Are Square Enix manipulating the in-game economy?

[Angelhearth]

In Europe and NA we've been plagued with bots, both gathering and on the market board, for quite some time. GM's have no power to do anything, only the special team, situated in Japan, of 4 persons, are allowed to do anything about them (the last time I heard). This helps reduce the prices to a point many gatherers and crafters don't bother doing anything anymore. Good for the buyers, not so good for the sellers.

Then came patch 5.4, and the change to the drops for retainers. I have 45 of them, spread over 5 characters, most lvl 80, in Neo-Ishgadrian or similar. They bring back stuff that destroys the market even furter. At a minimum there should be a limiting factor connected to the supply on the market board on the drops. Some items that used to sell for tens of thousands I now de-synthesize, or sell to vendor, they just aren't worth selling anymore, and even with 45 retainers I don't have room.

Both of these decreases prices to a ridiculously low level, where players that once used to gather and make stuff now have stopped doing that, some even quit the game all together. Is this good for the game? Everything worked fine, before the bots and patch 5.4. You sold for a price someone was willing to pay, no more, no less (mostly). That's market economy, and it works great.

So, dear Square Enix, give the GM's the right to ban players who uses bots, and take into consideration the drops from the retainers and what's already available on the market board, please.

[Ammokkx]

I clicked on this thread expecting to read some grand conspiracy theory but all I got out of it was more complaining about the current state of the marketboard.

Really, I would've preferred the conspiracy theory that the bots are all SE's doing and that they're rigging prices for some nefarious scheme. That'd make for an entertaining read, at least.

[Fawkes]

Yeah, they do that all the time. It's their job to manipulate the market. It doesn't make any sense to have the same thing be rare and expensive forever.

[KalinOrthos]

I clicked on this thread expecting to read some grand conspiracy theory but all I got out of it was more complaining about the current state of the marketboard.

Really, I would've preferred the conspiracy theory that the bots are all SE's doing and that they're rigging prices for some nefarious scheme. That'd make for an entertaining read, at least.

All I saw was

the bots are all SE's doing and that they're rigging prices for some nefarious scheme

I KNEW IT

[Silverhair]

I don't know if its SE's doing, but for certain they do not care much about it. I have seen the same bot doing the same thing for the last 10 months, reported it several times, and nothing happened. To me it makes sense to manipulate the market by changing the drop rate of a given set of items, in exchange we also get new items which will probably be expensive, and this repeats again and again. However Bots everywhere are just destroying an aspect of the game that many people used to enjoy more before all of this. To make it even worse, they do not say anything about this matter...

[Ariel_Valmont]

Then came patch 5.4, and the change to the drops for retainers. I have 45 of them, spread over 5 characters.

Seems like you’re trying to manipulate the in game economy and are just upset someone is doing it better, or haven’t come to the realization that having 45 retainers to saturate the market is part of the problem you’re complaining about.

[Equitable_Remedy]

All money is fake. Discuss.

[Rosenstrauch]

I've got a question about retainers! If I pay money for extra retainers, does every character I make get them? Or do I have to pay for every character's retainers separately?

To rephrase: If I wanted to have three characters, with three retainers each, would I be paying for one retainer or three?

[Zied]

The bots are plaguing the MB. No they are not from SE lol, but crafted gear is being undercut by a few gil every minute. SE needs to do something

[Driavna]

I've got a question about retainers! If I pay money for extra retainers, does every character I make get them? Or do I have to pay for every character's retainers separately?

To rephrase: If I wanted to have three characters, with three retainers each, would I be paying for one retainer or three?

Extra retainers are for all characters in your account.