Echelon

That's my point. The game isn't hard if you have intelligent raiders. The game only becomes hard because half the people playing MMO's are fucking stupid. The management of people is the only thing hard, and that is because retards need babysitting.

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Klickmart: Where E-thugs go shopping.

"It's not about gear anymore it's about brain cells, and unfortunately Avatars don't drop those"

Pinski

Unfair advantages generally are advantages that are against the rules but allowed to be used anyway.

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How many times do you hear it? It goes on all day long
Everyone knows everything And no one's ever wrong
Until later...
Who can you believe? It's hard to play it safe
But apart from a few good friends We don't take anything on faith
Until later..

kenman

Actually, a better analogy would be one tennis player works his ass off exercising to play well, while the other guy puts forth very little effort and just takes steroids instead.

Similar to somebody leveling up to 80 and another skipping the entire journey there... /ponder.

All I really have to say is this:
For EQ2 specifically, SOE has set up different servers. Some that specifically allow RMT, others that do not. Anybody partaking in RMT on a non-station exchange server should forcefully be moved to one where it's allowed. No banning necessary, just keep them all separated into their own category, like how the PSO community eventually divided up into legit and cheater.

And as for why they should be segregated, like it or not, even in a PvE setting the game is competitive. When I still played, for example, most every tank on the high health board would specifically equip high HP gear before the server updates, instead of the DPS gear they actually used on raids. Hoodhop's even admitted it to me. :P

Just imagine how stupid DDR/Pop'n Music/Any other arcade game would be if you could simply throw down 10 bucks to get a high score. Nobody would know who's legit, or even feel any reason to try to top the highscore board, while previously that could heavily contribute to the overall enjoyment of the game despite being completely meaningless in the long run.

Although honestly, my personal reason against RMT is that people that have to pay real money to get shit in a game are pathetic, and I dislike playing with pathetic people.

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Kenman, 70 Berserker
Last Time Played: November 18, 2007

Woot!

Rinion

That would be a better analogy for sploiters and people that get Dev assistance.

When they buy plat it is most assuredly used to buy gear, again they can't buy skill or understanding of game mechanics. It's really not possible to buy your way out of retard status.

This is an amazing Idea. seriously. They should do that. Would give us a real feel for how many people are secretly buying plat while nodding their head in agreement with the anti-RMT individuals.

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"Before one can identify anything as "gray", one has to know what is black and what is white. In the field of morality, this means that one must first identify what is good and what is evil. And when a man has ascertained that one alternative is good and the other evil, he has no justification for choosing a mixture. " Ayn Rand

Kall

I kind of wish all the servers had RMT enabled.

Does it really matter if you choose to skip to the end? It obviously isn't imbalancing or unfair as proven by the Bazaar's lack of raiding progression, so I really don't see a problem with it.

The steroid analogy is actually pretty good. Steroids doesn't turn you into an instant superstar world class athlete. You still need natural talent and have to put in the work.

firamas

Yep, the things that actually matter in this game cannot be purchased. You can buy platinum, you can buy tradeable gear, you can buy masters, you can even buy no-drop gear if a guild on the server is selling it. You can buy levels. You can buy completely geared max level characters.

But you CANNOT buy the experience or skillset necessary to go from (nothing) to a complete understanding of your class or how to play it on raids. And if you CAN buy a character and you're intelligent enough to quickly learn these things, why wouldn't a legitimate raid guild accept you?

It's always been about the person behind the keys, not the gear or the character they're controlling. You can compensate for lack of gear just by spending time raiding; you cannot compensate for lack of skill/understanding coupled with the inability to learn.

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Athropos Cynosure --Red Eye Mountain-- 40 Witchunter [Radiant]
Entropie N'evrending --Unrest-- 80 Mystic [Confirmed] ...retired
Become Death --Nagafen-- 80 Brigand [The Kraken] ...retired
Firamas Slytheryn --Unrest-- 80 Bruiser [Enlightened Dark] ...retired
Firamas Shadowstrike --Tarew Marr-- 70 Monk [Enlightened Dark] ...retired

kenman

If you, or the majority of the community, feel as if there's nothing wrong with RMT, then why not just switch to RMT enabled servers? If the majority of people played on them, SOE would have merged more non-SE servers while opening up more SE servers. Perhaps even making them far outnumber the non-SE servers. But... that didn't happen.

So that's what I don't get. Why does anybody feel the need to make a char on non-SE server, yet partake in RMT on it? It just seems so much simpler to stay on a SE server start to finish. There's nothing inherently "wrong" with SE servers, the only negative connotation associated with RMT is the one given by people such as myself, that view it as cheating. And well, anybody against it would just play on a non-SE server and you'd never have to deal with them.

Well whatever, I'm not even planning on going back to EQ2 unless the next expansion is absolutely phenomenal. So I'm not sure why I even care. *slides out of topic on forehead*

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Kenman, 70 Berserker
Last Time Played: November 18, 2007

Woot!

FelipeAnklebiter

I'm curious, can that be said about EQ1/Other MMO's raids as well?

Schlebbert

The Bazaar server is pretty much dying, because EL is the only hardcore raiding guild that cleared VP and Trakanon, and the only guild that beat Nexona afaik. I rerolled a new coercer on Crushbone server and wow, all I have to say is that there are at least 6 or 7 guilds that beat Nexona or cleared VP, already getting mythical updates. That is the reason why Crushbone is better than The Bazaar server, but I still hang around in Bazaar sometimes to talk with my old friends, and especially trying out the new RE instance.

Crabbok

Thing is, some folks play on the bazaar in ways that do not resemble "Cheating" to me. I've known a great many people who quit the game, sell.... and eventually wanna come back a few months later, so they buy a toon that was equivalent to their previous toon before they quit. Very similar to playing on normal server and just taking a break.

Also many folks I know have purchased toons as alts, just to play around with a new class. How many folks on normal servers share account info? "Hey man we need a dirge, can you play Xxxxx's Dirge while he's out of town?" Not the same thing, but many of us feel like trying out a new character, and to some, rolling a new toon doens't give you the proper "feel" of what that character can do at 80.

I've always tried to defend the bazaar, because I know, that whatever accomplishments the raid guilds accomplish here are a bit harder here than on normal servers, due to the lack of good players we have. EL has come a long way, and it was a long hard road this go around. Loosing so many players and rebuilding from the ground up is hard as shit on the bazaar. So yeah, I guess from a certain point of view it is a shithole. But like Yoda said.. " Slimy? Mudhole? My Home this is!"

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