Why Was the Official Statement Ignored?

[Bibimbap]

Where is the counterfeit currency in a level 50 player with 300k+ from quests, or a crafter with 300k+ from leves? Where is the counterfeit in the server-firsts who collected this legitimate currency from everyone else?

[TrystWildkey]

A couple of things I'd like to say.

No matter how much you would like to compare this to any number of real world scenarios, your comparisons are invalid because this is not real life.

Honest question to anyone who has had their gil removed: Were you advised that the investigation was complete on your account, or just advised that your suspension was lifted?

Another honest question: Any crafters, who had their gil removed: Did you do any direct trades with people who bought high priced items from you? If so, do you know of anyone that was permanently banned who purchased these items from you?

Again, these are honest questions. I'm not trolling, jumping to conclusions or laying a trap. This is a complex issue and we all have very incomplete information upon which to base our conclusions.

Also, I think it would be really productive if we could all stop jumping to conclusions and assigning blame. This kind of situation, if we truly want to understand it (and not just to argue/rage/belittle) requires us to provide as much information as each of us can, and then a careful review of what we know.

I know this is exceedingly painful for those who were affected, but I would like to ask you to take a step back for a moment and share what you know.

For those who were not affected, I know our first instinct, after seeing so many botters and rmt activities, is to immediately assume guilt. I'm also hoping that you can step back from that finger-snap reaction and look at things more logically.

tl;dr let's discuss this and see if we can put together a big picture of what has occurred and may still be occurring instead of raging at everyone.

[snugBubz]

-snip-

As much of your post makes sense, your second sentence does not ring a complete truth.

The world inside the game is not real = true.
The player playing the game who has subbed money and is investing time is real, on the other hand. So comparisons to real life business practices are indeed valid. Though, many comparisons are far fetched. Yes, FFXIV is a game, but it is still a business and we are its customers. To strip away a player's time (a characters gil) is outrageous without any kind of statement on the matter other than they were in suspicion of having RMTed gil (which is highly unlikely the amount SE stripped from a player.) I'll reiterate: It's SE saying, "We don't care about our customers' time."

Also, the longer SE waits to make a clearer statement about the wrong-doing to legitimate players, the worse their standing with them is going to get.

[Rizon]

While I completely agree with Perma-Banning anyone who has direct dealing with RMTs I must take issue with penalizing those who inadvertently received Gil in what would otherwise be a legal transaction. These players have absolutely no control over where this Gil comes from. Please remember all Market Board sales are blind transactions conducted through an intermediary (retainers). The seller has no control over it therefore they cannot screen the buyers. Legitimate players should not be punished for a faulty game mechanic. I have not been caught up in this but as a level 50 crafter in all disciplines I can understand the outrage from my contemporaries who have been.

[MStowastiqVahlshdeh]

--snip--
Gil is almost useless at end level to get the best equipment (which is currently the endgame goal). As such, these players were stacking gils in prevision of the future with absolutely no idea of what could be coming or when.

In the end, what was lost is simply the idea of the possession of a fortune, because said fortune was worthless without any way to spend it. Considering we can at best hope major update 2.1 of the game will bring something to spend gils on and we don't know when it will get released, players still have quite a bit of time to restock their fortune to a crazy amount, which is still possible players still need/want to buy stuff from the markets.
[/I]--snip--

Just pointing out that SE stated more than once : housing will be very expensive, housing is going to be added. Some players were stocking up on gil with expectations of buying housing. So there is a reason to want to have a lot of gil and something to logically plan to buy that is confirmed. As for official statements being ignored, I agree and I think they should bring more attention to their STF reports because some players are unaware of them.

[Pinworms]

I agree with the OP. SE doesn't need to explain themselves because they already did. 568 accounts out of hundreds of thousands of accounts were suspended. To me they did an excellent job because of these accounts they seized an exouberant amount of Gil. Now of these accounts suspended and or banned only a small handful were people that come to this forum and QQ...which tells me SE hit the nail on the head. To the ones QQing get over it already, SE did what the community asked them to do and are continuing the battle of RMT. You guys mad Gil was taken are doing nothing but stirring the pot and being hippocrits by demanding SE to do something then whine when they do.

Oh and you don't make 300k Gil from leveling 1-50 unless I'm about to make about 150k in less than a level an a half... I did fates, quests, msq to level 49. I only have 350k and about 200k came from the AH. Your QQ about being left 100k doesn't add up either IMO.

With housing on the horizon you can bet people are going to try to buy rtm Gil. Esp if SE makes the cost to high. They can't make the correct price for the housing if there is so much rtm inflating to economy.

[snugBubz]

OP says that the players who were suspended and had the majority of their gil taken away are overreacting because they were left with their tools. Just make your fortune again guys! Stop overreacting. Gil doesn't even matter at end game!

Except that it does; repairs, much? Though, definitely repair bills have gone down, previously repairs took a ridiculous amount of gil, to which the player received no refund (to which I'm not saying they should.)

But, the main argument: what about the players' time? Does time mean nothing? Crafting, gathering, playing the game all equal time, non-refundable. Sure, I guess if you're immortal, who cares? Just amass your fortune again! But for players who have a definite life span, time is a very important thing. And taking away players' gil, ie. time, with no recompense except that some of their gil was RMT is wrong. SE's response is basically this, "We don't care about our customers' time." And these players should be upset.

[JonnyBigBoss]

It's clear that those whining about being banned did in-fact purchase gil but don't want to admit to it.

[Sixmp]

Dear people who got effected. You are not special snowflakes. You like the rest of us clicked Accept to the TOS. As most of you know from the other threads where the relevant part was posted more than once. You have no rights. You have nothing to complain about. You either accept it or you don't.

You Accepted it but now it has effected you, you now want to change your minds about it.
It doesn't matter how many threads you open, the TOS will not change. I know you spent time making said gil but that was called having fun playing a game you liked not paid work.

While i understand how it must be upsetting to a degree to lose a large quantity of pretend money and i do sympathize to a degree but that is all you will get.

Now i am not saying don't try and speak to SE, doing it here will not help you. You need to contact someone else.

[LloydShade]

OP says that the players who were suspended and had the majority of their gil taken away are overreacting because they were left with their tools. Just make your fortune again guys! Stop overreacting. Gil doesn't even matter at end game!

[...]SE's response is basically this, "We don't care about our customers' time." And these players should be upset.

Please do not confusion frustration and overreaction. Suspended players have all rights to be angered. Yet, the angered players are part of a very slim minority and the overwhelming majority of the players has been left intact even though SquareEnix missed people directly involved in RMT activities because of it. Hence the overreaction. That means SquareEnix managed to care enough in their customers to make sure most of them would be fine. Whatever they would have done, collateral damage was inevitable. Does SquareEnix deserve so much negativity because of a really restricted amount of individuals?

EDIT:

It wasn't just this forum for one, and every person that got their account back reported having their Gil divided by 100. That's pretty consistent. Also, heaven forbid SE actually put some effort into a real investigation when it's so much easier to just push a button and let some program do it, even though that would screw some players over. Who cares about them, though, right? I mean, they're just a minority, it's not like it will ever happen to you, right?

-SE is also a company that appears to not care how long it takes to do anything about something because bots reported teleport hacking 2 weeks to a month ago are still at it.

Regardless of how many angry players claim to have lost 99% of their gils, it still comes from an unreliable source and thus, can't be taken for granted. Otherwise, your argument becomes inconsistent. You are changing the subject and making personal attack against me.