Square not banning someone who uses RMT

[Sanghelios]

Something that really bothers me during the last weeks is that apparently Square looks like to not ban someone i have reported for using RMT. I know that person since a longer time (Not being friends) and i know that person is using RMT to get an unfair advantage over other player. I have screenshots wich prove that i am right because he made the mistake to say hes using it in chat so i made some screenshots of it. Anyway i did report him around 5 times now during the last weeks and what? Nothing happens at all. I mean Square is that for real? How much more prove do you want to ban someone whos using it? This whole thing makes me really sad because it gives me as legit players the feeling that Square doesnt really give a damn about it. Especially since in terms of RMT, the customer service doesnt reply to you so i dont really know where i stay at the moment.

[Alexftw]

This reminds me of my highschool days and that one subject I hated.. Philosophy.

You see.. According to ethic reporting him is the right thing to do. According to morals, reporting him for no longer being friends as a way to take revenge is wrong.

Tbh I wouldn't think much about it. Maybe he got a light ban or something. After all RMT doesn't give a huge advantage in this game (apart from housing and relic there's no uses at all for it seeing as best gear is untradeable and materia rank5s are free from void ark).

[Sanghelios]

This reminds me of my highschool days and that one subject I hated.. Philosophy.

... in this game (apart from housing and relic there's no uses at all for it seeing as best gear is untradeable and materia rank5s are free from void ark).

Ahh dont get me wrong, that player was never a friend of me. Just a random guy who is a friend of a friend but it annoys me as i am a legit player at heart and i cant deal with that (like doing nothing and just ignore it). That player is also in my fc and on marketboard whole time next to me. Technically could just go to another mb but why should i adjust my playstyle just to avoid someone like him.
In their customer menu they say they have zero tolerance, wich means a perma ban if you use RMT, simple as that.

[Alexftw]

I suspected that so but seeing as you bothered reporting 5x it just seemed like you had another reason to. Otherwise would you tell me you report every bot you find out there until they get banned? That's pretty much what we are comparing. And well who knows. Maybe it was so long ago that they don't have acess to these logs anymore. Or maybe he got a warning from a mod and if he happens to do it again he'd get banned. Or maybe your server gets so many Rmt reports that they still haven't had time to read your report. In mine at least they always reply within 24 hours.

[ThusFarJay]

While I'd like to see a more aggressive approach on this. I just don't see it happening to the expectation everyone wants. After all, SE does have some gain in these RMTs whether it be phantom numbers to inflate user sign-ups or them simply buying the game over. I suspect there is a balance somewhere. Maybe he'll get what's coming in due time. It takes time to ban account. A lot of manpower and investigation. For some, this game is essentially another life. They wouldn't want to take that away without due process. For all we know, he could just be trolling you.

[Alexftw]

Now that you told me what he used that Rmt for I feel even happier xD.

So he wasted his money for a small advantage that can be compensated with either skill or waiting three weeks for gear.

[LadyVal]

Pretty sure as long as he is a paying customer, SE is going to give him the benefit of the doubt.

SE, since it is a big corporation, probably has a ton of protocol fluff for this kind of stuff. I bet it goes something like:

-You report the player. Did he say he bought gil? Yes.
-A GM reviews the case. Can they prove he bought gil, or was he just trying to brag? Undetermined.
-A GM begins an investigation;
-Did he have any suspicious transactions? Undetermined.
-Did he associate with an account that SE knows for sure sells gil? Undetermined.
-Can they even research the player he had a transaction with, or does that player now no longer exist?
-If he does exist, does he have a track record of supplying RMT?

These are all things that SE does, I am willing to bet. If anyone has ever had a corporate job in any capacity, you know there are tons of needless hoops for everything. You saw someone steal in a store? Well, corporate policy says you can't even imply or accuse them of theft. So you watch them steal and leave and you had no power to do anything about it. You saw someone sabotage their own meal in a restaurant? Well, corporate policy says you can't do anything about that so give them the free meal they want and pretend you didn't just see them scam you.

SE is making money off of cheaters and fair players alike. So, while it works out great for the regular player (who is essentially immune to being framed for cheating via RMT due to the thorough checks), for those who actually cheat, they can get away with it for some time. They are a paying customer, and no corporation is going to cut off their customers (read: income) unless they have numerical, objective data that that person is ruining their livelihood, product, or turning others away via their actions. Anybody can foolishly proclaim that they buy RMT gil, but SE has to have some sort of check in place to show the truth of the matter, and like most companies, it is probably so overly thorough that in the long run it doesn't even work as it is intended.

Tl;dr: Just ignore that guy and pretend he doesn't exist, continue on playing how you wish to play, and hope he gets his just desserts.

[Sanghelios]

Tl;dr: Just ignore that guy and pretend he doesn't exist, continue on playing how you wish to play, and hope he gets his just desserts.

As said hes in my fc and whole day around me in chat/marketboard. Blacklisting would lead to broken conversations in fc chat and even then hes around me whole day. And i am not going to adjust the way i would like to play just to avoid an rmt user. As said i have multiple screenshots of chatlogs wich 100% prove hes using it since he says it by himself. Square Enix says they have 0 tolerance against rmt, wich cant just mean a light ban of 3 weeks or what not. Dunno what Square is prefering. Loosing a cheating player or loosing a legit player actually.

[LadyVal]

As said hes in my fc and whole day around me in chat/marketboard. Blacklisting would lead to broken conversations in fc chat and even then hes around me whole day. And i am not going to adjust the way i would like to play just to avoid an rmt user. As said i have multiple screenshots of chatlogs wich 100% prove hes using it since he says it by himself. Square Enix says they have 0 tolerance against rmt, wich cant just mean a light ban of 3 weeks or what not. Dunno what Square is prefering. Loosing a cheating player or loosing a legit player actually.

Well if you don't want to blacklist him, that's fine. I didn't say change anything you do other than ignore that this guy exists. As I explained in length, from SE's perspective, you are both paying and putting money in SE's pockets to play the game, and regardless of if he says he buys gil or not, SE is not going to rush to cut him off and cut off part of their income unless they find some way to absolutely prove (by their standards) that he is actually doing what he claimed to do. There is nothing we as players can do to help you, especially if you refuse to do anything differently from how you play right now, so I'm not entirely sure what kind of answer you're looking to get. You're both paying customers to SE and they'd take just as long to investigate you if you said you bought gil, even though you didn't.

[ToniRomo]

How does he have an advantge over you? How are you in competition with this guy?

Maybe he got a 24 hour ban. Maybe there was not enough evidence to show money actually changed hand. Maybe he didn't do it. Maybe he will get banned with a wave of people later on. Either way it doesn't sound like something worth worrying about to the point where you feel the need to spend the time reporting him 5 times.