Well, you can rant until you are green in the scales but words are nothing compared with the almighty power of an animated gif. Last weeks article on No-Trade got stacks of attention and even prompted a post on the Senate boards. I thank you again Moya the Wookie – my new favourite senator, for bringing this to the attention of the orange named ones.

Feedback from the Senators was how I expected, since I have raised the issue with the Legacy guys numerous times. I’m not going to get into this again, my doctors told me to rest after my No-Trade induced fit last week. One thing I did find interesting is that the Senators gave me the impression that they knew this was a topic that the Developers would not address. Why not? Why isn’t there a bill for this? We all know that players hate this system. Put it to the vote, I dare you.

I can feel the blood boiling again so I better hush with this. I’ll end it (for the time being) by saying that I don’t think anyone has a good reason why No-Trade should be in game. Forcing game play on people is not a good reason Badgersmaker. A trader shouldn’t have to do a quest to get furniture schematics. That’s just silly.

I can’t quite put my finger on it, or even give a meaningful source for this information but ever since the Fan Faire I keep hearing whispers related to Gardening.  The fact that artwork has been created for it shows that SOE are absolutely desperate to get this feature in game. In case you’ve forgotten, a while back we were presented with two rounds of votes for what new things we would like to see in game.

In the first round PVE got an almighty share of the vote.  Based on this, we were given 4 other topics to choose from. Heroic Mobs and Space won the lions share and in dead last place with about 2% came Gardening. How can gardening in any manifestation be classed as PVE? Plant verses the Environment? Are we going to grow giant Venus Fly Traps? It seems to me that the team tried a little bit of manipulation here.

I’ve a feeling that the 2% of the vote hasn’t put a stop to gardening and we will see it in game in some form. Don’t get me wrong, growing plants might be quite interesting but I’m suspicious that we will see gardening content before we see a revamp to crafted weapons. After all, Gardening got 2% of the votes and Weapons got 0%, purely because it was never an option to vote on.

Last week, GreyPawn admitted that he has once bought credits for cash just to survive in a MMORPG. He also told of the nightmare stories that can happen when handing over your credit card numbers to these dodgy people. In the interests of journalism, outright curiosity and the fact that the pound is doing so well against the dollar I decided to give this a try.
First off, before anyone starts cancelling accounts, I created a new character and SuperFurry did not take part in any wrong doings.  He might be a rogue in game, but his account has not violated the EULA. Well, he runs a few mods, but so everyone does right?

After I created the new toon, I did a search for SWG Credit for Cash sites. There are hundreds of them. I looked around for a while and picked the one that looked the most reputable. I put an order in for a decent amount of money – nothing too small, but nothing that could be used to make you uber in game. Then I waited.

A credit deal on Tyrena, yesterday

Almost immediately I got a call from my Credit Card company confirming the order. Scary stuff alright. I confirmed the order but asked them to block any future debits for the time being. I was beginning to get a little bit twitchy and GreyPawn’s words started to haunt me.

Days went by and nothing happened. The money was out of my card, but I didn’t receive a single credit in game. I finally got through to Customer Services who told me I needed to send them a mail confirming that it was ok to carry out the order. ‘Hang on,’ I exclaimed, ‘You’ve already got my money, why do you need anything else from me?’ All the CSR could do was respond with ‘This is just procedure’. I could smell a rat. Maybe I was just paranoid but I pay for things all the time and I don’t have to give written permission. I asked for (and got) a full refund.

The next day I tried the next most reputable site I could find. I ordered the same amount of credits and paid slightly more than the previous site. Within minutes I get a call from a lady speaking pure Engrish. The conversation was laboured and extremely painful but after about ten minutes I worked out that she wanted me to sign into the game.

To be honest, I was expecting someone to just bank tip the credits. I never realised that I was going to be involved in something shady in game. I logged in and waited for 20 minutes before I get a /tell from a credit farmer. He told me to head to the Banks in Tyrena on Corellia where we could complete the deal. If Tyrena had a dockland, you can bet the meeting point would have been there. My toon jumped in the shuttle and headed for the city where ironically, I had started as a new player all those years ago.

When I arrived at the Bank terminals I saw about 6 other n00bs all busy ‘doing stuff’ like checking the bazaar or talking to the junk dealer. Since Tyrena hasn’t been a starting City for an age, you’ve got to wonder why 6 other CL5 players were hanging around this dead city. I pretended to check a bazaar and dare I say it, the whole thrill of the deal was starting to get a little bit exciting.

Then it went wrong.

Some guy (I’ll call him Eric) thought I was a credit farmer, “Are you from www.swgcredsDOTcom? Are you from www.EasyGeekCashDOTcom? Are you from www.UseDadsCreditCardDOTcom?”

 Spatial was filled up with more credit sites than Mos Eisely ever was. I denied all knowledge of the evil sites and told Eric that I was waiting for my twin sister. While this outright lie served its purpose it also aroused some different emotions in Eric. My fault I suppose for creating a female toon and trying to do a bit of role play in a situation where a simple ‘GO AWAY N00B!’ would have been the best solution.

Eric opened his approach with a full on /kiss. “How old r u?” he asked. Oh my god, I’m in the middle of a cash for credits scandal and I’m getting cybered by a 15 year old. I started panicking about the account getting traced to my main SuperFurry account. Do I tell him that I’m a man? A CL90 player runs past and I decide not to create an argument. “I can’t talk right now”, I whimpered.  Eric persisted with the /kisses and /snogs before commencing with the /slaps. The guy was up for action and as kinky as a pubic hair.

Twenty of the longest minutes go by, Eric is still /snogging and /slapping and all the other n00bs are still hanging around. Dave the credit farmer finally shows up and spots me in the crowd. “/t Maggie, I have your credits!” Bugger me! The credit farmer is a n00b too. I send him a tell “You are talking in spatial, please send me a tell”. Too late, Eric is all over him like a rash.
“Are you from www.swgcredsDOTcom? Are you from www.EasyGeekCashDOTcom? Are you from www.UseDadsCreditCardDOTcom?” squeaks the 15 year old.

Dave the credit farmer starts getting edgy and backs off. Once again he fills spatial with his EULA violating chat “/t Please come here Maggie so I can give you cash”.
I creep up to him, feeling dirty and mortified. He sends me a trade request, I accept. Eric /slaps the farmer and turns to me again
“Will u give me sum money?”  Eric nags.
Dave the farmer slips me a million credits via the trade window, “Did you get the 1m Maggie?”
“Yes”, I cry.
“Can I hav 1 mill creds plz?”  asks Eric, slapping Dave across the head.
Dave runs around the corner.

“Please come near so I can give rest of money”, says Dave in spatial.
Eric starts doing the run and jump animation around the banks.

“Please!” I scream “Use /tell”, although to be honest, things have moved beyond that.
The credit farmer trades a little bit more cash and informs me that he has to get more credits. Why he didn’t have the full amount and where he was getting more money from was far from my thinking at the time. I fill the next ten minutes discussing my age (I lie), my sex (I lie) and my language (I wish I could lie) with Eric.

Finally, we complete the deal. I blurt out a thanks and run like the wind to the starport. Spatial is still red hot and Eric is trying to convince Dave that he’s paid real life cash and is owned credits. I wondered if the other players hanging around will now get their turn. I don’t stop to find out and I jump in my ship and get out of the city as quickly as possible.

I briefly logged on to that character last night, to find out if there were any repercussions more than anything else. Nothing had happened and no action was taken against the account. I checked my mail and there was nothing, not even from Eric. Despite all the kissing and slaps we shared it seemed that we were just ships passing in the night.

Maggie, tormented by her past

I still feel the shame though. I don’t believe for one second that I’m blessed with more morals than anyone else and to be honest, I never expected to be affected as much as I am. Buying credits feels totally wrong.  I don’t particularly trust those credit sites much either, and I trust the n00b farmers even less. It looks like SOE aren’t going to police the buying of credits and I don’t believe players will get a ban over this. However, if the player base catches you, you’re going to be shunned by the community. Sometimes that’s just as effective as a ban. The farmers are far too greedy to bank tip you the money, which means a seedy incident in front of other players is likely. Don’t do it guys. I’m still trying to shower the dishonour from my filthy, cheating bones.

Take care of yourselves readers, I guess that’s what you’re best at.
SuperFurry – 21st August 2007
Email me: SuperFurryGalaxies@hotmail.com