Formal Letter to SE about RMT situation.

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Originally Posted by Cartoonfox

SE service has been absolute crap since the early 1980's why on earth would you expect it to change now, don't get me wrong I whole heartedly agree with your sentiment but in truth this will be doing nothing. They will not listen to you they will not change. If you saw the bashing they took over Final Fantasy Mystic Quest, and saw that even in the gigantic out cry of hatred of that game. They still did nothing. I know people that would call them five or six times a day and they got the same line every time about how it was being handled but it wasn't. If it will make you feel better to do this then by all means, but all of you should curve yourself in the most likely case that you will be disappointed.

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I actually kind of liked Mystic Quest, though I'm glad it wasn't a numbered entry in the series.

They do listen to us; I was happy to see Terra's theme make it in even though it took a long time. They've responded to and fulfilled other requests given on the forums too. I think that's it, we just have to keep at them and maybe, eventually, they will do something about it. Better late than never.

Before I could ignore the tells. They didn't really bother me. Shouts they do now, again ignored and gone before you can blacklist. One thing that can't be ignored, the friend requests. Well you could but you would have that on your screen forever.

The RMT people are so bad that now their player names are their websites. It doesn't get much worse than that. They are just thumbing their nose at us. They are pretty much calling you out saying there isn't anything you can do and we aren't going anywhere.

So it seems they don't want to do chat/level filters which has been asked more times than one can count. How about a different approach. So these tells and friend requests are using some sort of PC based program to search players names and bombard them with such spam, right? Now I could be wrong, but how else are they getting our names? Using the player search function.

Now how many of us actually use that? Show of hands. Me personally have never used it to find someone. Anyone I actually communicated in game with was standing right in front of me, as was I with legit people who talked to me.

Disable the player search function, it seems to be not working as intended.

add my name, Kay'la Yukinekove, of Goblin. I am tired of the bs bots.

It´s not so extrem on Zodiark, but it is still annoying and new players have started to ask higher characters about this during the Easter Event FATEs. A few of them couldn´t understand that this RMT guys are Bots. "But you have to pay for the game, how can Bots be in this game?"
I couldn´t explain this, just tell them to ignore or blacklist this guys and never take a look on thier websites.

I have to signed this, i want to avoid that new players fell for that trap...and i also don´t want to get that /tell messages and friend requests anymore >__>

/signed Eral Lorca, Zodiark

Reported more farming bots just now. One of which I remember reporting a while back (my browser remembers it too). It was level 20 something when I first reported this one, now the bot is level 50, purely by farming shards and crystals.

If SE were prompt in dealing with farming bots, it would cut into RMT's source of gil. Rather than waiting to try and find more, by then the damage has been done and the gil has been sold.

Zalera server is overrun. You can't have even have an active /tell channel because this spam comes through every 30 seconds. Okay, so we B-list the first 200 of these people. Contrary to popular belief these characters do not get deleted. Maybe 5 of my 200 have been deleted since I came to Zalera about a year ago. They must have died of natural causes, because nothing is being done. Now /shout channel is at risk, because the RMT have taken to simply spamming /shout all day long since no one wants to use /tell anymore. We've been cut off at the knee communication-wise in the form of the prohibitive use of /tells and /shouts. These people are hijacking our game time and our freedom to use a product we paid and continue to pay for on a monthly basis the way it was intended. Are we, the non-RMT partaking community, the majority or the minority here?

It feels like the latter, because these people are not disappearing. Their characters aren't even getting deleted. Open-world communication on Zalera is discouraged and therefore near non-existent thanks to the lack of activity against RMT behavior, a policy which severely needs a redesign.I think we as paying customers are entitled to speedy action against offenders. They aren't simply guilty of RMT, they're guilty of harassment. These people actually have the guts to name their characters to the like of "Ggatm'com Sellgilv," a name I liken to an illegal alien carrying a sign reading, "Undocumented and unafraid." This is the actual name of a character who has attempted to 'befriend' me in the time it took me to write this paragraph. They befriend you so that you have to take more steps before you can actually B-list them, therefore they have more time to harass you. The atmosphere on this server in particular is truly pathetic, and SE ought to be ashamed to let it continue.

/signed

Please add me. The lack of action on SE's part is getting frustrating.

Sramdi Nitodus, Hyperion

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Originally Posted by Bloodmoon

Zalera server is overrun. You can't have even have an active /tell channel because this spam comes through every 30 seconds. Okay, so we B-list the first 200 of these people. Contrary to popular belief these characters do not get deleted. Maybe 5 of my 200 have been deleted since I came to Zalera about a year ago. They must have died of natural causes, because nothing is being done. Now /shout channel is at risk, because the RMT have taken to simply spamming /shout all day long since no one wants to use /tell anymore. We've been cut off at the knee communication-wise in the form of the prohibitive use of /tells and /shouts. These people are hijacking our game time and our freedom to use a product we paid and continue to pay for on a monthly basis the way it was intended. Are we, the non-RMT partaking community, the majority or the minority here?

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Characters aren't deleted when the accounts are banned - characters are deleted by their owners to avoid detection. You won't know which bots are banned and which aren't. There's almost no point to Blisting them (I've switched to using the blist for the constant RMT shouters. I'm looking at you, New Gridania and Ul Dah).
But in agreeance, Couerl is over-run also, and it's crippled the Tell system.

I thought for sure by now they'd have added right click and report or something...but wow, they're still just saying nothing... :(

/signed Aldor Velment (Excalibur)

They're starting to branch out too. I just got my first Friend Request from an obvious gil seller on Valefor. No spamming yet though...

Yep, I just got a friend request from some character like "Idiotspammers'com Gilseller." :(

One-click deny+blacklist+report would definitely help.

I don't think SE really cares about the end user experience or makes an effort to understand what it's like firsthand. Im sure their developers and testers work in an environment that's closed off and so they don't have to deal with it, and while they know we do, it doesn't affect them that much so they just don't care.

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Originally Posted by Buff_Archer

I don't think SE really cares about the end user experience or makes an effort to understand what it's like firsthand. Im sure their developers and testers work in an environment that's closed off and so they don't have to deal with it, and while they know we do, it doesn't affect them that much so they just don't care.

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Yoshi-P and members of the dev team are known to play the actual game on the production servers (presumably JP data center.) Presumably it is a big problem there as well and they are aware of it. Yoshi-P himself has expressed anger at RMT and spammers (saying they needed to be "exterminated" iirc), but what we are lacking at the moment is some sort of official response about whether they are going to make any obvious changes (such as single-click deny+blist+report) to help prevent spam from destroying the game.

p.s. Hey Buff, you're on my server! I think you've been in some of my hunt parties. :D

Today in Ul'dah's marketplace on Zalera, there were three shout RMT characters that would appear in the exact same spot in steps of Thal. Level 1 pugilists, same exact "asdfw" type name. They went in a rotation for a good half hour. So they weren't even being deleted: someone or some program was logging these characters in for their quick 3-shout ads and then right back out before players could black list. Two different websites, same three characters.

Would it be so hard to assign at least 1 GM in each major city of each server to nail these things? I don't think these RMT bots could make it any easier to be tracked down and spotted.

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Originally Posted by DreadRabbit

Today in Ul'dah's marketplace on Zalera, there were three shout RMT characters that would appear in the exact same spot in steps of Thal. Level 1 pugilists, same exact "asdfw" type name. They went in a rotation for a good half hour. So they weren't even being deleted: someone or some program was logging these characters in for their quick 3-shout ads and then right back out before players could black list. Two different websites, same three characters.

Would it be so hard to assign at least 1 GM in each major city of each server to nail these things? I don't think these RMT bots could make it any easier to be tracked down and spotted.

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Same spambot program seems to be running on Diabolos as well in the major cities. You have to /blist them on the second shout before they log off. They seem to have recently decided to exploit the loophole that you apparently can't blacklist characters who are offline.

The possible good news in this is that everyone on /busy seems to be forcing the spambots to change their tactics and become more visible (although they will probably step up their abuse of friend and linkshell requests as well.)

/signed Cin Lyhn Excalibur

And shocked there are so few signatures. And can't believe this is still so prominent an issue. I hate seeing bots wander around for weeks after being reported as well. (if not months actually..) Get on this SE.

RMT are starting to spam in /shout in cities now. They are getting emboldened

I remember Gil sellers shouting in the cities in 1.x.

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Originally Posted by Avenger

Yoshi-P and members of the dev team are known to play the actual game on the production servers (presumably JP data center.) Presumably it is a big problem there as well and they are aware of it.

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Thing is, it's not a problem on jp servers at all. I've been on tonberry 10 months and can't remember ever getting one. I watch my bf play on typhon and he never gets them either.

Fact is, jp players don't tend to buy gil, so there is no market. Part of the reason name servers have these shouts is because people buy!

Of course se should do more. But the number of players who buy is a real problem too.

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Originally Posted by Cendres

/signed Cin Lyhn Excalibur

And shocked there are so few signatures. And can't believe this is still so prominent an issue. I hate seeing bots wander around for weeks after being reported as well. (if not months actually..) Get on this SE.

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Also keep in mind the author of this petition is currently day 4 into a 10 day ban for issues arising from this very thread. When he gets back, another 75 or so signatures will be being added to the OP.

Its also a problem that a lot of players simply do not use the forums. They haven't even seen the petition yet, or they would likely sign it.

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Originally Posted by tocsin

Also keep in mind the author of this petition is currently day 4 into a 10 day ban for issues arising from this very thread. When he gets back, another 75 or so signatures will be being added to the OP.

Its also a problem that a lot of players simply do not use the forums. They haven't even seen the petition yet, or they would likely sign it.

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Things are not so pretty here on Jenova right now in Limsa - I think I would encourage everyone to to copy the spammed txt, and submit a ticket at least once a day...maybe nothing will be done - but I know for sure silence never gets anything done :(

This crap just makes this game look junky - and it's a good game, and lots of fun - I don't want new people to come see this spam and go away:(

PS - Tocsin - you look good with the hat -OT, I know, sorry!

I also just found out from an FC mate, that at least one of the gil selling sites was offering placement on a "do not spam" list for their bots... for a monthly fee.

This is getting ridiculous.

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Originally Posted by tocsin

I also just found out from an FC mate, that at least one of the gil selling sites was offering placement on a "do not spam" list for their bots... for a monthly fee.

This is getting ridiculous.

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LAWLS...this made me log on the forums..wow.. Oh well..

Seriously, what the hell is up with these forum mods banning people...
I got banned again yesterday argh!!

This time I might've deserved it... but still :(

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Originally Posted by tocsin

Also keep in mind the author of this petition is currently day 4 into a 10 day ban for issues arising from this very thread. When he gets back, another 75 or so signatures will be being added to the OP.

Its also a problem that a lot of players simply do not use the forums. They haven't even seen the petition yet, or they would likely sign it.

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The autor of this petition was banned because of this thread?

Oh... Now Square Enix are listening to us.

But I still think Square Enix are on the wrong side of this wall.

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Originally Posted by Zabuza

I am making this post mainly because I am concerned about what this is going to do for your business if you don't nip this in the bud before June.
Mid June, I imagine many new players will buy the expansion to try Heavensward out. The first thing they will see when dive into the world of Eorzea is their chat log filled with pink as the RMTs immediately divebomb them with /tells. Being new players, they probably won't know to go busy status, or how to disable the /tells unless they wish to google around for the answer. Having to put up with being harassed as soon as they begin to play, I can imagine it would drive some potentially new players away, causing you as a company to lose $ when they unsub. Especially with the free trial, people are going to see themselves be bombarded with /tells and decide not to sub to such an experience.

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This really needs to stop and you're spot on pointing out that when they do release the expansion, RMT will destroy the game experience for every new player that actually decides to start or the ones that come back to check the expansion out to notice that this hasn't been fixed and it has been over 2 years since the game launched the first time and this is still a problem. I'm also forced to keep /busy on when ever I play because if I happen to be without it for less than a minute, I will get a tell from RMT, sometimes it only takes less than 5 seconds, which makes my blood boil.

What is most maddening about this is SE's initiative on dealing with this. They tell us that they have "banned RMT accounts". It doesn't matter how many accounts you ban they will always make new ones and the problem continues to exist. We need a proper response from SE what they are going to do about this, because this has gone far enough already. If this isn't fixed, it will make SE lose insane amounts of profits when many people don't want to play because of this! Are you really that stupid to let that happen SE? Honestly.

/signed Nasibihc Tigerstone from Sargatanas

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Originally Posted by Nasibihc

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I agree 100%. Releasing Heavenward prior to resolving this RMT issue is going to cost SE hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars in lost revenue. I am proof of that. I just started prior to the release of the Golden Saucer. During my trial period, I had basically given up on the game due to RMT spam. (Its a really bad sign of poor moderation in MMO's). Literally THE ONLY REASON I am here right now, is because a close friend convinced me to give it another chance & helped me get acclimated to the game. I am very grateful he did, because FFXIV is such a wonderful game. How many players didn't have such a friend to help them? How many of them saw the RMT spam & just went "Nope?" SE needs to stop ignoring this issue & take action. This is not an acceptable MMO environment.

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Originally Posted by tocsin

Also keep in mind the author of this petition is currently day 4 into a 10 day ban for issues arising from this very thread. When he gets back, another 75 or so signatures will be being added to the OP.

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How did you know OP's being banned?

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Originally Posted by seida

Thing is, it's not a problem on jp servers at all. I've been on tonberry 10 months and can't remember ever getting one. I watch my bf play on typhon and he never gets them either.

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i think this is because of language barriers.
RMTs can't write in japanese, and the amount of players on JP servers that can understand the english RMT codes are not enough to start a business there.

The same way that any of us can communicate privately. He made a new character on my server, and sent me a friend request as a level one. when I didn't accept it (lvl 1 friend request, lol) he contacted one of my FC mates, and had them let me know who he was, and I accepted his request. we have been communicating over mog mail.

He should be unbanned around the 19th.

edit: this exact scenario is why I usually argue against creating /tell restrictions for lvl 1 characters. We legitimate players use them as well.

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Originally Posted by Blissa

I 100% agree all that RMT spam is going to cripple the game for new players. If you leave tells on and some one sends you a genuine tell, your going to have to scroll up to read it because of the 3 or 4 RMT spam tells you received right after the tell.

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My first RMT tell was literally within two minutes of setting foot in Gridania after the opening CS. This is ridiculous and needs to be bloody stopped.

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Originally Posted by Felis

i think this is because of language barriers.
RMTs can't write in japanese, and the amount of players on JP servers that can understand the english RMT codes are not enough to start a business there.

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I highly doubt it, you think they would speak English unless there was money to be made from it? It's not that difficult to find out the relevant vocab needed. If there was money to be made, they would do it. Also, there are loads of english speakers on Tonberry and we still never get any (despite there beng gil buyers here). I think buying gil is a lot more taboo among jp players.

Anyway, the other big problem IS the buyers. But of course SE will never ban anyone who buys gil, because they pay a subscription and SE wants their money, no matter how unfair it is to other players. If there were no buyers, the shouts would die out soon enough.

It does sound unbearable on other servers though, whatever they are doing currently, it is clearly not enough.

/sign

I can't take it any more ether.
Getting between 10 and 30 tells a day.

Suggestions:
- Easier way to report RMT on the PS4 (Square button on name Report RMT) Done!
- Option to only accept Tells from friends.

/signed Shadow Menace - Midgardsomnr

Yeah it's really bad now, I used to tolerate it but now I literately get tells as soon as I get online and spammed bad if I don't change my status to Busy which I shouldn't have to do.

They don't even try to hide it anymore, with level 1 characters sending me friend invites named "Ggatm'com Sellgils"...

SE really needs to do something about this, it's ruining their game.

/signed Lou Lupus - Midgardsormr

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Originally Posted by Werewolf

They don't even try to hide it anymore, with level 1 characters sending me friend invites named "Ggatm'com Sellgils"...
/signed Lou Lupus - Midgardsormr

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I've been getting these friend requests from the same name also (and variations once I Blacklist). SE is so toothless that that the RMT can exhibit such huge balls as this.

This thread is TLDR so sorry if I repeat what others have suggested. I would like to see filtering on /tell and friend requests - specifically to filter by player level - along with a white list so I can add exceptions such as FC members, people on my friend list, specific names, etc. RMT are not going to take a character to level 50 to spam their tells and friend requests. If you really want to talk to me, find me in person and use /say.

Edit: /signed Waekswys Styrmwyn - Leviathan Server

/signed Remmy Palazzo -Behemoth

Quite literally made my forum account finally just so I can add my name to this. In Cactaur we've been getting a huge influx of RMT traffic which makes communication for a text chat only game nearly impossible. Marking as busy hasn't ever been a working solution for this. My black list for RMT names is quickly nearing one hundred of the allowed two hundred name limit. A majority of those names are still marked as present which leads me to think that they aren't banned/deleted yet.

TL;DR - RMTs are a problem; add my name. I just wanna play a great game w/ a great community.

/signed Vensari Vexhart -Cactaur