Formal Letter to SE about RMT situation.

[Syrehn]

Well with my blacklist constantly maxed out and with a fair stream of new RMT on a consistent basis I only have one option... Busy.

I'm not unfriendly and I wish SE would do something so I didn't have to do this but as of now I will likely be exclusively playing in this status. Thank you SE for taking the social interaction out of your MMO for me. Good job! -__-;

[Riepah]

X100 this. So many people are gonna hate this but this is pretty much the best way to combat RMT, if ya can't beat 'em join 'em. WoW is already starting to do this.

Let's legalize drugs and weapons too, then, because clearly the market for those can't be perfectly controlled either.

[Risvertasashi]

Let's legalize drugs and weapons too, then, because clearly the market for those can't be perfectly controlled either.

Funnily enough, several states legalizing marijuana has cut into cartel's "business" quite a bit.

Of course, matters are more complex than just legalize vs don't legalize in both cases. But there are tons of RMT threads burgeoning with ideas, yet all we get from SE is radio silence.

[Gillionaire]

Let's legalize drugs and weapons too, then, because clearly the market for those can't be perfectly controlled either.

Mmmhm. Think about alcohol.
Do you see anybody on the streets going "pssst, hey, you wanna buy some liquor?"

No, but back in the prohibition, speakeasies were a thing.

[Kairus]

I recently transferred from Balmung to Malboro, due to the fact that I never really preferred to be on a legacy server. I went from roughly 1-3 RMT messages a day to the scenario described by Zabuza, roughly 1 or more a minute. Coming from a server that is almost always at population cap to one that is not, I realize this is a hurdle that RMTs have to deal with, and I wonder if SE is combating RMT on an individual server basis or as a whole (total RMT) and not taking consideration of this.

This is a major issue and it surprises me that consideration is given in terms of things such as glamors for new players, but not RMT. I don't know how new players tolerate this, but I must applaud them. Honestly, I've been playing less due to this and have thought even more so of letting my subscription lapse.

Sign me up.

[BreathlessTao]

/signed Shuu Naranol (Shiva)

[Marisela]

After you get a good amount of Signature, I suggest you print this out and send it to Yoshida himself. I remember one time he actually read the letter and even write back.

I agree that RMT is getting out of hand, some server have it worst then other. Now they even doing friend request too beside spamming and whisper every minutes. RMT seam to be on the rise, not lessen.

[Saseal]

/signed - Saseal Korei (Couerl)


At the risk of babbling... some of my thoughts.

I've already supported the idea of being able to filter out tells from unknowns. I don't get enough legit Tells from strangers for it to be concern of mine. If SE is having some kind of difficulty hard filtering RMT (or just getting rid of it in general) for us as paying customers, they might as well just put in the option to allow us to do it ourselves. I'd hope it to be a more temporary, large fix for the situation until they're ready and able to actually yank the problem out of the game.
Going 'Busy' is just a tiny patch that is not a fix. It's desperation of the players taking matters into their own hands =p

We can see that they're making efforts through their announcements of banned or temp banned, etc on accounts. However, it's painfully obvious that it's just not enough. They make these reports and only once have I ever felt any relief.... for a total of two days. THen it was back in full force - and as of late, WORSE. You can not slap a small bandaid on a stab wound - and the sheer amount of tells is a deep, gushing gash. It will not heal itself and it will only keep overflowing. The huge gaps allowing the RMTs to remain or continue to return needs to be sewn closed.
If something is not working, try the next method of fix - not just keep replacing dainty bandaids (banned accounts, going busy).

SE will only shoot themselves in the foot by not trying to stop the bleeding. Slapping some bans is a temporary after temporary fix - it's not a discouragement for the offenders - only a minor setback.
At this point, when Heavensward comes out, it will have the hype to draw new players who either bought the game or using the Free Trial. The Free Trial itself should be a money maker source. Impress the new players so they will not let go. But with the RMT, that's not going to be the case. New players won't have anything holding them there and no reason to be loyal. They'll play for a few days, get tired of the RMT spam and not return to actually pay a subscription to continue. Nothing is holding them there. Many of us are still there because of friends, FC, time and money put into the game, or just in general had time to experience the game in it's ups and downs. New players have none of that to keep them there. SE should be making them hooked, as a company making money off this.
We have a few new peeps that are friends of friends - that recommended the game - in the FC, and thats one of my concerns ---- they'll disappear and stop logging in one day out of frustration of the spam. Probably after the free trial ends.

Even taking the 'New Player' piece out of this, FFXIV can only gain bad reputation for the RMT tells/shouts. People will hear down the grapevine and avoid the game.

I really want this game to succeed and to surpass the current expectations, but we as players can only do so much by ourselves.

We've taken the initiative to set 'Busy' (I see the busy symbol fairly often these days) - and as a result, some places in game are inundated with Shouts of the exact same RMT messages. Why they haven't been banned instantly from the blatant obviousness is beyond me. Soooo, if SE won't do anything to the UI to include filtering, or throw in some other method of catching the tells... if players are forcing the RMT bots to become more obvious in their activities and SE just outright banhammers them quickly, it might make both options (tells and shouts in last resort to reach players) discouraging to attempt.

Maybe a GM (or somesuch) or two should pose as a player on each server.. They'll get all the information they need without players needing to report them. The RMTs will easily flock to the GMs like lemmings. Just let the bots throw themselves onto the spikes.


-----
Also, I've become victim of the Pavlovian conditioning (I kid, but sometimes I wonder). Anything that sounds like or is the Tell chime makes me start swearing.
(I've left it on because Busy absolves me of this problem, but when I know certain people are on that need to send tells, I want to be able to look at the chat box to try to see if they did or not (which circles back to the problem of spam). It would otherwise just get lost in a sea of pink with no separation indication whatsoever.

[Khanscott]

/signed Aevis Sylph@Midgardsormr
Every time I log in I get a "friend" requst. Its like clockwork. S-E gives a list of banned RMT accounts, but all I see is the situation getting worse on this server. Blacklist is worthless, busy status makes associating with others a pain, and S-E needs to pay me if they want me to report all the /tells I get. AFAIK the only indication that S-E is even acknowledging RMT is an arbitrary page on the Lodestone every week or so.

[Magusrex]

/signed

They could end this immediately without any effort on their part. Just permaban gil buyers and destroy the gil. You cannot just slap them on the wrist, if they lose everything they will not buy and RMTs will go away if their is no money to be made.

Make people level to 20 before they can send a friend request or send a tell