There is a pink elephant in the room that looks at all of us but no one--for whatever reason or another--refuse to talk about--RMT.
Now before I begin, I want to start out by saying I understand the game changed and there are a lack of resources. And that the Merc culture that exists in many servers makes it difficult to get things done without having the adequate help--ergo why many may lean to defend RMT. But let's think about this.
This game is an easier version of FFXI. It's easy now to produce in a day 16M!!! I did one Dynamis D event and was surprised how many big item drops that I had--keep in mind, this was my first time doing it. All the RoE quests, Ambuscade, and even Reisemanjia I make a ton. So I don't even see the need to want to--or quite honestly understand why there is a need to begin with.
Regardless of my opinions above, let's look at facts. RMT's steal accounts of people and either sell them or use them for their own gain. I known many of my friends that lost accounts and/or gear due to their accounts being compromised. I have first hand lost good friends and LS's were disrupted by the RMT community.
In addition to this, RMT's corner markets and slowly fix prices to inflate. So while it may help to have them put stuff in the AH, it will progressively get worse and worse.
Q: But wait, Topshelf. RMT's are different now than pre abby days and are contributing to the game.
A: If they were contributing, they would not be farming for the sake of $$$$. They would be doing missions, quests, and battles with us players and struggle like we do. They do not do this, but instead they are adding to a problem. Case in point was in the early games when RMT sold gil to players and while at first it wasn't felt. Many players said that the RMT's are helping, and making the game easier to play. But overtime the economy became so inflated that SE had to reset the AH, made some items exclusive, as well eventually creating the Special Task Force to handle RMT.
If RMT was not as prevalent as it is now, players would naturally flock to things in demand and an equilibrium of what naturally needs to exist in the AH, would stocked--doesn't matter how easy or difficult it is to farm. If there's a need, people will want to buy it. Gil is the incentive for people to get off their bums to go out and farm it.
But this culture of overlooking RMT, or blackballing those that turn in RMT has to stop. No one has to report RMT. That's not what this is about. But this community is about supporting one another. If someone wants to report an RMT, let em. Don't black ball em. If the player didn't, for any reason other than being the vector for RMT activity, let that player be as well. But for the Developers, we have a problem and it needs to fix. It's messing up our culture of working together. Developers, please look into ways to augment gameplay to reduce RMTs.
Now those that are mercs, continue doing what you're doing. This isn't about those that are hired guns. It's a legitimate service. But those that abuse it to sell gil however, is wrong.