Hearsay Discussion Rumor - DPG will crack down on account sales (1 Viewer)

[Redbot]

I heard a rumor that DPG will crack down on account sales after the release of the new TLP server, and it will include "comparing IPs" to confirm an account has been transferred to a new owner.

Again, this is a rumor that passed through several people before getting to me, so take it with a grain of msg.

 

[Ctalbus]

From a profit point of view, it makes sense. If they want peoples accounts to rot instead of get sold. Make people level new toons instead of buying discounted ones.

Should be interesting to see what the actual plan/idea is though.

Less to worry about for Mischief specifically. Since, you could just sell all of their gear and only be out a naked toon. Worse for non free trade servers obviously.

Curious to see exactly what they are trying to accomplish. Is it like the AoE change where it's just to stop regular people from doing it and force PLers to sub 4-5 more accounts or are they going to follow it up with a bigger aoe change.

If it is similar to the AoE change, it'll probably end up hurting the random people who do not take any precautions, versus the professionals.

If they are trying to stop ALL account sells... then things are going to get really really interesting here soon...

 

[L2Phantom]

Well that's no good, we shall see what happens!

 

[Diamond Krono]

I am experiencing different security issues with DB myself. I can feel that they are tightening up.

 

[Teichou]

I heard a rumor that DPG will crack down on account sales after the release of the new TLP server, and it will include "comparing IPs" to confirm an account has been transferred to a new owner.

Again, this is a rumor that passed through several people before getting to me, so take it with a grain of msg.

they have been checking IPs for ages....

 

[Redbot]

My assumption based on that small amount of info is that they'll be focusing on banning accounts after a sale is complete, rather than before.

 

[Kruger]

I heard a rumor that DPG will crack down on account sales after the release of the new TLP server, and it will include "comparing IPs" to confirm an account has been transferred to a new owner.

Again, this is a rumor that passed through several people before getting to me, so take it with a grain of msg.

ROFL. They always check IP changes if you open up any ticket. To now be "active" is shocking. Now, it looks like they will investigate any IP change. I'm curious as to see how this affects people who use VPNs and such.

 

[eVILE]

I heard a rumor that DPG will crack down on account sales after the release of the new TLP server, and it will include "comparing IPs" to confirm an account has been transferred to a new owner.

Again, this is a rumor that passed through several people before getting to me, so take it with a grain of msg.

TBH if it is just comparing IPs I don't care, and like Ctalbus said, it will only hurt the regular folks. If it is deeper than that, then it will suck.

I can understand it from their point of view though. They want people to make accounts and play. They make zero from someone reselling their account. At least with a plvl there are a lot of krono being bought to support that. While some are being bought from resellers, a lot are still bought from DPG. Plus with the changes, those that plvl are hit with a higher krono tax because it takes a lot more enchanters.

 

[Doingbigthings]

Daybreak is always making their money off of the krono just not at the rate they would without third party sellers. I read somewhere that each launcher has a unique number and every account logged on from the eqgame.exe is stored to launcher number I could be wrong. Either way straight out banning every account that changes hands would run a ton of people off that specialize in account selling.

 

[Sturm2k]

So anyone who moves around a lot (me) will be getting banned often. They can't ban because of ip change as there are too many variables to consider. What they can do is add a file to the launcher that is unique to an account login but that is only way they can use that power.

If I ping from pa then Vegas to Toronto which is my normal route turn I'll be banned every week. Just doesn't make sense.

 

[TheBranch]

So anyone who moves around a lot (me) will be getting banned often. They can't ban because of ip change as there are too many variables to consider. What they can do is add a file to the launcher that is unique to an account login but that is only way they can use that power.

If I ping from pa then Vegas to Toronto which is my normal route turn I'll be banned every week. Just doesn't make sense.

It was my understanding they already track accounts by launcher.

 

[guitarguy]

My assumption is that they would have to track multiple things simultaneously: ip, password, email changes.

they could ban based off of ip alone...which would be stupid for the false negatives, but after tracking all 3 together, they could build a case.

 

[mmorpgwarehouse]

Like many game companies, they switch gears a lot on RMT. It depends on whether or not the person in charge at the time cares about it. For years, DB sold every service you needed to transfer an account or characters freely for DB cash. They still sell a "witness protection pack" to this day.

If I were them I would've released a verified trader p2p marketplace of my own years ago to at least regulate it and get a cut. Back in the day when I did this full-time, I asked Sony if that was a possibility and they said there was too much legal that goes into acknowledging that game accounts translate to real world value, questions of ownership, further tax liability etc. but that was decades ago.

Thing is though, this game is old as hell and without RMT it would probably already be dead. 36 boxers and stemlords with WFH jobs and plenty of krono and powerleveling money are whaling it out of the last-gen cemetary. No game that fields ~2000 concurrent logins should be banning for anything except exploiting and serious harassment. Why they don't want all those namechange and transfer dollars up front anymore I have no idea.

 

[guitarguy]

Like many game companies, they switch gears a lot on RMT. It depends on whether or not the person in charge at the time cares about it. For years, DB sold every service you needed to transfer an account or characters freely for DB cash. They still sell a "witness protection pack" to this day.

If I were them I would've released a verified trader p2p marketplace of my own years ago to at least regulate it and get a cut. Back in the day when I did this full-time, I asked Sony if that was a possibility and they said there was too much legal that goes into acknowledging that game accounts translate to real world value, questions of ownership, further tax liability etc. but that was decades ago.

Thing is though, this game is old as hell and without RMT it would probably already be dead. 36 boxers and stemlords with WFH jobs and plenty of krono and powerleveling money are whaling it out of the last-gen cemetary. No game that fields ~2000 concurrent logins should be banning for anything except exploiting and serious harassment. Why they don't want all those namechange and transfer dollars up front anymore I have no idea.

Agreed!

unless new owners wanna crack down for legality reasons

 

[eVILE]

Agreed!

unless new owners wanna crack down for legality reasons

It is less about legality I think and more about headache. The reason why Aradune was a failure was because of the promised GM presence and them not delivering or when they did, the GMs were half trained and bad at what they did. Also, by failure I mean what it cost them. Yes, the server was busy, but all TLPs are. This was a failure because it cost them a lot more in upkeep via GM presence for arguably little return.

If they really wanted to try something like a dedicated GM server and maybe 1 account per person, they would need to make a platinum subscription for that and have it cost like $50 a month to support it.

What I don't get, from a financial standpoint, is why they don't let you buy multiple packs of bags. Have them come with a warning that you have to claim them within 30 days or something, but offer it. I know I would drop $160 to put 40 slot bags in all eight slots.

 

[Atrocity]

It was my understanding they already track accounts by launcher.

Most of my accounts have never even been through the launcher. Honestly I think ONLY my original 20+ year account has. They might have an identifier on it but I can't imagine it is good for anything since you don't even need to open it more than one time per patch per machine.

 

[Vandax]

I've dabbled in EQEMU and you can literally see all IPs associated with each account in the SQL database; it doesn't matter if a launcher is used or not. Honestly, it wouldn't be too difficult to track down sold accounts and ban them, look at p99 for instance. It all comes down to whether or not you have a power hungry GM with a lot of time on his hands or not, again, looking at p99.

Financially, it makes no sense for Daybreak to care about RMT as stated above, it is keeping a 20 year game alive. If Daybreak actually cares about RMT, Krono would be removed and to never exist again. KRONO IS RMT. Just my 2 cents and little knowledge I have to share.

 

[Kreature]

Maybe we are not seeing the big picture as to what they will be specifically focusing in on and why . . . or maybe it simply is a rumor?

Specifically checking accounts IPs would just lead to a mess.

1. I have friend that uses a mobile hot spot via her phone to play EQ when their internet goes down.
2. The game is 20+ years old and some people have had accounts the entire time. People move and get new internet providers.
3. At this point in time, EVERYONE should be using a VPN just for general internet privacy (nothing directly related to EQ).
4. Several members of my guild travel a lot and play via their laptops while away from home.
5. To bypass the 5 character creation limit, some mass boxers on rizlona went to public wifi places like Starbucks to create new accounts.
6. Others used VPNs to accomplish the same thing.

The list goes on.

Using IPs to detect if an account has changed hands doesn't seem like a very effective means and would just lead to a mass of false positives.

You can't even monitor an account by a game launcher (or computer). With Truebox, it's one account per computer and that means several computers for the six boxers. While I had seven comps, I had 12 accounts, with seven of those logged in at a time. The accounts and classes changed depending if I was grinding exp or raiding something. All those accounts probably ended up being logged into each of the seven comps at one point or another. I had VPNs running on those comps to prevent the completely buggy truebox broadcast kick (I was not broadcasting). I had numpads for the comps behind me and before I used the VPNs just hitting numbers on the keypads a moment apart would kick all seven toons instantly. Using a VPN on each comp with a different IP was the only way to fix it.

DBGs came up with the Truebox rule set, now they have to acknowledge individuals are playing on several comps.

In our progression guild (TLP), if people can't make flagging raids, they are encouraged to have friends log them in (box them) for the raid flag. This is pretty important, as expansion releases come up pretty fast and getting the entire raid flagged for the end raid content in each expansion is always a high priority . . . and you can always change your password after the flag is attained?

 

[Kreature]

DBGs has the ability to put a suspicious activity lock on an account. I think they have several automated things set up to do this . . . trading too many krono in a specific time period. Or flagging accounts that have touched a krono that was charged back etc.

A suspicious activity lock prevents you form logging into an account until the 2 step authorization is set. This requires setting a secret question and answer, and adding a phone number to the account.

They might start flagging accounts they suspect have changed hands with the suspicious activity flag, forcing the owner to set the 2SA and phone number? If one had been set previously and it changed it could flag an account?

I guess the most reliable way would be to also look at credit cards associated with accounts also?

I think checking IPs would be the very last thing they would ever check and would lead to a mass of false positives.

 

[Cfuson001]

Curious, lets say they start banning RMT accounts. Who's at fault here? The buyer or the seller? I'm assuming the seller would have to give a full refund unless a specific amount of time has passed?

 

[Doingbigthings]

If someone buys an account they should know the risk of buying an account. Most of the time there's nothing to worry about but there's always a slight chance of dealing with someone that is a sleeze bag and they attempt to recover the account. Only time I see a refund due is if the ban occurred during the information exchange or within 72 after exchange is complete. But buying a account years ago or even 6 months ago shouldn't be seeking a refund, just my two cents.

 

[eVILE]

Personally I think it comes down to the situation. How long before they were banned? How was the account listed? Did they get all of the information? My advice to people when buying an account is to make sure they give you the original email address with it.

Daybreak are now banning all accounts on a server so if someone creates 15 accounts using a single email and one of those accounts starts cheating, you run the risk of all accounts started with that email of being banned.

 

[william12]

posting stuff like this is reckless btw its all rumors they're not banning an account because another IP logged on it that's absurd. Your IP can change for dozens of reasons not to mention the people who use VPNs.

 

[Sturm2k]

Being that ECtunnel is one of the biggest account selling websites and we haven't seen a good portion of our user base complain about banned accounts - outside the normal amount - tells me that everything is normal.

When we kick the dirt up to much on this causes chaos when there isn't a need for chaos.

This happen for Mangler and again Aradune. - It is daybreak way of talking shit and then running from a fight.

Ectunnel would be the first to know if wide account bans happen. Till then, enjoy the game and stop posting this stuff unless it starts happening.

 

[Relogaar]

I'm playing an account I made in US Central, Leveled/quested on US East, and are doing the Mangler thing with atm from BC...and that's the most blasé example...

 

[scootrcub1]

well a ton travel for work. A friend who plays is from California and was in China for 30 days recently. will that get him banned possibly? Since He will be going to china and Taiwan every few months.

 

[Sturm2k]

i have pinged from 5 different countries while play before. Never had an issue.
Really this type of rumor is what it is - a rumor - my personal account my life time account has pinged for 5 countries before and during covid. - zero issues.

Really the only people getting banned are the ones doing stupid shit they shouldn't be doing.