DevTalk: Detailed Analysis of Depopulation in Limsa/Grid and How to Fix It

[Kiara]

Item search could be optimized more with the elimiation of redundant listings if the same character has multiple stacks of the same item for sale at the same price.

As for your point about RMT, "driving out the competition" in an MMO doesn't really work like how it does in the real world. In an MMO, there is no barrier to anyone farming the same stuff that RMT bots do.

Plus, with a price history that goes back a full year, forcefully manipulating perceived price becomes very hard and very expensive to do.


I would have the default set to off. With the addition of more chat tabs, the best way to customize the display for global shouts would be to have them all in a separate tab.

Honestly, I'm a little surprised at the opposition to optional global shouts. It has more positive implications for social activity and player interaction than negative ones. After all, isn't player to player interaction what an MMO is supposed to be all about?

Hi Renta,

Thanks for the thoughtful reply.

That's a great suggestion to have an improved Search Function that eliminates redundant listings if the same Character has multiple listings of an item at the same price (sort of like collapsing a sub-menu so to speak). That would help one of the problems.

But in terms of Market Manipulation that definitely happens in an MMO. I saw it happen across many items / resources in FF XI on my server. Even with a price history, if the RMT Corporations drive out the competition (e.g., having multiple retainers all price dump an item with super low price), individual players can't keep up with that. They will eventually give up and leave that market segment.

And then the RMT Corporation swoops in and jacks up the price.

Even if you see the Price History and realize it's marked up, if no one else is selling it (because they were driven out), then you either have to go farm / craft it yourself, or pay the marked up prices.

Re: Global Chat - That's a great suggestion! I didn't think about having a separate Tab in your Chat Window to separate out Global Chat. If it was off by default, and was separated into a separate Tab Window (if you chose to), then I wouldn't mind having that functionality.

[Rentahamster]

Even with a price history, if the RMT Corporations drive out the competition (e.g., having multiple retainers all price dump an item with super low price), individual players can't keep up with that. They will eventually give up and leave that market segment.

And then the RMT Corporation swoops in and jacks up the price.

Once they jack up the price, anyone can come back in and undercut them.

In the end, RMT are going to do whatever they can to make gil. In my view, it's better to ensure that players have a positive gameplay experience since a lot of anti-RMT measures only frustrate legitimate players and don't really have that much of a negative impact on RMT activity at all.