Bunyip
Center for Advanced Studies
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Posted - 2008.06.01 19:06:00 -
[1]
Edited by: Bunyip on 01/06/2008 19:08:56
Alright, this is one issue I feel strongly about, and would like to make some points known:
1) People talk about how macrominers help the game by providing scores of low-grade materials to allow PvP to occur cheaply. BS. The reason there are so few miners is because mining is so hard to make a profit at due to the macroers. Eliminate the macroers, more real players begin mining. The prices on minerals may increase, but it won't be by that much. Increase the excitement of mining (using the idea I posted in my CSM bid helps, but other ideas are welcome), and make it as profitable as other ventures.
2) CCP action. I use a 5-point test to determine macroers. While not foolproof, it does a good job of verifying that. I have reported over 100 verified macroers to CCP. Any guesses how many of them are still in the game? The job CCP seems to be doing is similar to a fishing net. It catches the small fish, but the big whales break right through.
3) Interpol. I know this is making a huge jump and going out on a limb, but I think selling fantasy items for real money should be considered fraud. If Interpol made this illegal, it would benefit all games. I know it's kinda a waste to post it on this forum, but I wanted to put the idea out there and see how likely it would be to occur.
4) Keystrokes. I think WoW did this, but use a program that can access the kernel of the OS and determine if the input is being delivered by a program or by a peripheral device such as a mouse. Not foolproof, but it will go a long way to stopping the macroers.
5) Player advisors. I strongly support this measure, listed under a previous poster. More has to be done, and to be quite frank, is not being done. CCP has confirmed that this is a problem, yet refuses to take any steps to remedy this problem. For crying out loud, CCP has the biggest server farm in the industry, and recently acquired White Wolf Games. They have the money to stop this, considering 200k characters spread over roughly 100k accounts. 100k x 15 USD/month is 1.5m per month, most of which is probably subsumed in bandwidth charges. If we eliminate macroers (which are widespread), the bandwidth should be cut in half, as well as the workload required of the servers, meaning that the game will support more concurrent real players.
I'm sorry to rant, but it drives me nuts seeing these macroers continue on their merry way. Any miner will tell you Ice Mining is worthless due to the macromining invasion. I'm not trying to say that CCP is bad in any respects, but please, something has to be done...
-Bunyip
"May all your hits be crits." - Knights of the Dinner Table. |