paying for TSO

[eyecandyinjp]

I was just wondering does anyone ever wonder why we have to pay for The Sims Online? EA has many other games that are online that people do NOT have to pay for. Some of the other games are much more graphic etc that tso and they are free? What makes TSO so special that everyone has to pay a monthly fee to play it? I mean honestly they are a multi-million dollar company.

 

[Guest]

TSO receives constant updates?
TSO does not have commercial advertisers in the game that pay them to have the game up?
TSO is working on having a free version and a paid version?

 

[mariotso]

<blockquote><hr>

TSO does not have commercial advertisers in the game that pay them to have the game up?

[/ QUOTE ]

ahem, care for fries with that big mac?

 

[Guest]

WoW is the most successful online game to date.
They charge like 14.99 a month.
And they do expansion packs, now you don't have to buy them, but you don't get to be cool if you don't.

COH/V also has a $14.99 a month subscription.
I think EQII is in that neighborhood as well. EQII also offers expansions you have to pay for to enjoy.

TSO is 9.99 a month. It is working on an expansion that we do not have to pay for, and furthermore, you will soon have the option of playing for free. You will be limited, but as above shows, you gotta pay for the fun stuff.

 

[Guest]

WoW may also considering going free play at least to those players in china..

http://www.curse.com/articles/details/3691/

<blockquote><hr>

TSO is 9.99 a month. It is working on an expansion that we do not have to pay for, and furthermore, you will soon have the option of playing for free. You will be limited, but as above shows, you gotta pay for the fun stuff.

[/ QUOTE ]

We may not have to pay for it, but aren't we basically paying to be beta testers on it right now? Which betas are usuallly free for users. It's not really an expansion, but moreso a soon to be mandatory update. Expansions are optional and are not required for users to play the game. Unfortunately after all the city merges to EALand TSO users won't have an option to not merge/upgrade. Also wasn't it stated that the free play wouldn't have access to TC3 and/or the new city?

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

In WoW terms, you could expect to see in game cash for sale from an official store rather than gold farmers

[/ QUOTE ]

Sounds familiar.

and from what I understand China is huge on Gold Farming.
Would not be a bad idea.

 

[Guest]

Being free to play, WoW that is, would have no affect on their gold farmers, but if the company offered gold to players i'd expect the farmers to just set their prices lower then what the game company does, if it is still profitable to them..

As for TSO/EALand since they, EA/TSO, plan to "buy back" simoleans from players who choose to sell them then I don't see farmers or simolean sellers even bothering with selling to the players that much if at all. It would be much easier and faster to sell directly back to the game, EA/TSO, and thus not affecting the economy in the slightest.

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

As for TSO/EALand since they, EA/TSO, plan to "buy back" simoleans from players who choose to sell them then I don't see farmers or simolean sellers even bothering with selling to the players that much if at all. It would be much easier and faster to sell directly back to the game, EA/TSO, and thus not affecting the economy in the slightest.

[/ QUOTE ]

That would be like selling stolen property to the police. On the one hand, I hope the botters are that stupid. On the other, I hope they are.

They would probably sell directly to players at a discounted rate in order to stay off the radar.

 

[imported_corpatortis]

<blockquote><hr>

We may not have to pay for it, but aren't we basically paying to be beta testers on it right now?

[/ QUOTE ]

No. You are free to not use test centre 3 at the moment.

Also, CoH when they test a new update does it on their test server. A test server that requires a character to play on. To make a character you have to have an account. You must pay to have an account.

 

[Guest]

They would probably sell directly to players at a discounted rate in order to stay off the radar.

If Sarah tracks the economy like people think she will, bots cannot hide and be cost-effective at the same time. I would think that accounts generating an amount of Simoleans above a 'reasonable' level would be flagged for tracking. Operating a bot under the level would not be cost effective. The problem with TSO in the past was that there were no tools to track the economy. And excessive Simoleans were not seen as a problem by EA until the exploit flooded the cities with billions of Simoleans.

It will be interesting to see if EA controls bots in EA-Land. This time EA will have a financial incentive to minimize bot use.

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

It will be interesting to see if EA controls bots in EA-Land. This time EA will have a financial incentive to minimize bot use.

[/ QUOTE ]

THERE is the ticket, going back to what some of us have been saying all along. Up to now, it hasn't been financially sound for EA to come down hard on the botters and ban them, because the botters hold upwards of 20 accounts a piece sometimes, translating to $200 a month, $2,400 USD a year. That's a drop in the bucket to a multi-million dollar corporation, but the number of 'big time botters' we have had in the game for so long probably are what kept the game afloat from financial devistation leading to all of our 90 day notice, while at the same time 'killing' the game because of the totally fubared economy. The ultimate dichotomy.

Now that will not exist though since EA has a vested interest in making sure those who seek to buy simoleans do so from them rather than from these farmers. They will actually have to have a hands-on approach in order to keep on top of it though, which in the past they have not, so time will tell to see if they have learned from there mistakes. Chances are the current botting programs will not work with the code in EA Land, but if those original people who created the biggest bots are still in the shadows of things lurking about to see what's gonna happen, my guess is they will at least try to create another bot program and market it for the purpose of putting money in *their* pocket, not caring about the consequences the users of their bots will face. EA though, I believe at least, has the capability of taking legal action against the bot makers though, because I think in order to make those bots they have to hack into and disect some of the code so the bot program will be connected to it, and I am almost certain without going back and finding the exact passage that there is something in the TOS expressly forbidding that. They've never taken the option of going after them because again, it would cost them more money than it would save them. That's no longer true.

 

[Guest]

EA though, I believe at least, has the capability of taking legal action against the bot makers

I think it would be much cheaper to suspend accounts demonstrating activity indicative of bot operation. Parizad and Sarah are paid a lot less per hour than a lawyer. LOL

Knowing that EA has the tools to identify bot activity may prevent the pros from spending the time to create bots in the first place. Amateur bots wouldn't have much effect on the game.

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

EA though, I believe at least, has the capability of taking legal action against the bot makers

I think it would be much cheaper to suspend accounts demonstrating activity indicative of bot operation. Parizad and Sarah are paid a lot less per hour than a lawyer. LOL

Knowing that EA has the tools to identify bot activity may prevent the pros from spending the time to create bots in the first place. Amateur bots wouldn't have much effect on the game.

[/ QUOTE ]

The problem with that is the bot makers probably don't even PLAY the game much, except when they are testing their product to see if it works, so popping them would be much harder than it will be to pop the users of the bots. It's kinda like busting people who smoke pot, but every now and then if they are going after a big time dealer they will give the little guys a break if they roll over on their supplier, and if the supplier rolls over on who they get it from, leading up to the big cheese. Some might think that's not a fair comparison, but illegal activity is illegal activity, and I think that the CREATION of these bots would not only be against TSO's TOS but also might actually be illegal period. I don't know if there is a way they could get the bot users to point them in the direction of where they got their program or not, so I'm not sure if that part of it would work, but it seems to me if you're gonna get rid of a problem, you go after the source. When you bomb a house for bugs, if you don't use a pesticide that kills the eggs, you're not gonna get rid of the problem, right?

 

[Guest]

When you bomb a house for bugs, if you don't use a pesticide that kills the eggs, you're not gonna get rid of the problem, right?

True. But if you want to guard chickens in a chicken house from foxes, you don't go out and kill all the foxes within a 10 mile radius. And bots don't lay eggs.

The process of suspending accounts temporarily could even be automated.

 

[Guest]

but they recently made free trials easier to obtain registration codes in which botters can now easily replace banned accounts again so banning/terninating accounts is essentially ineffective, it's only a very temporary fix until that person gets new accounts and reskills sims and earns then sells cash again.

Bot programs themselves are just macro programs that point, click at certain areas at set times or timed intervals etc. They don't hack into any games as far as i understand how they work. So if No hacking then its perfectly legal according to us laws and not a thing the game company can do let al,one economically do that would make sense. it would only be against the games terms of service which is not a us law. Kind of like me saying to someone in front of my house that they aren't allowed to smoke there. It's my rule or term, but there's no law saying they can't smoke there.

Trust me there will be some bots after ealand opens i mean heck i'm sure you all know the 1 bot site thats been out there ever since tso started and they have always updated for anything tso did to prevent bots, ealand i don't expect to be any different for them.

 

[Guest]

Trust me there will be some bots after ealand opens

There will be some bots but they should have no adverse effect on the game. Unlike before, EA has the tools to track how many Simoleans an account makes. Obvious bots can be suspended. Free accounts will be limited to how many Simoleans they can generate with money objects, if any. If free accounts aren't limited, then the economy will be ruined again. There won't be any 'trial' accounts.

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

Trust me there will be some bots after ealand opens

There will be some bots but they should have no adverse effect on the game. Unlike before, EA has the tools to track how many Simoleans an account makes. Obvious bots can be suspended. Free accounts will be limited to how many Simoleans they can generate with money objects, if any. If free accounts aren't limited, then the economy will be ruined again. There won't be any 'trial' accounts.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's right instead now EA itself will have about 100% of the adverse affects on the game and economy because they will be selling simoleans in the game directly. Now players won't need to "sneak" around the web searhing for simolean sites. Now it'll be right in front of them at any given moment with a few simple clicks and when things are made that easy trust me more people will try it even if they never have before just because its that simple. So soon it won't be the botters that everyone gripes about or the simolean sellers. Hmmm then again rethinking that will never change, lol

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

<blockquote><hr>

Trust me there will be some bots after ealand opens

There will be some bots but they should have no adverse effect on the game. Unlike before, EA has the tools to track how many Simoleans an account makes. Obvious bots can be suspended. Free accounts will be limited to how many Simoleans they can generate with money objects, if any. If free accounts aren't limited, then the economy will be ruined again. There won't be any 'trial' accounts.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's right instead now EA itself will have about 100% of the adverse affects on the game and economy because they will be selling simoleans in the game directly. Now players won't need to "sneak" around the web searhing for simolean sites. Now it'll be right in front of them at any given moment with a few simple clicks and when things are made that easy trust me more people will try it even if they never have before just because its that simple. So soon it won't be the botters that everyone gripes about or the simolean sellers. Hmmm then again rethinking that will never change, lol

[/ QUOTE ]

Unlike the botters, who basically printed infinate and unchecked amounts of money, to sell, EA will only be selling simoleons based on how much money is returned to the game economy.

Money in = money out.

The amount available to be bought, will have a limit and it will *not* destabalize the economy.

 

[Guest]

The amount available to be bought, will have a limit

The limit will be one's bank account.

At the latest rate I've heard, a million Simoleans would cost about $1,000 USD. I don't think that many people will even spend $100 for 100,000 Simoleans. Linden Labs publishes the total number of Linden Dollars in game (3,804,454,416 as of today). It would be interesting if EA did the same.

 

[Guest]

Well, naturally, how much anyone is *willing* to buy is limited by their bank account, but the amount *available*, to be bought, is limited by the game.

 

[Guest]

I'm a little confused on this. Does that mean the more the botters make to sell back to EA the more us schmucks who are stupid enough to buy simoleans can buy from EA?

I really don't get it. I can't see them limiting the amount they can actually sell if anyone is actually willing to pay for it. I will not be buying simoleans, though from what I am reading it might be a good investment to buy one of those bot programs.

 

[Guest]

the amount *available*, to be bought, is limited by the game.

Have you ever known EA to turn down money?

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

I'm a little confused on this. Does that mean the more the botters make to sell back to EA the more us schmucks who are stupid enough to buy simoleans can buy from EA?

I really don't get it. I can't see them limiting the amount they can actually sell if anyone is actually willing to pay for it. I will not be buying simoleans, though from what I am reading it might be a good investment to buy one of those bot programs.

[/ QUOTE ]

Here is why I actually believe that EA will monitor money being made, and try to combat botters and their programs.

When our economy was being destroyed, they did not have a huge vested interest in fighting and combating botters. In the end, the more botters, the more money they made. It didn't seem to be costing them any. Someone who would run a botting program would have to operate at least 2 accounts, and usually more. So logically , they made a great deal of money off of these subscriptions.

When EA begins to directly sell in game money, a botter will be taking money and profit directly from EA. A botter will also be specifically compromising all the money that they've invested in this new economy and this new game.

I'm fairly certain that the current subscriptions are not paying the salaries of our entire brand new development team.

I have never worked for a corporation that was intent to allow people to steal from them. I doubt that EA will be any different. Although many may view TSO as a massive failure, EA is a very successful corporation in their own right.

Of course I'm just speculating the same as everyone else. But I think it's simple logic.

 

[Roger Wilco]

<blockquote><hr>

the amount *available*, to be bought, is limited by the game.

Have you ever known EA to turn down money?

[/ QUOTE ]

Bingo, we have a winner.

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

the amount *available*, to be bought, is limited by the game.

Have you ever known EA to turn down money?

[/ QUOTE ]

Hardly a reasonable question, because in fact I have never known you to turn down money, either.......

......because, I don't know you well enough to know your level of greed, or what you will do for money.

Unless you are privy to all of the business offers tended to EA Games, then you can not know whether or not they have mindlessly accepted every cash deal offered to them, either.

The Dev's are trying to build a self-sustaining game.....and that includes balancing the economy in such a way, that it can not be destablized into the mess we had last winter. Balancing the money drained from the game, with the money generated in the game, is the main focus of that balancing act.

So, no, in answer to your probably, facetious question, I do not believe that they would destroy all that expensive effort, for a short term gain, that would ultimately undo everything they have invested in fixing. It would not make much sense.

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

Money in = money out.



[/ QUOTE ] If I've said it once, I've said it a hundred times, this is NOT an 'economy'
This is a closed loop sysytem that has but one positive feature - to control the amount of cash available in a closed environment. It does not allow for fluctuations in supply and demand, outside markets, growth (population or economic), etc. In fact, at it's upper limits, there will be reduced or no payouts on money objects and jobs.
The only way to avoid this is to make the cap so high that the 'upper' limit will never be reached - which defeats the purpose - an unlimited cap is the same as no cap at all.
I'm not saying this is necessarily bad (or good) for the game, but if people want to rave on about an 'economy', they should know what they are talking about.... and if they think this is one, they have some startling discoveries waiting in their future.

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

<blockquote><hr>

I'm a little confused on this. Does that mean the more the botters make to sell back to EA the more us schmucks who are stupid enough to buy simoleans can buy from EA?

I really don't get it. I can't see them limiting the amount they can actually sell if anyone is actually willing to pay for it. I will not be buying simoleans, though from what I am reading it might be a good investment to buy one of those bot programs.

[/ QUOTE ]

Here is why I actually believe that EA will monitor money being made, and try to combat botters and their programs.

When our economy was being destroyed, they did not have a huge vested interest in fighting and combating botters. In the end, the more botters, the more money they made. It didn't seem to be costing them any. Someone who would run a botting program would have to operate at least 2 accounts, and usually more. So logically , they made a great deal of money off of these subscriptions.

When EA begins to directly sell in game money, a botter will be taking money and profit directly from EA. A botter will also be specifically compromising all the money that they've invested in this new economy and this new game.

I'm fairly certain that the current subscriptions are not paying the salaries of our entire brand new development team.

I have never worked for a corporation that was intent to allow people to steal from them. I doubt that EA will be any different. Although many may view TSO as a massive failure, EA is a very successful corporation in their own right.

Of course I'm just speculating the same as everyone else. But I think it's simple logic.

[/ QUOTE ]
Finally, somebody gets it.

 

[Roger Wilco]

<blockquote><hr>

So, no, in answer to your probably, facetious question, I do not believe that they would destroy all that expensive effort, for a short term gain, that would ultimately undo everything they have invested in fixing. It would not make much sense.

[/ QUOTE ]

That was funny.

* Me points to the pre-mature launch of TSO by EA destroying the game for the short term buck. They wanted to see revenue coming in even though their own dev's told them the game wasn't ready for launch - and did it anyway.

That's just one example. They actually have a five year history of undoing everything for the short term buck, but you still have your head stuck in the sand so enjoy the view.

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

The Dev's are trying to build a self-sustaining game.....and that includes balancing the economy in such a way, that it can not be destablized into the mess we had last winter. Balancing the money drained from the game, with the money generated in the game, is the main focus of that balancing act.


[/ QUOTE ]
This is the problem with their thinking. In order to balance the "economy" (for want of a better word), this type of system requires zero growth. If we expect the game to progress - that is, generate new players - then the "economy must be "dynamic" - to allow for their spending and money-making. Without that dynamic, the "economy" will require constant manual adjustments or it will stagnate and the game will strangle. Merely raising the cap does nothing but delay the next stagnation phase. A dynamic "economy" will take care of itself (no futzing around by EA necessary).

The world is lousy with economic "experts" who would love to share their economic models (and it's all-important algorithms) with a world wide corporation that offers them a bit of recognition.
Hell, it wouldn't even have to be a top person in the field - even the guy who finished last in his class could provide a model that would work quite well in an on-line game like TSO.... I mean EALand.

A fully fleshed economy has GOT to be better than the stick figure one we are about to see.

 

[vapd3317]

Very well said Donavan. Lets make it even simpler to understand. For the sake of argument;

Lets put that economy "cap" at 5000 simoleons game wide. If each sim is given a set startup of the 500 simoleons, we can have only 10 players in the game and the bank is now empty. No new players can join because they cannot be given the set start up funds, and no-one in game can make any money from the bank because the "bank" is now bankrupt.

It MUST be dynamic to continue. Limiting the funds available in game will only lead to the demise of any efforts they are now making to revive the game as it is.

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

We may not have to pay for it, but aren't we basically paying to be beta testers on it right now? Which betas are usuallly free for users. It's not really an expansion, but moreso a soon to be mandatory update.

[/ QUOTE ]

Except that beta testing doesn't have public servers with finished content on it? And... isn't an already established game that's just being revamped?

We're testers, but we're not BETA testers.

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

Very well said Donavan. Lets make it even simpler to understand. For the sake of argument;

Lets put that economy "cap" at 5000 simoleons game wide. If each sim is given a set startup of the 500 simoleons, we can have only 10 players in the game and the bank is now empty. No new players can join because they cannot be given the set start up funds, and no-one in game can make any money from the bank because the "bank" is now bankrupt.

It MUST be dynamic to continue. Limiting the funds available in game will only lead to the demise of any efforts they are now making to revive the game as it is.

[/ QUOTE ]
Exactly.

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

<blockquote><hr>

We may not have to pay for it, but aren't we basically paying to be beta testers on it right now? Which betas are usuallly free for users. It's not really an expansion, but moreso a soon to be mandatory update.

[/ QUOTE ]

Except that beta testing doesn't have public servers with finished content on it? And... isn't an already established game that's just being revamped?

We're testers, but we're not BETA testers.

[/ QUOTE ]

Exactly Thunder.

There has always been a Test Center.

Just because we are getting updates that are changing the game as we played it...

It still is what it is.
progress.

Also, when I opt to stay on every month that I pay my bill... I am always looking for that gun EA is holding to my head to keep paying...

o...
wait.

 

[mariotso]

<blockquote><hr>

We're testers, but we're not BETA testers.

[/ QUOTE ]

you say tomato, i say tomato

look around my friends, anyone still think they are in kansas anymore? yep, we're all guinea pigs and paying for the pleasure of it. if only those ea folks had been this clever from the beginning...

oh and your right jackie, no gun. otherwise there would be much less pancakes

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

<blockquote><hr>

We're testers, but we're not BETA testers.

[/ QUOTE ]

you say tomato, i say tomato

look around my friends, anyone still think they are in kansas anymore? yep, we're all guinea pigs and paying for the pleasure of it. if only those ea folks had been this clever from the beginning...

oh and your right jackie, no gun. otherwise there would be much less pancakes

[/ QUOTE ]

they were

sorta.
The game they released originally was an unfinished product.
Which is why Test Center was popular for so long.
I don't see this as being any different than that.
Everyone is not forced to test (no gun their either

) Those who still enjoy original production cities can do so without having to deal with the bother of testing.

Anyone who is in TC3 is there by choice. Its always been choice.

Now I can think of things that have been affected by TC3 which could bother others. But instability isn't specific to just testing... that sort of thing is bound to happen.

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

<blockquote><hr>

<blockquote><hr>

We're testers, but we're not BETA testers.

[/ QUOTE ]

you say tomato, i say tomato

look around my friends, anyone still think they are in kansas anymore? yep, we're all guinea pigs and paying for the pleasure of it. if only those ea folks had been this clever from the beginning...

oh and your right jackie, no gun. otherwise there would be much less pancakes

[/ QUOTE ]

they were

sorta.
The game they released originally was an unfinished product.
Which is why Test Center was popular for so long.
I don't see this as being any different than that.
Everyone is not forced to test (no gun their either

) Those who still enjoy original production cities can do so without having to deal with the bother of testing.

Anyone who is in TC3 is there by choice. Its always been choice.

Now I can think of things that have been affected by TC3 which could bother others. But instability isn't specific to just testing... that sort of thing is bound to happen.

[/ QUOTE ]

BUT the instability and login issues we've seen in the regular cities ever since TC3 started has been 100% worse then it had been over the past couple years when we had no updates so YES TC3 and all this patches/updates etc IS infact the major cause of most if not all of those issues in regular cities.

Oh and FYI soon we will have no choice and have no regular cities to fall back on and play in since soon some cities will be deactivated while just a few get the merge to EALand. We WILL all be forced to update to EALand in all its glorious limitations.

In a weird kind of way I kind of hope that the bots start there immediately so that they eat up the money sources right away and leave the money pools empty so that all those in favor of this horrible mess actually see what it is truely going to be like with all these limitations.

Ok flame me now.

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

<blockquote><hr>

<blockquote><hr>

<blockquote><hr>

We're testers, but we're not BETA testers.

[/ QUOTE ]

you say tomato, i say tomato

look around my friends, anyone still think they are in kansas anymore? yep, we're all guinea pigs and paying for the pleasure of it. if only those ea folks had been this clever from the beginning...

oh and your right jackie, no gun. otherwise there would be much less pancakes

[/ QUOTE ]

they were

sorta.
The game they released originally was an unfinished product.
Which is why Test Center was popular for so long.
I don't see this as being any different than that.
Everyone is not forced to test (no gun their either

) Those who still enjoy original production cities can do so without having to deal with the bother of testing.

Anyone who is in TC3 is there by choice. Its always been choice.

Now I can think of things that have been affected by TC3 which could bother others. But instability isn't specific to just testing... that sort of thing is bound to happen.

[/ QUOTE ]

BUT the instability and login issues we've seen in the regular cities ever since TC3 started has been 100% worse then it had been over the past couple years when we had no updates so YES TC3 and all this patches/updates etc IS infact the major cause of most if not all of those issues in regular cities.

Oh and FYI soon we will have no choice and have no regular cities to fall back on and play in since soon some cities will be deactivated while just a few get the merge to EALand. We WILL all be forced to update to EALand in all its glorious limitations.

In a weird kind of way I kind of hope that the bots start there immediately so that they eat up the money sources right away and leave the money pools empty so that all those in favor of this horrible mess actually see what it is truely going to be like with all these limitations.

Ok flame me now.

[/ QUOTE ]

Naw no need for me to flame you, the fact that you are praying for doom just to validate your theories makes you flame yourself

I, however, do not believe that will be allowed to happen as I stated above. But anything is possible.

 

[Guest]

Ah but remember there will be no doom even with bots. Theres a money cap and regardless if a bot causes the cap to be reached or regular players then theres no difference and more money can't be made over that cap so in reality bots wont be any adverse affect on the economy if they even tried their bots, besides we don't know what possible secret ways they have to detect bots so they'll probably find and weed them out anyway. lol

Honestly though I seriously doubt those people who made bots are still hanging around in TSO. There are much more profitable games out there for them to do their dirty work in and make a better living then with TSO. Heck there's WoW with what nearly 10 million subscribers compared to a pittance of what 14k-15k subscribers at best with TSO?

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

Ah but remember there will be no doom even with bots. Theres a money cap and regardless if a bot causes the cap to be reached or regular players then theres no difference and more money can't be made over that cap so in reality bots wont be any adverse affect on the economy if they even tried their bots, besides we don't know what possible secret ways they have to detect bots so they'll probably find and weed them out anyway. lol

Honestly though I seriously doubt those people who made bots are still hanging around in TSO. There are much more profitable games out there for them to do their dirty work in and make a better living then with TSO. Heck there's WoW with what nearly 10 million subscribers compared to a pittance of what 14k-15k subscribers at best with TSO?

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree with you there Fester, I never understood why people would bot in TSO when there were such bigger markets. But I guess the joke was on us... apparently it was pretty profitable. There are many players, even normal posters on this forum, who have simolean selling sites. To look at what the going rate is now as opposed to what it was a before Luc came in with his economy changing blog... its kind of funny.

When I see the people here who I know did the whole bot thing, get angry at the money wipe... I giggle like a 12 year old school girl.

Luc and team have already put such a huge damper on the botters income.
Nobody really wants to buy money now that they know it's going to be wiped.

From what I understand, WoW has "Players" who buy money, and then once the transaction is through they take action against the account that sold it.

Even a successful game like WoW has a really hard time keeping this type of thing under control.

I am very interested to see what course of action EA takes to prevent bot programs in EA land.
Will player reports be taken seriously? Will that system be revamped? Or will it be monitored solely on money making trends and large influxes?

This type of stuff interests me because I'm a very nosy girl.

Also, and this will be another long winded one. Long ago when i was just a "visitor" here on stratics. I replied to a post.
I had made mention that I thought EA should sell simoleans and compete with the simolean sellers in game. I thought this would be the best way to do this for the same reason I do today.

Sadly back then this sort of thing wasn't allowed to be discussed, which made me feel o, so silly. The fact that finally EA is doing what other games such as SL, EQII and the like have been doing shows us that they are able to roll with the punches.

The industry changes. Luckily, finally, we have the chance to change with it...

 

[Guest]

since soon some cities will be deactivated

WOW! That is certainly news to me. Would you be so kind as to give us a citation? From the data Lee gave us it looks like DC, EJ, and IH are pretty much inactive. Are these the ones EA stated would be closed?

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

since soon some cities will be deactivated

WOW! That is certainly news to me. Would you be so kind as to give us a citation? From the data Lee gave us it looks like DC, EJ, and IH are pretty much inactive. Are these the ones EA stated would be closed?

[/ QUOTE ]
I have been working hard to get my IH sims ready for the absorption - they can close it when they pry it from my cold, dead fingers..........

Aw, hell - you know what I mean.

 

[imported_DutchAmerica]

<blockquote><hr>

I'm a little confused on this. Does that mean the more the botters make to sell back to EA the more us schmucks who are stupid enough to buy simoleans can buy from EA?

I really don't get it. I can't see them limiting the amount they can actually sell if anyone is actually willing to pay for it. I will not be buying simoleans, though from what I am reading it might be a good investment to buy one of those bot programs.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ok, there is no better way to get me into a very very very bad mood then to mentioning purchasing and operating 3rd party programs on TSO.

I'm sorry to be mean but my fervent wish is to see EA shut down all the 3rd party programs and punish severely anyone using them.

As far as I'm concerned, if you want to stay up all night and run 4 sims at the same time making pizza that's up to you. But as far as I know 3rd party programs are still prohibited/banned and I haven't seen anywhere that the devs are considering making them legal either.

And from what Lee said, if a 'huge flood' or glitch appears to be active, EA can and will close down the city until the source is found and fixed. So I hope everyone is ready and willing to assist in keeping our new city clean.

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

I'm a little confused on this. Does that mean the more the botters make to sell back to EA the more us schmucks who are stupid enough to buy simoleans can buy from EA?

I really don't get it. I can't see them limiting the amount they can actually sell if anyone is actually willing to pay for it. I will not be buying simoleans, though from what I am reading it might be a good investment to buy one of those bot programs.


[/ QUOTE ]
This is probably not a good idea, CG. First, even tho the auto-play portion of the bot is not illegal (by EA definition) the fact that it overrides player input (by pushing buttons for you) does, in fact, violate the ToS and in-game rules.
Further, since EALand will be marketing in-game money for RL money - use of a bot, in violation of the ToS, could be grounds for felony theft charges against the person using it.

Soooo, don't do it - I don't have the money for bail.

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

<blockquote><hr>

I'm a little confused on this. Does that mean the more the botters make to sell back to EA the more us schmucks who are stupid enough to buy simoleans can buy from EA?

I really don't get it. I can't see them limiting the amount they can actually sell if anyone is actually willing to pay for it. I will not be buying simoleans, though from what I am reading it might be a good investment to buy one of those bot programs.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ok, there is no better way to get me into a very very very bad mood then to mentioning purchasing and operating 3rd party programs on TSO.

I'm sorry to be mean but my fervent wish is to see EA shut down all the 3rd party programs and punish severely anyone using them.

As far as I'm concerned, if you want to stay up all night and run 4 sims at the same time making pizza that's up to you. But as far as I know 3rd party programs are still prohibited/banned and I haven't seen anywhere that the devs are considering making them legal either.

And from what Lee said, if a 'huge flood' or glitch appears to be active, EA can and will close down the city until the source is found and fixed. So I hope everyone is ready and willing to assist in keeping our new city clean.

[/ QUOTE ]

I've always been against botters, and use to report the half dozen houses in TC that would be running on occasion, to no avail. I am not seeing any signs of them actually preventing them for still doing the "dirty deed" are you? From what I've been reading, they apparently aren't breaking any rules, so maybe that is why reporting them never did any good. I can tell you right now though, I enjoy having a "nest egg" in the game so I don't need to worry about having enough to buy something if I want to. Now I'm not talking a huge amount, like enough to buy a mystic tree with, I'm talking just enough to not worry about filling the fridge, enough to pay my maid, enough to fix something when the house goes red at 5:30 in the afternoon and the repairman won't come until 10 AM the next morning, just enough to be comfortable and not worry about when the bills come due, enough to buy new appliances when they become too old and break constantly, enough to craft, enough to do a roof if I am in the mood, enough to remodel, you get the idea I'm sure. Therefore, I can see myself, and many many other players who never would have even considered botting, thinking about it now rather than have to buy simoleans from EA.

IMO, this new "economy" they've created is going to make begging, scamming and botting, much more prevalent in the future of this game.

 

[Guest]

damn, wish you'd told me that before I posted that last one lol

I'm not saying I will be botting, but I'd be lying to say I've not considered it. I'm sure many others are too. That is why I brought it up to start with. I still think most of us in this game like seeing big numbers down there to the bottom left. Being a hundredaire or even a thousandaire just ain't right, not in our play world. Well, not in my play world anyways

 

[imported_DutchAmerica]

I see the new economy doing just about the same thing as the old one.

Players have been purchasing simoleans for years while many of us screamed about it. Whether we keep our simoleans or not, I don't see player ceasing in buying them.

There's one vast difference though, the money being spent for simoleans will for the most part be given to EA/TSO meaning TSO is going to be providing a much more substantial income for EA.

Depending on how much EA sells their simoleans for, it may not be feasible for the simolean sellers to continue in their businesses.

I think that private players will probably turn more heavily to selling 'items' such as rares and 'one-of-a-kind' custom content items to players and that's where they'll make their money.

 

[vapd3317]

<blockquote><hr>

IMO, this new "economy" they've created is going to make begging, scamming and botting, much more prevalent in the future of this game.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yup CG,...I have said this also myself. Not to mention that I'm sure a few people out there are waiting for the merge, with fully stocked stores, ready to advertise a mass sale once entering EA Land and immediately doing a sell back to EA prior to deletion of thier accounts.

One store alone might be insignificant, but if alot of stores do that,...it is gonna hurt.

 

[imported_Shirl1211]

Shuuuush VA....I've got 5 stores ready to go....I could use a custom content blue light special sign tho

 

[vapd3317]

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

I see the new economy doing just about the same thing as the old one.

Players have been purchasing simoleans for years while many of us screamed about it. Whether we keep our simoleans or not, I don't see player ceasing in buying them.

There's one vast difference though, the money being spent for simoleans will for the most part be given to EA/TSO meaning TSO is going to be providing a much more substantial income for EA.

Depending on how much EA sells their simoleans for, it may not be feasible for the simolean sellers to continue in their businesses.

I think that private players will probably turn more heavily to selling 'items' such as rares and 'one-of-a-kind' custom content items to players and that's where they'll make their money.

[/ QUOTE ]

Heck who are you kidding look at current prices of simoleans. Theres nothing to say that the simolean sellers won't undersell EA at their prices and attract the players to buy from them instead of EA. Honestly I fully expect to see them do just that. It's always feasable, but is it economical, maybe it depends on the seller I guess, time will surely tell.