Spot stealing: illegal or not?

This is a very widely-discussed topic in FM and id like to find out if this offense is bannable or not
IF:

1) Someone camps around for my spot(or on my spot but not using any hacks or macros), steals my spot, can i get him banned if i reported him?
2) I buy a spot from someone(after agreeing a fee with the initial store-owner), buy it out and someone intercept my newly-bought spot, is that spot-stealer committing an offense?

Can a GM / someone who have had such experiences before share with me!
Thanks in advance!!!

 

No, and no.

In fact, spot stealing is the way to go in room 1-3. It's the unspoken rule of the survival of the fittest of FMers! If any, I encourage spot stealing. (Please delete this part of the message before copy pasting it on forum, otherwise people will know we@[C]oins are doing this spot stealing shenanigans, thx.)

 

I dont think its illegal.
Keep in mind theres players of all timezones around here. Not everyone can wait 24h after a server reset (bc theyre sleeping or working or going to school etc).
Its not like you own the map.
Its not nice. Ive gotten my fm spots stolen but i mean. Its just a fm spot. I dont think the person should be banned and its not comparable to scamming/harassment/etc.
especially in fm 1.... Good luck getting spots nicely in fm 1 unless you buy them or you have a friend/guildie that gives you their spot.

 

why bother getting verification when you do it anyways? c'mon let's be real. @daveljh

 

Neither of those scenarios are against any rules.

 

20 channels , 22 rooms , 3 floors . No reason to fight like kids for a fm spot that doesnt exactly boost sales in term of numbers (+10% chance to selling shitty items)

 

LOL do I know you? You sound like a victim

 

1) As soon as you close your store the spot doesn't belong to you anymore.

2) You can't actually buy a spot from someone. At most, you can pay them to close their store. If someone comes along and snipes it in the meantime then it's just unfortunate.

Obviously it's not nice to purposely camp and I wouldn't encourage players to snipe spots but as soon as a spot opens up it's free game.

 

Is it against the rules to leave your characters AFK inside of somebody’s hired merchant?

 

Doubt it. It just means you have to take extra precaution. Like Eli said, it's free-game once your shop closes.

Besides some people could be AFKing on someone's spot unintentionally. For example, sometimes I find myself AFK in an FM room in the middle of checking a shop because I'm watching YouTube videos. But that doesn't mean I'm waiting to steal someone's spot.

Here are some tips to reduce chances of your spot being stolen:

TIP #1: If someone AFKs on your spot, open your shop (edit your shop) and AFK right back. If you're standing on your shop and editing it, the FM sniper will not know exactly when you're resetting your shop. So then you can AFK for a good 5 minutes (or more!) and reopen your shop. It should take less than 3 seconds to reopen your shop if you copy & pasted your title. Obviously, the FM sniper isn't going to be actively waiting to steal your spot during those 5 minutes because it's not worth it -- unless they have something against you lol.

TIP #2: Just because your shop closes in 24 hours doesn't mean you have to reopen your shop at the 23rd hour. Remember, you can reopen your shop twice or even three times. That way, FM snipers don't know when your shop closes.

The most you can probably do is put that FM sniper's name in the Community Blacklist thread to make the MapleRoyals community take more precaution if they see him or her near their spots.

 

I would imagine if you camp 3 characters inside someone's shop, it could be considered as harassment? LOL

 

No its not bannable.

Camping for hours on end, timing when people open and close their shops, and "stealing" a spot when someone is trying to reset their store (you do all of these) isn't bannable either, but I think you have to admit it makes you look like a huge prick.

The FM is fair game, but if you do that to me I'm not going to say "haha damn you beat me to it, i should try to reset my spot faster next time", it's going to piss me off and make you blacklist worthy (in my eyes).

 

If done on purpose in order to stop other players from entering a specific shop I'd say that there's a strong case for a harassment report from the shop owner. It doesn't seem like the easiest thing to get hard evidence* for but yeah, if presented the right evidence it should be ban-worthy.

* Unless I'm overlooking another method you'd either have to get them to admit to what they're trying to do or catch them when there's nobody else in the map that could possibly be in your shop. If you kick them out of your shop and it happens again later it's safe to assume that they're targeting you.

 

Thank you for answering.

That said, lame. Wouldn't camping a spot for __ hours straight, or repeatedly camping one specific individual's spot(s) multiple times have a potential case for harassment too? Like, it's not seeking out a spot after a certain point, it's specifically targeting an individual and malicious in intent. Just curious. Not arguing the rule, only seeking interpretation.

 

Honestly in those scenarios if someone was doing that I'd assume that they'd need to be using some kind of third party program in order to stand in front of a shop for x amount of hours, ready to open their own.

That being said, if we assume that nobody is using anything to cheat then I'd say that your first scenario in which someone is camping for a long time isn't against the rules, though it's definitely not encouraged behavior because the community as a whole frowns upon doing that.

All harassment cases are looked at on a case by case basis so it's hard to give a blanket answer for something that isn't as simple as defaming because at what point do we consider it harassment? The best answer I can give is that we will look at any and all evidence provided to us and judge to the best of our abilities. Since you mentioned that there is confirmed malicious intent then in this scenario a ban should be issued to the offender. We strive to keep the community safe and clean so if anyone is genuinely feeling harassed we will take it seriously and take any necessary action even in unconventional cases such as this.

 

Thanks for all your responses everyone!
LOL i guess if i ever lose a spot because someone stole it from me bc i bought it over / camped for it(without using 3rd party programmes) I just have to be more careful and reset faster next time =X
It is sad, but it is fair and this makes the whole FM experience better.

Appreciate all the help/kind advices!

 

To add to this, I straight up skip the first 3 FM spots @ channel 1. I just assume everything there is overpriced. In fact ludi and nath floors are my go to when I'm searching for stuff. For some reason I always skip perion, I think I don't like the map disposition. Also when I'm in a hurry I just see the shops I can click inside the door then I go to the next one

It woudl be cool to see a pool to track what are the FM surfing habits in the community.

 

It is called the "free" market for a reason

 

If #2 isn't illegal, why shouldn't it be?

It's akin to stealing a parking spot as soon as you paid the parking fee... I don't see why this should remain legal?

There should be evidence of the transaction as a log, and it should be enough to prove who is the rightful owner of that spot.

There's a lot of value in FM 1-6 spots and I have once tried to purchase a FM2 door spot from someone for 80mil just for it to be stolen by some camper (stayed there for hours) and probably macro user.

I also have full evidence and even a video recording of me trying to buy the spot, with chat logs to the spot stealer, yet the GMs didn't do anything.

I don't know about you, but I'd argue for 80mil to be stolen by someone is something deemed punishable...