EVE General Discussion

So theoretically-speaking, if this is made all above board (Heh ), lets say theoretically if I was in desperate need of isk, and a "friend" who was no longer interested in EvE had lots of isk he no longer wanted, he could get himself made an affiliate, and sell me Plex for CCP-price, and get a kickback for his trouble, which then if I had a "sudden and unexpected change of heart", I could then use his "patent and legit" buyback service that gives me 10% more isk than if I'd sold on market.

Then, lets say, I realised I actually really needed that Plex from him, I could buy it again, and he gets another sweet kickback, but get this, I'm like, really, really indecisive, so I let him buyback that same plex again, again for 10% more isk (he's such a swell guy!).

I think I'm good, but I take a "knock to the head", and forget why I didn't need that Plex, so I buy it off him yet again (that Plex is getting some mileage, and he's getting some kickback), but I "get better", and him being such a decent guy, lets me drop it though his buyback scheme again, and again I get that 10% for my trouble (he's too decent a guy obviously to only make me get it once, what a friend!). And again, and again. And this isn't RMT?

[Edit - Heh, apologies, phone ]

I don't think anyone is blaming Somer… much. The ire is over the preferential treatment such a ruling would confer. The largest portion of blame lies with CCP for not enforcing their rules properly.

Somer is just your average scoundrel stealing gambler's money. That's what gamblers are for. I suppose that some blame could be assigned for trying the same scheme twice, only it's much more simplified and blatant this time around, even though it got shut down hard last time.

e: way to prove me wrong.
vvv

Unfortunately most of the posts on this forum is grr Somer when it should be aimed directly at CCP.

For a game where the community prides itself on cheating, scamming, meta play, stretching the rules to breaking point the amount of butt hurt towards Somer is staggering.

For me the blame should be solely at CCP's feet if they did indeed allow this. Also I do not believe for one moment a GM would take this kind of decision without consulting somebody higher up.

To ban Somer would make the banned RMT ISK graph take a nice little jump this month.

There's a first time for everything.

This has nothing to do with witch hunt or because we hate SOMER, maybe some do, but I certainly don't. I have made a lot of ISK with them (and I don't mean because I was lucky). They basically financed my ganking when I started before it became self sustaining (I am happy to give you details if you don't believe me). So I have no problem with their gambling service.

They always sold PLEX and made money from it, that is not the problem. The problem starts when they give you extra ISK when you purchase the PLEX from them and not from somewhere else. And that's what they do now, they try to obfuscate it a bit with this PLEX credit, but in the end it is pretty straight forward "if you buy PLEX from us you get additional ISK".

They claim this is CCP sanctioned, we will see about that. CCP Falcons response indicated that they are as surprised about this new service as everyone else.

If this is indeed CCP sanctioned then the question is can all the other PLEX resellers run a similar program and basically try to improve their PLEX sales by offering even more additional ISK for the buyer. It is not really hard to see that some dude with trillions of ISK would jump on this and basically sell his ISK stash for better PLEX sales and therefor more RL $ from the cut you get when you sell a PLEX.

If this is not CCP sanctioned then SOMER should face the consequences everyone else would face if they sell ISK for $ because in the end that is what it all boils down too. Of course this is CCPs decision and they already demonstrated a year ago that SOMER is basically a friend of the sheriff. Let's hope they have grown a bit (ahahahaha, yeah, that's not even funny).

Markee Dragon has been featured by CCP in the Community Highlights one.

THE PLOT!

SHE THICKENS!

It's not really a witch hunt at all. Somer pay people isk and receive money. That's RMT. Just because they use a convoluted method of receiving their funds doesn't make it any else RMT. Somer should receive the exact same punishment as any other RMTers. Somer have possibly got a GM to agree that it's OK this time round, which makes matters worse, since it's unlikely to be CCPs policy to allow RMT, meaning that Somer knowingly convinced a GM to put themselves in a bad position.

As for the resellers, there's no issues with the affiliate GTC programs if they are operating in the "normal" way, though it is not really a surprise that the reseller helping out Somer is run by a notorious RMTer for other games.

CCP really need to investigate Somer on a deeper level anyway, since it's been suggested before that they use shill accounts to "win" large amounts of isk, then that winning account later RMTs that isk and gets banned, with them losing nothing but a shill account in the process, and having deniability.

Thanks for responding to this promptly.

At this point the only statement worth making is that this practice has been suspended pending review with immediate effect.

Please don't allow Somer/MD another 14 day grace period. This systematic exploitation of the affiliate system might generate bursts of revenue for all involved, but it's costing CCP in lost player goodwill.

When high profile community figures start making statements like this it's about time to start paying attention. Nothing personal to Somer, but if I wanted to hear about someone earning 100k a year through monetised eve related services, it'd be Chribba. Not someone running a dodgy lotto scam site.

Shall we all stage laser battleships at the monument in preparation for the inevitable end to this discuission where nothing changes and we need to rageroll Jita to get CCP to pay attention?