Buying Swtor Credits Banned

Hot off the presses comes word on one thing that has crossed my mind while I have been playing the game so far since launch and that is the question of whether or not Bioware is going to be as aggressive as other companies have been in getting control of their in game economy via banning or suspension.  As my inbox fills with spam, power leveling advertisements, offers to sell me credits and such, I have been wondering this for sure.

On average as it is now I get about two whispers a day and a in game email, I report them all and ignore them but they do not stop.  While this does not seem like an insane amount I have to wonder when factored in among all the players of the game just how big of a problem this is.  I have seen in the past in a MMO just how bad things like this can become and just how much damage they can do to a in game economy.  That is why I was very glad to see them address this issue as to some of the steps they have been taking to fight things like exploiting a in game mechanic to farm credits.

Recently, in this forum post on the official forums, Stephen Reid had this to say about steps they have recently taken to try to combat this situation:

Our Terms of Service team recently took action against some accounts playing Star Wars: The Old Republic, and we wanted to give you some insight into what happened and why.

First, action was taken against a number of accounts for what’s commonly known as ‘gold farming’ – or in our case, credit farming. These accounts were found to be exploiting the game in a variety of ways to maximize their credits in order to sell them to other players. Our Terms of Service team took action against these accounts and removed them permanently from the game.

Second, a smaller number of accounts were warned or temporarily suspended for exploiting loot containers on Ilum. To be completely clear, while players may choose to travel to Ilum earlier than the recommended level (40+) and may loot containers if they can get to them, in the cases of those customers that were warned or temporarily suspended, they were systematically and repeatedly looting containers in very high numbers resulting in the game economy becoming unbalanced.

None of these accounts were banned for their actions and no accounts have been banned for travelling to Ilum while still relatively low level. By comparison, the number of accounts that were warned or temporarily suspended was considerably lower than the number of accounts banned for ‘credit farming’.

It’s important to remember that our Terms of Service team is extremely careful and thorough in their investigation of any potential exploit or unusual activity in-game. Working closely with the development team and using extensive metrics based on player activity, they are able to determine what is normal player activity, what is unusual and what is exploiting. Our goal is always to ensure a fair game experience for all players while also protecting the rights of individuals, and if people are disrupting the play experience for others action will be taken.

While we will not discuss the details of any individual action, whenever we take action against an account we believe they have clearly broken our Terms of Service. Any action taken against an account can be appealed and in some cases actions have been rescinded.

While we understand people’s concern about actions taken against accounts, please remember the Terms of Service team exists to help ensure a balanced and fair game experience for all. When you see reports of actions taken against someone’s account, remember they are choosing to tell their version of the story – and there are two sides to every story.

In summary, our Terms of Service team took action against a number of accounts that were ‘credit farming’ to remove them permanently from the game. They also warned and temporarily suspended – but did not ban – a smaller number of accounts for activities on Ilum that were decided to be game exploits.

Some adjustments will be made to Ilum in the near future to discourage future exploits. However, the planet is still open to anyone who wishes to travel there.

The goal of the Star Wars: The Old Republic team is to maintain a service for our customers that is fun to play and equitable for everyone. Critical to this goal is making sure that gameplay is fair and reasonable and we are constantly on the lookout for anything that would prove to be a detriment to your gameplay experiences.

Thanks for reading, and we hope this gave you some insights.

So from that I can gather that yes they are actively working on getting out of the game those people who would seek to destroy the in game economy via credit farming, exploiting and selling, and that they are looking to learn and change in game mechanics to combat these types of things from happening in the future.  This gives me hope that in the future when the in game economy does finally stabilize after release that it might be a place where I would like to buy and sell my goods whether crafted or looted and that I can actually make a fair profit without some of the over inflated nonsense prices I have seen that are a direct result of currency selling.

What do you think am I dreaming or could it be possible?

Bioware has finally taken actions against credit sellers and spammers in SWTOR, closing several loopholes with the latest patch.

Credit Sellers and Spammers | 10.04.2016, 09:11 AM

Hey folks,

As you may know from previous posts on the topic, when it comes to credit sellers we will often do a large takedown at one time. This allows us to have the largest impact on the credit sellers without them being able to react. Today was one of those instances.
With today’s maintenance we acted on a few different initiatives to help curb the in-game chat and mail spam of credit sellers. Some examples of what was done today include:

• Banning of thousands of credit selling accounts.
• Closing a loophole in an existing promotion, that allowed credit sellers to quickly and easily make accounts which could send you in-game mail and access the fleet.
• Made adjustments to some existing automated functions to better catch credit sellers.
• And more… (we don’t want to reveal everything we are doing to the credit sellers

Keep in mind that when it comes to catching credit sellers, as we make adjustments, so do they. It is a constant game of cat and mouse, but it is one that we will continue to focus on aggressively. For this reason, it is important that you continue to always report these spammers and credit sellers as you see them. I know sometimes it seems like we aren’t taking action, but I promise that your reports are critical in our ability to find and take action against credit sellers.

-eric

SWTOR developers have took down a credit selling ring spanning hundreds of accounts and confiscated 9 billion credits from them.

Taking Down a Credit Selling Ring | 05.06.2015, 06:12 PM

Hey folks,

Over the past few months there have been many issues with Credit sellers and Advertisers. As you have noticed lately, we’re communicating more about what’s going on behind the scenes, so this is another area where we plan to keep you informed.

Last week, we took action against an entire selling ring. Over multiple weeks, we investigated and compiled evidence about a large Credit selling ring which spanned across hundreds of accounts and a variety of servers. To help thwart any possible reactions from this group, we simultaneously actioned every account in this Credit selling ring. In total, we banned hundreds of accounts and removed over nine billion credits from those accounts.

Thanks to all of you who have been diligently reporting those pesky spammers and other characters acting suspiciously anywhere throughout our game. They are very persistent, but we will continue to aggressively remove credit sellers and advertisers from our game!

-eric