Originally Posted by Ishbu

That is 15 months of being nerfed and changed on a regular basis in the past. Regardless though, gear does play a major role in how content is designed.

Originally Posted by RadarX

Actually...this go around? A number of the contesteds were nerfed because no one was beating them. The problem with some of that is they have tied content to popular things. Tarinax and the Claymore is a great example. Everyone and their uncle has done some portion of the Claymore and Tarinax used to be one of the biggest hurdles. Did they make him easier because he was too difficult for the average guild, or so people could finish the Claymore and become less frustrated?

Originally Posted by RadarX

. Did they make him easier because he was too difficult for the average guild, or so people could finish the Claymore and become less frustrated?

Originally Posted by Widem

I really dont see it as that though, i simply see it as buying it with a different form of currency. Everything in the world boils down to one thing...time. that is what everyone is compensated for. A lawyer who getts paid 6 figures is getting paid for all the time he put into schooling and how much time he is saving a client from having to do all that schooling himself. The same rule applies here.

There are many people who cant devote the time needed to just sitting around grabbing plat but like to play aspects of the game that would take someone a considerable amount of time to accomplish. They are effectively just trading one time for another which is ok in my book.

Originally Posted by Brin

My penis is actually normal to small

Originally Posted by Rinion

I think thats a good point. which is why I am glad they will have decent interim rewards for RoK epics, so maybe they wont have to gimp the Tarinax of RoK because maybe their wont be quite as many frustrated people.

Who knows? But here's hoping.

Originally Posted by Illuminator

Not when you look at the big picture. The concepts and doctrines behind that are still lingering to this day.

Originally Posted by Talonis

The subject has been beaten to death.

I think we can all agree that everyone would like to see RMT die. Those that do not, and support RMT, will not risk coming forward to defend it. Besides, they have no viable argument in favor of RMT. I wanted to [re]open this discussion because a recent related post by Illuminator asked a different question and he requested that topic stay in the direction of the original question asked. Out of respect, I am opening this discussion. A new tier is almost upon us. There is time to make changes and get it right.

Illuminator has done more than his fair share of battling the zergling army of farmers, as have many others. I commend these efforts completely. It has been suggested more than once that SOE inherently supports RMT due to several factors ranging from the fact the farmers and advertisers are still around in alarming numbers, hiring of executives previously employed in RMT, and the mere presence of Exchange Servers. Tin foil hats and conspiracy theories aside, I personally believe they do not support 3rd party RMT directly, but are hindered by the nature of the game itself to completely eradicate it.

It has been argued that an MMO economy parallels the gambling industry and should be regulated as such, in its own special way. It isn't that cut and dry though, because of the slippery slope of 'internet law'. The issue is conflicted by the online nature of the game, the interdependencies of real and virtual world factors, and interpretations of virtual world value.

-I maintain that the best way to curtail RMT in EQ2 is to reduce the need and desirability of utilizing it.

People that purchase plat do so because there is something available for them to purchase and they lack the (insert reason) to get the plat on their own. You can't regulate laziness, but you can regulate the items they are too lazy to get.

What are these items? There are more, but lets look at the biggest three, in no particular order:

-Master Spells

-Fabled / Legendary Gear

-Collection Items

A) Master spells are the biggest items. The concept of Min / maxing dictates that your toon needs to be 100% mastered out. Master spells are of a quality and level of effectiveness that is highly desired in order to defeat the hardest of content. They are mostly not required to beat any encounter in the game, but the content has shifted to the point of using master-quality spells as the baseline of content development. This is an error in implementation of master spell availability. Who doesn't want their toon to be the best? Duh, I know. Based on this brief and incomplete reasoning, Master Spells are highly desirable. The errors in implementation are availability and trade-ability. My proposal is twofold:

1) Make master spells a crafted item that requires a NO-TRADE component that drops only from appropriate tier Epic encounters. The crafting mechanic now allows consignment. This is an easy idea to implement.

2) Design content without using fully-mastered toons as the baseline opponent.

B) Along with having the best spells / combat arts, folks want the best gear. NO-TRADE gear was not especially popular in its infancy, but the positive effects on the economy are evident in present-day. It is still puzzling (to me anyway) why tradeable Fabled / Legendary gear exists. The closest reason I can come up with is to provide a means for players to sell an item for a high price to get those other high price items.......like Master Spells. See how this stuff is linked and snowballs? Make the best gear NO-TRADE. If you want the best gear, gather up your friends and quest your ass into a heroic / raid zone and kill shit to get it. Get rid of ATTUNEABLE Fabled / Legendary gear. Play the game to get gear and spells, instead of buying it.

C) Collection Quests are the devil. I hate them. If they are truly a quest, then get off your ass and QUEST for them. That's right, NO-TRADE shinies. Simple as that.

So now everybody screams: "OMG! You are nerfing every way I make money!" Bullshit. There are plenty of ways to make money in this game. These changes would reduce the need for large sums of money by eliminating the [lazy] means to get them. The RMT suffers because people no longer need to purchase plat due to the fact there is little that requires large sums of plat to purchase. Again, this list is nowhere complete, but a good start and a breeze to implement.

Ok, discuss and flame on.

Originally Posted by Grrrrrrrrl

Ok then another comparison for you my dear sir<3
Its like buying money IRL from your neighbor who makes a living robbing banks and selling bundles of money for pennies on the dollar.. he makes a profit regardless because his product is free and against the rules.. you in turn get a bonus to your money situation which is not the norm.. to make it even worse imagine the neighbor spamming your work email with advertisments? or paper junk mail on a daily basis from the post office?
thats a fitting scenario

Originally Posted by Widem

who is getting robbed?