how can that be legal?

[ladynadiad]

4 hours ago, Darling Baphomet said:

 

Going on ebay and giving someone money can also qualify as "minimal effort", certainly more effort than some of these games take.

 

Dealing with eBay might be frustrating at times, but last I checked it didn't take hours of time to find an item and pay for it unless something got messed up with your account and you have to actually call customer service.  We get it, you hate Ratalaika games, but playing them isn't on the same level as paying someone to unlock trophies for you.

Edited April 11, 2021 by ladynadiad

[Darling Baphomet]

8 minutes ago, ladynadiad said:

Dealing with eBay might be frustrating at times, but last I checked it didn't take hours of time to find an item and pay for it unless something got messed up with your account and you have to actually call customer service.  We get it, you hate Ratalaika games, but playing them isn't on the same level as paying someone to unlock trophies for you.

 

Find an item, pay for it, communicate details with the seller, and so on and so forth. Much more effort than some ezpz games which take mere minutes to unlock. Also bold to imply that Ratalaika games take hours, plural, of time to platinum.

 

Anyway, my point is, if you want to flood your profile with games you didn't put effort into platinuming, I don't see any objective reason why one method is "immoral" while the other isn't. It's your trophy list, and you're free to put as little effort into it as you like.

[SnowxSakura]

4 minutes ago, Darling Baphomet said:

 

Find an item, pay for it, communicate details with the seller, and so on and so forth. Much more effort than some ezpz games which take mere minutes to unlock. Also bold to imply that Ratalaika games take hours, plural, of time to platinum.

 

Anyway, my point is, if you want to flood your profile with games you didn't put effort into platinuming, I don't see any objective reason why one method is "immoral" while the other isn't. It's your trophy list, and you're free to put as little effort into it as you like.

As a long time seller, only about 1 out of 100 customers ever message me, they pay, I ship, and then they leave feedback once they've gotten their item. It has gotten extremely streamlined over the years

[StraightVege]

For some reason, I was under the impression that listings like these violate eBay's terms of service, but I guess was just imagining things again.

 

It's puzzling how one would get any satisfaction out of buying trophies, but whatever makes you happy, I suppose... Does seem like a fun way to make extra money, though!

[ladynadiad]

7 hours ago, Darling Baphomet said:

Anyway, my point is, if you want to flood your profile with games you didn't put effort into platinuming, I don't see any objective reason why one method is "immoral" while the other isn't. It's your trophy list, and you're free to put as little effort into it as you like.

 

If you don't get the difference between actually playing the game yourself and paying someone to play the game for you, then there's really nothing more any of us can say since you're missing the obvious.

7 hours ago, Darling Baphomet said:

Also bold to imply that Ratalaika games take hours, plural, of time to platinum.

 

It isn't bold of me.  Unlike you I actually have played some of their games and speak from experience rather than make false assumptions.  Only game I know of personally on PSN that takes less effort than paying someone to earn trophies for you is It's Spring Again, but that isn't a plat game and it's also not a Ratalaika game.

[Darling Baphomet]

4 minutes ago, ladynadiad said:

If you don't get the difference between actually playing the game yourself and paying someone to play the game for you, then there's really nothing more any of us can say since you're missing the obvious.

 

Not really, you've just drawn an arbitrary line in the sand and decided that it's an objective truth. I hate to break it to you, but trophy lists aren't a moral issue, no matter how obvious the... uh, ethical quandaries of trophy hunting are to you. That's my point.

 

5 minutes ago, ladynadiad said:

It isn't bold of me.  Unlike you I actually have played some of their games and speak from experience rather than make false assumptions.  Only game I know of personally on PSN that takes less effort than paying someone to earn trophies for you is It's Spring Again, but that isn't a plat game and it's also not a Ratalaika game.

 

Ok. But that wasn't my point. Did you miss the part where I was specifically commenting on you attributing multiple hours of playtime to the task of platinuming Ratalaika games? Obviously not, since you quoted that particular part; so I'm not sure where the confusion here lies.

[Shua_J]

First, I commend these young entrepreneurs for understanding a market that was not exactly obvious. 

Secondly, the people buying this service need to be monitored by the strongest we can offer in terms of mental health.

[DrBloodmoney]

@ladynadiad @Darling Baphomet

 

Using these kind of services in not a question of morality - such behaviour is not immoral...

but it is unseemly, ignoble and unsportsmanlike, particularly in a community built, at least to some extent, around a leaderboard.

 

To me, it feels little removed from save hacking (in fact, it may actually be save hacking, since the service is offering platinum that would normally take months with 'normal' timestamps - whatever they consider those to be, and since they do not offer PS5 - presumably because hacking apparently isn't possible on that system yet).

Ethically though, the fact that they do not reveal their methods in the advertisement for the services makes it less of an out-and-out infraction, and more of a murky grey area...

 

Technically the buyer is not actively doing the hacking, or specifically endorsing it...

but... 

Y'know...

 

It's basically the difference between paying a hitman to kill someone, and just paying a rather shifty character who is holding a gun in one hand, a shovel in the other, and standing next to his open car boot full of black-bags and Lime, to "solve a problem" for them.... and providing a photo and and address of the person who is 'the problem' ?

 

Their hands might strictly be clean, but it's hardly a noble act.

 

 

Even without knowing the method these services use though - and even giving a huge benefit of the doubt and assuming it is all 'legit' - that doesn't make using it less sleazy or unseemly.

I would, however, say the same about using Shareplay, considering that is also a method of having trophies unlocked by a 3rd party, and that is not only accepted by this site, it is endorsed.

 

 

 

 

Oh... and lay off Ratalaika games.

Stacks are bad, any game stacked 8- copies deep is gross, but some of those games are alright.

 

[Darling Baphomet]

6 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

Using these kind of services in not a question of morality - such behaviour is not immoral...

but it is unseemly, ignoble and unsportsmanlike, particularly in a community built, at least to some extent, around a leaderboard.

 

Well, that was the gist of my contribution (before the other mentioned was offended by my Ratalaika comments); the person I initially replied to called it immoral. If we're going to start branding effortless trophy acquisition as immoral, let's at least be consistent.

 

8 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

Oh... and lay off Ratalaika games.

Stacks are bad, any game stacked 8- copies deep is gross, but some of those games are alright.

 

I have no problem with the actual games, it's the trophy lists they're associated with that bother me, which is their primary relevance whenever they get mentioned here, since this is a trophy hunting forum.

[DrBloodmoney]

12 minutes ago, Darling Baphomet said:

 

Well, that was the gist of my contribution (before the other mentioned was offended by my Ratalaika comments); the person I initially replied to called it immoral. If we're going to start branding effortless trophy acquisition as immoral, let's at least be consistent.

 

I know - I was agreeing with you on this. Whatever your stance, trying to apply moral arguments to trophies is silly. 

 

12 minutes ago, Darling Baphomet said:

I have no problem with the actual games, it's the trophy lists they're associated with that bother me, which is their primary relevance whenever they get mentioned here, since this is a trophy hunting forum.

 

I can't in good conscience defend Ratalaika on the trophy stacks - there's no reason they should have so many. 

The lists are easy, yeah, and so are the games in most cases, but so are Telltale / Artifex Mundi etc.

 

Pity that stuff is overshadowing a fair few decent enough little games though - and making people like me who play some of them (once, or twice if they are good, and have a free vita version - not 8 times?) feel like I'm doing my profile dirty - and getting somehow looked down upon by people with Slyde and My Name is Mayo on their profiles ??

 

That part was just a post-script though - let's not take this thread down that road - it has been paved by plenty others before this one ?

Edited April 12, 2021 by DrBloodmoney

[Super_Mep]

On 4/9/2021 at 2:30 PM, PhyrxianLibrarin said:

Twist Ending: The seller is actually a member of the CRT and the whole listing is a honeypot to remove people from the leaderboards.

 

Directed by M. Night Shyamalan

You made me spit out my coffee. Thank you for that laugh hahaha