500 accounts banned due to third-party currency purchases

[Stratics News]

Hello everyone,

Today, we have banned over 500 accounts for involvement in third-party currency transactions. Please note that this is expressly forbidden by our Terms and Conditions:

4.5.1 Users are prohibited from selling, purchasing, renting, leasing, offering, accepting, disseminating or copying Virtual Benefits, including Virtual Currency, within and/or outside the Game - in whatever form – to/from third parties unless expressly permitted by these Terms and Conditions or the Game Rules. /.../

Full Terms & Conditions can be read here.


Please remember that the silver acquired from these sellers is fraudulently obtained - in most cases the silver is purchased with Gold using stolen credit card information. Because of this, and because of our priority to keep a fair playing field and a stable economy in the game, we will continue to combat this.

It has been a while since we have made a public announcement on this subject, but rest assured we have always been diligent with researching reports and taking action in this matter. And as always, if you suspect someone for being involved in third-party transactions, please report them to our support team.



~ Elsa & Dev Team

Continue reading...

 

[Captn Norrington]

This is a thread from the Albion Online forum I moved here. Albion Online was created by former UO developers. This proves it is very possible for UO to enforce their anti-RMT rules if they chose to. It would be nice for the UO devs to ask their former colleagues how to do it if they're interested in preventing RMT.

Sorry for the misleading title, but you have to admit, your reaction was "wait they did WHAT? In UO?"...which is part of the issue that we'd all be so shocked by UO actually doing that.

 

[ShriNayne]

I almost spit my drink all over the screen, you fiend Norrington!

 

[S_S]

That's some wishful thinking if we ever thought UO would do this...

 

[Dryzzid of Atlantic]

Ahh I fell for it too.

 

[Pawain]

I almost spit my drink all over the screen, you fiend Norrington!

Ya you should change the title to:
500 Albion accounts banned due to third-party currency purchases

 

[Cinderella]

you had me until I read Elsa...
I wondered who that was & had to read more lol

 

[Cerwin Vega]

At first I just figured they were all EJ accounts or something.

 

[Xris]

And as always, if you suspect someone for being involved in third-party transactions, please report them to our support team.



~ Elsa & Dev Team

Continue reading...

I'm more worried about getting banned for reporting something. On the official forum, they silence dissidents haha

Sent from my SM-J337VPP using Tapatalk

 

[MalagAste]

If UO Banned 500 people would anyone be left playing?

 

[Tjalle]

If UO Banned 500 people would anyone be left playing?

Yes.

 

[Lord Arm]

i was ready to click liked lol

 

[Jolt]

But really, RMT has been present in UO since it began over 20 years ago, so why are you still getting your knickers in a twist about it?

 

[Pawain]

But really, RMT has been present in UO since it began over 20 years ago, so why are you still getting your knickers in a twist about it?

Join Unleashed to see some really knotted knickers:
How to join Unleashed for anyone interested in doing so: Introducing Stratics Unleashed.

 

[Xris]

But really, RMT has been present in UO since it began over 20 years ago, so why are you still getting your knickers in a twist about it?

Because the mass duping and 24/7 scripting is ruining the game much more than 20 years ago. No one cares about people selling accts or some gold here and there. The massive duping and scripting supporting the RMT sites is off the rails.

Sent from my SM-J337VPP using Tapatalk

 

[Jolt]

Join Unleashed to see some really knotted knickers:
How to join Unleashed for anyone interested in doing so: Introducing Stratics Unleashed.

Actually had no idea about this, thanks for the heads up!

 

[Poo]

i got that cold feeling in my nap of my neck and i was thinking..... when did i last buy gold....

haha!

 

[MalagAste]

Because the mass duping and 24/7 scripting is ruining the game much more than 20 years ago. No one cares about people selling accts or some gold here and there. The massive duping and scripting supporting the RMT sites is off the rails.

Sent from my SM-J337VPP using Tapatalk

It's not just that... It's the massive cheating, scripting and general people acting as if they "own" the game and their crap don't smell like crap... attitudes and all that go along with the RMT sites... Those who are only playing UO to make a buck and don't care how they harm the game, other players, or the community... Those who go to every EM Event on every shard playing 4 to 6+ accounts, tell everyone to stfu and go away quit playing etc... because they think they are entitled to get 4 drops so they can sell them all and piss on anyone who actually lives and plays on that shard who might want one for their long term participation in the events and support of their home shard EMs... etc... and screw anyone who actually wants to follow along with the story of the event and enjoy that because they don't have time for that they want to get the show on the road so they can go to X, Y and Z shard and do their event with the 4 to 6+ characters there so they can again get 4 drops and sell them instantly for ridiculous amounts of gold so they can turn around and sell that gold to the buyers of the crap for cash... the same ones to go to every IDOC to grab and snatch everything they can and sell, sell, sell for gold to turn around and sell that gold for cash too... because to them UO is a JOB... and they are going to rake in the cash and milk it till the game is dead. They don't care what cheats they need to use to get the job done but they are going to use them... these are the same people to place every castle and keep and house in luna and everywhere else to try to sell it to the highest bidder and all that... because to them UO is a JOB... not a game. They are in it just to make money. Legit players trying to make a buck so they don't have to go buy the gold from these rear end clowns be damned... These clowns are the ones out there ruining the game for everyone else... they are the reason we have the f'ed up systems we have today which includes the "random" spawns of ore, wood and everything else...

THAT is what disgusts most players. So much so that many have up and quit.

 

[Jolt]

...and deep breaths!

RMT is part of UO and it always will be. Antisocial players are part of every multiplayer online game and they still would be even if RMT wasn't a thing. Just accept it and move on.

You seem like a nice person. There's no point in getting upset over something that won't change, it's a waste of your precious time and energy.

 

[ShriNayne]

@MalagAste I agree with everything you said and yes UO players are their own worst enemies but ultimately the person who is enabling all the problems is our own Producer. She is the one who won't make those EM event items shard-bound, she is the one who is feeding the rare collector market, she is the one who is damaging the game by bad decisions and inaction against cheats.

 

[Keven2002]

I think one of the problems IS the EM Events (due to the super unique & limited drops) which has been further perpetuated by the "rare collector". This is just my opinion but I feel like 20 yeas ago everything was available to everyone (Silver Vanq weaps etc) so there was a balance of supply demand. With the EM drops there are literally like 10 max of that item forever so the supply is super limited and therefore people try to game the system any way possible (yes this would likely happen these days but maybe limited bc it wouldn't be as lucrative).

I do agree that it's a shame that the script bots have ruined things for the honest people like resource gathering... random resources pretty much ended my resource gathering days and just made it better for the bots (I used to hang around Valorite veins in Fel when bored waiting to PK unsuspecting miner ). That said, I'm not really sure how prevalent the resource bots are these days because again I don't feel like it's as lucrative anymore with resources being on ships these days... which goes back to my point about EM events are a cause for the bad behavior.

 

[MalagAste]

Sadly no one's opinions on what is wrong will fix it... until the DEVs wake up and stop catering to the greedy sobs in the game it will continue to slide down into the muck... and continue to cater to them... and feed the greed and the RMT people... until the DEVs wake up and quit feeding into them and return the community to the game... but at the rate that it's going I don't see that happening...


And maybe it's too late... quite possibly the buyers and sellers are all that are left actually still playing UO...

 

[Lore]

This is a thread from the Albion Online forum I moved here. Albion Online was created by former UO developers. This proves it is very possible for UO to enforce their anti-RMT rules if they chose to. It would be nice for the UO devs to ask their former colleagues how to do it if they're interested in preventing RMT.

Sorry for the misleading title, but you have to admit, your reaction was "wait they did WHAT? In UO?"...which is part of the issue that we'd all be so shocked by UO actually doing that.

Whew scared me. I'm guilty of this in UO. For the record, I agree with just about everything said here so far... but when in Rome...

 

[MissEcho]

Soon as I started reading it I thought 'what game is this from' as I knew darn well it wasn't UO.

 

[Whitewolf of *VK*]

The devs are making money form this, im willing to bet the devs or even mesanna owns the website the avatar dude keeps spamming, course i have no proof of this, but its the only thing that makes sense to me as to why they wont do anything about it.

 

[Kylie Kinslayer]

Got me on it for real...

I was already opening Unleashed in another tab because I knew that was gonna be fire over there...

 

[Lug]

I don't like this. It's click bait and shouldn't be allowed.

 

[Captn Norrington]

I don't like this. It's click bait and shouldn't be allowed.

The point was to show people what their initial reactions would be if UO were like the games which enforce their rules. People talk theoretically about how they would feel regarding RMT bans here nonstop, but they'll never know for sure until it happens (or they think it did, like this thread).

Whatever your initial reaction was upon reading the title is how you would feel if UO really did something about RMT. A few people have told me individually already that their initial feeling to this thread changed their opinion on UO's RMT rules after having those 10 seconds of true self-reflection.

 

[Fridgster]

The point was to show people what their initial reactions would be if UO were like the games which enforce their rules. People talk theoretically about how they would feel regarding RMT bans here nonstop, but they'll never know for sure until it happens (or they think it did, like this thread).

Whatever your initial reaction was upon reading the title is how you would feel if UO really did something about RMT. A few people have told me individually already that their initial feeling to this thread changed their opinion on UO's RMT rules after having those 10 seconds of true self-reflection.

My initial reaction was this is going to be awesome.... then I tried to recall which of my accounts I had been naughty on.

 

[ShriNayne]

It would have been awesome but let's face it none of us thought it was real, deep down we all know it could never happen, there wouldn't be enough legit players left to support the game.

 

[Deimos]

Does anyone remember the days when the sale of virtual items on eBay was allowed? Man that was a while back.
Gold used to sell for $45-50 a million, large towers were in the $300 (swamp area) to $700 range.

 

[MalagAste]

Yes, I remember those days quite well... though I remember gold being $25 a Mil but yes... and accounts being sold there for quite a lot.

 

[Captn Norrington]

So...this is actually starting to happen in UO apparently. I'm not kidding this time. Proof: Account Suspended do to fraud codes

 

[ShriNayne]

While it's good that they are apparently making an effort I think it's still too little, too late. Instead of going after one account at a time why don't they round up all the worst offenders?

 

[Lore]

So...this is actually starting to happen in UO apparently. I'm not kidding this time. Proof: Account Suspended do to fraud codes

Anyone affected by buying something not on the store? That'd be interesting.

 

[celticus]

So...this is actually starting to happen in UO apparently. I'm not kidding this time. Proof: Account Suspended do to fraud codes

Finally!!

 

[Theo_GL]

If UO Banned 500 people would anyone be left playing?

Yes. 7 people. All named Avatar. Spamming gold sales. On every shard. Every day. With no repercussions.

 

[ShriNayne]

Not much change there then....

 

[Arcus]

I don't like this. It's click bait and shouldn't be allowed.

I dont like the username "Lug" so it should not be allowed.

 

[Effort]

"
Please remember that the silver acquired from these sellers is fraudulently obtained - in most cases the silver is purchased with Gold using stolen credit card information. Because of this, and because of our priority to keep a fair playing field and a stable economy in the game, we will continue to combat this.
"

What Albion banned is the equivalent of what the UO Devs' had to do with stolen credit card Gametime Codes back in the earlly 2000s (Tradespot Era). They didn't ban people for engaging in generic 'buy my shiny item' RMT, they were looking for transactions involving actual credit card fraud and hurting the games primary income stream.

Currently you'll see gametime codes and tokens on atlantic vendors that are purchased via price arbitrage through VPN via Origin.com Ukraine and Brazil that drop the price of gametime codes, sovereigns and associated items down 3x. (6 month code = $21 USD instead of $60, etc)


These aren't purchased with stolen credit cards, nothing illegal being done, as in the Albion situation. but it kneecaps UO's primary income stream for a subscription based game - negatively impacting the end of year profitability in a major way. This is an issue for further development and gives a misleadingly negative view of the game as a maintainable revenue stream.

There are multiple solutions to this issue, all relatively easy.




UO is actually in a good state. These new dev tools are fantastic for creating engaging content easily. The playerbase on smaller shards is significantly larger, even though you may not see people in guilds and primarily engaging in 'antisocial' behavior as previously mentioned in this thread. UO is a sandbox, everyone plays it different.

RMT is in every game, for as long as games have been games. It's an interesting thing to get worked about ..WoW, EQ, Runescape, etc

 

[Lore]

"
Please remember that the silver acquired from these sellers is fraudulently obtained - in most cases the silver is purchased with Gold using stolen credit card information. Because of this, and because of our priority to keep a fair playing field and a stable economy in the game, we will continue to combat this.
"

What Albion banned is the equivalent of what the UO Devs' had to do with stolen credit card Gametime Codes back in the earlly 2000s (Tradespot Era). They didn't ban people for engaging in generic 'buy my shiny item' RMT, they were looking for transactions involving actual credit card fraud and hurting the games primary income stream.

Currently you'll see gametime codes and tokens on atlantic vendors that are purchased via price arbitrage through VPN via Origin.com Ukraine and Brazil that drop the price of gametime codes, sovereigns and associated items down 3x. (6 month code = $21 USD instead of $60, etc)


These aren't purchased with stolen credit cards, nothing illegal being done, as in the Albion situation. but it kneecaps UO's primary income stream for a subscription based game - negatively impacting the end of year profitability in a major way. This is an issue for further development and gives a misleadingly negative view of the game as a maintainable revenue stream.

There are multiple solutions to this issue, all relatively easy.




UO is actually in a good state. These new dev tools are fantastic for creating engaging content easily. The playerbase on smaller shards is significantly larger, even though you may not see people in guilds and primarily engaging in 'antisocial' behavior as previously mentioned in this thread. UO is a sandbox, everyone plays it different.

RMT is in every game, for as long as games have been games. It's an interesting thing to get worked about ..WoW, EQ, Runescape, etc

RMT is NOT in WoW. At least not third party RMT. I don't even think Classic servers have bad RMT despite the bot problem.

 

[Xris]

RMT is NOT in WoW. At least not third party RMT. I don't even think Classic servers have bad RMT despite the bot problem.

Yes it is, you can buy your way to the endgame raids, or buy a carry for pvp ratings. I'm sure you could still buy gold too, but theres not really a point anymore since you can farm yourself at a realistic rate and get what you need.

Sent from my SM-J337VPP using Tapatalk

 

[Lore]

Yes it is, you can buy your way to the endgame raids, or buy a carry for pvp ratings. I'm sure you could still buy gold too, but theres not really a point anymore since you can farm yourself at a realistic rate and get what you need.

Sent from my SM-J337VPP using Tapatalk

Where? NVM, easy google, why would they do that? LFR is easy and no one cares about that stuff anymore. Had to edit, Unleashed gave me bad habits.

 

[Xris]

Where?

Go into LFG custom groups, they say to contact thru discord etc. I know this cuz my friend bought a carry thru a raid for 30$. Or you can go to wowvendor for double the prices.

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[Effort]

It's a multi billion dollar industry (RMT), in any and every game, including games that dont have currency (league of legends accounts, elo leveling, etc). Someone go post on the office forum about the price arbitrage issue and maybe they can clean up their bottom line in 2020 before it looks underreported for how well the game performed in 2020

 

[Kuru]

It's a multi billion dollar industry (RMT), in any and every game, including games that dont have currency (league of legends accounts, elo leveling, etc). Someone go post on the office forum about the price arbitrage issue and maybe they can clean up their bottom line in 2020 before it looks underreported for how well the game performed in 2020

That’s a pretty brazen statement. Especially considering how hard it’s going to be for you to back it up with all those 3rd party RMT earning statements I’m sure will be easy to find. Are you saying that RMT as a whole in every game is a billion dollar industry? Or in each game individually?

 

[Effort]

In what concoction of thought building would a single game produce a billion dollar industry? EDIT I see how you construed that; I was referring to multiple points; 1) It's a multibillion dollar industry ; 2) It's in any and every game

2017 -
2019 - Virtual goldmine: In-game goods fuel debate over digital ownership (mentions 100b+ usd)

2020 - It’s hard to make real money selling virtual goods ; goes over some of the potential economy shifting job opportunities with employment arbitrage

 

[Kuru]

In what concoction of thought building would a single game produce a billion dollar industry? EDIT I see how you construed that; I was referring to multiple points; 1) It's a multibillion dollar industry ; 2) It's in any and every game

2017 -
2019 - Virtual goldmine: In-game goods fuel debate over digital ownership (mentions 100b+ usd)

2020 - It’s hard to make real money selling virtual goods ; goes over some of the potential economy shifting job opportunities with employment arbitrage

For sure, subscriber base is really the only factor. I know I’m going to get attacked for not using real numbers here, but say WoW has 1.5 million subscribers, now say half of them pay 10 bucks in one month for purchasable gear. 7.5 mil in just one month, without even factoring in accounts. Adds up quickly.

Unfortunately for everyone that’s even remotely excited to see accounts being banned for fraudulent game codes... Of course they would go after time codes, with the majority of the money coming from subscriptions they don’t really have a choice. Not too mention the repercussions of too many fraudulent charges reported. Not doing something is a good way to get Visa and MasterCard to black list you, imagine what that would do to the bottom line.

Moral of the story here is that this isn’t some “step in the right direction” IMO I would be shocked and amazed to see it go any further.

 

[Lore]

Somewhere ya'll equated RMT from third party sellers as the same as DLC/Add on sales from the game.

 

[Effort]

2 of those articles directly talk about the size of market for 3rd party sellers, while all touch on the greater digital content market size. RMT as you define as 3rd party sellers is multi-billions, though to what exact number I'm not for 2020, I would imagine it being 30-50% larger than in 2019 due to covid