EVE Search - Somer Blink: Legit or Scam?

Xenuria wrote:

Andrev Nox wrote:

Xenuria wrote:

I am on the fence when it comes to blink.

When I started asking questions I was warned to stop or I would be banned from the ingame channel.
I asked somer herself some of my questions and she was evasive to say the very least.

Here are some key questions you should be asking.

"Why are their people in somer blink with win ratios over 95%?"
"Why is the majority of the statistical data hidden from the end user?"

When I make an effort to determine if something is bogus or not I ask for the data on wins and losses for everybody and everything with names and personal information partially redacted. Every legitimate organization I have ever requested this from has provided me with this, except somer blink.

In answer to the first question - It's answered anecdotally in the thread above you. :) Some folks get lucky on their first few blinks, and stop forever. It's the same reason some people have win ratios at 0% - they get a bad first run, and stop forever. I grant, it's something that would be addressed with the "fixed win percentage" idea outlined earlier in the thread, but that's just not something we're willing to do. Every draw is, and will stay, independent to every other draw. :)

In answer to the second question - Large swaths of database queries readily available to the public in a unified location are a server-melting fiasco. Blink receives around 700-2.5k individual users per hour, most of which stay on the site for 27-42 minutes each, and hammer F5 like a rabid monkey while they're there. Some concessions have to be made to technical performance :)

In answer to why YOU specifically aren't given large swaths of statistical data with personal information redacted - if that's what it would take for you to play, we're okay with you not playing. :) Even if we did take the time to hand all that over, a day later you could make the same demand for information again, and again, and again. If someone really distrusts our service that much, we're totally cool with you not using it :)

In answer to Rakshasa Taisab:

Each blink does have a unique identifier, it's Blink ID number. It is visible on even the currently active blinks, in the lower left hand corner of the Blink (highlight the text there to see it). The results from that are viewable to anyone who played on that Blink - though I grant, they're not perpetually visible to anyone who wants to look.

And, again, all that said - I absolutely concede there's zero way we could guarantee that all of that code didn't change right after you looked. The answer to that one will always be: It wouldn't benefit us to do that. It would catastrophically cripple us. But if you disbelieve that, it's totally cool to keep not playing. :)

Edit to add: Re-reading, I misunderstood what you were looking for from a unique identifier. Random.org doesn't have any type of identification API, so that's not possible (to my knowledge) while using them as our RNG source.

When I am talking about win ratios I am talking about people that have earned over 1 billion isk and ALSO have a 90+% win ratio. That is what gives me pause.

As far as melting servers, I really find it hard to believe that something as basic as somer blink needs all that much resources. I am not requesting you make a live database available to the public.

Maybe something every month of week during downtime. This would cause an influx of new users because people would actually be able to run the numbers and look for anything suspicious.

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Andrev Nox SOMER Blink Cognitive Development 102	Posted - 2012.07.03 12:36:00 - [61] - Quote In answer to Xen: Ahhh, there was a misunderstanding on my part then. We're not trying to convert every Eve player out there into a Blink player. There are some folks who will never feel safe about something without every iota of data handed to them on an empyrical platter. We'd probably get a lot more customers if we served up everyone's depositing habits for public consumption, too. That attitude is totally cool, and in Eve I get where it comes from - but we're not running an investment. We're not answering to shareholders. We're not trying to pander to everyone's request everywhere. We're running a lotto - a pretend casino as a fun way to play internet spaceships - and we're okay with only having the folks playing who feel like we've earned some trust in the years we've been at it, and exhibited a standard for honesty and fairness that suits them. The 47,431 folks so far who've felt that way so far, and gotten us to the point where we can say there's been 250 Trillion in prizes given away, that makes us happy. If that number would be 60k, or 80k, or all 300-some-odd-k that subscribe to Eve if we invested an exponentially increasing amount of work to meet each of their individual demands for data, style changes, business changes, et cetera - we're okay knowing that and sticking with the route we're on :) In answer to Rak: Giant derp, yep. :p I fully admit, I am not the code person. At all :p I tried fielding a tech question while Somer was asleep, so the derpiness of my response there is entirely on me. I can only plead that the ignorance isn't feigned in that arena. :) I'll see if I can't get her to evemail you to speak the dark-magic of all things code in a fluency I will never have. :) As to the RMT concerns - I 100% encourage you to petition CCP to investigate us (or anyone you ever suspect of RMT) and shut everything down if they find any evidence of misconduct. We do the same, for things that seem suspicious from our side of things - since we have no method or means of knowing where ISK was obtained without those petitions. Somer Blink - The original microlottery site.
Ayuren Aakiwa Wyvern Operations Eternal Syndicate 21	Posted - 2012.07.03 13:08:00 - [62] - Quote I've only read the title, Somerblink is one of the few legit services in this game. Personally I've doubled my isk, a corp mate of mine has made a stupid amount of isk. It's legit, it's fun, go do it. There is a corp called somer blink. That is a scam so make sure you get the right one. Why are you reading this, it is not relevant to the topic.
Petrus Blackshell Rifterlings Ushra'Khan 1359	Posted - 2012.07.03 13:46:00 - [63] - Quote It's as un-scammy as any lottery can get. Lotteries are by design meant to take your money by manipulating chance, while using the bait of shiny winnings to draw you in. They don't do anything sneaky behind the scenes, but by the very way in which blinks work, they make at least 20% of an item's value in profit with every blink. It's the gambling business. Play if you feel lucky. Rifterlings - Small gang lowsec combat corp specializing in frigates and cruisers (all races, not just Rifters!). US Timezone veterans and newbies alike are welcome to join. Come chat in the "we fly rifters" in-game channel. Free fitted frigates for members!
WolfeReign T.O.R. 18	Posted - 2012.07.03 13:56:00 - [64] - Quote Ariel Armani wrote: Hello, I heard about this 250 celebration or whatever that Somer Blink is having, so I was interested. I have some extra ISK for "fun". Anyway, I was asking around, and somebody sent me this link - http://blinkexposed.blogspot.com/ That got me worried, so I asked about it in the Blink thread. Some dude Andrew Nox (with Blink I guess) told me to just "ask other Blink players about their experiences". So that's what I am doing. Anybody want to share their experiences, good or bad? Thanks! Do yourself a favor and pretend its a scam and move on. you won't regret it
Mallak Azaria 261	Posted - 2012.07.03 14:03:00 - [65] - Quote Legit. I've only got a 19% win rate, but I've gotten more isk out of it than I've put in.
Potrondal Morrison The Scope Gallente Federation 54	Posted - 2012.07.03 14:49:00 - [66] - Quote Blink is legit, i should know, i play the highest ISK stakes there are when i do play, which is regular when im feeling a bit flush. I have lost far more than i have won, yet when i win pretty big, my ISK or ships get delivered in fast time. Also i see REPLACEMENT 234 on the web page in question, my playing style is similar to his/hers and have went head to them many, many times on the Rorquls, moros and others where we both have covered half the board each and i can tell you that they have lost and won just as much of the time as i have. If your butt hurt because you played and lost so you shout scam, then do yourself a favour and never go to a casino nor bookies, if your saying scam just because you think it is then that is your opinion, but it is not. SOMER blink is legit, if you dont want to play then dont, but it is only pixels on a screen, nothing more.
TheBreadMuncher Boxxed Up Industries EPIC Alliance 168	Posted - 2012.07.03 17:12:00 - [67] - Quote Corina Jarr wrote: It is only a scam as far as gambling itself is a scam. It is not like EVE scams though, where you never win (rare exceptions aside). What do you mean? They're going to double my 10mil, they PROMISED! "We will create the introduction thread if that is requested by the community. Also, we will have an ISD Seminar about the CCL team in the coming weeks in which you can ask your questions about the CCL team and provide some constructive feedback to us." - Countless pages of locked threads and numerous permabanned accounts later, change is coming.
Lucy Ferrr Sebiestor Tribe Minmatar Republic 116	Posted - 2012.07.03 17:21:00 - [68] - Quote It is about as much of a scam as a casino (which could be considered pretty scammy :P ) But they do pay out to the winners. Also sometimes when there is a big market shift and blink isn't updated properly you can make guaranteed money from blink by buying 100% of the tickets on an item. A couple months ago there was a certain ship you could buy every ticket and still make 20mil isk. It's been fixed but if you keep your eyes open I am sure another whoops will pop up.
Momoyo Interwebs Cooter Explosion Fatal Ascension 32	Posted - 2012.07.03 18:19:00 - [69] - Quote Xenuria wrote: Andrev Nox wrote: Xenuria wrote: I am on the fence when it comes to blink. When I started asking questions I was warned to stop or I would be banned from the ingame channel. I asked somer herself some of my questions and she was evasive to say the very least. Here are some key questions you should be asking. "Why are their people in somer blink with win ratios over 95%?" "Why is the majority of the statistical data hidden from the end user?" When I make an effort to determine if something is bogus or not I ask for the data on wins and losses for everybody and everything with names and personal information partially redacted. Every legitimate organization I have ever requested this from has provided me with this, except somer blink. In answer to the first question - It's answered anecdotally in the thread above you. :) Some folks get lucky on their first few blinks, and stop forever. It's the same reason some people have win ratios at 0% - they get a bad first run, and stop forever. I grant, it's something that would be addressed with the "fixed win percentage" idea outlined earlier in the thread, but that's just not something we're willing to do. Every draw is, and will stay, independent to every other draw. :) In answer to the second question - Large swaths of database queries readily available to the public in a unified location are a server-melting fiasco. Blink receives around 700-2.5k individual users per hour, most of which stay on the site for 27-42 minutes each, and hammer F5 like a rabid monkey while they're there. Some concessions have to be made to technical performance :) In answer to why YOU specifically aren't given large swaths of statistical data with personal information redacted - if that's what it would take for you to play, we're okay with you not playing. :) Even if we did take the time to hand all that over, a day later you could make the same demand for information again, and again, and again. If someone really distrusts our service that much, we're totally cool with you not using it :) In answer to Rakshasa Taisab: Each blink does have a unique identifier, it's Blink ID number. It is visible on even the currently active blinks, in the lower left hand corner of the Blink (highlight the text there to see it). The results from that are viewable to anyone who played on that Blink - though I grant, they're not perpetually visible to anyone who wants to look. And, again, all that said - I absolutely concede there's zero way we could guarantee that all of that code didn't change right after you looked. The answer to that one will always be: It wouldn't benefit us to do that. It would catastrophically cripple us. But if you disbelieve that, it's totally cool to keep not playing. :) Edit to add: Re-reading, I misunderstood what you were looking for from a unique identifier. Random.org doesn't have any type of identification API, so that's not possible (to my knowledge) while using them as our RNG source. When I am talking about win ratios I am talking about people that have earned over 1 billion isk and ALSO have a 90+% win ratio. That is what gives me pause. As far as melting servers, I really find it hard to believe that something as basic as somer blink needs all that much resources. I am not requesting you make a live database available to the public. Maybe something every month of week during downtime. This would cause an influx of new users because people would actually be able to run the numbers and look for anything suspicious. I would think its because of the people that buy 90% if the slots all the time in order to cash out their prizes, or because they are "working" the system. injecting an "investment" and constantly buying enough tickets to almost guarantee a win and still make a profit.
Itherael Fate 65	Posted - 2012.07.03 18:25:00 - [70] - Quote Forum ate my post so here is the TL ; DR https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=30917 <---- blink forum thread that many players will attest to how awesome somer blink is. Rules of The Game 1. Everyone in the world is playing The Game. A person cannot not play The Game; it does not require consent to play and one can never stop playing. 2. Whenever one thinks about The Game, one loses. 3. Losses must be announced to at least one person.

Soundwave Plays Diablo Royal Amarr Institute Amarr Empire 6	Posted - 2012.07.03 19:22:00 - [71] - Quote Ariel Armani wrote: Hello, I heard about this 250 celebration or whatever that Somer Blink is having, so I was interested. I have some extra ISK for "fun". Anyway, I was asking around, and somebody sent me this link - http://blinkexposed.blogspot.com/ That got me worried, so I asked about it in the Blink thread. Some dude Andrew Nox (with Blink I guess) told me to just "ask other Blink players about their experiences". So that's what I am doing. Anybody want to share their experiences, good or bad? Thanks! Its a lottery with a 5:8 payout to take. Absolute shenanigans.
Bree Okanata Romex Inc. Dustm3n 33	Posted - 2012.07.03 19:40:00 - [72] - Quote I keep reading this forum interested. While I do agree that most of the nay sayers have their points, I still pause after reading a couple posts so that I can refresh the Somer page and look for promos. Yea Somer takes a large profit, but they still pay out everything you win. I got bored and when I found the site I put one ticket down for a tengu. Lo and behold I won the Tengu and within a minute of accepting the prize, it was sitting on Contract in Jita waiting for me.
Catalina Cruze BPO Investment Group 0	Posted - 2012.07.03 22:47:00 - [73] - Quote Andrev Nox - Thank you for linking to my website. I don't troll the forums looking for business, so it's nice when someone else does the promoting for me. You have my permission to add my link to your signature if you would like. FYI - Blogger.com is a very popular blogging platform. Not sure what you were going for in that post. While I'm here, I did find this mildly entertaining; Andrev Nox wrote: If you like, you're free to evaluate our method for choosing winners. The code we use to get the number is here. As you can see, we draw it from random.org. You can find their real-time statistics here and several peer-reviewed papers on the quality of their random-generator here. And, from a more practical standpoint - with over 1,733,423 Blinks completed, it would be a MONSTROUS amount of work to try and rig them/keep that rigging hidden from the public/the dozens of people who've worked for Blink. Saner by far to just run it honestly and enjoy it for what it is :) Hope that helps :) "I will dazzle you with code and fancy words trying to look legit, but hope you don't know any better" LOLs It appears the author of the blog in question has you figured out. They even have a nice little screen shot of you saying the exact same thing in a different thread. http://blinkexposed.blogspot.com/p/blinks-explanation.html Pretty much word for word. Thanks again, and have a nice day! BPO Investment Group --aEarn 8% return on your investment each and every month
Sobach Fourth Circle Total Comfort 66	Posted - 2012.07.04 05:32:00 - [74] - Quote Catalina Cruze wrote: stuff TBH, I'd say IPOs and other player-run investments schemes in EVE are much less... reputable than blink in general, to say the least.
Snow Axe GoonWaffe Goonswarm Federation 442	Posted - 2012.07.04 06:54:00 - [75] - Quote The amount of effort it would take to rig Blink would be huge, and if it was actually found out (i.e. not some half-baked conspiracy blog, but real actual proof) it'd destroy it as an income source. Far, far easier to just run it legit and rake in the insane profits.
Rajan Marelona Hedion University Amarr Empire 16	Posted - 2012.07.04 07:16:00 - [76] - Quote It can be a scam but due to its popularity, it is makeing a lot of ISK even if it is 100% legit. Going even 1% non-legit could be a huge blow to its popularity, so there is no reason for them to not stay legit. Blog guy just sucks at understanding how gambling works. Or he understands it too well but can nott comprehend that is how real-life gambling works too. No, I have never used Somer Blink. I do not gamble if I can avoid it. Not in a game, not in real life. House always wins on average. I prefer to make money the old fashioned way.
Danfen Fenix 131	Posted - 2012.07.04 08:32:00 - [77] - Quote Eh, after yesterday, I dont even care if it's a scam. I love them Got 10 mil from the gift box for the celebration. Played 3 blinks & got 50 mil for an achievement. Got another 5 mil achievement and a bonus blink...and pretty soon that free 10 mil credit had turned in to 80 mil in my wallet Thanks Blink. Think I'll quit while I'm ahead now though...
Derath Ellecon Washburne Holdings 256	Posted - 2012.07.04 13:38:00 - [78] - Quote So I read through the website from the OP. I haven't read through all of the posts in this thread. The only part of that site that has any possible legitimacy is in the area is shill players IMO. It is entirely possible that blink stacks the game with shills. It would probably be the hardest to track. But the big question to ask is why bother. The site is popular enough without having to go through the trouble of cheating the players.
FloppieTheBanjoClown The Skunkworks 1872	Posted - 2012.07.04 13:48:00 - [79] - Quote The longer you play, the more likely you are to lose money. That's the nature of any casino game or lottery. They don't need to scam anyone, the profit model is easily apparent: add up the values of the blinks for an item and it's higher than the market value of that item. As for them using shills: It's entirely possible that they do, but that doesn't hurt the odds of any given individual winning. In fact on those lotteries where they use shills and real players win, they'd be cutting into their own profit margin. The bit with the too-young character...do you really think guys that put in this much effort would make such a careless mistake? Probably someone biomassed and recycled the name, or someone else picked it up later. It's time to put an end to CCP's war on piracy. Fight your own battles and stop asking CCP to do it for you.
Malcanis Vanishing Point. The Initiative. 4219	Posted - 2012.07.04 13:49:00 - [80] - Quote If you don't trust it, don't play. Malcanis' Law: Any proposal justified on the basis that "it will benefit new players" is invariably to the greater advantage of older, richer players. Things to do in EVE:-ahttp://swiftandbitter.com/eve/wtd/

Pahah Pahineh Universal Ally 8	Posted - 2012.07.04 14:05:00 - [81] - Quote All, and by all I mean every single gambling entity is designed at it's root to be a scam. The point of all gambling is that, whatever happens, the house cannot lose. In that way all gambling is a scam. Gambling establishment exists purely to unbalance distributed wealth into cumulated pools that are chosen by external influence, taking a cut of all the wealth as it passes through the establishment (house). Like any self respecting establishment they keep their internal affairs secret, not transparent and you will have no means of determining if their scam is being run either more or less scamfully than the perceived level of scamness they are hoping you enjoy. So it's up to. You're already of a mind to gamble on random chance, why not go that one step further and gamble on whether or not the scamsters are scamming more or less than you think they are. It's just gambling, so if you don't trust the house the gambling addict is getting twice the high for his money. In the industry we refer to ourselves as "Tax on Stupidity" we have to label our products with the precise level of scam we're applying and we have to give warnings that we're about to scam your money right out of your pocket. But they still queue to let us. Money -> Old rope. Old rope -> money. Shut up and give me your money.
Gul'gotha Derv'ash Z3R0 RETURN MINING INC. Li3 Federation 47	Posted - 2012.07.04 16:28:00 - [82] - Quote I will say there are some rather suspicious toons winning everything in sight. The person who won the 250b in the last super event was someone I had never seen blink, ever, and I was blinking a lot during the few months going into the 200T event. Does make you take a double look and wonder if there are some shenanigans going on, especially since it is ungoverned by anyone other than Somer herself.
Medarr ZeroSec 3	Posted - 2012.07.04 16:32:00 - [83] - Quote Chribba wrote: If it turns out to be a scam I demand a nice "thanks for all the fish" post by Somer lol Don't forget Thanks for all the tears yo!
Mr Epeen It's All About Me 1537	Posted - 2012.07.04 16:36:00 - [84] - Quote Skimming through this thread, it seems like everyone wins and no one loses. So either none of the people losing their shirts are posting or a lot of people are lying. That, in itself, is fishy enough for me to not sign up. Mr Epeen There is no excuse beyond fatalistic self-indulgence and sheer laziness for doing nothing --a Iain Banks
Soundwave Plays Diablo Royal Amarr Institute Amarr Empire 10	Posted - 2012.07.04 16:37:00 - [85] - Quote FloppieTheBanjoClown wrote: The longer you play, the more likely you are to lose money. That's the nature of any casino game or lottery. They don't need to scam anyone, the profit model is easily apparent: add up the values of the blinks for an item and it's higher than the market value of that item. As for them using shills: It's entirely possible that they do, but that doesn't hurt the odds of any given individual winning. In fact on those lotteries where they use shills and real players win, they'd be cutting into their own profit margin. The bit with the too-young character...do you really think guys that put in this much effort would make such a careless mistake? Probably someone biomassed and recycled the name, or someone else picked it up later. Absolutely incorrect. You are equally as likely to lose money on your first 'game' as you are on any other.
Petrus Blackshell Rifterlings Ushra'Khan 1365	Posted - 2012.07.04 16:43:00 - [86] - Quote Mr Epeen wrote: Skimming through this thread, it seems like everyone wins and no one loses. So either none of the people losing their shirts are posting or a lot of people are lying. That, in itself, is fishy enough for me to not sign up. Mr Epeen It's psychological. The people who win a lottery are going to be much louder than the people who lost, particularly because the lost amount of money is small (since there are so many losers) and the won amount of money is relatively huge. I haven't played it myself, but I know more than a handful of people who have lost significant amounts of money who just shrugged, said "meh, luck", and moved on. You won't find them posting here about Somer Blink being a scam. Anyway, not signing up is the right thing to do, unless you're feeling spectacularly lucky. Rule #1 of gambling is the house always wins. Rifterlings - Small gang lowsec combat corp specializing in frigates and cruisers (all races, not just Rifters!). US Timezone veterans and newbies alike are welcome to join. Come chat in the "we fly rifters" in-game channel. Free fitted frigates for members!
Kunming CyberShield Inc ROMANIAN-LEGION 39	Posted - 2012.07.04 18:32:00 - [87] - Quote Akirei Scytale wrote: Vera Algaert wrote: in blackjack you can count cards, so what was your point again? I challenge you to attempt that at any modern casino. That technique is long dead. Get a friend and play an 'open' hand of blackjack, evaluate the choices and you will see even if u knew whats next the best most of the time you lose by default.. it is a very interesting game, I think someone invented it to play magic card tricks on ppl. There is a pattern and it makes the house win almost always, so even if u count the cards until you get to a round in which you would win the casino would already be aware of you and take measures. As for Somer Blink, common sense says stay away from lottery and payout sorta things, if u really wanna gamble there is always things like EOH...
Flirty Girl Science and Trade Institute Caldari State 0	Posted - 2012.07.04 19:41:00 - [88] - Quote My story: It is a scam. Bar none. Somer looks to fleece the big blinkers and not the little ones. Its the guys blinking the Dreads and Rorqs that are making Somer isk. Every time I would be up and have isk in my bank, someone would show up and just clean me out. If I bought all but one ticket, the one ticket I didn't buy would win. Every time. And I am not the only one. Sometimes it would just be three people playing Ultra blinks, I would be on a convo with the other party, and no matter what we did or how we did it, the unknown 3rd party would win it. And not lose a blink they played. No one has luck that good. My losses would be streaks of over 15 losses, then I might win one. Then streaks of 15 losses again. Over and over. After awhile watching the losses mounting and it never once turning around, I walked away. About 60 billion isk lighter. If I flip a coin, odds are 50/50. If I flip 5,000 coins or just one coin 5,000 times, the odds of winning will still be 50/50. And I should have won and lost close to 50% of the time. But that never happened. My wins amounted to roughly 25% on exclusively betting on half the tickets. Yes, this is an alt.
Replacement 234 Studies and Observation Group - Eve 7	Posted - 2012.07.05 01:49:00 - [89] - Quote The executive summary for this post is: 1) Blink is not a scam. 2) Blink is gambling operated from a webserver owned/rented by them and operates without a downtime. 3) Blink has safeguards against RMT laundering. Many are blatantly obvious, and undoubtedly there are others which would be counter-productive to be fully revealed. Blink uses Eve API but I am unaware of the extent. 4) Blink makes a profit from each ticket purchased. No matter which player wins, they have profitted nicely, and the more blinks which happen, the more blink profits. 5) Blink does not hold a stake in each of the millions of Blinks it has run other than the amount deducted from each ticket purchased, therefore Blink has no hand in the game, such as BlackJack and many other casino games. 6) Blink's withholding part of the ticket's price is no more of a scam than when one "drags" the pot at a neighborhood poker game to pay for beer and pizza. But with Blink, the hors d'oeuvres are excessive and quite delectable. 7) Anything can be addictive, including the washing of one's hands - all addiction requires is for the person to lose control over when and how much to indulge in the behavior. Behaviors that are rewarded tend to be repeated. 8) Of the four reward schedules, The Variable-Reward Schedule used in every casino game is the most addictive. Any surprise there? (http://psychology.about.com/od/behavioralpsychology/a/schedules.htm) 9) To pull off an alt scheme for enhancing the profit of Blink would require thousands of alt 'toons and most Blink players are not new to the game: buying those older characters would be prohibitively expensive: would require a vast army of tight lipped players to buy the older alts: or would be quite obvious for so many characters to be purchased by so few players. 10) "Win-Ratio" is a metric of how many tickets are purchased for each blink and has nothing to do with player profit. A player could have a 100% win-ratio by purchasing every ticket to every blink played and win themself broke quite fast. 11) Somer would have to be one of the most stupid people in the world to shoot the golden goose by doing anything which could have implications beyond tinfoil belief systems. Yet, people want us to believe someone that stupid to be capable of pulling off one of, if not the most difficult or complicated or duplicitous or deceitful scams in online gaming history. 12) As far as I can tell, any real world money blink develops is from their click throughs to Shattered Crystal (Blink offers a generous blink credit bonus to the clicker) or perhaps from Eve for click throughs for accounts. They have no advertising other than the single icon for Shattered Crystal on one page. Read on if you like or you can just say,"Wall of Words" if you believe it will take you hours to read and days for your friends to explain it to you: A little about me might put some things in perspective. I am a Retired Senior US Army Officer with over 30 years of service. I have never bought a lottery ticket in RL and have never gambled in a RL casino - Never dropped a quarter in a single slot machine. I played cards for money when I was a young soldier and my winnings could never begin to replace the damaged friendships, so I found other activities where friendships with my fellow soldiers could be nurtured rather than ruined. (and if you choose to only quote that last line, I have a pretty good idea what you would write and if it involves sex, or any kind of crime, you would be quite wrong) Door prizes have been the extent of my gambling for over 40 years. During my service (Retired in 1997) The Army liked to conduct business meetings in Casinos because of the reduced cost of large lodging bookings, greater access and lower airfares, and other other lower costs subsidized by the losing public. Among many of my interests and professional training, I am a "stats man" with a particular interest in probability theory, though my professional use of statistics was to assess the enemy's probability to do this or to do that. Like Andrev, I am not a "code man". I think I can still do a multiple linear regression with paper, stubby pencil and slide rule, but I can do it faster with a computer program where all I have to is enter the data and other necessary items where indicated and then make the correct selections to produce a speedy output. If you want to know about my Blink career you can go there and find me on the Stats page where some information about my Blink career is available - to find the rest, just click on my avatar's face and it will take you a large page with nothing on it but info about me in Blink. I am particularly proud of an accomplishment I completed yesterday (July 4 in Eve time) which sealed a bet. The bet was about moving my Value of Blinks Won a certain amount in a certain period which will end (July 7 Eve Time). The CEO of the corp the other bettor and I are in has already delivered theimpounded proceeds of the bet to me and knows that it will blow my cover in that corp - so unfortunately, that 'toon will go to the Bio-mass. I don't agree with people buying the abilities garnered by another person who was also gaining Eve experience, so I do not sell characters. The posting of this will likely lead to a large surprise for the other bettor and I hope he learns from this experience, but I envision him holding his breath till his MuM buys him another MOM. I am hoping she will send him back to wow where he came from a few months ago. Now you know more about why I don't like people buying more ability than they know how to use.
Replacement 234 Studies and Observation Group - Eve 7	Posted - 2012.07.05 01:50:00 - [90] - Quote I have been accused of being a Somer Alt many times, but all I have to offer is my word, which was my bond while I was an active duty officer. What else can one offer other than a peronal tour of my computers, which I think my family, friends and my CPA would all advise against. I have never compared this avatar's birthdate to any of Blink's pertinent points along the linear line of history, so I have no defense to offer there as I have no idea if one is needed. Being a player of many avatars beginning with some other retired friends in 2004, before there was a facebook, we used Eve as a social media where we could chat, Teamspeak, Ventrilo, even Skype when one of the guys discovered it, or any combination of the above to keep up with each other. We started out in null, when you could travel through 40 systems and never see anyone else in local. Many was the time when we would start out to mine and end up never turning on a miner2, but just snipe what rats we could in our cruisers and move to another belt, or just sit floating at a "safe spot" chatting. When we wanted excitement it was Rogue Spear or Ghost Recon, then the Battlefield Series. Eve was just like fishing in a mud puddle for us with the chat being the feature and moving the fishing pole the excuse for being there together. I've played just about every facet of Eve which drew my interest over the years. My original group grew and we went in many directions, yet we still keep in touch and we all have one of many mains in one corporation which is not revealed to any other corporation to which any of us belong. I have a few "mains" in few corps and none of the corps know of the others. Look at the guy next you, it might be me. I have even been at war with myself before. The particular part of the Army we all worked in was unconventional and none of us have ever gotten that out of our systems. This character is my "uptown 'toon", my eve counterpoint to my civilian self in a one person corp where I can be who I really am in real life. The others are all undercover parts I'm playing in the ongoing novel of Eve. Besides, this avatar looks amazingly like one of the pictures of my wife taken at our wedding so this one is never going to the auction block or the biomass. I saw lotteries come and go over the years and looked upon them all as scams as one after the other was revealed. Incursions were fun and I really enjoyed many of the people in chat but some of my physical imperfections began to limit my success there and I started looking around. I noticed Blink had been around much longer than other lotteries, so I set out to bring my stats skills out of retirement and find their scam. I first set out to be a regular player, but had difficulty being a regular anything, so I set my sight on obtaining awards or achievements, the terms are used interchangeably. Besides, being an old retired Army fart, I needed some new awards.... Nothing ever caught my heightened sense of smell for scams there, but I learned that by being very careful and buying 12 of 16 tickets, giving me a 75% chance of winning, I could drag the metric "value of Blinks won" forward playing for hours and not changing my total of blink credits very much in either direction. With 10 to 15 billion blink credits, I could move my value of blinks won forward virtually any amount with time devoted to playing being more important than available blink credit. Whenever I fell a little low, and for me that was 10 billion in blink credit, I would either switch to an incredibly conservative strategy using a constantly manually updated stat of each number to get some distantly vague, highly unreliable, idea of it's probabality or I would simply quit. To gather more information about where the scam might be hidden, I'd switch to chat where I found a wonderful core of vibrant people who were as ready to congratulate a recent win as they were to gank you at the next gate, then buy you a replacement ship with fittings. None of the Muppets are there and there is also no one from the world of TV wrestling seekiing a microphone into which he or she could spew self praise at high decibels with lots of expectorant. The "win-ratio" depends entirely on how many tickets you buy for each blink. A player who buys every ticket for every blink they play will have a win-ratio of 100% and will win themselves broke in short order. I currently have a win-ratio of around 33 to 34 because of the strategy I have used to reach my goals. Laundering RMT money: You cannot withdraw isk you have deposited from your account. You can only get ISK by converting a prize you have won to ISK. Yes, you could launder ISK by buying all the tickets to each blink and write off the cost that blink receives for operating each blink. Doing that would draw a trememdous amount of attention from other players and many petitions to CCP. If one decided launder RMT ISK by just playing blink as others do. It would take a tremendous amount of time, skill and luck - plus the cost of doing that would be horrendous. Remember, the longer you play, the more you are likely to lose. That is called regression toward the mean. Like any casino, blink advertises how much people have won and not how much it cost them to win it. Anyone who has stood around in a RL casino and observed people gambling as I have done at so many conferences can see the Casino filling the ATMs quite regularly as the slot machines are being emptied regularly - but no one can use the timing of such as a metric to determine any thing meaningful. However, if you watch a single player and talk to that single player about "How's it going?" they will never mention their many trips to the ATM while they talk of hitting a "$600 Grand Slam" on a "hot" slot machine.


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