Grifters and con-men in IC

FortheloveofKrist

Recently listened to a guy trying to sell 70 Monstrous Tooth to a person who didn't realize players were in the Arboretum standing in a killing field of monsters and picking up Monstrous Tooth at the rate of about 70 an hour (a bug or glitch, I assume, with the mob respawn rate after the recent patch). I have seen these grifters in the IC before trying to convince noobs to buy something that is easily obtainable or worthless. I called this guy out on it in Area Chat (console) buy asking him how long it took to farm that many teeth, 3 minutes? He got upset and said I should keep my mouth shut because not everyone knows (and I was ruining his con).

I think it's a **** move, but what do you all think? Is it good, bad, sad, or what when players openly dupe new or ignorant players into giving them money for something that is currently or will soon be worth much much less. I guess it reminds me of The Big Short; people selling subprime mortgages in packages that look nice on the outside, but are soon to be worthless.

I ask because I have also seen courteous players do the opposite: insist on paying a fair price when the seller doesn't know what they are doing.

Opinions?

FortheloveofKrist

P.S. Title says conmen because every person I have seen doing this is a male. Just a fact. Haven't seen/heard a single female player do this.

tinythinker

FortheloveofKrist wrote: »

Recently listened to a guy trying to sell 70 Monstrous Tooth to a person who didn't realize players were in the Arboretum standing in a killing field of monsters and picking up Monstrous Tooth at the rate of about 70 an hour (a bug or glitch, I assume, with the mob respawn rate after the recent patch). I have seen these grifters in the IC before trying to convince noobs to buy something that is easily obtainable or worthless. I called this guy out on it in Area Chat (console) buy asking him how long it took to farm that many teeth, 3 minutes? He got upset and said I should keep my mouth shut because not everyone knows (and I was ruining his con).

I think it's a **** move, but what do you all think? Is it good, bad, sad, or what when players openly dupe new or ignorant players into giving them money for something that is currently or will soon be worth much much less. I guess it reminds me of The Big Short; people selling subprime mortgages in packages that look nice on the outside, but are soon to be worthless.

I ask because I have also seen courteous players do the opposite: insist on paying a fair price when the seller doesn't know what they are doing.

Opinions?

Always happens in MMOs. Was happening day one of PC release (not teeth in IC other items) for ESO. Never trust anyone selling in zone. If you don't know what something is worth assume someone is trying to rip you off.

Or as the Romans warned, caveat emptor.

runagate

Good on you.

vyrusb23

FortheloveofKrist wrote: »

Recently listened to a guy trying to sell 70 Monstrous Tooth to a person who didn't realize players were in the Arboretum standing in a killing field of monsters and picking up Monstrous Tooth at the rate of about 70 an hour (a bug or glitch, I assume, with the mob respawn rate after the recent patch). I have seen these grifters in the IC before trying to convince noobs to buy something that is easily obtainable or worthless. I called this guy out on it in Area Chat (console) buy asking him how long it took to farm that many teeth, 3 minutes? He got upset and said I should keep my mouth shut because not everyone knows (and I was ruining his con).

I think it's a **** move, but what do you all think? Is it good, bad, sad, or what when players openly dupe new or ignorant players into giving them money for something that is currently or will soon be worth much much less. I guess it reminds me of The Big Short; people selling subprime mortgages in packages that look nice on the outside, but are soon to be worthless.

I ask because I have also seen courteous players do the opposite: insist on paying a fair price when the seller doesn't know what they are doing.

Opinions?

It's legitimate PvP.

FortheloveofKrist

vyrusb23 wrote: »

FortheloveofKrist wrote: »

Recently listened to a guy trying to sell 70 Monstrous Tooth to a person who didn't realize players were in the Arboretum standing in a killing field of monsters and picking up Monstrous Tooth at the rate of about 70 an hour (a bug or glitch, I assume, with the mob respawn rate after the recent patch). I have seen these grifters in the IC before trying to convince noobs to buy something that is easily obtainable or worthless. I called this guy out on it in Area Chat (console) buy asking him how long it took to farm that many teeth, 3 minutes? He got upset and said I should keep my mouth shut because not everyone knows (and I was ruining his con).

I think it's a **** move, but what do you all think? Is it good, bad, sad, or what when players openly dupe new or ignorant players into giving them money for something that is currently or will soon be worth much much less. I guess it reminds me of The Big Short; people selling subprime mortgages in packages that look nice on the outside, but are soon to be worthless.

I ask because I have also seen courteous players do the opposite: insist on paying a fair price when the seller doesn't know what they are doing.

Opinions?

It's legitimate PvP.

Against your own faction? Wow. Didn't realize EVERYONE was the enemy.

anitajoneb17_ESO

It's not *money*... it's ingame gold....

And yes it's not fair but people should be responsible for their own purchases. It's not hard to know the prices, really. I'm not "excusing" extortion but underlining that avoiding it is easy.

Besides, how can you know if a player is male or female ?

And last but not least, I've been playing in the ARboretum myself A LOT lately and never made anywhere close to 70 teeth / hour, and haven't seen any mob glitches or anything thelike.

vyrusb23

FortheloveofKrist wrote: »

vyrusb23 wrote: »

FortheloveofKrist wrote: »

Recently listened to a guy trying to sell 70 Monstrous Tooth to a person who didn't realize players were in the Arboretum standing in a killing field of monsters and picking up Monstrous Tooth at the rate of about 70 an hour (a bug or glitch, I assume, with the mob respawn rate after the recent patch). I have seen these grifters in the IC before trying to convince noobs to buy something that is easily obtainable or worthless. I called this guy out on it in Area Chat (console) buy asking him how long it took to farm that many teeth, 3 minutes? He got upset and said I should keep my mouth shut because not everyone knows (and I was ruining his con).

I think it's a **** move, but what do you all think? Is it good, bad, sad, or what when players openly dupe new or ignorant players into giving them money for something that is currently or will soon be worth much much less. I guess it reminds me of The Big Short; people selling subprime mortgages in packages that look nice on the outside, but are soon to be worthless.

I ask because I have also seen courteous players do the opposite: insist on paying a fair price when the seller doesn't know what they are doing.

Opinions?

It's legitimate PvP.

Against your own faction? Wow. Didn't realize EVERYONE was the enemy.

PVP = player vs player

Xjcon

These sort of things happen in MMO'S unfortunately. I remember in games like Diablo 2 people tried tons of ways to scam players out of items.

What you did by calling them out in zone chat IMO is the best solution.

Uriel_Nocturne

tinythinker wrote: »

FortheloveofKrist wrote: »

Recently listened to a guy trying to sell 70 Monstrous Tooth to a person who didn't realize players were in the Arboretum standing in a killing field of monsters and picking up Monstrous Tooth at the rate of about 70 an hour (a bug or glitch, I assume, with the mob respawn rate after the recent patch). I have seen these grifters in the IC before trying to convince noobs to buy something that is easily obtainable or worthless. I called this guy out on it in Area Chat (console) buy asking him how long it took to farm that many teeth, 3 minutes? He got upset and said I should keep my mouth shut because not everyone knows (and I was ruining his con).

I think it's a **** move, but what do you all think? Is it good, bad, sad, or what when players openly dupe new or ignorant players into giving them money for something that is currently or will soon be worth much much less. I guess it reminds me of The Big Short; people selling subprime mortgages in packages that look nice on the outside, but are soon to be worthless.

I ask because I have also seen courteous players do the opposite: insist on paying a fair price when the seller doesn't know what they are doing.

Opinions?

Always happens in MMOs. Was happening day one of PC release (not teeth in IC other items) for ESO. Never trust anyone selling in zone. If you don't know what something is worth assume someone is trying to rip you off.

Or as the Romans warned, caveat emptor.

This.

It is, sadly, what happens in most every MMO. It's in the very nature of having so many people in the same instanced world. But what you did to call out said scam artist is the only real solution, OP.

Just call out their deal as the scam that it is, and let nature take its course.

Solariken

Yeah, it's pretty dirty. I wish MMO's had some sort of player reputation mechanic, where you could add assign a +1 or -1 to another player's reputation and each person could only have one of these "votes" active against each player they use it on.

A player carrying a positive number would indicate they have integrity and are worthy of people's trust, while carrying a negative number would weed out the conmen from the market pretty quick. I guess they could buy positive votes from people, but I don't think that would be a worthwhile investment considering that their time would be better spent farming gold in more honest ways.

I've never been scammed on PC, but I've been scammed lots of times on Xbox NA. It was REALLY bad for a while at console launch.

tinythinker

Solariken wrote: »

Yeah, it's pretty dirty. I wish MMO's had some sort of player reputation mechanic, where you could add assign a +1 or -1 to another player's reputation and each person could only have one of these "votes" active against each player they use it on.

Sadly, some guilds and groups of friends would use it vindictively or to try to harm their competition.

failkiwib16_ESO

If there is a glitch to provoke daedroths and ogrims to spawn fast for monstrous tooth, I hope it gets fixed soon.


I still remember how the raw leather farming in Obsidian Scar crashed the market, and forced Dreugh Wax prices to go down from 7k to 2.5k

sirrmattus

FortheloveofKrist wrote: »

Recently listened to a guy trying to sell 70 Monstrous Tooth to a person who didn't realize players were in the Arboretum standing in a killing field of monsters and picking up Monstrous Tooth at the rate of about 70 an hour (a bug or glitch, I assume, with the mob respawn rate after the recent patch). I have seen these grifters in the IC before trying to convince noobs to buy something that is easily obtainable or worthless. I called this guy out on it in Area Chat (console) buy asking him how long it took to farm that many teeth, 3 minutes? He got upset and said I should keep my mouth shut because not everyone knows (and I was ruining his con).

I think it's a **** move, but what do you all think? Is it good, bad, sad, or what when players openly dupe new or ignorant players into giving them money for something that is currently or will soon be worth much much less. I guess it reminds me of The Big Short; people selling subprime mortgages in packages that look nice on the outside, but are soon to be worthless.

I ask because I have also seen courteous players do the opposite: insist on paying a fair price when the seller doesn't know what they are doing.

Opinions?

WELL.. i think you mean selling 60, because thats how many you need to open a chest. when you do, you get a chance at an amazing Agility jewelry set.. so dont be mad bro

Uriel_Nocturne

Solariken wrote: »

I've never been scammed on PC, but I've been scammed lots of times on Xbox NA. It was REALLY bad for a while at console launch.

Yep, it was pretty brutal on Consoles right after launch.

I was one of those guys that ruined the market though.

I ground out some days off, and got to Riften and received Vampirism the "natural" way, before those D-bags started camping the Vamp spawns so that they could sell bites for a higher price.

Once I hit Vamp 6, I would go to the Vamp Shrine, listen to people haggle and beg for a bite for a bit, then I'd just give one out for free.

There were some bite scammers who were fighting mad at me... lmao

Good times.

FortheloveofKrist

anitajoneb17_ESO wrote: »

It's not *money*... it's ingame gold....

And yes it's not fair but people should be responsible for their own purchases. It's not hard to know the prices, really. I'm not "excusing" extortion but underlining that avoiding it is easy.

Besides, how can you know if a player is male or female ?

And last but not least, I've been playing in the ARboretum myself A LOT lately and never made anywhere close to 70 teeth / hour, and haven't seen any mob glitches or anything thelike.

Console voice chat. It was either a male...or a 60 year old woman with a smoking habit and a pituitary disorder.

Katahdin

Ive done this a lot with people selling overpriced items in map chat. PC master race with addons like MM. People don't like it but I don't care. I'll call out the overpriced every time. Others appreciate it.

Frawr

It's not a con. It's a high price. It is only a con if the buyer doesnt end up with some monter teeth. Some buy, some don't.

We don't need to protect precious little princesses. They need to stand up on their own feet.

This is life lessons and business.

Then again there will always be anti-profit lefties in life and in video games. The capitalists will continue to work around them.

redspecter23

People hate it when you call them out on their BS buying/selling scams. I remember back when people would spam first zone chat with "WTB ore, 10g each" or "WTB Kuta, 1k" when those items were both worth more than that by a large margin. At some point someone in zone would either top their price or "warn" the noobs in zone to sell elsewhere. Then the rage would begin. Some people will do anything for a bit of pixel gold I suppose. Zone chat once had a very heated discussion with one fellow who refused to pay more than 12g for each Namira's Rot because that's what HE valued it at. Sigh.

FortheloveofKrist

Frawr wrote: »

It's not a con. It's a high price. It is only a con if the buyer doesnt end up with some monter teeth. Some buy, some don't.

We don't need to protect precious little princesses. They need to stand up on their own feet.

This is life lessons and business.

Then again there will always be anti-profit lefties in life and in video games. The capitalists will continue to work around them.

Yeah, you can do it. Sure. Doesn't mean it's not a *** move. Better to play with people who are courteous. But you can keep defending people who act like a-holes. Not sure why, but do your thing.

Sheezabeast

I'm glad you called them out. That guy could have ducked down to the base and listed them for sale at a guild trader.

I feel similar about people overcharging for WW and Vamp bites. They spawn for free at times and people rarely go slaughter them like they did after launch

DRXHarbinger

Lol I had some gimp try and get me to buy a VD ring for 80k! !!!! Looooool.

Teridaxus

People also try to scam newbies in the starter zone with far overpriced items like asking 1k gold for a blue motif when they are just 100.

failkiwib16_ESO

@mzapkeneb18_ESO sometimes it is newbies who try to scam others.

When I was v12, I had a level 17 player try to scam me for 20g of the sale of 200 Moonstone, that I agreed to sell him for 200g total.

Back then style stones were worth a bit more than they are today, and I saw the guy trying to buy and resell items through zonechat, so I thought it's cute and since I struggled at inventory space ... I decided to sell him 200 Moonstones for 200g.

I pressed R when i saw him put 200g in the trade, but I lagged and he managed to switch the number to 180g. I told him he owed me 20g, and he apologized and said he would not try to steal from people again ....and traded 20g with me.

---

I did not report the guy, because ...well he seemed pretty embarrased by getting cought, and back then ESO allowed minors to play. By his spelling and behavior I just assumed he was a child trying to do something naughty

rfennell_ESO

Caveat Emptor always applies.