Reality of RMT

[Telsyr]

While I agree RMT is a disease it currently isn't the biggest problem thats causing the in-game economy to suffer. Realistically, Free Market economies dont work in video games as NPCS and Players do not need to make a profit to get by, meaning no inflation so players can continue walmarting items well below NPC asking prices. The fact we can get all the items we need for a specific need also destroys the idea of Supply and Demand.

Right now the world of FF14 is entirely a resource based economy, You want something, you can go get it free of charge, unfortunely with gil being used a gate for certain upcoming features this creates pseudo-capaitism ideals on an economy that has no need for currency. Both economy types are extremely flawed in virtual settings however, Free Market and Capitalism invite more RMT transactions, while resource based economies invite more greifers.

[Pr0c3ss0r]

Also give the Lesbians some credit of existence would ya.

ya, i agree there =D ***let pretend that don't exist =D (just to do my sheeeeeeeeeeeep) hehe

Ok going off of what I said at the start, "NO TIEM TO FERM GIL CUZ BUSY" Is a lousy excuse, and especially does NOT work in a PvE centric game like FFXIV. You don't have time to farm gil in this game? Where is the rush? Maybe if there was a strong focus on PvP you could try to argue with me.

Well, Coil is the only reason right now, when PvP get out, it be even worse i would assume. I mean if you really think about it, if you just joined the game, you already 2 month behind from myth farming, and you cannot catch it up, your only option is GIL "2 Star item" synth. All the concept of this cockblock is real BAD if you ask me, but what can i do about it.

You can't hide the fact that majority of player will examine player and say: "OMG, your gear sux, sorry". Unless that player have his TIME MACHINE and able to go back 2 month ago and do his myth farming. And keep in mind this will go just from worse to worse, unless SE add new content that out date the Allagan/Myth gear, and lulz, you think people will love the concept of this?

Allagan = t1 to t4 = 8 piece of gear for 8 player (so in average 1 piece / week ) (a bit more if you also clear T5)
Myth = 300/week you need (495+825+495+375+825+495+375+275+375+375+900 for relic+1) = Total 5,910 Myth dived by 300 = 19.7 week

And that is for only 1 job, so in best scenario, if you get 1 allagan piece / week, you might finish the whole set in 9 week ***that only if you are ubber lucky.

The only way you can avoid that down time, is to buy the 2 star synth that is close *but not always better*, unless you real patient and love to be rejected from FC/LS. (Or run a time machine if that an option for you :P)

Like Ksenia said, is the game concept/mechanic that feed the RMT bizz. We in 2013, people love performance, they only believe in that, i see many player shout for 1 hours long just to do a 15 min WP run so it meet they EGO. You would say, don't buy GIL from RMT, just farm it!!! Gl with everything at 10~30 gil each because RMT are botting everything in the game =D GL synth ring that need 18 ORE at 25k each (450k) and Disconect in middle of the synth, and all that for a 40k profit... I mean is by far not that simple.

[Shaone]

And that is for only 1 job, so in best scenario, if you get 1 allagan piece / week, you might finish the whole set in 9 week ***that only if you are ubber lucky.

The only way you can avoid that down time, is to buy the 2 star synth that is close *but not always better*, unless you real patient and love to be rejected from FC/LS. (Or run a time machine if that an option for you :P)

2 star hq'd/max materiaed crafted items don't even come close to ilvl90 gear, and are only a minor improvement on darklight, which isn't affected by tome cap anyway.

[HamHam]

One thing people buy gil for is to buy fights. Such as Titan. I've seen people with no craft leveled, they are new to the game, and yet have more gil than a veteran has with all crafts leveled and buying primal fights.

SE should make it against the rules for anyone to sells fights. All gil transaction should be made in the market provided by the game. There has to be market regulation, just like in the real world, even if people don't want it. RMT have made this game very difficult for those that want to participate in the market. The, you'll see a drop in gil buying, though it won't be enough to stop it, at least it will diminish part of it.

[Selkie]

I don't disagree. That was a problem. And generally is in games that legitimize RMT. My point wasn't about how awesome the system was but rather it was an example of the OP's point. Tera made rmting possible from their own cash shop and as such I never had to deal with aggressive shouts, annoying whispers, or account hackers and code exploiters.

It's not an endorsement of the method, it's an observation of the problem.

Oh! Sorry if I misinterpreted.

Although in TERA's defense, it didn't really have a problem with RMT spam even in the beginning before they started systems like chronoscrolls and the like. I think that is largely due to the character restrictions, like being unable to send whispers until you reached a certain level (which I believe was in place or maybe I'm mistaken), etc, and mutes for too many messages sent in trade chat (before global chat existed). As well, it was a much, much smaller game compared to FFXIV so the effort required to level a character and spam others wasn't wholly profitable. Additionally, we had GMs continuously present who would respond to players in trouble who asked for assistance in chat. RMT doesn't stand a chance when you can just insta-ban someone.

If we had a few more cautionary restrictions in place it could help greatly as long as RMT can't trick the server into thinking they're a higher level. The whole create character > spam entire server > delete > repeat cycle, is tiresome.

[Ryios]

Stopping RMT is actually easy, it just hasn't happened yet.
Games like this need a Solid Identification System. A way of tieing their users to a face, location, country of origin, etc. The problem is the anonymity of the internet.
If game companies like SE could tie a single person to their game absolutely, it would be a 1 time banned. You get banned, and no matter how many accounts you make, you are banned, you cannot play the game again, ever, PERIOD.
But to do this, there would need to be some sort of biometric based login system, which just hasn't happened yet, and might not for a long time.

Kind of sad that the very thing that would allow crack downs on RMT, is the same thing people lobby against because they would lose their anonmity on the internet, their abilitiy to download illegal stuff, etc etc.

Imagine if everyone on the internet had a solid identity, with no anonymous nature, and everyone was as accountable for their online actions as they are their Real World actions.... That would change everything, and some day it will happen. Such a system would give game publishers a way of connecting a player with a solid identity and they could create their ban system in such a way that it doesn't ban your account, it bans your Real World Identity (maybe a biometric linked ID Card and they ban that ID).

In the not to distant future we are likely to end up with some sort of identification system on the internet. Game publishers will be required to register their games by category, rating etc etc. And if congress wants to pass a law that says no kid under 13 can play an MA game, then no kid under 13 will be able to run an MA game. And if someone gets convicted of a crime they did in a video game they might lose all their rights to play all games (by the government) and they revoke their access without game companies having any input on the matter.

Seems radical, but in a future purely based on technology, this is the logical outcome. Eventually the two realities will merge.

[Pr0c3ss0r]

Stopping RMT is actually easy, it just hasn't happened yet.
Games like this need a Solid Identification System. A way of tieing their users to a face, location, country of origin, etc. The problem is the anonymity of the internet.
If game companies like SE could tie a single person to their game absolutely, it would be a 1 time banned. You get banned, and no matter how many accounts you make, you are banned, you cannot play the game again, ever, PERIOD.
But to do this, there would need to be some sort of biometric based login system, which just hasn't happened yet, and might not for a long time.

Kind of sad that the very thing that would allow crack downs on RMT, is the same thing people lobby against because they would lose their anonmity on the internet, their abilitiy to download illegal stuff, etc etc.

Imagine if everyone on the internet had a solid identity, with no anonymous nature, and everyone was as accountable for their online actions as they are their Real World actions.... That would change everything, and some day it will happen. Such a system would give game publishers a way of connecting a player with a solid identity and they could create their ban system in such a way that it doesn't ban your account, it bans your Real World Identity (maybe a biometric linked ID Card and they ban that ID).

In the not to distant future we are likely to end up with some sort of identification system on the internet. Game publishers will be required to register their games by category, rating etc etc. And if congress wants to pass a law that says no kid under 13 can play an MA game, then no kid under 13 will be able to run an MA game. And if someone gets convicted of a crime they did in a video game they might lose all their rights to play all games (by the government) and they revoke their access without game companies having any input on the matter.

Seems radical, but in a future purely based on technology, this is the logical outcome. Eventually the two realities will merge.

Wow and just wow, how much NSA paid you for this propaganda? When it come to that, ill do same as i did with facebook, ill stop use the service.

[Zumi]

This has been done in other games but the best way to get rid of rmt is to sell an item on the store that is useable in game for game time. For $12.95 someone is able to buy a in game item that when used by a player adds 1 month to their account and is sellable for in game currency.

[Bloodwillow]

I like what EverQuest did.

Get some tokens for being a subber, but a bag of 13k-16k plat from a vendor.

There is next to zero RMT in EQ since then. No point ... can get plat so easy.

Even in EQ2 there is next to none. Buy a Krono, sell it on the market .. BINGO plat.

Need something like either here.

[tymora]

I still liked that game that moved the UI around a little in a patch and caught all the unwary botters. Was it Tera?