Food For Thought Regarding Dupers/Scripters...

[Dicimiie]

I know it's been said many times before, but with the recent bannings, it's probably worth saying yet again.

How many of the duping/scripting problems would go away if nobody bought gold or items with real life cash? My guess would be the vast majority.

Just putting that out there. Take it for what you will.

 

[Tomas_Bryce]

This is why communism failed: wishful thinking.

 

[Dicimiie]

This is why communism failed: wishful thinking.

Oh, I know it would never happen. It still doesn't necessarily make me incorect in my belief. What possible benefit would come from scripting/duping if there was no real life cash incentive to do so? Apart from those few that would do it just because they could, I can't see a real gain in it taking away the real life money factor.

Scripting... I could see more of a benefit without money entering into it. But eventually, enough would be enough and you'd have too many resources to hold.

So... my question still stands.

p.s. I like "what if" questions. They usually produce decent discussions if nothing else.

 

[Mitzlplik_SP]

I agree totally with the no ingame items for rl cash.

Crazy you are allowed to sell something that doesn`t belong to you in the first place.

Crazier is how the owners let it happen.

Play the damn game,get your own items and EARN your own gold IMO!

 

[Dermott of LS]

...

How many of the duping/scripting problems would go away if nobody bought gold or items with real life cash? My guess would be the vast majority.


None. Duping and exploiting have been part of UO and online gaming LONG before Ebay entered the picture.

Correlation/Causation error. While RMT sales do correlate with duping/exploiting/scripting, they are NOT the cause of those activities.

 

[Mitzlplik_SP]

Correlation/Causation error. While RMT sales do correlate with duping/exploiting/scripting, they are NOT the cause of those activities.

Why would dupers and scripters do what they do for ingame gold? I`m sure a few would resort to such tactics for a few weeks untill they got rich and bored but I`d bet the vast majority would not.UO would be a much better game imo.

Unfortunately we`ll never know,at least with this game.

 

[Dermott of LS]

...

Ask people as far back as LORD on old BBSs, Diablo, etc etc etc.

The first dupe bug in UO happened in late 1997... LONG before ebay entered the picture. House break ins happened without ebay being involved.

Some people do it just to do it. Maybe they want to see a house so full of piles of gold they can cause a black hole (before lockdowns/secures) or want to fill a castle with checks, or simply have an unending supply of artifacts so they don't have to worry about losing one.

Who knows why they do it without RMT as an answer but just as not every RMT salesperson is a duper and exploiter, not every duper and exploiter is doing it for RMT pruposes.

And no, banning RMT sales will have NO effect on these people either. If they're already exploiting and flouting the rules to dupe for items/gold to sell, why would they all of a sudden start being "law abiding" when they were told they couldn't sell them?

How has banning gold sales worked in FFXI? WoW?

 

[Lady-Tor]

I think on the UO game code site they should sell gold. I think if their prices are competative with the gold farmer (and theres no reaason why they couldnt as they just need to 'make' it rather then farm it) it would put the farmers out of busness.

Who wouldnt prefer buying gold off EA then somone else? Presuming you were going to buy it in the first place.

 

[Dermott of LS]

...

Again I disagree with this as it would DESTROY the UO economy even faster for the very reason you cite: They would just "make" it, thus it is the exact same as duped gold regardless from whence it came.

 

[Mitzlplik_SP]

Ebay has very little to do with it.Lots of other sites out there that aren`t auctions.

Instead of a ton of peaple doing it to make rl cash you`d only have the lazy and the lamers waiting to get banned.The search for exploiters would narrow significantly.

 

[Dermott of LS]

...

Well, I'm only using ebay because it's quick, easy to type, and gets the point across.

Again, you're NOT ever going to stop the free market. You can ban all you want to, people will still be buying and selling ingame currency regardless if it's legal or not.

 

[Jackson]

When I played UO, I used to script so I would have enough of everything where I didnt need to worry about anything else.
I got to play the game without wasting my playing time doing boring things for days on end.

 

[uoBuoY]

To Dicimiie:

Quote: 'p.s. I like "what if" questions. They usually produce decent discussions if nothing else.'

Okay then, I have a what-if question for you and I think it's another way to eliminate scripting and duping.

What if scripting and duping were completely legal and Stratics had a board and with DIY guides for scripting and duping. No one would ever sell another thing for eal cash.

 

[Maplestone]

I do feel uncomfortable about real-life money coming into the game and the motivations it creates. I do feel that it's impossible to absolutely deny the instinct for capitalism. And I do feel that as long as there are reasons for people to be upset about duping, there will be reasons for people to want to dupe.

Having more items become character-bonded (owned-by mechanic exists), account-bonded (soulstone mechanic exists), guild-bonded (???) or shard-bonded (???) would held to limit the scope of damage from an exploit.

Tokens already give a non-inflationary way to turn cash into gold, although they are highly dependent on a player's merchanting skills. Adding a tokens-only global auction trading mechanic would help make this fair.

Use rarers-trading as a canary-in-the-coal-mine: add a trickle of rare items introduced through an NPC auction tied to a mechanic that more rigorously tracks uniqueness. This gives uber-rich a gold-sink endgame as well as well as a tempting battlefield for exploiters and anti-expoit measures to duel over, away from the main game.

 

[Maplestone]

What if scripting and duping were completely legal and Stratics had a board and with DIY guides for scripting and duping. No one would ever sell another thing for eal cash.

For your idea, cut out the middle step of forcing people to go through the effort of scripting/duping and simply call it "Test Center 1"

Scarcity is an elemental part of the game. Scripting/duping attack the foundation of the entire purpose for production shards to exist in the first place.

 

[Dicimiie]

...

Well, I'm only using ebay because it's quick, easy to type, and gets the point across.

Again, you're NOT ever going to stop the free market. You can ban all you want to, people will still be buying and selling ingame currency regardless if it's legal or not.

As I said before, I know you won't stop the buying and selling of items for RL currency. I merely asked how much of the scripting or duping would be stopped if nobody bought items or gold.

My personal feelings on this are that it would be much less rampant than it is currently. Those that script would do it for themselves for the most part, and the dupers would create stuff for a while, get bored and leave. It wouldn't be the constant flood we see now.

Again, it's just my opinion and a topic for conversation. Nothing more.

 

[RavenWinterHawk]

I know it's been said many times before, but with the recent bannings, it's probably worth saying yet again.

How many of the duping/scripting problems would go away if nobody bought gold or items with real life cash? My guess would be the vast majority.

Just putting that out there. Take it for what you will.

Ah it wouldnt go away.
You dont think people would want 100 valortie hammers anyway.

People value being uber.

Another way to look at it is, how many of the duping/scripting problem would go away if EA just shut the game down.

All of them.

But thats not going to happen either.

Or what if people were all honest and never cheated.

Thats not going to happen either.

 

[MYUO]

I know it's been said many times before, but with the recent bannings, it's probably worth saying yet again.

How many of the duping/scripting problems would go away if nobody bought gold or items with real life cash? My guess would be the vast majority.

Just putting that out there. Take it for what you will.

If UO exists, ppl will buy gold with rl cash. If UO returns to its previous glory, there will be more ppl buying gold with rl cash. There is no way you can prevent this cash for gold/items from happening, unless
1) Dev remove all the challenges in the game and make gold and items as common as test center. This way, no one has need to buy gold/items.
2) EA sponsors the trades - an idea that I proposed a while back: EA serves as a broker. Sell gold at $n a mil and buy gold at $(n-1) per mil. Once the the amount gold bought is 1 billion more than the amount of gold sold, cut the both the buying and selling price by $1, vise versa.
This similar to the old NPC pricing mechanism for ingots /arrows/bandies/bottles, etc.

Dupers and Scripters should be dealt separately from those trade. Cops have been trying to stop the drug trades for all these years. How effective have they been?

 

[Dicimiie]

If UO exists, ppl will buy gold with rl cash. If UO returns to its previous glory, there will be more ppl buying gold with rl cash. There is no way you can prevent this cash for gold/items from happening, unless
1) Dev remove all the challenges in the game and make gold and items as common as test center. This way, no one has need to buy gold/items.
2) EA sponsors the trades - an idea that I proposed a while back: EA serves as a broker. Sell gold at $n a mil and buy gold at $(n-1) per mil. Once the the amount gold bought is 1 billion more than the amount of gold sold, cut the both the buying and selling price by $1, vise versa.
This similar to the old NPC pricing mechanism for ingots /arrows/bandies/bottles, etc.

Dupers and Scripters should be dealt separately from those trade. Cops have been trying to stop the drug trades for all these years. How effective have they been?

Didn't answer my question at all. I didn't ask if it was possible to stop the trade of in game stuff for real life cash. Read what I asked again and give your opinion.