Outright Ban (Create a rule!) for In-game Cash to Real-Life Deals/Transactions.

[Harm 76]

22 minutes ago, mossly said:

If a player has enough in game cash to trade for money, they are likely a regular (and also likely a financial whale for the server). Do you really think "we should ban people who are guaranteed to spend time and money on the server" is a good idea?

I was waiting for this response and I'm glad you brought it up. When you say "whale" what is your definition? Is a VIP a whale? What is the determining factor here? Most of the 100m plus users have 10+ alts, let's just be honest about it. The alts drop printers that get upgraded and then you make multiple millions of dollars to sell by afk'ing in your base for 11+ hours. 

There's the option to buy in-game cash for credits. I am absolutely supportive of making that the meta (adjusting it based on the market) if it means support is being funneled into the server.

Where in this situation is garnet supported outside of one VIP purchase? Multiple accounts = steam or secondary sites. Cash gets sold for IRL cash = to the player. The only part of this equation in which Garnet is supported is the initial VIP purchase which is "one-time". I'd argue that many players buy VIP, buy the AWP and move on. Majority of the donations seem to be custom classes which again are purchased by credits. Why must external payments be supported? I am confused with the need for it outside of personal gain, not gain on the server. There's a reason some posts highlight how it's normally not allowed or supported on other servers. I'd venture to say that's for a very good reason.

If players are staying on Garnet to make real-life money off of it, they are playing the wrong game and likely not even RP'ing. It's meant to be a role-playing gaming experience. Not an AFK simulator for real life cash. Sure, I love hanging out with buddies, chatting, and having a good time.

 

Outside of personal gain, I'd like to hear an argument about how buying ingame cash from players for real life money supports the server in any way.

Edited February 6, 2023 by Harm

[Vortex 268]

17 minutes ago, Harm said:

Outside of personal gain, I'd like to hear an argument about how buying ingame cash from players for real life money supports the server in any way.

As a wise man once said; If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it

[Harm 76]

3 minutes ago, Vortex1 said:

As a wise man once said; If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it

Is this wise? Continuous improvement is extremely important in video games and servers alike. The problem here in my opinion is that it is broken. Can we all recognize that by allowing this feature (In-game cash for IRL money) for those with alts it is the literal definition of botting? If you spin up a local vm with an alternate account in games to make money to sell in a form of AFK'ing, it's botting. 

[mossly 144]

1 hour ago, Harm said:

I was waiting for this response and I'm glad you brought it up. When you say "whale" what is your definition? Is a VIP a whale? What is the determining factor here? Most of the 100m plus users have 10+ alts, let's just be honest about it. The alts drop printers that get upgraded and then you make multiple millions of dollars to sell by afk'ing in your base for 11+ hours. 

There's the option to buy in-game cash for credits. I am absolutely supportive of making that the meta (adjusting it based on the market) if it means support is being funneled into the server.

Where in this situation is garnet supported outside of one VIP purchase? Multiple accounts = steam or secondary sites. Cash gets sold for IRL cash = to the player. The only part of this equation in which Garnet is supported is the initial VIP purchase which is "one-time". I'd argue that many players buy VIP, buy the AWP and move on. Majority of the donations seem to be custom classes which again are purchased by credits. Why must external payments be supported? I am confused with the need for it outside of personal gain, not gain on the server. There's a reason some posts highlight how it's normally not allowed or supported on other servers. I'd venture to say that's for a very good reason.

If players are staying on Garnet to make real-life money off of it, they are playing the wrong game and likely not even RP'ing. It's meant to be a role-playing gaming experience. Not an AFK simulator for real life cash. Sure, I love hanging out with buddies, chatting, and having a good time.

 

Outside of personal gain, I'd like to hear an argument about how buying ingame cash from players for real life money supports the server in any way.

Why would players buy in-game cash? To play more on the server, right? My definition of a whale is someone who buys absurd shit like 140$ custom classes or spends RL money repeatedly on weapons.

Also, if you care enough about DarkRP to farm using lots of alts you're definitely a regular. That being said, I think alts shouldn't be allowed.

Next point: you think this is a roleplaying game? I mean sure, very loosely, but if we are honest with ourselves it is literally just cops and robbers with a number to make get bigger (money). Nobody is roleplaying a hard fought grind to the top; most roleplaying takes place small scale and I'd argue that most actual roleplaying is done by a few, normally poorer, people who do ridiculous shit that garners attention. Most of the higher and mid level people may have printers but their "RP" consists of treating it a chatroom where you can kill people sometimes. 

Finally: I have very rarely seen people buying money with IG cash. I often see people buy credits (and sell them semiregularly), but almost never see "I will venmo you cash for ig cash" because most players do not want to attach their identity to what amounts to a gmod/forum multiyear shitposting experiment (DarkRP). Players buying credits, as you stated, clearly benefits the server.

 

Lastly: this is not a seriousrp server. Nobody really cares about financial imbalance that may be caused by these actions; I think the added benefit of more activity outweighs a minor financial loss. The DarkRp format is addicting enough that most people (myself included) will come back even after spending ridiculous amounts of money buying other games, esp. just to see friends.

 

Edited February 6, 2023 by mossly
expansion of "nobody gives a fuck" to what I meant in greater detail

[Legions 3]

3 hours ago, xFish said:

Sometime a year or so ago in game. Again could be foggy memory which is why I'm hoping one will respond and clear it up.

It's more the constant advertising of it in OOC that I believe Strongside is against. 

Catching them is easy, its more deciding a punishment that would be difficult. Like would it be a no warning ban type deal? or one warning, and if so how do we keep track of players across diff sessions? Different things that would have to be thought of depending on if this goes through or not.

i mean if its easy it would be a good idea. i would assume a perm since it deals with irl moneys it would make sense to me at least.  

2 hours ago, StraightWhiteChristianMale said:

-1 I think if there was a problem with this then it wouldn't be allowed, this is most likely going to be accepted I think, which is going to piss a lot of people off

yea but if you still can buy credits though people no one should be that upset about making money off a server that you can play for free. The server is always changing a problem tomorrow might not be a problem today. You'll never find the problems if you don't have discourse like this. 

[Salteeeens 277]

-1 I see the point. Make money in the shop cheaper or nah 

[Smity_ 257]

4 hours ago, Harm said:

for those with alts it is the literal definition of botting? If you spin up a local vm with an alternate account in games to make money to sell in a form of AFK'ing, it's botting. 

You realize if Alting or "botting" if thats what you call it, carries most DarkRP servers? Most of the concurrent players of GMOD is just Alts to help boost pop to appear higher on the Server Browser. Which other wise without them most servers wouldn't really max pop at all. Allowing players to bring Alts on the server just helps the server appear as more active. The only issue to having an Alt is the fact you can ban evade. So there is not issue with that. 

Now regarding the main post, yes it sucks that people give in-game currency to someone for them to buy something on the donor store, at the same time it's generating the Income to keep Garnet's servers up. Without people trading in-game items/money it could hurt the income this server brings in. so -1. 

[Proggy 3,818]

Partially Denied

We don't encourage any players to do trading deals with in-game money for real-world items or money.
Taking part in these deals puts yourself at risk of putting your personal information out there, as well as scams. 
Scamming and doxing is 100% against our rules and always has been. 

The main issue here is a matter of enforcement. For most of these IRL deals we have no way of tracking what took place.
The best we can do is enforce people to not advertise these trades in ooc/adverts. 
Beyond that, enforcement of this would just be players ratting on each other and baiting punishments.

Going forward we will mute and warn people for advertising real-world trading in ooc/adverts.
Any deals privately worked between people is between them, and both parties are operating at their own risk.

If conclusive evidence is brought to administration that a user is outright scamming peoples real money or exposing personal information, they will be permanently banned as always.

[Nutter 15,155]

11 minutes ago, Proggy said:

Any deals privately worked between people is between them, and both parties are operating at their own risk.

I would also suggest wiping people's wallets when they are caught in the act, but everybody already knows that this is how I feel about the issue.

There are no positive aspects to people exploiting the economy of this server by hosting a plethora of alts in order to sell the money for real-cash transactions. Proggy seemed to be in disagreement of banning said players, and I will leave it at that.

[HGEnzo123 4]

-1 Even though this is not a bad idea I do also think that many people will find a way around it and overall wont be controllable in any way, many people wont like this idea as its a quick way to make in game cash.

 

[Vortex 268]

4 hours ago, Nutter said:

There are no positive aspects to people exploiting the economy of this server by hosting a plethora of alts in order to sell the money for real-cash transactions

Helps server pop which I know you’re not against. If printers weren’t that op and meta this would never be an issue. You brought that upon yourself. Not to mention there is almost nothing do to with ingame at a certain point. If you can’t sell it anymore, what’s the point of farming, pop will automatically decrease. This a dark day in drp.

[Nutter 15,155]

10 hours ago, Vortex1 said:

Helps server pop which I know you’re not against. If printers weren’t that op and meta this would never be an issue. You brought that upon yourself. Not to mention there is almost nothing do to with ingame at a certain point. If you can’t sell it anymore, what’s the point of farming, pop will automatically decrease. This a dark day in drp.

Helping pop in the early mornings is about the only reason I considered allowing alting, and the fact that all our competitors seem to be doing so to heavily bot their way up the charts.

Your comment of "You brought that upon yourself" is incredibly stupid. I allowed people to bring their alts to get printers if they choose to do so, I had never allowed them to use this in order to sell said printed money for real currency. If you want stuff to do with in-game money, maybe be useful and post a suggestion? OH OOPS - you've never went out of your way to try and bring new ideas about, just complaining.

You guys are actively destroying this server and ruining the economy for regular players, by reaching unrealistic wallet amounts. While this will still not be actively moderated, because frankly, neither me or @Proggy want to deal with the hassle, just know you're viewed as nothing by a rodent who's hurting the server for their own financial benefit.