Do you think sell groups are hurting end game community?

[Fatshine]

My stance is......I don't like it but I don't get angry at sellers or buyers. It's how they choose to play the game and it doesn't effect my enjoyment. I have NEVER paid for a carry and never will. I cleared content through blood, sweat, and tears no matter how many wipes it takes. It's my will and pride. It's how I roll. That being said, JP servers T13 clears destroys NA/EU servers. The RMT problem is way more apparent on NA/EU than JP. You can put two and two together how buying clears effects endgame.

[ShaneDawn]

I don't like it personally, but I don't see how it's any worse than the people who get carried by their friends or by DF.

Case in point: DF Ifrit EX last night. The BLM spent probably 80% of the run dead on the floor but got the clear (and the pony) anyway. He didn't buy the run, but he essentially got a free carry. How is that different from someone who does buy a run?

LOL. This just reminds me of my first DF Ifrit EX clear way back when. We had a Monk who lied dead pretty much the whole fight, since he died to every Eruption. Somehow we still managed to push the deeps and clear the fight, obviously carrying him. A pony drops, and guess who wins it? The very same Monk who did 0 contribution to the party. Not only did he have the balls to roll for it and win it, he even said gg before leaving.

/off-topic but this made me chuckle.

[VanilleFang]

I just ignore them. I don't give a crap what people do with their gil. :P

[Fatshine]

Why would you pay for a game, to pay an RMT, to pay other players to play the game for you?

Thank you for providing me with my first sig edit

[BreathlessTao]

Hmm... I wouldn't specifically restrict it to endgame community either. Though probably that's where it becomes the most obvious - nobody learns anything from being carried through a piece of content by a bunch of other people. Who might even tell them "go in a corner and die, we'll do it ourselves" right at the start of it (from what I've heard, this happens too). And then, of course, you hear those hardcore/good players complaining when being thrown together in a roulette or something with random others, who are so bad at the simplest of things. Yes, it hurts the atmosphere.

And of course there's the RMT side of it. I'm not saying the two are exclusively linked, of course, but people paying for carries also quite probably helps their business. The shouts, the tells, the friend requests from blatantly obvious characters, the bot groups (hello BLM armies!) - I bet my neck they also have roots in content clear sells. Not all the roots, but some, for sure. And this part effects the brand new player who barely finished installing the game just as well as legacy veterans, because they don't filter who they try to contact, who they send tells or friend requests to.

I have nothing against people being skilled enough to carry one, or even two other through a given duty. Kudos to them. I do oppose them doing it for gil, though, because that does contribute to overall bad experiences in the game.



PS: CAN WE HAVE THIS GODSDAMNED CHARACTER LIMIT REMOVED ALREADY FFS?!?!

[nuyu11]

I just know this kind of thing exist in the game... In my wow days there is no such a thing like this.

My personal opinion is, this disgraceful practice.
I'd rather run a thousand try with a high pride than using such a cheap method.

[KisaiTenshi]

Square-Enix could fix this easily...

All they have to do is require "first clears" to be done via the DF without a premade party to unlock the next one. This would certainly be unfair to those in a FC who are just helping tow their FC peeps through the content. But that would solve it.

Another way would be to change how DF content allows parties to be organized. Where parties for harder content can only be consist of players of the same skill level. Eg a "report card" would be given at the end of the Duty that rates the skill level in that job, and thus only allow party configurations of equal skill. Any "carried" players punching well below their weight would not get the clear and do not unlock the next content, and don't get to need/greed on loot.

[ShaneDawn]

Square-Enix could fix this easily...

All they have to do is require "first clears" to be done via the DF without a premade party to unlock the next one. This would certainly be unfair to those in a FC who are just helping tow their FC peeps through the content. But that would solve it.
Another way would be to change how DF content allows parties to be organized. Where parties for harder content can only be consist of players of the same skill level. Eg a "report card" would be given at the end of the Duty that rates the skill level in that job, and thus only allow party configurations of equal skill. Any "carried" players punching well below their weight would not get the clear and do not unlock the next content, and don't get to need/greed on loot.

Problem is, the end-game content is too hard to clear on DF without a premade party. T9 even after all the echo and gear nerfs is a real gamble on DF. The number of players completing the highest content would dwindle a lot, unless they were to make the content a lot easier.

Personally I think the best option would be to root out causes to the run-selling and RMT, adding QoL changes and more active role into fighting it. In the first place, we should be thinking why is selling runs actually a thing? A major reason why a lot of the high-end teams sell runs are because a lot of BiS gear are crafted ones with high costs, not to mention food/potion maintenance. A raider that hardly does any crafting or playing around the market board will probably never get the best crafted gear out there via regular playing. It's controversary, as it's mainly those same raiders that want/need the said gear. The first step should be removing the crafted/tradable gear being BiS; having the best gear free to buy has always been a bad concept that promotes RMT in itself, but also leads to more run-selling and thus even more RMT. I don't really see that many teams selling runs to buy all the raid members a fat cat, as the high-end teams are often more pragmatic and interested in the best gear available rather than pure vanity. It's a really hexed cycle as long as SE decides to keep it alive.

Quality of Life changes include easier report/blacklisting options and not accepting someone's Friend Request to remove it from your list. I don't know why these options don't exist already, and dealing with all the gold spammers is such a pain right now.

More active role=faster booting of Gold Sellers.

[LalaRu]

Sell groups exists for the same reason rmt exists: some people buy from them.

Just ignore them (sellers and buyers).

[KisaiTenshi]

Problem is, the end-game content is too hard to clear on DF without a premade party. T9 even after all the echo and gear nerfs is a real gamble on DF. The number of players completing the highest content would dwindle a lot, unless they were to make the content a lot easier..

That was the point. The "clear" hump needs to be set at a level that actually reflects the skill of the player, not the skill of the best player in the party. Selling clears would vanish overnight if "carrying" weak players lowered the reward to nothing or negative. Even if someone bought a "clear", they would not unlock the next turn unless they can maintain that skill level required to get there.

On the other side of the coin, we could just disincentive selling clears by changing the reward mechanics so that players who are punching below their weight are tracked, and players who participated with carries are blocked from forming parties with players who have been carried.