Easy solution for gold spammers problem.

[Drayvis]

Actually the best solution is to have live chat mods....

This would eliminate two problems in one go ,

a)instantly removes gold spammers from chat

b)gets rid of conversations in chat that get out of hand i.e. religion and political topics that can get very bad.

 

And substantially increase manpower costs for a trivial annoyance.

[ValeGreiger]

Account wide ignore option.

 

 

Doesn't stop credit sellers altogether but it would severely hinder their services.

 

Also captcha for lvl 10 toons that have remained in the exact same position on the fleet after a X amount of time. Failure to reply to captcha during the time limit would log them out. Again, wouldn't stop them completely but it would hinder.

[Rankyn]

Account wide ignore option.

 

 

Doesn't stop credit sellers altogether but it would severely hinder their services.

No, it really wouldn't.

The people who ignore them aren't the people that buy from them anyway.

[Daekarus]

Is this really actually a problem? On what server?

 

I see a gold seller a few times a week MAYBE, and I just report+ignore them and promptly forget they exist. Are they stopping you from running flashpoints or something? I mean seriously... yes they're scum, but they're easy to ignore scum. Just encourage people not to patronize them and they'll be less of a nuisance over time.

 

I can't imagine spending money with a gold seller when you could just buy Cartel Packs and make credits that way, and support Bioware in the process. Every dime you give to the gold sellers is money that doesn't support the game and future content.

 

But I forget, this is the general public, why should we expect anything except stupid self-destructive behavior?

 

Just ignore the gold sellers and go about your business.

[Liquor]

The problem is the GTN. If items were not so expensive then there would be no market for the credit spammers.

 

Fix the root cause, not the effects of spammers.

[Daekarus]

The problem is the GTN. If items were not so expensive then there would be no market for the credit spammers.

 

Fix the root cause, not the effects of spammers.

 

See, I see where you're coming from, but in my mind it's not the GTN, it's the idiots paying the high prices. There are very very few things I'm willing to spend money on, and even then I'm not willing to spend much. I would rather not have something and readjust my goals based on my personal value of credits than pay the prices people ask for things. If everyone shopped like me, GTN prices would be rock bottom. However, human beings are by nature wasteful and impulsive, with little intuitive notion of the relative value of things and time. Therefore, the GTN is as it is. When in doubt, just remember: the biggest problem with a multiplayer game is the players.

 

The only way to fix the GTN is to reduce the scarcity of any and all items or resources in the game. That would fix it but cause other problems, ie the entire gear-based incentive system would totally collapse. Unfortunately, we're better off simply dumping things cheaply on the GTN or otherwise undercutting the gougers, and collectively not participating in the overpriced segments of the market. Those segments that ARE overpriced due to excessive markup will come down in price. Those segments that are simply expensive but not overpriced will just cease to be available at all.

[ValeGreiger]

Is this really actually a problem? On what server?

 

I see a gold seller a few times a week MAYBE, and I just report+ignore them and promptly forget they exist. Are they stopping you from running flashpoints or something? I mean seriously... yes they're scum, but they're easy to ignore scum. Just encourage people not to patronize them and they'll be less of a nuisance over time.

 

I can't imagine spending money with a gold seller when you could just buy Cartel Packs and make credits that way, and support Bioware in the process. Every dime you give to the gold sellers is money that doesn't support the game and future content.

 

But I forget, this is the general public, why should we expect anything except stupid self-destructive behavior?

 

Just ignore the gold sellers and go about your business.

 

The Harbinger's being overblown with credit sellers. Its ridiculous to the point where I'll go to the fleet, ignored about 3 (+ the one that yells its sale too), leave an hour or two and see 3 more have taken its place. So yeah, that bad.

[HelinCarnate]

Right now the epidemic of gold spammers is out of hand, the easiest solution is to beat them at their own game.

 

Right now they advertise from anywhere around $7.99 to $9.99 for 1 million credits, the solution could be for EA to sell 1 million credits to subscribers and preferred members for $4.99, the gold spammers cannot afford to go that low.

 

This is the dumbest idea I have ever heard. Fix a gold spammer problem and create a massive inflation problem at the same time.

[theUndead]

How would people feel about BW giving a limited number of volunteer players who meet certain criteria the power to moderate Fleet chat by temporarily imposing, say, a 4-hour ban on posting on anyone violating the TOS? Misuse of the power would lead to revocation of the authority and possible suspension/banning.

 

Qualifications could include any or all of:

• long term subscriber
  
• Legacy level 50
  
• Officer of a guild
  
• No outstanding ToS violations
  
• High level of activity
  
• A bond of some number of credits (a million maybe) that would be seized on abuse of the power
  

 

And player-mods would be forbidden from advertising their status.

Obstacles to this system would include the need to write code to accomplish it.

 

Personally I know a lot of players that meet all the above criteria (which I do not BTW) and that have demonstrated the maturity and integrity you would want to see in a chat moderator. Whether they would volunteer for this, I cannot say.

 

This is a great idea very well put together. I'd support it.

[HelinCarnate]

The problem with having players with that kind of power is that could become a liability where they could ban people just because they dont like them or just for fun.

 

Right now you can buy items in the Store and sell them for credits, so why not just allow players to buy the credits straight from the Store, there are a lot of gold sinks in the game already that can balance the credit market, there is only so much you can buy with credits. As an example of a gold sink keep the casino open all year around, create a finance market where players could buy and sell real state etc etc.

 

Where do the credits come from when you sell something on the GTN?

Where would the credits come from with your proposal?

 

So your solution to the problem created by creating money that people can buy out of thin air is to give them more things to spend it on? Wouldn't that just encourage more people to buy more credits and cause even more inflation?

[HelinCarnate]

The problem is the GTN. If items were not so expensive then there would be no market for the credit spammers.

 

Fix the root cause, not the effects of spammers.

 

So how would we fix the problem as you see it? Price caps? Those create shortages and black markets. In game terms it means prices would gravitate to the cap and if the cap was set too low, then people would be spamming chat in fleet even more for WTB/WTS. That does not fix the problem

[Ergos]

I must say the best way i seen a gaming company handle this problem is the way CCP has done in EVE Online

 

Basicly in eve it works so that players can buy Plex (gametime) and put it for sale ingame, so other players can buy it with ingame currency.

 

Since the first player bought it with RL money the company gets its cash, and the player that buys it gets "free gaming time" from ingame cash.

 

Basicly you get a credit sink, and people that have the time to play alot can do so at a lower cost, and people that dont can get a cash injection from investing RL cash into the game

 

People dont tend to buy isk (gold) in that game from non ccp sources becouse the prices are ver good, and why risk it when there is a legit way to do it.

 

This way its a 3 way win win situation, the gaming company gets its cash, the casual gamer can inject cash into game to get ingame currency, and the die hard gamer can play for "free" from his big reserve of cash

 

Its a very good system that more companies should implement

 

edit: acutally a 4 way win win, since there is almost no spam in eve about buying gold

Edited June 24, 2014 by Ergos

[Kantaso]

This is the dumbest idea I have ever heard. Fix a gold spammer problem and create a massive inflation problem at the same time.

 

Disrespecting someone that at least is bothering to try to solve a problem that is rampant in many servers is as very low thing to do, at least I worry or care enough about the game that want to give suggestions on how to fix certain problems that are not related to the developers but to the players.

 

Do you have at least a suggestion instead of coming here insulting and disrespecting me?

[Kantaso]

I must say the best way i seen a gaming company handle this problem is the way CCP has done in EVE Online

 

Basicly in eve it works so that players can buy Plex (gametime) and put it for sale ingame, so other players can buy it with ingame currency.

 

Since the first player bought it with RL money the company gets its cash, and the player that buys it gets "free gaming time" from ingame cash.

 

Basicly you get a credit sink, and people that have the time to play alot can do so at a lower cost, and people that dont can get a cash injection from investing RL cash into the game

 

People dont tend to buy isk (gold) in that game from non ccp sources becouse the prices are ver good, and why risk it when there is a legit way to do it.

 

This way its a 3 way win win situation, the gaming company gets its cash, the casual gamer can inject cash into game to get ingame currency, and the die hard gamer can play for "free" from his big reserve of cash

 

Its a very good system that more companies should implement

 

edit: acutally a 4 way win win, since there is almost no spam in eve about buying gold

 

And that was basically my suggestion, let the company sell the credits, not all the players will buy credits that way. But at least you can severely reduced the problem with the spammers.

[Ergos]

And that was basically my suggestion, let the company sell the credits, not all the players will buy credits that way. But at least you can severely reduced the problem with the spammers.

 

yeah , but the BIG difference saying "let the company sell the gold" is that its not the same

 

if the company sells you the gold directly its a bad idea, since you loose all the other aspects.

 

Now if the company sells an item, cc, subs... whatever that can be put on market for a set amount of cash and let the players buy it from the market, its not the same

 

i would prefeer the CCP solution of gaming time for sale, since its a very good system, basicly in eve most people have atleast 2 accounts, and some, like me hade 10 accounts all funded with ingame currency.

 

Since the problem with gold sellers is not only one of available credits, but also about the demand for credits, it works very well on eve online (sandbox game). The only reason it could work here also is becouse of all the CM stuff that people tend to want, but since in swtor you dont loose everything each time you die, currency doesnt have same value in this game as in eve online.

 

As i see it, it would only add to the currency that Bioware would get from each sub, and at the same time, they wouldnt have to use the f2p option, and the people that dont like prefeer status becouse of its limitations would have an easier time to get a full sub.

 

to me its a shame that they havent implemented this into the game, since it makes more sence then the current 3 tier of players system, f2p, prefeer and sub. This way we could have a f2p option for people that wanted to try the game out and see if they enjoy it, and then a sub version, thats it.

 

Need extra cash, buy some gaming time and sell it to players, it would work same as buying CC but would at same time help other players that for some reason dont sub to get a full sub, wish ofcourse would lead to more people being available for end game content queus.

 

2 cents

[Kantaso]

yeah , but the BIG difference saying "let the company sell the gold" is that its not the same

 

if the company sells you the gold directly its a bad idea, since you loose all the other aspects.

 

Now if the company sells an item, cc, subs... whatever that can be put on market for a set amount of cash and let the players buy it from the market, its not the same

 

i would prefeer the CCP solution of gaming time for sale, since its a very good system, basicly in eve most people have atleast 2 accounts, and some, like me hade 10 accounts all funded with ingame currency.

 

Since the problem with gold sellers is not only one of available credits, but also about the demand for credits, it works very well on eve online (sandbox game). The only reason it could work here also is becouse of all the CM stuff that people tend to want, but since in swtor you dont loose everything each time you die, currency doesnt have same value in this game as in eve online.

 

As i see it, it would only add to the currency that Bioware would get from each sub, and at the same time, they wouldnt have to use the f2p option, and the people that dont like prefeer status becouse of its limitations would have an easier time to get a full sub.

 

to me its a shame that they havent implemented this into the game, since it makes more sence then the current 3 tier of players system, f2p, prefeer and sub. This way we could have a f2p option for people that wanted to try the game out and see if they enjoy it, and then a sub version, thats it.

 

Need extra cash, buy some gaming time and sell it to players, it would work same as buying CC but would at same time help other players that for some reason dont sub to get a full sub, wish ofcourse would lead to more people being available for end game content queus.

 

2 cents

 

That sounds like a real good idea, hopefully someone in the higher up pays attention.

[DarthTHC]

The problem is the GTN. If items were not so expensive then there would be no market for the credit spammers.

 

Fix the root cause, not the effects of spammers.

 

The pricing on GTN is absolutely not the problem, nor where the demand is coming from. If it were, demand for credit sales would be constant. It's not. It has clear peaks and valleys that correspond to ingame events.

 

Credit seller demand spiked when Treek was released. It is up again with the casino event. It will skyrocket when Galactic Strongholds goes live.

 

The demand for credits is driven by credit drains created by the developers.

 

The "root cause" is that some people do not find it fun to grind for credits ingame and would rather pay real money to obtain them. Fixing the root cause would require a system that enabled players to acquire whatever they wanted with minimal effort and without using ingame currency. Let me know when you solve that puzzle.

[Deewe]

Lots of really good suggestions here, sadly been mentioned thousand of times even before and during beta.

 

The first and easiest move would certainly to automatically ignore, legacy wide, gold spammers.

 

Now reporting them is even a hassle as you also have to close the popup and then you have to ignore them too.

Fact is it's less tedious for the spammer to spam than us to get rid of them.

 

Kinda crazy situation.

Edited June 24, 2014 by Deewe

[Kantaso]

One thing I dont understand or cannot grasp, the devs can install a filter for foul language, why not to create a filter that screens for the "typical words" the spammers use so they get filtered out?

 

I used to be a volunteer GM for a gaming company and my main duty was to ban gold spammers and we had a program that would show all those using www, w.w.w., w-w-w, etc combos with any of these symbols combo of letters etc were quickly identified by the program and they got the ban hammer.

Edited June 24, 2014 by Kantaso

[Deewe]

One thing I dont understand or cannot grasp, the devs can install a filter for foul language, why not to create a filter that screens for the "typical words" the spammers use so they get filtered out?

 

I used to be a volunteer GM for a gaming company and my main duty was to ban gold spammers and we had a program that would show all those using www, w.w.w., w-w-w, etc combos with any of these symbols combo of letters etc were quickly identified by the program and they got the ban hammer.

Because they don't care and also spammers will adapt

[HelinCarnate]

Disrespecting someone that at least is bothering to try to solve a problem that is rampant in many servers is as very low thing to do, at least I worry or care enough about the game that want to give suggestions on how to fix certain problems that are not related to the developers but to the players.

 

Do you have at least a suggestion instead of coming here insulting and disrespecting me?

 

Yes, put people on ignore that spam. Uncheck the "yell" box. Report those that spam. Occasionally go through your ignore list and remove gibberish names. This makes the cost to BW to implement 0 because you can already do all of this. Takes like 5 seconds tops to do. With few exceptions the suggestions cause more harm than good. A couple of those exceptions are in this thread like being able to buy/sell game time and empowering players as police. But just because I don't have an idea that would make things better does not mean I don't have the right to be against an idea that utterly lacks foresight and would be detrimental to the game economy.

Edited June 24, 2014 by HelinCarnate

[Kantaso]

Yes, put people on ignore that spam. Uncheck the "yell" box. Report those that spam. Occasionally go through your ignore list and remove gibberish names. This makes the cost to BW to implement 0 because you can already do all of this. Takes like 5 seconds tops to do. With few exceptions the suggestions cause more harm than good. A couple of those exceptions are in this thread like being able to buy/sell game time and empowering players as police. But just because I don't have an idea that would make things better does not mean I don't have the right to be against an idea that utterly lacks foresight and would be detrimental to the game economy.

 

You have right to your opinion but please dont call people stupid, because my idea is stupid does not make me a stupid person, unless you are my wife and know me that personally.

[HelinCarnate]

You have right to your opinion but please dont call people stupid, because my idea is stupid does not make me a stupid person, unless you are my wife and know me that personally.

 

 

When I actually call a person stupid then feel free to call me on it. May want to brush up on your reading comprehension skills.

[psandak]

The Harbinger's being overblown with credit sellers. Its ridiculous to the point where I'll go to the fleet, ignored about 3 (+ the one that yells its sale too), leave an hour or two and see 3 more have taken its place. So yeah, that bad.

 

Five per side is NOT overblown. Just ignore them. I did and have not seen one since.

[Kantaso]

When I actually call a person stupid then feel free to call me on it. May want to brush up on your reading comprehension skills.

 

Calling someone dumb is similar to calling someone stupid, maybe you need to recheck what you post. And any how last reply to you, you are trolling this topic to promote your opinion.