Resellers, Scammers, and Leeches

MMORPG's, which stands for Massively Multiplayer Online Games, have a recurring problem of resellers, scammers and leeches. While its only annoying in games where credits are only monopoly money... In games tied to Real Economy its more then that, its a cancer that eats the game from within. In Entropia Universe, reselling and scamming is quite a problem. Why?

10 PEDs = 1 Dollar

Resellers:

Reselling is a double edged sword. While as an owner of a coveted item, I will see its value grow in time due to the reselling of other copies of the item. But as a potential buyer, I may be priced out of something I want due to the rise in value that reselling can cause.

There's also a growing curve that is stepper on high end items, due to their rarity. For mid-market items, the curve is smaller, but some resellers will strangle the market with some agressive techniques, forcing you to pay fortunes for an average item.

Why then, would you buy it, you ask?

Simple. Progression. In EU, as you build your character and evolve in skills, you will want better and faster gear. As in any other game. You will also want to hunt bigger creatures, and mine better resources. This means that some milestone items in a player's rise will be driven to insane prices because resellers know players will want them.

Natural inflation is one thing. But in my opinion reselling inflation is ruining the game, cornering players budget's and halting their progression. If players sold their items to others that would use them, then inflation would be natural, showing their true value. But the big problem is that resellers buy items cheap from players that want to get better gear, and sometimes sell them for double the price.

They act like personal pawn shops, which are never good in my book. They profit out of people's desires to progress their character, and other people struggling to pay their prices. Most resellers in Entropia don't even play the game as it was meant to be played. They just limit themselves to buy and sell things, placing a virtual tax on players' progression.

Eventually, you will see most items you desire in their shop at outrageous prices. If players that would sell the same gear to others wishing to progress offer theirs at a lower price, resellers would immediatly buy those as well, forcing players to pay their prices.

Its a hard problem to dodge, and everyone resells once or twice eventually. There really isn't a problem with some indirect reselling. But people that do it for a living are ruining the game in several levels.

Lets take an example. Marber Bravo, a popular long range rifle choice for tag-the-mob. This gun had an ongoing price of TT+30 peds just a few months ago. Right now the value has gone up to +250, and its rising. I've looted a few of these, meaning that I am a beneficiary of that inflation. But, someone else wanting to get one is going to pay overpriced because of the market choke Bravo's are suffering at the moment.

While I may enjoy getting +200 peds then usual due to some reseller buying all the Bravos and trying to sell them for +300, I believe this kind of practice (Market cornering) is wrong, and its being done in all levels in EU. Next time I want to upgrade my gear, I will be looking at something that's been artificially inflated to the price of rocket fuel.

If you become a dirty reseller, you might earn money, but you will also be making everyone's game experience more expensive, which means you have no soul, and few people will like you.

Scammers:

These come in various colors and flavours. Even as best friends for years that stab you in the back and leave you hanging while they run away with thousands of dollars worth of equipment.

Many have been the stories of players that have lost whole set's of gear due to these backstabbing s.o.b's. Its sad really. Most players will lend their gear to their friends out of goodness of heart, and all they get is a nice whack in the head, a "thank you sucker". And that's too bad, because in 99% scamming cases, Mindark will not help.

MA doesn't help in scamming and hacks as a way to protect themselves. Makes sense, as they can't verify the authenticity of the scam/hack and most of the times, by the time they do it, the gear has already been sold and resold.

There are ways players can use the system and play MA for a fool. Im not gonna mention them, but most of them are rather logical. Therefore Mindark cuts the problem by the root. So, if you don't want to lose your stuff, don't lend it out. Even if its to someone you've known in game for two years. It doesn't matter. People will scam. If a deal sounds too good to be true, its because it probably is. Be cautious.

A common trust based scam is when someone says "selling skills, you provide the transfer implant." Scammers can then take the ESI and run. Might be funny, but with today's ESI's, you might lose hundreds of dollars in one go. So get some collateral before handing over anything of value.

More sophisticated scams include tricks with trading window, so ALWAYS PAY ATTENTION to what you are confirming. Check, double check, and triple check your trade summary.

If you are a victim of scamming, you should report it to Mindark nonetheless. Even if they won't return your items, if they receive enough complaints about certain players, they will lock and eventually ban them.

Leeches:

"Can i have 1 ped? plssss i need to repair my items.."

Want peds? Deposit. Work for them. Go sweating. Find fruit and dung.

Other players are investing several thousand dollars a month in this game, most of them to pay the super inflated prices of item reselling.

Why should they give you free money? If you can afford a computer to play this game, then you can afford to pay for your own addiction. Because in the end that's what games are... Addictions.

He who wants to have an addiction, needs money to support it.

I rest my case.

J