Scamming?

@Razimus

In old UO scamming was very real, but you learned, and it wasn't so costly.

On 'UO' freeshards, especially UOGamers Hybrid; scams were intentionally designed into the shard. That shard is 100% for the scammer or 'auto-macroing' pvper in mind.

I seriously doubt SOTA will intentionally implement scams and exploits into their games like the above mentioned. However, you must realize that scamming will be a part of just about every game.

 

I'm a bit confused by how people are using the term scam (why would SoTA implement scams?). Common sense is a good thing (and I would agree that it isn't the programmer's job to replace it). However it does require accurate information from the game, as well as some protection from exploitable bugs. When I buy an item from someone, I expect the game to allow me to identify the item. When I sell an item, I expect the money offered by the buyer to make its way into my inventory.

I'm not concerned about people borrowing an item and not returning it. I have borrowed and lent items for years in games without any memorable incidents. I know who I'm dealing with, and am willing to bet that they won't value the item more than our friendship.

Timothy Meyer's master's thesis covers this topic:
http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1030&context=etd

 

@Jonathon, the only reason it came up, I think, was that back in UO on release, there was no mechanism to control player trades, so of course scams abounded. MMOs have become more sophisticated since then, so it isn't as big an issue.

 

In UO as I recall, I had to drop piles of stuff off in a bush in town to get things done as a crafter. There were so many ways you could cheat in that game it was silly. Thankfully Everquest came out and gave us a whole new set of buggy code. Things have changed. Auction houses have cleared up a lot of issues.

All they need to do in the trade window is lock in an object once it's in the window. So you can't quickly swap out your Sword of Uberness for a Rusty Dorkblade that has the same icon graphic. If you try to swap anything out, the window closes. It's that easy to stop most transaction scamming.

If anyone lets a stranger borrow something and gets jacked, hopefully they won't do it twice.