Can't we do anything about Spammers

I like sliced Spam roasted on top Au Grautin Potatoes.

The key thing here is THINK they can make cash.

1) We're just not big enough...notice it's only the smaller and definitely more criminally inclined sites that bother even trying to make money using CoH inf selling. The big ones (like IGE, the biggest gold etc. seller on the interwebs) simply do not bother...what would be the point, they make a ton of cash off of just WoW alone AND they know the system well enough to work around it.

2) Price crashes, you ever noticed that back when spam was actually at its height that the companies would get more and more desperate with their inf per dollar ratio. It actually did get to the point of being ridiculous of something like 5-10 million inf for the dollar (compare that to WoW where even 100k Gold would cost you a hefty chunk of real cash). Some got even more absurbed and it was 30-40 million inf per the dollar IIRC and then the spam from said company would just suddenly stop...since they had obviously given up.

The amount of work they need to put in (buying up accounts to actually transfer the goods, constantly recreating trial accounts, actually farming for the drops in order to earn the inf) was actually vastly greater than the return they were getting.

3) Unlike in other MMOs, anybody can become very rich, very quickly, heck look at the market section, almost no other MMO actually has the market players go 'here...this is how you make cash!' because normally it's a very controlled secret.

'Woo I got a purple drop/used my A-merits to make an in-demand item which sold for 150-200 million inf!

4) The new A-merit system is pretty much an anti-RMT move as it is a QoL thing. Why pay real money for in when you can simply earn an item which sells for a shedload in about...what...two hours work over 4 days? Infact if you want that item, why not go the much cheaper route and just do A-merits!

CoH is about as RMT unfriendly as a decent sized MMO can get.

The reason we see 'waves' of spam is because some little upstart company sees the game as an 'untapped opportunity' and think that we will be a gold mine for them because the big boys aren't in this market, for about two months you'll see an increase in spam and then it dies out because they finally realise that the amount of effort they put in isn't worth the return they're going to get.

So expect another month or so of spam until they give up realising that what they thought would be a gold mine turns into a money pit.

There is an upside to this in an odd kind of way.

Even on some of the low pop servers we've been seeing some RMT spam - coincidentally I reported one last night on Defiant. The fact they have suddenly re-appeared after a long absence it seems could be taken as a sign that the game is quite healthy.

"You got to dig it to dig it, you dig?"
Thelonious Monk

Started up City of Heroes last night.

Logged in.

Chat scroll had SIX SPAMS from TWO DIFFERENT RMT mules INSTANTLY.

One of them was a new company I'd never heard of.

Did the usual tagging of "Ignore Spammer" on each then commented in Local (since it was obvious that they were still laying the spam on thick) "(Die in a fire, RMT scum!)"

Now as an actual burn survivor with some large and interesting scars (stupid itch) I'm generally not one to use such a colorful phrase. But hey, OCR and the GMs aren't doing anything about this anymore. I felt entitled to a local grouse. After all, you can't play the game without seeing them anymore.

Imagine my, well...shock, when about a dozen plus people laid into me DEFENDING the RMT people. I was told that I was worse than they were, repeatedly, for (translating from the ae monkey-farming speak) "criticizing new players."

Now I don't know if they meant "new players who violate the EULA by buying inf." or "new players the RMT spammers had no vet rewards," but it would seem that the pro-RMT camp is pretty big and the anti-RMT is the minority. Maybe the pro-RMT camp is the same as the monkey farming camp, but I'm sick and tired of my personal game time being compromised by people flagrantly violating the EULA.

And for those who will soon ask, "Why bother posting this here," it's because I'm looking for commiseration. I know nothing will happen.

Thanks for the salve to my nerdrage, folks. Our only recourse is to stockpile popcorn for the reprieve, and wait for the gnashing and wailing to entertain us, for the raging heat of their nerdrage to turn our stockpiles into nutritious entertainment fodder.

Or something. For now, I have only dumpleberries for them:

I will admit this will be hilarious when the monkey poo hits the fan when the exploit is shut.

Well on the American servers...not exactly a huge amount of people in Broadcast on the EU side of things.

Seriously underling level mobs giving boss XP...anyone abusing that can't seriously complain that it was legitimate and should have remained.

I was bemused on Freedom last night when I saw two RMT'ers arguing with each other at the Wentworth's in Atlas on Freedom. Each was talking about how their service was better than their competitor's. One went so far as to reveal that their competition was scamming the Chinese government by underrreporting their earnings.

I reported them as spammers and went on with my business after I got done processing the absurdity of it all.

Ok Lightfoot...that is actually really hilarious!

RMT at its most absurd right there.

I mean, it is kind of weird because you just picture these people as log in, spam message, log out kind of deal...but to actually have a tit-for-tat arguement between them just makes it both hilarious AND kind of sad.