Does this constitute cheating or is it against the TOS?

[Shneibel]

@OP: you can report, but doubt anything will happen to that person or that "Union" crap

[Sadana]

Even on my back-water server, mb price fixing and crashing is very common practice. You see people tracking others and crashing their markets on purpose to drive them out. The mistake here that the Union is making is sending threatening tells. That's harassment and is reportable. The other stuff, as long as no tells are sent, SE won't lift a finger.

eta: Over on the DoH sub-forum, people have begged for the crafters' names to be removed from items on the mb. SE has said no. Phew! Took me a bit to find it; the post was actually in Gen. Discussion:
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...42#post2197042
And having seen someone chased on the mb, I am VERY disappointed by this response. :/

[Kayo]

Dont sound too bad to me. In fact this is an interesting idea, if not good. Undercutters suck! Theyre the Walmart of MMO's! I always thought there should be some regulation on the AH, like a minimum value for items. Having a free market is great in RL because there is a certain value on time and a necessary minimum living income over time spent on resources and manufacturing. Not so in MMO's where we are all just playing a game and while there is an interest in making profits, there is also interest in just getting rid of it for more than vendor change (undercutters). I do this myself to a degree, buying from the next guy up from the jerk who obviously put the item up for 5g less than the next guy.

Of course it can also be a double edged sword where this "cartel" can monopolize the market and charge whatever they want.

As for the tell, im not sure if its harassment or recruiting. I like how theyre seemingly fighting undercutters in the form of a union but it can also be interpreted as "join us and we'll protect you from ourselves."

[Moqi]

What is wrong with these people. IT'S FAKE MONEY.

Are they gonna set your personal room on fire if you don't comply? lmao. If they keep bothering you report them for harassment.

[Sadana]

What is wrong with these people. IT'S FAKE MONEY.

Are they gonna set your personal room on fire if you don't comply? lmao. If they keep bothering you report them for harassment.

Worse, they'll waste your time.

[Meshico]

Blacklist, report, and move on. Keep doing what your doing have fun and enjoy the game.

If making gil is your only enjoyment, then have fun killing their market since they will be shooting themselves in the foot by killing "your" market.

[Moqi]

Worse, they'll waste your time.

Backlist and report! You don't wanna hang with those silly rabbits anyway.

[Riviere]

Report them and also, mess with their Union by undercutting them. If all of them decide to undercut you, they're going to have a lot of people losing gil, just make sure to undercut them by 1g.

[Kaethra]

Looks like they are trying a veiled attempt at PR: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...ters-out-there

[Ehayte]

"Hey, 'dere. Dat's an awfully nice Leatherworker's Bench ya got there. It'd be a shame if something, er, 'unexpected-like' were to happen teh it - if ya catch my drift."

I have 1.3 million gil on Adamantoise, I am willing to use all of it to self-fund a quest in which the intrepid adventurer must dismantle the evil cartel posing as a Union. ONLY TO FIND OUT I'M THE LEADER OF IT!!! OH MEH GERDD!!!

Historically, the temptation to cheat collusion is extremely high - probably the only thing you need to do to topple one of these things would be to plant the idea in 5-6 of their member's heads that they could make more money by cheating the collusion.