Pan'Theon: Rise' of th'e Fal'Len - #1 Thread in MMO

Fight

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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It only bothers me when people take it to an industrial level of mechanical botting or 12 accounts operated by one guy to hold down an entire dungeon (and it's loot) by himself.

Account sellers were never really much more than a good gossip topic and had little impact on the game.
 
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Utnayan

F16 patrolling Rajaah until he plays DS3
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If you have an open-market in-game commerce system (as I definitely favor), you can't stop RMT. I think that's ok. The worst part of RMT (imo) isn't the out of game money changing hands, it's the effect it has in game a la spammers and farmers who are hogging game assets for the sole purpose of RMT.

So if you can stop the worst offenders and reduce the in-game impact as much as possible, I'd call that a victory. But, again, even just stopping the worst of it and letting the small stuff go takes a significant investment of resources-- an investment I think is worthwhile.

Unfortunately since most (All) of these games release completely broken from the ground up, I would have to say I disagree because I would rather see resources and investments made in just about anything else besides stopping something which really can never be stopped and in some cases, have a lot of money folks just trying to figure out how to cash in on the piece of the pie - which is their right to do since it's their IP.

Since the entire MMORPG genre is a broken, segmented mess due to decades of abuse, neglect, stupidity, unethical behavior, etc - I hope people that are trying to still make a dollar and a cent on these games realize they had better take care of A, B, and C first, since hardly any of those were handled correctly to begin with, before thinking about Q.

I mean, it's pretty much do or die at the moment to see if there is even enough interest in a resurgence of the genre. Most people have moved on, and as the not so great management at SOE once stated in 2000 "It's when the bitching stops, that's when you have to worry" well, the bitching stopped years ago. :p Now, no one cares. If something comes out, they may give it a try, but the amount of invested consumers is down to a sliver of what it once was.

Which is why if anyone here wants to do any of these guys over at McQuaid's company any favors, they should remind them to ignore every single poster on their web site talking about crap that was already figured out when I was playing the release of Diablo 1, and make the game they want and leave it at that. Just make sure the damn thing works this time and people actually give a shit to play it, before trying to worry about RMT. This game will most likely not even have the population for RMT companies to care anyway.
 
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Arden

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Since the entire MMORPG genre is a broken, segmented mess due to decades of abuse, neglect, stupidity, unethical behavior, etc - I hope people that are trying to still make a dollar and a cent on these games realize they had better take care of A, B, and C first, since hardly any of those were handled correctly to begin with, before thinking about Q.

Yeah, I mean I think most game devs would agree with you. On an alphabetical list of priorities, "Q" is about right as far as where stopping RMT/exploits/etc stands. Sigil made it a priority and (at one point) had significant resources, and even that wasn't enough.

In other words, you can't worry about the bad shit people are going to do in your house if you can't even get the roof to stay up. I can't disagree, but I think they should bump it up from "Q" closer to "L" or "M".

If I were Pantheon, I wouldn't worry too much about the "genre" as a whole, either. I would just worry about getting my shit together as an individual game.
 

DickTrickle

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Seems like game companies should have a group of people that actually buys small amounts of money from the gold farmers and then traces it back through an in game transaction history -- something where every amount of money transfer over X to another account is logged (and transaction frequency here also to combat automated small money transfer). It would take resources but I think you could get deep into some networks and shut them down this way, especially if every account is tied to a credit card or other identity source.
 

ZyyzYzzy

RIP USA
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Seems like game companies should have a group of people that actually buys small amounts of money from the gold farmers and then traces it back through an in game transaction history -- something where every amount of money transfer over X to another account is logged (and transaction frequency here also to combat automated small money transfer). It would take resources but I think you could get deep into some networks and shut them down this way, especially if every account is tied to a credit card or other identity source.
You know how many Dong Chins are in China? Fruitless effort
 
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Locnar

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Having accounts tied to both a sub fee and your personal identity is a big step. That and also going after the buyers too. After a few players lose all accounts tied to their subscription people will think twice about RMT. Also created accounts should be tied to the owners identity permanently. No "giving" your account away to a "friend or family member", unless you are ok with that person playing under YOUR name.
 

DickTrickle

Definitely NOT Furor Planedefiler
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You know how many Dong Chins are in China? Fruitless effort

Almost everything except the actual buying could be automated. Even with the number of farmers, I think you could have a positive impact on the game. It's not like every Chinese person is doing this.

But it would require commitment that would likely never happen because it's not really something that makes a company money and there are too many people who either like or are ambivalent about RMT. The net effect might not even be a positive one on the bottom line.
 

Arden

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Almost everything except the actual buying could be automated. Even with the number of farmers, I think you could have a positive impact on the game. It's not like every Chinese person is doing this.

But it would require commitment that would likely never happen because it's not really something that makes a company money and there are too many people who either like or are ambivalent about RMT. The net effect might not even be a positive one on the bottom line.

I don't want to beat this horse but so much, but yes:

There are a lot of things that can be automated and built into the system to GREATLY reduce the amount of resources needed to minimize bad RMT stuff. But you at least need to consider those things as you are building the game.... they don't work as well as an afterthought. That's the only thing I'm trying to say.

The whole fact that we are starting to contemplate RMT stuff for Pantheon is a great sign for the game.
 

Korrupt

Blackwing Lair Raider
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Yeah the token system isn't perfect.

Maybe we just don't give a fuck? I never cared about RMT when I played EQ.

If we just prevent the annoying spam then who cares if people buy accounts. We will know if they are shit.

Oh and we have to stop gold FARMING. If not every FBSS camp will have 6 rangrangs 24/7 on it.

RangRangs are already into EQ and very heavily into the Progression Servers. You wont ever see them at contested camps because DPS rules camps and an automated bot will get trained nonstop and dumpstered. For example one of their favorite spots in EQ now a days is Ghoul Cavalier and they do it 100% afk because its not a popular spot. They also hit the 2 major gold spots but both are so far out of the way very few people even go near them.
 

Furious

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I knew a sweet exploit in Vanguard to make money. They patched it eventually.

tumblr_o682faf1Tw1qg2p2fo1_250.gif
 
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Mur

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Having accounts tied to both a sub fee and your personal identity is a big step. That and also going after the buyers too. After a few players lose all accounts tied to their subscription people will think twice about RMT. Also created accounts should be tied to the owners identity permanently. No "giving" your account away to a "friend or family member", unless you are ok with that person playing under YOUR name.

The Buyers are the only people they should go after. They, after all, are the real problem.
 
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Dullahan

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Never understood this philosophy. This is a chicken and the egg argument. You hit both with the hammer. Supply and demand. Even if demand gives rise to more supply, it's a double win to take both down.