The account suspensions and gil reset leave a black mark on this game.

[Susanoh]

By many accounts here and on other forums, the account suspensions and gil resets seem to be a sweeping automated process that have hit a large portion of regular players who made their gil through legitimate methods. If that’s true (and from the number of testimonials I’ve seen, it seems likely) that is extremely unfair to those affected and it sets a horrible precedent for the policies of this game going forward.

The main problem I have with this is that playing the game legitimately could result in punishment against innocent players because it’s an easy fix for a problem brought on by outside sources. It causes the mindset that you can play well, but not too well, because if you do, you’re likely to get caught in the net. Once you do get caught in that net, from what others are saying, no one can seem to help you. Anyone you call says to go contact another form of support, so trying to contact any of them is a dead end (if anyone actually has gotten help, correct me if I’m wrong). Players shouldn’t be punished for problems caused by others who find an exploitable method of generating gil. I think that most would agree if they were affected, although only a small minority was targeted by the process.

This brings me to my next point, that there seems to be very little unity among a large portion of the player base. If SE had targeted the top 40% or so of gil holders to suspend and reduce their wealth by a set amount (even if it were only a small amount), there would be hoards of people flooding the forums claiming it to be unfair, and it would cause quite a stir. The very small minority they targeted won’t be able to make the same amount of noise, but the action is no different than it would have been no matter how many had been hit, and with the precedent set by it, there’s no telling whether or not you could be targeted by it the next time the net gets thrown out. Still, there seem to be many who support SE’s decision, and I’ve seen a lot of arguments come up in their favor, but so far none seem to convincing as far as showing that this is actually a good thing, IMO.

Some have said things like “crafters knew they were selling to gil buyers, they’re not innocent in this” or “crafters shouldn’t price items out of the reach of normal players, it creates the problem of players buying gil.” I’m sure anyone who’s ever tried to play the market cringes when they see this one, as there’s really not much that anyone selling items can do about this. The prices are set by supply and demand. If a crafter is selling an item for a high price, there’s a good chance it’s because there’s little competition to sell that item, or because the materials to make the item are rare or highly priced, which in turn causes the item itself to be rare (this is the case with many two star crafting items). Supply is low by design, everyone was not meant to own a full Vanya set in the first month. Setting prices high on an expensive to make, rare and highly demanded item is and should be expected in an unregulated market.

I’ve also seen people say “the money they had was illegitimate and needed to be removed.” But judging by the methods that seemed to be used, that doesn’t seem to be the case. Many of those affected claim to have sold hundreds of items to players since release, and I think that’s believable since that’s exactly what someone who dedicates much of their game time to earning gil would be doing. There’s no way that all of the gil they had was illegitimate, and with that said it’s also likely that anyone who’s used the markets to sell to other players hold illegitimate gil as well. Basically, it seems SE did not take any serious measures in locating false gil. They just acknowledged that there was false gil in existence and decided to target the minority of the player base who held much of the gil and reset them. That is a drastic, hostile and innaccurate way of handling the situation.

Lastly, for those saying that we cried for SE to do something so they did, that doesn’t necessarily justify any action that could be taken. Lobbing grenades at the problem and taking out players is not what I’d call a strong solution to the problem. I’d actually argue that it creates more problems than it solves. Players already have to live with the knowledge RMT hack accounts, causing players to be unable to log in until they manage to get their account back, and when they do there’s a good chance their gil will be wiped. I’d really rather we didn’t have to worry about the exact same thing happening from the developers, who have full access to our accounts and need no hacking in order to achieve the same thing.

[Seig345]

It seems to me like it was either cut corners to reduce the gil AND minimize players' suspension time, or take the time on each individual suspect account, remove the precise amount of gil, and having it take 3 times as long. One way, people complain about the gil taken, if they'd done it the other way, people would complain that in the time it took them to remove the precise amount of gil, they could have made 3x that much back or something along those lines.

People can debate which would be better/worse all day long, but I wish someone who has a problem with how SE handled the aftermath (or even how well they prepared for it, which is what I'm more miffed about) would offer a solid suggestion to how it could have been done better without simply leaving the gil in the game, or having suspended accounts take a month or more to be unsuspended again.

[Overon]

It was a very small Majority of players who were effected by the Policing of RMT raid SE did .

No matter what , people would rather have SE turn a blind eye and have them sit on their hands and do nothing .

I do not think they are doing enough ...........personally !

[HumsterMKX]

Actually, it is SE lack of response that is the problem. They did say they will be more direct and active with communications with the community.

Not forgetting the tons of bot and RMT still going on. And this is 2.0. I hate to say this but, I sticked with them in 1.0. 2.0 is great but they are slowly returning to their usual self of giving the slient treatment.

[TrystWildkey]

What would be the reaction if, within the next few weeks the following happens:

Players that had a majority of their gil stripped received a portion of it back.
SE sends them an email that their full investigation is now complete and gil that was not from an RMT/exploit source has been returned.

I think a good point was brought up here. SE could have taken the weeks they would need to determine an exact amount of gil to be removed, or they could take a big chunk and get everyone back up and running.

What if they are still investigating? What if, when they conclude their investigation, either items or gil are returned to the players found NOT to have participated in botting/RMT/exploits?

[Susanoh]

People can debate which would be better/worse all day long, but I wish someone who has a problem with how SE handled the aftermath (or even how well they prepared for it, which is what I'm more miffed about) would offer a solid suggestion to how it could have been done better without simply leaving the gil in the game, or having suspended accounts take a month or more to be unsuspended again.

Personally? I think anything would be better than issuing sweeping suspensions that prevent playing customers from accessing the game and removing their assets with no legitimate source of support. I can't think of much worse (that would be even somewhat reasonable). If an investigation could be done before action was taken, that would be fine. If the gil had to be removed in order to freeze the RMT mules, then do so and issue a statement that the situation will be taken care of instead of leaving the players in the dark. Currently though, with no decent communication and no hope for players to solve the issue, it's just a bad situation any way you look at it. If SE is unable to deal with RMT without catching players in their nets and having no one to turn to for the players who were wrongly punished, then from a customer standpoint, they should consider fixing their own issues internally before taking action without the means to do so effectively.

What would be the reaction if, within the next few weeks the following happens:

Players that had a majority of their gil stripped received a portion of it back.
SE sends them an email that their full investigation is now complete and gil that was not from an RMT/exploit source has been returned.

I think a good point was brought up here. SE could have taken the weeks they would need to determine an exact amount of gil to be removed, or they could take a big chunk and get everyone back up and running.

What if they are still investigating? What if, when they conclude their investigation, either items or gil are returned to the players found NOT to have participated in botting/RMT/exploits?

I can't speak for those who were caught up in this mess, but my opinion of SE would be much higher if a thorough investigation were conducted and further action was taken from there. It wouldn't erase how badly I feel it's been handled up to this point, but it would still be far better than nothing IMO.

[OldGeezer]

...Some have said things like “crafters knew they were selling to gil buyers, they’re not innocent in this” or “crafters shouldn’t price items out of the reach of normal players...

They could ask themselves is this a "reasonable price" for the item I made. Usually, it's "no". There is no reason to sell level 50+ gear pieces on a brand new server for over 1 nillilon within the first month. It's a case of "Let the seller beware". Were most cratfers complicit or just blinded by greed to realize things weren't on the up-and-up? Whose fault is that? Everyone's. The gill sellers/buyers, the crafters, and SE. Unfortunately, SE cuts out the problem like you do a cancer; cut out the cancer and the healthy tissue around it i.e. the crafters who made 50 at the start of the game. It's unfair but it removes the articial inflation caused by the gill buyers and allows the economy to grow under more normal circumstances.

[Eztam]

Theres nothing to say the bans weren't legitimate, people will scream innocent even when caught red handed. Truth is, we dont know what they are doing or why, nor should we. Cant expect them to hand out the details of their investigations until they are complete. That that would be like the police announcing to the public who their main suspects are in a racketeering case is and what they are watching for. Jumping to conclusions over hearsay and internet screaming just breeds ignorance.

[Reiterpallasch]

I dunno, I'd say the mark on the game is more of a brown than anything...

[Susanoh]

They could ask themselves is this a "reasonable price" for the item I made. Usually, it's "no". There is no reason to sell level 50+ gear pieces on a brand new server for over 1 nillilon within the first month. It's a case of "Let the seller beware". Were most cratfers complicit or just blinded by greed to realize things weren't on the up-and-up? Whose fault is that? Everyone's. The gill sellers/buyers, the crafters, and SE. Unfortunately, SE cuts out the problem like you do a cancer; cut out the cancer and the healthy tissue around it i.e. the crafters who made 50 at the start of the game. It's unfair but it removes the articial inflation caused by the gill buyers and allows the economy to grow under more normal circumstances.

In a free market, a "reasonable price" is whatever price people are willing to pay. If a crafter prices an item too high, then no one will buy it, and the crafter is forced to lower the price. If people buy it up immediately and there seems to be a lot of demand, they might price it higher next time. With that said, there is every reason to price a 50+ piece of gear at over one million gil. Would you blame Ferrari if some envious middle class man robs a bank in order to buy one of their cars? "Well, Ferrari should have priced their cars the same as a Corolla so that everyone could afford one, they're just as much at fault as the bank robber." Please.