Quote Originally Posted by IndigoDarkwolf View Post
I understand what you're trying to say about how an MMO's design can contribute to or discourage RMTs. It's hardly fair to criticize FFXI for having support reps on hand to identify RMTs, though, since WoW most definitely has the same kind of people. So does EVE Online, Lineage II, and basically any MMO where the developers actually care at all.
Indeed, but the most RMT ever interacted with you in WoW was when they would sent you tells with the url to their website or if they started spamming adds in trade chat. And as I said, everyone would just report them for spam and move on.

I used to get PK'd by gangs of RMT in the days of Lineage II, because the moment you weren't convenient to have around they would log on in droves and greatly outnumber you (fighting off Wolves1-12, Lions1-12 and so on). FFXI had instances of MPKing from RMT (much like players MPKd RMT as well). I already mentioned NM camps and crafting supplies.

As I said earlier, XI's developers (this was back under Tanaka) refused to see that their "difficulty" (read: tediousness and timesinks gallore) made it easier for RMT to thrive between time available, manpower, and the community's pressure on the average player that didn't want to spend ten hours farming beehive chips to buy the overpriced gear he was expected to have for exp parties. Rather than say "well, our system is fucked up and is encouraging and letting RMT thrive. Maybe we should change some stuff so that RMT becomes trivial and looses their stranglehold on the game", they said "let's pay someone just to monitor game transactions and change nothing!". Even now I get annoyed at thinking about it because they glossed over the problem entirely. And as I said, I'm not a fan of witch hunts.