This post is inspired by vivaciouswoman's comment in another thread (appended below) about ghosts or "bogus people." It is presently possible, I would guess, to "invite" yourself to PMOG via any number of email addresses and to plunder the resulting Shoats of DP, Mines, etc. The total value of the initial tools is quite high. I would suspect that this practice would show up in the Trading forum where lots of excess items would be for sale. Of course, looted or donated DP doesn't contribute to leveling, but a glance at missions that offer DP rewards shows that cash-DP (as it were) can be converted to earned DP (this is not to say that such missions are crassly created for such a purpose - treasure hunts are the soul of PMOG!). However, the creation of phantom users or drones violates the spirit of PMOG. Now if only a few players do it, they could just be shrugged off as soulless philistines. But if it becomes a common practice it may poison our community, not to mention clogging the system with droves of phantom users.

Fortunately, though, there are some easy fixes that our Trustees could implement. The simplest would be to impose restrictions on giving by 1st-level users. They could be kept from giving more than a certain number of items or a set number of DP to any one user. This wouldn't affect normal game play, but it would prevent Shoats from endowing someone with all they possess and then essentially deactivating.

Anyone who is willing to play one username up to level 2 just to give all its resources away to another of his/her usernames is welcome to the insanity. Talk about non-passive!

Finally, inactive 1st-level usernames could be deleted after a certain period (or deactivated until/unless someone actually logs back in). This would clear the lists of all those who show up as "Level 1 Shoats" week after week. It could also free up usernames. Finding a nice username isn't a problem now, but as PMOG grows, the AIM problem will surely emerge as thousands of perfectly good names are locked up forever by inactive accounts.

>@vivaciouswoman "I just noticed that about 1 day ago Superman
> and Aquaman signed up within minutes of each other. Yet
>these two venerable superheroes have earned 0 DP each. Is
> somebody out there "inviting" ghosts, signing up bogus
>people, and getting 200 DP (or whatever) for this? There
>ought to be some sort of threshold, like you get credit for
> your invitees after they have earned so many DPs of their
>own. Just a thought.

by typhon 4 months ago
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Generating a mission does not earn you any dp...not that I've noticed. It's the people taking the mission that earns you the dp.

On the next tip, I'm just playing devil's advocate--arguing against the points for the sake of debate. I'm far nicer in RL. ; )

"It is presently possible, I would guess, to "invite" yourself to PMOG via any number of email addresses and to plunder the resulting Shoats of DP, Mines, etc."

Okay...but why? Sure, you'd have more Tools--but Tools are pretty easy to get, especially when you're below level 5. I can see new users trying to 'game the system' only to realize that earned dp is just that, and not a commodity to be transferred. They would then give up (I hope!)

"The total value of the initial tools is quite high. I would suspect that this practice would show up in the Trading forum where lots of excess items would be for sale."

A high initial value to who? And items for sale are pretty freely available to everyone, and profits don't net you earned dp.
For example: I tend to give away several thousand dp a week just for kicks. If I actually need to buy stuff, I do--or I gift other players to buy the restricted items for me. I don't really see a crazy economy springing up based on Mines to re-sell--but stranger things have happened!

"Of course, looted or donated DP doesn't contribute to leveling, but a glance at missions that offer DP rewards shows that cash-DP (as it were) can be converted to earned DP (this is not to say that such missions are crassly created for such a purpose - treasure hunts are the soul of PMOG!)."

Huh? Any looted dp is not earned dp. Can you explain how looted dp can be converted to earned dp by any other method than creating a mission? Please?

"However, the creation of phantom users or drones violates the spirit of PMOG. Now if only a few players do it, they could just be shrugged off as soulless philistines. But if it becomes a common practice it may poison our community, not to mention clogging the system with droves of phantom users."

I could not agree with you more!

by pixielo 4 months ago
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I did hear rumors of Chinese bogus mission click-farms.

by lord-yo 4 months ago
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Yeah Lord-yo
those chinese bogus mission click farms are happening right in our nation's capital!

Pixielo is actually now playing 5 accounts at once while she heals her leg and earning dps for many people. All those people had to is give her some cake and a link to food wrestling.

:)

The bogus buddy thing is a bit annoying, but it will all get tightened up.

Beta beta beta

by sarastani 4 months ago
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*hides the gold farm under the couch...
: )

As long as I've got to chill, I will be the missionating monster, that's for sure. Using the lists of sites in blogs is a decent way to finagle tons of dp--if you don't stop and read too much.

A huge economy in this game? Other games that are much, much more involved, like 2nd Life or EVE totally do require economic monitoring--but I do guess that anything is possible, even trying to build up one in Pmog.

by pixielo 4 months ago
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