I had people send me phishing tells in both EQ2 and WoW as well, I really don't understand this topic...
If the game is successful, it'll be a target for gold farmers and in turn account theft to maximize profits. Short of monitoring every single message manually and either allowing or rejecting it, which would be annoying for all parties to say the least, nothing a developer can do will actually stop this.
You ask why a person can have their account stolen and then used to send out phishing links to people in whispers. I ask why would they ever be unable to? Even if a game were to move to mandatory security tokens, the phishing links would ask the user to generate a security key in addition to their info, and all that happens is the phisher has to act faster in screwing over the person. It would make it less common, sure. But if people continue to fall for that crap, it'll continue to happen.
Haha yes I get that shady feeling. I get it with Perfect World too... there's nothing wrong with these games (besides grind and awesomeness factor) but it's just kind of cold and I don't feel at home there. I think Imight be sore with Aion because it took my 50 retail dollars plus 3 months worth of 14.99
It does feel a little shady to me... idk why... lol
Okay, you know those somewhat shady games that tend to be manufactured with no support and wholly reliant on micro-trans? Have you, dear reader, ever played one? I played Evony for a while and I felt dirty...it just felt shady. I'd get messages from people I didn't know posing as game admin and asking me account info just before you ignore them. Most people don't stay in those browser based games because they aren't fun..but there is a sense of discomfort knowing you may be funding the blackmarket in Norway or something. At the beginning of the year I was thinking of a game to play until December. I've played them all; the current releases leave me somewhat dissatisfied. So I happened upon Aion 2.0 trailer and thought "Hell, that looks fun." Even though I had previously decided not to renew after my first month due to absolute boredom. There was hope, you know? In the shape of tinker-toy like houses being constructed and underwater exploration, I became excited. But I was hesitant..and so instead of opting for the full 12 month plan..I went with 3..just in case. We'll I've been playing for only two weeks and I have had a bit of fun...but I realized something. I keep getting these messages, usually about 3-4 a day telling me to go to a site because my account was going to get suspended. At first I just ignored them and was done with it. But gradually these pseudo messages have increased in game, and have made me reconsider the whole MMO thing. I've played almost every MMO either at beta or launch, and the only other time I've gotten this feeling is when I play those creepy free to play browser games. Suddenly, I realized...perhaps through Aion I too am funding the blackmarket. It seems so shady. Whether it is in game gold sellers or this stuff, I'm getting the sneaking suspicion that something is wrong with this game and it has nothing to do with the grind. Does anyone get this feeling? I don't recall anything such as this in Eq,1 or 2, dark age, WoW, CoH, WAR, PoTBS, or Lotro.
Why would you feel that you are funding a black market just because you get a whisper from someone who is not in any way connected to the game?
I get whispers like this in WoW too, regulary. I just ignore them and so can't really say for sure how many whispers, but I do get at least 2 or 3 every weekend. These are spammed messages, usually when I get such a message, someone else who is also playing from the same room gets the same message within a few seconds.
Usually these messages are in broken english, e.g.: "Blizzard is about to launch a new mounts, go get your account stolen on this website: www.getyouraccountstolenhere.cn"
This happens in all mmorpgs where there is something to gain for the thief. Those thieves have no connection to the people creating the game, so I'm a bit at a loss why you would feel dirty about it.
I also played many games and Aion is the worse for RMT, hacked accounts, huge blanket bans, the spam was insane in the beginning (but it's gotten better for sure now), spams and phishing. And now NCsoft went to a whole new low with charging for news on updates and it's game by some online mag. Sure you get some free fluff items, but to me it's just another way for a MMO company to fleece the sicko fans. Things that should be free, are now paid services. Who ever thought news about a game would be a paid service. I just hope this is a big failure and no other MMO follows in NCsoft foot steps.
The kinds of things you are describing have been going on since the very begining of the MMO genre. Every MMO I've ever played has had someone trying to scam me or sell me something for real cash. I started playing MMO's with Ultima Online in 1998 I played UO til 2004 and let me tell you there wasn't a day that went by in which someone didn't try to scam me in some way or sell me something in a RMT. Same thing happened when I moved on to playing WoW, and it has followed to every game since, it's just part of the expeirence.
As a mental health professional I must say I find the tone of your post reminds me of being at work. To make the assumption that by playig an online video game you are somehow financing NCsoft's clandestine black -ops in some far off corner of the globe is, at best a poor attempt to slander them, and at worst, a glimpse behind your curtain, so to speak.
The gameplay in the game is very clunky, even though all MMO's are turn based. When you play AION you know that its turn based. The gameitself is a big let down and a waste of my money. Wish I had listend to some in these forums telling me not to buy it.
Comments
I had people send me phishing tells in both EQ2 and WoW as well, I really don't understand this topic...
If the game is successful, it'll be a target for gold farmers and in turn account theft to maximize profits. Short of monitoring every single message manually and either allowing or rejecting it, which would be annoying for all parties to say the least, nothing a developer can do will actually stop this.
You ask why a person can have their account stolen and then used to send out phishing links to people in whispers. I ask why would they ever be unable to? Even if a game were to move to mandatory security tokens, the phishing links would ask the user to generate a security key in addition to their info, and all that happens is the phisher has to act faster in screwing over the person. It would make it less common, sure. But if people continue to fall for that crap, it'll continue to happen.
Haha yes I get that shady feeling. I get it with Perfect World too... there's nothing wrong with these games (besides grind and awesomeness factor) but it's just kind of cold and I don't feel at home there. I think Imight be sore with Aion because it took my 50 retail dollars plus 3 months worth of 14.99
It does feel a little shady to me... idk why... lol
Yeah that's kind of true... Perfect World, Aion, and World of Kung Fu?
Same shit. Not even just the skins, but the sounds, self-selling, and how the game plays out in general.
Why would you feel that you are funding a black market just because you get a whisper from someone who is not in any way connected to the game?
I get whispers like this in WoW too, regulary. I just ignore them and so can't really say for sure how many whispers, but I do get at least 2 or 3 every weekend. These are spammed messages, usually when I get such a message, someone else who is also playing from the same room gets the same message within a few seconds.
Usually these messages are in broken english, e.g.: "Blizzard is about to launch a new mounts, go get your account stolen on this website: www.getyouraccountstolenhere.cn"
This happens in all mmorpgs where there is something to gain for the thief. Those thieves have no connection to the people creating the game, so I'm a bit at a loss why you would feel dirty about it.
I also played many games and Aion is the worse for RMT, hacked accounts, huge blanket bans, the spam was insane in the beginning (but it's gotten better for sure now), spams and phishing. And now NCsoft went to a whole new low with charging for news on updates and it's game by some online mag. Sure you get some free fluff items, but to me it's just another way for a MMO company to fleece the sicko fans. Things that should be free, are now paid services. Who ever thought news about a game would be a paid service. I just hope this is a big failure and no other MMO follows in NCsoft foot steps.
I felt this way back when I used to play Facebook games.
To the OP:
The kinds of things you are describing have been going on since the very begining of the MMO genre. Every MMO I've ever played has had someone trying to scam me or sell me something for real cash. I started playing MMO's with Ultima Online in 1998 I played UO til 2004 and let me tell you there wasn't a day that went by in which someone didn't try to scam me in some way or sell me something in a RMT. Same thing happened when I moved on to playing WoW, and it has followed to every game since, it's just part of the expeirence.
As a mental health professional I must say I find the tone of your post reminds me of being at work. To make the assumption that by playig an online video game you are somehow financing NCsoft's clandestine black -ops in some far off corner of the globe is, at best a poor attempt to slander them, and at worst, a glimpse behind your curtain, so to speak.
The gameplay in the game is very clunky, even though all MMO's are turn based. When you play AION you know that its turn based. The gameitself is a big let down and a waste of my money. Wish I had listend to some in these forums telling me not to buy it.