Growing Black Market in game

Hi Kabam,
I saw similar kind of post some-days back, but want to explain seriousness of the issue.I dont know if you kabam is already aware of this but standard players are in directly getting effected.
Some leader/officers are encouraging black market resource seller to donate/sell donations for others, Previously it was random as many players were able to afford the donations but as map7 donations are relatively higher for an average player, the black market resource seller expanded drastically.
Due to cutoff for donations most alliances are either keeping a shell alliance for offseason to accommodate the doner accounts or allowing the account for 9days in the alliance.
These seller charging 5-7$ per week donations.
Why its effecting the average player?
Creating big gap between average alliance who can afford map6 and top alliances
Encouraging Donations seller to run arena bot or other hack methods to collect more resources to sell (Increasing arena cutoffs)
Players are bound to an alliances (leadership/officers dictations) as they can't leave freely as they have paid for bulk donations.

This can leads to more frustrations among average players if these black markets keep on growing .
I hope kabam can put full stop to these kind of Merc and make alliances more transparent towards players.

Comments

unknown

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Lormif

1) this is not against the rules
2) you are not bound, start your own alliance to join one that does not require bulk donations

MagicBenton

1) this is not against the rules
2) you are not bound, start your own alliance to join one that does not require bulk donations

So paying another player to donate in-game resources to you isn’t against the rules? I think Kabam would disagree. Just pretty hard, if not impossible, to prove/prevent.

The easiest way to fix this would be to stop all the bots running arenas. The majority of the black market donations would dry up if they weren’t able to farm them via bots.

Lormif

Can you please point to the rule being broken specifically?

MagicBenton

There are a few other rules in the TOS that probably apply here as well, but that is the most obvious one.

Lormif

now define "site items"... They define the term "site items" as things you need to buy with units, which does not fit the definition of BC, gold, or loyalty. That word is very vague. in addition are not buying gold, BC, or Loyalty, you are buying a donation service.

This type of behavior has been supported by kabam ever since the original gifting badge. They did not shut that down because people were trading things for real world money, but because people were using stolen CCs and they had no option for it.

unknown

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MagicBenton

now define "site items"... They define the term "site items" as things you need to buy with units, which does not fit the definition of BC, gold, or loyalty. That word is very vague. in addition are not buying gold, BC, or Loyalty, you are buying a donation service.

This type of behavior has been supported by kabam ever since the original gifting badge. They did not shut that down because people were trading things for real world money, but because people were using stolen CCs and they had no option for it.

Nowhere do they define Site Items as “things you need to buy with units.” It is vague on purpose to cover all the in-game items under one term. In reference to “buying a donation service” lol...You can call it whatever you want, but that doesn’t change the fact you are paying money for an exchange of something in game.

The only thing you are right about is that they did (and do) condone gifting. Gifting is not against the TOS. There is a gifting event every December. However, when you give something to someone in exchange for money, by definition, it is no longer a gift. And that is what is against the TOS.

In addition, your assumption on why the gifting badge was taken away is unfounded. They said it was taken away because it was being abused. Stolen cc’s are just one way it could have, and was, being abused. Please feel free to point out where Kabam said they were not removing the badge because players were exchanging items for money, but because if credit card fraud.

Finally, if you believe Kabam condones or supports players trading anything in their game for money, you’re either crazy or stupid. I make it a point not to argue with either type of people.

Lormif

now define "site items"... They define the term "site items" as things you need to buy with units, which does not fit the definition of BC, gold, or loyalty. That word is very vague. in addition are not buying gold, BC, or Loyalty, you are buying a donation service.

This type of behavior has been supported by kabam ever since the original gifting badge. They did not shut that down because people were trading things for real world money, but because people were using stolen CCs and they had no option for it.
Nowhere do they define Site Items as “things you need to buy with units.” It is vague on purpose to cover all the in-game items under one term. In reference to “buying a donation service” lol...You can call it whatever you want, but that doesn’t change the fact you are paying money for an exchange of something in game.

The only thing you are right about is that they did (and do) condone gifting. Gifting is not against the TOS. There is a gifting event every December. However, when you give something to someone in exchange for money, by definition, it is no longer a gift. And that is what is against the TOS.

In addition, your assumption on why the gifting badge was taken away is unfounded. They said it was taken away because it was being abused. Stolen cc’s are just one way it could have, and was, being abused. Please feel free to point out where Kabam said they were not removing the badge because players were exchanging items for money, but because if credit card fraud.

Finally, if you believe Kabam condones or supports players trading anything in their game for money, you’re either crazy or stupid. I make it a point not to argue with either type of people.

1) they specifically stated it was due to fraud that they removed it due to fraud and exploitation, what other fraud and exploitation could they mean with regards to this? You say my statement is unfounded, but hat is completely false:

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/129540/suspension-of-gifting-and-gifting-badge#latest

Sim card and cc fraud (related) are about the only way this could cause something like this. You say there are many other ways, but yet define none of them.

2) people were routinely using gifting as a way to pay for things like out of game line artwork and as a kind of patronage, and they had no issues with that, which is essentially the same thing.

3) they define site items like this

You acknowledge that the Services may include a component of fictional credits or currency sometimes called “Points” (collectively, “Virtual Currency”). The Virtual Currency may be used exclusively within the Services to gain access to and certain limited rights to use virtual items for use exclusively within the Services (“Site Items”)

yes it is vague, but it is so vague as to be able to be stated that it does not cover this.,

Mellie_Mel

I’m so sick of people complaining about this!! Either start your own alliance and run it the way you want, or stop crying about how SOME alliances are being run and get on board! I could not care less if people are spending cash money OUTSIDE of the game for donations. That doesn’t impact me one bit. It’s pretty obvious that the ones complaining about this want so desperately to be in a top alliance but just can’t seem to keep up. Not everyone gets a trophy boys and girls. Either find a way to keep up, or settle for being second tier. Either way, shut up already with the crying about donations and shells.