|
If you really want to get rid of scamming you need:
1) make a table like player to player trade.
2) trade tables are being fixed I hear, but they have to be bug free.
3) make a 'service trade' option
This would be complex but would solve almost all the remaining scam problems. There is a finite number of services a player can provide, EAing, and blessing. So, you open a trade window, you drag your item onto it, you click service, click 'EA' or 'Bless' - for bless, if the item is unblessed, it may require you to type the god name. Then you enter a number, which is the value it will be EAed up to, or blessed up to. Then, you click up and down arrows for days and hours for service to expire, and finally, add the items or plat that are in trade for that service.
When the blesser/EAer gets the item, it is flagged with a 'Loaned' flag. The player cannot trade it, destroy it, drop it, or clean it (if it is prepped). They can only arm it, bless it, ea it etc, or 'target' it and do /cancel_service or /complete_service.
If the time limit expires, the player gets the item back in their inventory, and the items/plat what were traded for payment. Just to note, the payment for that service, would not be in any player's inventory, but in 'limbo' (staff script generated container of sorts) until it is cancelled or completed.
If the time expires and the item does not have the pluses agreed to in the trade, the service is deemed cancelled. The player who asked for the service, cannot cancel it (as they could get it back with one less plus than complete right as the servicer is doing it and not pay).
It is complex - yes. It would take a lot of time to make it bug free and used. However, when you consider that if the staff took a full week or two to hammer it out soundly, it would mean no more staff time wasted on every little scam.
It would mean an end to people quitting over getting scammed, which would mean it would pay off financially.
You could even use the service interface, to show another player an item, have no service or payment defined and you know you will get it back in exactly an hour, and no risk of it being dropped, scammed by a third person, or cleaned or glitched.
And the one other thing, we really need it so you can type in the plat value on traded items, the arrows are too slow for items that are of high value, that you are trading for free. Its why people give up and drop the item and it gets stolen by some guy who runs up.
To end scamming, we need an interface that is not based on trust, but on forced game mechanics without bugs and loop holes. When people don't use the safety features, it is usually due to problems with the interface, and right now, a lot of scamming is done by 'showing' items and getting items blessed/EAed. The only way to solve that is to account for it in the game mechanics, which would save a ton of time for the staff of trying to police scammers, and make it a lot more fun for the players. |