plat sellers=drug sellers

the amount of topics that complain about plat selling is almost amusing... and I'm not including plat farming in this discussion because anyone who says plat farming is bad or against the rules is a [I cannot control my vocabulary]... if you play this game you farm for plat, period. It is how this game runs Either you collect stuff or you kill stuff and get stuff, either brings you plat! anyway... my subject isnt to imply that a plat seller is as bad as a drug seller, just that they are equally hard to get rid of. The main reason people sell plat, or even drugs? People BUY it! As long as there are ppl out there w/the $$, people will find any means necessary to get that $$ for themselves. ANY means necessary... I'd like to see any of you find a way to stop people who are willing to do anything to make some $$... To quote an old phrase, "where there is a will, there is a way" and there aren't many other things that give a person more will than the possibility of earning some $$ SOE, Goodluck!

Almost.

[p] Wow what a controversial topic!!1![/p][p] [/p][p]:roll:[/p]

This reminds me of the dev in SWG who said spices wouldn't be coming back because it was like promoting drugs in the game.

[p]I cannot say anything constructive on this topic and yet I seem unable to say nothing as I know I should. [/p][p]It is certainly not a NEW concept that the reason plat sellers proliferate is because people BUY plat. In fact, I dare say, the plat sellers themselves have probably thought of this. What makes you think this is such an earth shaking revelation that it's worthy of it's own thread?[/p]

I think they should introduce Electrum into the game as 100 Plat. Then people wouldn't yell about the plat farmers... :thumbup:

Its really easy though, they make a lot of money from broker sales that beat out the rest of the market. You can always make sure the person you are buying from is in a respected guild or at least keep a list of legit people on the broker. Can always look up the sellers name on the site to find out more about them. Only buy from real people, then the plat sellers have even less revenue.

the fact that there are numerous threads blaming SOE or anyone else they can when it is the players themselves that are the cause of this problem just thought I would point that out... if you didn't think it was important you didn't have to click on it...

I was trying to make that point in a transition post. These people are doing it for a living and will use all their means to make sure they do, albiet not a real good one. As with drugs, as long as there is a demand... there will be a supply.

[p]and yet, just as I cannot control drug buyers, I cannot control plat buyers either. What good does it do to announce that it is the buyers who are the problem? Do you really think that the people who complain about plat farmers are the ones buying? [/p][p]Just as drug users don't care about drug dealers, plat buyers don't care about plat farmers. They benefit one another so neither of them care about the problem. So, telling me, or any other non-plat buyer that the problem is the buyers doesn't do any good at all, because I can't do anything more about it than I can about plat farmers. Telling people who DO buy plat won't do any good cuz they don't give a rats behind if it causes problems. [/p][p] Therefore, to get up on your high horse and proclaim that those of us who complain about plat farmers are pissin in the wind because the problem is NOT farmers, but BUYERS, is to truly miss the point. [/p][p]As to ignoring your post, I certainly could have, but as I mentioned I was simply unable to refrain from making my point. It's a sickness. [/p]

It has been proven time and time again that prohibition doesn't work in a free society where people are allowed to be themselves and make their own choices, and especially where they are allowed to participate in a free economy. Prohibition only works in societies where the leaders are in enough power to completely control the populace's actions (and the types who would choose to do so). To do that there can be little privacy among the populace as privacy is anathema to government control. As part of this control, some innocents may be crushed by the wayside, the law of averages alone suggests that in mass sweeps to find the guilty, a certain number of the innocent will be caught as well and at the very least severely inconvenienced, so sorry. Also, certain monies must naturally be diverted from things like social programs, etc, to pay for the surveillance required to catch guilty parties. Now SOE, being a private company controlling this little Norathian society called EQ2, has the power to enforce prohibition, through tracking of all cash transactions and banning accounts on any that seem questionable. This could easily get rid of many plat sellers and buyers. This of course would also mean less privacy and more hassle for a good deal of legitimate players as well... for example, your hubby has been playing for a few months and finally convinces you to get a new account. He has plenty of money being one who knows the best places to grind cash and exp so mails you 15 or 20 platinum as soon as you leave Newb island. You have a blast the first night of playing together and come back the next day really looking forward to ripping some gnolls a new **** and can't log in, then you find an email from SOE saying your account has been suspended for questionable financial transactions. I mean how is SOE to know that that 15 platinum exchanged between two separate accounts is a legit transaction? Sure, it would be easy to prove after the fact that the transaction was legit, but only after some hassle for you as a perfectly legit player. This could happen to any two-boxers, guildies, etc. that are exchanging money between seperate accounts. So, some might argue, to avoid bothering their good and legit players, SOE would just make sure they do a thorough investigation of all suspicious activity before coming to any conclusions. So where do you think the money to pay for the man-hours required to do this is going to come from? Think SOE employees will all agree to a paycut to fund the EQ2 secret police? Nope, that money would come from good and legit players, either in the form of greater costs to play the game, or of less money spent on development. PERIOD. And it would take a lot of money, because plat buyers and sellers will get savvy to SOE's methods and will soon adapt. If SOE flags all transactions above 10 plat for investigation (god can you imagine how many that is even only among legit players... oh the backlog for those poor investigators) then plat sellers will just send all money 9 plat at a time. No matter what SOE did, they would adapt, requiring the restrictions on trade to become tighter and tighter, and in turn netting more and more innocent folks as part of the dragnet. Commenting on the Drug Dealer- Plat Seller Connection, these above reasons are why many countries with totalitarian regimes have less drug-use than those with open democracies. They also have secret police and death squads, and tend to be less squeamish about a few innocents getting hurt in the process of keeping order. So folks what do you wanr? A totally plat seller free environment or an open market with a flourishing economy where you don't have to explain every transaction to a GM investigator? That is the trade-off, and you can't get what you want for free no matter how much you wish it were so. The only way SOE can stop the plat sellers and buyers is to close the free market and take complete control of the economy by making almost everything no-trade. If the free market goes, the game will follow, and so, I think, we will just have to live with the Plat sellers and be glad that SOE does what it can within its power to ban the worst offenders without needlessly bothering innocent players.

wow, couldnt have said it better myself and i see your point slapfish, but what about my disease of posting topics which tend to get people "excited" I just can't help myself

Wow people will complain about everything. Not all classes being able to solo as well. Tier 2 dps doing Tier 1 dps. Now people that play 20 hours a day are selling plat to others that don't have the time to play as much but still want to keep up with their friends in levels and gear. So what upsets you more that they have more plat than you or have botters stolen a mob that you and your friends were about to hit and were too slow? I myself don't care of someone buys plat because that's plat they have to pay me for stuff I have on the vender. Plat sales also bring the prices of rare items down because they are constantly farmed and their is a abundance on the market. So long live the plat farmers.

What upsets me about it? Well, it's only on the non-exchange server where I bothers me. Mainly..well..it's against the rules so that CHEATING. Maybe you liked to cheat in school but I hated cheaters. Still do, that's why I like to see everyone selling and buying plat on non-exchange server banned from the game. Bring some integrity back to the game.

Agreed! I couldn't care less how much plat they buy, it can be 1p or 100p and it's the same, cheating.

I totally understand those that don't like plat selling/buying on Non-exchange servers.... my point is not that you have to like it, just that you shouldn't be holding out any high expectations of ever completely getting rid of it, it just isn't feasible without trade-offs that will totally kill the game.

When you buy plat the Terrorists win?

plat farming is lame. finally got a good look at it when our party dug its way deep into a dungeon only to find four guys all named "asaekjfakj" "dfhauehbv" "ahdfhade" and "pkadhrhh" (or that sorta thing) standing exactly where names pop. because of damage shields, etc. they were guaranteed the aggro no matter what our party did. for like an hour we tried in vain to do what we came there to do, of course they were unresponsive to anything (i suppose they were bots or something, although i have no idea how bots loot) - and of course we /petitioned ... but that's BS. you do whatever you want to make a living. farm plat in EQ2, fine, whatever. but don't interfere with legit players doing what the game was designed for. we work actual bona-fide legit, respectable jobs to be able to pay for entertainment like EQ2 and when we work hard to get somewhere in a dungeon only to find it riddled with farmers, it makes me want to quit the game. SOE get on these guys hard plz. they suck.

Plat selling companies and their minions are usually not from the US. I imagine it IS a bon-a-fide job where they are. Anything that feeds ya would be. They don't make so much money either but it's a living for them. Not for us though and we really can't compare.

[p]Simple solution:[/p][p]SOE buys plat from known plat sellers and plat selling web sights. When they see the player that was used to "deliver the plat" they ban that players IP. Then, even if it wasnt the farmer himself that was giving you the loot..."prolly one of his alt accounts or an alt toon of his" ..you would still have his IP blocked and he couldnt play any of his toons =)[/p]