EVE Information Portal

How do you tell the difference between a macro running externally to the client that spams whatever window is active (EULA violation), versus some guy mashing an F-key on his Logitech G19 (legit trolling)?

I don't think so but we'll look. As I said in the blog these really aren't EVE players. They don't enjoy the game or play it as anything other than a business.

Drinking during the alliance panel at fanfest was hilarious, drinking at work is not.

I was just going to say this exact thing.

I'll just quote some of my recent tweets on the subject of bots in jita.





Plus some obvoius spambots:
http://eve-live.com/p/Jazmine_Tsukaya
http://eve-live.com/p/Jammie_Kahoudi
http://eve-live.com/p/bfdy_fdsgg

Spamming by bots is a problem, and it is becoming more and more frequent. I use the report bot function every day on these guys but not sure if anything happens, at least I would love if they got banner quicker than for their trial to run out.

Keep up the good work, we appreciate it much!

/c

I wonder who these chest-beating, self-professed internet experts are who insist that this problem cannot be tackled via the supply side...

Great Work, CCP has been doing so many things right in so many ways ... and hopefully seeing the results in player growth from giving players what they've demanded (iterative improvements always not a choice of new or old) you'll keep listenting to players (not obeying what you hear but giving it more than a passing consideration) in the future.

TO others in the thread.

Moles ! if Goons and almost every other hugely sucessful EVE alliance has engaged in spying and deep mole activities, don't you think that CCP would also engage in covert ops to gain intelligence ?

As covert agents they'd have access to out of game forums and likely could have engaged in sting operations without blowing their cover.

Lets say you get an email via an out of game forum asking you.. "hey, would you mind trading some WoW currency for some ISK" and go ahead and make that transaction assuming it was just a alliance mate.

They could use that sort of internal evidence to support their other suspicions. This isn't a court of law where they might need to give up the name of their mole and there is no reason they can't be as clever as players in their space exploits. I'm not sure that if that were a few hundred million isk and looked isolated they'd make a big deal of it.... but if they saw a pattern of exchanges done in the manner that a person requested it be done they very well might be more inclined to act.

I know that I was contacted once for a passing comment I made on an EVE forum about being willing to sell isk at a much lower price than the market IF I had CCP's blessing to do so (or if it somehow became legal to ignore that part of a EULA).

While I had made a conditional statement which clearly stated that as things stand I would not engage in such an activity, someone did contact me trying to see if I'd be willing to sell plex or isk for real $.

Now, as it was using ingame mail, it wasn't a very sneaky ploy or it was a real idiot of a player willing to ask via game channels. Of course all they got from me was a wall of text return evemail saying NO and explaining my reasoning why I would consider it stealing without CCP's blessing or a general move toward legal RMT microtransactions.

Still, such a thing coming via external channels could be quite a good way to crack down . I'd imagine it would be pretty easy for them to actually have an employer or contractor (magnum PI ?) buy gold from gold sellers and trace where the character with the isk got it from...... but they can also go the next step and post adds wanting to buy or trade isk for out of game services on outside game forums and bust people who contact them.

I like the idea of an ‘EBC’. It gives CCP a tool to sink isk from the economy without manipulating taxes & fees. Using confiscated goods (goods only, no isk) to do it would be rather like a Sheriff’s Auction, but the isk would go back to the central bank rather than continuing to circulate.

I understand that you have reservations about returning ill-gotten goods to the economy, but there’s a sizeable amount of isk in circulation that was created through illicit means as well; and Dr. E. seems to be more worried about the isk at this point.

Yes but alot of that goods was created by other players not cheating and thus not add to the system illegally . The stuff bought from NPC:s ofcourse was created by that isk.

The again money was sent out from the cheating player for that goods and I guess you are not reversing all those trades too.

But a middle ground here would be to sell on those things that are of a type that only players can create.

Ninja edit:

Problem is that those things *should* be in game not the isk that was traded for it. This suggestion actually helps pulling some of that isk out of the game

I'm seeing some confusion and need to point out that the botting actions are still ongoing. This is an RMT-related blog and doesn't touch upon botting numbers at all. We'll do those another time.

Extensive botting being funneled into an RMT ring is probably the most common setup seen in the ~1600 banned accounts and it is safe to assume that the majority of the ISK and assets in question come either from botting or trojan-hijacked people. The latter is a problem that can only be reversed upon a detailed investigation, and botted assets should, economically speaking, remain banned.

Also, doing anything with those PLEX on banned accounts would be terrible for CCP's bottom line. PLEX that will never be redeemed are free money and should be treated that way. The accounting term for this is breakage, although I am not familiar with the nature or extent of Iceland's escheat laws that would govern unredeemed PLEX.

Anyway Sreegs is definitely doing the right thing by leaving those assets in the Phantom Zone.