Sony please stop spam from Platinum Sellers!!!

[kukubird]

Another 15 tells this morning on VOX.  I didn't even bother to report.... next step 3 accounts cancelled. There are not even enough players left on vox to kill these guys in their usual farm spots.. They have made a bunch of my guildies leave already.. Way to go SOE!   Do they even realize all the problems these guys create that aren't obvious?  The damage to the economy.... the new player who i hear all the time.. how do I make so much money to afford my tier 1 equipment. The people who try and get quests done to only see jebar, ujika, gornik, genia there 24/7 for 6 months killing everything in site with 6 bot man groups? These are guys that speak no english but funny how they love the game so much to play 24/7 for 6 months killing trash...... because they aren't selling the plat illegal right? SOME WOULD ARGUE IT IS OK  for these guys to farm with 6 toons... that is maybe how they make their plat for other stuff... yeah ok they don't have time for other stuff when they are logged in those 6 toons ( no exageration ) for 24/7 for 6 months straight right? Anyways.... who cares... I certainly am at the point of cancelling because SOE is 1. not capable of doing anything, or 2. doesn't care themselves. Edit - the names I used are made up.... just hit keys on the keyboard at random with vowels. 

[Noaani]

Erin@Blackburrow wrote:

So I happened to be in POF today.  There were 3 groups of farmers there.  All the usual symptoms, generated bad names, no guilds, anon, etc.  Pulling all the goblins and not allowing me to finish my quest.

Zone disruption.

[Noaani]

AntLion wrote:

 I hear Blizzard have taken this issue up a notch. They’re now filing a lawsuit against the web sites that sell the gold and offer power leveling services. How much of an impact  will this have? Only time will tell but, at least it’s good to see a company especially one with a lot financial might taking it to these gold sellers. I only wish a campaign of equal importance was done against the buyers too. A double edge swords are always better than a single edged one when tackling this issue.   People grossly under estimated that the amount of players who buy gold from these people don’t do it because they don’t have time, they do it to get the advantage. We have the exchange servers yet non exchange servers gold sellers and their buyers are a huge problem. Caused by those wanting to take the short cut to having the advantage. 

You have heard wrong.

Blizzard have not taken up any lawsuits against anyone, a sinlge lone player has.

Also, it is not against web sites (plural), it is against IGE, a single company with an office in Florida.

If any good actually comes out of this, it may open up the way for SoE and Blizzard to take action, but that is yet to be seen.

Get facts straight, Blizzard have done considerably less in their game to combat plat spam than SoE have.

[hobi]

kukubird wrote:

Another 15 tells this morning on VOX.  I didn't even bother to report.... next step 3 accounts cancelled. There are not even enough players left on vox to kill these guys in their usual farm spots.. They have made a bunch of my guildies leave already.. Way to go SOE!   Do they even realize all the problems these guys create that aren't obvious?  The damage to the economy.... the new player who i hear all the time.. how do I make so much money to afford my tier 1 equipment. The people who try and get quests done to only see jebar, ujika, gornik, genia there 24/7 for 6 months killing everything in site with 6 bot man groups? These are guys that speak no english but funny how they love the game so much to play 24/7 for 6 months killing trash...... because they aren't selling the plat illegal right? SOME WOULD ARGUE IT IS OK  for these guys to farm with 6 toons... that is maybe how they make their plat for other stuff... yeah ok they don't have time for other stuff when they are logged in those 6 toons ( no exageration ) for 24/7 for 6 months straight right? Anyways.... who cares... I certainly am at the point of cancelling because SOE is 1. not capable of doing anything, or 2. doesn't care themselves. Edit - the names I used are made up.... just hit keys on the keyboard at random with vowels. 

i agree something need to be done proactivley otherwise soe will soon be facing an issue that occurs with alot of the free mmos out there like silk road online ect . where they ended up shutting down servers to mass delete accoutns due to it was discovered everyone on them were spamming gold /power level  service or gold farming with botts ect. and  all legit players could not log into the servers to actually play due to servers being full 24/7  100% with spammers/farmer trying to sell each  thiers services to no avail. if unchecked these guys will go to theses extrememes and force out legitamit player from the servers. they literally if left unchecked reproduce like rabbits!

[Noaani]

Paznos@Mistmoore wrote:

If WoW can do this why can't EQ2? http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/t...76820&sid=1 If EQ2 did that I bet it would help tremendously.

We have had this for mail based advertisments for a very long time, although it would be good to have it for /tells as well.

[Madmoon]

Eriol wrote:

I still think a level-based /tell restriction REGARDLESS of account type is the easiest way to deal with this quickly.  If the person sending a tell is on YOUR friends list, then it is let through (or in your guild or group, or other obvious voluntary associations).  Otherwise, it's blocked.  Let us adjust the level range we want, as high as desired.  Make it server-side if possible, but client-based should be "good enough" virtually all of the time.  If you have a friend with a lowbie alt, they can get on their main to tell you to friend their alt, invite to guild, etc.  And you can always "globally unblock" yourself if really REALLY needed. Why does it need to be more complex than that?

/agree - This is a great idea!  How hard could it POSSIBLY be to implement?  They already have a thousand different ways to select your chat text - this would hardly be much new programming!

[Brorimed]

Erin@Blackburrow wrote:

So I happened to be in POF today.  There were 3 groups of farmers there.  All the usual symptoms, generated bad names, no guilds, anon, etc.  Pulling all the goblins and not allowing me to finish my quest. Now, as far as I know, this is happening on every server.  Are they doing anything wrong?  Well... tough question.  Yes and no.  No, because if I was doing what they were doing, for say a few hours, it wouldn't be wrong.  But when they do it day after day, week after week for long months... there has to be a reason.  Could they be legit players?  Yes, its absolutely possible.  But isn't it more likely that they are farming plat to sell?  Since everyone has complained about these farmers in POF, couldn't SOE try and prevent the farming?  Give these people a warning, then ban the accounts when it continues.  I know that if I get a warning from a GM, even if I feel that I wasn't doing anything wrong, I wouldn't repeat the activity!  Shouldn't we start working on these people so that there is no plat to sell? Or is that naive?

You have /petition options here . it's a harrasment and player gamer breaker and is reportable ..

( the continued "killstealing" of your quest mob that is )

 Yours

Brorim

[NosmokIng]

So.. now you can leave the island or what ever and start spamming people selling plat non stop Great Work SOE... way to go. Everyday since about 2 weeks ago I get mail in my box on all my accounts advertising cheaper plat. On average twice a night I get plat seller spam tells By accident I left my machine on all night and have almost 15 spam plat teller tells. This is getting worse and worse and annoying the real players. Do something please. its ridiculas.. make so you cant send tells to level 5 or something (in effect keeping them on the island)

[Eueadan]

NosmokIng wrote:

So.. now you can leave the island or what ever and start spamming people selling plat non stop Great Work SOE... way to go. Everyday since about 2 weeks ago I get mail in my box on all my accounts advertising cheaper plat. On average twice a night I get plat seller spam tells By accident I left my machine on all night and have almost 15 spam plat teller tells. This is getting worse and worse and annoying the real players. Do something please. its ridiculas.. make so you cant send tells to level 5 or something (in effect keeping them on the island)

IBL

[Ama]

Eueadan wrote:

NosmokIng wrote:

So.. now you can leave the island or what ever and start spamming people selling plat non stop Great Work SOE... way to go. Everyday since about 2 weeks ago I get mail in my box on all my accounts advertising cheaper plat. On average twice a night I get plat seller spam tells By accident I left my machine on all night and have almost 15 spam plat teller tells. This is getting worse and worse and annoying the real players. Do something please. its ridiculas.. make so you cant send tells to level 5 or something (in effect keeping them on the island)

IBL

*shrugs* Ya, this is a well known problem.  Already promised war on the buggers and the morons just spam me.  Guess i'll have to make good on my promise and start hunting these buggers down.  Be kinda nice to have a CSR/GM take 25-30min out of their schedule to create a character on newbie island.  Just sit there and wait for confirmation of a plat seller then kick them. 

Already sent in 4-5 petitions giving exact locations for these people.  Heck I would join the SoE guide program just to be a plat seller hunter.  Have that nice little title near my name "Plat Seller Slayer".

[hobi]

i ran across this article and thought is was an interesting read http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/47220.

 basically about a group of wow players in floridia that has actually filed a class action lawsuit against a gold selling company that spams them in wow. it also mention s about blizzards lawsuit against another one.

this got me thinking thant maybe a solution would be to change how the marketing of the future and current mmos are done. i mean switch to some thing that has proven to make a profit for the company that runs them. possibly goto something like guild wars.  where you buy the game play for fee  just buy campaigns/expansions  once a year. and in between the devs do in game events like double xp weekend or weekend of increased rare drops/spawn ect.  and make all servers exchange servers. and open up a game store where the company sells  extra char char slots, gold. items such as potion to give a short term xp boost you name it.  it similar  to guildwars marketing except they don't have exchange servers. but even tho they still have some spam it no wheres near as bad as with eq2  or wow there by easier for them to deal with. this would be better than the pay to play based games  on account these spammers don't like to compete directly against the ones that runs  the game cause they will most likely lose. and another benifit would be the game would recieve a continual influx of new players  and reduce server decline and with more people  that would use possibly use exchange services or the  store it would potententially increase soe profits and comtinually renew the community and resulting in a win win situation. plus reduce the spam as those gold sellers will now have to compete with the the big boys and possible get sued by them for trying since legally with th eula this would be soes ingame monoply.

it something to think about or ponder isn't it?? 

[NiteWolfe]

Brorim@Runnyeye wrote:

Erin@Blackburrow wrote:

So I happened to be in POF today.  There were 3 groups of farmers there.  All the usual symptoms, generated bad names, no guilds, anon, etc.  Pulling all the goblins and not allowing me to finish my quest. Now, as far as I know, this is happening on every server.  Are they doing anything wrong?  Well... tough question.  Yes and no.  No, because if I was doing what they were doing, for say a few hours, it wouldn't be wrong.  But when they do it day after day, week after week for long months... there has to be a reason.  Could they be legit players?  Yes, its absolutely possible.  But isn't it more likely that they are farming plat to sell?  Since everyone has complained about these farmers in POF, couldn't SOE try and prevent the farming?  Give these people a warning, then ban the accounts when it continues.  I know that if I get a warning from a GM, even if I feel that I wasn't doing anything wrong, I wouldn't repeat the activity!  Shouldn't we start working on these people so that there is no plat to sell? Or is that naive?

You have /petition options here . it's a harrasment and player gamer breaker and is reportable ..

( the continued "killstealing" of your quest mob that is )

 Yours

Brorim

 First off you cant kill steal since no MOB belongs to any one player. There for it is not YOUR quest mob but simple a quest mob you need.  There is call for reporting some one for monopolizing content. But you have to PROVE they did not let you have a shot at it IE you asked them more than once if you could have a shot at killing a mob because it was a quest issue.  To the person who said couldnt soe try to prevent the farming. Well to be honest  there is not rule against farming. There are plenty of honest players who farm to support there ingame plat needs. I farm regularly myself since i have a dayly cost of 5 to 6 plat in posions alone. Personaly i prefer to farm instances so i advoid the over zelous players reporting me to be a bot since i have 2 other accounts on AF the whole time i farm. BTW the char's i farm with are anon, are in my own alt guild so the guild is very low level and they all have very good kill to death ratio's b/c  i farm easy stuff for  body loot  and masters.  This fits the so called bot farmers yet i break no soe rules and i dont sell my plat.  i was almost forced into instance farming due to steady reports against me yet not once was i ever asked if a group or player could have a shot at some mob. It was always some player role up see me camping a named or a group of mobs and they /report me for monopolizing content. Thank god the GM's actualy contact the player in question and dont instant ban!

[xOnaton1]

Noaani wrote:

AntLion wrote:

 I hear Blizzard have taken this issue up a notch. They’re now filing a lawsuit against the web sites that sell the gold and offer power leveling services.

You have heard wrong.

Blizzard have not taken up any lawsuits against anyone, a sinlge lone player has.

Also, it is not against web sites (plural), it is against IGE, a single company with an office in Florida.

If any good actually comes out of this, it may open up the way for SoE and Blizzard to take action, but that is yet to be seen.

Get facts straight, Blizzard have done considerably less in their game to combat plat spam than SoE have.

I think you have heard wrong. The Florida class action lawsuit is against IGE. The Blizzard lawsuit is against Peons4hire. http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/ne...php?story=14169

[Dasein]

The lawsuit against IGE is an interesting one, as the crux of the tort is that IGE's actions devalue player's gold. For this suit to have merit, it means that the virtual currency in a game like WoW actually has value, and that any action which devalues that currency is now potential grounds for a lawsuit. There's a good chance Blizzard might side with IGE on this, as a successful lawsuit here would set much worse precedents for MMO publishers.

[DreadPirate]

Amana wrote:

Heck I would join the SoE guide program just to be a plat seller hunter.  Have that nice little title near my name "Plat Seller Slayer".

Nice thought, but Guides don't do that kind of thing.

[interstellarmatter]

They do need to catch up with hunting plat spammers.  Notice I said spammers not sellers.  Catching sellers and buyers is a very difficult task.  The spammers definitely need to be stopped.  Sony is starting to fall behind the curve on this issue.  Blizzard put in some report methods and filters to stop spammers recently.  I haven't heard from a spammer since.  This was coming from getting 30 spams a hour.  Now, it's Sony's turn to step up to put a stop to it.

[Groma]

You can do everyone a favor to lock down a plat seller.  Just start talking to them, ask questions about their services, and they eat it up.  I kept one going for over an hour one night when i was bored and i was asking in levels channels who had gotten tells previous to my starting the convo, and then after, and apparently he sent no tells while i was talking to him.  I know they are a PITA, but there are things that one person in the community can do to keep the rest of the community spam free.  Time to start working shifts.

[Velsha]

[hobi]

Dasein wrote:

The lawsuit against IGE is an interesting one, as the crux of the tort is that IGE's actions devalue player's gold. For this suit to have merit, it means that the virtual currency in a game like WoW actually has value, and that any action which devalues that currency is now potential grounds for a lawsuit. There's a good chance Blizzard might side with IGE on this, as a successful lawsuit here would set much worse precedents for MMO publishers.

the thing here is the gold sellers are selling for actual cash so doesn't that prove that virtual currency has value? becuase if it did have any monetary value then it wouldn't be generating cash flow for these companies.

either way i believe in some shape or form the marketing sturucture of mmos will need to change or some sort of regulations may need to be placed virtual property. other wise i can see this as potentially threatening the surviabilty of any mmo

[SG_01]

I never receive tells from plat farmers... Then again, I'm on /roleplay or /anonymous all the time

[Thicket Tundrabog]

Dasein wrote:

The lawsuit against IGE is an interesting one, as the crux of the tort is that IGE's actions devalue player's gold. For this suit to have merit, it means that the virtual currency in a game like WoW actually has value, and that any action which devalues that currency is now potential grounds for a lawsuit. There's a good chance Blizzard might side with IGE on this, as a successful lawsuit here would set much worse precedents for MMO publishers.

I saw much more that devaluing player's currency. The suit alleges * Effect on time where gold farmers strip scarce and limited resources. * Devaluing player currency. * Destroying subscriber experience through spamming and junk mail. * Competitively disadvantaging honest subscribers It all hinges on damaging the enjoyment of paying subscribers.

[Image_Vain]

I don't care, I mean does it really annoy you when you get a few tells every few hours advertising plat?

[Ama]

DreadPirate wrote:

Amana wrote:

Heck I would join the SoE guide program just to be a plat seller hunter.  Have that nice little title near my name "Plat Seller Slayer".

Nice thought, but Guides don't do that kind of thing.

Not yet anyways.... never forget they are among us.

[xOnaton1]

I really hope the devs are working on a solution and there have been many ideas offered. Here is my contribution: 1. Tell throttling. Limit tells to one every two seconds (or some reasonable number.) This could easily be done within the client so it wouldn't even affect the server code. These spammers are obviously sending out hundreds of /tells per minute. 2. One click reporting. Reporting spam has to be quick and easy. Reporting mail spam is done this way-- you click on the spam button and you click a second time on a confirmation window. Reporting /tell spam takes far too long and you can't even /report more than once every 5 minutes when we get spam every 2 or 3 minutes! Petitioning takes too long and you can only have one petition open at a time. We need to be able to click on a name, report spam, and then click on a confirmation window. Done! 3. Automatic /tell gagging. After 25 (or some number) spam reports are filed against one account no tells are allowed from that account. If the account tries to send another /tell they get a polite response, "You have been reported by at least 25 players for spamming. You are not allowed to send any more tells. A GM will contact you on their findings. You may /petition for help if you think you have been wrongfully accused of spamming. Thank you for your patience." If one player griefs another player by reporting them for spamming... nothing happens. After 25+ players report one account for spamming, all 25 reports are grouped together and automatically filed as a petition that a GM can handle in one fell swoop, thus saving GM time in the process. Please SOE, the game is painful to play now. My only option currently is to just turn off all tells in my chat window. Othesus - Dirge - Lucan DLere Vaspar - Fury - Lucan DLere

[dawy]

I must admit its been great today not a single tell from the farmers..salad days indeed.

[Nakaru-Nitepaw]

the last couple of days have been almost plat seller free for me. It seams to have died down a little. day before yesterday i had 1 send me a tell and i replied to them saying "i like order pizza. you sell domino? i take mushroom, olive, onion, and dis ting you call plat? is the platter to hold pizza? i take too". He didnt reply of course.

[Axelia]

Today was the turning point for me and I think this is the only way to get rid of the plat sellers is to make it unprofitable for them. I hated this game when it was first released and it has become one of the best MMOs and it saddens me to see what has happened over the last 6 months.

First of all as an individual I can do nothing but as a community we can do a lot. We need to give the game maker some ammunition and no better way than lost revenue due to plat sellers using private channels.

I sent feedback to the game maker stating the exact reason I was canceling was due to the constant tells ever 2 to 5 minutes. I stated that I would return when this issue is resolved but in the mean time I intend to strike. I then logged out and canceled my subscription.

 Now as one lost account is not a big issue I think as more and more players tell in feedback the reason they are leaving the game, SOE can go after these guys for a LOT of lost revnue. We are talking here in the range of several million.  

[Jagged Halo]

the real rason for why we have the plat spam is being ignored the buyers get rid of them and these companys will fold very fast

[joebyrdw]

I agree something needs to be done about these guys. Yesterday I got 14 tells in less than  10 minutes of being logged in. This continued for my entire play time last night.

[KunamitsuUK]

joebyrdws6 wrote:

I agree something needs to be done about these guys. Yesterday I got 14 tells in less than  10 minutes of being logged in. This continued for my entire play time last night.

WOW! Here I am complaining about one or 2 during a 6 hour session, some of the servers seem to get it rough! Id hate to think what I would be like if I was getting incessant spam, think I'd stop playing.