Thesas
Gallente
Center for Advanced Studies
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Posted - 2007.05.17 18:20:00 -
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If the solution to ending macro miners is to introduce a measure which squarely impacts the new and uninvolved player, then the solution is not viable. Time is the enemy in Eve. Time to build wealth, time dedicated to skills, and most importantly is time to gain experience. People progress differently so enforcing time limits will compound one problem with another.
New players currently face a large disparity in knowledge and ability verses the mature player. Throwing them into the ôdeep endö will exacerbate that.
Why can a mechanic capable of differentiating the player from the macro miner not be found? Do they have no detectable modus operandi? Why not examine common characteristics of the macro miner and build a matrix of commonalities which can be routinely filtered, and flagged for an action?
Statistical analysis most certainly does offer possibilities thru database queries. If player skill data can be extracted for view at the website, then can not other queries be extracted as well?
What characteristics define the macro miner?
Define the macro miner and you have a starting point.
Example:
Query for the commonalities of the macro miner.
CCP should have a base model for that based on experience now.
What players posses the commonly used macro miner equipment?
What players possess = > unrelated macro mining equipment.
Extract the ratio of macro miner vs. non macro miner equipment usage.
Determine, based on past banned macro miners, what ratio is the threshold of a common macro miner.
Save that query.
Now query for the common skill set of the macro miner.
Of those, query for unrelated skills since a professional macro miner should not have wasted time in unnecessary skills. Extract the ratio of macro miner skills to unrelated skills again, based on past history.
You now have a list of potential macro miners,
Lastly, query their transactions and search for outgoing cash transactions where no equipment has been purchased. What will those people be? I would say worthy of interest at the least. Elaborate queries by database forensics professionals would be far better than my simple query but that is what they are paid for.
Banks use this method currently. It is called AML filtering as in anti money laundering.
Patterns of play, necessary equipment, and transactions will show you the people you are looking for. It is not perfect, but it often works extremely well. Eve is a database.. the answers are there. Focusing game changes on the new player may well be a successful operation, but if the patient dies, then it is not the best way.
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