Originally Posted by
Alhanelem
Actually, I think it's far more likely that the decline in RMT is due to the removal of the 2 week free trial.
Oh, for the love of all that is holy, please stop posting this BS. Only a handful of people relative to FFXI's population were banned. More were slapped on the wrist than banned, and RMT were around LONG LONG after the salvage bannings. Everyone who was banned deserved it. Stop acting like this was a majority of high level players or something, because that's just plain false. The STF has done it's job, it is ridiculous to argue that something like banning a few cheaters/exploiters ruined the economy. The salvage bannings were about removing people exploiting bugs, it had absolutely nothing to do with RMT.
Some of the restrictions are not really needed anymore (though they were needed at the time they were created, to be sure). Since even RMT will have to either buy the game or steal accounts to do their job now, that's one of the reasons they've all but disappeared.