Don't buy mogstation items from 3rd parties.

[alimdia]

All that wasted money that won't be used for the creation of new content...

It makes me extra mad to think that, wherever you go, there's going to be thieves and scammers everywhere.

Tbf most of the money generated by FFXIV goes to shareholders, not to the creation of new content.

[Paladinleeds]

What they need to do is, any suspicious gil activity found, or suspicious code activity, straight up permanently ban the accounts in question (every last one of them), unless the account owners can prove beyond ALL doublt (not just reasonable doubt) that the actions were legit. This ban will all the payment methods used by any member (so Steam ID, card details, etc) that was banned, so they can't simply register a new account with that card info. They'd have to go so far as to adopt a completely new identity IRL in order to be able to play again. That would definitely curb most of it.

[Dustytome]

According to the announcement:

My interpretation of that was one account bought multiple codes en masse and a large number of accounts redeemed those codes individually (not duplicating the code use however). A staff member would have to clarify though. Even trying to type out my interpretation of it a few different ways, it sounded similarly open to alternative views.

[Dustytome]

What they need to do is, any suspicious gil activity found, or suspicious code activity, straight up permanently ban the accounts in question (every last one of them), unless the account owners can prove beyond ALL doublt (not just reasonable doubt) that the actions were legit. This ban will all the payment methods used by any member (so Steam ID, card details, etc) that was banned, so they can't simply register a new account with that card info. They'd have to go so far as to adopt a completely new identity IRL in order to be able to play again. That would definitely curb most of it.

In regards to the use of codes: A soft ban and being stripped of the item(s) feels more likely to deter further use of the source (and/or scold the gift giver and deter them from using a 3rd party). As the sale of the 3rd party item is done beyond the view of SE, they have no way of knowing if the user of the code was the individual that purchased the code from the 3rd party or if they were gifted it from someone that purchased it. The accounts that originally bought the codes from the mogstation are perma-banned of course, but those were always burner accounts anyway.

[Awha]

What they need to do is, any suspicious gil activity found, or suspicious code activity, straight up permanently ban the accounts in question (every last one of them), unless the account owners can prove beyond ALL doublt (not just reasonable doubt) that the actions were legit. This ban will all the payment methods used by any member (so Steam ID, card details, etc) that was banned, so they can't simply register a new account with that card info. They'd have to go so far as to adopt a completely new identity IRL in order to be able to play again. That would definitely curb most of it.

I understand where you are coming from, but doesn't it seem a tad overkill to permanently ban an account that could have been potentially given as a gift from a friend? I mean they should permanently ban the original purchaser but as mentioned those are mostly burner accounts.

[Paladinleeds]

In regards to the use of codes: A soft ban and being stripped of the item(s) feels more likely to deter further use of the source (and/or scold the gift giver and deter them from using a 3rd party). As the sale of the 3rd party item is done beyond the view of SE, they have no way of knowing if the user of the code was the individual that purchased the code from the 3rd party or if they were gifted it from someone that purchased it. The accounts that originally bought the codes from the mogstation are perma-banned of course, but those were always burner accounts anyway.

I understand where you are coming from, but doesn't it seem a tad overkill to permanently ban an account that could have been potentially given as a gift from a friend? I mean they should permanently ban the original purchaser but as mentioned those are mostly burner accounts.

The fact the people buying the codes are burner accounts is exactly why I feel the punishment needs to be taken to the receivers too. Give them the same treatment, and this practice will be almost entirely eradicated. That's my belief and why I don't think the permaban would be overkill. It'd suck for sure to lose all that work, but without that, how else do we curb this practice?

[Dustytome]

That's my belief and why I don't think the permaban would be overkill. It'd suck for sure to lose all that work, but without that, how else do we curb this practice?

By soft banning (3-9 days) and stripping the items. Someone spent real money on those items, being stripped of the item and losing game time is irritating. If you spent money and didn't get the item, you're not going to be happy and you either aren't going to return to using a 3rd party source or you're going to give an earful to whoever gifted you for losing account time (which in turn would likely keep them from using that source again). For 3rd party sites that these sellers aren't in control of, it also means their perfect reviews are going to quickly sink and ultimately kill their seller account on those sites. SE can't just rip and burn in this case, it will cost them on two fronts if they do that.

[splinter1545]

All that wasted money that won't be used for the creation of new content...

It makes me extra mad to think that, wherever you go, there's going to be thieves and scammers everywhere.

I don't think a lot of the money even goes back to FFXIV anyway.

[Marxam]

I feel like this is a testament to how pricing in the mog station is so egregious that buying off a 3rd party, sketchy site with a questionable discount seems plausible to most people. Mogstation items far too expensive for what it offers, no dye option, character locked, gender locked, etc. and the account-wide items can easily pay for 2-3 months worth of FFXIV subs. The mogstation is also unfriendly to people living outside the US with some of those items costing upwards of $30-$40 CAD. That's insane and you should only see those prices in F2P games. No region price matching is the sole reason why I think the mogstation is just a lazy cash-grab which seems to be a standard in the industry as of late. Sad really. I thought SE was better than this.

[linay]

My interpretation of that was one account bought multiple codes en masse and a large number of accounts redeemed those codes individually (not duplicating the code use however). A staff member would have to clarify though. Even trying to type out my interpretation of it a few different ways, it sounded similarly open to alternative views.

Your interpretation was my initial interpretation as well, but it just seems awkward to add that phrase at the end when it would've been a given considering they're talking about multiple items being sold. Maybe I'm just overthinking it and they just want to emphasize that this issue affects multiple accounts.