Thoughts on giving away large sums of credits?

[DarthTHC]

I'm looking for the community's thoughts and advice as I contemplate giving away a very large number of credits in the coming month.

 

I want to give them away more or less anonymously. I don't want to let the receiver know they're getting them ahead of time. I intend to mail them.

 

I want to give them away to people who are generally helpful and friendly toward other players. I think the best way to find helpful players is to watch chat, probably on fleet, the origin worlds, and the capital worlds. It should be pretty evident who's helpful.

 

I want to give the credits away to only subscribers, because I intend to give them away in chunks that vastly exceed the limits that non-subscribers can have. I also want to reward those who pay the developers for all the hard work and time they put into producing this game. I think the best way to do this is to again watch chat, this time for frequency of responses. It is my understanding that only subscribers can chat more quickly than once a minute. Is that right?

 

While I don't much care if my account gets flagged and investigated as a "gold seller" for doing this, I really don't want the people to whom I send the credits to have to deal with an inquisition. I intend to describe in the email why I'm sending the credits. Think that's enough to placate the overseers? Again, I'll be sending a lot of credits at a time - 1,000,000 or more in each mail.

 

Last thing, I will not send even a single credit to anyone who asks for any, so please don't bother. That is not what this post is about.

 

Thoughts? Is there a better way to go about this?

Edited August 6, 2013 by DarthTHC

[DarthEccen]

You could always do trivia. That's how I got my first credit giveaway from some benevolent SWTOR player. Someone asked what the movie Argo was based off of, and I was the first person to answer correctly.

[TsakasGr]

i think this is awesome!!The community needs more people like you sir :)Another suggestion is to tell people here on the forums to send you a private message of someone that has helped them,guided them etc!!They could tell you an act this person did and if you find it suitable and helpfull,send him credits

[branmakmuffin]

You can do it anonymously I think by sending them to an alt, mailing the creds then deleting the alt. I doubt there's any problem with being tagged a gold seller (but obviously I don't know for sure). Edited August 6, 2013 by branmakmuffin

[ninjonxb]

I want to give them away more or less anonymously. I don't want to let the receiver know they're getting them ahead of time. I intend to mail them.

The best solution I could think of would be to make a dummy 1 level character that you only use for this. Write down the names and the amount and send them later (maybe with a note why)

 

I want to give them away to people who are generally helpful and friendly toward other players. I think the best way to find helpful players is to watch chat, probably on fleet, the origin worlds, and the capital worlds. It should be pretty evident who's helpful.

Personally, I think it is wonderful. There are so many people outthere are are just not helpful (or rude) to people that geninualy need help. By that person getting help, they are more likely to stay with the game

 

I want to give the credits away to only subscribers, because I intend to give them away in chunks that vastly exceed the limits that non-subscribers can have. I also want to reward those who pay the developers for all the hard work and time they put into producing this game. I think the best way to do this is to again watch chat, this time for frequency of responses. It is my understanding that only subscribers can chat more quickly than once a minute. Is that right?

I don't think there are any restrictions on frequency of chat. However I do think there is a limit on the ability for credits to be sent to a F2P account (via Mail). if this is the case that would be your only solution I know of

[Tatanka]

Occasionally, I will give away small batches of credits (100-500k) to folks I see being polite and helpful in chat on Coruscant and Kaas. I send them from an unused character on either faction. I have never been contacted by BW for these mails, but it may be because of the small credit amounts or the fact they are not from a low level character.

 

Both Coruscant and Kaas chat are typically cesspools on my server. I like to reward folks that manage to wade to the top of the pool and provide some sort of value to the environment.

[SteelPiranha]

Me personally, I always respond to legitimate questions with whispered answers when dealing with Gen Chat. This allows the questioner to ask for further info from me without the usual Gen Chat tomfoolery.

 

If I were to be in your position, I'd run some lowbie FP's and ask questions that a new player may ask. If you get a nice helpful group or a single helpful person. Mail them the creds from an alt after the FP's over. This may help narrow your decision down to a field of 4 people each go.

[Drudenfusz]

I like the idea! It was already mentioned to create a character just for sending those mails, but I wouldn't delete it so that mails that never reached the target can come back. Also, maybe the one you send the credits to wants to answer you or send the credits back because they are not needed.

[branmakmuffin]

My opinion also is that it'd be better to make more gifts of smaller amounts. But they're your creds. Reminds of the time in DDO when some guy came up to me and opened a trade window and gave my character 100 platinum. Not sure what that equates to in TOR, but it was a tidy sum in DDO, especially for having to do nothing more than click "Trade." Edited August 6, 2013 by branmakmuffin

[Alec_Fortescue]

My opinion? Don't.

 

They have nasty bots and automated systems which might result in your account ending up badly. It happened to my dear friend once who decided to spend few million credits from our guild bank on gearing up a guild mate and later he had to type explanation e-mails to get his suspension lifted. Even though it happened a very long while ago, I'd not risk it.

 

Second thing is that giving away is demoralizing. Especially when it comes to large sums. ;]

[branmakmuffin]

My opinion? Don't.

 

They have nasty bots and automated systems which might result in your account ending up badly. It happened to my dear friend once who decided to spend few million credits from our guild bank on gearing up a guild mate and later he had to type explanation e-mails to get his suspension lifted. Even though it happened a very long while ago, I'd not risk it.

I have a hunch there is more to the story than that.

 

Second thing is that giving away is demoralizing. Especially when it comes to large sums. ;]

It's not demoralizing. It's just a game. Geez.

[phfph]

people only need credits at low level.

when you reach 47-55 you have enough credits by yourself.

All my level 50 toons have over 1-3 milions

Edited August 6, 2013 by phfph

[branmakmuffin]

people only need credits at low level.

when you reach 47-55 you have enough credits by yourself.

All my level 50 toons have over 1-3 milions

He could never know if he was giving creds to a new lowbie or the alt of someone with a main with 50 mil. Of course if he limited it to starting planets, I agree he would be more likely to give it away to new players.

Edited August 6, 2013 by branmakmuffin

[Selven]

Sounds to me like you've thought it out, so I would just like to mention a small detail. Don't forget to include their character's name in the message. I know you would probably do it anyway, just saying

 

Twice I've had people mailing me items that I'm sure wasn't meant for me. Even with one of them having a message in it, I don't think it was me they thanked for helping since I hadn't been playing that faction for weeks. I returned the items with a message asking if they had the wrong person. No reply. I'm guessing it was.

 

I can't imagine credit sellers including a nice personal message, so I'm pretty sure it's not gonna look that way.

 

Overall, I think an appreciative mail from a fellow player, even without a large chunk of credits, would be a welcome surprise to a lot of good players. Good luck on your secret mission!

[Drudenfusz]

people only need credits at low level.

when you reach 47-55 you have enough credits by yourself.

All my level 50 toons have over 1-3 milions

Guess I am doing something wrong, my main played since launce (actually early access) is level 55 (also got to makeb with an early access) and I am currently below 200k credits, and I have not even bought the ewok or a tauntaun mount yet... and my other characters are no better. But maybe it is because I spend too much time chatting with people and do mostly just PvP and not enough dailies or work the GTN to get credits. That is why I like the idea so much, because it means that other people like me might actually get something for being nice.

[dipstik]

i think your best bet would be using a low level character that doesnt see much play. i would say lvl 10-20 or so. i dont want to say lvl 1 cuz that would look like a gold seller. and i dont recommend a high level character because that would not be as anonymous.

[DarthTHC]

My opinion? Don't.

 

They have nasty bots and automated systems which might result in your account ending up badly. It happened to my dear friend once who decided to spend few million credits from our guild bank on gearing up a guild mate and later he had to type explanation e-mails to get his suspension lifted. Even though it happened a very long while ago, I'd not risk it.

 

Second thing is that giving away is demoralizing. Especially when it comes to large sums. ;]

 

 

I'm not terribly concerned about my account being actioned.

[Octom]

I'll say this - the idea of creating an alternate to do the mailing and then deleting it is an idea that comes only when you suspend thought and forget to make connections.

 

First, you're not gunna trick Bioware with deleting the character. I don't know why anyone is suggesting that. They know what account that character came from because the game tracks that stuff. However, you're not worried about your own account.

 

You're worried about something happening to the recipients. Even if the deleting trick somehow got past Bioware, the recipient characters aren't going anywhere.

 

There really isn't a set answer - you're going to need to try to contact someone to set it up. What you can try is to actually submit a spam/abuse report on yourself before you do the mailing. Give them this thread number and that should do it.

 

If, ultimately, they still do something, then there's really nothing else you could have done short of doing nothing. Without directly contacting the person who would see any system flag, you're going to just have to do what you can and then wait and see.

Edited August 6, 2013 by Octom

[branmakmuffin]

The paranoia is strong in this thread.

[CosmicKat]

Pretend to be a newbie and ask questions in General. Reward those who are helpful.

 

Only real trouble with your plan and your criteria are that most helpful people won't need the money, or they'll be saintly paragons of all that is good about humanity, like me, and turn it down.

[branmakmuffin]

Only real trouble with your plan and your criteria are that most helpful people won't need the money

That is probably true. The most knowledgeable about the game tend to have plenty of creds, because they understand the game. I'm helpful in GC and I have no need of extra money.

 

or they'll be saintly paragons of all that is good about humanity, like me, and turn it down.

And me.

[Hestis]

I'd second the idea of giving smaller (yet significant) amounts away, especially on the starter planets. I wouldn't worry if they're subscribers or not. It's a random act of kindness like that that can form a new players opinion on the game and the community. Something similar happened to me when I started playing CoH, and it stuck with me. When I got to a point where I could do that, I'd often give back to players that were very obviously new, and I do it here as well.

[Solzean]

I used to do this in WoW a lot. What I usually did was simply pretend to be a noob. I would genuinely ask a lot of questions and be pretty ignorant. Then Id send that person a bunch of money from my main saying thank you for all of the help you gave my friend, he really appreciated it. Grant it, this is somewhat of a situation where you lie, but it helps me find who really deserves it.

[Solzean]

I'd second the idea of giving smaller (yet significant) amounts away, especially on the starter planets. I wouldn't worry if they're subscribers or not. It's a random act of kindness like that that can form a new players opinion on the game and the community. Something similar happened to me when I started playing CoH, and it stuck with me. When I got to a point where I could do that, I'd often give back to players that were very obviously new, and I do it here as well.

 

Giving away to new players is usually pretty dangerous. I did that a bunch but after a while I saw too many wound up just quiting and not sending me the money back (I told them if they quit to send it back to me). Its a nice thought but its hard to really do well.

[Kickimanjaro]

Me personally, I always respond to legitimate questions with whispered answers when dealing with Gen Chat. This allows the questioner to ask for further info from me without the usual Gen Chat tomfoolery.

I do the same. As for a way to hand out credits, I can't think of a good way that would reward people who whisper answers (which I prefer over general chat). Whatever you end up doing, it's cool that you're doing it.