Welcome to the ninth installment of the EVE Blog Banter and its first contest, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed here. Check out other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!
"Last month Ga'len asked us which game mechanic we would most like to see added to EVE. This month Keith "WebMandrill" Nielson proposes to reverse the question and ask what may be a controversial question: Which game mechanic would you most like to see removed completely from EVE and why? I can see this getting quite heated so lets keep it civil eh?"
Civil? Me? On this subject? Tough luck. My answer is the following: REMOVE PUBLIC CONTRACTS IN ORDER TO REMOVE SCAMMING. I would even go further than that: give a -9.9 security status to any joker caught scamming so he can be podded at will by any noob in New Eden, to the point where he gets sick and finds another game to try his scamming "tricks" on some other idiots dumb enough to fall for them.
Scamming is the lowest form of remuneration to be found both in EVE and in real life. People guilty of it in real life get their own lives destroyed faster than you can spell E-N-R-O-N. I know that some people in EVE consider themselves masters at it, and for those that dare to call themselves "people" I have nothing but the utmost contempt. I would probably yell at their faces and slap them silly in real life, 6'3" or not (hell, probably even more so!).
And to those stupid enough to fall for these low-life parasites? READ BEFORE YOU CLICK OK, OK? How hard can this be. It's bad enough that everybody's block list is getting filled with ISK sellers and scamming larvae, but you "oh I'll buy this Navy Megathron.... oh shit it was a regular one and I just paid 250mil for it" type persons are the ones that fuel the scamming larvae's lust for just a little more ISK, bringing just what EVE needs, MORE SCAMMING ISK-HUNGRY FUCKNUTS. Just quit EVE and go back to buying everything you see on TV when the annoying Sham Wow dude says "CALL NOW!"
So what is my solution to the death of public contracts? Simple: if it's in the game, it can be put on the market. Period. If demand is low, price will be low, etc. That way pricing incongruity will be highly visible. And if you were stupid enough to buy a regular Megathron for 250 million, well, you could always hope that my "pod-on-sight" therapy for scammers is in effect, but if you're that stupid you probably don't know how to file in a petition, let alone sign your own name.
Parting shot to scammers: Catch cancer, die in fires, get plowed over by a cement truck, all this while you get raped by mountain gorillas. Sorry for offending any self-respecting gorilla.
Editorial: want to know why I get so violent? I work at Montreal's Municipal Court and every day we deal with the lowest low-lives you could ever think about. In a game like EVE of course some low-lives will get in and try their shitty little tricks, but why they don't get penalized for it in EVE like they would anywhere else is beyond me. For a company called "Crowd Control Productions", I personnaly think it could do a better job at controlling crowds.
/banter, fuck!
Participants:
- Diary of a Space Jockey, Blog Banter: BE GONE!
- EVE Newb, (EVE) Remove You
- Miner With Fangs, Blog Banter - It's the Scotch
- The Eden Explorer, Blog Banter: The Map! The Map!
- The Wandering Druid of Tranquility, "Beacons, beacons, beacons, beacons, beacons, mushroom, MUSHROOM!!!"
- Inner Sanctum of the Ninveah, Kill the Rats
- Mercspector @ EVE, Scotty
- EVE's Weekend Warrior, EVE Blog Banter #9
- Miner with Fangs, Blog Banter - It's the Scotch
- A Merry Life and a Short One, Eve Blog Banter #9: Why Won't You Die?
- Into the unknown with gun and camera, Blog Banter – The Hokey Cokey
- The Flightless Geek, EVE Blog Banter #9: Remove a Game Mechanic
- Sweet Little Bad Girl, Blog Banter 9: Who is Nibbling at My House?
- One Man and His Spaceship, Blog Banter 9: What could you do without?
- Life in Low Sec, EVE Blog Banter #9: Stop Tarnishing My Halo
- Cle Demaari: Citizen, Blog Banter #9: Training for all my men!
- A Mule in EVE, He who giveth, also taketh away?
- Dense Veldspar, Blog Banter 9
- Morphisat’s Blog, Blog Banter #9 – Randomness Be Gone !
- Facepalm's Blog, EVE Blog Banter #9: What a new pilot could do without
- Memoires of New Eden, You're Fired
- Kyle Langdon's Journeys in EVE, EVE Blog Banter #9 Titans? What's a Titan?
- Achernar, The gates! The gates are down!
- Speed Fairy, EVE Blog Banter #9: Down with Downtime!
- I am Keith Neilson, EVE Blog Banter #9-F**K Da Police
- Ripe Lacunae, The UI… Where do I begin… (Eve Blog Banter #9)
- Clown Punchers, EvE Blogs: What game mechanic would you get rid of?
- More articles as they are posted!
22 comments:
I'm not entirely sure, but do I detect some resentment towards scamme-what? Oh.
One just doesn't 'remove' scammers from the game. If anyone should try to do that, i guess they would need to cut all those pesky possibilities of social interaction from the game.
Furthermore, i just don't get the hate they seem to receive. I mean sure, scammers tend to be a bit annoying when in packs, but aside of spending a few seconds inspecting the odd funny contract, how did they ever hurt anyone?
Oh, right.
If i knew someone who managed to sell a Scorpion for ten times it's intended price, i would high-five him. I bet Darwin would, too.
Sounds like someone got scammed. *smile* I respectfully disagree on the matter of removing scammers from Eve. I would suggest we remove the idiots instead, but then where would we get all those lovely tears?
Contracts do have their purposes in a legitimate function, I do use them in that fashion all the time.
I do agree, change the market so that faction items can be bought and sold there.
So, let's get this straight: in a game which markets itself as dark, cold and hardh, you would remove the potential for players to screw each other over, thus removing some of the 'harsh' aspect.
If you're going to introduce penalties for scamming that are comparable to those which exist in RL, then you need to consider introducing them to every other aspect of the game which in RL has serious legal complications. And then where would that leave us? Safe, patrolled spacelanes where reward outweighs risk and you have to apply to CONCORD for the right to hold nullsec.
Does that sound like fun?
Even if you remove public contracts, people will find way to screw each other out of a few more ISK. I don't scam, ever, and just sitting here considering it I can think of several ways to get around the public contracts system. And let's face it: if people are dumb enough to let themselves be tricked that way...
Nope, never got scammed. I actually read stuff before I buy it.
I just hate scammers.
As for where to collect all the tears, that's why our ships have guns.
And yes, EVE is harsh and dark and all that fun stuff, but the harshness and darkness should happen in space, not in station.
And it sounds like I hit a sensitive chord... please keep flaming >:)
I like public auction contracts. And I like the ability to sell rigged ships or multiple items in a contract to the public. And used items like BPCs.
Removal of public contracts means you either have to rebuild the market code to support the above items (EGADS) or not allow them to be traded in a secure fashion, i.e. back to trade window. Which, holy fuck, I do not reccomend.
Scammers suck, yeah, but the removal of public contracts is not the answer. Proper bounty hunting on the other hand....
Proper bounty hunting... Mmmmm, I'm getting evil ideas :))
I don't disagree with you that scammers are bad. It's dirty, it cruel, it lacks moral values, it's the armpit of Eve...and that's why I love this game! Taken into perspective, Eve is all about the cruelty of humanity. It promotes scandals, theft, piracy, corporate espionage *cough*cough*bob*cough*cough and whatever else our twisted brains can come up with based within the parameters of the game. It's a harsh game and if a person doesn't have a good enough head on their shoulders to pay attention, then they deserve to be the victim. I've been scammed myself once. And I chalked it up as a learning experience. (of course after i cursed and mentally beat the living snot out of the guy that scammed me) :D
I scam and I am proud of it.
Good for you. See you in space.
I agree wholeheartedly! Scammers are lowly, pitiful creatures who no doubt still live at home with their parents, and most likely still have Acne issues at the age of 30.
You know what else should go? Thievery of any kind. Why should someone profit from my hard work just by zooming into my belt, and taking all the ore out of my jetcan? I also believe that Concord should arrest, detain, and quite possibly 'interrogate' anyone suspected of corp theft. You want to talk about the lowliest of the low - how about someone that works their way into your trusted inner circle, just to clean out the Corp Hangars of billions of ISK?! Downright shameful.
-10 for all scammers, thieves, pirates (oh wait, they've already got it...), and furries! Our moral code should be absolute, and punishment should be both swift and severe!
@Mynxee - That was just damn funny.
EVE is a harsh place where the dark part of humanity shows itself.
But there are also a lot of places where the good shows itself also.
Personally, I think if you don't want to worry about another person screwing you over then play a solo game vs. a MMO.
The scammers will find a way. I like Kirith's comment on having a proper bounty hunting system.
What about a solution leaving some room to scamming while forcing scammers to find smarter/more personalised techniques? On auction sites such as eBay, sellers get evaluated. Maybe providing players with a way to evaluate contract authors would alleviate this issue? Or replicating in the contract system the market function which compares the price to the average regional one?
I loathe scammers too, of all sorts. Hence one of the side benefits of my proposed local removal changes and not allowing certain ships to cloak helps combat those only a 1/2 step above scammers ....ISK farmers
Scammers are good for them game. Quit being a cry baby b***h.
Had to choose something else I hate because everybody and their cat were going to talk about killing local. Looks like I scratched a scab that keeps bleeding :))
Keep on flamin' !!!
I do wonder how much time and money has collectively been spent by the MMO companies trying to combat gold/isk sellers. Can't imagine anyone wanting to increase that effort to include scammers.
Give the players a way to deal with them, a proper bounty system as suggested by Kirith would seem like a good place to start.
I don't like scammers either. But would be much more satisfied to just be able to blow them up, than to see them legislated out of the game. Same with isk sellers, and can flippers, and people who post ascii penises into NPC chat, and people who look at me funny, and anyone who I take a dislike to, and... oh... perhaps I should stop now.
I do have to disagree with you here Coz. Scammers like the Guiding Hand have performed such spectaular scams that require as much time as any other activity in EVE. In fact, it could be argued that they have to work harder because they have to make personal relations with the corp, gain trust, and then perfectly execute the removal of assets and isk.
I do hate the low life scammers that try to sell regular ships as faction/navy ships but I don't think we should punish them for other peoples' stupidity.
Yeah... just heard about the Razor Alliance theft on the last Podded episode and that stuff is just mind-boggling.
The more I read my own post and its comments, the more I think I hit the ball way out in Foul-Ball-Land.
GJ Coz...
I don't think you were off mark on it. I guess it would have made more sense if you had said to get rid of the ease with which some people scam. Exploiting some game mechanics (Freeform Contracts) and exploiting the lack of knowledge of some people.
Yeah, something like that.... *sigh*
Yeah, Scammers suck, a lot.
My ex-roomate used to sit on Diablo II, night after night, using the scam: "Hey, I'm giving away my account. Send me a password and I'll change my password to that password."
He got 1-3 accounts every night for over a month, save the few he slept. But he slept often during the day as well, when most people weren't on and/or weren't tired.
I see scammers with market orders as well, people selling items on the market for 1000% as much as they are worth. But hey, there are some good notes to be had about that;
1. They have to pay a non-refundable cost to place that sell order.
2. Any intelligent person sorts the market to compare the prices in the region - if there is something 1-2 jumps more, are you really willing to pay 10m more isk to get it at place A over place B?
3. Most non-intelligent people don't have a lot of isk.
I don't mean that people are non-intelligent, persay, because they are stupid. Some could be inexperienced or just never picked up certain tricks of the trade, and that's always one thing I recommend people do. The next thing I do is see if there is anything close to me that costs near the minimum price - and that's where I run the risk. I actually ALMOST got hit by that today, wanting to click 'buy' before I gate-jumped and almost had my market reset. Almost bought cargo expanders for 750m isk instead of 750k. So one of the other 'best' things you can do, to avoid getting scammed, is keep extra isk on an alternate character and only transfer about how much you plan on spending to buy with.
But always, always make sure you check the cost before you buy. If you are tired, don't go looking for deals (some scammers recognize that and specifically aim to scam at times when people are tired and more susceptible to making mistakes).
But in a game where corporate espionage is acceptable and to some extent encouraged (whether I or any other specific individual agree with it or not), there will be very little done to combat these scammers.
Of course, I seriously doubt any of our blog posts will make that much of a difference in overall gameplay, but so is what almost all of us do in game. The best we can do is look out for those around us, and for that, I salute you and your article and thank you for posting this. Scammers never help the average person, but unfortunately fit into the environment of EVE far more than any other game I have ever seen.
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