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/_\ "Dilluminati" Conspiracy Discussion Thread #DCT
repetitiveepic
Member Posts: 6,549 Arc User
In my time in STO I have seen many people make reference to a form of 'space illuminati' or "dilluminati" group operating in Star Trek Online. If the stories are true, these people are responsible for manipulating many aspects of the game to suit their own selfish ends. Sometimes the story is about them manipulating ship prices, sometimes dil prices.
What all the stories have in common is that they seem fanciful to an informed observer. No evidence is ever given, and deep delving usually reveals cognitive errors, ignorance about facts, or ulterior motives in the people spreading the tales.
One take I heard on it recently condemned the Dilluminati for "inflating the prices of ships." The subject believed that he had a right to buy other players' ships from them for a specific price that he chose, and that anyone who interfered with this was violating the terms of service by spoiling his gaming experience.
It's my view that things like the prices of ships can be easily explained if you apply some basic laws about commerce, like the notion of supply and demand curves. I believe that these curves represent facts about people and their dispositions, that they aren't just abstract theories.
In my considered view, based on my long experience and deep knowledge about the space economy, there is no Dilluminati. It's just impersonal market forces at work, as impersonal and difficult to influence as the weather is in real life. I don't think the space economy is "manipulated" any more than the weather is.
One of the arguments put forth by the subject I encountered was that "you can talk about all these economic theories, but the dilluminati is real and what they are doing is wrong, I know for sure." Should such a view be given any consideration at all?
Do you have a story about the Dilluminati? What impact do they have on the game? Is every price dictated by them, or only certain prices? How can players band together to fight this hidden menace?
What all the stories have in common is that they seem fanciful to an informed observer. No evidence is ever given, and deep delving usually reveals cognitive errors, ignorance about facts, or ulterior motives in the people spreading the tales.
One take I heard on it recently condemned the Dilluminati for "inflating the prices of ships." The subject believed that he had a right to buy other players' ships from them for a specific price that he chose, and that anyone who interfered with this was violating the terms of service by spoiling his gaming experience.
It's my view that things like the prices of ships can be easily explained if you apply some basic laws about commerce, like the notion of supply and demand curves. I believe that these curves represent facts about people and their dispositions, that they aren't just abstract theories.
In my considered view, based on my long experience and deep knowledge about the space economy, there is no Dilluminati. It's just impersonal market forces at work, as impersonal and difficult to influence as the weather is in real life. I don't think the space economy is "manipulated" any more than the weather is.
One of the arguments put forth by the subject I encountered was that "you can talk about all these economic theories, but the dilluminati is real and what they are doing is wrong, I know for sure." Should such a view be given any consideration at all?
Do you have a story about the Dilluminati? What impact do they have on the game? Is every price dictated by them, or only certain prices? How can players band together to fight this hidden menace?
free jkname.
#MOGA Make Orions Green Again
#MOGA Make Orions Green Again
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Suffice to say we enjoyed the forum reaction after pushing the R&D packs over the 1bil threshhold!
Whereas dil market is anonymous, pwe can make the zen out of thin air, and hold all the aggregate economic data about the game, only way you know if thats fixed is if an insider spills the beans.
Tupac Shakur learned of the Illuminati and their grasp on the media entertainment. He started a movement and called it Killuminati because he was going to "kill it". We was publicly assassinated on the Las Vegas strip after a highly popular Mike Tyson fight.
Michael Jackson exposed the Illuminati and other groups in a couple of his songs and interviews. He was later killed by "suicide".
My advice would be not to mess with the Dilluminati, you've been warned.
If you happen to have all the games on Arc. Only have 3... it takes months if you're lucky.
Anyways... the only manipulation I see in the DL Exchange is indirect. Player reaction to ship releases, sales, and events. Demand for Zen goes up or supply of DL goes up, price goes up. Demand for DL goes up (like with the Phoenix Box) price comes down.
Its all supply and demand.
OK, so give an example of where the Dil Exchange rate has behaved counter-intuitively.
I mean, it started off high when there was nothing to buy; crashed down to a long-term low while supply was limited and fleets were being built; then started a slow, inexorable rise which went through the roof when Admiralty hit and basically meant that no mature alt would ever need to be below-cap again.
After that it's taken the Phoenix boxes to drive the rate down. That's probably the most blatant piece of manipulation Cryptic has done, and the "losers" from it are those who spend real money on thea game instead of grinding. The one thing I don't understand about Phoenix boxes is why they're so popular, but there you go....
OK, so give an example of where the Dil Exchange rate has behaved counter-intuitively.
I mean, it started off high when there was nothing to buy; crashed down to a long-term low while supply was limited and fleets were being built; then started a slow, inexorable rise which went through the roof when Admiralty hit and basically meant that no mature alt would ever need to be below-cap again. It hit its peak with the release of the iconic TOS promo ships, when people needed zen to gamble for the most desirable set of ships in the game's history.
After that it's taken the Phoenix boxes to drive the rate down. That's probably the most blatant piece of manipulation Cryptic has done, and the "losers" from it are those who spend real money on thea game instead of grinding. The one thing I don't understand about Phoenix boxes is why they're so popular, but there you go....
As long as you have enough seed money to obliterate the competiton up to the price you plan to sell at, its more than possible to induce short term spikes and, with help from others to maintain it; semi permanent
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There has been a persistent rumor over the years that the dilithium market is being manipulated by a cabal of dentists, but I've never been able to determine why dentists would be interested since dilithium isn't even slightly useful in dentistry.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
OK, so give an example of where the Dil Exchange rate has behaved counter-intuitively.
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The point I made is that we don't know what people are doing with their dil or how much is being brought into existance, only pwe do, so any 'explanation' of price movements is highly unreliable and subject to all sorts of biases and capt hindsight nonsense. I don't know if people are really spending so much more dil than they were when the exchange rate was double what it has been recently.
Are people buying lots of new rep and K13 gear?
I know my toons have spent well under 150k at k13 and nothing on Lukari gear. The phoenix boxes actually saved me dil on upgrading, and I know that I'd largely given up exhanging dil for zen when the price got really high. I cetainly don't assume that everyone else is doing the same. In game I see the voth battlezone more heavily populated and allowing for proper dil runs all through the week, this was not the case a couple of months ago.
Or other high profit variations.
There's also the 3rd party sellers to consider. At least one of them seems to be making money as I regularly get email from them in game.
How deep does the rabbit hole go I wonder.
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People blaming the Dilluminati is just one of many low-effort mental exercises to proclaim their dissatisfaction with prices they can't personally afford, but are unable to admit that they simply lack the will or the tools to afford them without dipping into their real-world wallet.
Similar behaviors are found in numerous STO players (including various personalities on the forums), who will steadfastly blame Captain Geko for all of the problems they perceive to be wrong with the game. It is easier to blame Al Rivera than it is to educate oneself about the complicated and complex reality that is video game development. By using these low-effort mental exercises, they are able to air their grievances without any sort of accountability for their opinions, as they can typically find people to support them in their ignorance. These people are similarly low-information STO players and therefore can be relied upon to reinforce erroronous preconceptions. The idea is that if many people believe strongly enough in an idea, then it must be true. This is regarded as the "Bandwagon fallacy", or Argumentum ad populum. An appeal to the masses. If many people believe it is so, then it is so.
This is not a coincidence in regards to the Dilluminati. It is easier for weak minds to believe there is some sort of nefarious conspiracy regarding player-driven economics in the game, because they can reliably count on other players who are just as ignorant as they are to also believe in that sort of conspiracy, therefore finding validation in their beliefs which only exist in fantasy.
People, on the whole, tend to be unwilling to admit personal shortcomings or personal failures, or are unable to admit they've made a mistake, or even going as far as to apologize for their ignorance.
I'm more likely to be attacked for pointing out the ignorance of these types of STO players than I am to find people rethinking their fanciful conclusions.
Actually quite a funny post. I think the guys who scream at people not to buy keys to unlock boxes so they can try to win a Ship, but to buy $250 worth of Keys to sell for EC and buy ships at 1.5 Billion EC is evident of this behaviour. This is something I see often. Why they can't just leave people alone to buy whatever they want and not quote 'observed' odds that are below stated odds!! They just have no comprehesion of what the term 'odds' actually means.