Ban Scamming from Prison

I think the problem more so lies with the fact that the Severe Scamming rule overall is too broad and there are countless problems with this rule. Scamming/Deathtrapping is simply a part of prison culture and learning to play around it is part of the game, I really don't see it as an issue.

The real issue lies with the fact that scamming is allowed, unless you scam the ultra rich people on the server. Scamming someone who worked their *** off all day and grinded 10 mil can be scammed, but players losing 3 mining backpacks and a set of custom enchants that they earned from a day's worth of profit shop income is bannable. The rule comes down to a simple flow chart; Is the person rich and a good target to scam - Bannable; Is the person less rich and barely worth scamming - not bannable. Scamming is allowed until the wrong person falls for it. A player can have a normal deathtrap at their plot and 40 people can fall for it and that's fine, but the second someone with a few mining backpacks and their pickaxe falls for the same trap, it's punishable.

Scamming is basically already eliminated because of this rule; the only people getting scammed are the people that haven't seen a basic signshop scam in their entire life and are falling for it for the first time with $50k. I really don't see scamming as an issue to begin with, let alone changing something that doesn't need to be fixed.

 

If we're planning on keeping the "Severe Griefing" rule then yes, you might as well remove it all together. However, I think having "Severe Griefing/Death Trapping/whatever" is not a good idea whatsoever.

Scamming is a part of Prison. It's a way to play the game. We're 12 seasons into Prison and the only people that have brought up banning scamming are those who have fallen victim to it and are butthurt. I've never personally scammed anyone on Prison, but I can imagine the excitement it can give you - tricking someone and managing to obtain masses of loot. It gives those who don't want to spend hundreds on keys a fighting chance at obtaining some of the most powerful items in the game.

I've fallen victim to a scam before; I lost a very high level pickaxe. Did I cry about it? No. Sure, I was frustrated, but it was a learning experience for me to be more careful in the future. If you're not stupid, scamming won't affect you at all.

Scamming was always allowed on Prison to match with the theme of the server. In my opinion, having Scamming, Death Trapping & Griefing allowed on Prison added an exciting, unique element to the subserver. You can argue that it hasn't been removed, but at this point it essentially has. Players will be too scared to try and scam in case they accidently scam someone with too valuable of items?

The worst part of this is trying to set an amount for what is considered "Severe". In a gamemode where the economy has the tendency to change drastically, I find it's near enough impossible to try and keep this rule consistent. Something that has clearly been overlooked is how valuable something is to a player based on their progression so far. For example, $1 million wouldn't mean much - if anything - to someone who's prestiged multiple times. But a new player? That's incredibly valuable to them. If that's taken from them, that's pretty much all of their loot. But it wouldn't be punishable?

Griefing, Scamming & Death Trapping belong on Prison. A lot of the rules are soft enough as they are.
Don't let one of the few unique aspects left on Prison be removed.

 

Firstly I wanna say that I disagree that Scamming should be bannable. It has been around for a long time, and like people have mentioned it is like a stereotype in Prison that you must trust your foes and one wrong move can cost you in Prison. So I think the rule itself will stay.

As for the IRL Scamming / Severe Scamming/Death Trapping, I will admit it is a really confusing situation. I will say this, both punishments have the same severity. So if you get scammed $25 IRL, then no matter what you got scammed of, the player will be perm banned no matter what.

When the Severe rules were first added, it was enabled by a really complex situation that was built up over a long period of time and during that time, I think that it qualified as Severe Griefing and the player in my opinion deserved to be banned. However recently and because the Prison season has just begun, it just seems like the rule has been modified by almost everyone. There will be people who come up with new descriptions for the rule every day, and I think that's why it makes everything confusing.

Now like people have mentioned, severity could be relative to the type of player. For instance, and as said above, 1 mil to a new player would be huge but to a well-known grinder, it would be nothing. But in my opinion, a new player losing 1 mil would not be qualified as severe scamming. When I first started out in prison, I have done the same thing. I was being a dunderhead and I clicked on a sign covered by lava and I got scammed large amounts of money. But although it is infuriating at the moment, I was able to make up for it later on in the season. So whether you are a new or known player, losing 1 mil would not be severe enough to warrant a ban.

Now, if it was 1 mil and a few mining backpacks along with some spawners that were gifted to them, that 100% would be bannable depending on how it is played out. Like Carter mentioned, if someone death traps a lot of players, then it is ok, but if that player death traps someone with all the valuable items on them, then it is questioned. I feel like you can look at this in multiple ways. First, if someone is a known scammer, and the player is on the server long enough to know that they are a scammer, then I am very sure that the player would know not to go to their plot and inevitably get death trapped. Second, the death trapper would have done nothing wrong in my opinion because they did what they wanted to do and death trap someone and that by itself is not bannable. It would just be an unfortunate situation for the one who got death trapped in my opinion. Now if a scammer were to tell someone "tp to me I have a surprise" and the player got TP trapped into losing all of their items, then I totally would be on board in banning the death trapper. Overall, the severe rules in my opinion would have to be very specific situations and they have to be bad enough where it affects the player in a big way.

So to top everything off, in my opinion, here is what I think the guidelines for the Severe rules and what we should take into account when it comes down to it. And keep in mind, IRL scamming has the same punishment as the Severe rules.

- How much value was lost
Example: What was lost and how much of it was lost.

- The type of situation that occurs / How the situation was executed
Example: Was the death trap already built/trapped many other players or was it a planned TP trap amongst the scammer.

- How valuable the items are relative to all players
Example: On average players wouldn't be mad to lose just money, but if you were to add in a few other items then that would be a problem.

- How quickly can the items be reattainable
Example: Cash you can easily get back with some grinding, but mining backpacks, lvl 40 pickaxe, and some spawners may have taken sometime

Some people may agree and some may disagree, but overall this is just my opinion. If you wanna let me know what you guys think that is perfectly fine. I am all for discussions because I do think this is a great topic to discuss. I do not think that scamming itself should be bannable, but maybe some tweaks and a true description of what Severe Griefing/Scamming/Death Trapping would be nice as well.

<3

 

I don't think scamming should go it's just common sense to spot a scammer and if you're buying items then buy it from /ah or do /trade and for IRL deals just use a staff as middleman. Scamming is just a really easy thing to spot and those who fall for it are the ones to blame. This suggestion has always been brought up so many times and the answer has always been no. Death trapping can be different, if it's a random guy tping you to his base then its gonna be sketchy obviously and if it's someone in chat saying "Come to /p h freeloot!!! Dropping free loot in 10 seconds!!!" There's going to be people in chat saying if it's a scam or not and you can use common sense so if it's a message like that then it's 90% a death trap/scam. Scamming is like the spice to prison sometimes.