Avatar's changing hands.... who are you actually dealing with?

[Xcessive]

Arrrgh someone else readed my mind and posted that im you.
I mean im me. This is confusing. I dunno who im anymore ...

you get confused when you are, and when you are not botting? i dont understand?

 

[Captain Jack]

I take your point, yes it is hard to extract all those skills, but my point is directed towards the issue of "who are we actually dealing with in game"

Is it MA's responsibly to offer some form of protection for players, like a duty of care?

MA have turned a blind eye, we all know who the avatars are... but are they trustworthy, or just working off another persons reputation?

The blind eye thing is BS because MA won't let us change avatar names "to maintain ingame reputation" bla bla bla...

I'm in the same boat as Smilgs, I am original owner of this avatar, but I hire a grinder to hunt and I disclose that publicly.
You can tell when I have the grinder active because I'll be "Freelancer", I'm only in Dark Knights -Squires when my avatar is secured to my access only.

 

[Raven Lunchbox]

I'm the same me too, since I started this lovely game.

 

[San]

I didn't understand OP to mean to compel everybody into virtue signalling. I simply don't deal with or support someone I have reasons to be suspicious about. Otoh what I don't know doesn't need to concern me, if a deal itself doesn't raise any eyebrows.

 

[morfoc]

The blind eye thing is BS because MA won't let us change avatar names "to maintain ingame reputation" bla bla bla...

I'm in the same boat as Smilgs, I am original owner of this avatar, but I hire a grinder to hunt and I disclose that publicly.
You can tell when I have the grinder active because I'll be "Freelancer", I'm only in Dark Knights -Squires when my avatar is secured to my access only.

after 13 years, I ask MA to change MORFOC hunter SERBAN by MORFOC AS SERBAN it is accepted explaining that people call me morfoc and that hunter is common

 

[Kaigas]

Still same as when I started. Been off for long periods of time but still me.

 

[Oleg]

 

[NoBion]

I am also still myself

There's been a lot of avatar deals through time. Selling just one big skill avatar would take months upon months to collect ESI at a somewhat fair MU. The amount of skills & money wasted through ESI is insane compared to just trading the avatar over fair and square. This doesent eliminate the fact that reputation is also traded, and maybe even abused

Still, i do not believe anyone would buy a avatar for thousands of $ simply to go out and ruin its reputation and with it its value if to ever sell again. I guess that alone is safety in itself. And while all trades are final, i dont doubt that multiple scams in a row would lead to a permanent ban anyway.

I am glad to see so many old names still being owned and played by their original owner, in other mmorpg's avatar selling is fairly common thing.

 

[Artrat]

I have always been me. Over 10 years now!

 

[Quell Que Star]

I will not ever sell this avatar....would be like selling a pet or favorite car....I am, and will always be the same person , as I have for the last 6 years, behind Quell Que Star...my reputation means very much to me so I will never put it in the hands of another

 

[Divinity]

I am also still myself

There's been a lot of avatar deals through time. Selling just one big skill avatar would take months upon months to collect ESI at a somewhat fair MU. The amount of skills & money wasted through ESI is insane compared to just trading the avatar over fair and square. This doesent eliminate the fact that reputation is also traded, and maybe even abused

Still, i do not believe anyone would buy a avatar for thousands of $ simply to go out and ruin its reputation and with it its value if to ever sell again. I guess that alone is safety in itself. And while all trades are final, i dont doubt that multiple scams in a row would lead to a permanent ban anyway.

I am glad to see so many old names still being owned and played by their original owner, in other mmorpg's avatar selling is fairly common thing.

+Rep. Agreed.

Also the concept of scams in EU is distinct and patterned on creating new avatars by the same person(group of persons), gaining reputation fast, and then going for the kill.
Greed and in some cases goodness falls prey to such narcissistic approach.

So if it were me, I would be more bothered about that group of individuals ( solo person) who has basically used this approach multiple times with different ava's to milk the people here.

Funny bit is people rarely discuss and most people probably do not even know the reality in terms of such incidents.


If i had to ever write a book on EU, this would be one of the most intriguing aspects which explores human nature and how someone tricks the mass's by using general principles of human emotions.

 

[Skippie]

I'm still me, after 12 years.

While we often hear about these avatars sales happening, it would be easier than trying to sell out 250+ health avatars through the esi market. I'd be gone by now if that was the case.

 

[aia]

For the masterpuppies of the alts armies

 

[das]

I'm still me, after 12 years.

While we often hear about these avatars sales happening, it would be easier than trying to sell out 250+ health avatars through the esi market. I'd be gone by now if that was the case.

You should log in, check your current HP & buy some more ESI's

 

[Dab]

My pet kangaroo and my 89-year-old grandma are still playing their original avatars.

Although Skippy has been talking about selling out lately.

 

[DannyO]

Deleted...….

 

[dean]

Still original here, Don’t play much these days though.
Joined 2005 ��

 

[UnaAlconbury]

Same old Una since the start

Integrity has always been one of the cornerstones both to us in Rangers and to me personally and I absolutely agree with you DannyO.

We actually had one incident in Rangers a few years back where it turned out one of our (fairly new) members had been sharing his avatar with another, totally unknown to us, person without telling us anything about it. As a tight-knit soc valuing personality and chemistry within the group as high as any skill, that was obviously unacceptable. We felt uneasy, cheated, in a way. Kicked him a couple hours later.

I feel kinda silly but can't help but smile inside when I see old (original) players turn up in here again (yourself DannyO, Lykke, Zippo among others just from this thread) even if we never even met or spoke before. I guess that's just how I am.

Always sucks to see a respected, reputable avatar suddenly having a new entirely different personality and I can only imagine it would be highly disturbing if you start talking memories with an old friend and it turns out it's a complete stranger. But as highlighted by several posters already, hard to prevent this from happening with how the system is currently designed.

Definitely some good ideas for a transferring system presented in this thread. If MA cares tho? Time will tell.

 

[sherpaq]

Still me, bin playing on and of for over ten years now

 

[fox moulder]

I’m still playing my original avatar, not that anyone knows who I am but I have moved from the UK to Australia for my job, I moved in 2012 and am now applying for citizenship in Australia.
I have played since 2006 maybe earlier can’t remember exactly.

 

[zbanghiuu]

I m here from 2008

I m here from 2008 and

 

[xWandererx]

Still here after All these years

 

[ladyliegh]

same

Always been the same Cat

 

[Simon Great]

Still me, still in search of the biggest mining claim since 2006 !! Actually joined because i had read an article about Leeloo finding that 150k ped copper claim (PC magazine). Been mining ever since

 

[trance]

Always the same trance, since more as 11 years 11 years of hard survive and always get from XXXXXXX

 

[billairboy]

Could they not just have a 10$ yearly fee that must be payed from a card in the of the orginal owner and if not payed the avatar is locked? The avatar could get the "fee" in peds so it would not be a real fee, just a control function.

And yes, still me playing my orginal avatar, even if I don't play much

 

[Deleted member 26456]

Too short..

 

[Granny Rowan]

Could they not just have a 10$ yearly fee that must be payed from a card in the of the orginal owner and if not payed the avatar is locked? The avatar could get the "fee" in peds so it would not be a real fee, just a control function.

And yes, still me playing my orginal avatar, even if I don't play much

Noooo...
MA have already locked friends accounts for change of bank accounts / credit cards etc as if that never happens in real life. Bloody nightmare for them to get things back to normal
They even locked an account because the card holder changed name...duh she got married. Took months for them to sort that mess out, even with ID sent including wedding certificate.

So how are they supposed to know if a change of name is a change of avatar owner or just a real life change, marriage, name change by deed poll, change of gender etc These things are probably far more common than people realise and a lot more common than a few ubers selling accounts.

Far better is legitimise account sales; the avatar skills, attributes and achievements are migrated to the new avatar name. The new bank details, e-mail address etc are attached to the new account, the friend lists etc are cleansed. For which ofc MA get to charge a fee, but at least the new owner has the security of knowing theirs is a legit account and that it cannot be taken from them at a whim by MA.
Possibly even a symbol after the name to indicate it was a bought avatar not one that worked up it's own skills, though tbh that would eventually become irrelevant as the avatar continued it's development. and in any case how a person got their skills, bought avatar, bought Skill Implants or natural skilling is ultimately not our business, so long as it is all legit.

 

[theProphet]

i'm still playing the 2nd out of the around 8 virtual myselves in this universe in my 13th year and have no clue if the other 7 even exist anymore. some of them were like the disciples i have never seen again....

anyways they were and are all still only me and myself, and it never was a problem, at least not for us, nor the receiver of our deposits...

 

[Pirx Danford]

I've published a novel using this name, so no way I would ever sell my avatar!