On the topic of SoTA vs ESO... One ESO mistake I _really_ hope SoTA will learn from...

Botters/gold sellers - they will of course find their way to SoTA, too. I really hope SoTA will have an in-game presence of GMs at all times, or most of the time, or at least some in-game system to kick these pretty quickly, or at least block them from in-game comms.... The constant gold seller spam in the ESO in-game chat and mail is a real PITA, and apparently there are only so many ignore slots...

 

An anti spam solution obviously has to be found in a modern RPG. Hopefully it's a clever one, but gold sellers are highly motivated and often quickly outthink systems. It ends up being a drain on budget to combat them totally.

 

Well, if there is one in ESO, it is pretty piss poor, the gold seller spam there is a real PITA... At least SoTA shouldn't limit the number of people you can block/ignore...

 

Simple solutions:

1. Ban accounts of people using macros to farm resources for gold farming. Don't allow macros.
2. When someone spams chat advertising "CheapSOTAGold.com" and we eventually identify the handful of these sites, then we put those URLs in the profanity filter code, or just block messages with those URLs.

 

Bots and gold sellers sucks, and UO was the master in that, sadly.

 

They appear in every MMO I agree with the first option, have a GM online pretty much at all times. As soon as the message appears in my opinion it results in instant ban, I play ESO and I agree I'm really sick of the posts and constant ignores. I enjoy the world chat, it usually is a fun chat with other players.

 

1. Ignore function won't work - you ignore gold seller fsdkghj, 2mins later gold seller ldfugiug spams again.

2. Ban probably won't work - say I buy a powerlevelling on my char from one of these sites, while they powerlevel my char they will use my account to spam adds... ofc bans will work if you're ready to face pissed off customers who bought these services and also got a ban (personally wouldn't mind if both buying and selling resulted in the ban hammer)

3. Autoblock messages with certain content is the best option imo, cause it is usually only 2-3 different sites spamming in a game. Just don't make it too simple (block www, gold seller returns with w w w)

 

if they acquire or pay for these powerleveling services or gold services then they deserved the ban...

 

If they don't want that, something funner, if they are caught, Permanently flag them for PVP and a PKER.

 

No global chat, less spam... private msgs and near proximity spamming may be a problem though

 

Well. those people are clever.In Wildstar they started with sending you Arenateam-Invites... a fat popup on your screen regardless where you are....guess how the arena teams are called... "CheapWildstargoldstufflol.com".. etc..

 

Flag them for openpvp no matter where they are, and place bounties on their heads.

 

Flag automatically on report, and it gets abused.

There a reports of Raids on guilds who use a bot-notify function in ArcheAge, to remove enemy Players an give them a temp ban...

 

I see no mistakes that SotA is making versus ESO. Because ESO Is a let down from the day it was launched. I should of learned that in the Beta phases. ESO deserves to flop! Their Dev team should of (perhaps they still will) incorporated character name/rank/guild nametags above every ones character to at least give it a sense of what little community the game so dearly lacks. The questing is ridiculously repetitive. The NPC voices all sound identical to one another, per race that is. Leveling is way to easy. The crafting system is basic. Mine some ore and make a piece of armor that only requires ore but gets better only because your character rose up two levels to mine the next stage of ore only to keep making the same thing over and over again. Perhaps the people that create those add-on's should take over the development process. Those poor guys create something ingenious only to have their stuff get outdated and un-usable at every game update that is released. I don't want to say that I am an MMO 'sandbox style' only kind of gamer because after playing ESO for about three months I am going back to swtor, which in my opinion, a much better MMO than ESO. I am still a huge fan of the single player Elder Scrolls series thou. And yes, the spammers need to go in all MMO's. I agree with the insta-flag-em for pvp option and gain some virtuous points as well. I can't wait for R8 and the final release of SotA.

 

Personally, I find the best way to deter gold sellers/resellers is simply to be the better seller. Offer more, and offer security with the transaction.

GOG already does this with their games versus Steam. No DRM, extras for free with most game purchases, older games are fixed up to work on modern systems, and if they don't, they've got that 30-Day refund policy.

TESO on the other hand? That game was destined to do as badly as it is, because the whole idea was conceived in 2007 around the days of Burning Crusade's release, and then was hammered into a new shell within a year or so of launch due to radical MMO gameplay shifts from 2007 to 2014. (I personally blame Skyrim for impacting the gameplay side of TESO so badly, since it's as stripped down an ARPG as The Elder Scrolls has ever been, and that's including Battlespire.)

 

think some of you need to evaluate your view on the state of ESO.

it is still crazy loaded with people.

/untangent

you can't solve the problem with anything above, that had been tried across multiple games over multiple years. You need to think of other ways.

using things like spam filters is great to hide the problem from the public but will still require resources to hand check instances to ban people or not.

letting people vote or push notifications owns it to griefing, and requires resources to hand check the results.

etc, etc...

 

Problem is, Joviex, the devs have no excuse for not fixing problems that were pointed out to them in the beta. (Are you also aware that they banned people for 'taking advantage' of a glitch in guild banks that few people knew about until it became public news?)

If they couldn't push the release date back to fix the issues that were reported, or just took the classic Bethesda route of 'release it broken, fix some later, let the community do the rest', then, frankly, they deserve the response they're getting.

Otherwise, I can't see SOTA having the same problems with gold or the like, but I stand by the idea that being a better seller means people will come more often to you.

 

Well, I was there since before the beta, and saw the guild bank abuse. I applaud the ban of people taking advantage, because, much like I assume the SOTA EULA to read, abusing the system is not permitted.

So if you take it upon yourself to exploit, after agreeing not to do so, why wouldn't you expect to get banned?

And the point I was making was in reference to others (including yourself) saying that ESO itself was in a sorry state of affairs and falling down towards some weird fail point.

It is obviously doing well, not just by me logging in and looking around while playing, but by the post 3+ month reviews. While they are not high praising it, they are saying how it is still doing very well.

It certainly ain't AoC for instance.

And you are absolutely correct, it could be arguably worse since there seemingly "wont" be many gold sinks and the economy is being pitched as an attempt to make a closed loop. If a player makes a sword, then there is +1 sword in the world. There won't be some virtual, invisible factory making more swords.

This is all from developer statements of course, but starting with a static set of resources (items) and only allowing produced material to plus said inventory, is ripe for someone to collect a lot of gold and "buy out" huge segments of the market, effectively becoming a monopoly over certain produced goods that are in demand.

So, while gold selling is "bad" for whatever reason? in other games (who cares if people buy gold with cash, they are idiots), putting item caps on goods is a more dangerous (though more real) idea.

Cheers.

 

Not what I meant, because the words taking and advantage were between apostrophes in that quoted post. I.E., sarcasm on that claim from Zenimax Online.

I was talking about players that got banned for a glitch they were not aware of, nor that they were actively using, but which was reported during the beta. - http://www.cinemablend.com/games/Elder-Scrolls-Online-Item-Dupers-Being-Banned-63545.html

Otherwise, the post 3 month release reviews you mention? I've seen none that praise the game over show how it's not worth the 60$ entrance fee and 15$ a month to play. I have seen Forbes report on it, and that Paul quit playing. PC Gamer had an article on the game, but it reads like damage control and as though willful ignorance of the game's problems was exercised.

Give the game a year, and then judge it. MMOs aren't single player games. The community has more say of worth than the reviewers who cover the game before a month is past.

 

I agree, which is why I pointed towards the doom and gloom messages about ESO above as being biased.

The same will apply to SOTA when it launches.

I'd be happy to talk about it more, and if you want to discuss this further I suggest a PM or a new thread.

It is tangential, at best, to the current topic.