About Tamriel Crown Exchange

Thicclady

Apparantly ZoS approves Tamriel Crown Exchange Discord server, where crowns are being sold openly so that owners of the Discord (trading guild GM:s and lot of other staff) gets a big cut.

Lets say thats all fine, but how is it tolerated that they keep black list of people who are trying to sell crowns outside their "safe platform" even if they not scammers? These people are also automatically banned from server if selling outside their very profitable system (they have army of people reporting those people who are actually selling completely legitly crowns).

So basically they are trying to do monopoly of selling crowns in ESO, I do not understand how this can be approved by ZoS.

Crowns are real world money also and infact the insane amounts of gold moving here is possible to monetize also in real life. That may or may not happen, but in any case they are the richest people in game gold wise and irony is that staff there is actually buying themselves crown items from gold they get from taxing the sales of crown items. Basically they invented perpetual gold machine.For themselves that is.

It is against ToS to take money from addon development for example, but apparantly it is not from taxing crown selling?

http://i63.tinypic.com/2mdgok3.jpg

Minyassa

That screenshot refers to people who try to sell claiming to be a part of TCE that are not. TCE cannot guarantee the safety of buyers with people who are not members of TCE. They are in no way even close to forming a monopoly, they're not the only guild that sells crowns and they have nothing to do with saying anything about anyone who sells crowns independently. They only care if someone claims to be from TCE.

Nothing is stopping anyone who has the real life money to spend on crowns from joining TCE and selling them. There is no "themselves", they are open about sellers joining. They just have standards to adhere to because they are guaranteeing the safety of buyers, and they have incentive to do so--they reimburse anyone that gets scammed by someone they trusted to be a seller, so it's in their best interest to have their sellers be completely safe.

This is not some sort of sinister cabal. They're just people who have a service to offer that have found a way to do it that minimizes risk to people who want to use that service. There's nothing reprehensible about wanting to make gold. It's actually laudable for them to do it in a way that does not scam or harm anyone.

EvilAutoTech

Minyassa wrote: »

That screenshot refers to people who try to sell claiming to be a part of TCE that are not. TCE cannot guarantee the safety of buyers with people who are not members of TCE. They are in no way even close to forming a monopoly, they're not the only guild that sells crowns and they have nothing to do with saying anything about anyone who sells crowns independently. They only care if someone claims to be from TCE.

Nothing is stopping anyone who has the real life money to spend on crowns from joining TCE and selling them. There is no "themselves", they are open about sellers joining. They just have standards to adhere to because they are guaranteeing the safety of buyers, and they have incentive to do so--they reimburse anyone that gets scammed by someone they trusted to be a seller, so it's in their best interest to have their sellers be completely safe.

This is not some sort of sinister cabal. They're just people who have a service to offer that have found a way to do it that minimizes risk to people who want to use that service. There's nothing reprehensible about wanting to make gold. It's actually laudable for them to do it in a way that does not scam or harm anyone.

Is it laudable or is it probable?

bearbelly

EvilAutoTech wrote: »

Minyassa wrote: »

That screenshot refers to people who try to sell claiming to be a part of TCE that are not. TCE cannot guarantee the safety of buyers with people who are not members of TCE. They are in no way even close to forming a monopoly, they're not the only guild that sells crowns and they have nothing to do with saying anything about anyone who sells crowns independently. They only care if someone claims to be from TCE.

Nothing is stopping anyone who has the real life money to spend on crowns from joining TCE and selling them. There is no "themselves", they are open about sellers joining. They just have standards to adhere to because they are guaranteeing the safety of buyers, and they have incentive to do so--they reimburse anyone that gets scammed by someone they trusted to be a seller, so it's in their best interest to have their sellers be completely safe.

This is not some sort of sinister cabal. They're just people who have a service to offer that have found a way to do it that minimizes risk to people who want to use that service. There's nothing reprehensible about wanting to make gold. It's actually laudable for them to do it in a way that does not scam or harm anyone.

Is it laudable or is it probable?

Probable? That doesn't even make sense. Because I am definitely going to get drunk...

Wait, what? What were we talking about?
I may have been spending too much time in the Windhelm marketplace...

socivL

as our favorite world traveling merchant would say
"shut - it - down"

heaven13

That screenshot is warning people said person is not a seller from TCE and as such, trading with them is at the buyer's own risk. TCE is not prohibiting purchase from them nor blacklisting. I've only seen blacklisting of people who have actually scammed.

Linaleah

I'm not a buyer via TCE but rather another exchange (world crown exchange) and the way its set up in that particular exchange is that you can either use a broker, or you can do direct transaction. if transactions you perform go through without issues, you go on approved list. if transaction doesn't complete as it should - you go on blacklist, well person who didn't hold up their end of the bargain anyways.

broker fees are used as a fund to compensate gold to a player that was scammed, so that they still have their transaction complete. (IF you use a broker. there are no extra fees if you do a direct trade, but you are also not guaranteed compensation if trade goes wrong)

from everything I hear about TCE - main difference between the discord I'm in and this one is that TCE keeps one steady price, while in discord that I'm in, prices can vary so sometimes its possible to find a particularly nice deal.

I have yet to experience any issues.

as far as I know whatever fees brokers take - are in gold, not crowns also.

Thicclady

Linaleah wrote: »

I'm not a buyer via TCE but rather another exchange (world crown exchange) and the way its set up in that particular exchange is that you can either use a broker, or you can do direct transaction. if transactions you perform go through without issues, you go on approved list. if transaction doesn't complete as it should - you go on blacklist, well person who didn't hold up their end of the bargain anyways.

broker fees are used as a fund to compensate gold to a player that was scammed, so that they still have their transaction complete. (IF you use a broker. there are no extra fees if you do a direct trade, but you are also not guaranteed compensation if trade goes wrong)

from everything I hear about TCE - main difference between the discord I'm in and this one is that TCE keeps one steady price, while in discord that I'm in, prices can vary so sometimes its possible to find a particularly nice deal.

I have yet to experience any issues.

as far as I know whatever fees brokers take - are in gold, not crowns also.

Of course fees are in gold, but try to understand that gold=crowns=real life money.

>broker fees are used as a fund to compensate gold to a player that was scammed, so that they still have their transaction complete.

No, they are to make the runners of this scheme rich.

There are many gold selling websites, where you can sell gold for in real money too. Not pointing fingers. Just saying.

Linaleah

Thicclady wrote: »

Linaleah wrote: »

I'm not a buyer via TCE but rather another exchange (world crown exchange) and the way its set up in that particular exchange is that you can either use a broker, or you can do direct transaction. if transactions you perform go through without issues, you go on approved list. if transaction doesn't complete as it should - you go on blacklist, well person who didn't hold up their end of the bargain anyways.

broker fees are used as a fund to compensate gold to a player that was scammed, so that they still have their transaction complete. (IF you use a broker. there are no extra fees if you do a direct trade, but you are also not guaranteed compensation if trade goes wrong)

from everything I hear about TCE - main difference between the discord I'm in and this one is that TCE keeps one steady price, while in discord that I'm in, prices can vary so sometimes its possible to find a particularly nice deal.

I have yet to experience any issues.

as far as I know whatever fees brokers take - are in gold, not crowns also.

Of course fees are in gold, but try to understand that gold=crowns=real life money.

>broker fees are used as a fund to compensate gold to a player that was scammed, so that they still have their transaction complete.

No, they are to make the runners of this scheme rich.

There are many gold selling websites, where you can sell gold for in real money too. Not pointing fingers. Just saying.

it... doesn't work in reverse.

and that is one heck of an accusation to make.

to reiterate. what you just accused them of is collecting gold, turning around and running a gold selling website on a side where they charge people money to sell them gold bypassing crowns all together. THIS is what you are accusing them off with your "not pointing fingers" little deal. are you SURE you want to go there?

Thicclady

Linaleah wrote: »

Thicclady wrote: »

Linaleah wrote: »

I'm not a buyer via TCE but rather another exchange (world crown exchange) and the way its set up in that particular exchange is that you can either use a broker, or you can do direct transaction. if transactions you perform go through without issues, you go on approved list. if transaction doesn't complete as it should - you go on blacklist, well person who didn't hold up their end of the bargain anyways.

broker fees are used as a fund to compensate gold to a player that was scammed, so that they still have their transaction complete. (IF you use a broker. there are no extra fees if you do a direct trade, but you are also not guaranteed compensation if trade goes wrong)

from everything I hear about TCE - main difference between the discord I'm in and this one is that TCE keeps one steady price, while in discord that I'm in, prices can vary so sometimes its possible to find a particularly nice deal.

I have yet to experience any issues.

as far as I know whatever fees brokers take - are in gold, not crowns also.

Of course fees are in gold, but try to understand that gold=crowns=real life money.

>broker fees are used as a fund to compensate gold to a player that was scammed, so that they still have their transaction complete.

No, they are to make the runners of this scheme rich.

There are many gold selling websites, where you can sell gold for in real money too. Not pointing fingers. Just saying.

it... doesn't work in reverse.

and that is one heck of an accusation to make.

to reiterate. what you just accused them of is collecting gold, turning around and running a gold selling website on a side where they charge people money to sell them gold bypassing crowns all together. THIS is what you are accusing them off with your "not pointing fingers" little deal. are you SURE you want to go there?

What do you mean? Of course it works in reverse.

>crowns are sourced with real life money
>someone sells crowns for gold in TCE
>percentage is taken from that gold, as gold
>buy crowns from someone with that percentage
>profit

I did not accuse anyone, you should really read more carefully. I just told what is out there.

redspecter23

As someone that buys crown gifts from TCE from time to time, I'm happy for the service they provide. I'm very happy they keep a list of sellers to watch out for. My understanding is that all my gold goes to the seller and the broker. TCE management doesn't get a cut I'm aware of unless they are selling or brokering. They provide a service and I'm happy with what I get out of it. The people running that discord as well as the gift sellers put a lot of time and work into it and I'm quite glad that the service exists. In a perfect world, ZOS would automate the process and make TCE essentially pointless but until that time comes, it's a good thing we have people working to make these transactions as safe as possible. If that includes a list of questionable sellers, all the better.

Thicclady

redspecter23 wrote: »

As someone that buys crown gifts from TCE from time to time, I'm happy for the service they provide. I'm very happy they keep a list of sellers to watch out for. My understanding is that all my gold goes to the seller and the broker. TCE management doesn't get a cut I'm aware of unless they are selling or brokering. They provide a service and I'm happy with what I get out of it. The people running that discord as well as the gift sellers put a lot of time and work into it and I'm quite glad that the service exists. In a perfect world, ZOS would automate the process and make TCE essentially pointless but until that time comes, it's a good thing we have people working to make these transactions as safe as possible. If that includes a list of questionable sellers, all the better.

Yes, it is good for buyers and their staff, no doubt. That was not my point.

Latios

Hm? I’ve used TCE and other servers and I’m not in their blacklist or anything.

It’s optional, you know. If you don’t agree with their way, just don’t buy from them. When their rate was high, that’s exactly what I did, opting for other sellers, and I had no problems.

What’s with this big need for regulation or shaming everything? You are not forced to abide by their rules.

starkerealm

Thicclady wrote: »

Linaleah wrote: »

Thicclady wrote: »

Linaleah wrote: »

I'm not a buyer via TCE but rather another exchange (world crown exchange) and the way its set up in that particular exchange is that you can either use a broker, or you can do direct transaction. if transactions you perform go through without issues, you go on approved list. if transaction doesn't complete as it should - you go on blacklist, well person who didn't hold up their end of the bargain anyways.

broker fees are used as a fund to compensate gold to a player that was scammed, so that they still have their transaction complete. (IF you use a broker. there are no extra fees if you do a direct trade, but you are also not guaranteed compensation if trade goes wrong)

from everything I hear about TCE - main difference between the discord I'm in and this one is that TCE keeps one steady price, while in discord that I'm in, prices can vary so sometimes its possible to find a particularly nice deal.

I have yet to experience any issues.

as far as I know whatever fees brokers take - are in gold, not crowns also.

Of course fees are in gold, but try to understand that gold=crowns=real life money.

>broker fees are used as a fund to compensate gold to a player that was scammed, so that they still have their transaction complete.

No, they are to make the runners of this scheme rich.

There are many gold selling websites, where you can sell gold for in real money too. Not pointing fingers. Just saying.

it... doesn't work in reverse.

and that is one heck of an accusation to make.

to reiterate. what you just accused them of is collecting gold, turning around and running a gold selling website on a side where they charge people money to sell them gold bypassing crowns all together. THIS is what you are accusing them off with your "not pointing fingers" little deal. are you SURE you want to go there?

What do you mean? Of course it works in reverse.

>crowns are sourced with real life money
>someone sells crowns for gold in TCE
>percentage is taken from that gold, as gold
>buy crowns from someone with that percentage
>profit

I did not accuse anyone, you should really read more carefully. I just told what is out there.

Except, not really. Because you're still getting crowns, not cash.

The system is (Gold <-> Crowns <-- Cash). There is no mechanism to extract cash from the system, so no one's actually getting rich.

redspecter23

Thicclady wrote: »

redspecter23 wrote: »

As someone that buys crown gifts from TCE from time to time, I'm happy for the service they provide. I'm very happy they keep a list of sellers to watch out for. My understanding is that all my gold goes to the seller and the broker. TCE management doesn't get a cut I'm aware of unless they are selling or brokering. They provide a service and I'm happy with what I get out of it. The people running that discord as well as the gift sellers put a lot of time and work into it and I'm quite glad that the service exists. In a perfect world, ZOS would automate the process and make TCE essentially pointless but until that time comes, it's a good thing we have people working to make these transactions as safe as possible. If that includes a list of questionable sellers, all the better.

Yes, it is good for buyers and their staff, no doubt. That was not my point.

If your main issue was that you're suggesting that they take real world money as taxes, then I think you need to provide some evidence. There is a trail of gold potentially, which is legitimate. Gold can be exchanged for gifts of course, but could always also be exchanged for services. The gold given to brokers is no different than a player charging gold for a run through an xp grind like skyreach. Some people may frown upon it, but it's not against the TOS in any way. If I'm missing the point still, please let me know what the issue is.

What any player does with their gold after that is up to them. If someone uses their gold in ways not authorized by the TOS at any point, that would be where the issue lies. Nothing done by TCE is in any violation that I can see.

Linaleah

Thicclady wrote: »

Linaleah wrote: »

Thicclady wrote: »

Linaleah wrote: »

I'm not a buyer via TCE but rather another exchange (world crown exchange) and the way its set up in that particular exchange is that you can either use a broker, or you can do direct transaction. if transactions you perform go through without issues, you go on approved list. if transaction doesn't complete as it should - you go on blacklist, well person who didn't hold up their end of the bargain anyways.

broker fees are used as a fund to compensate gold to a player that was scammed, so that they still have their transaction complete. (IF you use a broker. there are no extra fees if you do a direct trade, but you are also not guaranteed compensation if trade goes wrong)

from everything I hear about TCE - main difference between the discord I'm in and this one is that TCE keeps one steady price, while in discord that I'm in, prices can vary so sometimes its possible to find a particularly nice deal.

I have yet to experience any issues.

as far as I know whatever fees brokers take - are in gold, not crowns also.

Of course fees are in gold, but try to understand that gold=crowns=real life money.

>broker fees are used as a fund to compensate gold to a player that was scammed, so that they still have their transaction complete.

No, they are to make the runners of this scheme rich.

There are many gold selling websites, where you can sell gold for in real money too. Not pointing fingers. Just saying.

it... doesn't work in reverse.

and that is one heck of an accusation to make.

to reiterate. what you just accused them of is collecting gold, turning around and running a gold selling website on a side where they charge people money to sell them gold bypassing crowns all together. THIS is what you are accusing them off with your "not pointing fingers" little deal. are you SURE you want to go there?

What do you mean? Of course it works in reverse.

>crowns are sourced with real life money
>someone sells crowns for gold in TCE
>percentage is taken from that gold, as gold
>buy crowns from someone with that percentage
>profit

I did not accuse anyone, you should really read more carefully. I just told what is out there.

again I'm not following in what way are they profiting exactly. and why are you so very convinced that broker fees are not used exactly as described? again - hell of an accusation to make

TheThird

(they have army of people reporting those people who are actually selling completely legitly crowns).

Our blacklists in TCE EU/NA exist solely to protect the player community, and we only ban people that have been proven (with screenshots, and often video) to have defrauded players in the game. Nor do those who choose to sell only in-game have any issues with us. In fact, the only ones who have complained about our blacklists, have been those blacklisted (not to point fingers or anything).

Crowns are real world money also and infact the insane amounts of gold moving here is possible to monetize also in real life. That may or may not happen, but in any case they are the richest people in game gold wise and irony is that staff there is actually buying themselves crown items from gold they get from taxing the sales of crown items.

ZOS has clearly ruled that crowns are *not* real world money, else the exchanging of them for gold would be against their Terms of Service. Crowns are virtual currency without monetary worth, since they can't be changed back to real world money.

While they don't officially support crown<->gold exchanging, they don't condemn it either, because it frankly works well generally in-game, and extremely well when done via TCE. Without TCE, there'd certainly be more fraud, more uncertainty, and heavily fluctuating prices prone to manipulation, so our existence may have even staved off the premature end of crown gifting.

And yes, we who started the EU discord may be among the wealthier in ESO.. But we reached that wealth long before crown gifting existed, through trading, farming and crafting in-game. Plus, frankly, accumulating gold loses meaning after a while. So, no, we don't get gold raining over us from TCE, nor do we need it or desire it.

As for management and staff "profiting" at all, first of all this is like a trading guild in some aspects, albeit with less fees for sellers. Just as a trade guild requires time put in, so does something like TCE and a lot more time too. The amount of hours spent by staff on things is insane, and if you'd somehow manage to calculate a real money worth for the gold a broker or staff member gets for their many hours of *work* they put in.. you'd very likely find out they were giving that time away for peanuts, as in working for a starvation wage in a third-world country. TCE staff do put in the effort because of a lot of reasons, surely, but not real world monetary gain.

TCE EU/NA have slightly different rules, but overall the brokers are the ones that profit the most, i.e the people that actually put in most time of their day to monitor for new orders, talk with buyers, and spend the time required to group for safe exchanging of gold against crowns, but there is assuredly also a lot of work for the other staff & management. Everyone gets a fair share of the relatively small fee we charge our sellers, based largely on the work put in.. and yes, some of the brokers have made a lot of gold. But they'd be making as much gold farming some mundane resources & trading in ESO, because they've made a lot of gold in exchange for putting in a lot of time.

With the popularity of TCE (EU nearing 6k members and NA 5k), and hundreds of orders per week (sometimes in a day, during DLC releases etc), the amount of administration required to track all sales, who brokered what, do proper accounting, manage seller/plus club ranks, interviewing/recruiting/administration of the seller pool, etc.. it all adds up to a staggering amount of real actual time spent, which is arguably the most valuable commodity a person can offer.

Just as a tradeguild takes a lot of work to get both successful and have a friendly environment, so does our exchange. :-)

A nuanced discussion of the meaning of virtual gold, time spent, ZOS' terms of services contents, crown value and more, wouldn't be unwelcome, and I'm sure many would find it interesting to follow, but perhaps next time start a thread without the slander & lies? If you can make some good points without slinging verbal feces, and resorting to falsehoods, perhaps you'd even succeed at achieving whatever hidden agenda you clearly have.

If you're interested in talking with any of us, we're actual human beings y'know, and we're often available for a public chat in our discord channels. :-) With that said, Happy New Year to you.

Yolokin_Swagonborn

All I have to say is that this Crowns to Gold BS is getting out of pocket. When independent power brokers start forming outside of the game's communication systems, you know that people are making real world money of this thing and its no longer part of the game.

These people are no longer playing a fantasy MMO. Its a commodities market. Commodities markets will do what they have always done. Pursue monopoly. Its real world money. Of course no one will admit that any real world money is being gained, people with gold are just getting in game shinys from the crown store right? Right? Gold selling for real world money has been a thing certain trade guilds have been engaging in since day 1. Some have even bragged about it openly on the forums. I guess ZOS was smart to decriminalize it and make it so their palms are greased in the process, but it's something that isn't good for the overall health of the game. Maybe im wrong, maybe this is a necessary evil. but we will see how it pans out.

I have no knowledge about the veracity of the particular claim in this particular thread but I'm not surprised it has surfaced. I doubt this will be the last accusation of shady dealings.

Salvas_Aren

Somebody else surprised that a soul shriven comes up with that topic rather than a familiar star user?

What_In_Tarnation

The only problem about TCE to me is they're trying so hard to push their own exchange rate to others.
And we all know these hassles can be solved by ZOS. Current gifting system is just purely ***.

Thicclady

starkerealm wrote: »

Thicclady wrote: »

Linaleah wrote: »

Thicclady wrote: »

Linaleah wrote: »

I'm not a buyer via TCE but rather another exchange (world crown exchange) and the way its set up in that particular exchange is that you can either use a broker, or you can do direct transaction. if transactions you perform go through without issues, you go on approved list. if transaction doesn't complete as it should - you go on blacklist, well person who didn't hold up their end of the bargain anyways.

broker fees are used as a fund to compensate gold to a player that was scammed, so that they still have their transaction complete. (IF you use a broker. there are no extra fees if you do a direct trade, but you are also not guaranteed compensation if trade goes wrong)

from everything I hear about TCE - main difference between the discord I'm in and this one is that TCE keeps one steady price, while in discord that I'm in, prices can vary so sometimes its possible to find a particularly nice deal.

I have yet to experience any issues.

as far as I know whatever fees brokers take - are in gold, not crowns also.

Of course fees are in gold, but try to understand that gold=crowns=real life money.

>broker fees are used as a fund to compensate gold to a player that was scammed, so that they still have their transaction complete.

No, they are to make the runners of this scheme rich.

There are many gold selling websites, where you can sell gold for in real money too. Not pointing fingers. Just saying.

it... doesn't work in reverse.

and that is one heck of an accusation to make.

to reiterate. what you just accused them of is collecting gold, turning around and running a gold selling website on a side where they charge people money to sell them gold bypassing crowns all together. THIS is what you are accusing them off with your "not pointing fingers" little deal. are you SURE you want to go there?

What do you mean? Of course it works in reverse.

>crowns are sourced with real life money
>someone sells crowns for gold in TCE
>percentage is taken from that gold, as gold
>buy crowns from someone with that percentage
>profit

I did not accuse anyone, you should really read more carefully. I just told what is out there.

Except, not really. Because you're still getting crowns, not cash.

The system is (Gold <-> Crowns <-- Cash). There is no mechanism to extract cash from the system, so no one's actually getting rich.

Yes there is. Selling gold in numerous websites that does it. Not accusing anyone. Also rich can mean rich in game also.

richo262

ZOS should just add a crownstore function in the trade window between players.

If they endorse it or have no issue with it (or at the least do not condemn it) they should probably facilitate a safe transfer from within the game itself.

Edit: How it would work is Player A (crowns) and Player B (gold) open a trade window.

Player B says what they want, and A and B agree to a price.
A goes into the crown window and, at this stage does not purchase, but 'pledges to purchase' an item.
Player A puts it in the trade window (it is still not purchased yet)
Player B puts their gold in the trade window.

When A and B accept the trade, A automatically purchases the crown item and sends to B and B sends gold to A all at the same time.

Thicclady

TheThird wrote: »

because they've made a lot of gold in exchange for putting in a lot of time.

Using that same logic, so is the people who spent time making the money they get crowns with. So you trying to have monopoly using peoples real life money to get free gold/stuff. -> I sell 10 000 crowns -> you get cut (gold which can be changed to 1000crowns worth 5 Euros with 5 minutes of work)

In any case that is all fine I have not complained about that. My point is that blacklisting normal people that don't wanna participate in YOUR Discord are tryed to be shut down and rumors circulated of them. It is a becoming a small circle of richest people in ESO who effectively control the economy easily, because market size is not huge enough to prevent that.

>Just as a tradeguild takes a lot of work to get both successful and have a friendly environment, so does our exchange. :-)
As I said many times, you can't compare selling in-game collectible items with crown business. Yes everyone is real friendly as long as they making gold. :-)

>If you're interested in talking with any of us, we're actual human beings y'know, and we're often available for a public chat in our discord channels. :-) With that said, Happy New Year to you.

I don't have anything to talk with you personally, I know how this works. Also if I would Im sure my name would be listed at least in private to persona-non-grata.

Happy New Year to all too!

PS: Sorry I am not familiar with forums quote systems so might be hard to read

THE_BIG_BOSS

This stupid crown Exchange Thing is destroying the game.

Greedy zos again

TheThird

Yolokin_Swagonborn wrote: »

All I have to say is that this Crowns to Gold BS is getting out of pocket. When independent power brokers start forming outside of the game's communication systems, you know that people are making real world money of this thing and its no longer part of the game.

These people are no longer playing a fantasy MMO. Its a commodities market. Commodities markets will do what they have always done. Pursue monopoly. Its real world money. Of course no one will admit that any real world money is being gained, people with gold are just getting in game shinys from the crown store right? Right? Gold selling for real world money has been a thing certain trade guilds have been engaging in since day 1. Some have even bragged about it openly on the forums. I guess ZOS was smart to decriminalize it and make it so their palms are greased in the process, but it's something that isn't good for the overall health of the game. Maybe im wrong, maybe this is a necessary evil. but we will see how it pans out.

I have no knowledge about the veracity of the particular claim in this particular thread but I'm not surprised it has surfaced. I doubt this will be the last accusation of shady dealings.

Just because someone *can* be a criminal, doesn't mean they automatically go that route when the option exists. That kind of argument has no basis in reason or logic. To insinuate that the some 50+ people involved in TCE EU/NA are involved in some kind of criminal conspiracy to get rich off real world money is the most laughable thing I've read in a long time.

TheThird

What_In_Tarnation wrote: »

The only problem about TCE to me is they're trying so hard to push their own exchange rate to others.
And we all know these hassles can be solved by ZOS. Current gifting system is just purely ***.

We are grateful and receptive for any kind of constructive criticisms, since TCE exists for the community, and not the other way around. In no way do we want to, or actively try, to "push" our exchange rate anywhere, rest assured. I've never heard or seen of anything even remotely that, so I'd be very interested in seeing or hearing about examples. Feel free to send me a direct message :-)

As for the gifting system being upgraded by ZOS, I am certain they are working on improvements continously.

dogman

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAAlDoAtV7Y

Tandor

richo262 wrote: »

ZOS should just add a crownstore function in the trade window between players.

If they endorse it or have no issue with it (or at the least do not condemn it) they should probably facilitate a safe transfer from within the game itself.

Edit: How it would work is Player A (crowns) and Player B (gold) open a trade window.

Player B says what they want, and A and B agree to a price.
A goes into the crown window and, at this stage does not purchase, but 'pledges to purchase' an item.
Player A puts it in the trade window (it is still not purchased yet)
Player B puts their gold in the trade window.

When A and B accept the trade, A automatically purchases the crown item and sends to B and B sends gold to A all at the same time.

Fine in theory, but open to exactly the same kind of scam that already exists with player to player trading, as with trading by mail. Both have their victims posting here from time to time.

Personally I've never seen any point in these sorts of currency etc trades but each to his own, I guess.

richo262

Everything with human involvement is open to human error.

If it is all in the window, and both parties can see the trade in advance and it all happens in one swing, the only 'scam' would be because one person did not audit the trade before confirming. Human error is not a scam.

themaddaedra

Yolokin_Swagonborn wrote: »

All I have to say is that this Crowns to Gold BS is getting out of pocket. When independent power brokers start forming outside of the game's communication systems, you know that people are making real world money of this thing and its no longer part of the game.

These people are no longer playing a fantasy MMO. Its a commodities market. Commodities markets will do what they have always done. Pursue monopoly. Its real world money. Of course no one will admit that any real world money is being gained, people with gold are just getting in game shinys from the crown store right? Right? Gold selling for real world money has been a thing certain trade guilds have been engaging in since day 1. Some have even bragged about it openly on the forums. I guess ZOS was smart to decriminalize it and make it so their palms are greased in the process, but it's something that isn't good for the overall health of the game. Maybe im wrong, maybe this is a necessary evil. but we will see how it pans out.

I have no knowledge about the veracity of the particular claim in this particular thread but I'm not surprised it has surfaced. I doubt this will be the last accusation of shady dealings.

Big agree to this. The system is shady af and it's no good for the game. There are people who sell 20k+ crowns a month, i can't find any reason to do that if it's not for selling them golds back.

It's funny when people ask for proof, since if i had proof i'd just report it to ZoS. It's good to discuss these things in forums because these things are happening and they are no good.

victory.immortalb16_ESO

I have no problems with this system. It's there to be used IF YOU WANT TO. No one is forcing people to use it.

Do they make a decent return from it? Probably not. Good luck to them for putting in all the effort to make it work, and for making this sort of trade safer with less scams as a result. Let's say 10% cut of 2m crowns at 300 per, that's around 60m gold shared out between them all. Converting that back to Crowns, say 200k crowns, around £1,000, now split that between everyone..it's not making anyone rich, even if they were selling the gold. Accusing people of making real life money from running TCE is well wide of the mark and is totally missing the point. It's pocket money at best. Realistically, it's a labour of love.

People who have never run a large guild with discord usually don't appreciate just how much time and effort it actually takes- it eats up more and more of your day.

People selling 20k+ crowns per month isn't unusual- just a bit pointless after a while as there isn't that much of huge value to buy ingame. Other people becoming 'rich' ingame has never bothered me. Been there, done that, traded my way to zillions in another game, never again. If that's what you enjoy in a game, go right ahead!

Can ZOS do better- yes, very easily, by setting up a direct gold to crowns exchange system. GW2 has one and it works reasonably well, with a huge spread between the buy and sell prices to prevent people flipping.

Personally, I like the gifting system but would prefer a proper exchange. But until then, things like TCE exist and can be used, or not.