on ingame.

SnaKey · October 2006

Originally posted by Jizhak
Well, if that happened maybe the playing times ab out players account should also be visible to all.Then we could pinpoint the actual losers who spend majority of their life to play computer games.Stupid idea.

We do. It's called Levels.

Ligner · October 2006

It already has been said before... The money issue wouldnt be problem if that would worry developers that much. Its really up to them to end it by simply changing that gameplay concept. Your topic should be addressed really to them and not to us.

Personally im against buying game gold for real money but calling people names just because devs are allow them to do so by not publishing smooth economy system is kinda wrong.

Cheers!

OldGoron · October 2006

I'm sorry to break it to ya but that idea has got to be the stupidest fucking idea i've ever wasted my eyes on reading lol. And about the gold buying thing, get a grip ?

I'm like many other NOT against gold sales but I am ofcourse strongly against the botted farmers so I must admit it's kind of hard to justify it in WoW. I work 8-12 hours a day (tend to lean mostly towards 12 lately) and I would never have the time to be in one of the top raiding guilds in WoW if I didnt have the possibility to purchase gold etc. So you may ask why bother with a raiding guild then? Well thats the only thing I've ever enjoyed with these games, loved Everquest but in those days I had 10-12 days / day to unload on the game .... which today I sure dont.

You can bash this question left and right there's always gonna be a sort of justification for it.

Nullapax · October 2006

Originally posted by SnaKey
Originally posted by Infliction
How about a system that asked a bunch of random easy questions to players at random time intervals?

WoW:
"8hrs of raiding and this DAMN BOSS is almost dead!!!!!!"

"What color is the sky?
-Red
-Blue
-Green
-Yellow"

"FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now I have to run back to my corpse before eveyone dies! I was the healer!"

EVE:
"Haha, got you now you stupid pirate"

"What does USA stand for?
-United Sucking Arabs
-Unified Stinky Animals
-United States of America
-Uncontrolled Supermen of Antartica"

"NO! I will not pay your ransom! Go ahead and pod kill me and get it over with"

Get the point?

I like those kind of nightmare scenarios.

I don't care about gold buyers.
Personally, buying gold or items would totaly destroy any game for me but I can see many reasons for people to both sell and buy.

scaramoosh · October 2006

Originally posted by OwenMcQ

There are times I will hook up a friend who is new to the game, or a guildie, or sometimes give all my stuff away when I quit the game (like I did in EQ2). Therefore I don't think it's a definitive solution.

When i quit eve i gave alll my stuff away to my corp.
Several BS bout 600 million and lots of items including a raven BPO which i stole from my last corp

Bladin · October 2006

I have never, nor would I ever buy gold for a mmorpg, but i honestly have no problems with other people doing it.

If someone wants to spend their rl money on it...good for them. They aren't "Newbs" since it takes no skill to farm mobs or gather mats for crafters to sell. And they aren't "no life losers" because they actually want to spend LESS time playing the game.

KvenTelGhoul · October 2006

Let them play their way and you play yours. It's just a game anyways

Xpheyel · October 2006

I agree that it is cheating, by definition. We're playing a game. You're breaking the rules. In the process of doing so, you're encouraging gold farming. Which means there is some guy hording a portion of the game non-stop because 2 or 3 people or a macro that are playing him continously. You're hurting your own gameplay and mine.

I doubt there is a silver bullet to fix it anymore than there is a silver bullet to defeat accounts being cracked (globally, including people who use weak passwords). Intrusive solutions like questions just disrupt gameplay.

Parsifal57 · October 2006

Originally posted by Jizhak
Well, if that happened maybe the playing times ab out players account should also be visible to all.

Then we could pinpoint the actual losers who spend majority of their life to play computer games.

Stupid idea.

The amount of time an account is in play should be an indicator of whether or it is liikely to be part of a BOT or gold farming operation, as a rough ballpark figure any account that is played 12hours a day consistantly should be flagged for investigation, similarly the same credit card/billing address being used to pay for several accounts lets say 10 or more should also raise flags (add into this a comparison of billing addresses in the case of multiple cards being used) and you should be able to catch a decent percentage of farmers/botters, certainly more than Blizzard do now anyway (although this problem is not limited to Wow).

It seems to me that the game companies only pay lip service to catching cheaters, unless there is active participation from the player base in reporting suspects most of them never even hit the radar to be investigated

Aethios · October 2006

Originally posted by Parsifal57

Originally posted by Jizhak
Well, if that happened maybe the playing times ab out players account should also be visible to all.Then we could pinpoint the actual losers who spend majority of their life to play computer games.Stupid idea.

The amount of time an account is in play should be an indicator of whether or it is liikely to be part of a BOT or gold farming operation, as a rough ballpark figure any account that is played 12hours a day consistantly should be flagged for investigation, similarly the same credit card/billing address being used to pay for several accounts lets say 10 or more should also raise flags (add into this a comparison of billing addresses in the case of multiple cards being used) and you should be able to catch a decent percentage of farmers/botters, certainly more than Blizzard do now anyway (although this problem is not limited to Wow).

It seems to me that the game companies only pay lip service to catching cheaters, unless there is active participation from the player base in reporting suspects most of them never even hit the radar to be investigated

Even when players DO report it, often nothing is done. I read a story in PC Gamer a few months back about how they paid a powerleveling service, logged into the game on a different account and followed her around, even reported her to the GMs, and nothing was done. The powerleveler successfully made it to level 60, playing 16 hours a day (or something to that extent), and nobody bothered to even look twice.

It was especially bad during that fad with the Dire Maul hack, if any of you are familiar with that. Botting/powerleveling/gold farming are bad enough, but then throw in a well-known exploit to an instance with overvalued loot? All of the skill books from that instance were brought down to 5g, and even the Warrior's epic quest book (for Quel'Serrar) was brought down to only 100g on some servers. After this exploit was removed, those same books shot to 50g and 1000g respectively, literally overnight.

Kyleran · October 2006

Originally posted by Aethios

It was especially bad during that fad with the Dire Maul hack, if any of you are familiar with that. Botting/powerleveling/gold farming are bad enough, but then throw in a well-known exploit to an instance with overvalued loot? All of the skill books from that instance were brought down to 5g, and even the Warrior's epic quest book (for Quel'Serrar) was brought down to only 100g on some servers. After this exploit was removed, those same books shot to 50g and 1000g respectively, literally overnight.

So you want to pay 50/1000 gold for these items? I don't know about you, but I would have much preferred to pay the lower 5/100 gold prices. You made my point...most times inflation by gold farming is offset by greater availability of items/materials for sale at cheaper prices.

And I agree... I'd call people who play a game 8 hours a day or more the real "losers"

And you know what, I'm willing to bet that many (not all) of the people who rail against gold farming or power-leveling have no problem offering their accounts up for sale to the highest bidder. A bit two-faced me thinks.

Pantastic · October 2006

Originally posted by neuronomad
Good one. Yeah if you are going to point out those people that have far too much money than they know what to spend it on and buy gold, then you also should point out the people that have far too much time and spend it on ingame.

People talking about gold farming seem to massively underestimate how much money a typical working person has availible for a hobby, probably because the people who get most passionate about it tend to be students, unemployed, or someone else without a serious income but with big blocks of time. I just went to one of the sites whose name I won't mention (not being cagey, just don't want the mods to think I'm advertising them), and looked around. I see a bunch of characters selling for several hundred dollars, like a 60 mage with epics for $600, 'level to 60' service for $200 and gold for something like $200/1000g (which is actually more than I thought it was).

Compare it with other forms of entertainment, though. People drop that kind of money on a johnboat or canoe for fishing, for example, and the serious boats run into the thousands and tens of thousands of dollars. Just a trip for a long weekend somehwere can run into that price range when you factor in plane tickets, food, and lodging. There are tons of other hobbies that people spend that much money or more on, most people I know have at least one thing they do that they dropped $500 or more to get into. Even just in MMORPGs, how many people keep a second account, like buffbot account in DAOC? That's around $150/year right there, over 3 years you've bought a powerlevel to 60 and 1000g in WOW.

Spending 60 hours a week for a year grinding out a character is way more out of the ordinary than dropping a few hundred dollars into a hobby. While $500 is definately not pocket change, it's also not that much money for something you'll get a lot of enjoyment out of. And, since there's inevitably the accusations of it, I've never bought in-game money/characters/items and wouldn't play a game where I felt like I needed to, I just think the ranting on gold sales is overblown.

protoroc · October 2006

Originally posted by Nerf09
A graph public to everyone that examines your character: (total value of items + your character level) over hours played. If any loser buys videogame items or gold with real world items then a large spike in the graph will occur, then we, who are not loers, could mock them and ignore them in game for being such losers. As it stands now you can't tell the losers from the non-losers, unless they admit, "I bought this much gold today."

Try working full time. Guess what some people dont have the time to farm for all the timesinks that are in the game. I could say your a loser for not buying gold, since you obviously have way too much time to play the game. Fact is farmers are required for a healthy economy, dont believe me, log onto any low pop/recommended server and compare the market to a high populated server.

I dont care what you think, I wont lie, I've bought gold online before. Games like WOW place tons of cockblocks in the players way like NR grear for AQ40. I dont enjoy farming, I dont enjoy mindless tedium, but its required. Well I dont have the time to farm 100s of 1000s of gold just to enjoy the game I pay my hard earned money on.

Aethios · October 2006

Originally posted by Kyleran
Originally posted by Aethios It was especially bad during that fad with the Dire Maul hack, if any of you are familiar with that. Botting/powerleveling/gold farming are bad enough, but then throw in a well-known exploit to an instance with overvalued loot? All of the skill books from that instance were brought down to 5g, and even the Warrior's epic quest book (for Quel'Serrar) was brought down to only 100g on some servers. After this exploit was removed, those same books shot to 50g and 1000g respectively, literally overnight.

So you want to pay 50/1000 gold for these items? I don't know about you, but I would have much preferred to pay the lower 5/100 gold prices. You made my point...most times inflation by gold farming is offset by greater availability of items/materials for sale at cheaper prices.
And I agree... I'd call people who play a game 8 hours a day or more the real "losers"
And you know what, I'm willing to bet that many (not all) of the people who rail against gold farming or power-leveling have no problem offering their accounts up for sale to the highest bidder. A bit two-faced me thinks.

You misread my point.

I was trying to show that by removing the exploits AFTER they had been used, instead of before, they actually allowed these farmers to make money FASTER than they were. I don't like paying that much gold for an item regardless, but I certainly don't want to pay it to a Chinese farmer who illegally obtained the item, and is overpricing it now because it's no longer available. If it's from an average player, and that's still the standard price (without hacks and exploits and gold farming) then so be it.

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Easy way to combat the loser gold buyers.

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Easy way to combat the loser gold buyers.

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Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV