It is easy enough to block them for sure. But it still doesn’t look very good to new players.
CCP just needs to remove the extra rewards they added, spamming this wasn’t a thing before, I think CCP added the skll accelerator boosters no?
The problem is that it’s pretty much a necessary evil these days.
“Use this to get a starting advantage” triggers people to try new games: things like twitch drops, starter codes and whatnot. It’s normal and that means to compete for gamer’s attention this is now the norm for F2P games. That’s the reality.
It also encourages current players to reach out, possibly by creating (YouTube) content. Interaction = attention = increase in players.
The problem compared to most other F2P games is that EVE is a true MMO with interaction between players and a persistent world. Most other games are lobby based and limit player interaction so there it’s pretty much a non-issue.
The referral system works and is fine, all ccp has to do is give us the tools to limit ingame interaction for this, and related, stuff.
1 Like
Will sharks ever stop eating humans?
2 Likes
An existing new account that hasn’t yet signed up to the Buddy Program can get 1M SP. There is no need to transfer the SP to another account as the program targets new players. The SP can be spent on either of the three characters in the account.
At least that’s the way it was intended.
Of course with the permission to create a hundred accounts and hundreds of alts the program is being abused.
I think a time limit on it would help. If it was only available a quarter of the year, maybe coinciding with another popular yearly event, the problem would be reduced and new players incentivized to stick around for it.
1 Like
Sue, but the choice to turn on rather than turn off is still a choice and removes no one’s agency.
–Gadget nearly quoted Rush by accident…
1 Like
I do understand and appreciate why the referral program exists, and I wouldn’t want it to go away. But indeed the spam especially in in-game chat is very annoying. At the very least CCP could filter those messages from local and Rookie Help.
1 Like
I fully agree with the OP and have made multiple tickets about this. However, the GMs/CCP do not give a single flying fudge. They don’t care that social channels in their game are ruined by these spammers. I’ve submitted screenshots and explained the negative effects of it but CCP won’t listen. Maybe if many people kept sending tickets they might, who knows.
I disagree with URL blocking options. Advocates for that are arguing on the side of the spammers. Disabling external links would also disable a lot of other things that people wouldn’t want blocked, and the spammers would just post their spam and ask people to copy/paste their referral link into an external browser instead.
Make it a bannable offence and have a right-click report option for it.
2 Likes
Then it would be even worse during that time frame, because everyone would see it as their only chance to get people to use their recruiter link, i don’t think it would be reduced, and around events, people are buying, selling, and losing more ships, modules, ammo, and loot than usual, right? So then people would be putting links to their contracts and/or hypernet offers in chat, at the same time as everyone spamming their recruiter links, which would be about the same, or worse than the current situation.
It is a bannable offence. It’s just rarely done. Maybe if the GMs occasionally did the job they are being paid to do things would change.
As for reporting it:
Reporting an ISK seller is an intuitive two click operation. Reporting a bot requires a tutorial. CCP made one but you’ll never find it without a GM linking it, which brings us back to relying on people who are on r/kpopfeet all day instead of answering tickets Tells you all you need to know about CCP priorities.
Mr Epeen 
You sound salty. Did the GMs not do what you want?
1 Like
You’re still here, so I guess not.
Mr Epeen
5 Likes
I’m sorry you failed.
Good luck with your new hobbies.
Right. Then it would be all quiet for 75% of the year. I can live with that.
I wonder if this spam might be by design to drive ppl out of highsec. I think local in null and low is not spammed at all 
Am I wrong?
CCP won’t do nothing about it for two reasons: 1st, CSM don’t see a problem, they are all in null, 2nd, this topic is not in Assembly Hall
@Rail_J_kar you should ask ISD member to move it there maybe?
1 Like
Companies are not greedy but even so greed is not neccerily bad. Does anyone remember Henry Ford? He was so greedy that he invented the assembly line and made cars affordable for so many more people. Rip.
I asked CSM member @Mike_Azariah and he said he would ask for this to be addressed.
6 Likes
There is some overarching “don’t cause lag on purpose” rule that can be used for… well pretty much anything if they wanted to. There’s a similar rule that would apply to this but as said it’s hilariously generic and “open to interpretation”. So if someone does something that’s just outright bad they didn’t anticipate for they can just slap that sticker on it and deal with it.
Would be nice if at least some CCP dev/gm could drop a message if they have even acknowledged that there could be a problem that the player base would like to see adressed…
2 Likes
We have the ability to move our own created topics
1 Like