Formal Letter to SE about RMT situation.

[Magusrex]

What a coincidence. I manage a $5 million per year business.

Good for you!! What type of business and what are your most difficult challenges?

[Ryuko]

Good for you!! What type of business and what are your most difficult challenges?

I have no challenges, because I was kidding; I don't run my own business, and my income doesn't even approach that of a medical practice. Sorry if that wasn't clear. I was just poking fun because businesses cannot and will not all be run the same way. Also, how much you make or manage isn't really relevant to the topic at hand. I am sincerely happy for you that you run a successful business that diagnoses and treats so many different eye problems (as someone who has eye problems), but that really is neither here nor there in this thread. Also, I'm kind of getting off topic by even replying. Let me just sum it up by saying this: a medical practice isn't really comparable to a company like Square Enix. Of course we'd all love to fix every single problem, even if only from a financial standpoint, but there are priorities that must be met.

Allow me to explain why SE has probably been quiet... dealing with exploiters and gilsellers is like a game of cat and mouse. The goldfarmers (in all MMOs) start their goldfarming business, so the MMO companies try to halt that. The goldfarmers then find a workaround, and the MMOs then come up with another solution to try to curb it. If SE even gave a hint about what they were doing (beyond "We're paying attention to you and we're working on it"), the gilsellers would preemtively prepare for their next workaround. This is why game companies MUST keep quiet. This is why you don't hear about bans until they happen, and why SE doesn't release reasons for emergency maintenances if they involve patching a potential exploit until AFTER the issue has been fixed. I am really hoping there is some sort of solution in the works. It has been quite a while since something was done (besides mass bans), but this is why it is understandable that SE chooses to keep quiet in a nutshell.

[Magusrex]

I have no challenges, because I was kidding; I don't run my own business, and my income doesn't even approach that of a medical practice. Sorry if that wasn't clear. I was just poking fun because businesses cannot and will not all be run the same way. Also, how much you make or manage isn't really relevant to the topic at hand. I am sincerely happy for you that you run a successful business that diagnoses and treats so many different eye problems (as someone who has eye problems), but that really is neither here nor there in this thread. Also, I'm kind of getting off topic by even replying. Let me just sum it up by saying this: a medical practice isn't really comparable to a company like Square Enix. Of course we'd all love to fix every single problem, even if only from a financial standpoint, but there are priorities that must be met.

Allow me to explain why SE has probably been quiet... dealing with exploiters and gilsellers is like a game of cat and mouse. The goldfarmers (in all MMOs) start their goldfarming business, so the MMO companies try to halt that. The goldfarmers then find a workaround, and the MMOs then come up with another solution to try to curb it. If SE even gave a hint about what they were doing (beyond "We're paying attention to you and we're working on it"), the gilsellers would preemtively prepare for their next workaround. This is why game companies MUST keep quiet. This is why you don't hear about bans until they happen, and why SE doesn't release reasons for emergency maintenances if they involve patching a potential exploit until AFTER the issue has been fixed. I am really hoping there is some sort of solution in the works. It has been quite a while since something was done (besides mass bans), but this is why it is understandable that SE chooses to keep quiet in a nutshell.

FWIW....I am a CFO, not the owner. I know they are not comparable, however in some ways they are. I have played literally all the popular MMOs. They all do a much better job with this. It is exponentially worse here. Leadership is leadership, doesn't matter what it is. You set the tone for your organization, unless of coarse you are weak. If the people in charge made it abundantly clear that the organization was going meet things head on, be as transparent as possible and make the customers feel as though their concerns matter, it would be so. To me they are saying we are doing what we are doing, until it starts to affect our bottom line nothing will change, fixing this will cost money. Hey man it's their business, believe me I get it. The thing is, you don't what is going to make a thing completely unravel. I know if I leave and start spending my time somewhere else, i am not coming back. I know their are other people like me. Some of us take FCs with us when we leave, servers start getting empty other people leave that were not even bothered by RMT. This game cannot afford another failure like 1.0. Is what it is.

[Ryuko]

FWIW....I am a CFO, not the owner. I know they are not comparable, however in some ways they are. I have played literally all the popular MMOs. They all do a much better job with this. It is exponentially worse here. Leadership is leadership, doesn't matter what it is. You set the tone for your organization, unless of coarse you are weak. If the people in charge made it abundantly clear that the organization was going meet things head on, be as transparent as possible and make the customers feel as though their concerns matter, it would be so. To me they are saying we are doing what we are doing, until it starts to affect our bottom line nothing will change, fixing this will cost money. Hey man it's their business, believe me I get it. The thing is, you don't what is going to make a thing completely unravel. I know if I leave and start spending my time somewhere else, i am not coming back. I know their are other people like me. Some of us take FCs with us when we leave, servers start getting empty other people leave that were not even bothered by RMT. This game cannot afford another failure like 1.0. Is what it is.

Personally, I understand that companies must prioritize, and they can't prioritize everything. I'm sure they understand it's a problem people are concerned about... and this thread really proves that, if there were any doubt. Additionally, I'm sure they have people who play regularly to get a feel for the community. They're not blind about their own game. While I do recognize that gilseller tells are definitely annoying and stifling of the community, it's not something that I have seen stop anyone from playing. I have seen people quit over lack of content, boredom or disliking the community... but not gilseller tells. That's not to say it SHOULDN'T be addressed, but where priorities are concerned, I'd rather they focus more attention and energy on other things, especially with an expansion on the horizon; expansions make or break the overall progression of an MMO, and the success of an expansion directly correlates with the resources that the company will pour into it in the future. Since you said you are the CFO of a company... think of it like budgeting. You only have X amount of employees and X amount of budgeting to deal with at the present moment, and if making a true fix requires a lot of additional programming and systematic reworkings (adding functionality to report spam immediately and have them removed from the game quickly, for example), it might be better to spend your resources fixing other, more dire issues... such as UI bugs or other community functionality... for now. That's not to say it WON'T be done, but it isn't a priority.

I would personally like if they would implement a system that allows players to report a tell as spam, and after enough reports (maybe 10 unique ones from 10 unique people), it is automatically suspended for a 24 hour period for review. To prevent abuse, a GM would then review the account and the outgoing whispers, and decide if it is banworthy (pretty easy to tell if someone is a gilseller spammer or not). If the person was erroneously reported for spam (such as by people who have it out for a legitimate player), the GM would then be able to punish the people who 'cried wolf'. If there is a real punishment for abusing the system, people would be deterred from abusing it. That's my solution, but it would require additional resources (more GMs to review accounts) and an additional functionality in the game itself... (right click and report someone for spam), plus an automatic system to lock an account until it can be reviewed. I think that would be effective, but it takes time and resources. The best time to implement something like that WOULD be with an update to the game's system itself, which may or may not occur in Heavensward or during one of the post-expansion patches.

[Cakekizy]

Snip

I am certain people do quit from RMT, they just leave and don't say anything. Those likely to be drive away, are also the type that are reluctant to post in public forums. This is all my personal opinion of course.

[Ryuko]

I am certain people do quit from RMT, they just leave and don't say anything. Those likely to be drive away, are also the type that are reluctant to post in public forums. This is all my personal opinion of course.

I can't really say for sure, but I'm only speaking from my personal experience... I have had friends leave because they were bored with the game, didn't have the time to play as often as they'd like, couldn't afford to play anymore, or just didn't want to play because it wasn't their type of game. I've never had a friend tell me, "I'm sick of the RMT spam so I'm quitting." I have, however, had plenty of friends and FC-mates go Busy because of the RMT spam.

[Amenian]

I can't really say for sure, but I'm only speaking from my personal experience... I have had friends leave because they were bored with the game, didn't have the time to play as often as they'd like, couldn't afford to play anymore, or just didn't want to play because it wasn't their type of game. I've never had a friend tell me, "I'm sick of the RMT spam so I'm quitting." I have, however, had plenty of friends and FC-mates go Busy because of the RMT spam.

About two or three months ago I left this game with the intention never to return unless I heard they improved the RMT situation. The ONLY reason I left was the RMT spam. I'm back now because my fiancee loves the game and wants me to try out Heavensward with her. I've been back less than a week and I'm already ready to cancel my subscription again due to RMt.

[Iromi]

I can't really say for sure, but I'm only speaking from my personal experience... I have had friends leave because they were bored with the game, didn't have the time to play as often as they'd like, couldn't afford to play anymore, or just didn't want to play because it wasn't their type of game. I've never had a friend tell me, "I'm sick of the RMT spam so I'm quitting." I have, however, had plenty of friends and FC-mates go Busy because of the RMT spam.

Yeah I think the RMT spam just kinda adds to their justification when quitting. Heh, well..at least come expansion the servers will be on lock down for a while (At least, some will..) so we will get a break from the tells >.>

[Malevicton]

I am certain ... This is all my personal opinion of course.

Well which is it?