Petition for a Realistic Solution to RMT's

[Applesnap]

We've already tried in the past on multiple threads to make Square-Enix pro-active about RMT, but the fact of the matter is they never reply. Even went so far as posting a question about them in a Live Letter thread, which they promptly ignored (it had over 90 Likes). I've reported the same group of afk-Spiritbinders on our server eighteen times and have been told specifically to stop reporting them in the future. What am I supposed to do in that situation?

I can definitely see a link between Balmung almost always inaccessible for new character creation and the explosion in RMT tells in the past few days. It used to be perhaps one or two a day, but it's easily been six times that amount since Thursday. Reported a few of the spammers yesterday and since then my Service Desk seems to be broken. I can't submit a new ticket. It shows no History or Information, but I'll get a message two minutes after entering a different zone telling me my case has been replied to...

[Avenger]

It's really amusing that people on this thread seem to think SE do literally nothing to combat RMT. You really think that? You do know why they're so quiet when it comes to fighting botters/rmt right? Because it's fucking stupid for a dev to publicly post about what they are doing to fight it. It makes it even easier to RMT to avoid being caught. Every MMO I've ever player has issues with these kind of issues. If you think SE are gonna come out over night with an efficient and permanent solution I'm afraid you're very, very wrong.

It would be somewhat mean-spirited to laugh at the people in this thread, who are genuinely frustrated by a very visible lack of progress. SE is certainly doing something (after all, they ban lots of accounts) but what they're doing isn't working particularly well - for example it seems that /shout spam is making a comeback and the rate of /tell spam is increasing.

I wouldn't consider it completely stupid to publicly acknowledge some of the players' concerns, or to announce anti-spam features such as single-click-report-message-and-blist, whitelist/communication preferences, personal filters or filter add-ons, preventing friend requests from blocking blacklisting, a feature to note (or automatically delete) banned characters on blacklists, larger blacklists, etc..

Moreover, they could also comment on how well or how badly they think the anti-spam effort is going, and apologize for the measures that haven't worked so far; they could say that they're working on additional measures and whether we could expect to see them deployed before the expansion. They could say that they appreciate our suggestions and to keep sending them in, that they are expanding the anti-spam task force, developing more anti-spam tools, sharing information and technology with/from other MMOs, allowing players and GMs to help with anti-spam efforts, implementing an in-game jail for any players who bot or buy gil, etc.. They could even share some data about spam reports over time as well as abuse of various communication mechanisms like /shout, /tell, and friend requests, and the effect on use of /busy, and what they think about it.

[Avenger]

True many of these individuals have it bad, but it's no excuse to disrupt a business. And it's not just tells, its market flooding, cheating, ect.

I assume most spammers in FFXIV are actually pieces of spambot software, not actual humans. But some humans created and deployed that software, just as humans create and deploy computer viruses and other malicious software that causes misery for profit.

Telemarketers (or manufacturers of robocall machines), collection agencies, and organized criminal enterprises are all people too, but I don't like them either.

[Dyne_Fellpool]

I wonder if they could use something like this:

http://eq2wire.com/2015/03/14/eq2-te...ame-plat-spam/

It has been extremely successful in reducing plat (gil) spam in that game

[Mahri]

Yes this seems like a perfectly safe and non-abusable solution.

This is pretty much literally how it works in World of Warcraft, sweetie. The success rate is pretty high -- spammers still show up now and then, but for the most part, they are crushed hard.

To make it work, mind you, there's an infrastructure that includes GMs who can review each case as they come up and uphold/overturn/modify as necessary.

More often than not, the spamming account is a stolen account, at that, so it also helps people get their stuff back.

I know this because I am one of those GMs. I've worked there for six years and never once seen a case of Right Click > Report Spam auto-mute/suspend happen on a legit non-RMT player unless they were actually, abusively spamming. As the devs for that game like to say: working as intended.

EDIT: By the way, you want to see one way a company can make a clear statement about RMT? Right here, click me. Short, sweet, upfront, and if you wanted to know more, a WoW player can just put in a GM ticket and ask. Any would be happy to explain what the deal is what's being done about it, at least to the extent possible without giving enough away to help the spammers find ways around it...which they do anyway, and in turn are squashed once more by newer measures. It's an ongoing battle, but one gladly fought, because nothing destroys the enjoyment of a game quite like this garbage.

This is not by any means an easy problem to deal with, but SE needs to make a better showing, because what we have here is a flat-out infestation. What Blizzard did to combat this, and still does, took years of careful implementation and heavy modification to the game client to allow these anti-spam systems to work (like the changes needed to prevent some RMT from "spawning" corpses in the middle of town to spell out their site's URL...hoo boy...) but it was worth it. So, so very worth it.

[LandricFrey]

Some of the "solutions" on this thread are genuinely laughable and it's good that you aren't in game design.

And to just rage about it and do nothing is else is so much better?

Because it's fucking stupid for a dev to publicly post about what they are doing to fight it. It makes it even easier to RMT to avoid being caught. Every MMO I've ever player has issues with these kind of issues. If you think SE are gonna come out over night with an efficient and permanent solution I'm afraid you're very, very wrong.

I just want them to admit its a problem and that they are trying new ways to combat/restrict RMT. Yes, RMT are in every MMO, but none have been so bad as in FF14, so consistantly. I never asked for a solution overnight either. Hope that clears things up for you. If you're just trolling, then I thank you for the thread bump.

[Thayos]

I know this because I am one of those GMs. I've worked there for six years and never once seen a case of Right Click > Report Spam auto-mute/suspend happen on a legit non-RMT player unless they were actually, abusively spamming. As the devs for that game like to say: working as intended.

This is exactly why SE should take the easy steps of making /tell spam more difficult. As I said in my earlier post, it wouldn't be hard. Just a few steps are all that's needed. It would be exceptionally difficult for non-RMT players to abuse the system, the way I laid it out... but on top of that, I really don't think player abuse would be a problem, especially when it would be so easy to pinpoint attempted abuse and drop the hammer on offenders (again, read back to my post a page or two ago if you're unclear on the four simple steps I proposed).

RMT will still be in the game, but SE can easily nip /tell and /shout spam in the bud, and that would make the game much more enjoyable.

[giantslayer]

This is pretty much literally how it works in World of Warcraft, sweetie. The success rate is pretty high -- spammers still show up now and then, but for the most part, they are crushed hard.

Thank you so much for your post. I put the same idea as the OP up on the forum almost a year ago and I have known this is the way to solve the problem.

[Mahri]

Thank you so much for your post. I put the same idea as the OP up on the forum almost a year ago and I have known this is the way to solve the problem.

I'm glad! It's a topic that's kinda near and dear to me, and the more I think about the RMT spam situation in FFXIV, the more I go straight-up cartoon steam-out-the-ears-locomotive-whistle.

(Tangentially: Thank YOU for the guide in your sig, because I'm leveling SCH now and was actually looking for that kind of info. )

[Havenae]

I'm going to say this much.

1. Clearly SE does "something" to combat RMT. I dont think anyone actually suggest that SE just lets it run rampant. But here's the thing. What they're doing OBVIOUSLY is not enough. Their strategy in dealing with RMT is no effective as is clear in the fact that it is getting perpetually worse. They need help, they need our help more specifically. The problem is, we can't help anymore than we have been without the appropriate tools.

2. Auto-banning can be abused. It would take very little more than someone that's popular enough in a FC to black ball another player into a banned account by getting his buddies and fellow FC members to report you x number of times. If this type of system is used, the better option is to only allow an RMT or spam report be accessible if it is through a tell. that way the person has to actually send you a tell to be reported.

3. Blacklisting is pointless unless it is done on an account basis. Blacklisting or blocking a specific character only means they can log out, make a new character and come back in to pester you again.

4. Only allowing tells from friendslists is a fucking STUPID idea. If you think RMT is annoying now with the random friend requests, wait until they find out you have to be on the friendslist to send a tell. You might not be getting inundated by tells, but you will be constantly pestered with friendlist requests.

5. A PLEX or CREDD system will not work. The only game to ever has successfully sold game time is EvE Online. There are two primary reasons for this. First, they only primarily have one server, which means one economy which, second reason, is incredibly stable and well thoughout as well as complex. FFXIV has neither a stable or well thought-out economic system and it has multiple servers with widely different price ranges on items. One thing that costs 1.54m on one server may only cost 600k on another, when you apply that to an object such as credd or plex it makes it unstable. You';ll end up buying game time for less money on this server than another because of population or needs of that population. This essentially makes it impossible to unify the $:Gil ratio.

6. SE cannot necessarily go after the company, it would require that the company be under the same type of laws governing commerce between two different countries. Considering SE is a Japanese corporation and most RMT companies are Chinese... That would probably create a bit of an issue. What they CAN do is IP ban China from NA servers.


So then what solution is feasible?

Right-Click report is feasible, as long as the offender's account is blocked from making any further contact with you. These blocked accounts should go to a global blacklist that has no limit. That makes it so we no longer have to deal with it and it should generate a report and chat log capture that is sent to SE. This can also discourage RMT companies as one their tells are no longer getting through or they have to constantly create new accounts (which can also be combated from auto-account creation with captchas and validation questions i.e "1+5=?")

Another option that can coincide with the above is a volunteer system of moderators pulled from the playerbase to help 'investigate' RMT reports. Give them temporary ban powers that they must provide PROOF of a LEGITIMATE temporary ban, before the actual GM gets to determining if the ban should be permanent. This also needs to be handled aggressively to prevent 'volunteers' abusing their powers. Personally I think at the slightest notion that the position has been abused results in the immediate removal of that moderator and possibly him/herself face a permanent ban. These volunteers could also be given squelch powers to shut the shouters.

Third option, allow ADD-ONs for christ's sake. WoW beat this problem a long time ago with an add-on that would filter out spam tells. It wasn't something that the dev staff did, players did it. There's plenty of talent in this community so there's no reason why we couldn't do the same IF we were given the appropriate tools to do so.

All that said and done, I do support more aggressive actions against RMTs

/signed