I'd like to announce a service I will be offering for Diablo 3 players.
Trusted third parties are a way of trading between players who are strangers and who have no reason to trust each other but want to make a non-simultaneous transaction. It's a practice used in Eve Online where it successfully protects people from scams and cheats.
Normally if you want to trade in the game you will just put the stuff in the trade window, double check then hit Accept. (Watch out for last minute switches!).
However for some trades it's not possible to do that. If you want to trade Hardcore gold and items for Softcore gold and items then you need to trade your Hardcore stuff to a Hardcore character and your Softcore stuff to a Softcore character.
Example: Bob wants to trade a Grandfather he found in Softcore for a good Wizard rare Sue found in Hardcore. Bob gives the Grandfather to me in the trade window along with a small fee in gold. Sue gives my level 1 Hardcore alt the rare in Hardcore. I screenshot the trades and send the screenshots to each player by email and wait for confirmation. When both confirm that they are happy with the trade I give Bob's Hardcore character the rare and give the Grandfather to Sue.
This allows players to trade in all sorts of innovative ways. Want to trade Age of Conan gold for D3 hardcore gold? No problem I'll have characters available in both to hold your stuff. Want to trade stuff on the American realm for stuff in Europe, hardcore to softcore? No problem.
What I don't do is find trades for you. If you want to trade your Grandfather for stuff in Hardcore you find a player and agree a trade. I just secure the transaction.
This service is completely legitimate and permitted within the TOS and the EULA of the games for which it is provided. Here's an example of a forum for a SOE game where players quite often trade between different games. Players can generally give items to other players in most online games without restriction. This is not a RMT or grey trading operation.
This service simply means people have more fun. The person burned out on Eve can trade his spaceships for a shiny big sword to the delight of the Eve newbie he deals with. The person who played in Europe when she was stationed here on military duty can exchange her stuff here for stuff she can use on her new characters when she goes back home.
So what makes Stabs a "trusted" person?
1) Self-interest. I get fees for doing this and if I rip someone off, no more customers, no more fees.
2) My blog presence. I've blogged on Stabbed Up since July 2009 and was commenting on many other people's blogs before then. I have invested a huge amount of time writing and have a good reputation in the blogging community. It also makes me very traceable in real life if a dispute became a legal matter.
3) My personality. If you read my blogs you will see that I am an honest and principled gamer with a history of principled action. I'm a decent person and I think you can see that from my writing.
4) My Diablo 2 community involvement. I was heavily involved in the Diablo 2 forums writing thousands of posts as Brista on the Amazon Basin and Lurker Lounge.
5) Feedback from satisfied customers. As this service continues I hope to receive feedback from players who use it. (There's none yet but give me time, the game hasn't started!).
Services offered:
Diablo 3 same mode same region trading. Only use this if it's a very valuable trade and you're paranoid about someone switching the item just as you click Accept.
Diablo 3 mode to mode trading. Hardcore to Softcore or Softcore to Hardcore.
Diablo 3 region to region trading. I'll update this as soon as I have characters available in different regions.
Diablo 3 gold and items for other game gold and items. If you want to swap your EQ2 gold for D3 gold or Eve isk for D3 gold then I can arrange it. (I don't currently have a WoW account so I can't offer this service in that game).
Basically I'll install most popular games that are free to play and I subscribe to Eve. Just ask me if you want to know if I cover a particular game. Games I certainly do cover include:
Eve Online
Everquest 2
Magic The Gathering: Tactics
Dungeons & Dragons Online
Age of Conan
No comments:
Post a Comment