Add ban reminder for RMTs to server auto-announcements

[Aurigon 2]

As per topic title.

Don't know if this has already been suggested... I don't think so, seeing as it's an effortless, efficient (and faster-than-light to setup) method to warn people against buying gold from goldsellers and drastically reduce RMT (real-money trading). Along with the two-factor authorization message, it would also help counter scammers and pay-to-win tricks.

Anything in the lines of

Spoiler

BEWARE: All gold transfers are logged, with the suspicious ones closely monitored and back-tracked. Think twice before buying gold from any site: anyone caught violating will be issued a permanent account suspension with no chance to appeal. Value your characters and the time put into them!

should do.

[PeterGryphon 0]

Hmm a nice idea.  A slight tweak though maybe...  instead of repeating the same spammy message. Instead report the players as they are banned and why.

For example: Player: <character name> has been suspended for <x no, of days> for <violation>.

Seeing players punished in real time would discourage everyone from unwanted behaviour even more, no?

[Aurigon 2]

Yes, of course. That would also work as a good deterrent... the two things are complementary, in fact. Still I believe the ban should be permanent, rather than temporary.

[Aurigon 2]

You create a forum account just to make suggestions that would help money traders in a topic against money traders? Mmm.

[PeterGryphon 0]

Depends what they did I guess.

Goldsellers should be permanenet yes.  People doing minor exploits or just being d*cks don't always deserve a perm ban though.

[Slicy 11]

Wouldn't it cause a lot of chat spam by server messages which kinda kills the immersion ? I have no actual data on the amount of gold and services sellers getting banned / hour or / day but I'm assuming it's quite high.

[Kuthela 0]

If it creates a lot of spam, then it would help raise awareness of the issue because people would see it. you'd know if the system was working if the amount of spam began to decrease.

People do stupid things because they think they can get away with them. If they know they can't and see people getting burned for being stupid then hopefully they won't try it themselves.

I understand why people buy gold, they have more real money than time and are willing to pay to play. i.e. buy things they need to advance their position in the game, rather than grinding time to earn it.

I have more time than real money and I enjoy earning my gold because that's a part of the game I enjoy. i.e. playing the AH and working with the economy.

Other people just want to show up to PVP or raid, and are willing to pay for the privilege. If they see people getting burned for it, then maybe they'll think twice about it.

[Aurigon 2]

Nothing should be spammed, nor warnings nor ban notifications. The same frequence for Two-factor Authentication messages could be used for RMT warnings, or the frequence for the first could be halved so not to have an overall increase in warnings. Goldselling bots/accounts banned shouldn't be notified, but players buying from those could, as a further reminder to people to discourage them from buying themselves.

There's also a major side effect to this solution I'm suggesting. Something like this would shut most (if not all) of the rumors going about that there would be connivance between goldsellers and project admins, which is what affects the Elysium reputation the most. Especially seeing high level characters banned, or players from the guilds that would be in control of the devilsaur mafia, would put an end to the question to me.

Again, this is a one-minute thing to implement, and even if no ban should appear (red text in chat), it would also prove there's nothing fishy going on.

Any official statement about this would be appreciated.

[Hamblin 0]

I think it would be a great idea to have a selection of messages for server announcement that are randomly picked to be announced on a given interval. So messages aren't spammed more often... Just that there is a variation. This is something I am suggesting internally.

[Aurigon 2]

4 minutes ago, Hamblin said:

I think it would be a great idea to have a selection of messages for server announcement that are randomly picked to be announced on a given interval. So messages aren't spammed more often... Just that there is a variation. This is something I am suggesting internally.

Exactly, no increase in message spam, just a rotation to them. Also, this would relieve GMs from part of their job, decreasing the number of tickets they have to deal with.