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Ridiculous VIP key giveaway and obvious bots

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  • Einherjar_LCEinherjar_LC Member UncommonPosts: 1,055

    Originally posted by Leucent

     I understand the point, and no I ve never won a thing on here. I have entered many with the log in each day and get a ticket, Always did log in each day and never won. Guess what that never bothered me at all because it was fair. I never once had to race to beat the f n clock and lag out because of obvious botters slowing me down. If people can t see the unfairness of that, then I give up.

    I couldn't agree more.

     

    It's pretty disheartening to see all the one post wonders with join dates within the last couple days proliferating on the beta key threads, but it is what it is.

     

    MMORPG is happy with the system no matter how badly it puts long time supporters of the site out.  The whole generating new traffic for the site is a BS argument IMO as well.  Many, if not most or all of the one post wonders will never come to this site again.  While I don't think I'm entitled to anything, I do think the long time members/supporters of the site should have first dibs at the keys.

    Einherjar_LC says: WTB the true successor to UO or Asheron's Call pst!

  • ZyllosZyllos Member UncommonPosts: 537

    Ya, there is too many people wanting these keys and not enough keys.

    The funny thing is I see 'normal' keys ALL over the place but those are bearly moving.

    I gave up a few months ago in trying to get into alpha (including beta) when I was the #1075th applicant for the alpha invites and have been part of the forums over there sense the darn thing opened and was not selected. Too much hassle and they are using the keys for just marketing instead of giving to their community members who have been a part of them sense the beginning.

    Only thing I can say is, just forget about it and go on with life. Sure, it sucks as all the others who have gotten the keys get to have the fun off your work but it happens all day, every day. Guess you could be off in the middle of a ditch with a knife in your back for the $20 bucks in you back pocket but lucky most of us here have avoided that.

    MMOs Played: I can no longer list them all in the 500 character limit.

  • choujiofkonochoujiofkono Member Posts: 852

         There is no doubt there are people that have mass accounts on these forums.  I've caught them red-handed making the same semantic mistakes, the same spelling errors, the same twisted foreign english to their sentence structure.  I've posted comparison posts detailing these obvious truths and they were deleted by the mods. 

    One such person is still posting in these forums xD 

         If it's so easy to detect and prevent multiple accounts on the same IP adress then why isn't it being eliminated? 

        My guess is that it generates more traffic for ads and numbers for the site in general. 

    "I'm not cheap I'm incredibly subconsciously financially optimized"
    "The worst part of censorship is ------------------"
    image

  • Excalaber2Excalaber2 Member UncommonPosts: 360

    Since it is a policy not to have multiple accounts, why not just do as others said and say "Everyone with 6 months + time is eligable for this".  That way if someone had multiple accounts, hes already violating terms of use...but it's a problem that would have already existed over the course of 6 months and not corrected.

    Disclaimer: This is not a troll post and is not here to promote any negative energy. Although this may be a criticism, it is not meant to offend anyone. If a moderator feels the post is inappropriate, please remove it immediately before it is subject to consideration for a warning. Thank you.

  • BenthonBenthon Member Posts: 2,069

    Originally posted by choujiofkono

              If it's so easy to detect and prevent multiple accounts on the same IP adress then why isn't it being eliminated? 

        My guess is that it generates more traffic for ads and numbers for the site in general. 

     You have to remember MMORPG didn't just "have" these keys to promote the site and generate ad traffic. These keys were given to them by Trion to distribute however they wanted. It wasn't some grand scheme to generate traffic for ads or for the site, although that's certainly what happens when keys of any beta are distributed, it was to hand out keys to players to give Rift some traffic.

    He who keeps his cool best wins.

  • groosomegroosome Member Posts: 8

    Hot topic huh?

    I think the whole beta key's with rift is all about advertising.

    You can't really blame MMORPG.com for joining the band wagon. I have no doubt the keys were given to mmorpg with no rules on how they can be distributed. In the end they chose a system that while fair to all members, new (traffic) or old (loyal) that would increase traffic and hopefully add new members that will hang around. With that said I believe ALL sites that get these keys use them for the same use ...... Advertising thier site.

     

    I have a normal beta key with a "chance" of getting into one of the weekends. I'm hopeful of a weekend near the end of beta so I can see what the games like prior to buying it. My guess is another mmo that fails to deliver and I'll go back to WoW or LoTRO.

  • etlaretlar Member UncommonPosts: 863

    Originally posted by Benthon

    Originally posted by choujiofkono

              If it's so easy to detect and prevent multiple accounts on the same IP adress then why isn't it being eliminated? 

        My guess is that it generates more traffic for ads and numbers for the site in general. 

     You have to remember MMORPG didn't just "have" these keys to promote the site and generate ad traffic. These keys were given to them by Trion to distribute however they wanted. It wasn't some grand scheme to generate traffic for ads or for the site, although that's certainly what happens when keys of any beta are distributed, it was to hand out keys to players to give Rift some traffic.

    It may be to genereate traffic to Trion, but some of us "older" accounts, can still feel somewhat cheated, I´ve been a member since god knows when, and ive still never gotten a key from here to a game on the hype chart, I say this only because i see alot of players with VERY new accounts, getting the keys, i dont mind new players getting a key...but here the funny part:

    Moments, mere moments after the key wins, i see accounts created same day..SELLING VIP keys....on this site, i know nothing about botters or whatever, i just know that seems weird..

  • onlinenow225onlinenow225 Member Posts: 381

    For contests like that use Google Crome, fastest intent brower there is that I know of.

     

    I got my tickets for blizzcon 09 from people that bought like 20 tickets using google crome.

  • BenthonBenthon Member Posts: 2,069

    Originally posted by etlar

    Originally posted by Benthon

    Originally posted by choujiofkono

              If it's so easy to detect and prevent multiple accounts on the same IP adress then why isn't it being eliminated? 

        My guess is that it generates more traffic for ads and numbers for the site in general. 

     You have to remember MMORPG didn't just "have" these keys to promote the site and generate ad traffic. These keys were given to them by Trion to distribute however they wanted. It wasn't some grand scheme to generate traffic for ads or for the site, although that's certainly what happens when keys of any beta are distributed, it was to hand out keys to players to give Rift some traffic.

    It may be to genereate traffic to Trion, but some of us "older" accounts, can still feel somewhat cheated, I´ve been a member since god knows when, and ive still never gotten a key from here to a game on the hype chart, I say this only because i see alot of players with VERY new accounts, getting the keys, i dont mind new players getting a key...but here the funny part:

    Moments, mere moments after the key wins, i see accounts created same day..SELLING VIP keys....on this site, i know nothing about botters or whatever, i just know that seems weird..

     Whenever a contest tries to stay as fair as possible like this on the internet, somebody always is going to take advantage of it. Anybody can sell a key, whether you're a bot or not. Someone that registered in 2004 could sell a key by making a new account. They can't punish everyone just because a few individuals are breaking the rules.

    The MMORPG market grows everyday and more people discover this site everday, so who are we, or MMORPG.com staff, to deny a legitimate newcomer a key?

    Mike has already said that he's going to try and work something out for veterans, no guarantees, but the effort is above what most sites or companies would do.

    He who keeps his cool best wins.

  • AreannaAreanna Member UncommonPosts: 55

    Would be nice if they excluded repeat winners and duplicate posts automaticly, not that it would help me by the time I was actually able to load the screen and make a post I was number 180+ lol.

  • BenthonBenthon Member Posts: 2,069

    Originally posted by Areanna

    Would be nice if they excluded repeat winners and duplicate posts automaticly, not that it would help me by the time I was actually able to load the screen and make a post I was number 180+ lol.

     Any duplicate posters were DQ'd and the next in line (#101, #102) would recieve the key.

    He who keeps his cool best wins.

  • csthaocsthao Member UncommonPosts: 1,122

    Originally posted by truce12

    I just cannot believe how many people sat here all day hoping for a chance of a chance to actually get in the beta for Rift.I seriously hope the game rocks but im not going to get pissy about not getting a key.

    +1! Its rediculous how people are reacting.

  • CzechGuyCzechGuy Member Posts: 86

    I agree with all trhe frustrated people but in the end the only thing MMORPG.com can do to ensure everything is fair and that cheaters and botters do not get rewarded and get keys to sell is.....................

    ....Not doing anymore contests.

     

    And i dont think anyone wants that.

  • MilliecakeMilliecake Member Posts: 90

    I've been kinda siding with Trion on this one despite the obvious issues of bots and scripts and selling keys, it's all advertising so it's all good.

     

    But then they kick the fans in the teeth by banning a simple story competition with VIP keys as the prize:

     

    http://forums.riftgame.com/showthread.php?6307-Official-Rift-Short-Story-Writing-Contest!

     

    It seems like they're deliberately trying to alienate the loyal fanbase in favour of the mindless masses, reminds me of another MMO company that I parted ways with this year...

  • BenthonBenthon Member Posts: 2,069

     






    Originally posted by Milliecake

    I've been kinda siding with Trion on this one despite the obvious issues of bots and scripts and selling keys, it's all advertising so it's all good.

     

    But then they kick the fans in the teeth by banning a simple story competition with VIP keys as the prize:

     

    http://forums.riftgame.com/showthread.php?6307-Official-Rift-Short-Story-Writing-Contest!

     

    It seems like they're deliberately trying to alienate the loyal fanbase in favour of the mindless masses, reminds me of another MMO company that I parted ways with this year...



     How is this kicking the players in the face? Abigale, the CM who closed the topic, clearly sad herself, said that the topic had to be closed because it wasn't actually "official"

     

     




    Hi, Folks-

     

    While this is a great idea and I salute Josh for doing it, we cannot allow a contest to be run on our official forum that is not run by Trion.

    I do very much like the idea and I think you'll see a writing contest coming up soon. We just can't have an "official" contest that is not really official. Our lawyer would not be happy with me. ;)

    So thanks, Josh, for the idea.

    And sorry I can't let it happen.

     



     

    That doesn't sound to me like a company that's trying to punch you in the back of the face.

    He who keeps his cool best wins.

  • MilliecakeMilliecake Member Posts: 90

    Originally posted by Benthon

     

     How is this kicking the players in the face? Abigale, the CM who closed the topic, clearly sad herself, said that the topic had to be closed because it wasn't actually "official"

    That doesn't sound to me like a company that's trying to punch you in the back of the face.

     

    She said any competition run on their site, he could have named it unofficial and it would still have been locked.

     

    As I said, they seem happy to hand out VIP keys like candy for advertising and I have no problem with that, but when the fans actually try to offer people a way to obtain one with some real effort other than spamming F5, they get knocked back?

     

    Their game, their advertising, but it's not creating a good impression when they stomp on the fans' efforts.

  • BenthonBenthon Member Posts: 2,069

    Originally posted by Milliecake

    Originally posted by Benthon

     

     How is this kicking the players in the face? Abigale, the CM who closed the topic, clearly sad herself, said that the topic had to be closed because it wasn't actually "official"

    That doesn't sound to me like a company that's trying to punch you in the back of the face.

     

    She said any competition run on their site, he could have named it unofficial and it would still have been locked.

     

    As I said, they seem happy to hand out VIP keys like candy for advertising and I have no problem with that, but when the fans actually try to offer people a way to obtain one with some real effort other than spamming F5, they get knocked back?

     

    Their game, their advertising, but it's not creating a good impression when they stomp on the fans' efforts.

     Running any kind of contest on their official forums isn't a good idea. It runs into legalities as Abigale explained. She wasn't rude and expressed sympathy to Josh, the OP.

    Sorry, but the thread is titled: "Official Rift Short Story Writing Contest!" ... :

    He who keeps his cool best wins.

  • FragManDanFragManDan Member Posts: 13

    I just remembered why im a reader.. not an avid poster to this site

     

    The bots will bring you down to there level.. and beat you with experience.

     

    108

  • MilliecakeMilliecake Member Posts: 90

    Originally posted by Benthon

    Running any kind of contest on their official forums isn't a good idea. It runs into legalities as Abigale explained. She wasn't rude and expressed sympathy to Josh, the OP.

    Sorry, but the thread is titled: "Official Rift Short Story Writing Contest!" ... :

     

    Title was unfortunate I'll agree. And it wouldn't hurt to just change it or even make a new thread but the wording "we cannot allow a contest to be run on our official forum that is not run by Trion..." suggest even that wouldn't be acceptable. I could be wrong.

     

    If I'm not, then I'm really confounded how multiple threads saying 'Go here to win a VIP key by spamming F5!' is any different to a thread saying 'Email some short stories here to win a VIP key'.

     

    And no she wasn't rude, she's a very good CM with a very difficult job.

  • BenthonBenthon Member Posts: 2,069

    Originally posted by Milliecake

    Originally posted by Benthon

    Running any kind of contest on their official forums isn't a good idea. It runs into legalities as Abigale explained. She wasn't rude and expressed sympathy to Josh, the OP.

    Sorry, but the thread is titled: "Official Rift Short Story Writing Contest!" ... :

     

    Title was unfortunate I'll agree. And it wouldn't hurt to just change it or even make a new thread but the wording "we cannot allow a contest to be run on our official forum that is not run by Trion..." suggest even that wouldn't be acceptable. I could be wrong.

     

    If I'm not, then I'm really confounded how multiple threads saying 'Go here to win a VIP key by spamming F5!' is any different to a thread saying 'Email some short stories here to win a VIP key'.

     

    And no she wasn't rude, she's a very good CM with a very difficult job.

     It is much different. :) One is a player trying to run a content on their official site and another is an off-site link to spam F5 for a VIP key.

    While the story idea is great (and Abigale suggested they possibly use it in the future), it's really just the issue of a player running a contest on the official forums, which runs into all kinds of legal jib-jab that only a lawyer would care about.

    He who keeps his cool best wins.

  • GreenLanternFanGreenLanternFan Member Posts: 374

    Originally posted by MikeB

    Originally posted by Leucent


    Originally posted by MikeB


    Originally posted by Darkcrystal

    So bascially we can use more than 1  account to get more  keys, and use bots LOVELY way to ruin another game.

     

    You people love to ruin games and cheaters win again... Your blind if you do not see a problem with this as  people are selling your BETA CODES...  I do not understand why you do not see anything wrong, so bascially I can win a key and make a new account and win another, and another and another.

     

    Also I can run bots o many accounts and win many to sell, I mean cmon it can be done, and 43-100 is fishy to say the least...Block there IP or block them from posting on RIFT forums. 

     

    Anyhow I knew you would do nothing about this I plan to show the devs on the Rift forums and see what they think of this unfair and fishy contest.. i'm a programmer I know what can be done to cheat these contest and when I see 43-100 new accounts that sounds  fishy and your letting people win more than 1.

     

    /rant off, I won't bother wasting my time on the next 2 days and I suggest the rest of you do the same, unless you plan on cheating thats the only way to get one.. unless you get lucky...

     

    Alot of us did spam and did not get  one due to server over loading and such , which is fine to lose to that, but the bots i,m sure played a role in that since they spamming  your forum every 1-2 seconds.

    I've elaborated above on the measures we've taken to make sure keys aren't claimed by bots. People will sell beta keys no matter what site gives them away or how they do it, whether its a drawing, first come first serve, anything. Only one key is claimable by a single account, and we have measures in place to deal with multiple accounts on the same IP address, etc.

    I am not going to discuss all the specifics of what we do to make sure things are fair, but I can assure you that we are doing whatever we possibly can. Users selling our keys are beyond our control (unless they try selling them on our forums!).

    Users who abuse our system in order to request a key will not be flagged to receive one, and their key will be reserved for the next user above the cutoff. This user will then be notified that they ended up qualifying for a key.

     There are measures to alleviate that though. USE JOIN DATE AS A MEASURE. Why is this so hard to understand. If someone just created in the last few days too bad. I know they ll say they read etc and never joined, but it s a measure to insure people will participate in the forums instead of just creating when it s convenient. It s a simple solution that should have been done in the first place.

    We are not going to punish new users for signing up to our site, even if it is to get a key. We value all of our users, new and old. We do have sweepstakes that reward consistently active users by granting them additional entries into a drawing (increasing their chances, though not guaranteeing anything based on activity), and we'll definitely look into doing something like that if we can, but no promises.

    Simply saying, "Hey, we have 100 keys but if you signed up today you can't have one!" just isn't going to happen, and in all my years as a reader I cannot say I've ever seen a site do this. If it has happened, it's certainly the exception, not the rule.

    The keys were not given out to "insure users participate on our forums". They were given to us because a developer or publisher knows they can reach MMO gamers best through our site and sites like ours; having users stick around after they sign up to grab a key is a bonus. There is more to MMORPG.com than our forums, and there are many readers who have been reading here for years and years that simply never bothered to sign up, and they are no less valuable to us. We cannot discern between the two, it would be unfair to try, and we are simply not going to do it.

    With that said, we do have contest types that do reward regular users as I outlined above, and this was simply not structured that way. This was structured along the lines of many of our typical first come, first serve giveaways.

    No, instead, you just punish your loyal members who have jobs, plans during set time, slow connections, etc. Let me ask you this Mike, how many of these "new" users do you honestly think will be back? I bet it's far fewer than you think!

    Besides membership should have its privileges. It's a friggin famous slogan for god's sake. As even some of the so-called "lurkers" have stated (and is quite obvious from their recent posts), they read the forums. How would those forums even exist if everyone just lurked and there were no members posting. At the very least, MMORPG should have offered some keys to its members. How hard would that have been? Huh?

    With all do repect, I am so disappointed in this site and as I've stated in another post, if you guys don't do something to make this right, this loyal member is not for long here. I've been a loyal, just about daily visitor to this site that's contributed more to this site than can be said of your "lurker", no matter how you try to sugar-coat it.

    Finally, so that we are clear, it's not the RIFT beta-key that has me peeved, but the principle of the whole thing. Your members should come first and if they don't then what is the incentive for these aforementioned new users of yours in bothering to stick around after these keys are gone? Why should I even bother sticking around? Let me guess, that one never crossed anyone's mind.

    Your fail comment, failed.

  • HalowHalow Member Posts: 71

    I agree with MrcdesOwnr.. I have been a member on this site since 07.. this account was made last year so I could update my email address for spam reasons. I am not the biggest poster but I check this site daily for updates on various mmo's, I read the blogs, I love game discussions by fans, and I post when I feel like expressing an opinion on the matter. This may not be often but if there was a posts read number I guarentee it would be over 10k.

    Anyways the point I am making is that 90% of people getting these beta keys are not loyal MMORPG members but just idiots that signed up because of they key and once they got it they are never coming back. SURE you might get 1 or 2% of those people that actually stay but your loyal fans that have been here for years are getting shafted and I guarentee more are going to go find somewhere else to share their opinions than on a site thats going to favor botters and people who don't deserve it. I don't even think I should deserve a key because I don't participate much but those guys that have been here for years and have 2000+ posts all need one.

  • Einherjar_LCEinherjar_LC Member UncommonPosts: 1,055

    Originally posted by MrcdesOwnr

    No, instead, you just punish your loyal members who have jobs, plans during set time, slow connections, etc. Let me ask you this Mike, how many of these "new" users do you honestly think will be back? I bet it's far fewer than you think!

    Besides membership should have its privileges. It's a friggin famous slogan for god's sake. As even some of the so-called "lurkers" have stated (and is quite obvious from their recent posts), they read the forums. How would those forums even exist if everyone just lurked and there were no members posting. At the very least, MMORPG should have offered some keys to its members. How hard would that have been? Huh?

    With all do repect, I am so disappointed in this site and as I've stated in another post, if you guys don't do something to make this right, this loyal member is not for long here. I've been a loyal, just about daily visitor to this site that's contributed more to this site than can be said of your "lurker", no matter how you try to sugar-coat it.

    Finally, so that we are clear, it's not the RIFT beta-key that has me peeved, but the principle of the whole thing. Your members should come first and if they don't then what is the incentive for these aforementioned new users of yours in bothering to stick around after these keys are gone? Why should I even bother sticking around? Let me guess, that one never crossed anyone's mind.

    Well said my friend, well said.

     

    Einherjar_LC says: WTB the true successor to UO or Asheron's Call pst!

  • LorkLork Member Posts: 338

    Originally posted by Methos12

    Should've been only for [insert number] days old accounts and older.

     

    Yeah, click on some of the posters and you will see that most, if not all, joined within a few days.

     

    Thanks mmorpg.com for throwing a bone to the folks that have been visting for years.

  • J_HurryJ_Hurry Member UncommonPosts: 230

    This message was edited on 8/16/15 at 5:30:00 AM

    LGM Alchemist (Legendary Grandmaster)
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