MMORPG Game Developer Won't Enforce it's own Anti-Real Money policies

Hi Guys,

I'd like to refrain from naming this video game out of
fear of reprisals from the game developer. But, for the
answers I seek, it's not really necessary to "name and shame."

One of the largest Massive Multiplayer Online (MMO), with
over 1.5 million players worldwide, is giving it's customers
a real annoyance by not enforcing its own rules to stop harassment.

This is the large MMO game which has the weakest defenses
against the Real Money Trader (RMT) criminal organizations.
The present condition is an enormous proliferation of multiboxing bot operators
who harass real players with constant spam flows into their
chat box in-game communications. Additionally, these operators
enjoy carte blanc to disrupt the in-game currency, distorting
the game for real players. Additionally they dominate precious
bandwidth, causing server lags for real players.

It's been argued (on the game's website) that RMT traders bring
cash flow to the game's developer via subscription, although
their money is dirty, funded by stolen credit card accounts.

An economic oriented publication described how RMT criminals
support Columbian drug cartels with money laundering. Other publications
describe how they use their unlimited stolen credit card accounts
to purchase their endless supply of gaming accounts.

The game developer publishes a policy forbidding the use of
3rd party programs. & forbidding spamming and harassment, yet
this policy is rarely enforced; it takes volumes of complaints
from real players to cause a spam-bot to be removed.

Recently a player, posted a query onto the game's website,
about the possibility of collusion between the game developers
and the RMT criminal organizations; that website member
was immediately banned. This game developer is intolerant
of any criticism that would cause them to "lose face."

The RMT harassment is conducted on all the developers'
gaming servers except the Japanese servers; the RMT criminals
won't interfere with those.

Very recently, one of the game developer's website members posted
concern that lawsuits may evolve, given that RMT runs directed
harassment against individual real players.

The developers provide only "add to blacklist" defense for real players,
and refuse to allow real players the ability to filter incoming
messages, to otherwise, preclude RMT directed harassment.
They refuse to provide defenses that other game developers have
had success with, and there is no evidence that they practice
Best Security Practices to protect their servers.

Okay, so why am I bringing this issue here?

AboveTopSecret is the top of the food chain for accurate knowledge;
we all know that. Questions about player defenses against RMT harassment
have never been answered on the game developer's own website.

The question becomes, "Why would a game developer refuse to
protect it's paying customers (real players) from RMT criminals,
after over 2.5 years of pleas from honest customers?"

Why would they ignore their own anti-RMT policies and allow
these criminals to flourish in game?

There are believed to be FBI files on some of the RMT organizations,
for cyber-crime. Here comes the sticky question,

By refusing to take action (to stop these cyber criminals), would
the game developer's US based office become a crime scene?

Apologies for not naming names and organizations(I know we're
supposed to), but I'm on thin ice by posting this.

In compliance with ATS policies requiring useful URL Links,
they are:

Understanding Real Money Trading in MMORPG's

Virtual Crime

I look forward to your comments and insights.
Thanks

a reply to: Adonsa
Turn it off and walk outside.

Problem solved.

Sorry if over simplified but I was big into gaming 10 years ago and similar crap was going on then.

I was forced to quit due to real life problems and amazingly the virtual problems disappeared.

Take a break from gaming for a while, it will do your mental health wonders.

I guess you have "world" "of" various forms of "warcraft" in mind?

Theres been botters and lord knows what since it launched, i used to play it and do remember the DM lvl 45 hunter bots etc, these days the game is pretty simple for the average joe they are getting more desperate.

They keep the botters alive as the feed the need from others to be able to compete, so all they do is ban then for a few days and let them carry on

Hi stosh64

Stosh64, you are right.

I'd still like to know why a game developer's board of directors
would allow such criminal abuse, while many solutions are easy
to implement.

Thank you.

a reply to: Adonsa

Game time for gold or vice versa is where things started to get a little more criminal in my opinion.

I had a slow and painful quitting of the game over the last year, and it was ridiculous how much the game changed when the token system was put into place.

a reply to: Adonsa

Recently a player, posted a query onto the game's website, 
about the possibility of collusion between the game developers 
and the RMT criminal organizations; that website member 
was immediately banned. This game developer is intolerant 
of any criticism that would cause them to "lose face." 

Aah....a player...

You cant accuse the devs of being in cahoots with a Colombian drug cartel, directly or not, and not expect to be banned.

TBH it's not the best way to give criticism on, well, anything......

If you're this prone to conspiracy and paranoia, MMO'S are not the best pastime.

And goldfarmers have always been part of these games, and probably always will be.

a reply to: Adonsa

you wouldnt be describing runescape, would you?

that grand exchange can be a real circus sometimes.

i'm with stosh; it's a game. just quit playing if it bothers you. if enough people leave because of it the developers might make more of an effort to do something about it.

The question becomes, "Why would a game developer refuse to
protect it's paying customers (real players) from RMT criminals,
after over 2.5 years of pleas from honest customers?"

maybe there is very little they can effectively do to stop it without severely affecting the legitimate players' experience negatively..

Why would they ignore their own anti-RMT policies and allow
these criminals to flourish in game?

it could be more that have little power to effectively enforce these rmt policies? it is the scammers who are ignoring them, not the developers.

By refusing to take action (to stop these cyber criminals), would
the game developer's US based office become a crime scene?

nope, but their servers would be. i imagine they would be combed for details and account information during an investigation.

most online games have these scammers, it is the unfortunate reality of online gaming. aside from the difficulty in recognising bogus accounts before its too late, i suspect the profitability of them for the developers plays a part in the ineffectual enforcement of anti-rmt policies and apparent lack of reporting to law enforcement by some developers.

the fbi are probably frying bigger fish on any given day as well, i would presume.

originally posted by: Adonsa
AboveTopSecret is the top of the food chain for accurate knowledge;
we all know that.

lolwut?! you're kidding, right? may i use that in my sig? it's hilarious.

Been through this. Fact is you have zero proof that the gold sellers are in cahoots with the game developers. It's a typical kind of thing to claim, but a very difficult thing to prove. And if the PLAYERS THEMSELVES would stop buying credits from these guys, their business would dry up in a second. They wouldn't keep advertising if the ads did not bring sufficient customers to justify it.

a reply to: spygeek

Hi Spygeek,

I'm glad I posted this, given your reply.

... nope, but their servers would be. ...

Ah, thank you. Their servers are in Canada.

...may i use that in my sig? it's hilarious. ...

Yes, Spygeek, yes, I am honored. I want to follow what you posts just to read
the reactions. Well, Spygeek, it is true, isn't it? Or at least, ATS readers
are smarter than Reddit readers.

originally posted by: schuyler
... zero proof...

Correct. Those who have implied otherwise, have regretted it.

Nice avatar, by the way.

a reply to: Adonsa

I looked up game servers in Canada, and only one game came up lol.

originally posted by: Adonsa
Hi stosh64

Stosh64, you are right.

I'd still like to know why a game developer's board of directors
would allow such criminal abuse, while many solutions are easy
to implement.

Thank you.

Please don't think I was making light of your concerns because I was not and I could certainly relate to your experience.

Corruption in gaming is nothing new, it is just an extension of the corruption in real life. While I applaud your efforts and concerns I fear they will not change anything.

The only way I found to ease the stress from corruption in the virtual world was to walk away.

I wish you luck in your efforts.

Hi Stosh64,
Thank you.

A while back i walked away for 2 months and it was nice.
Probably do it again.

I want to thank everyone who replied.

My lesson learned: Time spent in ATS is better than time spent gaming.

Cheers

a reply to: Adonsa

It's kind of odd. The reason I left MMO's wasn't because of the bots or gold farmers, but because of the actual people in the game! People get waay too elitist when they hit endgame. I would just end up rolling another character. at the moment, I only play single player games because of this.

I always wondered if your name was an RS reference now I know for sure! I don't think RS ever had 1.5million active players(they still count banned and none active accounts is their 200million player total,only 40-80k online at any time. Jagex can be shady however my old school account got perma banned with well over 100QP,nice stats and a few million GP for absolutely no reason....I tried to appeal to them that I was innocent of any wrong doing but they never replied. I just want to know what I did that constituted an immediate perma ban in their eyes....

Botting is a huge problem on that game.

I believe the op is talking about wow? Could be wrong however. Acquiring gold legitimately on wow was peanuts when I played but that was classic....


a reply to: TzarChasm

a reply to: Athetos

Getting gold in WoW got easier with each expansion imo. I remember when Burning Crusade came out, doing the first quests in Hellfire, it was shocking to be getting over 1 gold for a quest.

No the gold sellers aren't in cahoots with the game devs.

I bought gold once and got my account banned. Why would they do that if they were in cahoots? To lose my monthly $15 subscription over $10 of bought gold?

WoW ( World of Wankers ) nuff said.


Seriously it died several years ago and forgot to roll over. Play something else....Fallout 4 has 3 advantages, 1: No one else to bother you 2: Its an awesome game and 3: you only pay for it once.

a reply to: Sakrateri

I completely agree, Fallout is awesome!