A plea to SE about RMT

[Spawnie]

I support this thing but I would also love to see all RMT complaints in one thread rather than shattered into 300 threads, so I hope this might be it?

exactly this ^ the spam about rmt in forums is almost as bad as the thing they are complaining about.. im glad i chose odin world in beta i get no more then 2 /tell a week by gil sellers lmao so doesnt bother me at all report ==> block job done

[Quesse]

Although SE has gotten better about community relations compared to, say, a decade ago... They still don't seem to understand the importance of keeping the community in the loop in various areas. Most glaringly now, dealing with RMT spam. Yes, those weekly ban reports are nice, but right now... that's not helping with the spam.

I think to explain how its being dealt with, they would have to publicly admit that it is a problem. For some reason they seem to be hesitant to own up. Either way it is frustrating. The spam vectors keep increasing. /tells, friend requests, shout, yell....

[Velthice]

So a "Hey, we're currently increasing our efforts and implementing new things" is too much to ask?

Or even, "We're aware that the RMT problem has been increasing and we have plans rolling to reduce it" to address the growing number of customers that are upset by the current status of RMT presence.

The lack of a public statement acknowledging the people's concerns, the automated responses in game, the increase in RMT spam, blatant farm bots that continue to exist for long periods of time, all give the feeling that our concerns are being swept under the rug and ignored.

March 12: Accounts receiving disciplinary action for RMT/illicit activity: 3,452
March 26: Accounts receiving disciplinary action for RMT/illicit activity: 4,445
April 2: Accounts receiving disciplinary action for RMT/illicit activity: 8,086
April 9: Accounts receiving disciplinary action for RMT/illicit activity: 9,617

Those aren't cumulative by the way, they're per week. Square isn't ignoring your concerns, they're constantly improving and stepping up their game. If square wasn't posting reports showing their results, then I'd be worried, and you'd actually have a point, but they do, so I'm not, and you don't. Rmt spam has been cut dramatically since launch, though you may find that hard to believe.

Periods of increased rmt activity happen as rmt operations on the defensive change their strategies to avoid getting caught in the net and new operations come to the table. It's an extremely lucrative business, and completely legitimate and legal in plenty of countries. In a popluar and healthy game, rmt operations will always be present. the best one can do is remain diligent and effective in routing them in the most efficient manner possible, and square has demonstrated that they are. The net is always widening and getting harder to escape.

[AmanoJ]

All those numbers say to me, personally, is that either they are lying about them (though I don't believe that) or, more likely, what they are doing is not enough.
You are saying they are doing something, and there is proof. Everyone else here is recognizing that and trying to say it's clearly not enough. Something MORE needs to be done about this situation, and continuing with the same efforts and posting the numbers like there is nothing else to see is pretty frustrating.

It really is not a lot to ask for a simple "yes, we recognize this is a problem, and we understand your frustration," or "we are working on it." Seems easy, right?

[Aerowaffle]

March 12: Accounts receiving disciplinary action for RMT/illicit activity: 3,452
March 26: Accounts receiving disciplinary action for RMT/illicit activity: 4,445
April 2: Accounts receiving disciplinary action for RMT/illicit activity: 8,086
April 9: Accounts receiving disciplinary action for RMT/illicit activity: 9,617

Those aren't cumulative by the way, they're per week. Square isn't ignoring your concerns, they're constantly improving and stepping up their game. If square wasn't posting reports showing their results, then I'd be worried, and you'd actually have a point, but they do, so I'm not, and you don't. Rmt spam has been cut dramatically since launch, though you may find that hard to believe.

Periods of increased rmt activity happen as rmt operations on the defensive change their strategies to avoid getting caught in the net and new operations come to the table. It's an extremely lucrative business, and completely legitimate and legal in plenty of countries. In a popluar and healthy game, rmt operations will always be present. the best one can do is remain diligent and effective in routing them in the most efficient manner possible, and square has demonstrated that they are. The net is always widening and getting harder to escape.

Here's the thing. Those are just numbers to me.

Theoretically, those represent the number of accounts banned by SE, and they probably do. But those might as well be automated messages at this point. And although you're claiming the RMT situation is getting better, from my experiences it's getting worse.

I've gone from reporting every RMT ad I got (a horribly lengthy process), to placing them in a separate tab and turning off the sound (because they were too frequent to report and blacklist every one), to almost always staying in /busy to avoid the increased friend request spam, to only crafting in my housing section to avoid the current /shout spam.

[Velthice]

All those numbers say to me, personally, is that either they are lying about them (though I don't believe that) or, more likely, what they are doing is not enough.
You are saying they are doing something, and there is proof. Everyone else here is recognizing that and trying to say it's clearly not enough. Something MORE needs to be done about this situation, and continuing with the same efforts and posting the numbers like there is nothing else to see is pretty frustrating.

It really is not a lot to ask for a simple "yes, we recognize this is a problem, and we understand your frustration," or "we are working on it." Seems easy, right?

There really is nothing more to see though. As I've explained before, them laying out their process would be a terrible idea and would only serve to aid rmt operations. They clearly recognize it's a problem and are doing something about it, otherwise they wouldn't be publishing weekly reports that demonstrate just that.

Whether or not more needs to be done, well that's another matter entirely. Of course there's always more that could be done, but we don't know the scope of the problem, and likely, neither does SE, though they definitely have more information to work with than we do. Rmt is not a problem that can be "solved" only stop-gapped. It's the game of whack a mole that never ends, and if there was a way to stop rmt "once and for all" the person who came up with it would be strutting like Rockefeller

[TrajanVerus]

Square Enix has a long history of failing to deal with RMT with the requisite speed and severity. Those of us who were part of the RMT takeover of Final Fantasy XI can confirm.

For years Square Enix neither acknowledged, nor treated the RMT problem. They let the problem become so severe that the price of 1,000,000 gil was only a mere $12.00. That's when the market went into hyperinflation and things like crystals were selling for 5,000 gil per crystal! A full set of gear for a new player who hit level 20 would cost 100,000 - 200,000 gil! The botting problem was legendary... (for reference: https://youtu.be/RNCCVF3uJIA) and this persisted for years like this before Square Enix did ANYTHING... I literally mean NOT ONE THING WAS DONE...

However, when Square Enix finally stepped in and took action it was very effective. I believe all of this is still true of Square Enix, but only in degrees.

[LandricFrey]

I support this thing but I would also love to see all RMT complaints in one thread rather than shattered into 300 threads, so I hope this might be it?

exactly this ^ the spam about rmt in forums is almost as bad as the thing they are complaining about.. im glad i chose odin world in beta i get no more then 2 /tell a week by gil sellers lmao so doesnt bother me at all report ==> block job done

Your best bet is this thread It has 400+ replies and over 100 signatures (probably closer to 200 when the author gets back to update the list) that call for action against RMT.

[Kosmos992k]

Square isn't going to tell you their methods of dealing with rmt, nor should they. You don't catch people doing something wrong by telling them exactly how you plan to catch them. All it would take is one person to come to the forums, read that and then they can adjust their entire operation accordingly to make sure they avoid getting caught.

The only thing they can do is tell you how successful they are, which they do, by posting their actions taken against rmt and other illicit activity every week. You can find it on the lodestone under the notifications tab.

Clearly, which is why I said this;

I think we are all smart enough to realize that you do not wish to tip your hand with respect to your actions, by revealing specifics

[Avenger]

@Kosmos,

You might also add these if you haven't already - they were pretty good:

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...ution-to-RMT-s
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...-RMT-situation.

(LandricFey mentioned the last one as well.)

p.s. Not sure about the boosting thread, though it would be interesting to hear the official position on selling runs.