Losing Faith in SE

Just add 2 options

1. option to block all friend requests
2. option to only get tells from friendlist/FC

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Originally Posted by Slirith

Just add 2 options

1. option to block all friend requests
2. option to only get tells from friendlist/FC

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3. report as spam option on right click pop up 'tell' menu
4. make blacklisting account wide
5. make auto blacklisting reported spammers an option
6. make black list management easier
7. increase the size of the black list

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Originally Posted by Silverbear

The lag on the servers is just sad(excellent connection btw)

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Not to say that there isn't lag on servers, but I personally have not had any latency issues, failed craft macros or none of this that, yes a lot of people complain about and I have a terrible ISP. Just wanted to say that this issue doesn't affect every single person and SE shouldn't solely be the blame for your experience. There are many other factors.

RMT:
(I am on Excalibur and you get it EVERYWHERE and all the freaking time.)
/busy is a player devised bandaid not a solution.
From what I gather, SE does in fact have a special task force devoted to the RMT issue, however I was lead to believe that is consist of three people. This is a 24/7/365 (minus maintenance okay), this means if it is really only 3 staff members then this is a very limited team to receive reports, review logs and take action in a game this big across this many servers.

I am not sure who first suggested this but it is a great start: If they would let us blacklist the account and not the character it would help immensely.

HOUSING:
umm do not get me started on this one, I am very disappointed in how this has been handled.

RNG:
The gods of RNG hate me, and to spite them I will not give up. (26 runs of WP for my zodiac drop)

Posting char limit 1k are you kidding me?


love the rest of the game

Sounds like a MMO isn't for you bud. Maybe you should look into console gaming.

MMO's always have grinds/rng/gated content, that's what keeps the playerbase there and engaged in their game. Look at the state of the game right now, most people have accomplished what they need and are now taking a break until the expansion, those who aren't are trying to furiously catch up. That's the carrot that is always danging in front of you, gotta catch up!

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Originally Posted by Bunsen

snip

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To expand on this, many of the issues people are experiencing are NOT client-side OR server-side. What is actually happening is people are experiencing packet loss on the route to the servers, which, thanks to the terrible American network infrastructure, often passes through a node that can't handle the traffic. Level 3 Communications is particularly notorious for this, and the reason FFXIV gets hit by connection issues so much is because Level 3 has a node particularly close to where the servers are located (Montreal) that is especially bad. Thus, while it's not your fault if you're lagging (unless it actually is), it's not SE's fault most of the time either.

On a slightly relevant note, the servers are where they are for several reasons, one of which is the cost of such servers.

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Originally Posted by Zplinter

From what I gather, SE does in fact have a special task force devoted to the RMT issue, however I was lead to believe that is consist of three people. This is a 24/7/365 (minus maintenance okay), this means if it is really only 3 staff members then this is a very limited team to receive reports, review logs and take action in a game this big across this many servers.

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The task force is kind of the second tier support, the reports are (I believe) fielded by GMs, and the task force focuses on tracing the accounts, investigating them and acting. Still with something like 22,000 accounts permanently banned in the last 2 weeks alone, they are not exactly idle...

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Originally Posted by gamesmart

What is actually happening is people are experiencing packet loss on the route to the servers, which, thanks to the terrible American network infrastructure, often passes through a node that can't handle the traffic. Level 3 Communications is particularly notorious for this, and the reason FFXIV gets hit by connection issues so much is because Level 3 has a node particularly close to where the servers are located (Montreal) that is especially bad.

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Just to add to this, and perhaps provide a little insight. Level 3 (along with Cogent) is currently considering suing US Broadband Internet providers (such as ComCast). This comes after the new Net Neutrality rules from the FCC and the language in those rules that prevents ISPs from throttling any legal data traffic. Cogent and possibly Level 3 could allege that the ISPs are throttling traffic that the interconnection points with the backbone transit services provided by Cogent, Level 3 and companies like them. Back in 2010, Level 3 was forced to pay up by the troll under the bridge (ComCast) but Cogent refused. 5 years later the same crap is still rumbling along.

I'm not saying that Level 3 is not at fault, but there is also a very high degree of likelihood that US ISPs are shafting consumers as well by throttling traffic at the interconnection points. nNormally these kinds of interconnections are handled through something called settlement free peering, where everybody agrees to interconnect with everyone else for free - kind of an "you show me yours, I'll show you mine" kind of agreement. ComCast on the other hand wants money to allow traffic from services such as Netflix (and other streaming/gaming services) onto their network ("you show me yours, and pay me to show you mine"). Basically they want a toll to allow the data that transits via Level 3 and/or Cogent to get to their customers without throttling.

Personally, I thought I paid ComCast for that service, and I should not have to pay more to get un-throttle access, nor should anyone else. It pisses me off no end that they interfere with my access to force an unrelated 3rd party to pay them for what I already paid. That's double dipping, and at the end of the day it just hurts customers.

I should also mention that I have have done trace routes from my residential ComCast service and also trace routes from my corporate network (work) both of which go through ComCast. I see terrible response times (200-300ms sometimes longer) from the various nodes on the network with my residential access, but my work network gets <10 ms response, from the same nodes. That's not Level 3, Cogent or anyone else, it's purely Comcast. I would bet that something similar happens with other ISPs where consumers get shafted, but 'business' customers do not.

I have not lost faith in SE, granted yes the support is horrid but this game itself has plus and minuses. To me the amount of content in the plus makes up for how horrid and annoying the rng grind is for say Relic
The RMT also has had it's ups and downs, but since Gold Saucer no doubt it has got real bad on NA servers

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Originally Posted by gamesmart

To expand on this, many of the issues people are experiencing are NOT client-side OR server-side. What is actually happening is people are experiencing packet loss on the route to the servers, which, thanks to the terrible American network infrastructure, often passes through a node that can't handle the traffic. Level 3 Communications is particularly notorious for this, and the reason FFXIV gets hit by connection issues so much is because Level 3 has a node particularly close to where the servers are located (Montreal) that is especially bad. Thus, while it's not your fault if you're lagging (unless it actually is), it's not SE's fault most of the time either.

On a slightly relevant note, the servers are where they are for several reasons, one of which is the cost of such servers.

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This is consistent with everything that I have ever read. Thank You! I used to have Verizon FiOS (many threads on here for that) and recall people reporting latency issues.

In short, it is easy to blame SE for negative "server lag" experience to those who are not fully in the know how these things work. I don't understand it all personally, but I am wise enough to know that it isn't simply SE's issue and shows ignorance to point fingers.

The RMT (at least on my server) is out of control. I'm constantly having to go /busy to avoid being sent junk tells every few minutes. This causes me to lose out any potential conversation with real game friends because they can't message you. Then everytime I go to any of the major cities, shout chat gets absolutely bombarded with the same gil seller shouting the same message up to 8-10 times in a row, every few minutes. Then the friend requests from lvl 1 Ughghh Sksksks in Ul'dah. OMG, enough to drive one insane.

As for the RNG aspect, I understand RNG is needed in games like this to expand the lifespan of content. However, often times in this game, it feels like an absolute joke. I've become especially aware of it lately as I've been trying to obtain alt gear from WOD (almost two weeks of non-stop WOD just to finally get the DRG chest) to leveling miner and seeing:

"You obtain nothing"
"You obtain nothing"
"You obtain nothing"
"You obtain nothing"

While having a 96% success rate.

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Originally Posted by Bunsen

This is consistent with everything that I have ever read. Thank You. I used to have Verizon FiOS (many threads on here for that) and recall people reporting latency issues.

In short, it is easy to blame SE for negative "server lag" experience to those who are not fully in the know who these things work. I don't understand it all personally, but I am wise enough to know that it isn't simply SE's issue.

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Honestly, I personally don't know a whole lot about networking myself. All of the stuff I posted before was what I've learned from these forums (shocker, I know), and the occasional trace route I've done whenever something starts acting up. Of course, it's a bit of a personal interest for me as I'm going into computer science (still a freshman though), so I'm a bit more inclined to want to know how it works rather than just saying "hurrdurr SE fix this."

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Originally Posted by Zanarken

During my trial period I almost quit over the RMT spam because it shows a lack of community moderation & professionalism. I have played nearly a dozen MMO's & NONE of them have had this poor of moderation.

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This is nothing. Where I come from, the gil sellers owned all the best hunting spots and would happily PK you until you deleveled/dropped your gear if you tried to fight there, even if you needed it for a quest.

But yeah, it is pretty annoying.

If you have a lot of disconnections,lag and or game crashing it is not the servers. You should take your CPU heatsink off you will be surprised that the thermal past had crystalized and need to replace itif not the issue then either your graphics card is old or you're mobo is dying also do you have sufficient cooling and a good case and dust free. Also do you have the right mobo for CPU if CPU is fbus 5gts and using an 4gts board ull have bad performance I'd also would use an lab killer from Razer it makes ffxiv priority

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Originally Posted by NorthernLadMSP

As for the RNG aspect, I understand RNG is needed in games like this to expand the lifespan of content. However, often times in this game, it feels like an absolute joke. I've become especially aware of it lately as I've been trying to obtain alt gear from WOD (almost two weeks of non-stop WOD just to finally get the DRG chest) to leveling miner and seeing:

"You obtain nothing"
"You obtain nothing"
"You obtain nothing"
"You obtain nothing"

While having a 96% success rate.

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I've had similar experiences. While everyone I have attempted to discuss this matter on has assured me the RNG in this game is "perfectly fine" I have my doubts. The probability of the outcome you just described is .00000256. That is something you should only experience as a harvester a few times in your entire gathering career yet I have had it happen more times than I can count. 98% success rate & 4/5 misses. Never ceases to amaze me.

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Originally Posted by TheRogueX

This is nothing. Where I come from, the gil sellers owned all the best hunting spots and would happily PK you until you deleveled/dropped your gear if you tried to fight there, even if you needed it for a quest.

But yeah, it is pretty annoying.

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That is horrible >< No way would I be able to tolerate that. What MMO was that if you don't mind me asking?

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Originally Posted by nuyu11

There is no RMT in Japan servers, if you don't believe me try create one alt at one of the Japanese servers and you will know it.

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That is a big lie lol, there are BAZILIONS of these so called gilfarmer, creating massive army of Black Mage bots to become materia factories.They are easy to spot, just do player search and check english as language, and you will see hundreds of these bots in Uldah. It will be either thaumarge or archer army, or all level 50 black mage with no Free Company, no grand company affiliation.

Yes, we don't get those "friendly tells" every 30 seconds advertising bullshit website that sells gills - but RMT is getting desperate now and re-using the "add friend" tactics to annoy you. They even start targeting smaller server that is primarily Japanese players, such as Belias...which is really baffling.

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Originally Posted by Luvbunny

Snip.

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Ooo.... I just tell based on my experienced, because I from NA/EU server before moved to Masamune.
Yes I have seen few boots but I don't know there are BAZILIONS of them.
Some pathetic loser want a shortcut but ruin other ppl experience meh.

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Originally Posted by Zanarken

I've had similar experiences. While everyone I have attempted to discuss this matter on has assured me the RNG in this game is "perfectly fine" I have my doubts. The probability of the outcome you just described is .00000256. That is something you should only experience as a harvester a few times in your entire gathering career yet I have had it happen more times than I can count. 98% success rate & 4/5 misses. Never ceases to amaze me.

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Oh, definitely. It's not something that has happened once or twice, it happens quite frequently.

Complaining about connection problems? It's be extremely well documented how much of that has nothing to do with Square. I love how people always blame square instantly with zero regards to the massive load of poor American internet infrastructure between them and the servers.

Your faith was already low if these are your snap reactions.

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Originally Posted by NorthernLadMSP

Oh, definitely. It's not something that has happened once or twice, it happens quite frequently.

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It doesn't matter if it happens frequently or not (despite the fact it helps players sometimes too and they REALLY like to forget about those moments) The problem is those roles aren't unique to you. The game isn't rolling the dice 4 times in a row solely for you. The same RNG system is rolling the dice for thousands of people at a time. It cares not for your streak. It cares not for what number you rolled last. Each roll is unique and unrelated to the last and your rolls were just one in the hundreds of thousands of rolls. Were the odds low to fail that synth. Yes, but not impossible to fail. RNG is RNG and people REALLY like to forget that really simple basic concept. If it's not a 100% chance of success then there is a chance it will fail. The failure is the users for failing to ensure a non-zero result. The game in no way shape or form goes extra special out of it's way to screw players. All I see is more people here who clearly don't have any knowledge of basic statistics and random distributions continuing to spread poor information around like this.

Even on Excalibur they have gone back to the teleporting underground ways...

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Originally Posted by Niurok

Even on Excalibur they have gone back to the teleporting underground ways...

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What this tells us is that there is no process in the game to check teleport coordinates, nor anything to check that the teleport request is legitimate. Coordinates under the surface geometry really need to be flagged so anyone using them can get banned, and teleporting to a target location without use of something like the Eternity ring to 'port to your partner should also be a red flag. I really can't understand why this issue has not yet been fully addressed. The same is true of all the position hacks.

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Originally Posted by Tiggy

All I see is more people here who clearly don't have any knowledge of basic statistics and random distributions continuing to spread poor information around like this.

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Well, thank you so much for your amazing contribution to this thread. I think we are all fully aware that if it's not 100%, there's a chance of failure. Based on your rude, condescending attitude, you must consider yourself the foremost expert on video game RNG.

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Originally Posted by Tiggy

The game in no way shape or form goes extra special out of it's way to screw players. All I see is more people here who clearly don't have any knowledge of basic statistics and random distributions continuing to spread poor information around like this.

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You clearly have not had the RNG i have had then... just saying

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Originally Posted by NorthernLadMSP

Well, thank you so much for your amazing contribution to this thread. I think we are all fully aware that if it's not 100%, there's a chance of failure. Based on your rude, condescending attitude, you must consider yourself the foremost expert on video game RNG.

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The thing is, Tiggy is 100% correct, there are many people in this topic making comments about statistical probability who do not understand even the basic elements of probability. RNG is RNG, probability is probability, truth is truth.

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Originally Posted by Niurok

Even on Excalibur they have gone back to the teleporting underground ways...

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Saw this yesterday in fact just south of Fallgourd, I was amazed to see two in sync doing it.

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Originally Posted by Kosmos992k

The thing is, Tiggy is 100% correct, there are many people in this topic making comments about statistical probability who do not understand even the basic elements of probability. RNG is RNG, probability is probability, truth is truth.

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Yup, they just can't handle reality for what it is and get mad that someone has to point out the simple truth of it. Gambler's fallacies abound.

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Originally Posted by NorthernLadMSP

Well, thank you so much for your amazing contribution to this thread. I think we are all fully aware that if it's not 100%, there's a chance of failure. Based on your rude, condescending attitude, you must consider yourself the foremost expert on video game RNG.

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Go study statistics. It's a high school level class. It's not that hard. Don't blame me because you don't understand it.

You might find
Gamber's Fallacy
and
Bayes Theorem
to be particularly relevant and enlightening.

Additionally we have this.
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...=1#post2310334

The post by Camate, a Square representative, detailing their process a bit. This post was specifically made in response to poor statements about the rng like you and others continue to make.

You may not like what I have to say, but it doesn't change it's accuracy.

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Originally Posted by Hakuro89

The only thing that's been bothering me has been the gil spammer tells that have been noticeably increasing in volume every single day. Sure, /busy is a quick fix, but you can't receive tells from actual people that way either. It's a big problem that needs to be remedied asap, and in my opinion before anything else is addressed.

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Yea it has got bad on utros.. It actually is got to the point where I consider it harassment. Busy does not even stop them anymore because now they just use constant shouts. SE sits there and says how well this game is doing and how many accounts there are. People say the cash shop should give SE more money to make this game better. Well use that money to make the game better and hire some more GM's to ban these guys.. It wouldn't be hard especially to stop all the damn bots all over.

You can't come and say that at some point all players have the same amount of good or bad luck, that would be completely false. Some can have constant good luck while others not so.
Yes RNG is RNG but it does in fact favour some players, not by choice but just how the system is

Don't tell me what I do and do not understand. I never posted one comment in this thread that indicated I was trying to spread bad/incorrect information about RNG.

My post was based solely on the experiences I've had in this game. If you don't like people posting about experiences they've had in game, you should not be part of a public forum.

The RMTs are really bad on Adamantoise as well. By the time I was done with the loading screen, I got 3 tells and 2 friend requests. I am starting to really lose faith in SE. What's the point of playing if I can't talk to a lot of my friends because we are all on /busy.

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Originally Posted by NorthernLadMSP

Don't tell me what I do and do not understand. I never posted one comment in this thread that indicated I was trying to spread bad/incorrect information about RNG.

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Your complaints conveyed a distinct lack of understand about how random distributions work. Your observations do nothing but prove the statistics accurate. Trying to save face now I guess. *cheers*

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Originally Posted by NorthernLadMSP

If you don't like people posting about experiences they've had in game, you should not be part of a public forum.

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If you don't like people disagreeing with you then you shouldn't be a part of a public forum. I'm perfectly fine with you talking about your experiences. I have problems when incorrect assumptions are made about the nature of the game based on those experiences which are then pushed on others as some sort of "truth". You've continued to propagate a false assumption that there is something wrong with the RNG. By continuing to act like there is something wrong with the rng and the streaks you ARE propagating to more members of the community that there is a problem. Literally nothing stops them from assuming that you, as a frequent forum poster, may know more than they do therefore your opinion spreads. Idea's are like viruses. Including, unfortunately, bad ones.

As this is a forum you chose to put that statement here and make it open for comment. That's how forums work. You don't get to choose which comments get to me made and which don't. I even provided information you should read that shows why your assumption about the rng is wrong. You need to find a way to deal with it. Attempting to disparage me won't change statistics or rng.

Much the same, in that you don't get to come in and insult people for not posting in a manner that suits your personal agenda.

Sorry, but I'm done with you and this conversation.

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Originally Posted by NorthernLadMSP

Much the same, in that you don't get to come in and insult people for not posting in a manner that suits your personal agenda.

Sorry, but I'm done with you and this conversation.

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Please, point out the insult. Only only sought to inform since you displayed a clear misunderstanding of the statistics here. You're too defensive and unwilling to accept that you might be wrong. Not even the slightest possibility that you could be wrong despite mountains of articles online detailing the exact fallacy you and others on this forum, in other games, in other fields, etc continue to make regarding RNG. This is such a common argument online it's not even funny. The sad thing is it isn't even a debate. It's flat out mathematical statistics.

It's probably best that you walk away.

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Originally Posted by Tiggy

You're too defensive and unwilling to accept that you might be wrong. Not even the slightest possibility that you could be wrong.

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Welcome to Earth. :P

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Originally Posted by DoctorPepper

Welcome to Earth. :P

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I think I expect too much from people. Lol.

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Originally Posted by Tiggy

Please, point out the insult. Only only sought to inform since you displayed a clear misunderstanding of the statistics here. You're too defensive and unwilling to accept that you might be wrong. Not even the slightest possibility that you could be wrong.

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Your posts have all but stated that I'm spreading bad information, that I'm uneducated and I have no clue what I'm talking about. You have done nothing but talk down to me since the first instance you quoted me.

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Originally Posted by NorthernLadMSP

Your posts have all but stated that I'm spreading bad information, that I'm uneducated and I have no clue what I'm talking about. You have done nothing but talk down to me since the first instance you quoted me.

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I could only assume you didn't understand and I based that entirely on your original post. Never explicitly insulted. Did you take those statements a bit close to the heart? Maybe you should think about why.

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Originally Posted by Felis

Uh, there are spam filters.
Because of this the RMT spamer write in code.

At launch they spamed the /shout chat every 5 seconds. Now it is only 5 times the week in the /tell chat.

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Excuse me but since you play on a Legacy Server... They ARE spamming the /shout again and not only every 5 seconds, when they start is 1 shout every second.

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Originally Posted by Kosmos992k

3. report as spam option on right click pop up 'tell' menu
4. make blacklisting account wide
5. make auto blacklisting reported spammers an option
6. make black list management easier
7. increase the size of the black list

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This. 100% this. There was a suggestion that I've parroted a few times, and apologies for not remembering the original source for it, to include a temp account ban if they get a number of spam reports. I want that so much.

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Originally Posted by NorthernLadMSP

The RMT (at least on my server) is out of control. I'm constantly having to go /busy to avoid being sent junk tells every few minutes. This causes me to lose out any potential conversation with real game friends because they can't message you. Then everytime I go to any of the major cities, shout chat gets absolutely bombarded with the same gil seller shouting the same message up to 8-10 times in a row, every few minutes. Then the friend requests from lvl 1 Ughghh Sksksks in Ul'dah. OMG, enough to drive one insane.

As for the RNG aspect, I understand RNG is needed in games like this to expand the lifespan of content. However, often times in this game, it feels like an absolute joke. I've become especially aware of it lately as I've been trying to obtain alt gear from WOD (almost two weeks of non-stop WOD just to finally get the DRG chest) to leveling miner and seeing:

"You obtain nothing"
"You obtain nothing"
"You obtain nothing"
"You obtain nothing"

While having a 96% success rate.

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I've been there, I think all of us have. It's take-a-walk-away-from-the-game frustrating. Unfortunately, it's RNG and that can happen. It feels wrong, but I've started trying to pay closer attention when the numbers go my way to help remind me that it truly is random.