Petition for a Realistic Solution to RMT's

[LandricFrey]

How about we go after the problem and not the symptoms that arise from the problem? SE needs to disable the ability to trade gil between characters. How would the RMT companies sell you gil then?
As for botting, SE needs to download the various bot programs, analyze the way they work and build detection algorithms into the game client. This IS possible. I'd be fine with an additional program running on my computer that scanned for the various bot programs continually and or randomly. Small price to pay to keep the bots out.

This would only limit legit players and the RMT would easily find a work around for this unfortunately. If they couldn't trade gil, they'd probably just arrange to buy something worthless off of one of your retainers for millions.

As for the second suggestion, SE should already be aware of the bot programs as they should being in the MMO gaming industry, but who knows? Maybe they really are so clueless.

[tocsin]

Small price to pay to keep the bots out.

I don't know how much experience you have with such programs, but from my experience (playing 30+ different games with such software) I can safely say that this software is a major inhibitor to gameplay, and can decimate a playerbase. Due to the unlimited quantity of differing infrastructures in each platform (different specs on PC, different internet capabilities on consoles, etc.) ALL of these programs are highly buggy, and tend to have more false positives than they do actual caught programs. they also tend to be MUCH easier to hack than the games themelves, and usually come with built in keyloggers and such, which make identity theft MUCH more likely with players playing such games.

If SE adopted a dedicated client snooping program, and required it to be running in the background, I would be cancelling my subscription and backcharging whatever remained of it. I can also name 40 other players who would do the same, at minimum. I don't want spyware on my computer, thank you.

[Kyonika]

I have an idea.

And it's real simple, but it requires everyone's participation: don't buy from RMT'ers. EVER! I mean, it's simple economics of supply and demand: if there's no demand, and no sales, then... だよね

I only play on JP servers and almost never see any RMT spam or anything. And, the simple reason is (and I can safely say this for all my fellow gamers on JP servers) -- we play by the rules and don't succumb to instant gratification. as such, there is no market for RMTers to sell to -- so they don't.

Implication: If your server is severely affected by RMT spam and junk, there's a likely economic reason for that...

[Aerowaffle]

I have an idea.

And it's real simple, but it requires everyone's participation: don't buy from RMT'ers. EVER! I mean, it's simple economics of supply and demand: if there's no demand, and no sales, then... だよね

I only play on JP servers and almost never see any RMT spam or anything. And, the simple reason is (and I can safely say this for all my fellow gamers on JP servers) -- we play by the rules and don't succumb to instant gratification. as such, there is no market for RMTers to sell to -- so they don't.

Then that's not really a realistic solution is it? The people who buy gil don't really care the effects it brings. The people who want this RMT plague to stop are unlikely to be buyers (as they would essentially be advocating getting themselves banned).

We're not some sort of singular consciousness that can control the actions of every player.

[Kyonika]

We're not some sort of singular consciousness that can control the actions of every player.

That line right there. Brilliant. See the answer embedded therein. Though it may take some time...

In the mean time, if there was just a way to make it too expensive for RMTers to continue selling, and too expensive for buyers to participate in ...

[Aerowaffle]

That line right there. Brilliant. See the answer embedded therein. Though it may take some time...

In the mean time, if there was just a way to make it too expensive for RMTers to continue selling, and too expensive for buyers to participate in ...

Theoretically, banning more RMT farmers before they manage to move gil around would do that. If you made it harder for the bots to gather up gil, they would have less gil to sell, which would force RMT to try and sell less gil for more money.

[CheshireKat]

They have to be very careful banning people because they are taking away a service that people are paying for. They can be sued for it. Unfortunately its one of those legal loopholes that people from China and other countries like China (mostly third world or offshore types) can jump through because they are outside of the influence of several types of laws. This is why a certain other large successful MMO literally shut down their operations in China, refused service in their country, and blocked any IP originating from there. The number of gold sellers went to next to nothing overnight. Caused a big stink there too, but they got their own version of the game they could play on eventually. But they could only connect to their own servers.

[Rendecrow]

I have an idea.

And it's real simple, but it requires everyone's participation: don't buy from RMT'ers. EVER! I mean, it's simple economics of supply and demand: if there's no demand, and no sales, then... だよね

Works on paper, not in real life. With how many people play this game there will always be someone who will try to buy. A real solution would simply be to ban the buyers.

[Alberel]

I'm hopeful that having 3.0 gated behind the 2.55 MSQ will inhibit the gil farmers to some extent. Presumably the level 50-60 mobs, quests and dungeons will drop more gil than the current content, not to mention all the new gathering nodes will also be gated by extension. If the botters want to keep up with the inflation of the economy resulting from that they will have to do the main story quests which will severely restrict their ability to keep creating new accounts when they get banned.

[Rendecrow]

I'm hopeful that having 3.0 gated behind the 2.55 MSQ will inhibit the gil farmers to some extent. Presumably the level 50-60 mobs, quests and dungeons will drop more gil than the current content, not to mention all the new gathering nodes will also be gated by extension. If the botters want to keep up with the inflation of the economy resulting from that they will have to do the main story quests which will severely restrict their ability to keep creating new accounts when they get banned.

I hate to break it to you, but the chinese gil farmers do not start accounts from scratch. They hack accounts and use them. Gating of content means nothing to those crooks.