Akurion
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Posted - 2006.06.15 04:57:00 -
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I'm going to have to vote for the GMs and the reimbursement.
The main problem with 'leaving the sandbox alone' and letting scammers play to their heart's content is that, unlike real life, Eve has no reprecussions. A person in Eve can scam for billions of ISK, wire the money to their main, then delete their character and never be heard from again.
In real life if you scam people for billions of dollars the police will come to your house and arrest you. The lack of such a mechanic in Eve makes it much harder for an investment-based economy to exist and thrive.
People on the scammer's side have tossed out a few arguments against the reimbursement. Let's see if I can get them all:
1. It was the investor's fault for being scammed, just like with escrow scams. If they'd be a bit less trusting, this wouldn't happen.
True, but with escrow scams there are in-game mechanics that players can use to see what they're spending money on. You can take 10 seconds to inspect an escrow, or check the details on a trade offer. There's no way to check if someone selling shares in an IPO on the forums is making a genuine offer or not.
2. Eve doesn't need GM intervention; players should be able to self-regulate.
While I'm sure that in an anarchist's utopia people would learn to live and function in the complete absence of laws, those of us in the real world know that in order for complex societies to exist and evolve there need to be rules, and people to enforce those rules. Something as complex as a stock market can't exist without basic law enforcement, which Eve has lacked until this point. The GMs are, in a crude fashion, emulating the role of a government or regulatory body.
3. It's unfair to everyone else who's been scammed before this.
Yes, it is. However, just because you are unable to uniformly apply justice doesn't mean that justice is wrong; it just means you need to try harder. The GMs need to figure out rules or mechanics to keep this sort of thing from happening again, or at the very least institute mechanics that will allow players to do so.
4. It breaks the sense of immersion (roleplayer argument).
I would argue that it doesn't. If people are desperate for an in-character reason their wallet got refilled, then it was the Gallente (or Amarr, or Caldari, etc) government that caught word of a scammer, investigated, and brought him to justice. Simple solution.
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