You might of read it on slashdot, or lived through an epidemic of it. Ingame universes are being perplexed by the increase in Macroing. The use of automated code so that an individual our group can work characters ingame as if they were hundreds of people, the problem with this widespread occurance is that the ingame economies are suffering, not to forget to mention the external economies.

For the Past year I've been in the EVE-Online.com universe (OOT, currently recruiting new corp members, and sending trial invites to anyone thats interested.) where macrominers have removed the ore resources from systems overnight (that take weeks to "grow" back), they sell all their ore for ingame currency and then proceed to place it where???

Ebay.

You might find this in itself amusing however it's not, It's not just students trying to make a quick buck while playing a game, it's entire organised crime gangs willing to risk everything in the safety of their countries to earn money.

The future on this is uncertain though, although people aren't suppose to sell the "Intellectual property" of another person or a Corporation, they have currently been getting away with it and Ebay has been letting them.

The other problem is the sales of ingame currency aren't Tax regulated, this means large sums of real currency is being shifted around over ingame currency and countries are losing out.

Cheating is an increasing problem by people that think quick gains or exploits will make them better, it quite sad.

Whats even more intresting is that there is growing an entire industry up around MMOGs, macro mining the games for items and other sellable items that can be sold for real world money. There target customer being the mindless timeless people around the world willing to spend that extra cash to get a head.

could it be a really easy form of money laundering too?sorry if i am stating the obvious,but if the assets dont have any "real" value then it would be very hard to tell what is a legimate purchase

Some games forbid the sale of items or accounts in real life. Still happens though. It's sad. It's just a game.

I'm still playing runescape and got scammed last time for 6 million when I bought a full guthan armour, which turned to have a normal leaf-spear instead of guthan spear.

People call you stupid when you tell them you got scammed. I don't think it is stupidity. I'm playing the game for relaxation. The moment you get scammed is a bit disappointing but after a while you think, it's only a game and you continue. But people who buy items in real life, scammers and other sorts of over the top behaviours exhibited have lost sense with reality. That they are playing a game for enjoyment and it actually doesn't really matter that you have the best shit in town.

It's already sad enough that we (and I) play these games.

edit:

there is also a fair share of macroers in runescape. I think runescape classic became unplayable because of the macroers. Now there is more control, but people are still constantly reporting their existence. It's an easy way to make money. And there aren't really any consequences. The macroers use new accounts and then transfer the goods. The accounts can be banned but that doesn't really affect the people who profit from them.

ingame scamming is ok, and can be quite fun, i say this both as victem and scammer. How ever exploiters and macro bots in MMOGS never has or will bring anything good to the games, they and there creators should be hung from there balls and slowly roasted over a candle pentagram while demonic chants a sung.


It's already sad enough that we (and I) play these games.

I dont think its sad at all, it a game like any other, only differece is you rarely ever really see those you play with. It is our socirity, which have choose to look down appone those that play computer games, besided its far to cold to be outside atm anyway.

macroes destroy the game economy by adding resource and an unatural pase, they out compeat the players that want to play the game in the way it was intended.

ingame scamming is ok, and can be quite fun, i say this both as victem and scammer.

I got scammed so often you might think I am stupid. But it's just the way I play.

I finally managed to get 13M together! I go to buy full guthan! I find a seller! COOL. I buy my precious Guthan armour. I put it on and go to kill some beasts! I wonder why the special effect of the armour is not kicking in. I look at my spear! GOD DAM FUCK!!! IT"S NOT A FUCKING GUTHAN SPEAR!!!..

these are cool moments...

Stryder. One word for you. Bumpageddon. Macrominers come back after a nights sleep to find all their lovely ships are 60km from the belt. It's just delicious.

Just an example of gamers fighting back against these whoring bastards.

It's fun when you look back at it :), btw im the kind of guy that handles setbacks, errors, whatever with a smile and little laugth. Its can be hard for some to understand and does not mean im ok.

I have only been scammed very little and mostly it was "my own" fault, i also only scammed in ways where all you have had to do to see true my scam is by paying attension to what your doing and use you head.

example.: eve-online has a open market for players to buy and sell there stuff, but what happens if someone places a sell order on something thats is bought and discarded like used toilet paper but at x10 x100 x1000 the normal price.
What happenes is john doe come along and in his eager to get along buy what he normal buys for 9000 for 900000.