Xionara: [11:54] Tweet: Guess who was spotted heading into the dragonwood caravan? Lorittia! #CharityBenefit #drprime
[helping!]: ("Volohir" volohirosirit@gmail.com) is that the one on the crossing town green?
Xionara: i think so
Xionara: somewhere around there
[helping!]: ("Volohir" volohirosirit@gmail.com) hrm
[helping!]: ("Volohir" volohirosirit@gmail.com) hrmmmm grab the open anvil in Shard... or go to Crossing to look at this caravan... it was all fluff anyways, right?
Xionara: im going, its limited items
Xionara: i like limited items
Xionara: i should be going to bed though
[helping!]: ("Volohir" volohirosirit@gmail.com) right on
Xionara: sleeping from 5am-9am is like, not enough
[helping!]: ("Volohir" volohirosirit@gmail.com) I guess I can try to check it out for N maybe
Xionara: do it!
[helping!]: ("Volohir" volohirosirit@gmail.com) that's why I go to bed, usually, by like 11, heh
Xionara: yeah insomnia sucks man
[helping!]: ("Volohir" volohirosirit@gmail.com) so glad I find myself not having that problem anymore, heh.
Xionara: jealous
Xionara: so jealous
[helping!]: ("Volohir" volohirosirit@gmail.com) I wont pretend it doesn't have it's definite upsides... heh, but I've got a job that keeps mentally engaged all day long and by the time it gets to be 10/11pm my body is slowly fading
[helping!]: ("Volohir" volohirosirit@gmail.com) on weekends I might stretch to like 12-1
[helping!]: ("Volohir" volohirosirit@gmail.com) but even then, the extra hours, I'm not exactly fully functional
Xionara: nod
[helping!]: ("Volohir" volohirosirit@gmail.com) Fwiw, I don't think bidding for friends in auctions is a big deal, I'm not really concerned about the "state of DR," even if DR were to die, well, I've gone months and years of my life without it, there are other games, and of all the things that could kill it, a percieved unfairness in auctions when the income scale in the game is already so exponentianally warped isn't going to be a significant contributor to that demise.
[helping!]: ("Volohir" volohirosirit@gmail.com) and I'm on my way to Crossing
[helping!]: ("Volohir" volohirosirit@gmail.com) to look for this caravan
Xionara: I agree with you.. the game is designed to 'one per account' but whatever you want to do with your shot at it is your choice
[helping!]: ("Volohir" volohirosirit@gmail.com) pretty much
[helping!]: ("Volohir" volohirosirit@gmail.com) and Simu knows people play alts, and I'd wager there has been a lot more since F2P, not just from gaming the system, but legitimate long time players wanting to try something new without an investment
Xionara: sure, returning players too
[helping!]: ("Volohir" volohirosirit@gmail.com) exactly
[helping!]: ("Volohir" volohirosirit@gmail.com) I have 2 accounts including a f2p, and my f2p is high enough to bid.
Xionara: it's just a difficult argument to get into, a difficult stance to take, because while it would be nice and ideally, the most fair, if the game were designed in such a way that people only got a shot at one item PER PERSON
Xionara: but the game isn't designed that way and wont ever be because having another reason to hold multiple accounts (to bid) means simu makes more money
[helping!]: ("Volohir" volohirosirit@gmail.com) it's really just too insignificant to even be worth that much debate about ethics, imo, heh
[helping!]: ("Volohir" volohirosirit@gmail.com) right
Xionara: yeah
Xionara: I also dont think its in the spirit of the game either.. because if its intention is to limit the items to one per person, well, thats failing
[helping!]: ("Volohir" volohirosirit@gmail.com) and ultimately, like you said, if friends want to sacrifice their own chance at something for a friend, that's their perrogative.
Xionara: just like the failed experiment of the necro guild XD
Xionara: right exactly
Xionara: people just do what they do to increase their own chances, its not meant to be malicious and its within the confines of the system
[helping!]: ("Volohir" volohirosirit@gmail.com) Well, that's impossible. THere's too many ways to game the system. You can't do anything about alts, actual players helping each other out?
Xionara: yeah i think the alts thing is worse than the actual players helping each other tbh
[helping!]: ("Volohir" volohirosirit@gmail.com) seems like about the only reasonable counter to the alt situation to be honest
[helping!]: ("Volohir" volohirosirit@gmail.com) so I"m on the ferry
Xionara: you can also make the argument that if someone is paying 15 per account, they are entitled to all the benefits that that entails
Xionara: and if you want more shots, sub more accounts or whatever
[helping!]: ("Volohir" volohirosirit@gmail.com) indeed
Xionara: the game just isn't designed to be like.. a fair communist kind of setup
Xionara: hah that sounds funny putting it that way
[helping!]: (furiousjimmy) I imagine the whole reason its 1 per account is because its a non-work related measure to limit how much a single player can buy
[helping!]: (furiousjimmy) But of course you have so many people willing to shell out loads of USD on the game that it does nothing.
Xionara: right
Xionara: thats why i said failed measure
[helping!]: (furiousjimmy) The people with plat to buy up multiple items are the people buying plat, the people willing to buy up more accounts, etc.
Xionara: i think it sort of... penalizes people who have one account tbh
[helping!]: (furiousjimmy) Yes
Xionara: because they can't bid more than once
[helping!]: ("Volohir" volohirosirit@gmail.com) so where I found a wagon on the town green, but I don't think it's the merchant the tweet was about
[helping!]: (furiousjimmy) And they wont ever use another measure because those measures require actual work
Xionara: but these other people can
Xionara: its tgse
Xionara: dragonwood caravan
[helping!]: (furiousjimmy) You would literally have to block multi-boxing.
[helping!]: (furiousjimmy) And curb stomp cross-charactering.
[helping!]: (furiousjimmy) Neither of which will ever happen.
Xionara: yeah and then people would prlly find another way
Xionara: like
Xionara: virtual IPs
Xionara: to ru multiple chars
[helping!]: ("Volohir" volohirosirit@gmail.com) it's been cleaned out already
Xionara: they keep listing stuff volo
Xionara: just have to wait for them to release it
Xionara: Vivalynn is teaching athletics!
[helping!]: ("Volohir" volohirosirit@gmail.com) I was in the wrong caravan, doh
Xionara: anyway i appreciate what you both are saying. I get where they (N and S) were coming from but the game just isn't designed that way
Xionara: so I play the game as designed because what else do I do you know?
Xionara: theres nothing in the game rules that says you can't bid for your friend
Xionara: so
Xionara: meh
[helping!]: (furiousjimmy) Ultimately the GMs aren't going to take any serious measures against the perceived issue, they allow multi-boxing and cross-charactering to begin with, so your point about using a 2nd account and having the rights of it does kind of join with that.
[helping!]: ("Volohir" volohirosirit@gmail.com) I love N, she and I have grown up together more or less, playing DR, but sometimes she gets very idealistic...
[helping!]: ("Volohir" volohirosirit@gmail.com) and I missed it all the same, heh
Xionara: As I said i get where she is coming from. I'm an idealist, but I'm also a realist
[helping!]: ("Volohir" volohirosirit@gmail.com) yup
[helping!]: (furiousjimmy) In someways it sucks, but if the people running the game refuse to take anymore measures, then the reality basically is that's not a concern they're willing to deal with.
[helping!]: (furiousjimmy) Also, I think the point "they're doing it to make things fair" is more of an assumption and has never been officially stated, though I could be wrong there.
Xionara: I may be jaded
[helping!]: (furiousjimmy) Simu is a FOR PROFIT and the game is there to fill Whatley's pockets.
Xionara: but I think they do it to encourage multiple accounts.
[helping!]: (furiousjimmy) This type of thing encourages people play more and buy into more accounts.
Xionara: yep
[helping!]: ("Volohir" volohirosirit@gmail.com) yup
[helping!]: ("Volohir" volohirosirit@gmail.com) it's part of their business model, and it always has been
[helping!]: (furiousjimmy) Which is another reason they'll never crack down on it. For all intents and purposes, DR is a very cloudy Pay To Win game, partly player-operated, partly Owner designed.
[helping!]: ("Volohir" volohirosirit@gmail.com) the fact that the game was developed on the backs of unpaid volunteers for decades, and possibly still is, is just fucking atrocious to me.
Xionara: yep, there is definitely some pay to win here, and its expensive pay to win too
[helping!]: (furiousjimmy) Asshats like Larry who literally live off selling goods and plats have contributed to the problem vastly, and Whatley could care less.
[helping!]: (furiousjimmy) In fact I saw a lecture once where Whatley told a group that he knows people profit off his game, and he has no intention of hindering that.
[helping!]: (furiousjimmy) (Likely because it keeps them paying him as well)
Xionara: exactly
[helping!]: (furiousjimmy) But he claimed it was because they have an entreprenuerial spirit he respects.
[helping!]: ("Volohir" volohirosirit@gmail.com) Simu's pretty shady/shitty as far as business ethics goes, imo, and what Jimmy's saying only reinforces that assessment
Xionara: oh thats horseshit jimmeh
Xionara: its about the almighty dollar
Xionara: hes just sugarcoating it
[helping!]: (furiousjimmy) it was a lecture to a group of college students in business majors, it was full of horseshit
Xionara: lol
[helping!]: ("Volohir" volohirosirit@gmail.com) it's about extracting maximum revenue with minimal operating cost, and unpaid labor being part of that model says a lot.
[helping!]: (furiousjimmy) That reminds me.
[helping!]: (furiousjimmy) He made a big deal in the lecture about how he only owns so much of the company and all his "employees" get shares
[helping!]: (furiousjimmy) made me laugh my ass off
[helping!]: ("Volohir" volohirosirit@gmail.com) he has like what, 12 actual employees up there in St Lo?
[helping!]: (furiousjimmy) Probably, the company split up after the sale of Hero Engine
[helping!]: ("Volohir" volohirosirit@gmail.com) Did Bioware basically gobble up the HE team with the purchase?
[helping!]: (furiousjimmy) The lecture took place during its growth and conception so he was boasting 300 employees but I imagine he was counting all the volunteers and their shitty shares too
[helping!]: ("Volohir" volohirosirit@gmail.com) I'm sure
[helping!]: (furiousjimmy) Possibly. Don't know about that.
Xionara: yeah who knows. its whatley
[helping!]: (furiousjimmy) I'm curious to see if Bioware reveals a new SW game at E3
[helping!]: ("Volohir" volohirosirit@gmail.com) I was always pissed that I'm paying $15 a month for a goddam text game after they managed to license the engine my subs paid for to Bioware for a AAA title and couldn't some how get a sweet enough deal to lower sub fees?
[helping!]: (furiousjimmy) Since Disney has put pressure on EA to develop more SW games.
Xionara: well volo they're not going to drop the sub fees unless people in DR rise up and stop subbing and demand they drop it
[helping!]: ("Volohir" volohirosirit@gmail.com) Man, I could go for Mass Effect:Star Wars/Orginal KOTOR style game
Xionara: but you've got people willing to pay $7/1000 plat kronars to drop money on auction bids so that is never going to happen