Empire Auction Rules - READ BEFORE POSTING

Thank you your super helpful and an awesome community manager. I remember the day you got the job. That was a great day in EMC.

Just to be clear, on the ending time, can I set a specific date/time to end rather than the typical 48 hours after the last valid bid?

So:
Auction Ends at 10:00pm Saturday 3/25/17
or
Auction Ends in 96hours to last bidder

You can put a specific ending date/time if you wish
Either of your examples are within the rules.

If you have an auction, can you offer same product to other bidders at either ending bid or their last bid through a PM?

Yes as long as it's both the items that are sold. For example, you have 2 dcs of glowstone and then auction a DC. You can sell that other DC to another. If that's what you mean

Thanks Finch_Rocks_1, the question is about that but a bit deeper. If you and someone else both bid on say, a DC of purpur blocks, I do have 2 DCS but only auction 1. the other person bids 10k and your last bid was 9k. Can I off in a PM my other DC to you for 9k or does that go against auction rules?

Nope. That's 100% fine.

I would never offer the auctioned item, wow, that would be bad.... thanks for clarifications everyone.

So a friend of mine (who needs a good spanking when they come back online ) overlooked an auction and their payment got overdue. Thankfully enough players also involved me into the whole thing so we could settle this incident. Someone owes me money now

More serious though...

Auction rule suggestion: When a player fails to pay for a winning auction within the required period + a (2 day?) threshold then I think they should be held accountable and pay a 3% added penalty fee to the auction host. Maybe we could even streamline this further: when the host deems the need to get staff involved and the player has indeed not paid within the required time then the 3% rule should apply in my opinion.

When they still don't respond or whatever and suddenly spring back to live then I'd say this should even be allowed to get raised up to 5 or 6% at the staffs discretion.

Thing is: you can get staff involved but all that eventually does is penalize the player breaking the rules, but nothing changes for the host. If you already sent the items then good luck to you, you won't be getting a refund. If you missed other auctions or obligations because you expected the money: same thing, nothing is done for you. Even though you're the one who got the worst part out of the whole deal.

And I think some rules should also be keeping the players best welfare in mind.

Heck: if the auction winner is really sincere they'll understand (or at least respect) how this situation could have seriously hindered the auction host and should be happy to pay the fee.

For the record: I just applied this rule to an overdue auction because I thought it was the only fair thing to do.

In situations like these, it is always best to get staff involved. Staff actually do more than just penalize the other player, we will work with the player who is affected by this situation to either return their items/funds or retrieve the items/funds needed for the transaction from the other player's account. In every situation, the player is protected.

However, I would like to point out:

The auction rules clearly state that you should not place a bid unless you have the funds available in your account at the time the bid is placed. In this situation, yes the player is at fault because they did not follow auction rules.

While I understand the purpose of your suggestion, I believe that it is too complicated. While EMC does have a mature player base, we also have many younger players would would not understand how these fees and such work. In my opinion, this would only frustrate them and cause further issues for staff down the line.

Also, fees/fines are not something that EMC uses for punishment. The current punishment system we use for these situations has been effective so far, and is clearly stated on the auction rules page:

That would be a new one, I've heard otherwise quite a few times.

Where did this come from?

Thing is: I'm talking about the scenario when a player for whatever reason delays the payment. Never mentioned anything about players bidding while not in possession of the required payment. Of course this is a situation which should also be taken into account, but you kinda respond out of the blue here.

So basically you say that people can do the 'crime' without any (visible) consequences. Which is also an issue which plenty of players raised in other (totally unrelated, so we won't go there) issues or disagreements as well.

Each to their own of course but I fail to understand what could be so complicated about "you make a mistake, so you're held accountable for that mistake". That's also how things normally work in real life, so when this happens to younger players I'd say it can also be an excellent life lesson.

Or so you think. This suggestion wasn't a sporadic idea, it's based on comments I've heard from several people regarding this. And repeat auction 'offenders' have been a thing in the past. Effectively annoying quite a few players who lost their stuff.

Now, I don't know if things actually did change in the mean time because that part isn't exactly transparent on the staffs part, but for what I know item refunding has hardly been a thing so far.

Obviously I am not aware of the circumstances of those situations to know what happened. We always default first to providing the offending player with the opportunity to resolve the situation without this type of intervention. However, should we exhaust all means to resolve the issues without direct action without a resolution, staff does have the capacity to take more direct measures to ensure any affected players are not adversely impacted by these events.

My apologies if I misunderstood what you said, when you said:

I read it as meaning this: if someone was not able to pay for a bid on another auction or pay for something they agreed to in-game, because the funds expected from their auction did not yet come through.

It is staff policy on EMC to not disclose player info which is considered private. As part of this policy, punishment on EMC is only between that staff member and the player in question. Staff cannot and will not disclose this information to the public on EMC.


As to your concern about “visible consequences”, punishments can take on characteristics which negatively impact the affected players. These can include, but are not limited to, access removal from the auction subforums and in-game action as necessary. These actions are “visible” in a sense because the player affected by them may see restricted access and thus will no longer be able to participate. But as stated previously, we will not disclose whether or not specific actions are taken against any players or what those specific actions consist or do not consist of.

I still believe the best option is to just involve staff by reporting the posts/auction in question. Many times these situations can simply be misunderstandings, which are easy to fix. But in situations where it is serious and action needs to be taken, having staff already involved means less headache for the players involved.

I always try to do my best in these situations to help players out the best I can and to make sure all parties involved are treated fairly and accordingly. If punishment is given out, usually it is in the form of a market blacklist as warned in the auction rules and can escalate both on the forums and in game if the situation necessitates it. However, staff prefer giving players the benefit of the doubt if it is a first offense whenever possible because we’re all humans at the end of the day and everyone makes mistakes from time to time.

Your idea is more realistic in representing what a real life consequence would be like under a similar circumstance. However, that is part of why I don't like the idea. EMC should always be a place to promote fun first and make this an enjoyable experience for everyone. I personally feel like adding fines and fees as punishment makes this a less enjoyable experience, by making the game 'too lifelike.' This of course is just my opinion, and you may not agree, which I respect. But I believe our current system does keep players responsible for their choices, and does give consequences, while at the same time giving player flexibility to learn from their mistakes without automatically penalizing them.

Thing called Blacklisted..... which happens every often and between SS and the player in question.

Here, you're touching a big problem / question that is present on EMC for a very long time. The institution of damage repairs is, except for rolling back distinct rupee transactions, officially completely absent. Some staff members, including Aikar, understand that and will, occasionally, try to minimize, repair and/or compensate damages if possible. Nevertheless, the official position is "we don't do that", "there's no reliable data" and "it's too complicated." I personally think that this is quite a big shortcoming of the community. I'd also mention GRIP and few other things ... better in some other thread.

This is a simple problem to solve. Require payment before delivering product.

If the situation is reversed and you are the buyer, making sure the seller acknowledges the won bid and method of delivery before paying them will ensure no problems most of the time. Although if the seller does flake out, it's much easier to have rupees refunded than items returned. If you're still concerned about getting ripped off or someone disappearing unexpectedly, you could also insist on waiting until you both are in-game and making the exchange then. Or you could request chests be set up in a hidden location with buy signs for the specified Won price.

I disagree with that. You're already in control over this as the auction host, it should not be an official rule in my opinion. If you're concerned about payment simply ask for payment before you send the items and/or place the access signs. Nothing stops you from doing so.

I personally prefer the other way around: pay me during pickup. Rip me off? I'll first remember what you did (careful there) and second: staff has our back.

Seriously: Innocent until proven guilty. Let's not go the US airport ways who will treat everyone as potential criminals first until proven innocent.