It has come to my attention that various people are having a problem knowing who to trust. There is only one sure way to know you are trading with someone morally steadfast and that is to trade with Staff players who's names are written in Red.
Well I thought to myself... "What if there was a Trading standards certificate you could apply for as a player, that bound you to be a fair and just trader within the game and while in possession of such a certificate, changed your name colour Green??"
Ladies and Gentlemen I give you the TEFA certificate *glorified trumpeting*
The TEFA certificate (Trading Etiquette and Falsehood Agreement) Is applied for by an individual and must be backed by two other "known sources" (Accounts more than level 7 and over 7 days of age) as a character and trading reference of the individual applying.
Obviously, falsely recommending someone can result in a small stint in Federal Jail with "Known Source" status being revoked for a period of up to 30 days, making it impossible for a person to recommend others during this status revokation cooldown.
After confirmation of the applicants reliability via their "known sources" the applicant is faced with an agreement that binds them to the correct moral standards of trading (no scamming and or dishonestly taking financial advantage of others in any way), demonstration of correct etiquette both publicly and privately as outlined by the rules and regulations of TORN and pursuing the best interest of the community and the individual you trade with by not involving yourself with scammers and actively pointing them out to newer players citing honest evidence as your sources.
Failure to adhere to these commitments as a player and trader will result in a three day Federal Jail sentence with a follow up of a visible "Dishonest" status (devil emogi) placed upon the player for 30 days with a "failure to uphold" status (hidden) remaining for 90 days subsequently that disables the possibility of applying for another TEFA certificate during the staus' cooldown.
Should the offence be repeated the right to application is permanently revoked and the status marker of "Dishonest" will label the player for up to one year following the second offence.
Obviously, given the severity of the punishments listed above, the process by which a player can be found guilty of a breach of contract needs to be very strict in terms of what evidence points towards a valid claim and judgement performed by staff and other TEFA certificate holders who are both clean in their "legal record" regarding TEFA certificate activity, as well as being an "unknown player" to the accused (not having associated with in the past 30 days (fights, muggings, faction wars, private messaging etc) nor having been on their friends list)
I think this could be a game changer within the community as to who you can trust, with a truly solid and reliable trader market being produced through the suggestion above.
Ping this a thumbs up if you like it and if not let me know your reasoning down below, Ohh I do love a good discussion! :)
As much as I'm aware of the gigantic financial hold both PayPal and Amazon have over the market of internet payments, Google play is a pretty decent and reliable method that is far easier to use and utilize when playing mobile games. Give it a thought eh?
Or you make it simpler by making the certificate game driven and not community driven. That way payouts are garanteed to those who fall victim, thus eliminating the need for a non scammer status certificate altogether.
I see your issues with the idea and actually have reservations about the very beginning of the implementation. People are very likely to use it as a method of trust certainty gain, but hence why I have made the suggested punishments for abusing the certificate so high.
Your idea of reimbursement protecting the scammed person is a good one. I really do like that.
Your false accusations is also another hole that my idea has amongst it. People are vindictive, hence why I said that you would need to upload screenshots of the perported "scam", with then a panel of non associated certificate holders and staff being given the decision.
Maybe we ought to have a slight element of "appeal" where it's sent exclusively over to staff as they are contractually bound to remain honest whereas Cert holders might be vindictive themselves :/
Well Jef, as much as I respect your level and experience in the game, I see absolutely no reason why this isn't a good idea. I will answer and explain my opinions and the logic behind them for all of your points.
1. The enforcement is barely any form of interaction, as I said not only staff but other certified traders by this method would be able to police it pretty effectively, kinda like Jury duty in real life. The fair trading is up to the player desiring to trade to identify unfair, scammy or exploitative trading. Once identified a simple report with quoted evidence or a screenshot is sent in for "peer review" by staff and or other certified traders. It would be as simple as ticking a box... Do you see evidence of this trader having acted outside the rules and regulations as outlined by the TEFA... Yes or No. All it requires is a few additional HTML pages to be made. Those don't take that long and they would be fairly easy to implement in terms of coding I believe, but this point I'm not so sure on as, hey, I'm not experienced with game development in the coding aspect.
2. Your methods of ensuring a "fair trader" are all fallible, as proven within the last week by an incident where a known and named player with forums rep scammed around forty players in the space of two days. The point I'm making is that there isn't a damn thing that prevents a person from screwing you over and just turncoating. There's no law or consequence similar to real life that punishes a scammer other than bounties and attacks, and let's be honest, for people that effectively steal from people, I don't think that really makes much of a difference to a scammer.
3. We are playing a MMO Text Based RPG. Google play lists this game as the aforementioned quote and that's not put by the employee of Google, it's put there by TORN developers as their game description. Now while I do agree that crime is a big and very outstanding point of the TORN RPG, it certainly isn't it's only functional crux. While I massively respect, admire and acknowledge your vast experience in the game, the wonderful premise that I have experienced so far in my short time playing the game and conversing with its people, staff and players, is one of a very neutral game path, where all avenues of progress can be equally profitable and fundamentally, equally enjoyable. In short, this suggestion isn't to force players to become a trader in the game, it's to improve the quality of player experience to those that wish to play the game in this way.
Points answered, on to my final statement. I think it's very small minded of you as an experienced player to suggest that just because someone is of lesser experience than yourself in game, they shouldn't voice their opinions or make suggestions. "My recommendation is that you shouldn't post another suggestion until you're a couple of years old and you understand the game better" I feel I have proven that despite my small level, stats and or "age" as you put it, I understand the game enough to see an issue that prevents players from enjoying the game in a safe and secure environment as per their own desired playstyle.
Point of my suggestion is to add a true repercussion to scamming when you claim to be an "honest trader" and to give new players who desire to enjoy the game in this specific way, a chance, a safer bet to progress in the manner they desire and or have chosen. People can change their names, trade trust can be broken, and recommendations threads can be influenced and doctored without too much effort. This suggestion eliminates all of the above mentioned issues. Over time.
I enjoyed this discussion and thanks for raising the points you did. I enjoyed reading and replying to them. Have a great day Tef
It has come to my attention that various people are having a problem knowing who to trust. There is only one sure way to know you are trading with someone morally steadfast and that is to trade with Staff players who's names are written in Red.
Well I thought to myself... "What if there was a Trading standards certificate you could apply for as a player, that bound you to be a fair and just trader within the game and while in possession of such a certificate, changed your name colour Green??"
Ladies and Gentlemen I give you the TEFA certificate *glorified trumpeting*
The TEFA certificate (Trading Etiquette and Falsehood Agreement) Is applied for by an individual and must be backed by two other "known sources" (Accounts more than level 7 and over 7 days of age) as a character and trading reference of the individual applying.
Obviously, falsely recommending someone can result in a small stint in Federal Jail with "Known Source" status being revoked for a period of up to 30 days, making it impossible for a person to recommend others during this status revokation cooldown.
After confirmation of the applicants reliability via their "known sources" the applicant is faced with an agreement that binds them to the correct moral standards of trading (no scamming and or dishonestly taking financial advantage of others in any way), demonstration of correct etiquette both publicly and privately as outlined by the rules and regulations of TORN and pursuing the best interest of the community and the individual you trade with by not involving yourself with scammers and actively pointing them out to newer players citing honest evidence as your sources.
Failure to adhere to these commitments as a player and trader will result in a three day Federal Jail sentence with a follow up of a visible "Dishonest" status (devil emogi) placed upon the player for 30 days with a "failure to uphold" status (hidden) remaining for 90 days subsequently that disables the possibility of applying for another TEFA certificate during the staus' cooldown.
Should the offence be repeated the right to application is permanently revoked and the status marker of "Dishonest" will label the player for up to one year following the second offence.
Obviously, given the severity of the punishments listed above, the process by which a player can be found guilty of a breach of contract needs to be very strict in terms of what evidence points towards a valid claim and judgement performed by staff and other TEFA certificate holders who are both clean in their "legal record" regarding TEFA certificate activity, as well as being an "unknown player" to the accused (not having associated with in the past 30 days (fights, muggings, faction wars, private messaging etc) nor having been on their friends list)
I think this could be a game changer within the community as to who you can trust, with a truly solid and reliable trader market being produced through the suggestion above.
Ping this a thumbs up if you like it and if not let me know your reasoning down below, Ohh I do love a good discussion! :)
As much as I'm aware of the gigantic financial hold both PayPal and Amazon have over the market of internet payments, Google play is a pretty decent and reliable method that is far easier to use and utilize when playing mobile games. Give it a thought eh?