The account suspensions and gil reset leave a black mark on this game.

[Susanoh]

I'm puzzled.
One thing that keeps bumping up against statements about the game's free market economy is this: a free market pricing system works only if there are no sudden bursts of coin from outside. The ability of a player to buy coin that can be summarily dumped into the market undercuts the market's ability to control a price, inflating it.
The FFXIV markets will never be the open market that people seem to think they are as long as outside sources of coin exist.
Look back on the thread There are lots of statements from Firsts on setting their original prices, when they were the only source.
My question to the Firsts is--and remember, these are early days on the server--how much gil did YOU have when you first posted your mats? I'm assuming you were as broke as everyone else on the server. This is BEFORE you made your millions, remember. And if you didn't have much, in a land where most folks were broke, where did you expect it to come from? Who had the gil to pay you?

The markets are free and open by design. If the markets cannot work due to the possibility of illegitimate sources of gil, as you're suggesting, what would you propose as an alternative? The markets are going to be player controlled no matter what happens, unless SE steps in and starts regulating the prices that players are allowed to sell their items for, and maybe the number of items one is allowed to sell on the markets in a given time period as well (after all, we wouldn't want people getting rich by mass producing lower priced items, as many already have).

Until this happens, what are we left with if we are to stop treating the market as is designed? A market that is free and player controlled on the surface, but which punishes players if they are to succeed? What is the proposed solution by many for the players who enjoy participating in the markets? It usually boils down to, just don't do well. Don't be successful. Sell less items. Sell items at lower prices. For no reason other than the possibility of RMT being utilized and more suspensions being introduced. If the markets are meant to be treated in a completely unnatural way due to the possibility of outside factors existing, and those crafting are meant to throw sound economic decisions out the window in favor of extremely poor decisions out of fear, then these issues have completely turned the markets upside down, and devalued its importance far more than a little inflation ever could.

[Iskander]

The actual reason for all this mess is becoming a lot clearer....on other boards. You just won't see the facts here because SE is sweeping them under the rug.

[RagingRush]

I never post on the forums, but I think I just need to voice my opinions here.

Although I'd be incredibly annoyed if it was me that lost the gil, you have to unfortunately look at the bigger picture. Some of that gil that was taken never should have existed in the game in the first place. There is evidence to show that some people have used hacks to pretty much generate gil. Whether or not you earned the money legitimately on the Market is irrelevant, this money should never have existed in the first place.

Sadly, the same thing can happen in real life too. If you buy a stolen car in real life, whether you knew it or not, that car can be confiscated without any reimbursement to yourself.

I do feel for those affected, but I also don't think it's right to bash SE over this, action needed to be taken and that gil came in too quickly to stop it before the economy was damaged

[Kherza]

Although I'd be incredibly annoyed if it was me that lost the gil, you have to unfortunately look at the bigger picture. Some of that gil that was taken never should have existed in the game in the first place. There is evidence to show that some people have used hacks to pretty much generate gil. Whether or not you earned the money legitimately on the Market is irrelevant, this money should never have existed in the first place.

Sadly, the same thing can happen in real life too. If you buy a stolen car in real life, whether you knew it or not, that car can be confiscated without any reimbursement to yourself.

This is exactly what I've been saying here and on Reddit. What happened to the crafters sucks, and they have my sympathy. But they were in possession of a lot of "dirty" gil and something had to be done.

[ogopogo]

This is exactly what I've been saying here and on Reddit. What happened to the crafters sucks, and they have my sympathy. But they were in possession of a lot of "dirty" gil and something had to be done.

Wasn't the fact that it was so easy to "generate Gil" SE's responsibility in the first place? Then perhaps they should have admitted to exactly what and why they did it instead staying silent and letting legitimate player's reputation get tarnished. This is less about the Gil confiscated than it's about how SE handled the situation. No matter how you look at things, SE is the one at fault here.

[Kherza]

Wasn't the fact that it was so easy to "generate Gil" SE's responsibility in the first place? Then perhaps they should have admitted to exactly what and why they did it instead staying silent and letting legitimate player's reputation get tarnished. This is less about the Gil confiscated than it's about how SE handled the situation. No matter how you look at things, SE is the one at fault here.

While I can agree that the banning was an bad overstep, the rest was okay. To date, every MMO has hackers/bots/cheaters. Could they make better systems to counter-act these people? Sure, but it won't stop all of them, it never does. A majority of the fault lies on these cheaters who ruined the game for others. Everyone knows why these players had their gil removed, they were in possession of "dirty" gil at no fault of their own. To my knowledge no reputations were tarnished because everyone knows that a vast majority of crafters were not at fault.

[Tenkiei]

While I can agree that the banning was an bad overstep, the rest was okay. To date, every MMO has hackers/bots/cheaters. Could they make better systems to counter-act these people? Sure, but it won't stop all of them, it never does. A majority of the fault lies on these cheaters who ruined the game for others. Everyone knows why these players had their gil removed, they were in possession of "dirty" gil at no fault of their own. To my knowledge no reputations were tarnished because everyone knows that a vast majority of crafters were not at fault.

Except as it's been said on this and similar threads over and over MANY members of the community seem to think any crafter who was effected by this did something wrong, the community is full of small-minded jealous individuals who have been quick to gather the fire wood for witch burnings because someone got punished for being richer and better at the game than them, look at how many say "They deserved it" or "They are liars who bought gil." The fact of the matter is SE should have compensated the crafters, for example, if every legitimate crafter who lost their gil was given a free year of game time, I feel most probably wouldn't be as unhappy, yes it would suck, yes it would still be unfair, but at least they were compensated instead of given NOTHING, for losing all their hard work.

[EmeraldHill]

No one will care or remember in a month.

[Kherza]

Except as it's been said on this and similar threads over and over MANY members of the community seem to think any crafter who was effected by this did something wrong, the community is full of small-minded jealous individuals who have been quick to gather the fire wood for witch burnings...

The large majority of people I've seen (though granted it was on Reddit) were largely sympathetic towards the crafters. While no doubt some of them did buy gil, I think a large majority didn't and most people I think know this. Also, as other people mentioned, it's similar to the real world. They were in possession of something they shouldn't have had and it was taken from them by those with authority. They were victims and it's unfair, sure. But I'm baffled that SE is getting so much heat for this when the brunt of this outrage, though not all, should be directed towards the cheaters who caused this.

[Tenkiei]

Because SE did...what no reputable MMO company has ever done without extreme backlash, punished innocent players for the company's mistakes.