First Avatar now John what can be done??

Pawain

John is still on LS.  

dvvid

Yes 4 total sellers spamming the chat incessantly. It’s getting more out of control. These people don’t care about the good of the game. They just want money. It shouldn’t be tolerated. 

authororigin

McDougle said:

the RMT spamming is out of control.... i block them but they must be EJ accounts because they just keep coming US the paying user's shouldn't have to deal with this...

why cant they link ej accounts to credit card accounts and ban card accounts when miss behaving

would work many only have one or two getting more messes up real life 

Bilbo

I logged in a shard hopping char and was in help and guess who all showed up to spam their shit, you got it.

JackFlashUk

Complete ban on all channels to EJ accts needed, one of the privileges of paying subs is the use of all channels. EJ accts are supposed to be for people to try out the game again or for the first time. This is a joke. These parasites are abusing the system and for years getting away with it. With no DEV action they will just get worse. 

MsScarlett

Just a heads up, I went to this site of "Johns" and looked very similar to the avatar one so I thought maybe they just renamed themselves. I noticed the prices used comma's and like they sometimes do in other countries. I just wanted to see if I could get an idea of where registered and seems like it used a  company that is .ru which is russia. I don't know all the ins and outs of registering domains etc but might want to be careful with it.

Arnold7

My thoughts too.  Will not be going back to that site.

JohnKnighthawke

Why is the consensus solution to ban Endless Journey accounts from Global Chat by the way? Are we sure these are even Endless Journey accounts? Even if so, are we sure they wouldn't just find a way to exploit trial accounts and hacked/stolen gametime codes or card numbers and whatnot?

My concern would be someone either coming on board or returning using an Endless Journey account being closed off from the primary means of finding out about events, group hunts, etc.

Whether that is a legitimate concern on my part or not I can't say. (I don't really know how many EJ accounts there even are.)

Arnold7

Agree with this post too.  Don’t know who operates that site.  My main concern is the spamming and the site itself.  When I accessed the site, it did not display very well on my computer, its operation appeared a little odd to me and it did not appear to be professionally done.  Quickly decided too get off of it.  Really think overall concern is that unauthorized sites should not be advertising in game as if they are authorized.  Don’t really understand why the owners can’t identify the accounts generating these message and then take appropriate action.  It’s their game.  They set the rules. Maybe, they could explain the problem. If the problem was known, a solution might appear from the player base.

loop

JohnKnighthawke said:

Why is the consensus solution to ban Endless Journey accounts from Global Chat by the way? Are we sure these are even Endless Journey accounts? Even if so, are we sure they wouldn't just find a way to exploit trial accounts and hacked/stolen gametime codes or card numbers and whatnot?

My concern would be someone either coming on board or returning using an Endless Journey account being closed off from the primary means of finding out about events, group hunts, etc.

Whether that is a legitimate concern on my part or not I can't say. (I don't really know how many EJ accounts there even are.)

I'm against the idea that we should further restrict free accounts because Broadsword is either unable or unwilling to enforce the Terms of Service with respect to RMT spammers.

One compromise would be that free accounts can only start posting in general chat once they reach a certain age (say, a week). This would have the effect of at least slowing the sellers down provided that the accounts are in fact free accounts and that Broadsword actually has the ability to ban them in the first place.

But then, there's nothing stopping someone from making several accounts at a time, with each reaching the age threshold in a staggered way.

TimSt

Something they can do is require a captcha code be used when ever an EJ account logs in.

Pawain

I like the wait a week idea.  Also you have to have x amount of skill points.  

That would let them goof around a week in Haven and get some skills and then go to chat.

Also would annoy the sellers because they have to do stuff then the account is banned.

jelinidas

Do something,  anything! Give us a report what you have planned. Quit sticking your heads in the sand. This is not going away. I am now basically just turning off chat. It's affecting your paying customers.  At this point I vote for only help channel to EJ accounts.  If they want full access,  let them pay like the rest of us. Say something @Kyronix!!

loop

TimSt said:

Something they can do is require a captcha code be used when ever an EJ account logs in.

"Check all the pictures that contain a mongbat." 

Pawain said:

I like the wait a week idea.  Also you have to have x amount of skill points.  

That would let them goof around a week in Haven and get some skills and then go to chat.

Also would annoy the sellers because they have to do stuff then the account is banned.

Adding a skill point restriction is probably the most reasonable idea so far, actually.

Pawain

loop said:

Adding a skill point restriction is probably the most reasonable idea so far, actually.

Ya because it would not affect the returning players and ones who purposely went to EJ.

It would just affect the completely new accounts which the spammers are using.

King_Greg

These guys aren't even randomizing their messages, all you have to do is remove the spaces from the text string, or look for the phrasing they use other than the website. Even a novice could build something to automatically detect these guys and squelch them to be reviewed by a gm/person later. 

Fortis

restricting chat by skills point is completly dumb you can train any skill from npc to get to 720 cap in 2 minutes...remove ej from chat you wont see any post in general chat...only like before book on the ground everywhere link to website...i can live with it a spam in chat getting 1/3 of your gameplay screen for a third aprty sellers it s kinda sad

Pawain

Fortis said:

restricting chat by skills point is completly dumb you can train any skill from npc to get to 720 cap in 2 minutes...remove ej from chat you wont see any post in general chat...only like before book on the ground everywhere link to website...i can live with it a spam in chat getting 1/3 of your gameplay screen for a third aprty sellers it s kinda sad

Make it 60 in x number of skills.  So when they get some of the NPC rewards they move to gen Chat.

Stinky_Pete

This has been happening since before EJ accounts existed. I don't see why everyone thinks they have to use EJ accounts to spam gen chat. Also, if you would stop giving them your money, these sites wouldn't even exist. I wonder how many people come here and complain about the spam in GC then go buy stuff from those sites.

McDougle

I assume they are EJ accounts because i have 7 johns blocked and i assume they are not all paying accounts....

loop

Fortis said:

restricting chat by skills point is completly dumb you can train any skill from npc to get to 720 cap in 2 minutes...remove ej from chat you wont see any post in general chat...only like before book on the ground everywhere link to website...i can live with it a spam in chat getting 1/3 of your gameplay screen for a third aprty sellers it s kinda sad

This is a good point. The simplest solution is to have mechanisms for identifying specific accounts and banning them. It goes back to the real crux: that Broadsword is either unable or unwilling to enforce the Terms of Service with respect to RMT spammers. We can't do anything about willingness, but given that the simplest solution is so apparent and that RMT spam is a problem in many MMOs I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt that the issue is more complicated, which means that speculating about other means to obstruct the spam isn't entirely wasted.

Regardless, I don't think it would be entirely trivial if a 720 skill restriction were in place. I think you can start a character with 120 points, maybe? So that leaves 600 points, and let's say 40 points to train per skill, which I think costs 400 gold. Let's also say that 40 meditation and 40 focus are freebies given how fast they increase.

So we're at 520 skill points to train. That's 13 skills and 5200 gold. For every new account, you need to give it a little bit of gold. The gold, of course, is trivial. The act of actually having to transfer it is the real obstacle. Some NPCs can train in more than one skill, so let's say you have to hit at least 4 to cover the 13 skills.

Could a script do all this? Yeah, but this gaming of the system would at least yield identifiable actions that Broadsword can more easily take action against -- assuming, as I mentioned up top, that they are in fact just unable but not unwilling to enforce their own rules by monitoring the chat alone.

And then there are other ways: Perhaps you need one skill above 70 (not counting Meditation or Focus!), perhaps two skills...

Aayla

Here's my glorious ban list. This is really getting out of control! I'm so tired of this ...

Pawain

Aayla said:

Here's my glorious ban list. This is really getting out of control! I'm so tired of this ...

Why isn't Allen on there?

keven2002

I think we only get like 25-30 ignore spots?

McDougle

Sometimes no reply speaks very loudly.....

The_Higgs_1

EJ itself just needs to go away.  It is a total failure on all accounts.  Just put the old two week trial back with heavy restrictions.  Everyone knew this was gonna happen when you made free accts that last.  Nothing but RMT spam and tons of accts bot farming illegally.  Id say less then 1% of the current EJ's are playing legally.  Complete failure, just remove it already.

popps

The_Higgs_1 said:

EJ itself just needs to go away.  It is a total failure on all accounts.  Just put the old two week trial back with heavy restrictions.  Everyone knew this was gonna happen when you made free accts that last.  Nothing but RMT spam and tons of accts bot farming illegally.  Id say less then 1% of the current EJ's are playing legally.  Complete failure, just remove it already.

I can agree with you as they might be being used, to my opinion, in bad ways too much.... (think about free, EJ accounts being used as Cams... whether Ghost Cams or Hidden EJ characters or to multi-Client several characters at once by the same single player, sometimes even botted and scripted..... etc. etc.) BUT, unfortunately, too many players have by now invested real money on them, perhaps buying High Seas and/or Time of Legends expansions, perhaps buying Soulstones or else from the Store, or they may have spent lots of gold to scroll them up, Primers to have several Masteries on them and all that.

If a refund was given to these players for whatever they spent on EJ accounts, Scrolls of Power and Mastery Primers be refunded/restored as items to use on other, subscribed characters, as well as Recipes which they might have learned, then, perhaps, I would highly favour the idea to get rid of all EJs and I would actually find it beneficial to Ultima Online....but definitively full refunds should be given to all players who invested real money on them as well as Scrolls of Power, Mastery Primers, Recipes....

JackFlashUk

popps said:

The_Higgs_1 said:

EJ itself just needs to go away.  It is a total failure on all accounts.  Just put the old two week trial back with heavy restrictions.  Everyone knew this was gonna happen when you made free accts that last.  Nothing but RMT spam and tons of accts bot farming illegally.  Id say less then 1% of the current EJ's are playing legally.  Complete failure, just remove it already.

I can agree with you as they might be being used, to my opinion, in bad ways too much.... (think about free, EJ accounts being used as Cams... whether Ghost Cams or Hidden EJ characters or to multi-Client several characters at once by the same single player, sometimes even botted and scripted..... etc. etc.) BUT, unfortunately, too many players have by now invested real money on them, perhaps buying High Seas and/or Time of Legends expansions, perhaps buying Soulstones or else from the Store, or they may have spent lots of gold to scroll them up, Primers to have several Masteries on them and all that.

If a refund was given to these players for whatever they spent on EJ accounts, Scrolls of Power and Mastery Primers be refunded/restored as items to use on other, subscribed characters, as well as Recipes which they might have learned, then, perhaps, I would highly favour the idea to get rid of all EJs and I would actually find it beneficial to Ultima Online....but definitively full refunds should be given to all players who invested real money on them as well as Scrolls of Power, Mastery Primers, Recipes....

Clearly they are not going to do that, If people have upgraded then they are most likely in a guild, and have guild chat, discord etc.....chat is a privilege not a right, we survived before without it, EJ accts are full of abusers so to protect players like us, paying customers EJ accts should have ALL chat channels disabled. That way these RMT sellers wont have a market. They spam on help channel as well
If EJ players complain then the question has to be asked, WHY ARE YOU NOT SUBBING, and they certainly do NOT have more rights over subbed players.  These scam/spam sellers are getting out of hand and the DEV'S need to do something RIGHT NOW.

Arnold7

If it not for the endless journey account, I would not be playing UO.  I played the EJ account about 8 months before subscribing.  One major reason I did not sign up years earlier was the two week trial period.  Back in the day that might have been workable, but in today’s environment with most games I have looked at offer a play for free option, I don’t think many players are going to commit to paying a rather significant monthly fee after a two week trail period.  I think EJ accounts have the potential to bring new players and returning players Into the game so I think they should stay.

What I don’t understand is why management cannot deal with these unauthorized sellers.  Seems like management could prohibit this activity in its terms of agreement that players agree to when they create an account.

Really, after reading all of these posts, maybe management should provide an explanation of what is preventing them from dealing with these accounts so that players writing and reading this discussion know what the real problem is and this discussion can end.

TimSt

Lets keep the discussion related to the issue of the spamming.