Bugsy VanHalen
Society of lost Souls
522
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Posted - 2013.03.27 18:14:00 -
[1] - Quote
Oki Troom wrote:
Just to clarify, I'm not at Jita, I'm at Dodixie.
And yes, you can always move to less profitable or lower volume items. The point I am trying to make though is that, as the number of botters increase, they will move into more an more of the market. As competition between botters increases and squeezes margins they will also start to compete in these areas. I am not saying its not possible to make money Station Trading, I am just saying that if something isn't done about the trading bots - it soon will be. Anyone who has been trading for any period of time will tell you that bots are getting worse.
I get were you are coming from, and I do not disagree that market botting is on the rise.
However I look at this as more an opportunity then a problem. Market bots, no matter how well programed are not human. They can not reason, and can not tell the difference between a manipulation attempt and a competitor. If you find a item that a true market bot is active on, you only need to test the bots reactions to find a way to exploit it. Not exploit the game, but the botter that is violating the rules. If you can figure out the programed rules that bot is following you can manipulate that bot for your own profits. If the bot is undercutting every sell order you place then manipulate them down with a series of small orders until there price drops below your profit threshold. then you can buy out there orders and repost them at a higher value.
All high volume items move up and down in value constantly. if you know what the range you can expect to see is you can play that market very easily. play right alone with the 0.01 iskers, even jump by larger amounts that you know they will undercut by 0.01 isk. when the price gets down buy up the lower orders, all of them and quickly. then you can repost them at a value you know the bounce back will exceed. even if it is only a 1-2% profit, if you do this in high volume you can make massive isk. market bots make this easier not harder. you just need to determine the bots threshold and snap up the orders 1-2 isk before the bot hits its threshold.
We can not expect CCP to eliminate the bots for us. not matter what they do the botters will very quickly adapt and keep going. They are doing a good job of identifying bots and locking there accounts, but there are always new ones popping up. If however, the non botters continue to out play the bots, which is easy to do, the players using the bots will stop as they will be losing isk.
The big problem with bots and isk sellers is something that can never truly be addressed in any MMO. The problem is there are many businesses in third world countries where MMO games are a major source of income. If you could pay 200 people $2 per day to play an MMO with a dedicated focus on efficient raising of ingame wealth with no regard for having fun. It is a job after all. and they each make enough isk/gold/credits what ever that in game currency is, to sell that thru the companies website for $50 per day that company is making great returns.
Consider this, a $15 sub which is common for MMO's plus $2 per day adds up to $75 per month cost to the company. If each employee is averaging them $50 week income from selling the earned in game currency for real money thru the companies website,, that is $200 per month. Or $125 profit. multiply that by 200 employees that is $25,000 per month. Ad administration fees and building maintenance, etc, they are still going to be making at least $15,000-$20,000 per month profit. Not a lot of money for a company of 200 employees, at least not in the US or western Europe. But in a country where the average monthly income for a person is only $40-$60 per month that is a lot of money. And these employees are grateful as it is one of the best paying jobs in their county. In a country where the equivalent of $2 USD per day is a really good gob a company making $20,000 per month is a very successful company.
this is why botting and thrid party gold/isk sellers will never die. it is not some guy in his basement trying to make a little extra money, it is companies in third world country's with no other option to make that kind on money. |