the sky IS, indeed, falling.

[Paddyo]

<p>The naysayers (you know who you are) all said LON would bring a plat farming perma camped mob nightmare to the game.  A quick look on the broker on AB this morning yielded 8 of 10 booster packs for sale by known or reputed plat farming bots. That's not the entire story.  Loping plains, while normally overcamped by bots anyway, is now comprised of bot farming "minicamps"  with bot teams sitting on named spawn points while the bots fan out from those points.  Bots that previously would steal pretty much a named from you only and nothing else, now feel the need to grab any mob in sight and the little bit of respect they did have for other players is gone.</p><p>Why make the boosters tradeable in game?  It seems like if they were no-trade and forced into an accounts LON client, where they could THEN be traded to whomever, whenever....might alleviate part of the problem.  This won't be a popular thought with people who are out farming the packs to sell as well, but sorry, the overall health of the game is more important to me than stepping on some people's toes.  </p><p>This clearly is going to further the plat farming and selling problem.  Eventually people will realize that plat sells for 8-9 dollars US per 10 plat, and rationalize booster packs as a 3 platish value in game.  If you can buy them from the sony store for $3, you aren't going to pay much more than $3 worth of plat for one.  So, people who get into this gambling type addiction may just as well buy in game plat as buy packs from Sony.  Why, on earth, would you want to share the wealth with the plat farming pests?</p><p>I read the posts in LON beta and decided to take a "wait and see" attitude about how it would effect gameplay.  what I have seen, so far, worries me.</p>

[Femke]

If you don't want them to buy them from the broker... just don't. That is all to it.And the sky.... it is still up there.Femke.

[Saroc_Luclin]

I'd say it's probably too soon to react too much to it. Like everything new when it first starts dropping, you can usually get a mint for them. Give it a week or so for the dust to start settling and the markets to adjust, and most likely the farmers will realize it isn't really all that profitable for their effort. And if they are disrupting a zone in their actions, you can always go the petition route in the short term.

[Paddyo]

<p>I am not wanting or needing or desiring to buy any booster packs.  I'm not concerned about market price, if I won a pack in a group I'd open it in hopes of a loot card and the rest of the cards will go in with all the free cards I got in beta.  Its not gamebreaking for me.</p><p>The point of my original post was, that people said the plat farming would get out of hand because of adding an item that might possibly be farmed and sold for real life money in game.  Without seeing how the boosters were implemented, noone could really know the real in game impact.  Ok.  So now I have seen a real game impact.  Chicken little said the plat farmers would become more of a nuisance, and chicken little was right.  Just wait til people start mentoring and mass killing newbie yards and antonica and CL.  Or name your place you will be working on an alt or whatever and can't get the mob updates you need for a quest because they are being burned down by people mass killing for booster packs.  I never assumed while LON was in beta that the boosters or decks would be able to be brokered.  I always believed the LON client would be the device that shielded, at least partially, the viability of farming boosters for profit in game.  </p>

[Valdaglerion]

<p>Femke - its not a matter of buying them on the broker or not, its a gameplay affecting change. Not everyone playing EQ2, in fact, most people playing I have spoken with in-game, have no desire to play LoN HOWEVER, their gameplay is being affected by the overcamping of mobs known to drop the cards now more so than previously.</p><p>LON should have been designed with their own mobs in alternate zones rather than intersperse their gameplay into the existing games and force everyone to be subjected to it.</p><p>The channel spam is also being permeated with this garbage. Last night within 2 hours I saw 14 messages in channel chat selling LON cards, not only the boosters. The amounts they are selling them for are outright outrageous. 75-150p per card. </p><p>When people were asking for additional forms of entertainment to be placed within the framework of EQ2 this isnt what we were going for (think casinos, more lotteries and card games like poker - not some pokemon trading and war game /sigh)</p><p>Would have preferred they spent the development time fixing the arenas. My personal opinion anyway.</p><p>I dont think the sky is falling but its definitely one more hassle we have to contend with. On the flipside, custom channels are becoming more and more popular as a way to get away from the spammed channels built into the game.</p><p>I find myself spending less and less time with channel chat and more time in private chat channels, group, raid and guild chat only. </p>

[Gnobrin]

<p>C'mon folks, the sky's not falling because you saw 8 items on the broker.  Such a thread title is simply comedy for such a situation.</p><p>Regardless of your feelings about those that are selling those items, if the situation is still being reviewed, then it is and leave it at that.  The game's only been present for live play for a day, give it some time to BE reviewed, so appropriate actions can thereby be taken.</p><p>~Gnobrin!</p>

[einar4]

<p> Well it is all relative, and the game is the game regardless of what happens with plat sellers and the like.   However, the situation is pretty clear, here.   </p><ul><li> In game items can be had with the purchase of booster packs which can be purchased or farmed from mobs.  </li><li> Said items are unique and provide unique abilities unmatched by other items in game (the Warg that is unique in appearance and also provides run speed and skill increases that only membership in a level 60 guild can provide, just as an example). </li><li> Said cards can be traded and sold on the broker, if they can be traded, they can be sold by gold sellers.  If they can be sold on the broker, then gold farmers can sell them for plat which can be sold to players for real money. </li></ul><p> Is it bad for the game in the long term?  Who knows, gold farmers have been around for a long time, and in general have only really caused a shift in economy, not really ruined anything.  It is true that changes have been made to classes and mechanics to stop farming which have negatively impacted the game play experience for many, but players adapt.   It may be true that this was something that could have easily been predicted by the developers also, but 20-20 hindsight always distorts the "what _were_ you thinking??" question.  </p><p> Personally, my view is that _if_ the card game is fun to play, and the act of trading the cards is fun and enjoyable, then that should be self evident on the merits of the card game.  The introduction of in game items really wasn't necessary in that case, and added a point of contention that should have been obvious from the first draft of the design doc for this ccg.   For that reason I can generate little sympathy for the SOE devs that must now tolerate the complaints and jibes from the players.  In game items for sale by SOE is very much a reality with this ccg, and SOE will just have to accept that this is a world they made, and deal with whatever criticism they receive for it. </p>

[liveja]

<cite>Paddyo wrote:</cite> <blockquote><p>Or name your place you will be working on an alt or whatever and can't get the mob updates you need for a quest because they are being burned down by people mass killing for booster packs. </p></blockquote><p>That might eventually become an issue, I suppose, but so far, from my limited play time, it has not.</p><p>I haven't gotten out to Loping Plains yet, because I've been busy leveling my Troubie, but last night in Sinking Sands, & today in Steamfont & Klak, I had no trouble getting the updates I needed. Possibly LP might be worse, but I kinda doubt it.</p><p>I think it's also a matter of when you play. I rarely play in any sort of U.S. "prime time"; early morning, & later in the afternoon when the bulk of my guildies are on, are my prime play times. So it's possible I just don't see the influx of farmer masses that others talk about. However, on the few occasions I've been on during "prime time", I've never had problems with bot farmers preventing me from getting quest updates.</p><p>In short, I think that so far, there's far too little evidence to support or deny Chicken Little.</p>

[Norrsken]

<cite>Ikarri@Lucan DLere wrote:</cite><blockquote><p> Well it is all relative, and the game is the game regardless of what happens with plat sellers and the like.   However, the situation is pretty clear, here.   </p><ul><li> In game items can be had with the purchase of booster packs which can be purchased or farmed from mobs.  </li><li> Said items are unique and provide unique abilities unmatched by other items in game (the Warg that is unique in appearance and also provides run speed and skill increases that only membership in a level 60 guild can provide, just as an example). </li><li> Said cards can be traded and sold on the broker, if they can be traded, they can be sold by gold sellers.  If they can be sold on the broker, then gold farmers can sell them for plat which can be sold to players for real money. </li></ul><p> Is it bad for the game in the long term?  Who knows, gold farmers have been around for a long time, and in general have only really caused a shift in economy, not really ruined anything.  It is true that changes have been made to classes and mechanics to stop farming which have negatively impacted the game play experience for many, but players adapt.   It may be true that this was something that could have easily been predicted by the developers also, but 20-20 hindsight always distorts the "what _were_ you thinking??" question.  </p><p> Personally, my view is that _if_ the card game is fun to play, and the act of trading the cards is fun and enjoyable, then that should be self evident on the merits of the card game.  The introduction of in game items really wasn't necessary in that case, and added a point of contention that should have been obvious from the first draft of the design doc for this ccg.   For that reason I can generate little sympathy for the SOE devs that must now tolerate the complaints and jibes from the players.  In game items for sale by SOE is very much a reality with this ccg, and SOE will just have to accept that this is a world they made, and deal with whatever criticism they receive for it. </p></blockquote>If you mean the armored warg, its in game as loot, and called Dhume except that Dhume has flaming paws, and not the same color scheme...

[Wingrider01]

<cite>Valdaglerion wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>Femke - its not a matter of buying them on the broker or not, its a gameplay affecting change. Not everyone playing EQ2, in fact, most people playing I have spoken with in-game, have no desire to play LoN HOWEVER, their gameplay is being affected by the overcamping of mobs known to drop the cards now more so than previously.</p><p>LON should have been designed with their own mobs in alternate zones rather than intersperse their gameplay into the existing games and force everyone to be subjected to it.</p><p>The channel spam is also being permeated with this garbage. Last night within 2 hours I saw 14 messages in channel chat selling LON cards, not only the boosters. The amounts they are selling them for are outright outrageous. 75-150p per card. </p><p>When people were asking for additional forms of entertainment to be placed within the framework of EQ2 this isnt what we were going for (think casinos, more lotteries and card games like poker - not some pokemon trading and war game /sigh)</p><p>Would have preferred they spent the development time fixing the arenas. My personal opinion anyway.</p><p>I dont think the sky is falling but its definitely one more hassle we have to contend with. On the flipside, custom channels are becoming more and more popular as a way to get away from the spammed channels built into the game.</p><p>I find myself spending less and less time with channel chat and more time in private chat channels, group, raid and guild chat only. </p></blockquote>You do realize that ALL mobs that are green to your level runs the chance of dropping LON cards - so you are basicly saying every mob in the game is being camped? The card drops are luck of the draw for on a seperate loot table

[Bramwe]

Edit - wrong thread

[JamesRay]

<p>From a business perspective, having boosters and starters drop in the game is genius.</p><p>Not only is it free advertising to the existing playerbase to get involved with the card game...IE if you open 100 boosters searching for an ITEM, and end up tons of rare and uncommon CARDS, it might be worth while to figure out what the game is about.</p><p>On the flipside, if you already like the card game but aren't big on spending cash for a digital card game, you have an OPTION of farming or trading for boosters/starters by already doing what you're doing.</p><p>Almost any form of currency has the possibility of being exploited somehow...now do you throw away all of the advertising and new card players you'd get from the above two groups by completely banning drops and making it digital purchase only? Methinks this would leave you with very few players.</p><p>If boosters couldn't be traded but cards could, you'd simply have people saying "i'll trade you in LON for plat in eq2"...which would result in increased odds of ripoffs, which increases customer service burden.</p><p>Please don't think for a second that SOE hasn't already thought this through.</p><p>For those of us who have no interest in LON or even the special items, booster/starter drops are just like a master drop you can't use...a bargaining chip to getting what you *DO* want out of this game.</p>

[phoenixshard]

People keep talking about the booster packs for sale (from what it sounds like), not individual cards for sale in the game. Personally I don't think that you'll see many people buying cards for real money from someone they don't know when they can pick up booster packs for real money. Kind of defeats the purpose, especially when there would be an obvious paper trail with either tells or game mail going back and forth setting up a way to get the card in the LON client itself. I haven't played with LoN at all, so I may be wrong on that assumption, but if you're paying plat you earned in the game for a booster pack, then I dont see the issue. If you're paying for it with bought plat, you're a sucker when the booster pack could probably be had for a cheaper amount directly from SOE and you wouldn't have to worry about it not being delivered to you. I don't think there is any sky falling around my part of Norrath at all.

[Balamoor]

<cite>Gnobrin wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>C'mon folks, the sky's not falling because you saw 8 items on the broker.  Such a thread title is simply comedy for such a situation.</p><p>Regardless of your feelings about those that are selling those items, if the situation is still being reviewed, then it is and leave it at that.  The game's only been present for live play for a day, give it some time to BE reviewed, so appropriate actions can thereby be taken.</p><p>~Gnobrin!</p></blockquote>Amen....such overreaction. I am actually seeing "I quit!!!!oneoneelven"  shouts over this on LD.  None of the cards are that super rare,  or at least it dosen't seem that way.  someone being desperate enough to buy a loot card  says more about their lack of knowledge of this fact than anything else.

[standupwookie]

Here is ALL you need to know about LON and the relationship between LON Players and in-game booster packs.No LON player will purchase in-game Booster packs from PC vendors.  There is no need to.  You can spend 2.99$ and get one from the SOE store, so why spend a ton of in-game money (which they may not even have) when you can buy the same thing for 3 bucks.The in-game booster packs are the exact same as the LON bought booster packs.  They all have the same chance to get loot, which is pretty rare.Those who purchase the LON booster packs looking for loot buy them in bulk, like 50 or so packs at a time.  They will never play the LON game, they are just in it for the loot.  So why spend a lot of plat for one measly booster pack when you can click a button and get 50 to 100 and have a much better chance of getting loot.And, there is only one maybe two loot cards that people are looking for.  One is the stein which is another port to your home city and the BIG one is the armored warg mount.You have a very small chance at getting loot via booster packs, and there is a very small chance you will get a non-potion item as a loot reward AND there is a very, very small chance you will get a mount, AND there is a very very very small chance it will be the Warg and not a carpet.

[numbaseven]

<cite>JamesRay wrote:</cite><blockquote>If boosters couldn't be traded but cards could, you'd simply have people saying "i'll trade you in LON for plat in eq2"...which would result in increased odds of ripoffs, which increases customer service burden.</blockquote>How would illegal trades put a burden on customer support? Seems like that'd be a cut and paste reply of "we don't provide support to actions against our EULA"If people decided to go this route and got hosed, its their own fault for trying that route and not SOE's problem.I haven't been in game to see any massive farming out in LP but I might take some time to night to sit out and play the petition game on them if they're there. If they get enough petitions, if we follow their rules and cause them enough work to where its not just a problem on our end, then they'll change it to where there's no profit to be made.Here's an idea, change the booster packs to lose the chance of giving an in-game reward when its traded/brokered. People that want to play the game can find the boosters on the broker for a reasonable price and farmers won't bother because it won't hold the mass appeal of the mount. You'd still have a ton of people opening up boosters looking for the mounts to generate the demand.Or if thats too much of a demand on the databases behind, make the mount card inside it no-trade and the booster pack untradeable if it contains one

[JamesRay]

<p>Boosters aren't a guarantee of anything useful to those who are looking specifically for items.It is a small% chance of getting a booster which is a small% chance of getting an item.It doesn't reduce other drop rates...but if there is a eq1 card player who decides to make an eq2 character to screw around with, the "chance" they could get something useful is an incentive to play.</p><p>If you blow all of your resources playing gustapo to a sliver of the population, the majority suffers.</p>

[Tae]

Nobody is saying the bots are getting the LoN decks to sell for real money. They're getting them to sell for plat, which they then sell. Most people would rather spend 1 plat 50 gold in game than £1.50, so it's easier for them to buy boosters off the Broker. And then the 1 plat 50 goes into the pockets of the bots. They now have a reason to kill EVERYTHING.

[retro_guy]

<cite>Paddyo wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>The naysayers (you know who you are) all said LON would bring a plat farming perma camped mob nightmare to the game.  A quick look on the broker on AB this morning yielded 8 of 10 booster packs for sale by known or reputed plat farming bots. That's not the entire story.  Loping plains, while normally overcamped by bots anyway, is now comprised of bot farming "minicamps"  with bot teams sitting on named spawn points while the bots fan out from those points.  Bots that previously would steal pretty much a named from you only and nothing else, now feel the need to grab any mob in sight and the little bit of respect they did have for other players is gone.</p><p>Why make the boosters tradeable in game?  It seems like if they were no-trade and forced into an accounts LON client, where they could THEN be traded to whomever, whenever....might alleviate part of the problem.  This won't be a popular thought with people who are out farming the packs to sell as well, but sorry, the overall health of the game is more important to me than stepping on some people's toes.  </p><p>This clearly is going to further the plat farming and selling problem.  Eventually people will realize that plat sells for 8-9 dollars US per 10 plat, and rationalize booster packs as a 3 platish value in game.  If you can buy them from the sony store for $3, you aren't going to pay much more than $3 worth of plat for one.  So, people who get into this gambling type addiction may just as well buy in game plat as buy packs from Sony.  Why, on earth, would you want to share the wealth with the plat farming pests?</p><p>I read the posts in LON beta and decided to take a "wait and see" attitude about how it would effect gameplay.  what I have seen, so far, worries me.</p></blockquote>Simply report the bot groups under "Zone Disruption" and they will be banned.Overt farming where it undermines the ability of other players to progress is bannable.

[Lortet]

Perhaps we need an LoN filter for those who want it?

[Paddyo]

<cite>Gnobrin wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>C'mon folks, the sky's not falling because you saw 8 items on the broker.  Such a thread title is simply comedy for such a situation.</p><p>Regardless of your feelings about those that are selling those items, if the situation is still being reviewed, then it is and leave it at that.  The game's only been present for live play for a day, give it some time to BE reviewed, so appropriate actions can thereby be taken.</p><p>~Gnobrin!</p></blockquote><p>You miss the point entirely.  people on the beta boards worried about this, with no legitimate response from development at that time, and alot of people, like myself, took a "let's not overreact until we see what happens when this goes live".  In the first 24 hours of the game going live, the worst case scenarios the naysayers predicted are live and prevelant.  The fact there are 10 boosters on the broker isnt the issue, I could not care less about boosters.  The fact that mobs are being drug through zones by bot teams (that are not monitored and dealt with anyway), en masse, effects gameplay and the gameplay experience.   Sure, I can and will petition it when I see it.  Reality is, though, you can log a GM in to AB right now, ask in 60-69 chat where to find bot teams and be told, driectly, where they are at.  Go see them. watch them.  ban them.  Simple enough?  Not enough manpower?  Not enough time? Maybe I am dense and I am missing the point.  </p>

[sayitaintso]

<cite>Gnobrin wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>C'mon folks, the sky's not falling because you saw 8 items on the broker.  Such a thread title is simply comedy for such a situation.</p><p>Regardless of your feelings about those that are selling those items, if the situation is still being reviewed, then it is and leave it at that.  The game's only been present for live play for a day, give it some time to BE reviewed, so appropriate actions can thereby be taken.</p><p>~Gnobrin!</p></blockquote>Yep, after one day of the game going live we already have hordes of known plat farmers monopolizing content in zones where they were relatively rare before. Do you guys ever think about things like this? Now you probably won't do anything about it, just like you wont do anything about the plat farmers in general.  I generally harvest in Loping planes. on Guk, usually 15-20 players...today 38 players, a BUNCH anon with names likeljkdiuejn or njihiygds....in guilds that are known plat farmer guilds.  All teh names that are normally up were dead and there were several obviously auto followed groups killing everything that have not been there in the 3 weeks I have been harvesting there...So you created this problem SOE, how are you going to repair it?

[sayitaintso]

<cite>retro_guy wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Paddyo wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>The naysayers (you know who you are) all said LON would bring a plat farming perma camped mob nightmare to the game.  A quick look on the broker on AB this morning yielded 8 of 10 booster packs for sale by known or reputed plat farming bots. That's not the entire story.  Loping plains, while normally overcamped by bots anyway, is now comprised of bot farming "minicamps"  with bot teams sitting on named spawn points while the bots fan out from those points.  Bots that previously would steal pretty much a named from you only and nothing else, now feel the need to grab any mob in sight and the little bit of respect they did have for other players is gone.</p><p>Why make the boosters tradeable in game?  It seems like if they were no-trade and forced into an accounts LON client, where they could THEN be traded to whomever, whenever....might alleviate part of the problem.  This won't be a popular thought with people who are out farming the packs to sell as well, but sorry, the overall health of the game is more important to me than stepping on some people's toes.  </p><p>This clearly is going to further the plat farming and selling problem.  Eventually people will realize that plat sells for 8-9 dollars US per 10 plat, and rationalize booster packs as a 3 platish value in game.  If you can buy them from the sony store for $3, you aren't going to pay much more than $3 worth of plat for one.  So, people who get into this gambling type addiction may just as well buy in game plat as buy packs from Sony.  Why, on earth, would you want to share the wealth with the plat farming pests?</p><p>I read the posts in LON beta and decided to take a "wait and see" attitude about how it would effect gameplay.  what I have seen, so far, worries me.</p></blockquote>Simply report the bot groups under "Zone Disruption" and they will be banned.Overt farming where it undermines the ability of other players to progress is bannable.</blockquote>If you believe this I have some ocean front property in Arizona for you...The same BOT and FARM groups that have been killing in PoF have been petitioned over and over and over and they have been there killing the same goblin camps for months....SOE doesn't dare ban them, there are just too many...it would mean the loss of money....

[Ze]

<cite>Gnobrin wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>C'mon folks, the sky's not falling because you saw 8 items on the broker.  Such a thread title is simply comedy for such a situation.</p><p>Regardless of your feelings about those that are selling those items, if the situation is still being reviewed, then it is and leave it at that.  The game's only been present for live play for a day, give it some time to BE reviewed, so appropriate actions can thereby be taken.</p><p>~Gnobrin!</p></blockquote><p>I was under the impression the purpose of forums was expressing our opinions about the game. He is doing so. Ridiculing his post surely does not sound professional from your side. Then again, I am not sure what your job functions are, but just my 2cp. </p><p>And sorry, I don't want to sound polemic, but when SOE says "the situation is still being reviewed", we all know it does not mean anything. Heck, pvp coins were under review in EQlive for 3-4 years. And that is one random example. So, please, excuse me for not feeling reassured. </p>

[Guy De Alsace]

<p>On the positive side I saw a bot team stop their continual Forge of Ro spamming and use /say to generate false conversations between themselves when I was standing and watching them farm. </p><p>This tells me that SOE is actively going after them since it really looked like they were trying to avoid me petitioning them. In days gone by they would have totally ignored my presence entirely.</p><p>There does seem to be an awful lot of them on Oasis...far more than my usual server, Runnyeye.  </p>

[sayitaintso]

<cite>JamesRay wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>Boosters aren't a guarantee of anything useful to those who are looking specifically for items.It is a small% chance of getting a booster which is a small% chance of getting an item.It doesn't reduce other drop rates...but if there is a eq1 card player who decides to make an eq2 character to screw around with, the "chance" they could get something useful is an incentive to play.</p><p>If you blow all of your resources playing gustapo to a sliver of the population, the majority suffers.</p></blockquote>You have missed the point completely, just like a BUNCH of people here taking up for the plat farmers..it has NOTHING to do with the cards....it's a revenue source for the plat farmers. Making them rare just means the plat farmers have to monopolize even MORE content. The game is very quickly filling with plat farmers looking to make a buck...SOE COULD put a stop to it by banning both the plat farmers and buyers but that would mean banning a significant portion of their remaining player base which they won't do...so the game dies the death of a 1000 cuts...And SOE gets a reputation of allowing cheaters to monopolize their game...

[sayitaintso]

<cite>standupwookie wrote:</cite><blockquote>Here is ALL you need to know about LON and the relationship between LON Players and in-game booster packs.No LON player will purchase in-game Booster packs from PC vendors.  There is no need to.  You can spend 2.99$ and get one from the SOE store, so why spend a ton of in-game money (which they may not even have) when you can buy the same thing for 3 bucks.The in-game booster packs are the exact same as the LON bought booster packs.  They all have the same chance to get loot, which is pretty rare.Those who purchase the LON booster packs looking for loot buy them in bulk, like 50 or so packs at a time.  They will never play the LON game, they are just in it for the loot.  So why spend a lot of plat for one measly booster pack when you can click a button and get 50 to 100 and have a much better chance of getting loot.And, there is only one maybe two loot cards that people are looking for.  One is the stein which is another port to your home city and the BIG one is the armored warg mount.You have a very small chance at getting loot via booster packs, and there is a very small chance you will get a non-potion item as a loot reward AND there is a very, very small chance you will get a mount, AND there is a very very very small chance it will be the Warg and not a carpet.</blockquote>Again, it's not about the cards. The farmers will continue to monopolize the content to collect these cards to sell for plat. OK so instead of 10 plat they go for 1 or 2 plat, but that's STILL coin...exactly what teh plat farmers are farming..hence the name PLAT FARMER

[Cuz]

<cite>Guy De Alsace wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>On the positive side I saw a bot team stop their continual Forge of Ro spamming and use /say to generate false conversations between themselves when I was standing and watching them farm. </p><p>This tells me that SOE is actively going after them since it really looked like they were trying to avoid me petitioning them. In days gone by they would have totally ignored my presence entirely.</p><p>There does seem to be an awful lot of them on Oasis...far more than my usual server, Runnyeye.  </p></blockquote>Not to be rude but if they were trying to fool you from reporting them, that just means that SOE, is in fact, not actively hunting them down but sitting on their posterior and waiting for us to "hunt" them.

[sayitaintso]

<cite>Cuz wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Guy De Alsace wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>On the positive side I saw a bot team stop their continual Forge of Ro spamming and use /say to generate false conversations between themselves when I was standing and watching them farm. </p><p>This tells me that SOE is actively going after them since it really looked like they were trying to avoid me petitioning them. In days gone by they would have totally ignored my presence entirely.</p><p>There does seem to be an awful lot of them on Oasis...far more than my usual server, Runnyeye.  </p></blockquote>Not to be rude but if they were trying to fool you from reporting them, that just means that SOE, is in fact, not actively hunting them down but sitting on their posterior and waiting for us to "hunt" them.</blockquote>Go ahead, wear out your keyboard sending petitions for plat farming...even zone disruption...there are several groups of plat farmers on Guk in PoF that have been petitioned many times and they have been there for months...they aren't going anywhere..

[DragonMaster2385]

I think that after the value of the booster packs drop, you will see less of this farming.  Whenever a new item like this added, the prices are sky high.  Once they have been in the game a while, they will drop like bricks and bots will not find it cost effecting to farm them.

[sayitaintso]

<cite>DragonMaster2385 wrote:</cite><blockquote>I think that after the value of the booster packs drop, you will see less of this farming.  Whenever a new item like this added, the prices are sky high.  Once they have been in the game a while, they will drop like bricks and bots will not find it cost effecting to farm them.</blockquote>It depends..if the in game items drop more then are found in the purchased packs, the cost will drop, but not all that much...

[Wheeze]

I think LoN is an awesome idea, I just bought a couple boosters. Gonna start playin' tonight!

[DragonMaster2385]

I know a lot of people hate it and a lot of people love it.  Personally, I love it.  I can see how the in game items can cause people to think that it is unfair if you buy a bunch of them, but it isn't like you are 100% guarenteed to get a mount card.  Believe it or not, the sky has yet to fall.

[Lornick]

<cite>DragonMaster2385 wrote:</cite><blockquote>I think that after the value of the booster packs drop, you will see less of this farming.  Whenever a new item like this added, the prices are sky high.  Once they have been in the game a while, they will drop like bricks and bots will not find it cost effecting to farm them.</blockquote>Heh, bots have found it cost effective to farm before booster packs were introduced.  The price of booster packs is just icing on the cake.  Btw this whole sky is falling business is silly.  I just looked up... it's still there. 

[Rebor]

Some truth on the farmers...I used to play Asian MMO where farmers are rampant. And with the booster pack trade-able, it is just another form of income for the famers be it small or big profit it is still profit. Those farmers work like a big corporation, they will keep adjusting their price to beat what SOE offers so I will predict, yes, the economy and camping will be ruin even further. Within these farmers, there are also competition to beat each other pricing.So honestly as we all and even MMO companies admits, there is really not much way to totally eradicate such farmers, it is really up to players whether we want to support these farmers or not.

[Gnevil]

<cite>Gnobrin wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>C'mon folks, the sky's not falling because you saw 8 items on the broker.  Such a thread title is simply comedy for such a situation.</p><p>Regardless of your feelings about those that are selling those items, if the situation is still being reviewed, then it is and leave it at that.  The game's only been present for live play for a day, give it some time to BE reviewed, so appropriate actions can thereby be taken.</p><p>~Gnobrin!</p></blockquote><p>Gnobrin you are missing the point.  Who cares whats on the broker what is being advertised in the chat channels, yes that will die down to a small amount of plat...</p><p>The point is the plat/bot farming teams have doubled their efforts to camp names and all mobs around said names.  Point to be taken, logged in this morning and Loping Plains (I play pacific time) had 43 people in it.  Now of course this isnt all bot teams but I did notice while doing my writs, the reason I was there that I noticed bot teams at all but one name spawn area.  This has never been this way before, and I seriously hope that we dont have issues with finishing quests and writs.  When I went to do the Orb spiders writ, I usually hit the area where the named spider pops in hopes of getting a chest drop to transmute while doing my writ.  I arrived to find all the spiders dead, and a three person group sitting there blasting every single thing that spawned in the area.  I was unable to complete my writ where I usually do.  I went to the other camp that the spiders spawn at and completed my writ there.  I think what most people are gonna start yelling about is the shear amount of botting for names and named areas that you are going to see.. Heaven help the poor quester that needs a named mob to complete or advance his quest if its not auto spawned.</p><p>I realize you work for Sony and thus toe the company line, but I can assure you many feel the same way I do.  The sky is not falling we will adapt like we always do, but the hate of the devs for putting this crap in the game will just simply rise.  In a way Sony has become a plat bot... they sell the cards in packs for real money that peeps buy to get at the loot cards.. how is that any different then the plat sellers currently in the game other then it's your game and you set the rules...?</p>

[Chefren]

<cite>Gnevil wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite></cite><p>In a way Sony has become a plat bot... they sell the cards in packs for real money that peeps buy to get at the loot cards.. how is that any different then the plat sellers currently in the game other then it's your game and you set the rules...?</p></blockquote>Well first it <b>is</b> their game, they own all the stuff in the game and they do set the rules and second, we don't see any GM's or devs camping nameds and disrupting zones which is the biggest reason people hate these plat farmers anyway.Comparing SOE to the farming companies because of this is a bit too much.

[CHIMPNOODLE.]

<p>I had thought I heard something about LoN going live, and that explains the one person's WTB melee warg comments in level chat last night. Besides that, wouldn't have even known it was live. </p><p>It was also the first night in a long time that I actually quested (I'm more of a socializer, instancer, raider)....and I had no issue getting any updates I needed, and saw no activity in any of the zones I was in that was "irregular". Initial reaction then appears to be zero impact. We shall see.</p>

[KunamitsuUK]

<p>I hope that the subject matter of this thread is simply a knee jerk reaction and just some more anti LON propaganda!</p><p>Organised Plat Farmers (OPF's) have interfered with my game on numerous occassions, I noticed them a lot when I got my second toon to 70, especially in Barren Sky and PoF. If I find that when I get my next alt up into the 50-70 range and the interferance is even more present in these zones and I find myself again fighting for the same mobs aggro that I have had to in the past then I can see myself calling it a day.</p><p>I could go as far as to say that there will be other players with the same attitude.</p><p>Small scale farming I do not see as a problem, as it has been pointed out regular players do it for a quick Plat or an item its no biggy and you can wait for a repop and usually get the mob you need. Its these large scale zone wide operations that I find really annoying, having 2 man teams on each of the solo mob islands in Barren Sky or the 2 bot groups running the gauntlet through the Sandscrawlers in PoF.</p><p>Nothing seams to get done.</p><p>So when I'm next in these zones questing and now theres 3-4 bot groups running PoF and all the islands are perma camped in Barren I am taking it that SOE isnt really botherd about who pays for a subscription whether its OPF's or playing customers (That is playing customer as farmers and players PAY) but as my game is being interfered with by the OPF's theres no point me playing or paying.</p>

[liveja]

<cite>Taear@Venekor wrote:</cite><blockquote>They now have a reason to kill EVERYTHING.</blockquote>So do you.

[Paddyo]

<p>It's been a week.  Prices continue to plummet on the broker, which is to be expected, the in game cost of a booster pack should not exceed the cost of plat from a plat broker.  Doesn't make any sense.  The bulk of booster packs for sale on the broker are people known to be plat farmers, (the phrase "known to be plat farmer" just grates my nerves, because when we all know it, why isn't anything done about it?) which is to be expected as well, because I would guess whether or not someone plays the card game they would open a booster in hopes of a loot card; after all, that's like getting $3 free.</p><p>Now, back to the point of the original post, and my one week update.  Took Q into barren sky to work on the  quest line there.  One of those crazy birds sent me out to kill 10 vultaks and 10 aviaks.  No Problem!  any 10 vultaks or aviaks should be NO sweat!  Except, everytime I jumped off a cloud platform, the island was empty!  HOLY LAG BATMAN!  Nope, not lag....just the islands were being systematically cleared by the farmers.  They were literally killing the mobs and running and aggroing them as they spawned to bulk team wizard kill them.</p><p>Yeah, this has always been the case in some zones with the farmers....but NOT to this extreme.  You could find some nook or cranny somewhere before....and the real trouble with bots is that they dont seem to have a "time zone"....someone's shift ends and another person takes over.</p><p>Frustrating.  Definitely amplified farming since LON went live.  Just make the booster packs NO TRADE, they have to be placed into the LON client to trade....make it a little more difficult for people to make a direct plat profit from farming them.  </p><p>and for goodness sake....when are we going to start cracking down on the plat farmers?</p>

[Articulas]

<cite>sayitaintso wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Cuz wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Guy De Alsace wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>On the positive side I saw a bot team stop their continual Forge of Ro spamming and use /say to generate false conversations between themselves when I was standing and watching them farm. </p><p>This tells me that SOE is actively going after them since it really looked like they were trying to avoid me petitioning them. In days gone by they would have totally ignored my presence entirely.</p><p>There does seem to be an awful lot of them on Oasis...far more than my usual server, Runnyeye.  </p></blockquote>Not to be rude but if they were trying to fool you from reporting them, that just means that SOE, is in fact, not actively hunting them down but sitting on their posterior and waiting for us to "hunt" them.</blockquote>Go ahead, wear out your keyboard sending petitions for plat farming...even zone disruption...there are several groups of plat farmers on Guk in PoF that have been petitioned many times and they have been there for months...they aren't going anywhere..</blockquote>Same things going on in AB in PoF. those Goblin camps are heavily camped by plat farmers. a few weeks ago i actually was cut a break and was able to finish a few quests, until towards the end i had a hard time because the dumb farmer came back. was able to fight for a few of those mobs to finish, but was highly annoying. My guildies have been complaining a lot about Loping Plains lately. i haven't personally been there to see it, but a lot of whats being said here is being said in my guild. LP is being heavily camped for LoN cards.

[dhvyse000]

LON was such a waste... and now it's hurting my game.  Very uncool.Also, this bot farming crap HAS TO BE STOPPED.  The TELLSPAM HAS TO BE STOPPED.  SOE why are there more Spamtells then you can stop?  Can't we just ban every account that spams tells and be done with it?  Let them make more accounts, and just BAN THEM PERMENANTLY.  I'm so tired of getting spam tells every 2 minutes.  FIX THIS GAME.

[Kendricke]

<cite>dhvyse000 wrote:</cite><blockquote>LON was such a waste... and now it's hurting my game.  Very uncool.Also, this bot farming crap HAS TO BE STOPPED.  The TELLSPAM HAS TO BE STOPPED.  SOE why are there more Spamtells then you can stop?  Can't we just ban every account that spams tells and be done with it?  Let them make more accounts, and just BAN THEM PERMENANTLY.  I'm so tired of getting spam tells every 2 minutes.  FIX THIS GAME.</blockquote><p>You get 30 spam tells every hour?  </p><p>Hasn't anyone taught you how to turn off spam yet?  Chat Options...uncheck the box next to "Spam".</p>

[Lindar Phamoncry]

<p>You guys are missig a great benefit to the new Farmer surge lol</p><p>With no mobs around it makes harvesting CAKE!!!(or pie whichever you prefer)</p>