Bio Engineer Archive
Thread: A Cautionary Tale to the BE's
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cro-daddy
Thu Jun 10, 2004 2:43 am
#1
Yes this does suck and you are all to corret. I too have been burned by the generocity bug.
I had made 150 of each buff pack and had them in crates. that is 900 packs. Those packs currently sell for over 10k a pack but just to make the math easy we will say 10k a pack. ( 9 million credits worth) I was leaving the profession as I was going to start holo grinding. I made my little way to cnet to attempt to spam the chats to try and sell them. Icie asks me about the buffs and I prceed to tell him about it. He says he doesnt have the money and could I front them to him and he would get me back. No i replied as that is way too much of a trust factor. I offered to split the crate and lend out 5 of each. Not that bad of a loss if he did dtiff me. Well 2 days later he comes back with the money for them. And asks for a bugger supply this time. I say okay he paid me back once he will again. So I offer him a discount since he tells me he is interested in eventually buying the whole lot. so 45 of eac pack i front him. Week goes by and I am standing in cnet when i get a tip for 1.5 mil. It was icie paying me my money. I was like cool. So I am thinking this guy is cool I might as well give him the other 100 and he can pay me the 3 mil later like he did this time. Well I havent seen him or his alt since. I do have him added to my friends list but I have yet to see him on, its been 3 months. I am not saying he cheated me or ripped me off, but he left me hanging, maybe he quit starwars, maybe in rl he had an accident i dont know but I am still out the 3 mil.
I also lent out Erath one ion generator and same results he hasnt been on since, so be weary not all of them are gonna rip ya off or even have that as thier intent, but things happen.
And yes I do hope you get your belongings back. I would spam his email and chat everyday till he either quits or gives you the stuff back.
Tansun
Thu Jun 10, 2004 5:35 am
#2
Ya - this type of stuff seems to be going around alot of late. Recently our whole guild hall was raped of all the prized posessions. One of the trusted members that had admin rights came in one day and cleaned everything out. Was a huge shock to the guild leader and the old timers in the guild (I had just joined 3 weeks earlier). I know I've granted rights to various people before to pick up an order or what not. But I'm not into decorating and stuff. So there isn't anything for people to take. I wish you luck.
Akelan
Thu Jun 10, 2004 6:57 am
#3
We keep a "drop pack" in a vendor tent near the shop, which we had set up in part for merchant exp and in part for the atmosphere - The tent is "Bubba's Bait & Tackle" and there is a vendor, his woolamander pet, a few fish trophies and little else except for a backpack on the wall, which friends and customers use to pass things back and forth, not only to us, but between each other as well. Putting someone on admin there is much safer than doing so in the shop, where I may have high level pets on display, and where my partner regularly displays the paintings she has available, and various looted rarities, as well as some designs that people can use in thier own decorating, using items she regularly stocks.
I can't imagine people so low in self esteem that they have to pretend to be thieves in virtual worlds. I'm a strong believer in expecting the best from someone and I quite often find it. It takes a good bit of work to make me "give up" on someone, though I trust less freely once burned. People make mistakes, and do things unmindful of their consequences, but this is just far beyond a simple mistake, and the person who did this deserves the reputation for it completely. You are being much more forgiving that I would be in not mentioning their name.
LLan
Centurion
Thu Jun 10, 2004 8:12 am
#4
I put up an auction awhile ago for four non-CH BE mounts. Bidding goes on the auction ends and I try to contact all the winners. Everything is hunky dorey on three of them but I never seem to manage to get ahold of the last one.
Finally I arrange a meeting. It's outside Spam Central (otherwise known as Coronet) so things are scrolling by my chat window at a frantic pace and it's hard to see what we're saying to each other. He bank tips me twice (according to him) for half of the amount each time. When I check my gmail I see one tip notice from the bank for 20k and one from him. Odd. The more I thought about it the more I came to the conclusion he pulled a scam on me.
I didn't call him on it or anything since 20k is paltry when compared to how much a decent BE with decent resources can make from a reliable chef customer for a full factory run of tissues. In fact three or four missions on Dant or any of the other Angry planets will make up for it plus travel costs.
But set up your meetings with customers in places where you can easily track the conversations. Or don't get upset by people who are less than honorable.
Finally I arrange a meeting. It's outside Spam Central (otherwise known as Coronet) so things are scrolling by my chat window at a frantic pace and it's hard to see what we're saying to each other. He bank tips me twice (according to him) for half of the amount each time. When I check my gmail I see one tip notice from the bank for 20k and one from him. Odd. The more I thought about it the more I came to the conclusion he pulled a scam on me.
I didn't call him on it or anything since 20k is paltry when compared to how much a decent BE with decent resources can make from a reliable chef customer for a full factory run of tissues. In fact three or four missions on Dant or any of the other Angry planets will make up for it plus travel costs.
But set up your meetings with customers in places where you can easily track the conversations. Or don't get upset by people who are less than honorable.
SchrodingersCat
Thu Jun 10, 2004 12:02 pm
#5
My greetings,
My apologies for the off-topic post. Knowing full well that many of you do not play on Bria, I'd like to share this with the professions of SWG.
What I'm about to tell you was stupid, was idiotic, was something that many of you will think to yourself, "Good lord, man, you should have known better." And you'd be right. Why am I sharing this with you? Because I want to remind everyone of the wide assortment of real life personalities that exist in SWG. That, while a game, SWG has real people that populate the servers. Most of those people are quite friendly, courteous individuals. Please take what you will from this story. I know I certainly learned a lesson.
Someone I considered an in-gamefriend came to me asking for some schematics to help him master Armorsmith. My alt has the necessary tailor skills to craft the cloths he needed and, being a friend, I agreed to make the schematics.
While waiting, I chatted with a guildmate. It wasn't long before he showed up at the shuttleport and we attempted a trade, realizing at this time he was an overt imperial and I was a neutral. Not a problem, we'll go to my house, I'll give him admin access, he can drop the necessary resources, I'll craft the schems, log my imperial character and trade the schems throughhim.
Why did I think this was the best method? The player I considered a friend plays on dialup. Rather than trading through the imperial character twice, it seemed more expedient to allow him admin access to drop the resources and trade through the imperial character only once.
Upon arriving at my house, he began to look around. I have a fairly nice collection of paintings on the wall, a few moderately rare items on display including a force crystal and an ATST suit. I was rather proud of my little collection. It wasn't anything to rival some of the museums on Bria, but I thought it was rather nice. As a rather new player, naturally I assumed he was checking the place out. Little did I know, that's exactly what was happening.
The guildmate I was speaking with earlier dropped by needing a Swoop and, him having all the resources on hand, I was more than happy to help him out. I prefer to keep to a line of sorts, wanting to finish up with my friend's schematics before crafting the Swoop. After a few minutes of him running around, me trying to get him to drop the resources, him asking what resources, me looking it up in the crafting tool, he said he had to log. Well, okay then. I'll do it when he get's back.
In the basement of my Tatooine house, I keep my crafting stations. I and my guildie run downstairs and I whip uphis Swoop (59% durability, bah) run upstairs and, for the first time realize that just about everything of any rarity in my house was gone.
Did I send him a tell? Absolutely. In fact, I admit I used words the forums regularly edit out. I even got a response. Except for the curse, verbatum:
- "ya i kinda actd like a--hole"
- "well g'luck"
- "/tiphat"
I'm not going to ask people to shun thaed stormlight. I'm not going to ask people to grief him. In fact, I want nothing more from this post than to remind everyone that real people inhabit our fictional world, that every personality imaginable exists within it's electronic borders. My thanks to you for reading this lengthy post. Good luck and May the Force be with you.
Kevie
Thu Jun 10, 2004 12:33 pm
#6
that sucks
something very similar happened on kettemoor recently
only the stupid person opened up her shop to two complete strangers who stole a suit of bounty hunter armor and some force crystals
she got the stuff back in the end and i hope it happens that way for you
makes you really wonder who you CAN trust
i'm glad the people i've given trust to haven't abused it, people like this make it hard for me to open trust to many others though 
SomeUser
Thu Jun 10, 2004 2:32 pm
#7
I got burned twice lending money out.
The first was me just being stupid and I should have known better... I get a random /tell asking for 20k... I talk with the guy for a bit and he seems nice enough. He tells me he will bank tip me back the next day... Never heard from him again.
The second time I was in Theed doing "profession searches" on Artisans, Architects, ArmorSmiths, and Weaponsmiths for some nice UbEr SR material for my new AV-21 schematic and powerplant I had bought...Most of the tells were unanswered..
One of the guys who responded told me he would look...Few minutes later he comes back and reports what he has.... Anyhow, after a bit I conclude he doesnt have what I need but thank him for his time... He asks what it is for and I tell him my AV-21... He then proceeds to ask if he could borrow 10k for some reason (I forget the reason). Isaid no at first but he persisted that he really needed it and that heswears he will pay me back... So I tip him the money and he says thanks... Never hear from him again LoL
The last one was the last straw for me. Voke shall never again lend money out to strangers 
Vezek
RonninOtnemem
Fri Jun 11, 2004 11:39 am
#8
I've done the same thing. Someone, a very newbish player, asks for a little help, I talk to them for a bit, finally decide to give in and tip 5k... 10k... 16k... 20k... 50k... and yes, 250k 
So far, I've been partially repaid by two of those people
Oh well, just a game 
Talthazar
Sat Jun 12, 2004 12:10 am
#9
Sadly, having played MMO's since UO in 98 I can't escape that this is the way of things in MMO's. The total annonimity often makes people feel they can do anything without consequence, usually rightly so. There's few people I would "lend" money to and expect to give it back - primarily a select few people that I've known in several MMO since and including UO.
For the most part, when someone you don't know asks you to lend them money, you should replace lend with give. I always ignore these people as most are probably professional beggers, especially if they claim to be newbs. That doesn't mean you shouldn't be helpful, I like to tip people that are asking newb questions. "Where do I go to buy such and such" or "How do I make money in this game" will often get a helpful answer and a some cash in response.
I've seen a lot of bad things happen to people over the years in these things. I've seen people lose houses in UO(where houses were next to impossible to get), rare items in AC, even whole characters becuase they trusted someone with their password(never ever ever give someone your password, I don't care how well you think you know them). My best advice is never trust strangers. Secure trades are there for a reason and you should always always use them. You should always be cautious of people you know even when it comes to items of exrame value. There's always the chance of them either being tempted by the value or simply having gained your confidenceto find a way to rip you off. Too much paranioa is no good, but a little caution will go a long way to keeping your gaming experience from being ruined.
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