Disallow character sales and trades

[Snaggles]

Originally Posted by Roanoke [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

You should brush up on your prohibition history...

I meant if you had connections with bootleggers or organized crime. I've watched The Untouchables like 5 times. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[pickled_heretic]

Originally Posted by Palemoon [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Why are they not only allowed, but supported with stickys in the EC tunnel section? Has a dev already commented on this previously? Link to what they had to say?

Originally Posted by Palemoon [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

There is nothing to cry about.

practice what you preach bruddah, or dont preach at all

[stormlord]

Originally Posted by Palemoon [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

One thing that shocked me when first visiting these forums and going to the EC tunnel section, was seeing player characters and accounts up for sale and trade. I'm talking about for in game curency, or swaping accounts here, I know RMT is not allowed already.

I think this is a net negative to the community. It allows:

-people with bad reputation to sell or trade for another account, or even just claim to be a "new owner" with a good/new reputation.

-hurts the low and mid level grouping game, as people who want certain alts just buy them instead of rolling a new toon and grouping up through the levels. This hurts new players even more because instead of grouping with the vets and their twinks leveling up, those vets are just jumping on other peoples leveled characters

-goes against the classic spirit of the game, where someones account was for them to play on only and could not legally be transfered, sold, etc to another owner

-people will burn out or lose interest in the server faster if they are just buying level 60 toons to toy with instead of leveling up their own alts. They will also have ALOT less attachment to characters they buy, then ones they create/name/level themselves. I.E. its bad for the player buying new accounts and toons, too.

I'm sure there are other reasons why its just a bad idea and I suggest putting an end to it. Its just not in the spirit of old school MMOing at all.

That's a free market for you.

Rainbows and butterflies.

Are you thinking of running for governor or congressman so you can ban account trading?

It's the government, I swear. Always wanting to tell us what to do.

But seriously (or not), the "WTB bard account, PST!" is annoying, especially in /auction.

[knottyb0y]

Character Sells for plat on the official server forums and in EC are not classic. These should not be allowed.

Will that stop the trade? Absolutely not, but it would force people who want to trade accounts for plat etc to go through other channels rather than blatantly in the face of the server. This I think is the real issue with account selling.

You could argue that forcing accounts for plat/trading out of the public eye would encourage RMT (due to any forum outside of the project1999 forum that is in part dedicated to character trades and sells will not have the official staff support).

I personally understand that account trading/selling will happen but I've always appreciated that it was done in a more "black market" style where I could more easily ignore it. This problem is compounded by the fact that eqemu accounts do not cost any money to create or upkeep, which is only balanced by the lack of players on eqemu or this issue would be much more rampant.

It would be nice if this behavior was publicly discouraged, though I wouldn't invest much if any effort in enforcement. Just less ec auctions for characters and forum posts for the same would no suck. I don't care that people trade/sell accounts but I do wish it wasn't directly in my face, or such a publicly accepted practice.

[Diggles]

So, the only reason you want it gone is because you can't plug your ears and yell LALALALALALALALALA IT DOESN'T EXIST LALALALALALALALALA.

Great.

[knottyb0y]

Originally Posted by Diggles [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

So, the only reason you want it gone is because you can't plug your ears and yell LALALALALALALALALA IT DOESN'T EXIST LALALALALALALALALA.

Great.

You are right!

Is it so annoying and prevalent that it can't be ignore.. no

Is the presence of character auctions going to dissuade new players? Considering the hassle it takes to get titanium and setup for an eqemu, players who are gonna play here are gonna play here.

Would the overhead of banning/suspending players for the actions that they are gonna do anyway be too much work? Yes

Would I like it to be different and public trades not endorsed by the site? Certainly.

[Roanoke]

Oh my, all these people claiming that account sales and trading is "not classic" must have been playing a different game than I did in 99-2000.

I probably stated this before, there has never, EVER, been a point in EQ history where you couldn't purchase another persons account for platinum (or RMT but that isn't the subject here). Just because they weren't running around Gfay shouting it doesn't mean it didn't happen.

It can't be stopped. Can. Not. Be. Stopped.

It doesn't matter how many ways you go about it, if people want to trade and sell their accounts for plat, they will. End of story.

What happens if you make it illegal? Sales now become more weighted for RMT rather than plat, as people will go outside of the direct P99 community where they will be more tempted by people paying cash rather than in game currency--there will be literally no way to enforce it.

[Tuffpuppy]

My only fear in buying or trading for an account is that the person used illegal programs while on that account, and is looking to get something out of their account that is about to be banned.

[EnnoiaII]

Originally Posted by Palemoon [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

No, because you just have to do the journy once, and then you trade your guy for another 60, do that X how ever many classes you want to tinker with at 60 and then quit.

Same deal if you are useing plat, just need the inital pile of money that you then push around as you buy/sell your way though the classes.

I've leveled over a bunch of characters on EverQuest, WoW and other games. As someone who's seen just about everything there is to see while leveling up, and thereafter, I get more burnt out having to do it all over again than jumping right into endgame. If you're someone who enjoys putting in countless hours leveling up multiple characters...good for you. I, for one, got sick of it, and it made playing the game feel more like a chore than fun.

[Daldaen]

Argument is it isn't that classic to see them being auctioned in open forums and such. Other arguments can be raised such as it is an easy way to wipe your reputation clean which is generally bad.

If the game feels like a chore, then don't play it? I can't imagine you only find enjoyment playing games at the max level...