Formal Letter to SE about RMT situation.

[okitaluc]

If they want to be effective they should take action against the practice in game , but it will backfire in the community in some way. Turn gil bound to the character for example (even this can have a way around sadly), restrictions to low lvl character regarding chat use ...

[SpookRooster]

How about more GMs? I saw someone said there's three people in charge of watching 64 servers for RMT. That's like sending Bill and Lance against Red Falcon armed only with super soakers.

There's probably a lot of people in this thread who'd like the opportunity to ban these guys.

[KisaiTenshi]

And yet other large scale MMOs don't have this problem or at least, not the the degree where it harms the quality of the game.

This needs to be repeated every few pages because nobody is going to read 100+ page thread.

EVERY MMO HAS THIS PROBLEM. EVERYONE.

How about more GMs? I saw someone said there's three people in charge of watching 64 servers for RMT. That's like sending Bill and Lance against Red Falcon armed only with super soakers.

There's probably a lot of people in this thread who'd like the opportunity to ban these guys.

That is just speculation based on the credits. There might only be 3 people who actually do the MDE (Mass Data Entry) that removes them or designing filters. For all we know the reason the spammers disappear every 5 minutes is because automated processes from SE are kicking them.

You don't throw more people at a problem that is caused by computers. You throw more computers at a problem that is caused by computers.

Two things have been demanded OVER and OVER and OVER since 2013:

a) Right-click report+blacklist in one step, or one and a half steps where they can at least be flagged by crowd sourcing.
b) The ability to disable friends requests, party invites, FC invites, etc and any other mechanic that RMT spam uses.

[T2teddy]

• Thirty day restriction on new accounts disabling the creation of more than one character per world.
  
• Thirty day HOLD on the deletion of any character.
  
• In chat/tell, right click and report RMT post.
  
• Once 25+ people have all reported the same RMT, that account is auto-silenced and put in suspension for review.

Four simple ways, which combined would probably solve the worst of it.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

You'd have rp'ers throwing a hissy fit if they couldnt make 8 characters instantly when they start the game.

[Zabuza]

And yet other large scale MMOs don't have this problem or at least, not the the degree where it harms the quality of the game.

Fact is, Square are not putting nearly as much effort as they should into combating this. Every single RMT I've seen is level 1, stands in one spot, occasionally jumps, and I guess they either walk or teleport. I may have encountered one that teleported while I wasn't looking. They stick around in the city states and spam messages. It should be ridiculously easy to ban for this activity. No real player behaves like this.

Since they won't do anything to fix this, at least give us proper tools to hide these messages. Or even better, so not to make us write down phrases or some crap, allow Guildwork to be installed. I hear it works, but I'd rather not get banned for trying to play the game without being harassed.

SE has a don't ask don't tell policy when it comes to add-ons. Also you can bypass the 1,000 character limit by making a post and then editing it(really have no idea why it's like that lol.)

I've stopped putting many replies to my own thread at this point because pretty much every solution has been thrown out there and suggested. We've desperately clamored for even five minutes of a dev's time to reply to our post to acknowledge our plight at least, and tell us they are doing something. But alas, we are insignificant to them it seems. Eight days left until early access, twelve days left until full launch. I tried for months to help SE help themselves. Only time will tell what the reaction will be from new players about this come Heavensward. I suspect quite a few will quit over it. Those of us who originally posted fervently in passion have mostly died off with a whimper upon the realization that nothing was going to change no matter what we did. The sad but unfortunate truth.

Only one thread in the General Discussion forums has gotten more replies per day than this, ever(Made the thread about two months ago with 1,050 replies.) So comparatively, the outcry has been about as profound as it can be with the available playerbase of these forums. Yet...the devs haven't popped in to leave even a canned response. Ignoring such an outcry, they've shouted their message pretty loud and clear. They simply don't care about us at all. Not even a single iota.

Only thing that would make them care is a mass unsub, which isn't going to happen from the veterans. Might happen from the wave of new players who become instantly repulsed though as they hear chime after chime as they're watching their opening cutscene, only to realize the moment the cutscene ends that their chat log is filled with pink garbage—shady almost criminal messages harassing them to buy their gil. They will think the easy blacklist option will relieve the pressure, only to find out minutes later new cockroaches have crawled out of the woodwork with more messages. More agitating chimes grating in their eardrums—a constant high pitched maddening shriek of persecution. Overwhelmed and absolutely sickened, their experience in the beautiful realm of Eorzea will be sullied, tarnished by these abominable cretins. Their trigger finger will race to the exit game button—followed by a prompt unsub.

[XxSliphxX]

Honestly the chat spam doesn't bother me at all. I'm VERY good at ignoring things that i don't care about. To be honest i don't even understand how it bothers people so damned much unless you are constantly looking at your chat bar? I dunno....anyway I will add my suggestion. I'm not reading 100+ pages so maybe it's been said, but how about simply making it so you can't send tells until you are lvl 20-25ish or so "other games do this and it works well". It won't get rid of the problem because honestly you will NEVER get rid of the problem unless you completely remove gold AND the auction house from the game "which as we all know will never happen". However this will at least slow the tells down tremendously. Asking for anything else is pretty much futile. All the forum rage in the world won't stop them.

[Zabuza]

Honestly the chat spam doesn't bother me at all. I'm VERY good at ignoring things that i don't care about. To be honest i don't even understand how it bothers people so damned much unless you are constantly looking at your chat bar? I dunno....anyway I will add my suggestion. I'm not reading 100+ pages so maybe it's been said, but how about simply making it so you can't send tells until you are lvl 20-25ish or so "other games do this and it works well". It won't get rid of the problem because honestly you will NEVER get rid of the problem unless you completely remove gold AND the auction house from the game "which as we all know will never happen". However this will at least slow the tells down tremendously. Asking for anything else is pretty much futile. All the forum rage in the world won't stop them.

It's been said. Also, it's easier to ignore if you're a veteran who knows how to turn /tell chimes off and move the /tells to a separate tab. But for new players? Being spammed with the chime in a cutscene? Yeah, no. That's extremely annoying no matter who you are, and the way to turn off those /tell chimes isn't exactly obvious. I had to search around for it for over five minutes the first time.

P.S. I've added a list of suggestions that people have compiled to the OP so that people no longer have to sift through 100+ pages. It is simply a list made by others throughout the thread, signing the petition does not mean you endorse these methods, only the ones listed in my original letter. If anyone has any method that I have missed, let me know.

[XxSliphxX]

It's been said. Also, it's easier to ignore if you're a veteran who knows how to turn /tell chimes off and move the /tells to a separate tab. But for new players? Being spammed with the chime in a cutscene? Yeah, no. That's extremely annoying no matter who you are, and the way to turn off those /tell chimes isn't exactly obvious. I had to search around for it for over five minutes the first time.

I actually still have the chimes going on tells cause i just like the sound of it lol. I know i'm weird but yea it actually doesn't bother me in fact I kinda am used to hearing it every once in awhile.

[SpookRooster]

I guess it's time to be set to busy and set up a linkshell, then...

Heavensward is going to amplify the shit out of this issue. Maybe then, Square will start to care. I've seen the RMTers advertise special deals for the expansion, so I imagine the spam will become more violent. And with the release of the first expansion for this, I hope they'll start taking this seriously to not let it all go to total waste.

But this is Square, so they probably will.

Though, how is Guildwork? I don't really care about all the features they list, but I do have interest in the filter. Does it do what it should without Square banning you?