Gold seller spamming overworld map zone

I've heard about it, but never experienced it until now - chat spam by gold sellers. Luckily I have the option of disabling zone chat. It was really annoying.

 

If it's true, perma ban the account.

Because this is a pay to play game and there's no free trial, it will eventually cripple their operations. No gold farmer is going to spent $45 to type out a few quick chat lines if they know that everytime they do they automatically get banned and have to pay more money. This is the only way to stop it.

Setup a script that looks for their website information and temp ban for review automatically. Once reviewed if it's determined they're not a long term member being stupid and posting the website address, perma ban. They'll get the message and the chat channels will stay clear.

 

OK, I reported it in-game with the /reportplayer tag.

 

Thank you, was just looking for this!

 

Hold on!!!

What is the difference between the person who is renting lots and posting it in the forums, and claiming what they are doing is to cover their cost in the game and the gold farmer who has just done the same but in game?

Since they are both doing the same shouldn't they both be banned?

Maybe it would better for the gold farmer to just copy the person renting lots and post it in the forums.

 

Just going to post a little gold farming economics here for people that might be reading this and thinking "hey, I'm having trouble getting gold and wouldn't mind paying for it myself."

Crowns of the Obsidian's can be purchased in the add-on store. You can very easily sell those for gold on public and private vendors in-game. I buy them all the time.

Before you visit a gold farmer's website, understand that they can't possibly sell gold to you lower than whatever people are buying COTO's for in the game. It's not profitable for them, it can't be. They're counting on you not to understand this and to buy from them (which is not a secure transaction). So don't do it. Buy COTO's, help fund the game, and get cheaper gold in a secure way.

For example, you can buy COTO's right now for anywhere between 1000 and 1500 gold per COTO. That means that for $5 in the add-on store you can essentially buy between 5000 and 7500 gold. If a gold farmer is selling you more gold per dollar than that, it's because they've had to work very hard or spend a lot of money to undercut the "street" price in-game. If you put just a little work into it, you can beat their price by either buying more COTO's (you get a discount the more you buy from the add-on store at a time) or you will find a better price in-game.

Don't feed the gold sellers, they are counting on you to be an uninformed customer.

 

They're not spamming the chat channels?

I'm all for banning anyone that spams the chat channels.

 

These gold sellers aren't paying $45 per account. They steal the credit card numbers of those visiting the website or from other sources and buy the game.

Don't everyone get their panties in a bunch. The fact gold sellers are in game this early is a GREAT sign of a successful title.

Block them and move along.

 

That's possible, but you're assuming that's the case. I doubt we have reached that level of sophistication yet. Our population is very small, even if you're looking at total purchased accounts.

They bought these accounts, they're just using business practices that won't work here. If they want to be successful here they're going to have stop spamming the chat channels because this dev team is not going to be inactively screwing around letting them get away with it like other games.

And before you pop open the champagne, realize that gold farmers go where they can make money. They don't care if the game is successful or not, it doesn't matter to them one way or the other. Right now gold is hard for "joe average" to acquire because he doesn't know what he's doing. So this is a good environment for farmers to try to sell their wares.

If joe average ever figures it out, the gold farmers won't have a market to sell in because COTO's will undercut them every step of the way. They're only here because we have a population that is ripe to sell to, not because we're being successful or because this is a good place long term to sell gold. They're trying to make their money and get out before it's common knowledge how easy it is to just buy gold from the add-on store securely.

If I had a gold farming operation I wouldn't even bother with this place. They're very likely to lose money over the long term. Especially as the price of gold for 1 COTO increases over the next few months. Right now it's probably being sold at half to a third of it's expected value. Which means gold farmers will have to work more than twice as hard to keep up with the price while making even less profit. This place is a gold farmer death trap.

 

I did not block the gold seller. I reported it both with the ingame function and by sending a screenshot of the spam to support@portalarium.com

I agree that it is annoying, and it takes up Portalarium folk's time, but I bet there is a protocol already in place to handle it.

 

You're equally assuming they paid for these accounts without fraudulent credit cards. In fact all of your post is pure conjecture based upon no evidence.

I could actually post evidence based upon independent research demonstrating in most cases gold sellers don't buy accounts with their own money. They either steal the accounts through hacking or by using stolen credit cards. Recall we were just warned to change our passwords due to possible account theft.

Further conjecture stating gold sellers won't be around this is for quick profit. Wrong we as a community are exactly what gold sellers target. We are a wealthy community that has proven a desire to spend money on a game.

While gold sellers can be annoying their presence signifies a successful game.

 

We're successful for many other reasons. This is not one of them. Having gold farmers in an MMO is like having roaches in a New York City apartment. It happens by default.

 

OMG thank you so much for this info. I completely messed up my build, including spending all of my gold on the wrong armour, so I have been grinding in Kingsroad to try and make enough gold to 'start' again. This will speed up the process lol!!

You sir... Are Awesome!

 

That's bordering on a personal attack. How would the roaches feel?

Gold sellers come where people buy. Just like roaches visit where people live and drop food.

 

That's not even close to a personal attack. Unless you're a New York City apartment, I suppose.

I'm aware of that. Gold Farmers are welcome to come here. They're not welcome to spam the chat channels or break the rules however.

I'm not sure what point you're trying to make, you appear to be concluding something that is not obvious based on what you've posted.

Btw, did you know Richard Garriott lives in a New York City apartment?

 

My point is as follows. Publicly most will voice displeasure at gold farmer/seller spam. Yet many will secretly go and buy gold from those same sellers.

Frequenting gold sellers who would spam chat channels is similar to visiting the drug dealer on the worst street in your city. They don't sell a quality product and you are just as likely to get robbed during the purchase as you are buying what you're seeking. The group spamming chat very likely is using a stolen account.

The presence of gold sellers in a game demonstrates the gold has intrinsic value in game. The economy is mostly healthy. Especially this early in development the presence of gold sellers is a positive. Gold sellers don't frequent dead or dying games, like LOTRO.

I was concerned about excessive inflation and continue to be concerned. The fact gold sellers are present helps to dispel inflationary concerns.

To summarize. Don't buy gold from these people. Block them and move on. Enjoy the fact we as a game as gaining in popularity.

 

Aaaaand that's why I was against zone chat on the overworld map from the start. It's not the same as a city where someone might need directions to an event or an adventure scene where someone might yell for help.

I think zone chat on the overland map should be disabled. There's no reason I should be able to stand outside Ardoris and yell and have someone hear me near Graff Island.

 

I think this is more a reason to have various forms of teleport to avoid spending time on the overworld map.

 

Amen.

 

That sure is a whole lot of what if's and could be's you have there. You ever sat down and actually communicated with these people?

I've had a chat with them, once in WoW and once in UO. They go to all new titles, doesn't matter if it's popular or not. They get % commissions on the sales, for which game they are in. Specific people are assigned to specific games, the better the group does the more money they make. The stolen credit cards are the company not the person stealing the info (which i'm sure is a person at the end of the pyramid anyways) getting more accounts to feed the people assigned to the game to keep advertising. If no money is made in three months they move on.

Some of the smaller companies out there will run one to two person teams in smaller games to keep the overhead low. When a game like WoW proves people buy alot of gold, they move a larger force into the game.

So if nobody buys from them, they will peter out. They might make a resurgence when the titles fully launches though, and at that point good luck. All the common folk / casuals come crawling off twitch to fondle our virgin parts <shudders>