Proposal to fix gil spam

So let me just ask - how much effort does someone have to put in to a level 1 gil spamming robot named aklje dsssdfds?

Would that same person go through the trouble of leveling up to a level 5 gil spamming robot named aklje dsssdfds?

I propose this - there is almost no reason for a level 1 character to ever send me a tell. If there is a reason for a level 1 character to send me a tell, then it is probably a friend and I would be expecting it. So how about on the friends tab, you allow your players to set a threshold. A simple check box with a drop down or fill in the blank option at the top of the friends list tab. Check the box to block tells from characters under level XX. New friend just started playing? Uncheck the box so you can tell back and forth until they get setup in your LS or FC or friend list, then check the box to go back to ignoring level 1 aklje dsssdfds.

Thats my 1000 characters. Really stingy on the character limits, I had a longer post, but oh well.

Or they could just remove the send tell function in the Search Player menu for new characters. This wouldn't stop an actual person from contacting their friends with a new character.

Except restricting tells based on level will do absolutely nothing to stop RMT spam telling, given the fact they level their characters to 50 anyway using bots (and would thus easily avoid such a restriction).

And you said there is no reason for a level 1 player to need to send tells to a higher level playe - what about a new person who has been invited to the game and has just started and is trying to find their friends? How are they supposed to contact them? By semaphore?? Restricting tells will only inconvenience players. SE stated this ages ago - that they will not limit tells based on level for this very reason.

Sadly no matter what SE does, RMT will always be a problem, and it's not just FFXIV that suffers from it either - it affects all MMOs.

Also you can get around posting restrictions by simply going back and editing your post.

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Originally Posted by Enkidoh

Except restricting tells based on level will do absolutely nothing to stop RMT spam telling, given the fact they level their characters to 50 anyway using bots (and would thus easily avoid such a restriction).

And you said there is no reason for a level 1 player to need to send tells to a higher level playe - what about a new person who has been invited to the game and has just started and is trying to find their friends? How are they supposed to contact them? By semaphore?? Restricting tells will only inconvenience players. SE stated this ages ago - that they will not limit tells based on level for this very reason.

Sadly no matter what SE does, RMT will always be a problem, and it's not just FFXIV that suffers from it either - it affects all MMOs.

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Really, RMT will always be a problem no matter what SE does? For starters, SE needs actually DO something to try and stop it. How about giving me the option to restrict tells, so I don't get them from people not on my friends list? How about actually banning RMTs? And not in small batches. My blacklist is almost full again, still has people on it from July. Are you telling me they can't do something about that? SE isn't doing anything about RMT because each account they ban would be a loss of a subscription.

Every action you do in-game is stored as a value on some server somewhere. There is a way to detect RMT activity, these tells for instance. Wouldn't be that hard to detect, I don't care what SE claims.

And RMT doesn't infect all games, at least not as badly as this one is. Getting three tells in five minutes is ridiculous.

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Originally Posted by Enkidoh

Except restricting tells based on level will do absolutely nothing to stop RMT spam telling, given the fact they level their characters to 50 anyway using bots

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They wouldn't be able to reach that level if SE would act on reports and close the bot accounts. No bots -> no gil -> no RMT -> no spam.

I am frankly getting very tired of hearing other players DEFEND SE's practices with RMT. Maybe if SE actually followed their own policies on this it wouldn't be a problem. BAN the people who sell, spam AND BUY, do not allow them or their IP addresses back. That's right, IP ban them. We all know that its not just the RMT's who deal in this business, players who normally have no contact are also making a pretty penny off this ludicrous business. The only people who should be defending SE's lack of ability to follow their own rules are the one who are profiting off of it. Players shouldn't get away from buying gil from RMT or selling gil to the RMT.

They don't spam from level 50 bots. I think everyone knows that they use level 50 bots to just run nonstop and generate gil, but I have NEVER gotten gil spam from a level 50 Sdkdkdkw dokwggggr. Bot or not, a level 50 character is what earns them the gil they sell, they use throw away level 1 accounts to actually spam their service.

It should be a players choice on whether or not they get tells from level 1 characters. And since I have started playing, 99.9% of level 1 tells have been about gil for sale. Even my friends who started playing usually accidentally level up to level 2 before getting in contact with me. SE doesn't need to restrict tells, but they should give their players the option.

that way instead of black list and having to spend time creating the report, it autofills and does it on our behalf. incl RMT's name, server, zone they're in, and current time based on accounts location. Blizz does this and various other MMO's, why not enable that kind of option here. a right click menu to report player; abuse, real life threat, RMT, harrasment, exploit, etc. just saying...

The problem with making it so you can't send tells until you're level 5 is that the RMTs will just adapt, AION did this, first it was level 10, then level 20, etc. It stops it for like a week and that's it. Personally, they need to increase the Blacklist to 1000 and on top of it, add a report for spamming RMT dialogue, its a better long term solution. Maybe make a system that if they get 10 reports or more in a week, automatic ban. That way people don't just try to ban jerks or people having a bad day.

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Originally Posted by IsaacDamodred

I am frankly getting very tired of hearing other players DEFEND SE's practices with RMT. Maybe if SE actually followed their own policies on this it wouldn't be a problem. BAN the people who sell, spam AND BUY, do not allow them or their IP addresses back. That's right, IP ban them. We all know that its not just the RMT's who deal in this business, players who normally have no contact are also making a pretty penny off this ludicrous business. The only people who should be defending SE's lack of ability to follow their own rules are the one who are profiting off of it. Players shouldn't get away from buying gil from RMT or selling gil to the RMT.

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IP bans are worthless. To anyone with the tiniest bit of computer skill they're a brief annoyance at best.

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Originally Posted by Atlantasia

Maybe make a system that if they get 10 reports or more in a week, automatic ban. That way people don't just try to ban jerks or people having a bad day.

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That is a massively bad idea. That kind of system always has rampant abuse problems. There always needs to be a human involved in ban decisions.