Real Money to Get In-Game Currency: Eternal Bond Edition

[Alatarian]

I have a few questions regarding all this and am hoping the discussion remains constructive enough to allow for some answers. First I will state I am not for or against the cash shop. I just take things as SE rolls them out and enjoy what I can when I can.

But here are my questions which I will present in the form of a scenario:

Let us take the current situation of selling the eternal bands for gil.

A potential buyer will need "gil" to make that purchase from another player. One problem I have seen hinted at in the various topics is that this will encourage RMT. People will use RMT to get that gil to buy the band. Thus increasing demand for gil as it is purchased and used for this one thing. But RMT is out to make a profit in real money. As the sellers of bands tests the markets to see what the price in gil for their 20 bucks is would not this cause a direct negative impact on RMT? Because they will have to charge much less for gil than the actual cost of the band is in real money in order to get people to not go to the Item Shop to buy the band directly from SE? Would this not devalue then the thing they are trying to make a profit from?

Which leads to another question, what is the price of the band going to have to be or would need to be in order to totally drown out the ability of gil sellers to be able to sell gil for profit?

Which leads to my next and probably most serious question, what is to stop gil sellers from controlling both markets? Buying up bands and selling gil to make up the cost but still be able to eek out a profit from it?

Which leads to my next question, which is the path of least resistance for these gil sellers and which outcome is more likely?

I am sure there is a clearer way of asking these and I am sure I am missing a few details here and there but taking a measured response to this situation rather than an emotional one seemed best to keep the discussion productive. Regardless, I would like to hear what people think given these choices. Are there other outcomes possible? Again since the trade is in real money here and not in virtual currency we can assume one of the two is finite and one of the two more desirable.

[Krr]

Gil Sellers won't buy bands because they must be manually sold. Since the process can't be automated it is less efficient than sending dozens of bots out to mine or bot WP for bloodied blades et al. It would also increase their social footprint on the game since you need to use PF to advertise them, thus making it easier to call attention to them on the Party Finder board.

With other items, RMT companies can easily and automatically list them on the market, which performs all the labor of finding a buyer to get them the gil they need for them.

[Alatarian]

I suspected something like that for that outcome. How about the others though?

Realizing fully that people buy gil for other reasons but from my present point of view selling this band for gil seems to be a negative thing for RMT in the game as their prices are now forced to be below a certain range in order to make buying from them more appealing than buying the band directly from SE.

I am not sure of their pricing models so I can't say what they can survive with but so far as I can tell in order to even operate you need to drop real cash for the game itself plus whatever other overhead you need to function in it (electricity, internet, some store front of some kind online or phone, etc.) Can they be really hurt by placing these exclusives in a shop that they cannot get and players can sell?

If so then I don't have a problem with this if it diminishes their presence. And as it can be traded doesn't that also mean anyone who doesn't want to buy a real item with real cash can just legit farm or sell in game things for gil and get the wedding they want?

[NyarukoW]

...
Which leads to my next and probably most serious question, what is to stop gil sellers from controlling both markets? Buying up bands and selling gil to make up the cost but still be able to eek out a profit from it?
...

The number of bands that can be bought off the mogstation is infinite. RMT cannot imagine to about of RL money they need to do this. And furthermore what is a RMT seller going to do with all the bands anyways? Are they going to be able to sell them for more that the Mogstation? Who are the consumers clueless enough to consistently and repeatedly overpay for the stuff that is easy to get from the mogstation. So failing that, are they going to sell them at a loss over and over? RMT gil seller are not insane like players can potentially be, because they are in it for the RL money. So what this means is the RMT gil sellars can not and will not try to mess these wedding bands.

Does it mean some of the RMT with money and guts won't risk a few bucks to play the markets while the pricing discrepancy are working in their favor? Obviously the chance exist that some them might have made a windfall of gil that they now have to figure out how to unload, but it may more may not work out in their favor because they will have to deal with compete non RMT players sellling band and getting gil and reduced demand for the gil seller gil. Remember RMT wants dollars not gil, having more gil means more work to sell that gil, more risk, and if they put in dollars to get gil, that also increases their risk. And holding on to hundreds of dollars worth of wedding bands when the wedding rush is over, is having lots of loss making inventory.

[Ophie-Mio]

babble babble

Ah, but you forget that not every Gil seller is an actual business. There are individuals who also sell gil (a friend of a friend on FFXI used to do this to see his Canadian gf) and this is right up their alley.

The RMT gil businesses will thrive because people will need the larger amount of gil to afford the bands and the individual sellers will have another avenue to make gil.

All of it is simply changing hands. Supply -> Demand. Someone has something other people want to buy with gil, so they buy it. No "RMT" is happening here and it sounds like associating the term with this is causing the devs to misunderstand exactly what is happening.

Yes, this is RMT. Any time an exchange of goods happen with the use of real money to get gil, it's RMT. Normally it's backwards where people get gil for their real money but in this context, the real money gives gil in the hands of someone else. Also, look at intention. I highly doubt any of these people mass buying bracelets are doing it so the people who don't support the cash shop will still get a chance at marriage. They are doing so for an in-game profit. This is RMT with a different face.

[Verlyn]

Yes, this is RMT. Any time an exchange of goods happen with the use of real money to get gil, it's RMT. Normally it's backwards where people get gil for their real money but in this context, the real money gives gil in the hands of someone else.

Real money might have been used to obtain the item, but the item is the thing being exchanged for gil. It's not a guaranteed change, either and the value will fluctuate by demand.
Again, no gil is being generated by this. RMT is bad because bots are generating inhuman amounts of gil and introducing it into the economy by selling it to people through shady services that harvest their accounts.

This is just some guy plunking $20 on a ring and offering it up for sale.

[Krr]

Again, no gil is being generated by this. RMT is bad because bots are generating inhuman amounts of gil and introducing it into the economy by selling it to people through shady services that harvest their accounts.

The majority of RMT botting in FFXIV is accomplished through covert marketboard use, though, because generating raw gil in FFXIV is inhumanly inefficient and time consuming even for them.

[Verlyn]

The majority of RMT botting in FFXIV is accomplished through covert marketboard use, though, because generating raw gil in FFXIV is inhumanly inefficient and time consuming even for them.

And? What does cherry picking this detail change? If you're saying that RMTraders are generating no gil at all, then you're wrong.

[Krr]

And? What does cherry picking this detail change?

Yes, I'm sorry. Saying 10% of RMT gil throughput is green gil as opposed to 100% is cherry picking and not a massive difference at all. A difference of up to 90%? Statistically insignificant.

[314159265358979323846264338327]

SE has always had a stance that people cannot profit via the use of real money.

There shouldn't be a sub fee then, because I make millions per day by paying about $15 a month to play the game. Buying the bracelet for real money and then selling said bracelet in game for in game gil isn't RMT because of that middle step that people always forget about. It's kind of important.

The majority of RMT botting in FFXIV is accomplished through covert marketboard use, though, because generating raw gil in FFXIV is inhumanly inefficient and time consuming even for them.

Which is genius really. It's basically an endless cycle of selling players gil back to them at the end of the day.