EA needs to take over the sale of game items and gold.

[S.W.A.T]

Sam. I think this would be a great idea if EA supplied the items, It'll prevent people from buying from the duping online stores and get less people banned =]]

 

[Pickaxe Pete]

Impossible to police, as cash transactions are not done 'in game' but out of it, and there is no law against giving someone an item.

True! But other games have this solved.... make everything no-drop (bound to the original looter) and currency is only useful for raising crafting skills and other mundane things like that.

Then the only thing worth selling is completed characters with great armor bound to them, which can be handled via the company's secure account transfer service.

Then again, other games do not have a deco market like UO has, just armor and weaponry that have function.

 

[MissEcho]

...

I agree with all of that, but I don't think that EA selling gold directly will solve anything and the effect it will have on the in game economy will make things even worse.

This is where we disagree then as to my way of thinking it can't make it ANY 'worse' just change who profits from the gold sales. The same amount of people will buy gold, in the same amounts, sure a few more people may be tempted to buy the odd 'ten mil' or whatever because it is now 'legit' but basically most people don't want added expense for a computer game. Most people, especially those on tight budgets, are not going to suddenly start buying gold because the 'supplier' changed. And I do believe that most people still play UO in the way it was intended and it is 'just the few' who have to go outside the game to compete.

I have never bought gold, and I, like you, as I stated above don't really care if people sell items for 'cash' if it is 'one off' transactions and legitimate items.

But we both know that transactions like this are not the ones causing the problems, it is the full scale loot scripting, item duping, resource scripting, donating and selling that causes this problem and the only reason it exists is due to those player being able to profit from it.


And to Radun: I am sure there are some 'honest' brokers out there, but having been to the majority of sites and 'seen' the stuff for sale, sorry, but I would take a lot more convincing of the 'integrity' of the majority. I for one cannot in all conscience believe that when I can 'buy' 200 billion gold off these sites that it is made up of 10% commissions. Having read the odd 'comments' and 'forum' blogs that crop up in various places time after time on some of these so called 'honest' traders by various people, either disgruntled ex workers who 'spill the beans' or those people duped by the 'honest' traders in faulty or misrepresented codes etc, or just 'seeing' the quantity of so called 'rare' items for sale, either the brokers are cheating directly or supporting those that are cheating and making a profit off them as well as everyone else.

 

[MaryForUo]

Actually what is needed is what most other modern games do and ban the trade of items for cash entirely.

Fox

you are 100% correct! i agree with you..but this'll never happen!
they player that dont agree with this, i think have something to hide
or worries!
i dont see any other solution!

if you are not a cheater or duper, why this'd hurt you???

 

[EnigmaMaitreya]

The problem I see with EA moderated boards doing this is that eventualy EA will be held responsible/accountable and with Hacks etc that is a can of worms they may not want to climb into.

It would be bad enough with them selling Gold/Items in game but "probably" less risky.

I understand your posture of EA duping gold and that not doing anything to repair the gold economy.

I ... well am not sure why you think anything can be done about that anyway.

I was squawking about that problem before I left UO and was probably 30% of the reason I left. (The Full Open Gold Faucet).

I also disagree that they could not use such a device (selling Gold and Items in game) to control the value of items in game.

It isnt like they couldnt do this.

Buy this stuff from us and it is guaranteed to be legit.
DONT buy this stuff from us and your account may be banned and possesions deleted because of Illegal Items.

Look, I dont think this should happen in a perfect world, but it is far from perfect and the barn has burned down and a Walmart has been built over all the barnes. In short it is way to late for even the token "Day late and a Dollar Short".

The best bet for all of of us players is to get a sizeable if not majority of their individual income/benefits from what everyone is doing now anyway, buying from the outside, ecnouraging scripted farming AND/OR duping. This at least will shut the door to that crap. it may not be 100% but I am confident with the monetary incentive at the individual level (EQ employees) it will be 99%+

 

[Tomas_Bryce]

So you're against the tokens that EA already sells? Deco items, armor and weps are already available via tokens. First they were made available as rewards or expansion goodies, now you can buy them online.

If I can buy a crim off an in-game vendor, why not get it from EA?

The issue is being able to verify the authenticity of an item. I can't do that buying from vendors in-game. Heck, even if I personally know the vendor running a shop, I can't verify that he hasn't rented out spaces to others that I don't know and that puts me at risk of buying a duped item.

Safe Travels, Sam

The current token program by EA is extremely limited compared to what you are proposing and usually does not conflict with items available via ingame. However, I am against tokens giving things like pigments.

I am not going to go into the details but EA selling a crim via a token is as negative to the game as duping. If this were ever to come about I would know for sure that the game is hopelessly dead and quickly stop wasting my time with it. I expect EA to get their act straightened out and prevent duping, not replace it with their own version.

The solution you are proposing is like introducing foreign snakes in an area to take care of a pest problem. But who will take care of the inevitable snake problem?

 

[Belmarduk]

CCP (Eve-Online) has a good system:
You can sell your gametimecode ONLY over a secure system to other players for ingame-currency.

That way:

No Currency is created out of thin air.

MOST people who have the need to buy ingame-currency for RL-Money can do it SECURLEY and without danger of their account being banned.

Other people (like me) pay their subscription with ingame-currency.

Perfect system - Yes ofc their are macro-farmers/miners and currency is sold over "black channels" BUT its in a controlled smaller way and not OUTOFCONTROL like in a game that begins with "U" and ends WITH "O" ...

Edit:
The RL Money stays with CCP whatever is done with the GTC.
The ingame economy is HEALTHY and has been now for over 5 years....

 

[A.Entreri]

Your argument ignores the fact that you can already buy anything in game. Having EA sell these items guarantees the authenticity of the item. That is the point of my post, giving players a choice when making purchases.

You have never bought any high end items yourself? You have done every quest/dungeon/peerless etc, personally to get everything you have? That would be an admirable accomplishment. But, this is a game to me and I will buy items to help equip characters so that I can enjoy some of the greater challenges.

Safe Travels, Sam

you don't under stand do you? i have no qualms with people buying items themselves with gold, i even said that in the last post. i have a problem with people buying those items with gold they had to buy for realife cash instead of working ingame to get the gold and then buy it. yes it is a game, but is it really a game when your spending real money to enjoy some of those "greater challenges".

if you want a real "greater challenge" then why don't you earn the gold ingame, when you've saved up enough then buy those items to help equip your character then go enjoy some of those "greater challenges you mentioned". you want your characters to enjoy some "greater challenges" but there are lesser challenges to accomplish first.

does anyone remember how good it felt when you where a new player and you finally were able to earn 10k (and gain skills) from you slaying a bunch of orcs, skeletons, ettins or whatever. then got better gear with what you had earned, then started to take on harder things? thats a game, and the same applies for any template in uo it doesn't limit itself to those who only kill things.

it's already bad when people are buying gold from other player and/or brokers, but at least that money/item is already ingame, sure some maybe dupes, but if they were bought of ea its even worse. that kinda gold/items would come from nowhere and destroy the economy even more. and if your so worried about the authenticity then don't, they (ea) have already stated they aren't banning for buying owning one or a few duped items, authenticity hitting people with a lot more than that. but thats for a different post altogether.