RMT Solution?

[Pandastirfry]

Get rid of shards. Its the easiest way for an RMT to make cash.

Then what? Get rid of crystals? After that clusters? Then low teir crafting mats? Though the "slippery slope" argument is a logical fallacy, in this case they'll always find something they can exploit to make their money.

The only real solution is to ban them when you can, they're kinda like cockroaches, sure you can call in the exterminator, but it's going to be awhile before you finally get them all...if you ever do.

[peaches]

Then what? Get rid of crystals? After that clusters? Then low teir crafting mats? Though the "slippery slope" argument is a logical fallacy, in this case they'll always find something they can exploit to make their money.

The only real solution is to ban them when you can, they're kinda like cockroaches, sure you can call in the exterminator, but it's going to be awhile before you finally get them all...if you ever do.

I dunno it seems pretty simple to me. It appears shards exist solely as a method that level one characters can make money off of. There are no passives that make them easier to get at higher (or max) of any gathering levels, and the ability you do get, you can only use for an extra measly 8 shards once every 5 minutes or so. Obviously RMT is going to abuse this. It takes no dedication. Clusters could still exist being a level 50 item, and possibly crystals, I think you need to be about level 30 to get them. If you needed to be level 50 (for clusters) or even 30 (for crystals) there is a greater chance SE would catch a bot leveling before it has a chance to farm the shards/crystals/clusters.

Shards are fluff anyways. They don't add anything to the crafting experience, they're simply an added expense and time sink. They could effectively achieve the same thing by making everything require 1 more of each material it already requires. Shard usage goes up exponentially at about level 30 or 40, and even more so for a weaver, but there is never a faster way to get them (and no, the ability for 8 extra every 5 minutes barely counts). If you're leveling a character and not trying to make a ton of money, or can't because of market saturation, you're probably stuck mining your own shards, which takes around 2 hours for 1500 shards. You can easily go through 1500 shards simply leveling normally (not abusing levequests) in a couple levels, forcing you to either come up with the cash (often without crafting if the market is cornered) and paying bots for the shards, or mining them yourself.

Honestly, the only way to prevent or discourage bots and RMT (other than improving their detection system, if they have one at all) is to make the things they go after either extremely easy for every player to get in the quantities they need, or make it unreachable without a somewhat significant time investment by leveling a class.