For those that don't know what Chronoscrolls are - http://tera.enmasse.com/news/posts/introducing-chronoscrolls

Over the past month or so I've been trying to come up with how Chronoscrolls are actually supposed to deter RMT so I'm hoping that someone can set me in the right direction. I know that Eve has its PLESK system - so perhaps someone that played Eve can give some insight.

The reason I think that Chronoscrolls won't help RMTing is purely because of how human markets work. This is the example I keep coming up with.

Chronoscroll = $15 for 1 month game time.

Now lets say that Player 1 buys a chronoscroll from En Masse and puts it on the broker for 1000g. Player 2 comes along and his subscription is about to run out to Tera. Player 2 is faced with 2 options:

1) Buy a month from En Masse = $15
2) Buy a Chronoscroll off of Player 1

Player 2 doesn't have 1000g, in fact - he only has 20g because he's a casual player - so he clearly must pay $15 to En Masse for his subscription right? WRONG.

Player 2 calls China and buys 1000g for $10, takes that 1000g and buys Player 1's Chronoscroll.

From my side of it, Chronoscolls actually make RMTing worse purely because more people will want to buy gold to buy chronoscolls.

Again - I've never played Eve and this is just how I see it. Can anyone give me some insight on why this won't happen?

All comes down to how much they want to sell gold for I guess and if its worth their while doing it. Certainly not for 1000g lol (I know its just an example).

on a case by case basis? sure. some might pull this off.

in general? not really. the market for chronoscrolls will be people without money. its not like, "oh noes! i want to buy game time from EME for 15 dollars but i only have 9.99!"

in general the people that want chronoscrolls wont have a dime.

not to mention that the people who want to sell you gold will get more money if they just sell you the gold directly. for every transfer that takes place they lose out on profit.

turn 15@ worth of gold into 10$ scroll?

dont make no sense man.

Here's how the idea works, I think:

First off, it gives a legitimate way to purchase gold. This is hugely important because illegitimate gold buying carries two risks: You might get banned, and if not banned your account might simply get stolen because you were fool enough to visit a site in the business of stealing accounts and taking their gold. Do you want to risk getting your account stolen just to save five bucks? I sure wouldn't.

Second, Chronoscrolls butt into the RMT market and create a price ceiling. Scroll prices will be set by supply and demand. If they're too expensive, illegitimate gold buying might be cheaper. This causes scroll prices to fall as well, because they're priced above the market value of gold. But that means the illegitimate gold must now fall even cheaper to compete with the legit gold sales.

It's important to remember the scrolls are meant to complement the GM team's own efforts to stop gold bots. With GMs trying to crack down on gold farmers, plus scrolls, they can only make the gold so cheap before it's simply not worth the resources.

Quote: coax on 04/23/2012, 10:51 PM - view

No one is going to take the risk for buying gold directly from a RMTer at the same price that they could get an item from En Masse.

Only an idiot would pay $15 to an RMTer for 1000g when they could pay En Masse (a legit site) $15 for a Chronoscroll that sells for 1000g.

And I hate to break it to you, but anyone and everyone will want to buy Chronoscrolls off the broker- not just poor people. I am fairly well off and it is my mission in life to part with as little of my $$ as possible.

I did exactly what you're outlining in the OP in eve for a few months, the $8-9/mo sub was nice, but it was somewhat risky as the eve PLEX sold for around 450 million isk IIRC and probably wasn't too hard to track that 450m appeared in my acct numerous times from some foreign IP and then bought plex. I was never punished though.

It's a pretty common assumption that if there's a legal way to do something people are much more likely to use that as opposed to the illegal way. For example, would you really be willing to risk your account for 5$? probably not.

secondly RMT (real money transfers?) are famous for people that WANT gold and HAVE money, rate is very rarely the problem, the problem is the complete lack of a transfer method. Since EnMasse provide a method most players will be willing to accept whatever rate does shake out.

lastly, players aren't that ignorant, if they see in any in game add or whisper "1000g for $10" they're not going to run off and sell their chronoscroll for any less than 1500g, the players with the scrolls will want to get the most out of their $$ and if that means competing with gold-farmers than it does.

Quote: phoenixfire82 on 04/23/2012, 10:58 PM - view

Makes sense. I figured this had to be going on in some level.

It's supposed to make it too unprofitable for farmers to take root. Will it work? only time will tell. Like I've said before, make blocking people account wide and the moment a gold seller spams and everyone blocks him, his account will be completely blocked thus making their advertisements fall on deaf ears and they'll either give up or have to keep buying new subscriptions and how long would that last? Support account wide blocking!

Quote: kydrice on 04/23/2012, 11:05 PM - view

you mean buying chronoscrolls right?