Tip.It Times Presents: The Greed Factor

[deadppl]

I hate people who cheat in rs2. Cuz they when they have like 1m and i only 200k(but by playing fair) im really demotivated then and i think in myself why cant i cheat cuz they get all the money but they arent stopped by jagex :shock: . Im making money by the hard way but my friend is making money the easy way he gots alot of autoers. And i think dam how do they get these autoers but at the same time (screw) them cuz you know they will get caught 1 day or the other.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ps:should i report my friend cuz hes cheating?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

srr i used a dirty word my appologees

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

best regards,

 

 

 

cedric

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

if you wonna talk to me on rs add wc_p00n3d cuz my main got hacked :(

[Gurrnisson]

Yeah RC is a good way to make money...that's for sure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Recently getting scammed by my friend I have experience with the "greed factor". And trust me...it's more common than a lot of people I know think is.

[Dragonmaker9]

I use fishing, woodcutting and runecrafting (well sorta) to make money. I use my fishing to sell lobsters (cooked) for 200-350gp each. Woodcutting to sell yew logs for 300gp each and runecrafting to raise my magic so I can use high level alchemy.

[specialcharacter]

i can see truth in the article but not the section about merchanters, i feel most merchanters are honest players who can keep both players happy by being a middle man, however a friend of mine exploits a group of low level players purely for money, i see this as a bad way of merchanting as the lower level player is not getting the items or cash they deserve for thier hard work.

[Niiro_Agian]

i totally agree, skills are a great way to make money, for a long time (time when i could be called a 'noob') i relied only on my skills and not on other people at all. it turned out fine. another lessused way of merchanting is buying and selling from the actual store as supply and demand goe up and down. the profit may not always be as big but there's always a buyer.

[doooooopf]

I personnaly have found lvl 1-2 treasure trails to be the best way for low levels to make money and see he runescape world ive mad over 10 mil doing these trails in only a year and i am only lvl 66 :D i find that skills can take too long and jobs are no fun at all :( btu t trails are good for combat and great for quick cash. i look down upon any scammer whatsoever no matter what they are the things that take a lot of the fun out of runescape so i suggest new players spend around an hour browsing forums and databases too get a good idea of what prices are.

[amaru70]

I totally and utterly STINK at merchanting, I hate buying or selling stuff to other players, because I'm not patient enough to just sit around in a bank, doing nothing except typing to get the stuff I want bought or sold (on a side note, I really admire people who can actually do that, I get bored too easily), so I train my skills in order to be self sufficient and get the stuff I need on my own. That's how I got to the levels where I can make most of the things I want (the ones I can't make ... i buy from other players :wall: *sigh*). I have to admit I have been scammed only once but that was entirely my fault because I should checked the price before selling (it was only an addy plate and I got 10k so it was no biggie) but other than that I have never been scammed, perhaps because I rarely trade with other players and I'd rather buy things from specialty stores as well as sell them to stores, or hi alch them, true, I get half the price and I made my first million after I hit lvl 90 combat, but I prefer to make my money in an honest way, after all what's the fun in just sitting around yelling "selling (insert random item here)!!!!!!!!" when u could spend that same time training? Meh, I guess I will never understand

[Bippitee]

One of the reasons I enjoy Runescape so much is that it is an interesting little social experiment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In fact, I find it more amusing than annoying that there are people trying to resort to "criminal" tactics to obtain wealth in Runescape because it essentially acts as a mirror to our real society, but in a way that no-one needs to be truly hurt physically or financially (while some consider losing RS gold as being hurt financially, I would ask them to compare their computer game money to the real money lost by real victims of extortion, fraud and armed assault).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In real life, there may be a few thugs who generate wealth by peddling illegal substances or subverting the laws of the country or locality they live in, but the vast majority of middle-class to wealthy people make their money while obeying the rules of the land. Yet, there's never a shortage of people willing to try getting rich by theft, fraud or extortion, even when the success rate is not nearly as high and the risk of incarceration looms.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The same applies in this virtual world. Even though it likely takes much longer and is harder to scam people out of a few GP - couple that with the risk of the ever-present "Report" button - there's no shortage of kids/immature adults willing to try.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying I like having those people participate in this game. I just take comfort in the fact that the damage they do is only virtual.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The damage is only virtual???

 

 

 

I must respectfully disagree.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When you get robbed in RS it is exactly the same as "real life" in that you spent hours of your life earning something, and someone just sneaked in and took it all away from you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whether you spent hours frying hamburgers to buy a new bicycle IRL or hours chopping magics to buy a dragon wc axe in RS it is exactly the same - you have been robbed of something it took you time to earn.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I got scammed out of 400k once and was darned annoyed, and I am 44. I try not to imagine how I would have felt if I was 14 and I logged on to find my bank had been cleared out. Must be like coming downstairs and finding your favourite toys have been stolen. And noone is going to do anything about it. One of my young RS friends described being hacked for his rune(t) full as like "being kicked in the stomach".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's real.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I support the death penalty for RS hackers.

[Dr_Elephant]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The damage is only virtual???

 

 

 

I must respectfully disagree.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When you get robbed in RS it is exactly the same as "real life" in that you spent hours of your life earning something, and someone just sneaked in and took it all away from you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whether you spent hours frying hamburgers to buy a new bicycle IRL or hours chopping magics to buy a dragon wc axe in RS it is exactly the same - you have been robbed of something it took you time to earn.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I got scammed out of 400k once and was darned annoyed, and I am 44. I try not to imagine how I would have felt if I was 14 and I logged on to find my bank had been cleared out. Must be like coming downstairs and finding your favourite toys have been stolen. And noone is going to do anything about it. One of my young RS friends described being hacked for his rune(t) full as like "being kicked in the stomach".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's real.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I support the death penalty for RS hackers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I believe my post has been addressed and with a more rational response than yours I might add.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I stand by what I said. When I sit down at the computer and log onto Runescape.com, that's when leisure and relaxation begins. It's escapism. All of it. The good and the bad.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm sorry that you get emotional when you lose an in-game item. I don't.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I don't consider cutting down willow trees and mining coal rocks "work" because I know what real work is. It's what I'm escaping when I sit down and play this video game.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's real.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No, sorry but it's not. You didn't "earn" 400K. You played a game. Yes, I'll admit it took hours of gameplay to gather such a large sum, but you were playing a game. Playing. Here, I'll type it again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Playing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you're comparing the labor you're putting your avatar through to the real labor/politics/dynamics of working to earn real money (electronically transmitted or not), you're not the kind of 44 year old I'd want my children to look up to as a role model.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I support the death penalty for RS hackers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume this was written to be humorous. It did make me chuckle.

[--Mr_Bill_42--]

The biggest problem I have with merchanting is that some of the players out there think that you HAVE to sell to them for what they think something is worth. I have paid way over current price for something that I really needed. But if I don't want to sell to you for what you want to pay for it, 1 law for 250, then am not obligated to sell 1 to you.

[davi2188]

how do you make 1 mil gp in an hour?

[mister_abc]

I hate people who cheat in rs2. Cuz they when they have like 1m and i only 200k(but by playing fair) im really demotivated then and i think in myself why cant i cheat cuz they get all the money but they arent stopped by jagex :shock: . Im making money by the hard way but my friend is making money the easy way he gots alot of autoers. And i think dam how do they get these autoers but at the same time (screw) them cuz you know they will get caught 1 day or the other.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ps:should i report my friend cuz hes cheating?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

srr i used a dirty word my appologees

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

best regards,

 

 

 

cedric

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

if you wonna talk to me on rs add wc_p00n3d cuz my main got hacked :(

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh yes i know what you're talking about! My friend claimed to "borrow" my full rune and stole it! I later found out another person got my friend's password and it was not his fault but oh well. My loss :(

[roronoazoro12]

That was a great article, but how to deal with the "Greed Factor" was not stressed enough. The only true way to deal with this is to find the cause and crush it. The way I see it, it comes from on obvious place: the new players(mostly the players who came in during 2005). I myself am a fairly new player (Sept. 11 2004), and am lvl 89 and 1272 tl. I am not in the "loop" of most high lvl members. I am not in a clan. I do not have one piece of dragon armor or barrows armor. Many would say I am a sorry member. I say that they are more out of touch with Runescape today than most people. How many time has this happened to you high lvl dragon armor types:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dragon Armor player walks into seers and sees 2 lvl 30s arguing over addy armor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lvl 30.1: It's only 20k for a platebody!!!!(I have no clue what true price is, it's just for an example.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lvl 30.2: No it's 30k!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lvl 30.1: Nuh uh you stupid n00b. Wait til you come into the wild. I'll pwn you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Drag armor player: Shut up both of you!!!!! Addy plate is worth like 40k and it's not even worth it. If you were really smart you'd get a nice paying job/skill and get some rune or something. Stupid noobs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ok that might not have happened too much to you, but I have seen it happen. Basically the greed factor stems from new players as I said. 30.2 was tryin to get 30k for the plate, while 30.1 was arguing that it was only 20k. Now most of the high lvls would say that that was just pocket change and truly it is...to you. To lvl 30s, 20-30k is a months worth of hard work. The truth is, basic economics go into the game. The price matches or is slightly above production costs. If it takes a lvl 30 a month to make items to sell, then he will want as much money as he wants, because he sacraficed time. Basically, the new players control most common item prices because of the "Greed Factor" The prices no longer match the production cost of the item. I still remember a time when bowstings were the good ol' 100 gp apiece. Now they are nearing 200 gp each. And it is because of the "Greed Factor" and the lack of stubborness in the game that causes this inflation of prices. The new player will charge more, and because everyone eventually gives into the price, the price stick and the player thinks he can get away with anything price-wise. The only true way to stop this problem is to not give in so easily to price gouging. Try to work the person down and if it doesn't work don't buy from him. There are more fish in the sea, as the classic love line goes. Only this time the fish are sellers and there are a lot more of them out there. Til' later. Dwee~

[gwalman]

As a non-member, it is very very difficult to make money. I think that runecrafting is definately the quickest way to make money, simply because it is so much easier to level up compared to mining and smithing however, While my player is able to craft up to chaos runes, I cannot, because I am a non member. So for me the best way to make money is to mine and smith mith bars and sell for 1k ea. or steel bars for 500 ea. anybody else got a better way to make money for a non member?

[Sanjetsou]

I find that to be quite true, perhaps though it stems alot from f2p, you see alot more "broad daylight" scams, the typical armour trimming scams or "hey Jagex doesnt block your pass ******* see?" Although they never seem to quiet down either because no one reports them or Jagex doesnt pay much attention to f2p. You would think that since all potential members start in f2p that they would want to make f2p worlds as clean and safe as possible instead of jumping the gun at every incident in p2p, and usually just banning everyone for minor incidences. I mean sometimes though they also judge f2p pretty harshly too, like my friend who is f2p had 85 smithing and mining, fairly nice for f2p and easily he got banned for autoing. Kinda shows that jagex doesnt have much autoing protection software and think that just because a f2p guy puts alot of dedication into the game that he is autoing. Personally I think their "detection" software is just a crock, a joke. Just to "reassure" people that they are actually doing something.

[nuugz]

I agree that greed has overtaken the game and I know I'll get flamed for this but it's because of Rs2. Back in Rs1, a very large percentage of the rs population were completed based around pking and f2p pking in particular. F2p pking, in Rs1 and Rs2, is basically a money pit but since it was so much fun, nobody had a problem with it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The pking system now is too complicated and since f2p doesnt get any of the "benefits" that should be built into the game for all players (teleblock, snare, mainly) it makes p2p pking superior by just the ability to get a fair 1v1 with somebody your level without fear of them teleporting or just running south.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was never a problem in Rs1 because being pure meant you didn't have magic so there was no teleporting and the 3 round and catching systems made it so you couldn't just quick escape southwards.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another thing is back in the old times, there was so much left to accomplish so people would spend all their time skilling instead of worrying about merchanting for money, unlike now where almost everything that's worthy of putting work into has been achieved many times so the only thing that drives most people is achieving great wealth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's just my thoughts on greed in rs now.

[chenw]

I think online games are not merely social experiment, but Social Reflection, reflection of what people in the real world truly are. Greedy and willing to go to any extent to go and satsify their greed, even if it means hurting others.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

IRL, people are willing to rob other people using arms, people out there sending false e-mails to scam credit card details, and those people show nearly no remorse about the pain and suffering of their victims

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In RS, this applies equally, but since this is, according to many people, "just a game", they show this attitude even less reservedly (if thats a word) than they would in real life (because US$ are real, GP are not), so you get more people who wouldnt rob in RL but would rob in RS.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For RS to change, People have to change. From the society that we live in today, this is not easy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There goes my 2 cents

[kingspawn]

i agree that it is the persons fault for being scamed. when i was a lower lvl a friend gave me full black, full helm and kite. i was offered 20k for it but stupidly agreed to folo him to thw wildy. obviously if i had been smarter and had paid more attention i would not have been scamed. but i was inexperienced and that ws not my fault. people should not scame the players that have just began to play(not that i am saying that any of you have) just that many new players i know have been scammed in the same fasion that i have been.

[ZzXTornadoKaizXX]

my friend was pkd for full dhorak and i almost pkd 2 whips within 10min pking is a very profitable was 2 make money i would think so beacause i would have had very close to 6m if i pk those ppl...

[fireblade278]

I beleive that " the greed facter" has tooken over too much of the game. almost everywhere i go on the free world i see scammers saying stuff like free armor trimming.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

i dont think it is the persons fault that falls for the scam because they may not know the price of an item, or maybe they wern't paying attention. the thing is that the scammers should have the hammer down on them. the point is, there are way too many scammers. if Jadex wants to get rid of scammers, they gotta put down the hammer. how? block IP's, not I.D's. i may not be an expert on computers, but as far as i know they can detect IP's and by banning them it can stop them from creating account. if its a shared computer, like a family one, then too bad. they shouldnt be scamming in the first place.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

i agree that Jadex needs to take more action in the scamming going on.. i mean you ban them. so what? they are likely to be using a file they made so they dont lsoe their REAL file. then when their first scamming account gets banned, make a new one, and the cycle starts all over again. so i am gonna make point out a few things that can help inform players and help prevent scamming

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. There should be a place on runescape.com, like the new knowlage base(Game Guide), that you can search and find the price of items. then when making a trade, people can have a idea of the costs of an idea. there goes merchant scamming.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2.Blocking IP's not ID's, explaind above.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. acting faster to reports. Jadex have alot of money. they have so many members, but they cant afford a few more staff members to respond quicker? they might be, i dont have an idea whats going on in there. maybe since the "greed facter" took place more and more they got more staff and still take the same time from the increase.

[Kewl_Sabre]

I agree completely that greed has overtaken runescape. The fact that so many people spend their time trying to figure out ways of stealing people's money is disgusting. The fact that all this plotting is only to grab a few more pixels is even sadder...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The game was made to be fun. Why take away from that? Money isn't everything; having a good time is.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As for the banning...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

if Jadex wants to get rid of scammers, they gotta put down the hammer. how? block IP's, not I.D's. i may not be an expert on computers, but as far as i know they can detect IP's and by banning them it can stop them from creating account. if its a shared computer, like a family one, then too bad. they shouldnt be scamming in the first place.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

i agree that Jadex needs to take more action in the scamming going on.. i mean you ban them. so what? they are likely to be using a file they made so they dont lsoe their REAL file. then when their first scamming account gets banned, make a new one, and the cycle starts all over again. so i am gonna make point out a few things that can help inform players and help prevent scamming

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. There should be a place on runescape.com, like the new knowlage base(Game Guide), that you can search and find the price of items. then when making a trade, people can have a idea of the costs of an idea. there goes merchant scamming.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2.Blocking IP's not ID's, explaind above.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The only thing with that is that blocking IP's is not always banning a player. Some people have internet connections that constantly change IP's (such as wifi users), and even those that don't can still manually change their IP's. So the banning IP ideas doesn't necessarily work, although it would be effective most of the time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As for posting the prices of items, I don't think that's a good idea. One of the principle concepts of player-to-player trade is that supply and demand regulates the prices, not Jagex. Although if they were willing to get some people who keep up to date with changing prices, they could try to do that.

[clayton_2003]

great article! - I'm glad I'm not the only one that thinks this way about other skills, my crafting is 81 and I'm working on crafting about 1k air battlestaves to make lvl 82, which will also get me about 2.5 mil in gp after I high alch them! This is all profit because I have been fetching my own supplies and using my magic and runecrafting lvls to also gain xp...I made my own cosmics, natures, and I made law runes while I picked up the seaweed! - Now jagex needs a way to make your own regular battlestaves!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also I've made a lot of money in the past by my smithing lvl (78), but I made my money around lvl 50 when I was able to make mith items like mith square shields, then high alch them.

[clayton_2003]

my friend was pkd for full dhorak and i almost pkd 2 whips within 10min pking is a very profitable was 2 make money i would think so beacause i would have had very close to 6m if i pk those ppl...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the key word there is "almost"! - you didn't pk any whip, and both of those guys probably had protect items prayer on...pking is a give and take technique to getting rich, you might win a few matches and get some decent stuff, but you use a lot of food, pots, and sometimes weapons and armor...besides pking isn't as fun as it was when there was "3-hitting" in classic - that ruled!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the main point that I got from this article was that the skills that everybody sees as long and tiring are some of the best ways of making money because the money is created by you - i.e. crafting, smithing, fletching

[Cowman1701]

When you reposted it you got date wrong (it says April 3rd)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And many people consider money a skill, so you can relate it to the lvl 99ers

[nelch]

i do agree with you that some people seem to be overwelmed by greed but lets face it here this is a minority. for starters you can take out the people who alch as they have little or no merchant trades and only trade with people when they have saved up enough to upgrade their armour or weapons. id also like to point out out that most of the scammers operate by offering items at extremely low prices so that people get excited and rush through the trade whereas merchants try to sell as high as possable so at least part of the blame must go on the buyer for wanting to get the lowest price possable and not checking the terms of the trade through thourougly. i do agree however that this minority of players consumed by the "greed factor" is a terrable thing and should be wiped out but it is up to regular players to report these incedents wherever they see them to try and get rid of these people.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

i would also like to point out that you barely mention the majority of runescape players who are decent hardworking people. in fact that does not do them justuce.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

yesterday i needed to clear my head becuase of some problems at home that had culminated in my mother trying to take her own life. i accidentally typed in something like "im so deppressed" on runescape that was meant for an msn conversation with my freinds. i was extremely surprised that the amount of support that people i had never even met were giving me and i am extremely thankful to those people for their support in a difficult time for me it realy helped and proved to me that not every one is consumed with the "greed factor" so thank you.