I agree, it is a bit over the top. There were folks doing loot split runs that got banned for transferring the legitimately earned AD this way. I think it's criminal that they can be this heavy handed but unfortunately unless someone sues them they can do whatever they want.
Sue them for what? Enforcing ToS?
Forgive me but where in the ToS does it say you can't do a dungeon run with a group of 5 friends and split the earned rewards by having them post items to the AH for their loot shares and then buying them with the person who collected the loot?
Yes, they are banning people just for that. Yes I know people that got banned for this who I used to run CN loot split runs.
For those that don't know a loot split run is where 5 people run a dungeon and in the case of old CN it used to drop 1 guaranteed item that was worth a few hundred AD to over 1M AD. Rather than just roll, since everyone did the work, the group would agree to sell the items from the runs and split the AD. 1 person would collect the loot and work out the splits. There was nothing against the ToS in doing this. Why should there be?
First off @sm0ld3r - there's no way to sue them - the ToS is very clear:
4.12 Please note that regardless of any notice, we reserve the right to discontinue the Service or to terminate or suspend your Account at any time in our sole discretion, for any reason, or for no reason.
Meaning, they can ban or suspend your account at any time for whatever reason they want, and by creating an account, you agree to those terms.
That is an adhesion contract and if someone has grounds to sue, they are typically not upheld by courts.
Be that as it may, it is extremely underhanded of them to ban first and ask questions later. Typically gold sellers will be transferring large amounts of AD on a continual basis.
Now many loot split folks did the same (I know folks that ran 20 or 30 a day) but the amounts were typically less than a gold seller and with a modicum of research they could have seen the account was running CN daily and selling loot and xfering AD to folks that it was grouped with. Unfortunately they put on their blinders and anyone doing x transfers (I'm guessing there was some threshold) over y amount got banned under the premise they were a gold seller.
Every MMO I have played... well maybe with the exception of DDO... has been plagued with 'gold' sellers, they are a bane of MMO's, but especially the free-to-play variety it seems now!
Actually Black Desert has no gold sellers. They simply don't allow user trading. No user trading = No gold sellers.
I agree with Kreatyve up there, about this, but also I think you would have to be doing "A LOT" of trades not just one and done. In my career we use common sense to spot security leaks. Common sense, in this case, would tell me if you have made a bunch of purchases for silly items priced at exactly 1,100,000 AD, then you are more than likely a AD seller and all the people you bought from are your customers.
In my opinion, I guess I still don't see any point to this trading or making multiple free accounts. I saved up my AD and used it to buy Zen in the exchange. This method allowed me to buy 4 additional character slots. I can send other characters AD without losing 10% chunk that way.
Wait, no trading between users at all? No auction house, period? Wow, that seems drastic!
I am sorry for the wait in replying to this query, but the ONLY way is to use the item exchange (auction house) which has restrictions in place to prevent this sort of trading. You can also read about it on their wiki in more depth. You are told a set price range (minimum and maximum) for any item and you won't be told who the seller is on the other end. The old phrase "drastic times call for drastic measures" seems to apply.
I guess a lot of players are happy I am not working for Cryptic. Because the AH would be blind trades here too.
Fame is a vapor, popularity an accident; the only earthly certainty is oblivion. ~ Mark Twain
I am sorry for the wait in replying to this query, but the ONLY way is to use the item exchange (auction house) which has restrictions in place to prevent this sort of trading. You can also read about it on their wiki in more depth. You are told a set price range (minimum and maximum) for any item and you won't be told who the seller is on the other end. The old phrase "drastic times call for drastic measures" seems to apply.
I guess a lot of players are happy I am not working for Cryptic. Because the AH would be blind trades here too.
No worries on the delay, that is what the notification feature is there for after all!
Thanks for the link to BDO, it is interesting the game limits the min/max prices you can sell for though, I'd think that would still simply be up to the players as they are the ones driving the economy. I know GW2 has a similar type of set up for their auction house system as well, and it seemed to work pretty well there as well.
I am not sure why people would be upset if the AH went to blind-trade, I guess other than the obvious of not being able to move AD effectively between various accounts. Though what could be interesting would be allowing players to put things on the AH while grouped together, then when the items sells the game could split the profits among the original party members. There would be some details to work out, like cancelling the auction, but I am sure they could be worked out.
It is interesting to watch how the games adapt to goldsellers, things like a blind AH are good mechanic to help thwart them. Perhaps some day Cryptic could implement it here and the goldsellers could go find another game to plague!
Comments
Yes, they are banning people just for that. Yes I know people that got banned for this who I used to run CN loot split runs.
For those that don't know a loot split run is where 5 people run a dungeon and in the case of old CN it used to drop 1 guaranteed item that was worth a few hundred AD to over 1M AD. Rather than just roll, since everyone did the work, the group would agree to sell the items from the runs and split the AD. 1 person would collect the loot and work out the splits. There was nothing against the ToS in doing this. Why should there be?
Be that as it may, it is extremely underhanded of them to ban first and ask questions later. Typically gold sellers will be transferring large amounts of AD on a continual basis.
Now many loot split folks did the same (I know folks that ran 20 or 30 a day) but the amounts were typically less than a gold seller and with a modicum of research they could have seen the account was running CN daily and selling loot and xfering AD to folks that it was grouped with. Unfortunately they put on their blinders and anyone doing x transfers (I'm guessing there was some threshold) over y amount got banned under the premise they were a gold seller.
I guess a lot of players are happy I am not working for Cryptic. Because the AH would be blind trades here too.
Thanks for the link to BDO, it is interesting the game limits the min/max prices you can sell for though, I'd think that would still simply be up to the players as they are the ones driving the economy. I know GW2 has a similar type of set up for their auction house system as well, and it seemed to work pretty well there as well.
I am not sure why people would be upset if the AH went to blind-trade, I guess other than the obvious of not being able to move AD effectively between various accounts. Though what could be interesting would be allowing players to put things on the AH while grouped together, then when the items sells the game could split the profits among the original party members. There would be some details to work out, like cancelling the auction, but I am sure they could be worked out.
It is interesting to watch how the games adapt to goldsellers, things like a blind AH are good mechanic to help thwart them. Perhaps some day Cryptic could implement it here and the goldsellers could go find another game to plague!