Formal Letter to SE about RMT situation.

[Tiggy]

Also, I'm really surprised they still let Tiggy around...

I don't HAVE to agree completely with what anyone says. This isn't an echo chamber. Do remember that.

[SummerSkye]

i think the reason the gill sellers are so bad on and NA servers is because that is where the market is. now if you want to stop that then instead of focusing on the RMT how about we point our venom at the ones buying the gill? if there was no demand there would be no sellers. I am on a JP server and I MIGHT get a spam once very four or five months myself. but then I have shouts filtered so I may be missing some but as far as tells ya pretty quiet on that front

The bots and sellers are on the JP servers too. Go to one and search for level 50 Black Mages. There are tons of "Asdfk Kjkkj" type named characters there. What they DON'T do on the JP servers is spam the whisper and chat channels and send spam friend requests. I would bet it is because they know better than to do that in SE's backyard.

[Chibilidawg]

I don't HAVE to agree completely with what anyone says. This isn't an echo chamber. Do remember that.

Didn't say you had to. You've just been an extremely toxic presence on the boards for some time now. Just that presumptuous attitude alone helps my point (that & treating me rudely as if I don't know it's not an echo chamber). Surprised they let you roam still is all.

On-topic: what're some plausible suggestions of things SE could do to reduce the RMT spam while keeping player chat options generally open? I've made my suggestions in a recent post.

[Tiggy]

Didn't say you had to. You've just been an extremely negative presence on the boards for some time now. Just that presumptuous attitude alone helps my point. Surprised they let you roam still is all.

On-topic: what're some plausible suggestions of things SE could do to reduce the RMT spam while keeping player chat options generally open? I've made my suggestions in a recent post.

That was presumptuous, lol? It's not "failing to observe the limits of what is permitted or appropriate to acknowledge" by saying that this isn't an echo chamber. Whether you like it or not having unpopular opinions isn't against the forum rules. It's a forum. A public place where multiple ideas and opinions come together. It doesn't mean you have to like all those views and opinions, and it doesn't mean I have to pander to a specific viewpoint just so some of you think I'm "acceptable." It's my right as it is yours to come here and post what you think. This isn't an echo chamber, and I don't really care what you personally think of me.

On-topic: what're some plausible suggestions of things SE could do to reduce the RMT spam while keeping player chat options generally open? I've made my suggestions in a recent post.

Larger team to deal with RMT and more chat filters. They are likely already quite aware of those options. Outside of flat out IP bans there is only so much you can really do. There is a reason even older MMOs struggle with this issue even to this day. If players would stop buying the gil we wouldn't even have this problem.

[Chibilidawg]

That was presumptuous, lol?...

It's this whole belittling, laughing-in-my-face toxicity that's the problem.

I have no issue with unpopular opinions, that's your prerogative.

On-topic: more chat filtering would be nice (friends only, etc.).

[Rizon]

Everyone of you can spout your concerns and remedies all you want, but until you take the one person responsible for the current state of RMTs within this game to task then you are wasting your breath. I am talking about Naoki Yoshida. This situation has been festering since Jan 2011 when Yoshida-san made the conscious decision to ignore the RMT problem completely in ver 1.0. Instead of keeping track of known RMT and Bots so that he could remove them at a later date Yoshida-san implemented cosmetic changes to the game that had absolutely no effect on the RMT other then to encourage them to continue their practices unabated. Some of these changes were:

1. The partial Gil wipe which had little or no effect on the RMT caches of Gil
2. The restricting of Legacy players to a few servers and allowing the old RMTs/Bots on to these servers
3. Designing the game that made legitimate Gil making venture near impossible for the average player without hindering the Bots/Rmt.

Since the release of 2.0 (ARR) Yoshida-san has completely ignored the RMT problem. I suspect the reason for this is he does not have a clue as to how to combat it so he figures if he hides his head in the sand then it is not there. You will take note that Letters From the Producer have become less frequent as time goes by. Used to be that Yoshida-san would use those to address issues concerning the game. Not any more. Examine the game. What you see now and what is planned for the future is the product of a gifted Technocrat, not a Visionary. Naoki Yoshida is not a Visionay. The problem with RMTs is beyond his scope. SE needs to remove this problem and assign it to someone better versed in how to handle it allowing Yoshida-san to concentrqate on what he is exceptionally good at. Game development.

As I have stated before Yoshida-san needs to reconnect with his subscribers. The best place for this is the Forums with regularly scheduled post in the form of Letters from the Producer. These letter need to address issue raised by subscribers that affect the game. The Live Letter are perfect for what they do now which is to allow the Dev team to advertise the game. I would also recommend that the Community Reps spend a certain portion of their working days on the servers in their areas of responsibility talking to the player base to find out the concerns of the players and pass them on to the Devs. As for the RMT problem SE needs to swallow its pride and talk to other companies that have had success with RMTs to learn what works and see if it can be implemented in this game.

I know that this post will offend a number people that hold Yoshida-san in the same high regard that I do. For that I am sorry but if you are honest with yourselves you see that a lot of what I am saying is true and the Majority of you will try to pressure Yoshida-san to acknowledge the problems and work to correct them. This is the only way this game can reach its true potential and be what we all know it can be.

[Chibilidawg]

Snip

Don't forget their refusal to tweak the Shard Economy which' helping RMT to thrive!

[Zabuza]

Everyone of you can spout your concerns and remedies all you want, but until you take the one person responsible for the current state of RMTs within this game to task then you are wasting your breath. I am talking about Naoki Yoshida. This situation has been festering since Jan 2011 when Yoshida-san made the conscious decision to ignore the RMT problem completely in ver 1.0. Instead of keeping track of known RMT and Bots so that he could remove them at a later date Yoshida-san implemented cosmetic changes to the game that had absolutely no effect on the RMT other then to encourage them to continue their practices unabated. Some of these changes were:

1. The partial Gil wipe which had little or no effect on the RMT caches of Gil
2. The restricting of Legacy players to a few servers and allowing the old RMTs/Bots on to these servers
3. Designing the game that made legitimate Gil making venture near impossible for the average player without hindering the Bots/Rmt.

Already have tried to get this to Yoshida's attention. Not an easy task for sure. Who knows, he might have even seen it already. I know he replied to his birthday thread on these forums.

[SummerSkye]

On-topic: what're some plausible suggestions of things SE could do to reduce the RMT spam while keeping player chat options generally open? I've made my suggestions in a recent post.

Up the "task force" to have a team on each server. SE has the money. Some older MMOs had GMs that were simply players that played the game anyway, that the company selected and "promoted" to in-game GM's. Then give us the ability, when we see a swarm of Black Mages like in the screencaps above spamming, or see bots out in the field cheating and warping around, to report them in real time to these in-game GM's. They could then immediately round them up, boot them offline, and ban them. If this was happening relentlessly on each server, using three 8 hour shifts...it would no longer be a comfortable place for RMT (or the people that buy gil).

[Rizon]

Already have tried to get this to Yoshida's attention. Not an easy task for sure. Who knows, he might have even seen it already. I know he replied to his birthday thread on these forums.

Unfortunately if he continues to ignore these problems then this game will be looking to shut down the servers instead of celebrating another new expansion next year