SuperJun
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oday we would like to talk about a very important part of our service with TERA.
Almost all of us know about the frustration that comes with gold sellers, especially when all the stuff you worked so hard for get’s stolen by them. You might have also heard about people who have lost items after they tried out a new game “add-on†that was in fact just a very well concealed Trojan horse, and this is just one of the many examples out there infuriating legitimate players.
These types of people destroy the in-game economy in order to make a profit for themselves. These people are called real-money traders and often they not only sell gold, but use bots, commit crimes like identity theft, steal accounts or use stolen credit card information.
Many people and companies have tried to limit the effectiveness of these people in the past, but there is no way one single company is able to completely nullify real-money traders. Most of these people live in countries where there is no way to hold them responsible for their crimes. That’s why we decided to follow a new approach for TERA.
In order to limit this kind of problem we’ll not only use the law to stop these people, but we’ll also enlist you, our community, to help us. Together we can make it a very difficult task for real-money traders to be successful in TERA.
The whole process starts by adding a new item to the game, called chronoscrolls. Players can use these items to extend game time. One chronoscroll is worth one-month’s game subscription. You’ll be able to buy chronoscrolls directly from our website and have the item delivered to your character’s inventory. These scrolls can either be used to extend the time you’ll be able to play TERA or you can trade them against gold with other players.
This way players can get more gold if they help out others players with game time. This system cuts the value of gold farming and real-money trading so that TERA will be a less profitable place to do business for these people. Of course the sellers don’t want more game time as they have already used stolen credit cards or accounts to get free game time anyway. As players will exchange gold for chronoscrolls instead of buying it from those traders, the market will be less attractive to real-money traders.
Our players will only be able to sell chronoscrolls if others are willing to buy them and this determines their market value. The more chronoscrolls offered for sale, the lower the price will be. If a player tries to sell one at too high a price, nobody will buy. If many players want chronoscrolls, the price in gold will increase.
There are many different reasons, why players purchase gold. For example, they would like to quickly level up an alternate character, or try to catch up with their friends, who have had more time to play the game in the past, etc. As these are not initially bad reasons to look for gold, we want to give the players an opportunity to get some gold in a legitimate way.
When accounts are used to “farm†gold in a game the in-game economy suffers greatly as a result. Through these accounts additional gold floods the game, and like inflation in the real world, the value of gold gradually decreases to the point where it’s worthless.
Gold farmers also make it hard for normal players to complete quests or kill certain enemies in the world. If there are a lot of gold farmers around, they are able to kill all the mobs in a certain area right after they re-spawned and destroy the gameplay experience for everyone else. These gold farmers also add nothing the community of a game, as they don’t interact with other players, help them out, etc.
Nevertheless gold farmers and sellers are generally very organised; they use different accounts and characters to distribute the gold they have generated. They also use tools to make it hard to track their IP and location. Even if a support team is hunting them, banning accounts, etc. these persons tend to show up again because they use stolen credit cards to create new accounts. Gold farmers are a problem to basically every MMO out there and if we make it hard for them to generate profit, with your help they won’t show up in TERA at all.
The support and game masters spend a huge amount of time in helping out to clean the mess, these traders leave behind. This time could be used to help players with their questions, but instead they have to spend it on real-money traders. If we all work together we can lower the amount of time support has to spend on those people and this will lead to a better gameplay experience for everyone in TERA.
So, players have the option to give free game time to other players and earn a lot of gold that way, without destroying the gameplay experience and economy of TERA. Chronoscrolls provide a safe and valid way to exchange gold for something valuable.
As this is still a new system, you might have some further questions, that’s why we created an FAQ about chronoscrolls which you can find below.
Chronoscrolls FAQ
Q: First question: in ten seconds tell me, what are chronoscrolls?
A: Chronoscrolls are an in-game item we’re using to fight gold farming, game account theft, phishing, chat spam, and other criminal behaviors in order to create a better gameplay environment for TERA. Players can trade their excess gold for chronoscrolls and redeem those chronoscrolls to play TERA for free. Other players can buy chronoscrolls and sell them in the game as a way to earn more gold. Both groups of players get what they want, without having to interact with cyber-criminals. By creating a legal market where players trade game gold for game time, we can reduce demand for the illegal trading of game gold for real money, and thereby reduce criminal enterprises. That might be more like a twenty second answer, but I think it hits the key points.
Q: Can you explain in layman’s terms how the existence of chronoscrolls will actually affect the in-game economy to deter hackers?
A: If you search for your favorite MMO and the word “gold.†You’re likely to find millions of sites that sell gold for that game. These sites only exist because gamers want to buy gold. If the market for gold didn't exist, the gold-selling sites would go out of business. Unfortunately, gold-selling sites are closely linked with criminals who use credit card fraud, account theft, and other nefarious means to acquire gold and trade it for real money.
To combat these criminals, we need to find solutions that make gold selling unprofitable for them. Game companies have tried many different solutions—banning gold buyers and sellers, lawsuits, criminal convictions—but it’s like trying to stop people from selling drugs or stolen property. As long as there is a market for illegal goods, there will always be criminals willing to exploit the market. This is a multi-billion-dollar-a-year market for game gold, so there is obviously a lot of incentive for criminals!
So instead of reducing the supply of illegal gold, we’re going to reduce the demand for illegal gold by offering an alternative. If you want to buy game gold, you can go to a legal market and get what you want from other players. Or you can go to an illegal market to buy gold, and risk losing your account (when it gets banned) and having your credit card or account stolen by those same gold sellers.
We think most players will choose to trade on the legal market for convenience and security, and doing so will reduce the market for illegal gold. By making it less profitable for criminals, we’ll reduce their numbers in TERA.
Q: Why wouldn’t the gold sellers trade for chronoscrolls?
A: Chronoscrolls are valuable to players because they can be traded for more gameplay, but gold sellers don’t want more game time—they’re already using credit card fraud to get free game time. They want cash, not play-time, so they’re not incentivized to trade for chronoscrolls.
Q: Why would I want to buy an item that gives me game time rather than just buying game time?
A: For many gamers, there won’t be any need to purchase chronoscrolls—you can subscribe to the game and ignore their existence. But there are folks who need more game gold, and chronoscrolls gives them a way to get gold without buying from the criminals who run the business. And while you may not need more gold, you might like the opportunity to trade some of your excess gold for some free game time.
Q: Will this really help make my account more secure? Or does it give hackers another reason to steal my account?
A: Having a chronoscroll market in the game helps keep your account secure. First you have to understand that, just like every other MMO game company, we ban gold sellers because they’re almost exclusively criminals who do damage to the game by stealing accounts, phishing, trading fraudulently, using stolen credit cards, and spamming game chat. If we can get most players to purchase gold legally using chronoscrolls, the market for the criminals will dry up. And if criminals aren’t making money in our game, they’ll go elsewhere.
Q: Has this actually been proven to deter gold farmers or criminals? Can you actually point to data demonstrating something like this has worked?
A: Yes we can! Chronoscrolls are similar to PLEX (Pilot’s License Extensions) in the game EVE Online. CCP Games, the creators of EVE Online, have used PLEX to successfully combat the same gold farming, fraud, and theft problems that plague every other MMO. We owe thanks to the folks from CCP for their willingness to discuss PLEX with us and its effectiveness at minimizing these problems. We’re confident that chronoscrolls will be an effective tool to combat nefarious behavior in our game too.
Q: I’m sure you’re aware that EVE Online is currently experiencing some user backlash because they decided to allow PLEX to be used for in-game vanity items. Is TERA considering this? Is it a possibility in the future?
A: We’re using chronoscrolls to combat criminal fraud problems and create a safer and more enjoyable play environment for our customers so they'll want to continue playing our games. We don’t want or need to monetize every aspect of these games to be successful, and consequently we have no plans to use chronoscrolls for item purchases in TERA.
Q: Won’t chronoscrolls break immersion in the game’s fantasy world?
A: Trading chronoscrolls is just like trading other items with the in-game broker; it won’t be any less immersive than trading for an epic sword or shield. Think of a chronoscroll as an anti-aging spell.
Q: Can I stockpile chronoscrolls and, say, hand them out to my guild as presents?
A: You sure can. Incidentally, can I join your guild?
Q: Could I bribe people with a chronoscroll if they vote for me in the political system or get their guild to vote for me?
A: You bet. Just like you can in the real world, though I’m sure there are less costly means to get votes!
Q: Will you be controlling in-game prices for chronoscrolls? That is—will you set a limit or a minimum on how much gold a chronoscroll will cost?
A: Actually, players will control the price of chronoscrolls. Their cost will be set by market supply and demand. If there are many players who want to purchase gold, they will buy lots of chronoscrolls, and each chronoscroll will have a lower gold price. And conversely, if it turns out that no one wants to buy gold, so there aren’t many chronoscrolls on the market then I would expect that each chronoscroll would be worth a lot more gold. We’re fine with either alternative. Our goal isn’t to sell a lot of chronoscrolls; it's to kill the market for illegal gold selling and thereby eliminate the fraud and crime that sucks the fun out of gaming.
Q: There are some disturbing stories of the Korean TERA’s economy experiencing wild inflation on some servers. Will chronoscrolls help with that problem?
A: Game economies are complicated in both wonderful and terrible ways, just like the real world economy. That means that it can be hard to predict how the economy will function until real gamers are playing after the game’s launch. We’re fortunate to be launching TERA here in the West well after the launch in Korea so that we have the opportunity to learn from their difficulties and correct those issues. But chronoscrolls don’t actually change the fundamental equation of the economy: whether players are buying gold legally or illegally, the market for gold exists.
Q: It sounds like chronoscrolls will favor high-level players with a lot of gold to spend. Can a mid-level player with a lot of money feasibly purchase one from another player?
A: Chronoscrolls are beneficial for both types of players. Gamers who generate a lot of “free cash flow†from their play style will actually get to play TERA for free: they will be able to trade their gold for chronoscrolls, and redeem those scrolls for more play time. And for players who need more gold—like those players who want to keep up with their hard-core guild mates but have only a few hours a week to play—paying a little money for a chronoscroll will enable them to purchase gear and items they ordinarily wouldn’t have the time to obtain. Again, these types of gold purchases already occur, but the gold sellers are professional criminals, and the gold buyers are folks who get caught up in credit card fraud and account bans for participating in illegal trading. By creating a legal market, we’re legitimizing an activity that many players already take part in, and minimizing the negative effects the criminals have on the game.
Q: Recently a massive RMT company put out a press release that they’re now selling TERA gold in Korea. It seems like the RMT company is intentionally touting their ability to ruin the game experience. What are you guys going to do about this?
A: Professional gold selling is such a big business that the RMT (“real-money tradingâ€) companies now issue press releases just like legitimate businesses, which just indicates the scope of the problem.
We can’t stop these problems by prosecuting gold sellers—most are in places laws can’t touch. We can’t stop them by locking up suspected characters. These solutions were tried when the US banned alcohol during the Prohibition era and they failed miserably—though a lot of bootleggers became rich just as gold-selling criminals are today. Instead, the problem was solved by legitimizing the sale of alcohol, creating a safe market, and ensuring that all parties follow sane restrictions.
Based on the evidence available we have a high degree of confidence that chronoscrolls, in combination with the other solutions we’re pursuing, will be an effective deterrent to illegal gold trading, and will help ensure that RMT companies don’t create the same problems and hazards we’ve seen all too frequently in other MMOs.
Almost all of us know about the frustration that comes with gold sellers, especially when all the stuff you worked so hard for get’s stolen by them. You might have also heard about people who have lost items after they tried out a new game “add-on†that was in fact just a very well concealed Trojan horse, and this is just one of the many examples out there infuriating legitimate players.
These types of people destroy the in-game economy in order to make a profit for themselves. These people are called real-money traders and often they not only sell gold, but use bots, commit crimes like identity theft, steal accounts or use stolen credit card information.
Many people and companies have tried to limit the effectiveness of these people in the past, but there is no way one single company is able to completely nullify real-money traders. Most of these people live in countries where there is no way to hold them responsible for their crimes. That’s why we decided to follow a new approach for TERA.
In order to limit this kind of problem we’ll not only use the law to stop these people, but we’ll also enlist you, our community, to help us. Together we can make it a very difficult task for real-money traders to be successful in TERA.
The whole process starts by adding a new item to the game, called chronoscrolls. Players can use these items to extend game time. One chronoscroll is worth one-month’s game subscription. You’ll be able to buy chronoscrolls directly from our website and have the item delivered to your character’s inventory. These scrolls can either be used to extend the time you’ll be able to play TERA or you can trade them against gold with other players.
This way players can get more gold if they help out others players with game time. This system cuts the value of gold farming and real-money trading so that TERA will be a less profitable place to do business for these people. Of course the sellers don’t want more game time as they have already used stolen credit cards or accounts to get free game time anyway. As players will exchange gold for chronoscrolls instead of buying it from those traders, the market will be less attractive to real-money traders.
Our players will only be able to sell chronoscrolls if others are willing to buy them and this determines their market value. The more chronoscrolls offered for sale, the lower the price will be. If a player tries to sell one at too high a price, nobody will buy. If many players want chronoscrolls, the price in gold will increase.
There are many different reasons, why players purchase gold. For example, they would like to quickly level up an alternate character, or try to catch up with their friends, who have had more time to play the game in the past, etc. As these are not initially bad reasons to look for gold, we want to give the players an opportunity to get some gold in a legitimate way.
When accounts are used to “farm†gold in a game the in-game economy suffers greatly as a result. Through these accounts additional gold floods the game, and like inflation in the real world, the value of gold gradually decreases to the point where it’s worthless.
Gold farmers also make it hard for normal players to complete quests or kill certain enemies in the world. If there are a lot of gold farmers around, they are able to kill all the mobs in a certain area right after they re-spawned and destroy the gameplay experience for everyone else. These gold farmers also add nothing the community of a game, as they don’t interact with other players, help them out, etc.
Nevertheless gold farmers and sellers are generally very organised; they use different accounts and characters to distribute the gold they have generated. They also use tools to make it hard to track their IP and location. Even if a support team is hunting them, banning accounts, etc. these persons tend to show up again because they use stolen credit cards to create new accounts. Gold farmers are a problem to basically every MMO out there and if we make it hard for them to generate profit, with your help they won’t show up in TERA at all.
The support and game masters spend a huge amount of time in helping out to clean the mess, these traders leave behind. This time could be used to help players with their questions, but instead they have to spend it on real-money traders. If we all work together we can lower the amount of time support has to spend on those people and this will lead to a better gameplay experience for everyone in TERA.
So, players have the option to give free game time to other players and earn a lot of gold that way, without destroying the gameplay experience and economy of TERA. Chronoscrolls provide a safe and valid way to exchange gold for something valuable.
As this is still a new system, you might have some further questions, that’s why we created an FAQ about chronoscrolls which you can find below.
Chronoscrolls FAQ
Q: First question: in ten seconds tell me, what are chronoscrolls?
A: Chronoscrolls are an in-game item we’re using to fight gold farming, game account theft, phishing, chat spam, and other criminal behaviors in order to create a better gameplay environment for TERA. Players can trade their excess gold for chronoscrolls and redeem those chronoscrolls to play TERA for free. Other players can buy chronoscrolls and sell them in the game as a way to earn more gold. Both groups of players get what they want, without having to interact with cyber-criminals. By creating a legal market where players trade game gold for game time, we can reduce demand for the illegal trading of game gold for real money, and thereby reduce criminal enterprises. That might be more like a twenty second answer, but I think it hits the key points.
Q: Can you explain in layman’s terms how the existence of chronoscrolls will actually affect the in-game economy to deter hackers?
A: If you search for your favorite MMO and the word “gold.†You’re likely to find millions of sites that sell gold for that game. These sites only exist because gamers want to buy gold. If the market for gold didn't exist, the gold-selling sites would go out of business. Unfortunately, gold-selling sites are closely linked with criminals who use credit card fraud, account theft, and other nefarious means to acquire gold and trade it for real money.
To combat these criminals, we need to find solutions that make gold selling unprofitable for them. Game companies have tried many different solutions—banning gold buyers and sellers, lawsuits, criminal convictions—but it’s like trying to stop people from selling drugs or stolen property. As long as there is a market for illegal goods, there will always be criminals willing to exploit the market. This is a multi-billion-dollar-a-year market for game gold, so there is obviously a lot of incentive for criminals!
So instead of reducing the supply of illegal gold, we’re going to reduce the demand for illegal gold by offering an alternative. If you want to buy game gold, you can go to a legal market and get what you want from other players. Or you can go to an illegal market to buy gold, and risk losing your account (when it gets banned) and having your credit card or account stolen by those same gold sellers.
We think most players will choose to trade on the legal market for convenience and security, and doing so will reduce the market for illegal gold. By making it less profitable for criminals, we’ll reduce their numbers in TERA.
Q: Why wouldn’t the gold sellers trade for chronoscrolls?
A: Chronoscrolls are valuable to players because they can be traded for more gameplay, but gold sellers don’t want more game time—they’re already using credit card fraud to get free game time. They want cash, not play-time, so they’re not incentivized to trade for chronoscrolls.
Q: Why would I want to buy an item that gives me game time rather than just buying game time?
A: For many gamers, there won’t be any need to purchase chronoscrolls—you can subscribe to the game and ignore their existence. But there are folks who need more game gold, and chronoscrolls gives them a way to get gold without buying from the criminals who run the business. And while you may not need more gold, you might like the opportunity to trade some of your excess gold for some free game time.
Q: Will this really help make my account more secure? Or does it give hackers another reason to steal my account?
A: Having a chronoscroll market in the game helps keep your account secure. First you have to understand that, just like every other MMO game company, we ban gold sellers because they’re almost exclusively criminals who do damage to the game by stealing accounts, phishing, trading fraudulently, using stolen credit cards, and spamming game chat. If we can get most players to purchase gold legally using chronoscrolls, the market for the criminals will dry up. And if criminals aren’t making money in our game, they’ll go elsewhere.
Q: Has this actually been proven to deter gold farmers or criminals? Can you actually point to data demonstrating something like this has worked?
A: Yes we can! Chronoscrolls are similar to PLEX (Pilot’s License Extensions) in the game EVE Online. CCP Games, the creators of EVE Online, have used PLEX to successfully combat the same gold farming, fraud, and theft problems that plague every other MMO. We owe thanks to the folks from CCP for their willingness to discuss PLEX with us and its effectiveness at minimizing these problems. We’re confident that chronoscrolls will be an effective tool to combat nefarious behavior in our game too.
Q: I’m sure you’re aware that EVE Online is currently experiencing some user backlash because they decided to allow PLEX to be used for in-game vanity items. Is TERA considering this? Is it a possibility in the future?
A: We’re using chronoscrolls to combat criminal fraud problems and create a safer and more enjoyable play environment for our customers so they'll want to continue playing our games. We don’t want or need to monetize every aspect of these games to be successful, and consequently we have no plans to use chronoscrolls for item purchases in TERA.
Q: Won’t chronoscrolls break immersion in the game’s fantasy world?
A: Trading chronoscrolls is just like trading other items with the in-game broker; it won’t be any less immersive than trading for an epic sword or shield. Think of a chronoscroll as an anti-aging spell.
Q: Can I stockpile chronoscrolls and, say, hand them out to my guild as presents?
A: You sure can. Incidentally, can I join your guild?
Q: Could I bribe people with a chronoscroll if they vote for me in the political system or get their guild to vote for me?
A: You bet. Just like you can in the real world, though I’m sure there are less costly means to get votes!
Q: Will you be controlling in-game prices for chronoscrolls? That is—will you set a limit or a minimum on how much gold a chronoscroll will cost?
A: Actually, players will control the price of chronoscrolls. Their cost will be set by market supply and demand. If there are many players who want to purchase gold, they will buy lots of chronoscrolls, and each chronoscroll will have a lower gold price. And conversely, if it turns out that no one wants to buy gold, so there aren’t many chronoscrolls on the market then I would expect that each chronoscroll would be worth a lot more gold. We’re fine with either alternative. Our goal isn’t to sell a lot of chronoscrolls; it's to kill the market for illegal gold selling and thereby eliminate the fraud and crime that sucks the fun out of gaming.
Q: There are some disturbing stories of the Korean TERA’s economy experiencing wild inflation on some servers. Will chronoscrolls help with that problem?
A: Game economies are complicated in both wonderful and terrible ways, just like the real world economy. That means that it can be hard to predict how the economy will function until real gamers are playing after the game’s launch. We’re fortunate to be launching TERA here in the West well after the launch in Korea so that we have the opportunity to learn from their difficulties and correct those issues. But chronoscrolls don’t actually change the fundamental equation of the economy: whether players are buying gold legally or illegally, the market for gold exists.
Q: It sounds like chronoscrolls will favor high-level players with a lot of gold to spend. Can a mid-level player with a lot of money feasibly purchase one from another player?
A: Chronoscrolls are beneficial for both types of players. Gamers who generate a lot of “free cash flow†from their play style will actually get to play TERA for free: they will be able to trade their gold for chronoscrolls, and redeem those scrolls for more play time. And for players who need more gold—like those players who want to keep up with their hard-core guild mates but have only a few hours a week to play—paying a little money for a chronoscroll will enable them to purchase gear and items they ordinarily wouldn’t have the time to obtain. Again, these types of gold purchases already occur, but the gold sellers are professional criminals, and the gold buyers are folks who get caught up in credit card fraud and account bans for participating in illegal trading. By creating a legal market, we’re legitimizing an activity that many players already take part in, and minimizing the negative effects the criminals have on the game.
Q: Recently a massive RMT company put out a press release that they’re now selling TERA gold in Korea. It seems like the RMT company is intentionally touting their ability to ruin the game experience. What are you guys going to do about this?
A: Professional gold selling is such a big business that the RMT (“real-money tradingâ€) companies now issue press releases just like legitimate businesses, which just indicates the scope of the problem.
We can’t stop these problems by prosecuting gold sellers—most are in places laws can’t touch. We can’t stop them by locking up suspected characters. These solutions were tried when the US banned alcohol during the Prohibition era and they failed miserably—though a lot of bootleggers became rich just as gold-selling criminals are today. Instead, the problem was solved by legitimizing the sale of alcohol, creating a safe market, and ensuring that all parties follow sane restrictions.
Based on the evidence available we have a high degree of confidence that chronoscrolls, in combination with the other solutions we’re pursuing, will be an effective deterrent to illegal gold trading, and will help ensure that RMT companies don’t create the same problems and hazards we’ve seen all too frequently in other MMOs.