Hi All - firstly let me introduce myself. I'm "the mugger!". Carry on reading and I'll explain.
The Motivation
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I'm not driven by greed - OK, perhaps a little, but curiosity got the better of me. I am, for those of you following this blog, "the mugger!" Cast your blog time back to Thursday, January 21 and you will find an article about a discussion had with yours truly.
I was wrong about the legality of cross-faction trading. I did a bit more poking around the Blizzard forums and found a nice summary in a Blue post that shows it to be legal.
The Legitimacy
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In August 2009, a Blizzard forum post by GM Orlyia, directly in relation to cross-faction trading on the AH had this to say, "Well, you are of course welcome to report suspected botter activity. Unfortunately, that won't get an item back that is transferred in this fashion. Once you put any item on the auction house it's fair game."
There you have it folks - you have been warned!
That is why this particular manouver is so incredibly risky. While players do it, it is totally unsupported and totally at one's own risk.
The Rewards ... and the consequences
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Today was a good day for me -
I sniped 3x Primordial Saronite for a grand total of 40g. The current AH price for 3 of these is 7400g. Not a bad profit? This did not stop the abuse, of course. Needless to say, the guy trying to "launder" his goods through the Neutral AH was none too pleased to see my grubby little mits win his auction. He asked if I was a bot? Considering the value of the goods, no matter how tempting, I didn't want to give him a response such as,"Computer says No!" I thought it better if I was direct and answered him truthfully. Despite describing my techniques, the legitimate (approved) addons used and the manner in which they can be setup to allow for realtime AH scans, he either chose not to believe me, or would prefer to accuse me of botting to strengthen his case with a Blizzard GM.
My response to this was to also raise a Blizzard ticket about this "incident". You never seem to actually speak to a GM these days, so in order to be able to respond to any case made against me, seek some respite and hopefully protect myself from this increasingly angry player, I lodged a ticket of my own.
I can understand his frustration, but he should also have been aware of the risks too. No matter how "Quick Draw McGraw" you think you are, there is always the risk that someone else is that little bit faster.
Some people deserve it
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Yesterday was a fun night too -
I'm not sure how you all feel about our friends in China and their trading practices, but I'm sure you'll feel a little better to know that they lost a small chunk of change last night. I sniped 2 out of 4 trades made by a frequent trader. He congratulated me at first, only to leave 2 sentences in Chinese before logging off. Fortunately, I know someone that can translate for me and it amounted to telling me it was "small change" and he'd make up the loss in no time. Not that I was uncomfortable with sniping a trader that would fully understand the ins and outs of neutral AH trading, but knowing it was probably scum money - well, I had that warm and fuzzy feeling.
And some don't?
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The real trick to sniping on the neutral AH isn't your addons, though Auctioneer is very useful (but not the only way), it's your ability to turn your heart into stone.
Everyone reacts differently to being sniped, but if I were to try and categorise - Some, like the owner of this very interesting blog, choose to talk and discuss, acknowledging the risks and understanding the loss is a part of life. Some choose to immediately spew forth their anger at you (I can't really see how they ever expected anything to be returned, but anyway). Some ask for their former auction back and then get upset when they're told no and others... they beg... and beg... and then you get the lvl1 gnome sob story. I've been reported a few times and in return reported them for harrassment. Since they haven't got a legitimate reason to report me, I usually get told I'm being reported for botting. That gets my heckles up, as there is nothing "bottish" about this. Since botting is an account banable offense, I feel the need to protect myself.
Still, I am human and I do get affected by the odd sob story. I have even, on rare occasions given items back (CoD to claim back the auction fee).
I might not be a good samaritan, and I may have to immunise myself against the human condition, but, ultimately, I play within the rules, but border on the outside of the spirit of the game.
2 comments:
I never thought about scraping the neutral AH. It is brilliant. I am sure players do stuff like that all the time.
I am a cross faction trader. I am not Chinese. Primarily I send vision dust over to the faction I don't play to sell to raise funds for items the faction I do play needs.
There was work involved setting up my network of bank toons and I do have two accounts so that I do not have to rely on others to help me move goods.
I do not for one second believe that if I'm snipped I deserve my items returned. I have only been snipped on 2 occasions. Both times I called them on it and the 1st time my item was return and I rewarded that player with a recipe I farm that happens to net about 85g. I can farm it in less than 15 min at a cost of less than 1g.
The 2nd sniper was arrogant about his capture of my stack of vision dust. He did not return my goods. He didn't get a reward either.
I see it as the cost of doing business.
There are folks seeking items in trade and if I happen to be able to check cross faction for them I make the offer to shop for them "across the street". At the present I have much more gold on the other side than I do on the side I'm playing so I'm shopping much more these days. It's good to know that there are those out there that make sport of sniping the neutral AH.
In that I've been doing this for well over a year and have only been snipped twice I would have to say that either my methods are fairly decent to prevent snipping or that most people are basically decent.
I always check with a fresh scan and if I see tell-tale signs that someone is in the process of moving goods I will whisper them and let them know I'm "waiting in line" to do the same. Meaning I will not attempt to move my goods until I know for sure they are done. I've only had to do that once, but I do check every time.
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