Unmaking The Game

Teknogeek writes "Player2Player has just posted an interesting article concerning the massive amounts of platinum being sold on sites like PlayerAuctions, and how it might have been obtained. Quite an interesting read, to be sure!" This is in Everquest, BTW.

Comments

Slow Day

[DarkHelmet]

It must be a slow news day if we're talking about counterfeiting imaginary money instead of REAL money.

Speaking of which, does anyone have any mod points for sale? :)

/.'ed already?

[Loki_1929]

Round and round my Mozilla tab goes..

Loading? No one really knows..

Re:Scary

[Anonymous Coward]

Which is scarier:

- The submitter didn't even realize that there are people in the world who don't play EQ who might not have understood the reference

=or=

- That the editor had to clue us in, as if we wouldn't have figured out that the submitter is a loser.

Bling Bling

[Torinaga-Sama]

I don't know what is worse, to be materialistic in the meat world or to spend your meat money to be materialisitc in the the game world.

I wish the Everquest world had a white collar prison.

Actually, no. I don't even care that much.

Platinum pricing

[fobbman]

That stuff is selling at USD578/oz. You'd think with that kind of money that they'd be able to afford a fatter bandwidth pipe for their server.

Re:Bet you $100

[Zevon 2000]

Goodness, if McFly69 can't get laid, it really must be a lost cause for the rest of us.

Re:Wow, weak server.

[echophase]

"This is going to screw the economy up! ROYALLY! That's all there is to it. One person is going to introduce enough PP into the economy to create ripples, but 100 people a server can seriously do A LOT of damage in a short time"

So Everquest ripped this model from the U.S. Government! Are they paying royalties?

Translation wanted

[f97tosc]

For about 3 or 4 months around when Velious came out, I had a group of five friends who I would go to the fungi camp in lower guk (at 4am, it was almost always uncamped) once or twice a week. We stayed 'til we all had a fungi tunic (they are lore) or school started. So we each made ~60k-90k plat a week, from 3-4 hours of playing, which is alot easier than this 60,000pp in a week with constant playing.

Could somebody please translate the text above into some commonly spoken language. I have tried babelfish but it did not work. The 'Fungi Tunic' part is especially confusing - and frankly the explanation that they are 'lore' did not help me much.

Tor

Re:Translation wanted

[beta21]

I think I figured it out. I had to put it through babelfish a few times.

Here is the clarified version:
While approximately 3 or 4 months over, if Velious came out, have I a group of five friends had that I would go to that mycètes tents in the niedrigereren guk (to âm nearly always was he uncamped) once or twice one week. We are ' up to us remained had everything that mycètes tunic (they are truck) or the school began. Thus we made everyone at plate ~60k-90k per week starting from 3-4 o'clock play, which alot than this 60,000pp in week with the constant play is simpler.

Re:Wow, weak server.

[Twirlip of the Mists]

I smell scandle.

Does it smell anything like scandal? 'Cause we all know what scandal smells like, you know.

Re:The Economics of RPGs

[dvdeug]

The economics are alot like real life, except in Everquest, one day you wake up realizing your virtual assets are worthless and you've just wasted years of your life.

And _nobody_ has ever woken up in real life and realized their assets were worthless and they'd wasted years of their life.

We need your help..

[azcoffeehabit]

Hi, My name is Harib Zabar Mitchell III sr. and I am a board member of the Erudin Senate for Platinum Pieces moderation committee. We need your help getting 4.5 Million PP (yes that is 4,500,000 PP!) out of royal tax holding accounts. We are exclusively asking for your help because we need an outside investor to pay the levys and taxes involved with releasing our 4.5M PP. We will refund your money plus a 100% interest. Now note that there may be mulitple normal taxes and leveys that may arise during the course of this transaction...

Re:Sigh...

[pmc]

Thus 'two platinum' is incorrect (try two platinum coins, instead).

There were two platinums in your sentence, BTW.

Re:Wow, weak server.

[gehrehmee]

"So what we did is simplify the process by just rounding off all those fractions of a platinum piece... into an account that we opened."

"So.. you're making alot of platinum?"

"Yes.."

"And it's not yours?"

"Well.. it becomes ours."

"Tell me again how that's not stealing?"

"I don't think I'm explaining this very well."

Re:The Economics of RPGs

[Flakeloaf]

The economics are alot like real life, except in Everquest, one day you wake up realizing your virtual assets are worthless and you've just wasted years of your life.

Man, am I glad I quit playing EQ and got two jobs so I could buy up all that Nortel stock. Now I... aww dammit.