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Somer Blink: Legit or Scam?

Author
Varos Aldeland
Republic Military School
Minmatar Republic
#161 - 2012-07-06 17:12:53 UTC
Sakura Hina wrote:
As long as you don't post any API key there is NO PROOF of you receiving any winnings or beeing unassociated with the Site owner.


Even if he did, it still wouldn't be a 100% proof that he isn't. Fact is, short of you being able to literally go inside he and somer's mind, no "proof" will satisfy people like you.

Also, don't forget that you're on even shakier ground, you also have no proof that he didn't receive his winnings or is associated with somer.

Sakura Hina wrote:

The record only show's the Bings you played and how many of them you won. It doesnt show how many ISK you invested. Besides that... you haven't explained why a blink player can be registered to blink before he was even created


You either fail at reading comprehension or just fail at being intelligent, take your pick. How a blink player can be registered to blink before he was created has been explained ad nauseum in this thread already, but I'm gonna do you a favor and go very slowly and maybe you can understand this time.

1. You are only allowed one blink account/character, regardless of how many eve accounts you have. ie. Joe Smith can only have one blink character, even if he has 10 accounts and 30 alts in EVE.

2. When people want to change the character they use with blink for whatever reason, whether they're planning to sell the character, they bought/train a new character that they want to use with blink (yea, people change characters in EVE, what a shocker!), the blink account is then transferred over to the new character.

3. While anyone with a functional level of brain activity and intelligence have already figured it out at this point, I'll give you an example just in case - Joe starts playing blink on July 1st of 2011 with the character Magic Pony, one year later he decided that ponies are lame, so he made a new character called Pony Sucks, and transferred his blink account to the new character. This means that even though Pony Sucks was only created days ago, on his blink account it'd look like he's been playing blink for a whole year!

If you still can't figure it out, you should probably go biomass yourself.
Soundwave Plays Diablo
Doomheim
#162 - 2012-07-06 18:06:03 UTC
Varos Aldeland wrote:
Sakura Hina wrote:
As long as you don't post any API key there is NO PROOF of you receiving any winnings or beeing unassociated with the Site owner.


Even if he did, it still wouldn't be a 100% proof that he isn't. Fact is, short of you being able to literally go inside he and somer's mind, no "proof" will satisfy people like you.

Also, don't forget that you're on even shakier ground, you also have no proof that he didn't receive his winnings or is associated with somer.

Sakura Hina wrote:

The record only show's the Bings you played and how many of them you won. It doesnt show how many ISK you invested. Besides that... you haven't explained why a blink player can be registered to blink before he was even created


You either fail at reading comprehension or just fail at being intelligent, take your pick. How a blink player can be registered to blink before he was created has been explained ad nauseum in this thread already, but I'm gonna do you a favor and go very slowly and maybe you can understand this time.

1. You are only allowed one blink account/character, regardless of how many eve accounts you have. ie. Joe Smith can only have one blink character, even if he has 10 accounts and 30 alts in EVE.

2. When people want to change the character they use with blink for whatever reason, whether they're planning to sell the character, they bought/train a new character that they want to use with blink (yea, people change characters in EVE, what a shocker!), the blink account is then transferred over to the new character.

3. While anyone with a functional level of brain activity and intelligence have already figured it out at this point, I'll give you an example just in case - Joe starts playing blink on July 1st of 2011 with the character Magic Pony, one year later he decided that ponies are lame, so he made a new character called Pony Sucks, and transferred his blink account to the new character. This means that even though Pony Sucks was only created days ago, on his blink account it'd look like he's been playing blink for a whole year!

If you still can't figure it out, you should probably go biomass yourself.


Its not possible to have an online system that limits "one per person". The very best scenario you can have is 1 per IP. Just sayin you missed that part.
Feanos
Brutor Tribe
Minmatar Republic
#163 - 2012-07-06 19:02:43 UTC  |  Edited by: Feanos
Yeah, nice to come to the forums every now and then, particularly after the post you left in somer's chat Replacement 234.

I agree entirely though, I'm not a fan of the games of pushing people off of their normal blinking routines (Even if they try to throw mine off... Roll). That being said, blink is slowing down for me personally, as I'm hitting that point of, "Do I really need more isk?" and "Man, there's too many people like me out there." If anyone wants to question it, I'm in the same boat as Replacement, and won't provide API's, but I can quite happily provide you screenshots of the corporate payouts I've gotten from them, as I don't do any other corporate level work. :)
Replacement 234
Tremor Recorded
#164 - 2012-07-07 03:39:34 UTC  |  Edited by: Replacement 234
Sakura Hina wrote:
Quote:
See, these are easy ways people can find out pertinent answers. You could petition me, Blink, and everyone associated with Blink, including all of the 47,875 blink account holders and let the GMs go thru everything. The GMs would have a better idea of how the game is played than anyone you think has made a allegation...


Scamming within Eve as we all know is not Illegal, as we all know. So you can take all that ISK people still have in deposit once you cant pay them off anymore for whatever reason and run away Blink

Replacement 234 responds:
Your statement "you cant pay them off anymore for whatever reason" seems to be apply to a Ponzi scheme as what you describe is the tipping point at which they tumble. Blink is not operating in any fashion similar to a Ponzi scheme which survives as long as enough new money comes in to pay off the older investors and Blink has no investors and operates on a pay as you go system. As long as the players buy all the tickets for a blink, the isk is available to pay the winner. I think you have your conspiracies confused.

Your statement about being able to run away is true about blink, just as it is about CCP, Steam and the Goverments of many countries. That is certainly what Sad dam Hus sein tried to do with his billions in US currency stashed in so many places when he went undereground. But why would they run away from a golden goose? But more to the issue at hand: did you notice on the Blink stats page that they are holding over 405 Trillion in account deposits and who knows how many of nearly 200 prize categories of items they may have in stock ready to give out. I cannot fathom how many Moros or Rorqs or Phoenixes or harpies thay have sitting around. And it has been that way for well over a year, maybe even two as I don't even know when they went into business. It is interesting they have remained solvent, even thriving, during a period when so many governments around the world have faltered - oh my- - that would be a juicey conspiracy theory! But back to your.. well it is not really a point but more of a fascination - what could Blink be waiting for to take it all on the Lam? If they are not running now amd haven't run over the years, what could they be waiting for? I am merely an account holder and not privy to such information, you may have to ask them, or you could just make it up! Maybe they are waiting to buy Iceland with Plex. Although if they were going to buy country, Id prefer one closer to the US and one with a nice climate; maybe something Carribean where they could move Blink as I don't think they really have any reason to shut down or run away - you do know thay make a lot of Isk everyday and it doesn't seem like they have any reason run away. But you never know, right? BTW, would you lose anything if they closed up shop? Do you really have anything at stake? You know like most of the people who are answering this forum and are pleased with the way Blink is being run? I'm wondering what your motivation(s) might be in your pursuit here?

[quote]
still waiting for a credible allegtion instead of unsubstantiated accusations, out of context quotes and screen shots which could have been taken of hundreds or even thousands of other regular players like me who happened to get lucky and win a few nice ones within a short amount of time.


As long as you don't post any API key there is NO PROOF of you receiving any winnings or beeing unassociated with the Site owner.

Replacement 234 responds:
Well I guess you have NO PROOF for your acusation. Does that even matter to you? Interesting you should mention NO PROOF. I don't know or even care, where you live, but in my country people are innocent until proven guilty and we rely on courts to do that, at least a compentent neutral organization which has no stake in the outcome, but certainly not web sites run by someone who asked for a 49 billion payoff (49 billion? bizare number) not to put lies in his bio to ruin a respected ongoing enterprise. And that proof is available. We don't rely on a web source with an agenda and with little or no realiable history to offer up thngs with no provenance as evidence for mobs of conspiracy ready readers to launch lynching parties. It is the court system or a competent neutral party which must present untarnished evidence with a trail of evidentuary security which must prove guilt, not the accused who must prove innocence. I have seen no such reliable neutral body offer up any reliable evidence of any wrong doing on my part. I do not yield to conspiracy theorists, usubstantiated accusations or to slander mongers. I will fully comply with any competent authority which has questions about events in which I may have been involved. Until then I will be happy to live under the quite tiny and insidnificant shadow of doubt you and others like you may try to cast over me. As I have explained ad nauseum, the release of my API will compromise many other players for whom I have acted as a mediator when players wanted anonymity during a transaction with other players. CCP would be the authority to investigate that and I welcome any such investigation you could provoke them to initiate. I await them, but not you are anyone like you.

to be continued in a later post
Replacement 234
Tremor Recorded
#165 - 2012-07-07 03:39:48 UTC  |  Edited by: Replacement 234
Thank you CCP for having a forum which eats posts and then won't let you know if you are double posting when you put up the copy every forum poster knows is essential.
Replacement 234
Tremor Recorded
#166 - 2012-07-07 03:43:13 UTC  |  Edited by: Replacement 234
Thank you CCP for having a forum which eats posts and then won't let you know if you are double posting when you put up the copy every forum poster knows is essential.
Replacement 234
Tremor Recorded
#167 - 2012-07-07 05:15:15 UTC  |  Edited by: Replacement 234
Thank you CCP for having a forum which eats posts and then won't let you know if you are double posting when you put up the copy every forum poster knows is essential.
Replacement 234
Tremor Recorded
#168 - 2012-07-07 05:34:53 UTC  |  Edited by: Replacement 234
quote=Sakura Hina]
Quote:
Quote:
The record clearly shows that I've lost a whole lot more than I've won.

The record only show's the Bings you played and how many of them you won. It doesnt show how many ISK you invested. Besides that... you haven't explained why a blink player can be registered to blink before he was even created

Replacement 234 replies:
You are way out on a limb on this one. BTW the are called Blinks, not Bings, it is small error but it points to an overall lack of attention to detail, just as your Ponzi Schemi reference did earlier. It is always helpful to decide which conspiracy you think you have found before you start casting accusations. I will address your second point first. It is obvious that you have bunched a lot of accusations together as my character was created long before the blink account was initiated making that accusation a non-issue for me. It has been explained quite well by many others in this thread. Once again, lack of attention to detail, or maybe you just followed a link given you and this is the wrong thread. It always helps to do some homework before you decide to tar and feather someone. I will say that my blink account was created and initially financed quite plushly by another character of mine who I later determined needed to be used in another area and asked Blink to switch the account from one character to another. Now this addresses two points in the porridge of accusations; specifically the one for which I will now offer a second reason why the accusation was specious. A question was asked how I, replacement 234 could afford to blink as I have blinked. The question revolved around a post I made while acting as a mediator to buy a character and told the seller I only had 9 billion ISK. The unknown buyer was the one with only 9 billion ISK, not I, as I had considerably more Isk at that time. Now when I took over this blink account from another character I own who nicely financed it and of course left it all behind as a blink player may not withdraw ISK, only redeem a won prize for ISK. I will not reveal how many charcters I own, CCP is quite aware of it, but I will tell you anyone one of them could easily produce Isk in numbers well over 9 billion Isk. Will I tell you how I got it? No, petition me for being amply supplied with Isk and I will be glad to answer any questions CCP may have as they pore over my voluminous records.

On the first part of your accusation. To date I have made 20,901 blinks and won 7,435. I'll do the math for you, so that means I have lost 13,466 blinks which is a far greater number than 7,435. Some shill, can't even win half the time. Remember my strategy was to buy 12 of 16 tickets letting me own 75% of the available chances to win. Clearly I was not working under that strategy the whole time. If I owned 75% of the tickets, ask yourself how much the theory of probability would let me win, as I, being merely human, don't know and gee - that is why they call it gambling.

You make an accusation that I cannot address when you introduce how much Isk I lost on each item when I lost a blink. To determine that I would have to know how many tickets I bought on each of my now 20,901 blinks. I would also have to know how many of the 13,466 lost blinks were for Moros, orcas, Harpies or any of the nearly 200 different prizes blink offers. And just for the record, I have won every prize offered by blink as proven by my list of achievements. Blink changes the ship values as the markets move and that changes ticket prices, so I would have to know all previous ticket prices and the exact moment they changed as it could have changed between two moros blinks, so I would need a time date stamp on each loss and I am not sure that even exists. Blink has no downtime operating from their own server BTW what was the exact mileage (to the ternth) on your car at these 13,466 different times and dates?

As to the first part of the accusation, the problem is like one of those pesky word problem found in some math text books except those text books give you all the data you need. It is clear that you want me to do your homewprk for you and I will not. I cannot give you the data you need and even if I could I would not. There is one more reason that permeates my being when confronted by people who virtually walk up to me on the street, quizzing me about what is my personal business as you have done. It is absolutely none of your business until you own CCP. You have no right to demand to know anything beyond the public record. You can have your doubts and your fears and your Tinfoil Belief Society agendas all you like. But by God, you will not have a piece of my personal information unless I decide to release it to you. Petition the the hell out of me or go to hell, I don't care.

I will not waste my time with another baseless assumption of wrong doing. I will be glad to fully cooporate with CCP should they choose ask me any questions. The rest of you nosy conspiracy behind every tree types can just pull your tinfool hats down to your asses and inhale deeply.
Flardowell
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#169 - 2012-07-07 07:48:29 UTC
Blink without a doubt is a scam

I've played on multiple ultra blinks, playing against many of the people here defending it. I've usually bought 6-8 tickets per round, yet my win ratio is lower than someone who never buys more than 4? That makes total sense right?

Not to mention, today for example, I lost over 15b in one round due to a streak of roughly 20 losses at ultras, with NONE of them winning once, spending 6-8 tickets per

This game is a scam, its the best one I've ever seen because I've never been scammed in this game yet, but its happened now, and I will be walking away with a lighter wallet and a "kudos" to the somer team for making the most amazing scam in this game to date
Kel Shek
Aliastra
Gallente Federation
#170 - 2012-07-07 08:41:32 UTC
wow. skimmed over most of the thread...

(and as a background note, I was away from the game for most of this character's existence. came back a few months ago)

in a way I "get" people who regard the fact that its gambling to fundamentally define it as a scam. and in a sense, for that angle... well ok. it is gambling, and they DO make money hand over fist. thats a given.

honestly if I had stopped after the first day of trying out blink, I might have thought it might be a little rigged. but I gave it a little more of a chance, and felt it was legit.

so far, I am well ahead. I have deposited to date, exactly 4.5b ISK. I've had about 620m ISK deposited in my wallet, I've won 3 promo's totaling to a bit over 2b worth, in addition to that I've received delivery of 13 PLEX, and probably about 2b worth of ships (in addition to the promos)

so that means I've significantly more than doubled my money. and it being THAT low of return, is after including for some pretty harsh dry spells.

I feel like my "technique" minimizes my odds of getting into the red. and so far it seems to work. while I've in short term bursts, spend a few hundred million and come out with nothing... other times like earlier this week, I turn about 400m into 9 plex (in my hangar, not just theoretical).

the way I see it, why would they cheat, when they can make SO much money being perfectly legit? sure cheating might make them more money in the short term. but if they can make that much and more without cheating... its just more sustainable to NOT cheat.

oh and I, at least, try to avoid the impulse to get multiple tickets. just doesn't make sense if its stuff that moves quick enough to get just as many tickets spent on individual rolls.
Soundwave Plays Diablo
Doomheim
#171 - 2012-07-07 08:42:16 UTC
Quote:
The rest of you nosy conspiracy behind every tree types can just pull your tinfool hats down to your asses and inhale deeply.


Eh, that's why people don't consider it a scam, because its overt.

But the problem is people go to the site and spend more than the cost of what they are gambling on.

They would have to be ******** to do so.

Yet it happens a lot.

So if you don't already understand why people "have their tinfoil hats out", you probably never will.

I realize that that's not exactly what you are talking about, but you pretty much HAVE to see how it raises suspicion. I mean, how many people do you know that spent a lot of money on a raffle, or better yet lottery to increase their chance of winning? Probably at least 1 or 2.

Now think about how many people you know that bought MORE raffle tickets than the prizes' worth? How many people do you know that went out and played 000-777 on the 3 digit lottery? Because that is what people do on that site.

Co-incidentally, I went to somerblink yesterday to see if people still did just that. When I was there there was a "present" waiting for me. I cashed it out, bought a ticket, and cashed out permanently. Thanks OP.
Hacklespur Harrowhound
The Abdication Corporation
#172 - 2012-07-07 09:01:53 UTC
Somer Blink trains up Damage Control II, news at 11.
Pariah Fenwick
Doomheim
#173 - 2012-07-07 10:05:44 UTC
Flardowell wrote:
Blink without a doubt is a scam

I've played on multiple ultra blinks, playing against many of the people here defending it. I've usually bought 6-8 tickets per round, yet my win ratio is lower than someone who never buys more than 4? That makes total sense right?

Not to mention, today for example, I lost over 15b in one round due to a streak of roughly 20 losses at ultras, with NONE of them winning once, spending 6-8 tickets per

This game is a scam, its the best one I've ever seen because I've never been scammed in this game yet, but its happened now, and I will be walking away with a lighter wallet and a "kudos" to the somer team for making the most amazing scam in this game to date


Haha. hilarious, you lose some isk to blink and it's a scam? Priceless, one for the bio
Naya Sky
Serra Industries
#174 - 2012-07-07 10:19:02 UTC  |  Edited by: Naya Sky
As a common saying goes "lotteries are a tax on people who are bad at math".

In a nutshell Blink is 'selling' items for 50% mark-ups. So for every item that is won in the lottery Blink gets this much profits. This fact alone tells you that by definition Blink 'wins' more than the players do. House always wins.

The fact that their lotteries are not transparent means that there is a possibility that some lotteries might be rigged (you could easily rig a couple % of lotteries and nobody would know).

Is Blink a scam?
It's not a scam directly because you will always get your winnings. So from this perspective it's not a scam.

But it's possible that there are more subtle ways of indirect scamming involved. Like mentioned before, they could be rigging let's say 1% of micro lotteries. Nobody would know and the already exorbitant profits would be even larger.

So yea, some people win money, while most of them lose it. If you won some decent ISK then gratz to you - but play 100x times more and you won't come out on top. It's basic math and probability.
lafforet
Amarr Royal Trust Bank
#175 - 2012-07-07 10:26:13 UTC
http://blinkexposed.blogspot.com says that about 70% or 180 trillions out of 260 trillions of blink winnings are turned back into Somer Blink's wallet. So, when you earn 70%, would you make a biggest scam in EVE to get also a part of those remaining 30%? Would you rig 1.8 MILLION blinks? Really? LolLolLol

The real question is what you possibly could do with those 180 trillions.
Abditus Cularius
Clancularius Industries
#176 - 2012-07-07 10:33:59 UTC
Dev twitter outright said the largest ingame wallet, corp or personal, is 5.5T.

This thread, so far, has been a blog with a lot of flawed logic. A bunch of people that said they won a bunch and it's clearly not a scam. A bunch of people that said they lost a bunch and it's clearly a scam. A few people saying it would be stupid to scam with this, but there's no way to know either way objectively. The guy who runs the russian site that looks exactly like blink accusing blink of being RMT. Someone acting entitled to a stranger's API. And a few people who have never posted before this thread that have enough tinfoil to resurface the moon.

I have now summarized every post before and after this one.
Pariah Fenwick
Doomheim
#177 - 2012-07-07 12:38:01 UTC
gam·ble (gmbl)
v. gam·bled, gam·bling, gam·bles
v.intr.
1.
a. To bet on an uncertain outcome, as of a contest.
b. To play a game of chance for stakes.
2. To take a risk in the hope of gaining an advantage or a benefit.
3. To engage in reckless or hazardous behaviour
v.tr.
1. To put up as a stake in gambling; wager.
2. To expose to hazard; risk
n.
1. A bet, wager, or other gambling venture.
2. An act or undertaking of uncertain outcome; a risk:

That ^^

If you think it's a scam, don't play. Just like you don't give isk to those "Isk doublers, giving up the game, doing a study on physcology" types in Jita local.

If you do play and lose don't bother creating a delicious tear fest of a blog because at the end of the day, blink will always have customers. Let those customers decide on their own.

Replacement 234 has done a damn good job of explaining his position, something he didn't have to do and something he obviously spent more time doing than the joker who created that blog did gathering "Evidence".

You can chase your tail all day long, simple fact is, if you think it's a scam don't play, simples :)

Nicely summed up Abditus Cularius.
lafforet
Amarr Royal Trust Bank
#178 - 2012-07-07 19:46:17 UTC
Abditus Cularius wrote:
Dev twitter outright said the largest ingame wallet, corp or personal, is 5.5T.

This thread, so far, has been a blog with a lot of flawed logic. A bunch of people that said they won a bunch and it's clearly not a scam. A bunch of people that said they lost a bunch and it's clearly a scam. A few people saying it would be stupid to scam with this, but there's no way to know either way objectively. The guy who runs the russian site that looks exactly like blink accusing blink of being RMT. Someone acting entitled to a stranger's API. And a few people who have never posted before this thread that have enough tinfoil to resurface the moon.

I have now summarized every post before and after this one.


Wallet size does not prove anything. If one is not "mostly-retired" as Akita T, it could just mean that Somer Blink is investing its ISK in assets.
Replacement 234
Tremor Recorded
#179 - 2012-07-07 20:29:37 UTC
Gul'gotha Derv'ash wrote:
I will say there are some rather suspicious toons winning everything in sight.

The person who won the 250b in the last super event was someone I had never seen blink, ever, and I was blinking a lot during the few months going into the 200T event. Does make you take a double look and wonder if there are some shenanigans going on, especially since it is ungoverned by anyone other than Somer herself.

That being said I have either broken even, or made isk when playing. Also have won close to 3b from Promo blinks alone. There sadly are strings of playing where I can lose every single blink though. Latest was 325m with 0 wins on low priced blinks ranging from 2.5-35m.


Never saw him....

Well, I just spent 2 minutes doing a little research and found he had 62 awards before 200T started and he first played in mid April of 2012.

And btw, he won 200 Bisk not 250.

I guess some people play at different times, maybe. And with over 48k of players, I'll bet I've missed one or two myself.

Still seem suspicious?

Homework is such an easy thing - you know, when I was a kid and didn't do my homework, which was more often than not, I'd stand up in front of the class staring at the the problem on the chalkboard that looked just like the one on last night's homwwork while the other three kids who had done their homework breezed through their problems and all I could here was the class snickering behind me.

I think that is true in adult life, when people make statements without doing their homework, others laugh at them.
Amandrace
MineMaster Inc
#180 - 2012-07-08 02:53:03 UTC
Well, experience as a new and done user here.

Never heard of this before, but Kil2 was sponsored by them so I checked them out. Very slick In game browser site and easy to get carried away. I ended up blowing 750m ISK overall, but I have to say my overall winnings actually come out to an acceptable level. I mostly tried frigate and cruiser hulls but every once in a while I'd 'go big' on a Rorqual or something. My win rate on the small ships was well within statistical chance, but it pisses me off that the 'large ticket' items like said Rorquals and other caps always seemed to be played by 4-10 tickets of the same person. Sure it's a calculated risk on their part but with those odds, hell if I had billions to bankroll I sppose I would too.

At any rate, I can say my 750m therapy session is much the same as your average casino. I won a control tower and some other ships for over 400m, but got suckered in to play some more. This site is dangerously addicting, until you realize the millions you are clicking away are equating to hours of work. I don't even want to guess the profit margin the site operates at, but I can see how people with a real life prediliction to gambling addiction would end up losing it all here.

In summary, this site is no more evil than your local casino. Just gotta know your limits.