The API - Inventory Viewing

Should we make inventory viewing through the API possible?

  • Yes

    Votes: 8 3.4%
  • Yes, but you have to opt-in.

    Votes: 38 16.2%
  • Yes, but with an option to opt-out.

    Votes: 50 21.3%
  • No

    Votes: 139 59.1%

  • Total voters
    235
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Drowsy

Well-Known Member
#22
I'm holding off on voting untill I understand this better. Initially this sounds like a huge invasion of inventory privacy. If we have this feature and I had an extremely rare item that I was keeping secret, could i hide just that item and show the rest or is it a show-all or show-nothing switch?
 

cyre

Well-Known Member
#23
I just feel it opens a door for potential scams and people taking advantage. It was a moderation tool and likely why it was only kept as a moderation tool. I voted No.
 
#24
This is why I voted 'no' as well. Sorry to those folks that think I'm a jerk for voting no, even though there is an opt-out option. I knew a LOT of traders and I know quite a few of them would have used this to their advantage, ESPECIALLY with the newbies that wouldn't have had a clue.

Allowing this to come forward would only open the door to heartache, I believe.

I just feel it opens a door for potential scams and people taking advantage. It was a moderation tool and likely why it was only kept as a moderation tool. I voted No.
 
#25
For this one, I will give the same response as I did on the other one. There has already been a lot of whining and pettiness on the forum already. I can see this causing a multitude of complaints and accusations. For that reason, I give this a big emphatic no!
 

Geggy

Well-Known Member
#26
For this one, I will give the same response as I did on the other one. There has already been a lot of whining and pettiness on the forum already. I can see this causing a multitude of complaints and accusations. For that reason, I give this a big emphatic no!
As do I, and for similar reasoning.
 

John

Well-Known Member
#27
I can't believe people are so against this idea. In my opinion, it would help define what rares are.
With an API like this, it would be possible to determine what items are floating around, and how many of them exist, making it much much easier to determine values
 

Ness

Well-Known Member
#28
In TF2, there are multiple websites that allow you to see how many items are in a game, who owns them, the amount of hours they've played the game.
It opened an easy backdoor for scammers to exploit new players for their rare items.

Another bad thing about this, was that in TF2, people would check the item history, and determine the value off of how many people owned it. I'm content with not knowing if one of my hats has had one owner, or 23. I vote no.
 
#29
I just feel it opens a door for potential scams and people taking advantage. It was a moderation tool and likely why it was only kept as a moderation tool. I voted No.
This is why I voted 'no' as well. Sorry to those folks that think I'm a jerk for voting no, even though there is an opt-out option. I knew a LOT of traders and I know quite a few of them would have used this to their advantage, ESPECIALLY with the newbies that wouldn't have had a clue.

Allowing this to come forward would only open the door to heartache, I believe.
In TF2, there are multiple websites that allow you to see how many items are in a game, who owns them, the amount of hours they've played the game.
It opened an easy backdoor for scammers to exploit new players for their rare items.

Another bad thing about this, was that in TF2, people would check the item history, and determine the value off of how many people owned it. I'm content with not knowing if one of my hats has had one owner, or 23. I vote no.
I agree guys. Protect the newbies!
 
#30
No... because I know that when i'm making 120K+ credits a week people won't stop bothering me when they view my credits. Personally i'd rather not have this at all even with an opt-out option. Sorry to anyone who does. (editT_T - plus I see viewing inventory/credits leading to flaming)

EDIT: I feel the same about items, what's in your inventory is your bidnizz and what's in mine is... well mine. If people are new to the game they should think before they act when it comes to trading items. Not to sound mean about it, that's just the way I look at it when it comes to rares in particular.
 
#31
I think this should be a yes. In reality, alot of the users do not know what this API Actually means.. Basically developers or whoever can request for and catch data from the server openly without any "hacking" or workarounds. This encourages transparency and also improves what is available to all the users. I can picture someone making, say, a page that displays the abundance of a certain item, or the rarity of another. Alot of people here in this thread seem to be hesitant because they do not know what the API Fully entails. I don't think you guys should be so worrisome. The situations you guys are posting of the abuse possibilities are unrealistic at most, and if anything your just giving people ideas to abuse it in the first place. It doesn't mean your account is open to everyone. If anything Amy could only allow the API open to trusted individuals or those who apply to use such. If you do not know fully what this API is, or if it will be/have no use to you - I don't think you should have a vote. Sure, its your data - but it will be protected.
 

Shrimp

Well-Known Member
#33
I think this should be a yes. In reality, alot of the users do not know what this API Actually means.. Basically developers or whoever can request for and catch data from the server openly without any "hacking" or workarounds. This encourages transparency and also improves what is available to all the users. I can picture someone making, say, a page that displays the abundance of a certain item, or the rarity of another. Alot of people here in this thread seem to be hesitant because they do not know what the API Fully entails. I don't think you guys should be so worrisome. The situations you guys are posting of the abuse possibilities are unrealistic at most, and if anything your just giving people ideas to abuse it in the first place. It doesn't mean your account is open to everyone. If anything Amy could only allow the API open to trusted individuals or those who apply to use such.If you do not know fully what this API is, or if it will be/have no use to you - I don't think you should have a vote. Sure, its your data - but it will be protected.
Agreed Mech. I think they should run this vote again, with more detail on how the concerns in the thread would be addressed. I might have to write something up on this.
So what you guys are saying is API should be a MUST and we should have a re-vote on whether we should have the opt-in or opt-out choice ONLY?

Out of the 62 percent who voted 'no', what makes you not believe at least half understood the concept and still chose 'no'?

Stop making this a big deal. Many people chose 'no' because they feel API isn't a necessity, a working game is.
 
#34
If you do not know fully what this API is, or if it will be/have no use to you - I don't think you should have a vote.
Pretty narrow-minded way of thinking. To assume people just voted for the sake of voting is quite naive. Majority voted no for this- deal with it.
 

Ness

Well-Known Member
#36
I think this should be a yes. In reality, alot of the users do not know what this API Actually means.. Basically developers or whoever can request for and catch data from the server openly without any "hacking" or workarounds. This encourages transparency and also improves what is available to all the users. I can picture someone making, say, a page that displays the abundance of a certain item, or the rarity of another. Alot of people here in this thread seem to be hesitant because they do not know what the API Fully entails. I don't think you guys should be so worrisome. The situations you guys are posting of the abuse possibilities are unrealistic at most, and if anything your just giving people ideas to abuse it in the first place. It doesn't mean your account is open to everyone. If anything Amy could only allow the API open to trusted individuals or those who apply to use such. If you do not know fully what this API is, or if it will be/have no use to you - I don't think you should have a vote. Sure, its your data - but it will be protected.
But I do know what an API is. I think it's quite arrogant of you to assume that the people who voted are ignorant or misinformed. I helped code a server based backpack viewer for my buddy's TF2 Nintendo Server (Ricky's Lon Lon Ranch, but this was in Source), and we had to remove it because it quickly became a problem when people would get Salvaged Crate Drops (a rare drop, has a high worth) and it would sit in their backpack, anyone could see if they had it, how many hours they had played. I think it would create an unwelcoming environment for new players, because if they get scammed out of something rare, the chances of them coming back to the game are not high. Nobody likes to be cheated.
 

Shrimp

Well-Known Member
#37
But I do know what an API is. I think it's quite arrogant of you to assume that the people who voted are ignorant or misinformed. I helped code a server based backpack viewer for my buddy's TF2 Nintendo Server (Ricky's Lon Lon Ranch, but this was in Source), and we had to remove it because it quickly became a problem when people would get Salvaged Crate Drops (a rare drop, has a high worth) and it would sit in their backpack, anyone could see if they had it, how many hours they had played. I think it would create an unwelcoming environment for new players, because if they get scammed out of something rare, the chances of them coming back to the game are not high. Nobody likes to be cheated.
Input from someone whose experienced this firsthand and has seen the effects, thank you.
 
#38
So what you guys are saying is API should be a MUST and we should have a re-vote on whether we should have the opt-in or opt-out choice ONLY?

Out of the 62 percent who voted 'no', what makes you not believe at least half understood the concept and still chose 'no'?

Stop making this a big deal. Many people chose 'no' because they feel API isn't a necessity, a working game is.
First, people do vote, just for the sake of voting, second, understanding what an API can is fairly important for understanding how this could be used. The entire thread is people voting no because of the based idea of looking at others inventories. So we don't use the API just because of that? I 100 promise you, if VMK was still a game today, this API would be being used. There's so many things that could be done with it, from the obvious things, like being able to easily output your own inventory into a list, to others, like a smart phone app that lets you manage things like pins, Magic and trading.

The problem with the poll is it's not very helpful if you like part of the idea, but not public inventories. Of course we shouldn't have publicly viewable inventories. That's pretty obvious. But why shouldn't I be able to view my own? Why couldn't I use this tool to get my inventory, tick various items I want to be for trade, and then use that, along with a searchable list of the database, to pick items I'm trading things I have for. Worried about newbies? Simple to solve. Don't allow it to be used by players who have joined recently, or put up a warning about being careful of sharing your inventory with others. It's not that hard.

Using what I stated in my previous paragraph, if we wanted to invest a bit more time, and depending on how robust the API is, you could probably also develop an automatic trade system. For example, I want to trade my Bird Hat for Dream Ears. I could put up a trade that will automatically do that. This could be done publicly, where it's a request for that trade, or privately, where it only auto-trades when someone offers at least a Dream Ears. And since this is an external API, and not part of the game, I assume this entire theoretical trade could have taken place on the smartphone app you all desperately want.

Think about that if you think the game is too focused on trading, and you are worried this would make it worse. This wouldn't make it worse, it'd reduce the amount of time you need to invest in it. It would make it so you could spend more of your time in VMK actually playing mini-games and hanging out with friends, or building rooms. If you'd normally be spending 10-20 minutes in a trading room to wait until that person who want to do the deal you want comes in, you can just pop it down on here, and let the application taking advantage of the API do it for you.

And here's the other thing. I'm guessing creating things like I said that would use this API wouldn't eat of time that could better be devoted to the game. Other people here, who's skills lie in developing things for things other that Shockwave could do it, while Amy is working hard on the game. This is the joy of it.

This is why I say a new tread should be done eventually. The game does work. The API does exist. You are accomplishing nothing at all by saying no.
 

Shrimp

Well-Known Member
#39
Jedi, I see where you're coming from... but even if Amy lays out how it'll work upfront on a new poll, not everyone will agree with the system, I'm sure we'll still get a lot of 'no'. Not everyone will try to understand and grasp the system as deep as you. I'm sure there's only a handful of players like you that understand its perks and potential benefits, sadly that's not enough to implement the API to be available.
 
#40
I would like to apologize If I seemed to come off of a rude, narrow basis. My argument is basically that I feel like a large percentage of people are viewing the API in a negative light. Some (not all) people seem to have an assumption automatically that an API will be used for devious purposes. Sure, you have a few bad eggs here and there - but measures can be put in place to tighten the API so it will not be used for malicious purposes. (EG Approval to certain people for usage, Display figures that do not compromise the safety or well-being of one's account, and a certain sense of "anonymous usage" with data - so certain pieces of information cannot be linked to an account that could come back to harm them. (EG: Users A,B,C,D all have Churro Carts. A has 2, B has 2, C has 4, and D has 2. Instead of displaying how many each user has, why not put the average user has 2 Churro Carts?) Anyways, sorry again guys. Hopefully this can all get sorted out soon. Also on another note, the API is most likely already in place - it wouldn't subtract from the progress of the game. You need an API On the back-end with sql tables and such, its merely a matter of connecting it all together and displaying it on the front end in an attractive, simplified, and organized manner.
 
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