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?

[Valarian]

The negative effect of RMTs is caused by their generating lots of in game items or currency and using none or as little of it as possible. For any economy to be stable, you need a balance of things that are being created and destroyed or consumed. A regular player who spends $10 to buy a promise wristlet, and then sells it for in game currency, isn't disrupting that balance. The buyer of the wristlet uses it, and the seller of the wristlet spends that gil. RMTs spend days and days botting for shards they sell for money they will never spend in exchange for real money. Your $10 finances people who spam your chat log to go out and glut the economy with an excess of goods while not wanting or buying anything from you. That's why RMTs and people who want to sell you wristlets are totally different.

[Edeline]

It's just a legalized RMT. RMT is only illegal because you're making money from someone else's business (SE's product). But you're paying SE with this kind of RMT. The only difference RMT organizations are they're not even playing the game, just using bots. But yes as I posted some weeks ago in a thread about allowing a gift option on cash shop, this is destroying in-game economy. Those 20$ is paid with 2 hours of work (or even 1) on the average job. Barely no effort, and you get instantly rich in game by doing nothing. Buying overpriced items and rising the prices, changing the economy. But hey, "they're just vanity items and they're optinal! they don't interfere in the game's progression!" ^___^

[Alatarian]

I wasn't necessarily asking about the negative effect of RMTs, but rather the negative effects TO RMTs from all of this. I guess my post was TL;DR to get that point out of it clearly. Regardless, I do think that RMTs themselves are a negative, that is a given. But you did raise a concern I had not considered, that this band selling actually won't affect them either way (things will remain status quo). Which makes me sad ><

[Valarian]

I am afraid to address the economics of the trade in too much detail because it's hard to tell at what point discussion about RMTs crosses the line of an overzealous ban-hammer, but, on my server, it is far more cost effective to trade wristlets to real players to generate gil than to buy it from a shady RMT, or to buy your wristlets from SE directly if you're the sort who's willing to part with real money in the first place.

[Edeline]

I am afraid to address the economics of the trade in too much detail because it's hard to tell at what point discussion about RMTs crosses the line of an overzealous ban-hammer, but, on my server, it is far more cost effective to trade wristlets to real players to generate gil than to buy it from a shady RMT, or to buy your wristlets from SE directly if you're the sort who's willing to part with real money in the first place.

Depending on server prices for those, and calculating with the RMT tells, yes.
Buying bracelets gives you more gil for less money. The only difference now will be people won't get banned, nor fear that the items they sell for expensive amounts on the MB will be caught in a rmt transaction money. The only difference between both RMTs atm are the bots spamming tells. But there's no other way to fix this. If you make them untradeable, real couples won't be able to give it to each other. If you limit the purchase to only 2 per character, people won't be able to re-marry. If you make them untradeable, it means you can't marry friends that aren't willing to pay irl money, but you are willing to (however you wouldn't be able to) for both.

[Jynx]

The funny thing is how quick RMT are going to make this unfeasible to even attempt.

1. You can only trade 1m at a time. RMT will be the first to either exploit people and just make off with the gil or possibly be reported.

2. It's a win win for them. They either get to exploit players or they discourage band sales by sabotaging the market.

You are a fool if you think this will even dent the RMT. If anything they are jumping for joy. If your looking at a player base who demands cash shop content you better believe RMT are there because people want to buy more than just vanity and the cash shop is nothing but a gateway drug to letting you know you can just throw money at things instead of earning them.

[DoctorPepper]

I will laugh pretty hard if they turn around and hotfix to make it untradeable.