Sony Goes After MMO Spammers and Farmers

[exfileme]

Sony is tracking down character and items farmers within its line of MMOs.

Sony Goes After MMO Spammers and Farmers : Read more

 

[maigo]

only 9 people?

 

[mlcloud]

Plus the aid of annoyed players throughout each MMO world. It's enough.

 

[NuclearShadow]

I can understand stopping the spamming thing but I honestly couldn't care less about people who are dumb enough to spend their money on virtual money or items.

 

[Onus]

It is no secret that this behavior is a violation of terms of service. For those who choose to do it anyway, it would not bother me one little bit if, after being proven guilty, they became the targets of hit teams. GAME OVER.

 

[hennnry]

What's wrong with this practice? It doesn't make or break MMO. So it's like... you created a service (a gaming service), and why can't others who utilize your service to make a profit?

To NuclearShadow and others alike... if you think buying virtual money or items are dumb, wouldn't then that same logic apply to online gamers who pay real money to get pleasure from virtual games?

So what's the difference between getting pleasure from virtual games and getting pleasure from getting virtual items in games?

 

[ssalim]

Dumb? when you have money and no time to play, I don't see it's bad to save your time and jump on the "fun" -- I don't play MMO since 2008 btw.

 

[ssalim]

There are plenty of free to play mmo or 1st person shooter that players can buy to get "pleasure from virtual games." It's not dumb.

difference:

getting pleasure from virtual games - takes time
at the end, you get it and feel good through achievement then use the item to your advantage.

getting pleasure from getting virtual items in games - it does not take time, it takes money (time is more valuable than money). You get it and may or may not feel achievement, but still use the item to your advantage.

 

[Major7up]

[citation][nom]NuclearShadow[/nom]I can understand stopping the spamming thing but I honestly couldn't care less about people who are dumb enough to spend their money on virtual money or items.[/citation]
While many of us feel the same the efforts to crack down on these practices make the games more enjoyable for the rest of us. I don't care to be bombarded with messages to buy crap I can earn on my own.

 

[matt87_50]

thats really cool. I see a new season of Underbelly in this.

 

[skit75]

"Did you feel boring to level your...." blah blah blah /addignore spammer.
I'm actually a little suprised they would hire anyone at all to look for active subscriptions to close down. It is after all, income they are terminating. Games where the best items can be purchased using in-game credits or real money, rather than earned on an individual or group basis never interested me. The above quote is very common in SOE's Star Wars Galaxies MMO. If there is an economy within a game, there will be spammers & I think most MMO players have just accepted this truth at this point. That doesn't mean I'm not applauding the effort. Barter system anyone?

 

[godnodog]

Quoting hennnry " What's wrong with this practice? It doesn't make or break MMO. So it's like... you created a service (a gaming service), and why can't others who utilize your service to make a profit?"
You see the companies that builded the MMO have also builded a online market for that game, it helps them keep the servers running, this way these guys not only are they in violation on the rules, but they are also robbing costumers by using unauthorized sellers, wheter it should be legit to have 3rd´s also selling is a different thing. See it his way, if you had a pizza restaurant, would you like if all in a sudden someone came inside your establishment and started selling pizzas, "you created a service (a pizza service), and why can't others who utilize your service to make a profit?" "

 

[LORD_ORION]

What these morons running the MMOs need to do is set up a virtual ingame market place that allows people to trade real dollars for items. Then they take a nice chunk in an accounting fee.

If I were sony I'd be asking myself how to tap into that 2 billion industry, not how to sht it down.

Then they could also regulate the spammers with incentive not to spam. You spam, your market place is shutdown and all your items are confisicated. When there is a buck to made, the farmers will shut the hell up with the spamming.

Hey, and item duping would be fraud and we could throw those losers in real jail.

 

[skit75]

[citation][nom]hennnry[/nom]What's wrong with this practice? It doesn't make or break MMO. So it's like... you created a service (a gaming service), and why can't others who utilize your service to make a profit?To NuclearShadow and others alike... if you think buying virtual money or items are dumb, wouldn't then that same logic apply to online gamers who pay real money to get pleasure from virtual games?So what's the difference between getting pleasure from virtual games and getting pleasure from getting virtual items in games?[/citation]
Another thing wrong with it is it's usually not legitimate(charachter leveling) for example requires the user to hand over his login/password information to the account. Now, I would argue that he deserves to have his accounts robbed and looted for obvious stupididty. It happens everyday and I'm sure much time is spent rebuilding these accounts or SOE simply losses the subscription. For SOE to make this an issue, I would imagine many morons are willingly handing over thier account information and then blamming SOE for allowing the spammers to advertise.

 

[Guest]

@hennnry:
This type of practice does indeed break an MMO. Players that use bots or armies of hired workers to farm tons of items and acquire tons of in-game currency force the prices of user-sellable items way down. As a result, the only way legitimate players can make a sufficient amount of in-game money is by resorting to similar behavior. When you have to spend all of your time farming just to make some pocket change, the game ceases to be fun.

 

[skit75]

[citation][nom]LORD_ORION[/nom]What these morons running the MMOs need to do is set up a virtual ingame market place that allows people to trade real dollars for items. Then they take a nice chunk in an accounting fee. If I were sony I'd be asking myself how to tap into that 2 billion industry, not how to sht it down.Then they could also regulate the spammers with incentive not to spam. You spam, your market place is shutdown and all your items are confisicated. When there is a buck to made, the farmers will shut the hell up with the spamming.Hey, and item duping would be fraud and we could throw those losers in real jail.[/citation]
I believe they are tapping into it. Using my previous example of SWG, last year they started an ingame collectible card game that will actually allow a player to purchase items, off a shelf so to speak, billing the charge to your monthly subscription. It reminded me of Hero or Cabal. Those two games have no monthly subscription but if you want the best items the game has to offer, the only way to get them is to buy them from the Game itself using real money. I could never get serious with a game like this as it offers nothing to the gamer of any substance. These games were intended for people who have more money than time in my opinion(which may be most people I understand). The causual gamer will get very little reward from this model. So SOE is dabbling in this arena already in my opinion and I'm sure there are better examples than mine out there.

 

[NuclearShadow]

[citation][nom]ssalim[/nom]Dumb? when you have money and no time to play, I don't see it's bad to save your time and jump on the "fun" -- I don't play MMO since 2008 btw.[/citation]

Yes its not just dumb its idiotic. If you don't have time to play a MMORPG then why even waste your time subscribing to one in the first place? If everything is simply handed to you then what goals would you even set for yourself? Your simply buying virtual items for real money and if that's not dumb enough your killing your own gaming experience by doing so.

 

[NuclearShadow]

[citation][nom]ssalim[/nom]There are plenty of free to play mmo or 1st person shooter that players can buy to get "pleasure from virtual games." It's not dumb.difference:getting pleasure from virtual games - takes timeat the end, you get it and feel good through achievement then use the item to your advantage.getting pleasure from getting virtual items in games - it does not take time, it takes money (time is more valuable than money). You get it and may or may not feel achievement, but still use the item to your advantage.[/citation]

Free to play ones that sell items are different. When you buy such items you are showing your support for the game and help keep it alive its really no different than when PBS does a fund raiser and donates who give X amount gets a gift.

 

[Guest]

Why doesn't sony just sell the items on their own webpages? Why waste your life away when you can pay sony for the items instead of the smugglers? There are only two things in life that everyone experiences, death and taxes lol. You only live once, why sit in front of a computer game for one year to get a few items when you can buy them from sony right away?

 

[christop]

I could always tell the people farming for money on ffx.. The game was fun at first then was just played out... It was all about level up and find a party to level pain in the ass to me.. I will stick with the fps games and not pay a monthly fee...