I didn't count 24 names doing this, way way less. Also theyre blue con at 110, I imagine FTP which maxxes at 105. Regardless, im not minimizing, this is going on on every server and is generating over 100 million platinum per month on BB alone. This is absolutely out of control and who knows exactly how long it has been going on, but there is nothing good that this could do or add to the game to justify not persuing IP bans and behavior pattern marking for future bans.
I was using an alt to check for hunter targets, when I took notice of the interesting behavior. I also frequently daisy chain the magi looking for goodies. I've observed 12+, all anon, all mage, all with water pets, all with erudite mercs, and not at all talkative. Also, observed various peeps from top guilds standing around the camp at times (observers?) The drops they sell have changed over time, so they may have changed instances or the instance scaled up as they leveled and the drops changed. I assume, they destroy the non-cash drops. You may observe something interesting if you order the vendor items by the amount in stock. However, I have no need of 10,000+ rat whiskers.
Um, 100m is not that much brosef. Not defending the activity in anyway but just checkin ya on that number.
Yeah, it's not a lot to the people who toss money at this game and obtain plat in other ways. The people here complaining probably think 2-5M is a lot of plat, hence why this probably bothers them because it's harder to sell/obtain plat.
True, 10 stacks of tungsten ore yields 7,500 plat for the bot team. The same 10 stacks in the bazaar at 525 each would yield the vendor diver 5,250,000. Almost all of it profit. This is great for trade skills. Does place a cap on the quick sale price, but there are still small lots priced much higher. Bots could make far more selling in the bazaar, but maybe its too complex to script item transfer from farm bot to vendor bot. Still, I've seen a row of characters hanging out in the bazaar hallways before. Perhaps the bot crew had the week off.
30+ years ago my roomate in college could spend 75$ a night at a bar(his hobby). In non-inflation adjusted dollars, in EQ, that level of "commitment to EQ as a hobby" would yield yield depending on your server, some double digit plat equivalence. (ie, more than 10m, maybe alot more than 10m)
100m plat that is being generated in illegal ways sure is a lot. People wonder why DBG puts large plat sinks like 200k Crystallized Luck and 10k guild banners, etc, etc ingame. They have to absorb it somewhere. Bot teams like this generating `100m+ a month per server (low end esitimate based off of a 2 mage team seen on BB and the quantities sold to Wollems in the past month before the last patch) end up costing the legitimate players more. Regardless of your opinion, 100m plat generated from illegitimate practice is a staggering amount, no matter how its looked at.
I dwell on this as of late. Part of the human condition is to check your measure: How much you make, level of education, neighborhood you live in. We watch and participate in sports, game shows, talk politics, celebrate victories and commiserate failures. This was one of the reasons for EQ and other MMPOG success, they gave you a level playing field with a means to measure your performance in a large arena. With EQ, the meaning of measure is taken away with all the TOS violations.
Personally I just play EQ to have fun. I don't like afk botters of any kind but that is because I think it ruins the fun for a lot of players. Players who fairly work at farming items cannot compete with 24/7 auto farm groups. That ruins their fun. Same goes for farming gear or holding camps with auto play. My feeling is if you are going to play the game then play the game. Be at the keyboard.
