Part Deux

I logged in to one of the merch chats today to see if anything was new. The clan chat name was instructing to sell. I happened to have one of the items so I thought I’d try it out. Put it on GE at minimum – no offers. Just a few hours before everyone had max bids in, the leaders telling everyone to hold onto the item until it got to be a certain amount. It didn’t even reach half that amount before they dumped the product.

This brought about a pretty huge reaction. People were now stuck with tons of these items that are now plummeting in value and wondering who to blame. You could tell people were lashing out in PM to the ranks. The ‘leader’ of the clan came on, said he was tricked by a third party who dumped and caused tank of the product. Also, the person who duped him spammed the chat advertising a different clan.

Even ranked players complained about how much money they lost, which got me thinking, aren’t they in on it? I started to realize it might be a little more complicated than I originally thought. That’s when the one who is blamed to have caused the problem comes back into chat and starts spamming again. Claiming how terrible that merch clan is and how much better this other one would be. He gave the specific example of the collapse a few hours before. The names of the higher ranks seemed familiar, if not the same as were screaming in the other clan about what item to buy.

Here’s the thing, anyone can get a rank in a clan chat. All you have to do is go to a heavily populated world, heavily populated area (like GE or PC) and advertise about joining the clan chat. Boom – there’s your rank in a few hours. This does a number of things. First off, gives that person a false sense of power. They are not included in the actual plan as to what’s going on and are going to get scammed as well. Second, it gives members reassurance that what they are taking part in is not a scam. If everyone’s complaining about losing money, even the people with ranks, then something must have surely gone wrong and it won’t happen again, right? A clan wouldn’t scam its own ranked players, who earned that rank only by advertising that clan in order to drive prices up, would it? Ugh.

When the one who was blamed for the problem came back in clan chat again and started spamming for the second time about how bad that particular clan is at merching, he advertised his own merch clan. Also in doing so, attacked specific members. All this while the leader of the chat sits idly by. If he scammed everyone, why are you still letting him fight and pick arguments in your chat? It’s a bit like watching wrestling. This does two things, either has the person switch over and try the new chat, which is already merching a new item, or install some sense of loyalty in the original clan, meaning you’ll wait a few days, take their side and then try again.

I wouldn’t be surprised if everything was staged and both clans are run by the same people. Look at it like this, you hear of a merch clan through advertising, you join and invest. Your investment fails, someone comes along and says ‘they’re not doing it right, join us.’ The first clan has to wait 2-5 days so they can stock up on a new item before its announced anyway. You want to try and recoup your cash quickly so you see what this competitor has to say. The same thing happens. Merch clan A comes up and says, ‘see they aren’t as good as us’ and this continues back and forth, sucking everyone dry of their cash. Because of the constant want of power, more and more people advertise. The ones who got ripped off never even mention a word to the new ones being ushered in.

On the surface, it appears there’s a lot of merch clans out there, but I really wouldn’t be surprised if there were just a handful of separate ones and the majority of them fall under the same umbrella of one giant clan. The different facets, different roles, Andy Kaufman/Jerry Lawler-esque scripted rivalries and arguments are all very intriguing. It’s almost as if you’re watching a soap opera if you take a step back and try to figure out what’s going on with these clans. Its also very easy to get caught up in all the fast paced drama, the potential for large sums of cash, etc. Don’t fall into it. I do have to admit, it has been highly amusing observing all of this as a fly on the wall. Just don’t get involved.