Basically to combat gold sellers...Whats you opinion on this?  I think EVE does something like this also.

Link: http://www.tera-online.com/content/introducing-chronoscrolls

Quote:

Introducing Chronoscrolls

August 27, 2011 4:30pm by Patrick Wyatt

Have you ever gotten frustrated by gold farmers hawking their wares and spamming game chat? Had to listen to a guildmate’s story of woe about a hacked account and stolen identity? Or submitted a petition and been told that you’ll have to wait because the customer service team is busy cleaning up the mess left behind by keyloggers and spyware left on people’s computers after they tried a game “add-on” that contained a trojan?

These problems plague online games because there are people willing to destroy the play environment in order to make money selling gold. They’re called real-money traders, and they’re willing to commit online crimes like identity theft, account theft, and credit card fraud because collectively they earn billions of dollars each year. That's right, billions.

There’s no way for En Masse alone to win the war against the gold farmers and real-money traders. They have strong financial motivations to commit crimes, and most live in places where they can’t be prosecuted for those crimes. So we’re going to change the rules. We're going to take steps to limit that kind of problem in TERA by enlisting you, the community. We’d like your help to make life difficult for real-money traders.

It all starts with a new type of item we're adding to the game: chronoscrolls. Players use these items to extend their game time. Each chronoscroll is the equivalent of a one-month game subscription payment. Chronoscrolls are purchased directly from our website and delivered to your character’s inventory. You can use them to extend your play experience for another month or trade them in the game with other players for gold.

In essence, chronoscrolls allow players to get more gold when they need it by helping other players play for free! This system undercuts the value of gold farming and real-money trading, making TERA a less profitable place for criminals to do business. The bad guys don’t want more game time—they’re already using stolen credit cards and stolen accounts to get free game time. By exchanging a chronoscroll for gold instead of purchasing it from the bad guys, you’ll be eliminating the market that makes it so attractive for these criminals to cause problems.

If you've never purchased gold, and you're wondering why this new chronoscrolls system is a good addition to the game, consider this: whether chronoscrolls exist or not, other players are buying gold from real-money traders. By creating the opportunity for players who already buy gold to purchase it legitimately, we help eliminate the incentive for real-money traders to target TERA.

Players can only sell chronoscrolls for gold if others are willing to buy them, and supply and demand will determine their market value. The more chronoscrolls offered for sale, the lower the price will be. If a player tries to sell one at too high a price, nobody will buy. If many players want chronoscrolls, the price in gold will increase.

Players purchase gold for many different reasons: powering alternate characters through lower levels quickly, trying to catch up with friends who have leveled past them, a desire to focus their play time on a part of the game they enjoy, and more. Gold purchases fill a useful function for these players. So why not just allow them to buy gold from real-money traders? There are reasons why we want to keep those dealers out of TERA.

When accounts are used to “farm” gold, those accounts are doing harm to the game. This type of activity adds more gold to the game than normal play would produce, which leads to unwanted inflation. Gold farmers can also make it hard for regular players to find the creatures they need to complete quests or build reputation—an organized gold farming operation can clear areas as fast as the monsters respawn. And gold farmers aren’t really playing the game. They’re not interacting with other players and building a community. They’re not forming parties and guilds. They’re adding nothing at all to the shared experience of the game.

Gold farmers are very sophisticated. They know how to make their operations appear similar to the actions of a good group of organized players. They change accounts frequently, and they use many layers of intermediate accounts to disburse the gold they generate. They use sophisticated techniques to make their internet address hard to track from session to session, and impossible to locate geographically. It’s a cat-and-mouse game they’ve played for more than a decade, and they’re very, very good at it. Even though customer service and game master teams keep banning them, gold farmers persist in every MMO as unwanted parasites.

Gold farmers are only part of the problem. Real-money traders cause further issues. By and large, they’re criminals. Many engage in serial fraud; stealing money from players, and using keyloggers and other malware to hijack their customer’s computers. They engage in identity theft, using their customer’s bank accounts and personal information.

The customer service and game master teams spend an inordinate amount of time helping to clean up the mess the real-money traders leave behind. Dealing with this problem soaks up hours of time we’d rather spend helping customers with service issues related to gameplay, not to the criminal activity they’ve exposed themselves to. Players abiding by the terms of service deserve our full attention. Every time we process a petition for help due to the aftermath of real-money trading, that’s one fewer legitimate petition our team can process. By cutting down the amount of these real-money trading service issues, we improve the experience for every one of our customers.

The real-money traders know that their profit exists only as long as TERA has no formal authorized mechanism to allow players to acquire gold. As the chronoscroll market develops, players who used to buy gold from real-money traders will instead use chronoscrolls to trade with other players, entirely bypassing the real-money trading sites. In response, real-money traders will have to lower their prices. Eventually, providing gold to TERA players will become unprofitable and many will give up or move on to another game. Without the real-money traders to sell to, the number of gold farmers will then decline.

Instead of engaging in real-money trading that violates TERA’s terms of service, risking account banning or, worse, fraud and identity theft perpetrated by the vendors of real-money trading, chronoscrolls provide a safe and authorized way for players to exchange gold for game time purchased directly from En Masse. It’s the best of both worlds: a method to enable a “free to play” experience for one group of players, and a system that allows other players to legally acquire the gold they need to play the game the way they want to play.

Sounds like a direct rip-off of EVE Online's PLEX system. In EVE, people started botting to play for "free".

Originally posted by arctarus
I don't think it'll work, First, this scroll have to be cheaper than wat the gold seller is selling, example a scroll cost $10 to buy and can exchange for 1000g,bit if the gold sellers is selling 1000g for $8 than no one will bother abt the scroll. Second, even if its the same price, why would a player go thru the hassle? And may have to wait for ppl to buy he's scrolls instead of getting the gold immediately from gold sellers? Third, I hate it when company do this, its like an item shop where the company is selling gold themselves, but in directly, if Tera really implement it, im not touching this game.

But that's how the EVE way is, the players determine how much in-game cash they want to sell their Token for. At least this way, players who are paranoid about buying gold from gold sellers can still buy gold without fear of getting banned or having their credit card number or money stolen.

I think this is a good idea that should be adopted in all/most MMOs. I used to play EVE as well, and there were minimal, if any ISK (Gold) bot spammers. People that want to buy gold are going to do it no matter what, might as well fund the company that's going to be providing you more content, instead of the botter who's ruining the gaming experience for everyone else.

Originally posted by arctarus
I don't think it'll work, First, this scroll have to be cheaper than wat the gold seller is selling, example a scroll cost $10 to buy and can exchange for 1000g,bit if the gold sellers is selling 1000g for $8 than no one will bother abt the scroll. Second, even if its the same price, why would a player go thru the hassle? And may have to wait for ppl to buy he's scrolls instead of getting the gold immediately from gold sellers? Third, I hate it when company do this, its like an item shop where the company is selling gold themselves, but in directly, if Tera really implement it, im not touching this game.

It doesnt have to be the "cheapest" it simply has to be the best.

In EvE you can go to 3rd party sites and save a ton of money, however, you also risk your account. If I can legally buy it from the company itself more or less, why risk my account?

The majority of players will use this method, and it definitely helps deter gold sellers. However you cant get rid of it completely.

Actually I am interested in what this kind of system has to offer. This could really work if EME puts in the hard work needed. But they will still need active GM support as you are never gonna get rid of bots/rmt. But this system is a step in the right direction. 

With the way Tera economy is I bet these Chronoscrolls will sell for hundreds of millions of gold...lol

The system doesn't have to eliminate gold farmers entirely to be successful.  If they cut it in half, for example, then that makes the system worthwhile, don't you think?

This... is brilliant.

Lots of f2p players will be able to play the game like a B2P.

On the other hand, the game becomes pay 2 win for those who sell chronoscrolls, they can buy instance drops, enchants, everything with real money.

I've often wondered why an mmrpg doesn't try a money-less system, or at least make all gold BoP. .Bind-on-Purchase items could be bought for your BoP gold, whereas BoE items could only be swapped between players for something of the same item level. This would also put a stop to players spending big to power up their alts.- ok not everyone has an issue with that last point but I've always felt its a gimpy failure to play the game at its intended difficulty.

The game would forfeit an economy, but does every single game have to have one to be fun?

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Originally posted by badgerer
I've often wondered why an mmrpg doesn't try a money-less system, or at least make all gold BoP. .Bind-on-Purchase items could be bought for your BoP gold, whereas BoE items could only be swapped between players for something of the same item level. This would also put a stop to players spending big to power up their alts.- ok not everyone has an issue with that last point but I've always felt its a gimpy failure to play the game at its intended difficulty.
The game would forfeit an economy, but does every single game have to have one to be fun?
 

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Originally posted by Foomerang

 

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Originally posted by badgerer
I've often wondered why an mmrpg doesn't try a money-less system, or at least make all gold BoP. .Bind-on-Purchase items could be bought for your BoP gold, whereas BoE items could only be swapped between players for something of the same item level. This would also put a stop to players spending big to power up their alts.- ok not everyone has an issue with that last point but I've always felt its a gimpy failure to play the game at its intended difficulty.
The game would forfeit an economy, but does every single game have to have one to be fun?
 

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A barter system works. And it bolsters the economy while negating bots and farmers.

 

Have you seen this in a game?

Originally posted by birdycephon

Originally posted by arctarus
I don't think it'll work, First, this scroll have to be cheaper than wat the gold seller is selling, example a scroll cost $10 to buy and can exchange for 1000g,bit if the gold sellers is selling 1000g for $8 than no one will bother abt the scroll. Second, even if its the same price, why would a player go thru the hassle? And may have to wait for ppl to buy he's scrolls instead of getting the gold immediately from gold sellers? Third, I hate it when company do this, its like an item shop where the company is selling gold themselves, but in directly, if Tera really implement it, im not touching this game.

But that's how the EVE way is, the players determine how much in-game cash they want to sell their Token for. At least this way, players who are paranoid about buying gold from gold sellers can still buy gold without fear of getting banned or having their credit card number or money stolen.

Ive been edgy since blizz anounce D3 will have RMAH, hopefully this works for the common, but i dont know, will need to see how it pans out before i jump in...

I was already doubting if I should stay with Lineage II or try TERA, but with this, I'm very sure to skip TERA completely and stay in L2.

These chronoscrolls are nothing more than a legit way of EME to allow players to buy gold for real money. Meaning that you can buy ANYTHING you want if you pump enough money in it.

I've seen this at work in L2 before the Sept 2010 banhammer was released and ppl really bought millions of adena to get that one epic ring. Heck, I even heard of a friend who had an offer for an epic that exceeded 10K Euro (no kidding here).

With the chronoscrolls in place, players can do this the 'legit way'. All you have to do is buy 100 timecards, sell the keys ingame and then you have enough money to buy... No idea actually, was not in alpha/beta, but you het the drift...

I think EME just made the worse move ever for a starting MMO here

when eve did this i thought it was the most horrid thing ever, but now i'm glad they have it in game.

it really really cuts down on the number of ISK (gold) sellers.  plus, if you have a guildy who is on hard financial straits, you and your guildies can all chip in some currency and get him/her a couple plexes so you can enjoy their company while they get back on their feet.  also, (i do the following in eve) you can have a second account that you don't pay any cash for.

so long as gear is perishable in some fashion (important to make money worth something) it's a great idea.  I understand how folks would think otherwise but from a vet of a similar system, give it a chance.

Originally posted by badgerer

I've often wondered why an mmrpg doesn't try a money-less system, or at least make all gold BoP. .Bind-on-Purchase items could be bought for your BoP gold, whereas BoE items could only be swapped between players for something of the same item level. This would also put a stop to players spending big to power up their alts.- ok not everyone has an issue with that last point but I've always felt its a gimpy failure to play the game at its intended difficulty.

The game would forfeit an economy, but does every single game have to have one to be fun?

 

 Basically that's what Diablo II used to be because the gold was worthless in that game. So 75% of the games up with be "Want to trade x for y".

And then came about the idea for a world auction house, and every game since WOW has used some model of that. Implementing trades without some sort of currency is very hard, and the only game I've seen use it sucessfully (in conjuction with actual in game money) is via the EVE contract system.

I think it would be very interesting, and certainly wouldn't stop me from buying a game, if they didn't have currency, but had a worldwide trade house (instead of auction house). I've played a few F2P games without an AH and trading took forever and was very sloppy, so there does need to be some centrally themed trade worldwide trade system.

Originally posted by itchmon

when eve did this i thought it was the most horrid thing ever, but now i'm glad they have it in game.

 

it really really cuts down on the number of ISK (gold) sellers.  plus, if you have a guildy who is on hard financial straits, you and your guildies can all chip in some currency and get him/her a couple plexes so you can enjoy their company while they get back on their feet.  also, (i do the following in eve) you can have a second account that you don't pay any cash for.

 

so long as gear is perishable in some fashion (important to make money worth something) it's a great idea.  I understand how folks would think otherwise but from a vet of a similar system, give it a chance.

Gear is not perishable but not all gear is the same.  Stat's on gear is random (you can have multi-stats on weapons & armor) so inorder to have the best stats for your class is kinda hard to find or make,  but the game does allow you to reset your stats as many times as you want untill you get the stats your looking for but it comes at a price (the scrolls to do it cost money).  The game has enough money sinks to spend your gold on.

What the Chronoscrolls will do is allow players that have tons of free game time but no money to play games be able to play tera for free. 

Originally posted by Reizla

I was already doubting if I should stay with Lineage II or try TERA, but with this, I'm very sure to skip TERA completely and stay in L2.

These chronoscrolls are nothing more than a legit way of EME to allow players to buy gold for real money. Meaning that you can buy ANYTHING you want if you pump enough money in it.

I've seen this at work in L2 before the Sept 2010 banhammer was released and ppl really bought millions of adena to get that one epic ring. Heck, I even heard of a friend who had an offer for an epic that exceeded 10K Euro (no kidding here).

With the chronoscrolls in place, players can do this the 'legit way'. All you have to do is buy 100 timecards, sell the keys ingame and then you have enough money to buy... No idea actually, was not in alpha/beta, but you het the drift...

I think EME just made the worse move ever for a starting MMO here

THIS ideia about chronoscrolls is completely auto suicide, welll think of this :

They wanna have zero Live GM's on game and because they are already with financial problems in asia they are thinking any possible idea to get real money from players, well, better to play casino or poker online than to touch my hands on these kind of mmo's

Originally posted by pedrostrik

Originally posted by Reizla

I was already doubting if I should stay with Lineage II or try TERA, but with this, I'm very sure to skip TERA completely and stay in L2.

These chronoscrolls are nothing more than a legit way of EME to allow players to buy gold for real money. Meaning that you can buy ANYTHING you want if you pump enough money in it.

I've seen this at work in L2 before the Sept 2010 banhammer was released and ppl really bought millions of adena to get that one epic ring. Heck, I even heard of a friend who had an offer for an epic that exceeded 10K Euro (no kidding here).

With the chronoscrolls in place, players can do this the 'legit way'. All you have to do is buy 100 timecards, sell the keys ingame and then you have enough money to buy... No idea actually, was not in alpha/beta, but you het the drift...

I think EME just made the worse move ever for a starting MMO here

THIS ideia about chronoscrolls is completely auto suicide, welll think of this :

They wanna have zero Live GM's on game and because they are already with financial problems in asia they are thinking any possible idea to get real money from players, well, better to play casino or poker online than to touch my hands on these kind of mmo's

EnMasse has said that they will have live GMs on game. Also, Chronoscrolls don't make the company any additional money. All they are are monthly subscriptions which anyone can use.

Huh?  Have I missed something or did these guys just make everyone in the game a gold seller and allow everyone in the game to buy gold from someone else, didnt Trion just make themselfs the biggest gold seller?  Buy your "cough" scroll from us and sell it for gold!!  Oh and by the way you can use it for gametime.  Ha ha right.

Funny how they need 20 paragraphs to explain they are now selling gold to their customer base directly and has turned everyone in the game into a gold seller thereby swarting the evil third wold gold farmers.