Trade and Fraud.

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Dear customers

Im very saddened to say that, recently, we have observed players diliberately misusing their friend's trust in order to gain valueable items.

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A trade in game is a matter of trust between the two players, and the sole responsibility of those two players.

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If you are trading items you cannot afford to lose, be sure you only trade with a person you know you can absolutely trust.

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I did not post the above parts to pick apart the letter, but to make a point.


Everyday that I must hand another an Item for TRADESKILL use, Im risking it. And you as a company are telling me to do it with one hand and not to with the other.

EQ was like this, They said 'Make sure that what you are trading for is in the window before you hit accept' Kinda hard too when Ive spent 3Million on Implants and Im wanting them made, now isnt it? I spent several hours collecting them, so tho they might only be 3Million (some of you are laughing right now) they mean something IMPORTANT to me.

Why even warn us? Your going to continue to make things that we will continually need another to place in their inventory and expect them to hand back, and yet when they dont, youll blame us. Youll say you shouldnt have handed it to them, when in fact we did what you expected and designed it to be.

So, I placed this here in GAME MECHANICS, for a reason.

Its GAME MECHANICS that can and do created some of these problems. I didnt make the game.

I placed it here in GAME MECHANICS also, hoping that if by some chance of cosmic fate, Im actually right, this might actually be reevaluated and toned down. TRADESKILLS shouldnt be a MAJOR sink, but a MINOR past time. DUMPING points to be able to do trade skills for YOUR LEVEL is a SINKHOLE.


Granted I know this letter was prolley written do to several people complaining that 'A friend' was to pass items to their alt. You created that problem also. The Game is fun, but repeating not only the EXP process but the hunt for ncu, belt, weapon of choice, and so on is BORING. Ever think of an ACCOUNT BANK? MailSystem(I walk over and drop something in a specific MACHINE for mailing, Player Im mailing to gets a message to goto Box in world and retrieve his Item)?


Rant?!? Maybe

Complaint?!? Sometimes


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GA is a prime example. Of not only a SINK HOLE on TradeSkills, but an Item that some MUST recieve help from others to complete. EveryClass isnt set up to be a TRADESKILL-MASTER.

Yes I whole hardly agree a "contract to be made" item should be added. something that take the skill of who makes it and transfers it to a item. I haven't heard of it happening a lot in AO but in UO scams are very common place.

Saying all that. I haven't scamed anyone yet but some times that ga4 and dragon armour does it tempting.

You really just tend to get used to it.
As a veteran UO player I had numerous items stolen from me.
Some people claimed the item had been destroyed when they attempted to repair it, others just did a runner.

In the end the GM's in UO actually started doing something about it.
If you handed over items to a Smith for repair and they did a runner you could report them to a GM (GM response times in UO are pretty rapid at any time fo the day or night).
I know "players" who were banned for operating such scams.

It is different in UO really as you soon get a name, people will spend the time looking for a good Smith or Tailor and only use them, in turn they recommend other trustworthy players.
In the end the scammers just get a perminant bad name for themselves and the scam does a death.

Thats not something I would want people to get used to and its a pretty sad thing to be DESIGNED into a game.

Well the message on the launcher does kind of open the doors to all kind of problems.
In as many words it does say "Feel free to scam & steal as we (Funcom) are not going to do anything to stop you".

I must admit that as a young character I did kind of scam somebody - some high level offering to pay 20k for a mission reward token.
I just kind of handed him an empty backpack and told him there were two inside and the trade went ahead.
Now that really makes me no better than some of the other scammers, but really I was just maing my stand against those people illegal purchasing those items.

However I then heard that GM's were actually clamping down on people who did exactly what I'd just done, so I only did it the once.

People are gonna find a way to screw people no matter what you do, so you might as well learn the lesson of "Only deal with people you can trust."

I know who I can trust if I get my hands on a GA4 disc. I certainly would wait to talk to a reputable maker, rather than simply spamming the shopping channel for the first person who can do it without knowing them at all.

What about designing npc's that can arrange stuff for us for a price? Make it a lot more expensive then if a player does it, but it's a viable option. I've known plenty of games that had a 'blacksmith'. You hand him your weapon with the correct selection, he repairs it and hands it back.

Perhaps we can get a window like that. You put the items you want assembled in the window, the NT does the job and you get your completed item back. Credits are removed from your account depending on the QL of the items being created.

A very viable option for people with a lot of creds, and who don't trust anyone enough to hand them hard to get important items.