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expect people to give up something (merit) which basically has a worth of about $10 on the black market? It ain't going to happen, buddy.
Lol, really, The Pharmacist? Each merit point cost $10, doesn't it?
If yes, I think this is why lots of members in the forum tried selling/ exchanging their merits and massively abused the merit system. Their ultimate goals is not ranking up, but it actually is for earning as much money from campaigns as possible.
However, ranking up by buying merits from black market is not a good option. It should never be like that.
Overtime, those merit exchanges will be found by someone, hence might lead to red tags, bans (by moderators).
I strongly believe that merit system will help to wipe out all abusers somehow, at some day.