22 replies to this topic

[Kyle]

Don't discuss the actual ratio!

Those of us who have been on the cheating scene for a long time will remember that only a few years ago, the ratio was literally 10x what it is now. The cheating community is as large as ever, but TnT has been very clear that they are trying to remove NP from the economy (Lever of Doom avatar, HT Riches avatars, 100k wheel, and most recently Wishing Well avatar). Will this ratio ever go back up, or is the underground NP economy dying?

Discuss

[ch33psh33p]

Its not dying, there's just sooooo many neopoints going around.

If you look at HB, there's literally about 10 billion worth of neopoints being sold on the first page, and sometimes 4-5 billion being sold by the same person. Illegit means of cracking accounts means people want to sell quickly, driving down the price for EVERYONE.

Its unavoidable, and won't go back up till TNT improves account security.

[Waser Lave]

It started going downhill with score sending then was made a lot worse by unregistered emails and more recently generated items. If people weren't so greedy the price could have stayed higher.

[Nymh]

If TNT would freeze more people, this wouldn't be an issue.

Also, just because NP is devalued on other sites doesn't mean we have to follow suit. I say that our NP is worth more because it is more legit, therefore we should charge more for it.

Everyone raise your prices across the board.

[Kyle]

Its not dying, there's just sooooo many neopoints going around.

If you look at HB, there's literally about 10 billion worth of neopoints being sold on the first page, and sometimes 4-5 billion being sold by the same person. Illegit means of cracking accounts means people want to sell quickly, driving down the price for EVERYONE.

Its unavoidable, and won't go back up till TNT improves account security.

So WILL they ever improve account security? I just feel like it's a dead market at this point. Unless you're doing things on a large scale (10+ accounts), it's impossible to make anything at this game anymore.

It started going downhill with score sending then was made a lot worse by unregistered emails and more recently generated items. If people weren't so greedy the price could have stayed higher.

That's always the problem. This is why we cant have nice things.

What do you think Waser? Will the price rise again?

[ch33psh33p]

If TNT would freeze more people, this wouldn't be an issue.

Also, just because NP is devalued on other sites doesn't mean we have to follow suit. I say that our NP is worth more because it is more legit, therefore we should charge more for it.

Everyone raise your prices across the board.

Nobody will do this, because then people will just stop buying from them all together.

[Waser Lave]

What do you think Waser? Will the price rise again?

Not for a very, very long time (if ever).

[Nymh]

Nobody will do this, because then people will just stop buying from them all together.

I think that's bullshit. If we can't even support our own fellow cheaters by buying whatever NP we want from them instead of finding the lowest bidder elsewhere then we aren't much of a community.

Support local business, shop locally.

[Kyle]

I think that's bullshit. If we can't even support our own fellow cheaters by buying whatever NP we want from them instead of finding the lowest bidder elsewhere then we aren't much of a community.

Support local business, shop locally.

People from other sites will hear about the higher ratio and come undercut us. If registration was closed as it used to be, we could maybe get away with this.

On the issue of generated items, can TnT not track that anymore? Because dupes used to be instant ice

[Rainie]

People from other sites will hear about the higher ratio and come undercut us...

Well most other sites sell illegit NPs, and some users will only/want to buy legit NPs

[Romy]

Ugh. I remember when I first came to teh site, the NP:Other Ratio was 1m=2 other.

Now its plummeted. Something I noticed though is tht alot of traders are selling their wares at the same price.

*shrugs*

[Therion]

I suspect it will keep falling until it's no more profitable than turning the computer off and saving on power bills. With the accounts stolen, items being generated and sold to unsuspecting users, almost everything new requiring NC to get, a site with so many filters and banned topics that, if it were any other place would come off with a really creepy sense of forced naivety and a support team that I'm convinced is just a segment of tape over a delete key, neopets is slowly losing players. Slowly losing players means the market is shrinking, with more and more people turning to cheating even less people feel the need to buy their NP.

It might increase slightly in the future if the team behind the site get their act together, but I get the feeling this is a company that would rather put efforts into a 'new' game they they can market alongside neopets, completely replacing it as their focus once the NC mall profits stop rolling in quite so quickly.

Then again, I'm a pessimistic and cynical.

[Turnip]

So WILL they ever improve account security?

Heheh probably not. And knowing how things are with TNT nowadays, if they did "fix" it, they would more than likely just mess up in some huge way and make it broken/exploits everywhere, then not do anything about it for a good month or so, maybe more :V because EVERYTHING IS FINE AND DANDY AS LONG AS NEW NC CONTENT IS RELEASED, RIGHT?


RIGHT???

(I mean seriously, there are so many glitches that have been on Neo for ages now and nothing has been done to fix them >.>)

[ch33psh33p]

The security is so bad right now..
Pins mean nothing, birthdays mean nothing.

[FEMACIA]

Inflation can only go down if less NP is put into the economy than it is being taken out.

With the exception of dupes, those billions and billions of points are all generated by your average [insert Neopet player here] grinding away at mini-games and random events. One thing to keep in mind is that in contrast to other MMOs, Neopets have been around for a long, long time. What's seen today is the result of years and year's of work. You could theoretically fix the issue by stemming the flow (closing the faucet) - eg. cutting all NP gains by half. I guarantee you that'd piss off a lot of players, but you should be able to see some effect within ... a year, if math does well.

This is, of course, assuming that the people with substantial wealth doesn't suddenly stop and panic and stop buying altogether, which would create undesirable effects.

Edited by FEMACIA, 11 December 2011 - 03:00 PM.

[unworthy]

They should really implement many parts around the site that are np sinks but completely not necessary for the game. I've seen in a forum that uses"forum gold" you can pay small amounts to change the color of your text each time you type something.

If it were me I would just increase the cost of all the items in the game, the main shop price.


One thing that I never understood was why the neopian lottery paid so well compared to the real lottery. They dont even take a cut of the points and absorb anything.

It really really sucks that everything is based on real money and not just the game. They could easily make it so that the ssw costed like 100 np a search or something, they could make new nc items cost NEOPOINTS, wow make non tradeable items cost np so that each player has to individually buy them, that would just be logical.

Edited by unworthy, 11 December 2011 - 03:38 PM.

[Spirited]

I haven't been around so long to see it drop 10x but when I joined till now, it has dropped 3x.
I don't aspire to earn a lot from it, though. All I want is to be able to sustain my advance membership. xD

To add to the discussion, I don't think the ratio will go back up so quickly in the mean time. Most buyers would have this mindset that "Hey I can buy it cheaper, so why should I buy it from you for a higher price?". Those selling at a cheaper rate doesn't necessary mean they have gotten the NP illegitly, it may mean they want to quicksell it. I suppose most buyers are willing to take this risk?

It's easy to get NPs but not easy to get $.

[ch33psh33p]

Indeed, the biggest problem is just that its too easy to fucking get rich in this game.

[Areva]

This happens in all MMO games. Even as the legit playerbase gets larger, the botting/cheating portion grows faster than that, so more and more NPs are being generated per anyone who would want to buy any.

I guess, if you really wanted to make money, try searching hard for those small start up games that look like they might succeed.

And the ruin their game by botting/cheating!

[Darkthrone]

@Unworthy - Neo isn't going to do that because it's of none of their concern as to how much a cheater can get for their illegitimate points, If anything they'll do things to devalue NP even more.

I highly doubt the rate will rise and even if it does there's always going to be competition. It's currently too easy to get a hold of large sums of NP and too many people are exploiting these weaknesses. It will only be when Neo decides to do something about their security that the rate will go back up, and even then once a secret gets out about another exploit (because there's always people who can't keep their mouth shut) it would fall back down and people will start crazy undercutting again.

[Kyle]

This thread doesn't make me optimistic for ever being able to make money at Neo again.

[Pavement]

Don't forget the current population is at an all time low. Couple years back sunday nights wouldn't even be as low as it is now.