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Is IGE a cheat site?
Relent
Member Posts: 66
The rules of many mmo games prohibit the sale of in-game items for real money. That's not an arbitrary thing. It unbalances character development, inflates economies, and the profit farmers themselves often sour the game for players.
Breaking the agreed upon rules of a game in order to gain an advantage over the competition. Isn't that the definition of cheating? Yet many ebayers aren't merely unapologetic, they actually attempt to legitimize what they do as valid gameplay.
What do you think?
And for those of you who do think it's cheating, what is your opinion of a fan site that professes a 'zero tolerance' stance toward cheating while they're making money promoting a company like IGE?
Comments
who cares if no one buys they go by by. if you dont like it dont buy.
i myself am tired of seeing these friggin posts been plenty of them already look at back posts to find out what people here think about it. i myself have baught off ebay before but no longer cause its a waste of money last timje i baught off ebay was like 5 years ago.
but like i said if you dont like dont buy and only the people who cant play there said game will be the ones buying from them since if they have to buy from a sight that might only take a day or 2 to get in game. also why if your not buying from them are you worried about it?
mmorpg.com is advertising it cause hay its a free site that rocks with great giveaways how do you think they are paying the bills????
In a multiplayer PvP game, when anybody cheats it affects all players.
I don't buy from ebayers, noone in my guild buys from ebayers. But that doesn't help the fact that we're still faced with the growing problems of inflation, farmers, and artificially boosted opponents.
Many people coming over from single player games seem to equate mmog cheats with desktop cheats; as something pathetic but harmless.
But this is "multi" player folks. Even a small percentage of players cheating changes the game for everyone else.
--Ha, Pwned--
Pvp = godliness
Playing: WoW
Waiting on: Gods and Heroes
I guess it's all in how you look at it. IGE could be considered cheating, but they say they are not selling ingame items but they are selling "time". The time spent to attain said items. Sometime I wonder just how hard developers try to eliminate this? Sure, you hear about the occasional "we have banned x number of accounts for farming", but really..what does that do? To the hard core farmer; nothing. If they are making good money at it, they just open another account. It makes the dev/pub look good because people think they are doing something about it, and yet they still retain their subscriber numbers.
If game developers really cared about such things, they would design a system to curb this type of stuff. Self-contained economy, no player to player trading..etc. etc. I am not saying that those things are the ultimate answers, but it could be attempted and at least looked at.
For the record: If you think Ebaying and the like are cheating, then you have to believe that a game that allows "macroing" is also cheating, correct?
-Raenz-
--Ha, Pwned--
Pvp = godliness
Playing: WoW
Waiting on: Gods and Heroes
-Raenz-
What exactly are people buying though? That's the grey area. Buying people's time, not the actual intellectual property? Personally I think that's crap. That is the equivalent of hiring a bank robber. You didn't break the law because you bought the bank robber's time and expertise, BS!
Aside from that players are deluding themselves that they actually getting value for money. There is typically a minimum buy price which will just so happen buy these companies a few accounts in case one gets suspended or something.
Anyway there seems to be at least one thread a week about this topic.
Message to those who buy or are thinking about buying:
You are being conned! That's right, who gets banned if you get caught, not the person giving you gold who probably has some kind of arangement with the makers of the game anyway, but YOU!. You are buying something VIRTUAL, it does not exist. That's like me charging you 10 cents for every character in my post! All it would take is an insider in a game company to code in a backdoor to one of their characters to have infinte gold or something. They will make a fortune and THEY do. Call me paranoid, but from the interviews read on that other post and I have long suspected anyway, that there is a collusion between the makers of these games and companies such as enotts, IGE etc.
For crying out loud it is just a game! Ask yourself what exactly are you buying?
Hypocritical?
I totaly agree. With the first posts definition of cheating, selling in game money is in that category.
My stance on the last paragraph, In a sense it is cheating, in another it is not. By not I give a nod of recognition that in most games, especially current and progressing foward buying coin gives no real advantage to a player that could not be otherwise attained due to item level restrictions and such. to the games that do not have such restrictions in place then, yes this becomes a more noticable problem. Is it unfair that people with extra RL money can buy money in game that they otherwise do not have the time to make? Yes..but only if you consider it unfair that a high level twink his new toon with the best equipment/spells for his given level. It is unfair in the sense that the person bought that ability with their Time in RL, but only as unfair as the high level's alt in the time the high level was able to invest in game. Difference? one person has tons of time to spend in game..thus has it all, other person has not as much time to spend in game, but money due to RL working situation..end result is the same. The person however left in the cold is the one without alot of time to spend in game, or alot of money.
As for the promotion of the company, I find it sad that a site like this has to stoop to the level of advertising companies that support the ebay mentality players. Honestly I dispise these players, mostly because I do not consider them real gamers, I consider them hacks or wannabe's. However I work for a living and I understand the reality that a site like this has expenses and lots of them. This site gives free access to resources that cost them thousands of dollars a month in Real currency. Othersites force people to pay, this one does not. I will thus not protest the fact that they allow the advertisement because it pays the bills. Have you ever seen the bills for a site this large? they are not small I assure you. Of course a few people have said, well I would pay for these services to not see those websites, to those I ask the question; Are you willig to front $50, $100, $150 a month for it? Because that is still less then the amount that is most likely being received by the site from an ad like that, I spec that amount because the amount of people willing to pay for these services are very few..Very few, thus the cost per person would have to be higher. The other downside of course if the site loses alot of its traffic due to people not wanting to pay, and does not easily generate new traffic which sites like this depend on. All said its a wonderful theory but in practice it is something quite different.
Here is a hint for you all, Something you can do that both hurts IGE and Benefits websites like this. Click the Banner..yes thats right I said Click the banner...Why you ask? Simple. Every person who clicks that banner regardless of if they buy or not, generates income for this website. If you are generating income for this website you are costing IGE money...So what is the best thing you can do? Click it..click it often..the more you click the more money you cost them and the more money you make for the site you support...Honestly I am suprised I am having to say this, I would have figured people would figure this out by now.
Cheating. If an action is against the TOS or COC of a game, ir's cheating. Therefore, selling OR buying items from games that forbid it is cheating, and sites like IGE which exist to foster this sort of activity promote cheating in games.
Owyn
Commander, Defenders of Order
http://www.defendersoforder.com
Again?
This is like the umteenth millon topic on a tired subject.
There are 2 groups of players:
1.The ones who dont buy from IGE and quit playing a game because they have figured out its too difficult to grind out to the next level.
2.The players that do buy from IGE and are happy with the purchase and keep playing the game thus paying the subscription instead of quiting.
BTW go look at the next XBOX and you will see what they have planned.
Here is a little snippet:
Micro Transactions: Breaking down barriers of small-ticket online commerce, micro-transactions will allow developers and the gaming community to charge as little as they like for content they create and publish on the Marketplace. Imagine players slapping down $.99 to buy a one-of-a-kind, fully tricked-out racing car to be the envy of all their buddies.
The above paragraph is directly from the official xbox site.
Get used to it this is an evolution in gaming.From mmo's that started pay to play to the next generation games that will allow developers to charge extra for ingame items.I see no difference in either developers or IGE charging for an item.
Really the next question is how much is too much?
It has gone beyond right and wrong and turned into an acceptable practice to buy gold or a rare item.This isnt changing or stopping so either get used to it or just stop playing online games.Microsoft and SONY have both seen how profitable online gaming can be and are now doing what 3rd parties have been doing for years and years.Both companies have seen how its done and will let developers control the games they create ensuring a larger profit.
Want to ENJOY an mmo?
Dont start a guild and dont be a leader or volunteer to be coleader or captain.
Just play the damn game:)
The problem is not IGE or any such illegal selling of items.
It is how the game is built.
CoH cant care less if IGE try to sell Influence or whatever, peoples dont value paying a lot for those because they are FUN to earn. Those that value paying a LOT do it when the game is not fun, when it is a PAIN to achieve but still want it(like raiding giving solo uberness), I say just stay clear of them if you think about buying, the game is flawed and need to be redesign before you enjoy it. 95% of the peoples who buy stuff related to CoH are peoples that just start playing CoH and didnt realize what they are doing since they are so used to the EQ/Lineage mind setting and see NCsoft, but guess what, it is FUN to earn in CoH, so nobody pay anything once they know the game and just go earn what they want!
LOL, I even recall ''faming mobs'' in CoH because I didnt understand, I was thinking I need to kill mobs for them to respawn, but CoH is not that type of game, later I realize I just have to move away and they auto-respawn, so I can get what I want by hunting a LOT faster then by farming boringly and trying to protect my territory...LOL, I blame EQ for my initial assumption, thanks God, CoH is very nicely builded for this. (still enjoy EQ, well, like I enjoy the original Bard's Tale)
Blame the devs, not IGE!
- "If I understand you well, you are telling me until next time. " - Ren
Of course it's cheating, if you're gaining an advantage that you would not have gotten if you didnt otherwise use real world money to buy it is cheating. It's no different than using macros and plug ins as far as im concerned. Wait till they figure out a way to hack the servers and change characters levels, then you'll see a problem with it. And this site that supports them are just doing what's best to make money, if you thought this was some kind of fansite, LOL you're living in dreamland, these people make money off of this site, and anyone who says otherwise is fooling themselves. So does it surprise you that they'd sell out to IGE? nope, its a business and you expect businesses to be concerned with their bottomline.
- "If I understand you well, you are telling me until next time. " - Ren
I don't approve of what IGE does, but I think they are much less harmful to the game than those who use cheats. As for the ads, Firefox + Adblock = no IGE ads.
I think it is unarguable that buying or selling items in games like EQ2, WOW, and DAOC is cheating. That's because those games specifically say that those actions are not allowed. However, the buying and reselling of items in other games might be perfectly OK - look at Project Entropia - nothing wrong with it there!
The difference is in whether it is allowed by the game rules or disallowed by them. If it's NOT allowed by the game rules, people who do it are cheating, because they are gaining an unfair advantage over players who elect not to cheat.
In a game where buying things is the norm (like PE, or the example someone gave above of Xbox2 Live games), then of course it's not cheating. Some players may opt to not buy things. Some may not have enough money to compete in that sort of game. But they cannot complain about it being unfair, because they knew when they went to play the game what the rules were.
But when players go to a game, are told the rules are "no buying or selling", and they follow those rules, only to see other players go unpunished after breaking the rules... I think those players then have a right to be a bit ticked. Game companies should not make rules they cannot or will not enforce.
IGE is a little fish in the middle of a lot of big issues. Right now, because IGE manages the sales of goods in games where it is against the rules, IGE should be considered a cheat site. It is literally a site which exists to make money from people cheating.
Owyn
Commander, Defenders of Order
http://www.defendersoforder.com
Uhhh...yes...hiring a bank robber to rob a bank would be against the law. If a guy hires a hitman to kill his wife, the guy is most definitely breaking the law.
The problem with selling in game items for real life money is that the value leaves the in game economy, in game money becomes less and less valuable because the one guy that buys all his money on Ebay can always outbid you (generally raising the prices, inflation). When the value of the item is transferred out of the game's economy, it affects the game's economy.
Why is it sooooo necessary to keep bringing up the same subject constantly?
__________________________
Malianea
More free advertising for IGE.com. They must love you guys.
The owner of every item within the game is the company itself. So you can NOT sell any of these item as you do not own them so selling them is theft as you sell something you do not own
"It has gone beyond right and wrong and turned into an acceptable practice to buy gold or a rare item. This isnt changing or stopping so either get used to it or just stop playing online games."
If it's such an 'accepted' practice, why are so many players against it? Even here, on a site that advertises it?
I don't have a problem with Second Life and Project Entropia. They were designed for people who want to buy their way through a game. And Microsoft is also considering a similar game. Go play them and enjoy. (please)
But the majority of us still want a clean competitive environment. And the majority of games are trying to serve competitive gamers, thus all the TOS that forbid item selling. And that's where the problem lies, when the ebayers come into our games.
The future lies in working out how to strictly separate the farmers/purchasers (through stronger legal penalties, better in-game detection, and a more aware/less tolerant player base) from the legitimate competitive players. So that you can have your games, and we can have ours.
Never, ever make the mistake of assuming that a preponderance of posts on a message board speaks to the opinions of the majority of gamers. Message boards are notorious playgrounds for the discontented gamer, since most gamers who are content are usually playing their games.
Never, ever make the mistake of assuming that a preponderance of posts on a message board speaks to the opinions of the majority of gamers. Message boards are notorious playgrounds for the discontented gamer, since most gamers who are content are usually playing their games.
It is just illigal as it is not you stuff as it is still owned by the companies and not by you so you CANT sell it. It is not a matter of opinion and i freankly don't care if poeple buy stuff from the internet. I just play my wait starting from lvl 1 and make my own way to the top. It is far more fun that way and then you can be proud of your lvl 53 caracter. Also a second thing that is a shame of this pratice is that the one with more money could benifit of this a lot more get rare stuff very easy of with you maybe need a couple of hour/days/month to get......it is just illigal and that is a fact and so the one who do it should be banned and kicked.