How fast things change....Follow

Posted @ Fri, Jul 30th 4:42 PM 2004 By: Grulkraad

I dunno, I still make a VERY tidy sum of money from selling Plat to mysupersales every month. I wait till the first Friday of each month usually around 4pm and the prices are still quite good for me. The account thing may be dying down, just because so many 65 uber 300+ aa characters are already out there, but PP sales are alive and kicking as far as I can tell.

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Posted @ Fri, Jul 30th 6:50 PM 2004 By: Grulkraad

Well I immensly enjoy three boxing, so I figure, what the hell I can handle one more. True, I am looking to be able to farm items on my own, so I need not worry about rolls and such for loot. However as far as RL money goes, I make a very decent amount of RL cash for selling PP and that is with out farming on my own.

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So what's it now? Very decent or very tidy? or does it just depend on the thread?



Edited, Sat Jul 31 09:20:55 2004 by MordenRaspCleric

How hard is it for people to understand that selling plat is bannable? Not to mention how much it destroys the game.

Hmmm at $60 per day i would have to make 200k per day 7 days a week to match my wage, i don't think that is posible without exploits so i won't be giving up work any time soon.

P.s at $25 per day i would have to make 500k per day to match my present wage.

I see no problem checking it out, I've done that. The problem is what it does to the game. It also gives the people with money an unfair advantage.

I know someone who bought a toon, played it a bit, and is now in Qvic, in a guild moving fast to tacvi, all without having hurt anyone. Buying plat/toons doesn't hurt the economy, in general.

uhh, no, it doesn't. I guarantee he is a better warrior than you are.

everyone knows that all the low-end memories are better than all the high-end game memories. and, uhh, he's leveled three characters (he did retire for a few months, however)

Wow.. Where to start ..

You could argue that selling plat does hurt the game, the spirit of the game, is a violation of the EULA, and you would be hard pressed to make as much as good Tarv of the Seven Seas does in his normal job ..

You could argue that buying plat kills the spirit and does hurt the game, is an unfair advantage on top of a violoation of EULA, and brings a bunch of newbies at high levels who do not know how to play ..

You could argue that the platinum market changed after MySuperSales bought IGE (who is based in Hong Kong for those who like to know), that they may have been the force behind the plat duping schemes, that they create sellers who drive up the bazaar market beyond the means of ordinary players, that they continue to try to corner the third party EQ market by tendering offers to Allakhazam.com, that this greed and desire for profit have crept into EverQuest and many players.. that Sony watches this profit with greedy eyes..
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You could argue all those.

What I will argue is these conditions have arised as a result of the inherent inbalance in EverQuest itself.

That, fundamentaly, it takes months to years to reach a presumed level of ability for your character, and upon reaching that level of ability you are thrown another curve. That it takes until level 50 to actually get a decent piece of loot; for me it was level 52 when I got Imbued Granite Spaulders in the Hole.

That, fundamentaly, there is a cry for decent reward vesus effort of time that EverQuest continually fails to deliver. Not the reward of commradery, we have that who play the game from old. Rather the fabled reward from all the literature read, the movies seen, the dreams of nights past. I see the Promise, the Promise is there: I suck up again and get better to survive the next zone, achieve the next AA, invision the next perceived deliverance that awaits for me - unstated by Sony, yet yearned for by I, who pictures my toon, with the Glory of God!, vanquishing a great horror, walking off the field of battle, lighted by the glow of victory, the hard fought treasure wrapped in my arms. Dreaming of a lingering kiss from a fair maiden..

It has yet to be.

It will never be. In this game. The loot I desire to carry of the field of valor - that I so desire to earn in hard battle - I simply stroll through the bazaar to get. If I where able to get these items, or similiar items skewed to the proper levels, with one or two or three friends, I would. To obtain the items that make a noticable difference to your character, a raid level or 65th level group is required. Or some plat and a walk in the bazaar.

This is not a situation in which the sellers have created a market and changed the game. This is a situation where there are players who are shortcutting deficiencies in the game itself, to reach a level of play that is desirable without the gargantuan struggle all of us who played the game for years have gone through. Yes, they do not know the old ways, the suttle glories, the wonderful friends, the joy a Fine Steel Rapier can bring. But they have a desireable level of play, a better reward versus time ratio.

This exists because Sony allows it to. Sony can change the game play; Sony can change the "drop" and "no drop" types of items; Sony can even change the nature of plat so only NPC's can use it - and you could only sell into NPC's as well. Sony has solved these issues : look at the EverQuest for the PS2 : this problem, and others, do not exist. My brother and I have played the PS2. There are very few twinks, gameplay is faster with phenomoly better loot that is obtainable and desireable at all levels. Overall there is not the neccesity to 'twink' or accelerate your characters play with items above his current level or station.

Versant originaly designed some faults in the PC EverQuest that Sony has maintained and expanded. Sony wholey designed the PS2 version of EQ. What does this intone? Simply that Sony knows the solutions to the issues in EverQuest, and implemented them into the PS2 EverQuest, but Sony will not implement them into this version. Sony is looking to maintain a 'working' product with an extreme profit margin, and to find new areas of profit from this revenue stream known as EverQuest. Perhaps it is known internally as EverQuestingForProfit.

If the sellers and buyers persist past the unveiling of EQ2, I believe Sony will then implement some form of plat and character buying and selling - for a fee or percentage based on plat, and a handling charge. Do not be surprised when the same in-game and third-party economy exists in EQ2.

How fast things change..

Yet I play, and it is my own game, my style.

I do not condone this, yet in this is a beauty. Beauty uniquely human in our ability to find and exploit ways to improve our standing - and to profit no less! Fair? To me, hardly. Will I buy plat? No, and hell no. I actually enjoy the low level game the plat buyers and twinkers miss out on. Does this ruin the game? In some zones, absolutely. I go to others.

EverQuest delivers a Promise. The beautiful High-Elf cleric on the cover; fame and treasure to be had! I think of - I assume - myself, a friend, a journey, a magic chest, and if not a dragon, then at least a drake! And a fabled sword that ignites hope in the land.. without being 65th level and a raid. My fault, my assumption, my dream. But proffered by the Game - and all that went before the game in the books I grew up on, and D&D, and the games before.

EverQuest does not fulfil the Promise. And that is the biggest fault in the game, to me. Not the economy, not the plat problems, not the twinking, not the ranger problems or wizard problems. Not the game changing at level 50 so drastically. Not Sony's greed. I simply want my dream of a quest delivered for myself and a couple others; a maiden saved, a lost relic recovered that has good stats that changes my play the way ornate armor does at 55 - but a level 20, and 30, and 40. Won't happen, wrong game, I know that. But, players find ways to enhance what is delivered to them to be closer to the Promise - be it mine, or a different vision this game proffers to them. More and more, one way is with plat buying - and selling.

With all the twinking going on, and to a degree the plat buying, most level 20 characters I see now, right now, today, have the equivelent of high end kunark gear from 3 years ago. So I ask you, Sony, the great and all knowing, what is wrong with an instanced quest given to an 18th level ranger, solo or with friend, to slay a mini-dragon and get an Argent Protector? That is so very close to the vision I have. How on earth would that change the game balance that you, all powerful Sony, strived to protect years ago? Especially with your blind-eye to the twinking that completely shatters the balance of old. Do that type of game play, and for me, the bazaar would cease to exist. And plat selling and buying and the profit from it. Ah.. of course. That is why you will not do that.

So the game remains close, but not quite there. Playable, better then others. But not quite there.

So I continue my journeys, and wish you all to journey far and fare well! And keep the Promise envisioned - it will arrive it not by EverQuest, then by another.

Those who agree with me, I thank you for defending my opinion. Those with more money get a huga advantgage mainly because:

They are more likely to be grouped with.

They can survive easier.

They jack up the prices in the Bazaar, meaning that normal, honest players, can never dream of buying what they want.

Guilds want uber players.

Most importantly, they have a blatant disregaurd for the rules, and get away with it.

Of course he is because I for one am not a fan of tanking and will probably never play one. You do have to know that im talking about the majority of players because many of the people who buy characters dont know what they are doing in most places. Your friend might have gone to site's like allakhazam and learned all they could about their class before buying the character, but that behavior is not the norm in Ebayers.

There is a simple reason why PP sales hurt EQ. It inflates the economy. Lets focus on the "Widget of Uberness" It only drops in one high end zone, and only drops once a day max. There are two of them in the bazaar, at 10K each. They don't move very fast because 10K is allot of PP and takes awhile to earn.

Player A decides he doesn't want to wait to earn the PP so he buys 10K in a real life auction and buys the "Widget of Uberness" no harm no foul right? Except seller B sees that the "Widget of Uberness" sold for 10K so he marks his up to 50K.

Now no one in their right mind would pay that kind of PP. But instead of letting Seller B figure out its not worth that kind of PP Player B buys 50K and purchases the item. Seller A gets another "Widget of Uberness" and notices the last one sold for 50K so he reprices his next one at 100K. Rinse Repeat.

This brings up the argument mudflation only effects the high end. However, now Seller A has 110K instead of the 20K he would have normally gotten. So when he goes to twink out his next alt he dumps 110K into the low/mid game economy instead of 20K. So newbie "doesn't want to purchase his PP" is SOL when he goes to buy gear because everything in the bazaar is 10 times more expensive than what he could ever expect to earn the old fashioned way, so what does he do? He buys PP and starts the whole cycle over again.

SOE has the tools to catch the PP salespeople. 10s of thousands of PP doesn't change hands between naked lvl 1 toons very often. They just want to keep a balance between the anti PP sales people and the munchkins since they are both paying their $14 a month. They try very hard not to **** of either group too much.

Honestly, I don't give a crap who is wielding a "Widget of Uberness". It has no effect on my gameplay whatsoever. What gets me is when I work all day to earn 1000pp and get to the bazaar only to find out the only thing I can afford is a pair of cloth sleeves and 4 fishrolls.

Edited, Mon Aug 2 09:50:18 2004 by xythex

Still can't figure out why you would pay real $ for play $; heck this a game you play for enjoyment. To me the real attraction of EQ is sense of achomplishment you get from progressing your character, not where you stand v. twinks.

Having said that, I am not a great van of the bazaar either - while it serves a real purpose, as Neverdone points out, you can buy items that would normally be well beyond your capability. The ebay route is just an extreme example of this.

I make a point of trying not to buy things at the bazaar (never paid more than 100 pp for an item except for some of my chanter spells and then only buy if i can't get the research items to drop), but I don't have a problem with someone selling a nice out of class item that dropped.

One mistake EQ made was not putting the trival loot rule in effect for all servers IMHO; this would eliminate farming I realize but think it would be a good thing.

I recently logged on my 46 clc & pally in Rathe where the only other player that AM was a level 65, while HGs are still dk blue mostly to me which means one at a time, the lv 65 had damage going on 5 to 6 HGs at a time. Where is the challenge in that? I actually had to sit around waiting for the odd HG to pop as my poor dwf pally even with a sow leftover from previous outing couldnt keep up the lv 65's speed LOL.

Still though - 10000 plat for $13.99 is a great deal for a new player who is just starting.

My view is that it takes a bunch of fun out of the game.

I have tried it and have lost interest in my character around level 35 or so. Can't say whether it was the money or the fact that after level 35 or so the amount of time needed to play eq is pretty high.

What is kinda funny though is that even with purchasing plat and buying armor, I was still on the lower end of the quality of items that my fellow mid-30's characters were using.

/shrug

The MR perspective on this is that I am seeing active plat-sellers taking advantage of the stupidly inflated prices of low-end gear to sell plat to low levels. This is preventing prices from dropping as they should be by now. When SCHW are 6-10k and steady at that for several months it isn't because nobody is in Velks. It is because there are enough people daft enough to buy the plat to pay those prices.

Several times in newbie zones I have run into people using /ooc to say stuff like "Why farm for plat when you can do some chores IRL and buy it". The temptation for newbies to spend a few dollars and get a few k to start is enormous.

Personally I totally agree that it ruins the point of the game for them. When they have done it once then it is the obvious thing to do it again and again and to defend it by ridiculing people who spend time camping mobs for gear or doing quests because they can just buy the result.