Nordenwatch's RMT Journey

[Nordenwatch]

Hello everyone. I was actually banned a few months ago and not in the huge wave that apparently just happened, but I figure this is a good time to let people know what happened!

To those who have been asking about me, yes I was banned for RMT. I sold almost my entire inventory before I was caught and banned. I traded with various individual buyers as well as mass purchasers of platinum, such as platlord.

I'm going to be very clear about this: I acted entirely alone. The A-Team had nothing to do with this, and once the other leadership found out about it my connections to the guild were all severed.

Why did I do this? I have been asked this many times by friends I've made spending the years on this community. The short answer is that I got bored. I played Kunark for a full 2 years, velious seemed like a distant shadow in the horizon and I did not feel like playing everquest anymore. Instead of quitting with all my belongings intact which would have brought only temptation to play, I opted to at least make some money for the time spent.

I don't expect the community to understand my decisions, but this game had a hold on me and it was sapping my leisure time. This was one of the ways out, and I'm glad that I no longer spend my time logging in and fighting with internet strangers for pixels.

TL;DR: Nordenwatch Popped 60 Nec, Furiously Feigning 60 Monk, Noogar Please 60 Enc, Skab Gutz 60 Sham, Nordanwatch Popped 53 Cler, Teleportation 14 Druid. BANNED FOR RMT.

[HeallunRumblebelly]

RIP in peace.

[heartbrand]

Nothing will ever stop people from cashing out their chips

[Calabee]

should come east and have a poutine ~

[feanan]

How much did you make?

[myriverse]

"I got bored" is no excuse.

There's always the option of the "Delete" button.

[Calabee]

deleting is such a big no no, did that once on live lol

[Nordenwatch]

Like it or not in game currency has an RL value. If i'm not going to play anyway and therefore have no fear of being banned, why the fuck would I just throw money down the toilet?

[Tecmos Deception]

How much did you make?

Well he had a fungus staff, among a lot of other things.

So... thousands?

[Turp_SmokinPurp]

Wondering...
Some people are claiming GMs didn't ban the salesman and instead waited and than banned the people buying.

But maybe the GMs did ban the salesman (Nord) a few months ago and than it just took this long to confirm and track+trace all the culprits down. Catching Norden gave them a good place to start and yesterdays ban wave was the finish. For now at least.

[Nordenwatch]

What most likely happened was that they took down a website. I'm not going to say WHICH, since I don't want to hinder the GMs in catching more rule breakers, but my ban was linked to that site which I used.

I assume this ban is coming from others who used that site + they went through all my transactions.

I guess this will teach the future generations of everquest players on p99: YOU WILL GET CAUGHT... eventually

[Calabee]

http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/Turp420/eq2/mqdefault.jpg
Can i haz some of dese plz?

[Millburn]

http://i.imgur.com/6OGiTqc.gif

[Nordenwatch]

btw i'm fucking mad jealous that velious is out now. God damn it

[Calabee]

btw i'm fucking mad jealous that velious beta is out now. God damn it


ftfy

[Eunomia]

Like it or not in game currency has an RL value. If i'm not going to play anyway and therefore have no fear of being banned, why the fuck would I just throw money down the toilet?

This is one of the most disrespectful things I have read on these forums.

You played for free at the expense of a team, then attempted (and apparently succeeded) to harm the project when you were done with it.

[Danth]

Like it or not in game currency has an RL value. If i'm not going to play anyway and therefore have no fear of being banned, why the fuck would I just throw money down the toilet?

Yeah, why not muck up the server after you're done with it personally. It's not like any other people use it or anything.

Your mindset is both understandable and selfish.


Danth

[Nordenwatch]

Harm the project? You used me to catch a bunch of cheaters, if anything I'm a hero.

[Calabee]

how the hell do u get 2.5k post in 4 months.. i been here for almost 4 years and im not even at 2k, +1 post bumping

[Barkingturtle]

why the fuck would I just throw money down the toilet?

I think some people respect their friends and guildies enough not to place them in the awkward position of guilt by association. Some other people might abstain from cashing out because they don't want to contribute to that which plagues the server. Not everyone considers how their actions impact others, though. Some people think only of themselves. On Earth, those people are called "sociopaths". On Norrath, we call them "necromancers".

[Daldaen]

Like it or not in game currency has an RL value. If i'm not going to play anyway and therefore have no fear of being banned, why the fuck would I just throw money down the toilet?

It may just be pixels in an elf simulator. But there are rules in place regarding this. The arbiters charged with enforcing these rules have a maximum penalty of perma-ban. So it's pretty obvious why people on their way out do it.

But the reason people don't just throw their money down the toilet is a more strict morale compass. Pragmatically, it doesn't make sense to most people. But a lot of people don't want to break rules even if they know the penalty has almost no bearing on their life.

I'm not trying to say you or other RMTers lack a morale compass or morales. But there are people who don't break any rules or feel slimy doing so, so they have thousands of plats sitting collect e-dust.

[Nordenwatch]

I think some people respect their friends and guildies enough not to place them in the awkward position of guilt by association. Some other people might abstain from cashing out because they don't want to contribute to that which plagues the server. Not everyone considers how their actions impact others, though. Some people think only of themselves. On Earth, those people are called "sociopaths". On Norrath, we call them "necromancers".

60 Human Necro reporting in

[quido]

How much cash did you get altogether? What's a tell-all without such a figure?!

[Nordenwatch]

I don't want to say the exact figures, but I sold about 10 million plat in a month.

[Nordenwatch]

Oh also, I might as well make this clear: I did not make ANY of this plat by cheating / scamming in ANY way.

The plat was legit, how I got rid of it was not.

[Wrench]

i personally am shocked that such a self-centered elitist was discovered to have been guilded with the a-team

[Brut]

This policy people have about "I have the right to turn the time I've invested here into $$$" is just ridiculous. This is a video game, you spend time in it since you wanna have fun. I mean, I don't expect income for every hour I've spent playing Super Mario.

[grosen333]

This is one of the most disrespectful things I have read on these forums.

You played for free at the expense of a team, then attempted (and apparently succeeded) to harm the project when you were done with it.

Lets be real, Do you think the T1 connection that the server(s) sits on, not including the hardware to run it (which i am sure is no junk of a machine), as well the domain name, is being paid by the team.....Better yet, when you donate money or time i mean in real life that you cannot claim it on your taxes for a refund at the end of the year..... In real life any time invested is worth something to someone. We are all thankful for the hard-work you guys do for us here on the server and let us play on such a great server but don't feed us horse shit, we weren't born yesterday.......

[Nordenwatch]

I'd like to think that my reputation here was pretty solid prior to all this, and thus the A-team should have no problems having had me as an officer. That being said, once I was discovered I was outed (as well as banhammered) so that speaks to the character of the guild!

[Skillslam]

I'm sure he'll think hard over all the finger waving in here while counting his money. lol

[Millburn]

If you could just leave forever that would be swell.

[Nordenwatch]

I'm sure he'll think hard over all the finger waving in here while counting his money. lol

The money definitely was not worth the time spent playing EQ haha

[Nordenwatch]

If you could just leave forever that would be swell.

I plan on it! I just wanted to tell people why they wont be seeing me around.

Trust me, having been rich as fuck you definitely don't want to start @ level 1 with nothing..

[Sirken]

RMT is bad, and if you do it you will eventually get caught, and you will be banned.

[Derubael]

Harm the project? You used me to catch a bunch of cheaters, if anything I'm a hero.

For the record, I found the mule accounts for the website first, then tracked it to you, so really I didn't get much of anything after finding you.

The bans from the website you sold to were just a small part of this wave. Multiple sites got hit hard, their inventories eliminated, and their customer bases removed from the server.

I'd like to add, Nordenwatch, that I was actually really disappointed when I found you. You were always a great community member, a helpful guy, and a nice person. Sucks that you had to go out the way you did.