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Somer Blink: Legit or Scam?
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Andrev Nox
Native Freshfood
Minmatar Republic
#61 - 2012-07-03 12:36:15 UTC
In answer to Xen: Ahhh, there was a misunderstanding on my part then. We're not trying to convert every Eve player out there into a Blink player.

There are some folks who will never feel safe about something without every iota of data handed to them on an empyrical platter. We'd probably get a lot more customers if we served up everyone's depositing habits for public consumption, too. That attitude is totally cool, and in Eve I get where it comes from - but we're not running an investment. We're not answering to shareholders. We're not trying to pander to everyone's request everywhere. We're running a lotto - a pretend casino as a fun way to play internet spaceships - and we're okay with only having the folks playing who feel like we've earned some trust in the years we've been at it, and exhibited a standard for honesty and fairness that suits them.

The 47,431 folks so far who've felt that way so far, and gotten us to the point where we can say there's been 250 Trillion in prizes given away, that makes us happy. If that number would be 60k, or 80k, or all 300-some-odd-k that subscribe to Eve if we invested an exponentially increasing amount of work to meet each of their individual demands for data, style changes, business changes, et cetera - we're okay knowing that and sticking with the route we're on :)

In answer to Rak: Giant derp, yep. :p I fully admit, I am not the code person. At all :p I tried fielding a tech question while Somer was asleep, so the derpiness of my response there is entirely on me. I can only plead that the ignorance isn't feigned in that arena. :) I'll see if I can't get her to evemail you to speak the dark-magic of all things code in a fluency I will never have. :)

As to the RMT concerns - I 100% encourage you to petition CCP to investigate us (or anyone you ever suspect of RMT) and shut everything down if they find any evidence of misconduct. We do the same, for things that seem suspicious from our side of things - since we have no method or means of knowing where ISK was obtained without those petitions.

Somer Blink - The original microlottery site.
Ayuren Aakiwa
Shadow Legion X
Seriously Suspicious
#62 - 2012-07-03 13:08:46 UTC
I've only read the title, Somerblink is one of the few legit services in this game. Personally I've doubled my isk, a corp mate of mine has made a stupid amount of isk. It's legit, it's fun, go do it. There is a corp called somer blink. That is a scam so make sure you get the right one.
Petrus Blackshell
Rifterlings
#63 - 2012-07-03 13:46:22 UTC
It's as un-scammy as any lottery can get. Lotteries are by design meant to take your money by manipulating chance, while using the bait of shiny winnings to draw you in. They don't do anything sneaky behind the scenes, but by the very way in which blinks work, they make at least 20% of an item's value in profit with every blink.

It's the gambling business. Play if you feel lucky.

Accidentally The Whole Frigate - For-newbies blog (currently on pause)
WolfeReign
Caldari Provisions
Caldari State
#64 - 2012-07-03 13:56:02 UTC
Ariel Armani wrote:
Hello,

I heard about this 250 celebration or whatever that Somer Blink is having, so I was interested. I have some extra ISK for "fun".

Anyway, I was asking around, and somebody sent me this link -

http://blinkexposed.blogspot.com/

That got me worried, so I asked about it in the Blink thread. Some dude Andrew Nox (with Blink I guess) told me to just "ask other Blink players about their experiences".

So that's what I am doing. Anybody want to share their experiences, good or bad?

Thanks! Smile



Do yourself a favor and pretend its a scam and move on. you won't regret it
Mallak Azaria
Caldari Provisions
Caldari State
#65 - 2012-07-03 14:03:07 UTC
Legit.

I've only got a 19% win rate, but I've gotten more isk out of it than I've put in.

This post was lovingly crafted by a member of the Goonwaffe Posting Cabal, proud member of the popular gay hookup site somethingawful.com, Spelling Bee, Grammar Gestapo & #1 Official Gevlon Goblin Fanclub member.
Potrondal Morrison
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#66 - 2012-07-03 14:49:30 UTC  |  Edited by: Potrondal Morrison
Blink is legit, i should know, i play the highest ISK stakes there are when i do play, which is regular when im feeling a bit flush.
I have lost far more than i have won, yet when i win pretty big, my ISK or ships get delivered in fast time.
Also i see REPLACEMENT 234 on the web page in question, my playing style is similar to his/hers and have went head to them many, many times on the Rorquls, moros and others where we both have covered half the board each and i can tell you that they have lost and won just as much of the time as i have.
Also to the poster who questioned his playing style by covering most of the board, if you notice he does this when there are bonus`s to be won, and also to accumulate tickets to play promos and celebrations, i do the same.


If your butt hurt because you played and lost so you shout scam, then do yourself a favour and never go to a casino nor bookies, if your saying scam just because you think it is then that is your opinion, but it is not.

SOMER blink is legit, if you dont want to play then dont, but it is only pixels on a screen, nothing more.
TheBreadMuncher
Protus Correction Facility Inc.
#67 - 2012-07-03 17:12:07 UTC
Corina Jarr wrote:
It is only a scam as far as gambling itself is a scam.

It is not like EVE scams though, where you never win (rare exceptions aside).


What do you mean? They're going to double my 10mil, they PROMISED! Cry

"We will create the introduction thread if that is requested by the community. Also, we will have an ISD Seminar about the CCL team in the coming weeks in which you can ask your questions about the CCL team and provide some constructive feedback to us." - Countless pages of locked threads and numerous permabanned accounts later, change is coming.
Lucy Ferrr
Sebiestor Tribe
Minmatar Republic
#68 - 2012-07-03 17:21:25 UTC
It is about as much of a scam as a casino (which could be considered pretty scammy :P ) But they do pay out to the winners. Also sometimes when there is a big market shift and blink isn't updated properly you can make guaranteed money from blink by buying 100% of the tickets on an item. A couple months ago there was a certain ship you could buy every ticket and still make 20mil isk. It's been fixed but if you keep your eyes open I am sure another whoops will pop up.
Momoyo
Rivinshield Trading Inc.
#69 - 2012-07-03 18:19:46 UTC
Xenuria wrote:
Andrev Nox wrote:
Xenuria wrote:
I am on the fence when it comes to blink.

When I started asking questions I was warned to stop or I would be banned from the ingame channel.
I asked somer herself some of my questions and she was evasive to say the very least.

Here are some key questions you should be asking.



"Why are their people in somer blink with win ratios over 95%?"
"Why is the majority of the statistical data hidden from the end user?"



When I make an effort to determine if something is bogus or not I ask for the data on wins and losses for everybody and everything with names and personal information partially redacted. Every legitimate organization I have ever requested this from has provided me with this, except somer blink.





In answer to the first question - It's answered anecdotally in the thread above you. :) Some folks get lucky on their first few blinks, and stop forever. It's the same reason some people have win ratios at 0% - they get a bad first run, and stop forever. I grant, it's something that would be addressed with the "fixed win percentage" idea outlined earlier in the thread, but that's just not something we're willing to do. Every draw is, and will stay, independent to every other draw. :)

In answer to the second question - Large swaths of database queries readily available to the public in a unified location are a server-melting fiasco. Blink receives around 700-2.5k individual users per hour, most of which stay on the site for 27-42 minutes each, and hammer F5 like a rabid monkey while they're there. Some concessions have to be made to technical performance :)

In answer to why YOU specifically aren't given large swaths of statistical data with personal information redacted - if that's what it would take for you to play, we're okay with you not playing. :) Even if we did take the time to hand all that over, a day later you could make the same demand for information again, and again, and again. If someone really distrusts our service that much, we're totally cool with you not using it :)

In answer to Rakshasa Taisab:

Each blink does have a unique identifier, it's Blink ID number. It is visible on even the currently active blinks, in the lower left hand corner of the Blink (highlight the text there to see it). The results from that are viewable to anyone who played on that Blink - though I grant, they're not perpetually visible to anyone who wants to look.

And, again, all that said - I absolutely concede there's zero way we could guarantee that all of that code didn't change right after you looked. The answer to that one will always be: It wouldn't benefit us to do that. It would catastrophically cripple us. But if you disbelieve that, it's totally cool to keep not playing. :)

Edit to add: Re-reading, I misunderstood what you were looking for from a unique identifier. Random.org doesn't have any type of identification API, so that's not possible (to my knowledge) while using them as our RNG source.



When I am talking about win ratios I am talking about people that have earned over 1 billion isk and ALSO have a 90+% win ratio. That is what gives me pause.

As far as melting servers, I really find it hard to believe that something as basic as somer blink needs all that much resources. I am not requesting you make a live database available to the public.

Maybe something every month of week during downtime. This would cause an influx of new users because people would actually be able to run the numbers and look for anything suspicious.


I would think its because of the people that buy 90% if the slots all the time in order to cash out their prizes, or because they are "working" the system. injecting an "investment" and constantly buying enough tickets to almost guarantee a win and still make a profit.
Itherael Fate
#70 - 2012-07-03 18:25:13 UTC
Forum ate my post so here is the TL ; DR

https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=30917 <---- blink forum thread that many players will attest to how awesome somer blink is.

[u]Rules of The Game[/u] 1. Everyone in the world is playing The Game. A person cannot not play The Game; it does not require consent to play and one can never stop playing. 2. Whenever one thinks about The Game, one loses. 3. Losses must be announced to at least one person.
Soundwave Plays Diablo
Doomheim
#71 - 2012-07-03 19:22:07 UTC
Ariel Armani wrote:
Hello,

I heard about this 250 celebration or whatever that Somer Blink is having, so I was interested. I have some extra ISK for "fun".

Anyway, I was asking around, and somebody sent me this link -

http://blinkexposed.blogspot.com/

That got me worried, so I asked about it in the Blink thread. Some dude Andrew Nox (with Blink I guess) told me to just "ask other Blink players about their experiences".

So that's what I am doing. Anybody want to share their experiences, good or bad?

Thanks! Smile


Its a lottery with a 5:8 payout to take. Absolute shenanigans.
Bree Okanata
Perkone
Caldari State
#72 - 2012-07-03 19:40:37 UTC
I keep reading this forum interested. While I do agree that most of the nay sayers have their points, I still pause after reading a couple posts so that I can refresh the Somer page and look for promos. Yea Somer takes a large profit, but they still pay out everything you win. I got bored and when I found the site I put one ticket down for a tengu. Lo and behold I won the Tengu and within a minute of accepting the prize, it was sitting on Contract in Jita waiting for me.
Catalina Cruze
BPO Investment Group
#73 - 2012-07-03 22:47:32 UTC
Andrev Nox - Thank you for linking to my website. I don't troll the forums looking for business, so it's nice when someone else does the promoting for me. You have my permission to add my link to your signature if you would like. Blink

FYI - Blogger.com is a very popular blogging platform. Not sure what you were going for in that post. Roll

While I'm here, I did find this mildly entertaining;

Andrev Nox wrote:

If you like, you're free to evaluate our method for choosing winners. The code we use to get the number is here. As you can see, we draw it from random.org. You can find their real-time statistics here and several peer-reviewed papers on the quality of their random-generator here.

And, from a more practical standpoint - with over 1,733,423 Blinks completed, it would be a MONSTROUS amount of work to try and rig them/keep that rigging hidden from the public/the dozens of people who've worked for Blink. Saner by far to just run it honestly and enjoy it for what it is :)

Hope that helps :)


"I will dazzle you with code and fancy words trying to look legit, but hope you don't know any better" LOLs

It appears the author of the blog in question has you figured out. They even have a nice little screen shot of you saying the exact same thing in a different thread.

http://blinkexposed.blogspot.com/p/blinks-explanation.html

Pretty much word for word.

Thanks again, and have a nice day!

.
Sobach
Aliastra
Gallente Federation
#74 - 2012-07-04 05:32:21 UTC
Catalina Cruze wrote:
stuff


TBH, I'd say IPOs and other player-run investments schemes in EVE are much less... reputable than blink in general, to say the least.
Snow Axe
Republic Military School
Minmatar Republic
#75 - 2012-07-04 06:54:03 UTC
The amount of effort it would take to rig Blink would be huge, and if it was actually found out (i.e. not some half-baked conspiracy blog, but real actual proof) it'd destroy it as an income source. Far, far easier to just run it legit and rake in the insane profits.

"Look any reason why you need to talk like that? I have now reported you. I dont need to listen to your bad tone. If you cant have a grown up conversation then leave the thread["
Rajan Marelona
Hedion University
Amarr Empire
#76 - 2012-07-04 07:16:22 UTC  |  Edited by: Rajan Marelona
It can be a scam but due to its popularity, it is makeing a lot of ISK even if it is 100% legit.
Going even 1% non-legit could be a huge blow to its popularity, so there is no reason for them to not stay legit.
Blog guy just sucks at understanding how gambling works.
Or he understands it too well but can nott comprehend that is how real-life gambling works too.

No, I have never used Somer Blink. I do not gamble if I can avoid it.
Not in a game, not in real life. House always wins on average.
I prefer to make money the old fashioned way.
Danfen Fenix
#77 - 2012-07-04 08:32:21 UTC
Eh, after yesterday, I dont even care if it's a scam. I love them Lol

Got 10 mil from the gift box for the celebration. Played 3 blinks & got 50 mil for an achievement. Got another 5 mil achievement and a bonus blink...and pretty soon that free 10 mil credit had turned in to 80 mil in my wallet Lol

Thanks Blink. Think I'll quit while I'm ahead now though...
Derath Ellecon
University of Caille
Gallente Federation
#78 - 2012-07-04 13:38:13 UTC
So I read through the website from the OP. I haven't read through all of the posts in this thread.

The only part of that site that has any possible legitimacy is in the area is shill players IMO. It is entirely possible that blink stacks the game with shills. It would probably be the hardest to track.

But the big question to ask is why bother. The site is popular enough without having to go through the trouble of cheating the players.
FloppieTheBanjoClown
Arcana Imperii Ltd.
#79 - 2012-07-04 13:48:10 UTC
The longer you play, the more likely you are to lose money. That's the nature of any casino game or lottery. They don't need to scam anyone, the profit model is easily apparent: add up the values of the blinks for an item and it's higher than the market value of that item.

As for them using shills: It's entirely possible that they do, but that doesn't hurt the odds of any given individual winning. In fact on those lotteries where they use shills and real players win, they'd be cutting into their own profit margin.

The bit with the too-young character...do you really think guys that put in this much effort would make such a careless mistake? Probably someone biomassed and recycled the name, or someone else picked it up later.

Founding member of the Belligerent Undesirables movement.
Malcanis
Vanishing Point.
The Initiative.
#80 - 2012-07-04 13:49:47 UTC
If you don't trust it, don't play.

"Just remember later that I warned against any change to jump ranges or fatigue. You earned whats coming."

Grath Telkin, 11.10.2016