the one who sold them the run is responsible, and is the worse player. No one forced them to take that person's money.
I know I said I was done with this thread, but I just want to say in response to this:
No one forced the buyer to drop $1,200 USD on a clear for virtual content either. If you want to apply culpability to this situation, both parties share it; it was a mutual agreement—a shared transaction. You don’t get to put all the blame on the sellers or call them Number One Bad Guy when the buyers seem to be more than happy to start throwing their money around for shinies instead of actually doing the content themselves. Just saying.
You could buy like 6.5 years of game time for $1200, or you could pay someone to play the game for you.
The raiders never had to sell or advertising selling runs, and there's only a tiny amount of them capable of doing ultimate content. They could have easily just done what they used to do with clear videos on world first races, have a mutually agreed moratorium on selling ultimate runs. they didn't. So to me, they get more of the blame for enabling people. The buyers are already in error, but the sellers chose to continue in it.
I am not saying that they should not punish those that use an exploit and I also dont mean that they should punish those that use a parser. I am just pointing out that they should have a clear stance on these things and follow through with it on all cases. Accept parser for streamers? Fine, then dont punish regular players if they talk about it. Have someone use an exploit and punish them? Fine, then punish all those other cheaters too. Punish people that are selling Gil for money? Fine but punish those that sell content for money too.
That is my only point in this. That they should not take double standards in this. Either punish both sides for the same breaking or none.
They might get away with it through the game but they won't get away with it through the law. They're selling a product and getting away with tax evasion. Even Patreon donations are taxed. If the government finds out about how much they are making, they'll want their cut. (Of course taking all the regional mumbo jumbo into consideration).
Someone buying gil through an RMT doesn't really effect me either. If anything, it actually helps me. The more people that buy gil, the more things are purchased off the market board, the bigger sale I can make. The more I can charge and jack up my prices.
That doesn't make it okay though.
Anyone caught selling in-game services for real life money should have their account permanently deleted. That some players are bold enough to openly advertise their services through the party finder means that there's no real fear on their part. That needs to change.
I am so tired of high end PvP and PvE being infested with this sort of thing. Even a handful of players doing it affects those of us who are trying to find a legitimate group to clear content with as it lessens the pool of players seeking to tackle high end content in a legitimate manner that aren't already tied to a specific group.
In that case, we agree. Unfortunately, SE seemingly cannot be bothered or are too incompetent to actually do this. The cynicism in me believes they don't because it doesn't impact the game enough to where they lose money, and punishing people may. That, or they legitimately believe it's not as big an issue in NA/EU.