Begging is the most basic scam you can perform in the game. It requires no assets, no contacts, no alts, nothing. Just your character and a chat channel. The premise is simple: If you are persistent enough, you will find a generous player. In most cases, it will not take very long at all.
When begging, always use a channel with a lot of people in it. A packed trade hub, a rookie help channel, the noob corp channel, anything that has a lot of listeners. There will be many people who will turn you down--but the more exposure you get, the more likely it is you will succeed.
Begging can be executed in endless formats. You can play off of different emotions. For example, if you're claiming that you're a new player and just want a small jump start to get moving, you might find someone who can relate with being new, who will send you a million ISK or so. In some cases, if you ask for less, players will often donate more, as they feel you are being modest, and that is a valuable quality in their minds.
Other methods include adding disaster to the mix. For example, a player may feel sympathetic if you tell them that you recently lost a ship to a bug, but GMs won't reimburse you because the logs don't show anything unusual. A player who might have been in a similar situation may form a connection with you, and offer you a small amount of ISK to help out.
If you take the time to form closer relationships with players in the game, it is very likely that you'll be able to beg for larger sums of ISK. Someone who knows you better might be willing to part with multiple hundreds of ISK to help you replace a recent ship loss, or anything of that sort. Begging can really be expanded in so many ways, you just have to be creative with it.
Always remember that victims that will fall for any sort of begging scam will do it because of a few reasons. First, they might just be having a really great day, and no matter how you had worded your message, they probably would have donated the ISK anyway. The other option is that some part of them made a connection with what you said, and their emotional response compelled them to help you out.
There are obviously many other contributing factors that can explain why they react to your begging. As long as you keep in mind that the key to getting a donation is by making a connection with that player, you will find that earning ISK through begging can be quite lucrative.
This page last updated: 2010.02.25
When begging, always use a channel with a lot of people in it. A packed trade hub, a rookie help channel, the noob corp channel, anything that has a lot of listeners. There will be many people who will turn you down--but the more exposure you get, the more likely it is you will succeed.
Begging can be executed in endless formats. You can play off of different emotions. For example, if you're claiming that you're a new player and just want a small jump start to get moving, you might find someone who can relate with being new, who will send you a million ISK or so. In some cases, if you ask for less, players will often donate more, as they feel you are being modest, and that is a valuable quality in their minds.
Other methods include adding disaster to the mix. For example, a player may feel sympathetic if you tell them that you recently lost a ship to a bug, but GMs won't reimburse you because the logs don't show anything unusual. A player who might have been in a similar situation may form a connection with you, and offer you a small amount of ISK to help out.
If you take the time to form closer relationships with players in the game, it is very likely that you'll be able to beg for larger sums of ISK. Someone who knows you better might be willing to part with multiple hundreds of ISK to help you replace a recent ship loss, or anything of that sort. Begging can really be expanded in so many ways, you just have to be creative with it.
Always remember that victims that will fall for any sort of begging scam will do it because of a few reasons. First, they might just be having a really great day, and no matter how you had worded your message, they probably would have donated the ISK anyway. The other option is that some part of them made a connection with what you said, and their emotional response compelled them to help you out.
There are obviously many other contributing factors that can explain why they react to your begging. As long as you keep in mind that the key to getting a donation is by making a connection with that player, you will find that earning ISK through begging can be quite lucrative.
This page last updated: 2010.02.25