RMT? We need to get serious.

[Phenidate]

So, based on a vague statement by another poster I did a search and came up with this:

Hello fellow adventurers!

To clear up your questions, we have checked with the Dev. team and found out the following.

As a countermeasure against RMT activities, the probability of gaining items through gathering will start to decrease after repeated attempts over a long period of time. After a certain number of attempts, items will no longer be obtainable through gathering.

To explain a little more on what goes on behind the scenes, there is an internal counter which measures how often a player has attempted gathering activities. Players will start with a maximum pool of 2,500, which will decrease by 10 each time a gathering attempt is successful and yields an item. Once this number decreases to 1,000, players will find it harder to obtain items. At 0, items can no longer be obtained through gathering.

Stopping gathering for some time will bump this number back up. The recovery rate is currently set at 100 per hour.

If you have ideas and feedback on this topic, please don't hesitate to let us know.

Aside from the unfortunate fact that they revealed one of their anti-RMT measures...

Consider this.
RMT operations are essentially 'game sweatshops'. Go looking for interviews and articles on them, there are plenty of reports on games like WOW and their related illicit cash farmers and the wave of underpaid individuals under their command. When we're talking about RMT operations, we're in the same zone as any other MMO's farmers. That is to say, companies that run dozens and dozens of computers with what ever game(s) they are violating with their creepy business ethics.

Remember, their business strategy relies on zerging a game's economy. They either set up a rotating schedule of accounts to bypass it or just throw mobs of accounts at it to get the volume they need. You haven't stopped them, rather you've merely placed a pothole in the path of their (crude) tank.

So the rate is cut it down to 10 items an hour after 250 items (2500 points, 10 points an item...)?

Assume this is a small company with a dozen farmers.
250 items, 12 farmers = 3000 items per account they use.
10 items an hour, 12 farmers, 24 hours = another 2880 items a day after that point as long as they continue to get 10 items an hour and have 24 people working 12 hour shifts.

For a single player to accomplish what such a group would manage in a month? Assuming they burned out that threshold before the month starts and we let the single most dedicated hardcore player keep it, they'd still die from which ever deprivation of basic needs kicks in.

Right now the 'bazaar only' system seems like a good idea, but because of how spread out and split up the system is, and the fact that Retainers how no tie to their owners (in name); trying to track RMT traffic will become a nightmare. Even the original idea that would make it 'non-game-able' evaporated as soon as it moved to a specific area that enables a look up function and price comparison. Now it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck... just missing the duck costume here. (Seriously, the only thing different between what we have now and an AH is the constant zoning, tediously slow retainers system, and lack of a proper text search)

At least with an AH you would have an couple limited points of access to store and track transactions, all tied to a character name. Hundreds of postings by dozens and dozens of accounts from the same IP range? Did the posts cause a rapid fluctuation in the price of goods? Do the names look like the were mashed in, or follow a repetitious patter? (Hmmm...)

I'm not even going to try and claim removing a limit on gathering or giving us an AH is correct. (The first would actually be wrong anyways, then there would be no check on their zerg farming at all) What needs to happen is a more robust and responsive system for handling RMT; the so far heavy handed solutions in place will be woefully insufficient as this game becomes more and more attractive to the RMTs.

By the way to any Devs who , I graduate in the fall and would be happy to apply for a job in the Special Task Force.

[Seif]

I'm not even going to try and claim removing a limit on gathering or giving us an AH is correct.

Well I claim that giving us an AH is correct.

MW has failed in it's goal to please the masses and to combat RMT.
Most importantly because it has been so unpopular the economy is not healthy.

They tried to backpedal by installing the search counter and now it's only 2 steps away from becoming a real functional AH.
1. Let us see price histories.
2. Make the buying happen from the search counter.
3. Start combating RMT by looking at the earned money/hours played ratios to red-flag possible bots.

[Phenidate]

Well I claim that giving us an AH is correct.

MW has failed in it's goal to please the masses and to combat RMT.
Most importantly because it has been so unpopular the economy is not healthy.

They tried to backpedal by installing the search counter and now it's only 2 steps away from becoming a real functional AH.
1. Let us see price histories.
2. Make the buying happen from the search counter.
3. Start combating RMT by looking at the earned money/hours played ratios to red-flag possible bots.

Bots are also a concern but we still need to be aware many RMT companies employ humans partly because of how cheap it can be but also because it introduces that... well, human element to further mask what they are doing.

The inability to view price history is actually a key point I'd forgotten to bring up alongside price comparing. Kudos good sir.
This particularly dangerous because it indicates to us that there is no record of goods trafficking on the wards. Worse its hard for players to make the call and report suspected RMT buyout/resell or mass item drop, all they need do is buy 20 items and re-flood at their chosen price. There's simply no way to tell if they were (and they just might be now)

Really, the only thing I see saving us from RMT garbage at this very moment is the fact that our community is relatively tiny. Upon the PS3 we'll likely see a mass spike in PS3 and PC users. With a large enough community, more and more RMT companies will creep up to take advantage of us.

[Phenidate]

As far as a Gathering point system goes, do sort of what you are now, but also add marks that are flagged on an account. Hitting the little to no success range more than once or twice flags that account for each repeat exhaustion of the points. This should eventually show that which characters have a history of doing nothing but gather for hours, and then keep gathering 10 items an hour to exhaustion of their points.

You should quickly get a list of users with many many many marks, caught by their own zerg tactic. These are your suspects for RMT. Do what needs be done

[viion]

What about the RMT who do leves who go in pts of 8 to just lv fast then sell the account? no gil or items involved, how do u stop that when the surplus has been removed. (and was useless to begin with)

[Phenidate]

What about the RMT who do leves who go in pts of 8 to just lv fast then sell the account? no gil or items involved, how do u stop that when the surplus has been removed. (and was useless to begin with)

Its not like they are gonna be sneaky running a herd of bots or slave accounts around camps and leve counters. Report them and get others to report them. Post it on that Worlds own board so other players know to scorn them and hopefully call them out too if they see them.

[viion]

Its not like they are gonna be sneaky running a herd of bots or slave accounts around camps and leve counters. Report them and get others to report them. Post it on that Worlds own board so other players know to scorn them and hopefully call them out too if they see them.

Tried and failed.

There still there.

SE no care.

[Rinsui]

Yes, SE sure seems to take its time sometimes.
I've reported the same ones a couple of times now, but they are still there.
7 LV23 Lalafel Conjurers, led by one high-level player.

[Wynn]

My question to both Viion and Rinsui is, did you report it to the correct people (The STF) or did you submit a ticket for a GM? One way I've seen get results. The other way just gets you told to report it in the correct manner.

[Crica]

Yes, SE sure seems to take its time sometimes.
I've reported the same ones a couple of times now, but they are still there.
7 LV23 Lalafel Conjurers, led by one high-level player.

Multiboxxing does not automatically mean they are RMT.

If they do not get banned in a reasonable amount of time after you report them, it is because SE could not prove they are RMT.