BlackList 200max - gold spammers - fix this

[Kassandros]

I have been back in the game a little over two weeks. My blacklist is full. Every single person on it is a gold farmer. I can't add anymore to the list as it is currently capped at 200. Either give me unlimited people for my blacklist or do something about the gold farmers.

This is the part where everyone comes to defend Square Enix that they can't possibly know who the gold farmers are. Seriously, everyone that I know of uses their blacklist for the gold farmers. Therefore if 10 or more people blacklist the same person you can pretty much be assured that they are a gold farmer. Block, Delete, put them on their own server but please clean this mess up.

Suggestions:

• Expand the blacklist to unlimited
• Follow up on people who are blacklisted by 10 or more people
• Whatever additional suggestions other players come up with in the comments

Continue in next post...

[Kassandros]

How are gold farmers dealt with? Are their accounts banned? Are their credit cards banned (so they can't just create another account?) What is being done to protect the users from this annoyance so that they stay in the game versus leaving from this irritant?

I do not experience this issue in WOW. Yes, I know this isn't WOW but I do not receive random tells from gold spammers. If they can figure this out why can't Square Enix?

There is a secondary but minor issue. When someone is deleted they remain in the list even though they no longer exist. We then have to manually go into the list and search for deleted and then remove them from the list. Maybe there is a benefit to keeping a name as deleted. If there is please let us know. If there isn't then auto delete them from the list.

In summary something needs to be done to make the game play more enjoyable. The gold sellers are annoying. Even a minor annoyance will eventually turn a game sour to a good customer. The princess and the pea analogy seems to fit here.

[reillyblair]

blacklisting sadly isnt how they get reported theres a whole method in the faq of support and i really think they should either examine the blacklists or make an easier way of reporting

[Delsus]

The spammers are permenently banned within hours, credit card bans also don't work as they either create free trial characters to minimise costs to them knowing they will be banned.

Another thing is when characters show as "deleted" that does not mean they have been banned, the "deleted" flag only shows when someone has deleted their character manually, characters linked to banned accounts are not deleted, therefore it will still show their name. The general rule is that you can safely remove RMT accounts from your blacklist the day after they were added. I can imagine you can remove everyone from your blacklist and not get anything from them, then just do a daily sweep of the accounts you added the day before.

Also you can bypass the 1k character limit by editing your original post.

[arrie-prime]

New idear why dont they just let us create 1 character per server per day.. that will minimize the gill spams by ALOT

[Kassandros]

@Delsus

I appreciate your feedback. Yes, I realize deleted may not be related to a spammer. I was speaking in reference to an auto clean up functionality. Unless Square Enix believes there is a reason to keep deleted then I do not see why they can't auto delete these when they cancel their character. As I stated, this is a minor annoyance but something that should be easy for Square Enix to address.

That is an interesting work around for the 1k limit. I am not big on finding a work around for a mature game like FFXIV. I believe in root problem resolution.

Interesting that spammers are permanently banned within hours. That has not been my experience as I continue to receive tells from people from yesterday. It is extremely annoying. If they are permanently banned it would seem that maybe their names should show up as a different color in the blacklist. This would provide a visual reassurance that the player will not receive any more tells for that character and that the player can remove this name from their blacklist.

The purpose of this thread is to provide additional feedback and suggestions on handling gold spammers. It is the little things that make a game enjoyable. What are your suggestions to help tweak this issue and make it better for everyone (except the gold spammers)?

[Sove92]

The spammers are permenently banned within hours, credit card bans also don't work as they either create free trial characters to minimise costs to them knowing they will be banned.

Trial accounts can't be used for spamming. They do ban the CCs because RMT scene's cards are also very likely to be stolen.

If they are permanently banned it would seem that maybe their names should show up as a different color in the blacklist. This would provide a visual reassurance that the player will not receive any more tells for that character and that the player can remove this name from their blacklist.

This will never happen because of the privacy policy, they could show a non-RMT player with the ban color.

[Kassandros]

Real-Money Trade, or RMT for short, refers to the practice of exchanging in-game goods or services for real-world cash. (I had to google it, I wasn't sure what RMT meant.) I see your point in regards to the privacy policy. I will need to think on that for a while. My initial gut instinct screams who cares, they are a gold seller or RMT account. However, I guess that could lead down a dark road if the privacy policy were changed. Not sure about it.

[Apricoth]

An acquaintance of mine advised using the /busy status will circumvent the RMT tell spam. I tell you, the silence has been beautiful. I would highly recommend it. Just make sure you tell folks that if they need to speak privately with you, to say so via FC/LS, say or moogle mail so you can remove the status. The /busy status will also pass you up on responding to the Ready Check. People know you are ready if you have been running around and if you are not ready, just shout it out (thinking of Crystal Tower primarily).

[Kassandros]

I found this on the Final Fantasy wiki:

Square Enix's Reaction: Square Enix bans RMT in both Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV. Nevertheless, RMT has had a significant ongoing presence in, and impact on, both games. This presence is likely due in part to the fact that Square Enix only bans the sellers, but never punishes the buyers in any way. They even get to keep their illicit purchases.

The Players' Reaction: Most of the players are indifferent to or outright hostile to RMT, but do not believe Square Enix is willing to do much about it. There is also a certain belief, not uncommon, among players that poorly thought out anti-RMT actions do more damage to players than RMT itself.


Of all the bullet points on the Final Fantasy wiki I found the last two to be most interesting.

* RMT advertise their services in-game relentlessly, producing an irritating barrage of noise that can't be blocked out.
* By exploiting easy ways to make money, RMT ensure that Square Enix will patch them out of existence, angering legitimate players by destroying their income.

http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/RMT