Morningstar wrote:
Kess wrote:
Well, I hate to reinforce someone's fears but remember Alombar42?
I believe he was the richest player on the site. He was frozen hmm... late last year? ...for not abiding by the spirit of neopets. He had by his own estimate 11 billion in NP, SDB and shop stock, although it may have been closer to 13 billion.
When you have over 10 billion NP in items and NP, then you should start worrying.
I was the one to point out (on PPT, anyway) this freezing last year. And at the time, I thought it was totally unjust. Then I learned that alombar that several accounts. And, I know from personal experience, that all of his shops that sold the same items--mainly easy to sells like neggs and map pieces. And, all at the same price. Which could cause the price of certain items--like neggs and map pieces--to be subject to price fixing. Meaning, that if 5 out of 8 shops are selling a negg for 2800 nps, you don't have a chance in hell at selling it for anything higher than that. Price fixing, just like in the real world. It may not have been intentional, but it still occurred. I was one of those people trying to sell neggs and lab map pieces at the time. And, it was frustrating.
I realize that there is nothing in black and white in the rules about it, and I feel sorry for alombar because of that. But, the rules do give a vague warning about using "your other accounts to attempt to gain an unfair advantage over other users." Which price fixing could be interpreted as being.
So, I don't think it was the amount of nps amassed, but the way in which they were amassed that caused the freezings.
Still and all, I do believe that Neo should write something about this type of thing in the rules--so it is clear to everyone. Because, I don't believe that anyone with as many nps as alombar would do anything against the rules to jeopardize their account.
Well, google is definitely a great thing - even if I make it here a bit late
So... I had some 600 mils in cash (all accts) and estimated value of all accts was about 5 billions (it is not easy to value precious items).
True: I was playing with 7 accounts, 5 of them with shops, 1 gallery and 1 backup, never used. Two of them were handed to me long ago.
BUT Adam knew very well, since my first million, how I was playing, how I was making nps, all my accts, etc etc. Quite a few mails had been exchanged. If he/they didn't like that, I should be notified - at least.
Note that I was actually playing all those accts, taking care of them (since my only interest in the game was the nps, I was making nps from each shop separately, using my main acct as repository: all accts would make their profit by themselves. In other words, I was playing like 6 different people, thus spending 6 times more time there, which is easy to be proven
No "unfair advantage", IMO (but my or anyone's opinion does not matter: it's their game).
True: I was manipulating the price of certain items, stocking thousands of them (and taking the risk of losing a lot). 20K dubloon coins and another so many scratchies were some of these items.
BUT after some time (after the first 100 mils?), the game becomes boring: same ways, same results, more and more nps - this is how I started collecting (curiosity: "what if" or "can I" I take the price 50% higher?). From time to time I was losing lots from this, but overall I was making much more than my losses.
Note that monopolies etc are not part of the rules. There are no (and should be no) rules for fair play. The rules never enforce methods of playing - this is a programming issue. It is like DOOM stopping you from using, say, five weapons (if you could do that), because "rule is you can't win this way".
If the game itself does not enforce a way of playing (you can't eat 20 food items at once), the rules should not ("do not eat more than 20 food items because you will ruin the food subsystem").
True: The game becomes frustrating for some, if a few like "alombar42" do the same thing (like price control).
BUT everyone made their way playing this very same game, going through all those "alombars" of that time, and with even less restrictive rules. Or was I the one single person that invested monopolies from nowhere?
As for frustration... why don't they freeze everyone selling for more than say 10% of the buying price? Isn't this frustrating enough?? Or maybe disable shops at all? Why private shops, if there are system shops that sell at fair prices?
True: no one at the top would risk their accounts with anything like cheating - and TNT know this very well.
BUT, what they don't know is their own game and the ways to make loads of nps quite fast (if anyone in TNT can make more, using same starting point, I'd love to be taught). You see, they are programmers and support personnel, not players.
Thanks for the comments, but don't be fooled: I was NOT frozen for my playing - I was frozen for my status (and maybe my mouth).
alombar42