November 2002
- Economic Indices for Virtual Worlds Koster, Raph
- Economic Indices for Virtual Worlds Frank Crowell
- Economic Indices for Virtual Worlds Justin Stocks
- Real money and virtual worlds Koster, Raph
Yeah, it's inevitable. But look at the minefield that it is! This is
about Project Entropia, which allows conversion of real eorld cash
into in-game money--and back again. When I first heard of this
project, my first thought was "money laundering." Others, including
the authors of the summary I am about to post, thought "Ponzi
scheme." Instead, it turns out it's actually "great place to engage
in credit card fraud."
From Waterthread.org:
start quote--->
But not everything's quite so rosy in the lands of Calypso, thanks
to a recent invasion of scammers seeking to beat MindArk at their
own game. Using stolen credit cards to pour massive quantities of
PED into the game, these unscrupulous individuals began running
around in-game, purchasing rare weapons and equipment for
outrageous sums of money from unsuspecting players who couldn't
quite believe their luck. MindArk's response was as swift and
decisive as that of any good mafia don protecting his business
from hustlers: suspending all accounts involved and simply
deleting every last PEC and item even remotely associated with the
scam. As the ever-helpful Marco remarked at the time: "Those of
you who with suspended accounts may notice alterations to your
Avatar's inventory, made by MindArk. Items or money lost due to or
because of interaction with scamming participants will not be
returned or refunded."
And lo and behold, another shitstorm began to stir. Why? Well,
let's put this into relative terms: let's say you transfer twenty
bucks into the game to get the 200 PED needed to slap together a
suit of Fruity Transformers Reject Armor
<http://www.waterthread.org/news/103005973885780.html>. Just as
you're putting the finishing touches on the eye-watering ensemble,
a nice, charming stranger strolls up to you and offers you 400 PED
for the whole shebang. You, being rather of fond of earning large
amounts of cash money, agree to the deal and pocket the 400 PED,
pleased that you've managed to double your investment with so
little effort. One day later, you log in to find your account
frozen and your funds suspended, pending further investigation;
when you finally are able to access your character again, there's
a nice, empty hole in your wallet to the tune of 400 PED. Et
voila! Not only have you lost the money you earned on the sale,
but you've also been fucked out of the twenty bucks you spent on
the materials in the first place. MindArk is now twenty bucks
richer, and you, good sir, are frankly a fucking idiot for putting
your hard-earned money into this goddamn scam in the first place.
It perhaps shouldn't come as a surprise, then, that after nearly
one hundred posts' worth of bitching, the developers finally caved
in and decided "to return those items that MindArk determines were
part of the "scammer transactions" to the original owners. [...]
Items lost in any way in Project Entropia due to any type of scam
are the responsibility of the participants, not MindArk. We do
feel for the participants who got scammed and therefore, we are
making an exception this time by returning the items." All right,
so if somebody offers you 5,000 PED for a piece of shit rifle
that's barely worth 5, blinking innocently with protestations of
"How was I supposed to know he was using illegal currency?" ain't
gonna wash. Simple as that. But are all scammers likely to be this
obvious? Without a way to track an avatar's credit history, card
details or other salient details, how is Jonny Scambait supposed
to realise that the guy willing to buy his new Fireforge at market
value is actually playing with a stolen card number? Is the only
serious alternative just not to trade, period? Was anybody even
thinking when they drafted this up, or were they too busy dreaming
of the fat sacks of money they'd be scalping from their beta
testers in a few weeks' time? In light of this, Waterthread.org
thus heartily recommends that MindArk replace their cryptic
guarantees "that one PED always is one PED" with a simpler,
slightly more accurate statement: "Project Entropia: be psychic or
be sorry."
<---end quote
-Raph - Real money and virtual worlds Dave Trump
- Real money and virtual worlds Amanda Walker
- Real money and virtual worlds Ron Gabbard
- Real money and virtual worlds Matt Mihaly
- Real money and virtual worlds Ron Gabbard
- Real money and virtual worlds Marc Fielding
- Real money and virtual worlds Martin Bassie
- Real money and virtual worlds Matt Mihaly
- descriptive logic Bruce Mitchener
- descriptive logic Robert Zubek
- Picketing in Sims Online Koster, Raph
- Picketing in Sims Online Derek Licciardi
- Picketing in Sims Online John Robert Arras
- Picketing in Sims Online Marc Fielding
- Picketing in Sims Online shren
- Picketing in Sims Online Marc Fielding
- Picketing in Sims Online Dave Rickey
- Picketing in Sims Online Damion Schubert
- Picketing in Sims Online Mike Shaver
- Picketing in Sims Online Marc Fielding
- online voice communication Matt Mihaly
- online voice communication Dave Trump
- online voice communication Sasha Hart
- online voice communication Ted L. Chen
- online voice communication Amanda Walker
- online voice communication Koster, Raph
- online voice communication Ted L. Chen
- online voice communication Amanda Walker
- online voice communication Damion Schubert
- online voice communication Peter Harkins
- online voice communication Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
- online voice communication Amanda Walker
- online voice communication Hans-Henrik Staerfeldt
- online voice communication Amanda Walker
- online voice communication Dave Trump
- online voice communication Amanda Walker
- online voice communication Miroslav Silovic
- online voice communication Corey Crawford
- online voice communication Marc Fielding
- online voice communication Corey Crawford
- Point of Purchase "Cards" for Online Services Christopher Allen
- Point of Purchase "Cards" for Online Services Steven Cummings
- Point of Purchase "Cards" for Online Services Matt Mihaly
- Point of Purchase "Cards" for Online Services David Kennerly
- Point of Purchase "Cards" for Online Services Damion Schubert
- Point of Purchase "Cards" for Online Services Ron Gabbard
- Korea and online world responsibility Koster, Raph
- Korea and online world responsibility Sean Kelly
- Korea and online world responsibility apollyon
- Korea and online world responsibility Koster, Raph
- Korea and online world responsibility Rudy Fink
- Korea and online world responsibility shren
- Korea and online world responsibility Clay
- Korea and online world responsibility Sean Kelly
- Korea and online world responsibility Marian Griffith
- Korea and online world responsibility Matt Mihaly
- Korea and online world responsibility Damion Schubert
- Korea and online world responsibility Sean Kelly
- Korea and online world responsibility Hans-Henrik Staerfeldt
- Korea and online world responsibility Mike Parker
- [MUD-DEV]: Stories in Multiplayer Online Games holding99@mindspring.com
- FEAR Animat style AI for Quake 2 Frank Crowell
- FEAR Animat style AI for Quake 2 Ted L. Chen
- FEAR Animat style AI for Quake 2 Dave Rickey
- FEAR Animat style AI for Quake 2 Sasha Hart
- FEAR Animat style AI for Quake 2 Dave Rickey
- FEAR Animat style AI for Quake 2 Sasha Hart
- FEAR Animat style AI for Quake 2 Ted L. Chen
- FEAR Animat style AI for Quake 2 Freeman, Jeff
- FEAR Animat style AI for Quake 2 Amanda Walker
- FEAR Animat style AI for Quake 2 Frank Crowell
- FEAR Animat style AI for Quake 2 Damion Schubert
- FEAR Animat style AI for Quake 2 shren
- FEAR Animat style AI for Quake 2 Frank Crowell
- FEAR Animat style AI for Quake 2 Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
- Virtual worlds as a Society of Mind Frank Crowell
- Virtual worlds as a Society of Mind Ted L. Chen
- Virtual worlds as a Society of Mind Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
- Virtual worlds as a Society of Mind Ted L. Chen
- Virtual worlds as a Society of Mind Frank Crowell
- Virtual worlds as a Society of Mind Sean Kelly
- BIZ: MMORG Pioneer looking for part/full time gig F. Randall Farmer
- OpenCroquet Bruce Mitchener
- OpenCroquet Frank Crowell
- OpenCroquet Frank Crowell
- [TECH] memory management system released Bruce Mitchener