Well, there goes the Economy.Follow

I can only agree there.

It doesn't matter if we like this or not, we don't own shares of SOE (or whomever) we just share EQ. So it's worth discussing such matters but no use complaining about.

We can only stick with it or leave it.

OK...conspiracy theory (these are always fun to dream up). Could SOE by allowing companies like Yantis & IGE to run unchecked be posititioning themselves in the marketplace for their next software release? Is Sony trying to convey the message that "if you want to play the game under its original intention then buy EQ2?" With any new release everyone will pretty much be starting at square one, including the PP farmers. The farmers will need to re-learn the hacks and exploits just like everyone else, hence there will be some time with EQ2 before the economy gets out of whack.

Is sitting and doing nothing actually a marketing plan for forcing customers to buy the next software release?

"With any new release everyone will pretty much be starting at square one, including the PP farmers. The farmers will need to re-learn the hacks and exploits just like everyone else, hence there will be some time with EQ2 before the economy gets out of whack."


with a dedicated group of people making real money off exploits and the fact that any new-release game will be full of them i'd bet that IGE will be selling pp for eq2 before most people even switch from eq . i'll also bet that there are IGE people signed up for the beta of EQ2 and they won't be reporting all the bugs they find.

have you gone to cannotlinkto, cannotlinkto or cannotlinkto? take a look at the list of games they are selling stuff for. They are in Horizons, FF, SWG...any game you can think of. they'll be doing the same for eq2 i'm sure as soon as you plant your feet in game.

on another note, people are dumb if they buy some of the stuff they sell. (this on tarew marr) they sell a Cloak of Flames for $225, Spiked Seahorse Belt for $270. you can get either in the bazaar for 60-80Kpp on average. then they sell 100Kpp for $99.

i actually feel sorry for people who waste their money on some of that stuff...but hey, guess its a way to get the rich peoples money back in circulation. ;)

Edited, Fri Jan 23 13:48:59 2004 by Empyre

Royalties for what exactly? IGE and Yantis sell 'the time and effort to obtain the pp not the product itself' the only thing SoE would get in royalties is Royally screwed in any court of law, thats the bottom line and thats why they have never been touched.

well if they do take them to court and win, none of them will be making any money that will go into their own pocket for the rest of their lives.

With all due respect you have no idea what you are talking about. Yantis is breaking the EULA <well maybe> but EULA is not a Law therefore what are you going to take him to court for?
In order to prosecute someone they need to have broken a written down law of the USA and they have not done that.

As for selling time here is how it works

'It will take me 10 hours for me to make 10k i am going to charge you $1 per hour if you want me to make pp for you'

In that situation you are charging for your 'Time' not the end product.



umm i am not a Kid so why would i be condersending and talk like one?

Presumably, breach of contract in a civil court.

This would require proving to the court that the EULA is a legally binding contract and that IGE willingly entered into it and broke it and that SOE suffered damages as a result for them to receive compensation. Without making IGE pay through the nose, I don't see what sort of court ruling would really affect them. I suppose they might get a judge who ordered IGE to cease and desist and if SOE could prove them doing otherwise, you might have a contempt of court case, but anyway...

Note, I am not claiming it would be easy or that SOE would win. If it were and they would, I'm sure they'd have done it by now. The fact that they don't would suggest that they know the EULA isn't any sort of ironclad contract and risking having the ruling come out that the EULA isn't an enforcable contract or that virtual property is the property of the account owner would prove worse than the current situation. I'm just saying what grounds they'd use to take IGE to court.

IANAL

Edited, Sat Jan 24 03:54:16 2004 by Jophiel

Thanks!

I appreciate that.
Not that I really ever have to see the ads. But, then again, thanks for making "premium" mean more than just 'blocking' the ads.

I'd just like to point out in light of more recent developments, that SOE does not have to take anyone to court at all. In fact, if SOE is smart, they can police this without involving the courts at all.

It's really simple. They track folks selling plat online to their game accounts (not hard to do via a number of methods). They then summarily ban the accounts and delete all the stuff in them.

Since SOE has full control over their servers and the content therein, they can simply do this. If IGE or any other plat seller wants to do something about this, they have to sue SOE, not the other way around. I have a hard time believing they'd win.


Problem solved. They don't have to test their EULA since they aren't attempting to enforce the rules of the EULA in the "real world". They have complete power to enforce those rules in the virtual world of EQ however, and should. The worst that could possibly happen is that SOE may be required to reimburse IGE for accounts. However, given that many of the IGE accounts are presumably transfered in the first place, even that may be in question. It's a win-win situation for SOE if they do this.