FFXI DESPERATELY NEEDS BAN HAMMERS!

[Pixela]

You give them far too much credit. You think they actually do that, i'm literally loling.

It's how I would do it, also I've lost a warp point on an alt account I know I had so.

[Pixela]

RMT isn't bad, as long as it is controlled. Zero tolerance never works.

If a company destroys all RMT, then often their game will die shortly after.

[Alhanelem]

RMT isn't bad, as long as it is controlled. Zero tolerance never works.

If a company destroys all RMT, then often their game will die shortly after.

You imply that anyone has ever succeeded at doing this. That hasn't ever happened. Failiure of the game destroys the RMT market, not the other way around.

[Sirmarki]

If a company destroys all RMT, then often their game will die shortly after.

I think you may have that the wrong way around!?

[Isola]

Not really. It works both ways. Everytime square has done something to thwart RMT they hurt the playerbase, and the playerbase gets smaller. It's an impossible battle.

[TullemoreAsuraFFXI]

Every honorable player enjoys happiness each and every time these vermin face consequences.

There are a handful of posters that take a position of apathy.

That apathy leads me to believe that they are personally customers of these prohibited websites, suppliers to these prohibited websites, friendly with other players that are customers of these prohibited websites or are exploiting these gil buyers through selling contemptible services and merch.

RMT obstruct access to limited open world resources. RMT artificially inflate trading price values. Cheating, obstruction and detrimental activities INDUCE subscription losses. An account that is violating ToS by which it's actions are harmful to honorable residents is not a viable subscription to be counted. Harmful behaviors destroy online gaming genres. Online gaming patrons are repulsed by encounters with prohibited or unethical conduct.

Any account that facilitates RMT commerce concedes that account to punishment through justified termination. Any account that vandalizes the intended gaming structure of FFXI through third party programs / scripting / use of bots concedes that account to punishment through justified termination.

Honorable players DO NOT want to coexist with miscreant perpetrators. I can not emphasize that enough.

[Isola]

Like I said, it's a losing battle. It's lose/lose. There is no good outcome. Regardless of the impossibility.

You could make the game great... for the 3 people that will play it. And it closes. Or, you can leave it as is, and make it great for a select few, and mildly annoying for thousands. There's no grey area. There very much needs to be certain things that are done however. Very much so.

[Pixela]

When FFXI was new it was filled with people with more time than money, now FFXI is 16 years old it's filled with people with more money than time. Actually this is still true for almost any mmorpg in 2019 (as shown by ffxiv with its cash shop)

These people buy gil because they don't have time to farm it and they want to make progress on their REMA and whatever else so they effectively pay others to farm their gil for them, if RMT is abolished these people can't make progress (They aren't going to work less hours or not spend time with their kids to grind gil) so they will just quit playing. You know this is true because they buy it now, RMT would not exist if the demand was not there.

This is a loss of players and a loss of revenue.

The RMT pay a subscription, when they get banned softly (not banned quick enough where they make no profit) they buy the game again and continue paying a sub (often multiple). If these people are banned harshly they will stop paying to farm gil.

This is a loss of players and a loss of revenue.

There are serious hardcore endgame players that sell gil, if their were no longer allowed to do this they would quit the game because they have nothing else to do at this point.

This is a loss of players and a loss of revenue.

If Square take a zero tolerance against RMT and ban every RMT and every bot they won't attract more players, they will just make some people happy that they can now farm whatever it was with no competition and prices will increase on the auction house for them.

One action is worse than the other for the game because the game needs to be profitable to continue running (they also work the same way with ffxiv, they control rmt and don't destroy them).

The goal of the Special task force is to control RMT, to stop them being a nuisance as much as possible (so they make gil in ways that don't massively impact other players) without destroying it completely.

To use a stupid analogy: I hate bees, If I demanded every bee is destroyed I would be happy for a while but then all the flowers would die because the bees pollinate them. However I don't want thousands of bees in my garden, I want them controlled and not annihilated from existence.

[Pixela]

Also as I additional point: when Square did ban RMT really hard to the point they were making no money, they changed tactic and didn't stop selling gil.

When Square stopped them being able to farm gil in a controlled fashion they:

DDOS'd the servers constantly over long periods of time as retaliation.
They stole peoples accounts via hacking and trojans and viruses on ffxi related websites ads.
They hacked the game in as many ways as possible.
They farmed gil in the game in really obnoxious ways as fast as possible and didn't care about annoying anyone.

[TullemoreAsuraFFXI]

All of which is illegal and prohibited behavior. You do not back down to terrorists. You do not back down to tyrants. You do not take a position of forced oppression as a Online game PROVIDER/DEVELOPER in the face of allowing iconic titles to fall victim to THUGS! SQUARE ENIX ! Are you reading this exchange ? Over-haul + Reform FFXI interface ! Disrupt this infestation ! Square Enix Save YOUR REPUTATION as a leader in retail gaming !