Square, if youre going to ban Gil buyers, give them a PERMANENT ban

[Ashkendor]

So what if I don't like you in game? I just have to spend $50 on gil twice and you disappear?

I dunno about you, but if I found a mail with millions of gil from a garbage name I'd send in a ticket.

[Spawnie]

Gil is easy to make in this game, why buy it?

simple answer = laziness..

[KaedrianLiang]

Gil is easy to make in this game, why buy it?

part of what makes earning gil so easy in this game is because the buyers are buying our overpriced goods because they can. a vicious cycle.

In the long run buyers affect the price of goods, this severely hurts the new players that are trying to make it big by eating the initial sacrificial fees of leveling up and grinding the craft/gatherer/geartofarmfaster etc.

Of course this strictly speaks from a dol/doh/mob farming pov.

[Aerowaffle]

I'd like to believe that these temporary bans that SE doles out for some cases of RMT (instead of perma-ban) are because;

The buyer didn't buy much and wasn't a frequent RMT customer.

or

The account has been deemed "stolen" because of the sudden shift of account activity. Going from causal player; talking in fc, chating with friends. To RMT mule; transporting gil across accounts, converting in-game assets to gil, and giving gil to buyers. Account is temp-banned until customer sorts things out with SE.

But it's all speculation, since SE doesn't tell us the specifics why these accounts were banned, other than it was temporary, and that it is RMT related.

[GenJoe]

fruit fly signature

I... seriously just squashed your signature gif..

[Asierid]

Indeed, when gilbuyers are banned, and potential gilbuyers too afraid to buy, then the RMT issue will truly be resolved.

Not even close.

People are stupid. There are also plenty of police in this world, yet people still rob gas stations. Just because one buyer is banned, doesn't mean Joe Newbie won't buy gil because of it. He thinks he is slick and won't get caught. Thus the cycle continues. People underestimate the power of stupidity.

Why run circles chasing the stupid people buying it when you can spend those resources cutting off the source? Why catch the guy buying 2 mil when you can hit the guy with 80?

Resources are limited, they only have so many people and so much cash. Why throw them at the small fish when you have a shot at the big one?

[Lemuria]

I don't think naming and shaming does anything. They can just do a name-change, or change servers.

On the contrary, I think it does quite a bit. Yes, you can change servers and change your name, but you can't change the reputation it gives you. Those who already know you may frown upon those activities, and labeling players makes them visible, a focus. They do what they do because they think it's invisible, that no one can see it. Make it visible, and they're vulnerable and far less likely to repeat the activity.

If they truly wanted to name and shame they could force players to receive a unique icon next to their name. Like the leaf of new players, it could have a skull and crossbones signifying that the player is a gilbuyer. Transfers and name changes wouldn't do a thing to get rid of that, and it would be visible to all. It doesn't need to be permanent. I'd say a month is more than long enough to teach the buyer a lesson or two.

[BunnyChain]

So one scenario has 7 people quitting (static-sized group of friends) and one being perma-banned for a total of 8 people not giving SE money.
The other scenario has 1 person temp-banned and 7 other people not willing to risk buying gil, for a total of 8 people not buying gil but still giving SE money.

From my personal experience, my first static, 1 person was suspended because of "participation in RMT" and everyone pretty much quit on the spot. I took a longer break myself.
If this is not exceptional behaviour then you can understand why SE would hesitate to ban people permanently or maybe they are doing it and we just don't know about it. Like a 2-3 strike rule?

[Whiteroom]

part of what makes earning gil so easy in this game is because the buyers are buying our overpriced goods because they can. a vicious cycle.

In the long run buyers affect the price of goods, this severely hurts the new players that are trying to make it big by eating the initial sacrificial fees of leveling up and grinding the craft/gatherer/geartofarmfaster etc.

Of course this strictly speaks from a dol/doh/mob farming pov.

It also hurts more advanced players as well.

The other day I went to buy some Vit IV materia for platinum slaying accessories. It seems a certian someone my server bought a boatload of gil. The price had jumped from 200K all the way to 899K, since this person had bought everything, regardless ofnthe cost. The same went for savage aim and might. Won't be doing those acc anytime soon I think.

[ElHeggunte]

It also hurts more advanced players as well.

The other day I went to buy some Vit IV materia for platinum slaying accessories. It seems a certian someone my server bought a boatload of gil. The price had jumped from 200K all the way to 899K, since this person had bought everything, regardless ofnthe cost. The same went for savage aim and might. Won't be doing those acc anytime soon I think.

It looks suspicious, but that doesn't necessarily mean they bought gil. Some players literally have hundreds of millions of gil earned purely through hard work and working the marketboard.