Real Money to Get In-Game Currency: Eternal Bond Edition

[Riepah]

White Knights White Knights White Knights White Knights White Knights White Knights. All I could hear from you.

That's a damn lot more than I heard. You must have amazing ears to hear text on a forum.

[Valarian]

I am all for this, and I'll tell you why. 1) In order to get wristlets, you have to pay real money. RMTs, as we know them, will not part with real money. Their goal is the opposite. 2) This gives people who do not want to spend real money a way to have the very best weddings though only in game means. 3) RMTs are targeted because they are not consumers. They generate huge quantities of goods and currency without needing any, and it devalues the efforts of real players who can not compete with automated robots or underpaid china men. When players sell wristlets, money just moves from one consumer to the next who, in turn, plans to buy something from another player.

[Fiaryn]

I am all for this, and I'll tell you why. 1) In order to get wristlets, you have to pay real money. RMTs, as we know them, will not part with real money. Their goal is the opposite. 2) This gives people who do not want to spend real money a way to have the very best weddings though only in game means. 3) RMTs are targeted because they are not consumers. They generate huge quantities of goods and currency without needing any, and it devalues the efforts of real players who can not compete with automated robots or underpaid china men. When players sell wristlets, money just moves from one consumer to the next who, in turn, plans to buy something from another player.

Precisely this. Square has no real vested interest in stopping this kind of trade. It does not actually impact the in game economy in any meaningful way, nor does it have the implicit threats of account theft and credit card information being released into the wild.

[Katsaria]

I posted this in another thread but i'll recite it here since I believe it has more relevance.

I re-opened a ticket I had in the past regarding a previous violation I had received for an issue similar to this. I had a friend who had an extra dalamud minion and I purchased it with Gil. Hence small violation.

So I spoke with them today since this new stance (wedding bands/dye) seems to be completely the opposite of what the TOS suggests. Apparently, the Optional Cash shop is an exception to the TOS rules and it is not considered a violation to sell the cash shop items for in game currency. Isn't that a lovely double standard?

I'm fine with receiving the small punishment I got in the past, but why create rules and then pick and choose how to enforce them? Pretty messed up if you ask me.

Basically, any person purchasing those bands did the exact same thing I got cited for but this "exception" makes it not punishable.

[HeroSamson]

So literally half the party finder on Balmung is littered with people buying the Eternal Bonding bracelets for real money and selling them for 2.5-3 mil gil.

Isn't this against the ToS? Using real money to gain in-game currency?

um gil is not real money and bracelets are purchased by cash shop with is legal and on their terms.

You angry because you ain't making gil or something?

I ain't buying bracelets on cash shop and selling them but if people making gil on that good for them doesn't really bug me its not limiting me of my game experience.

[Bluevann]

Not everything a GM says is to be taken as a dogma. I've had one telling me it wasn't a violation of the ToS to kick a player for being offline while they weren't offline.

[RinKaen]

No one is buying my bracelets ;_;

[Alatarian]

I have a few questions regarding all this and am hoping the discussion remains constructive enough to allow for some answers. First I will state I am not for or against the cash shop. I just take things as SE rolls them out and enjoy what I can when I can.

But here are my questions which I will present in the form of a scenario:

Let us take the current situation of selling the eternal bands for gil.

A potential buyer will need "gil" to make that purchase from another player. One problem I have seen hinted at in the various topics is that this will encourage RMT. People will use RMT to get that gil to buy the band. Thus increasing demand for gil as it is purchased and used for this one thing. But RMT is out to make a profit in real money. As the sellers of bands tests the markets to see what the price in gil for their 20 bucks is would not this cause a direct negative impact on RMT? Because they will have to charge much less for gil than the actual cost of the band is in real money in order to get people to not go to the Item Shop to buy the band directly from SE? Would this not devalue then the thing they are trying to make a profit from?

Which leads to another question, what is the price of the band going to have to be or would need to be in order to totally drown out the ability of gil sellers to be able to sell gil for profit?

Which leads to my next and probably most serious question, what is to stop gil sellers from controlling both markets? Buying up bands and selling gil to make up the cost but still be able to eek out a profit from it?

Which leads to my next question, which is the path of least resistance for these gil sellers and which outcome is more likely?

I am sure there is a clearer way of asking these and I am sure I am missing a few details here and there but taking a measured response to this situation rather than an emotional one seemed best to keep the discussion productive. Regardless, I would like to hear what people think given these choices. Are there other outcomes possible? Again since the trade is in real money here and not in virtual currency we can assume one of the two is finite and one of the two more desirable.

[Krr]

Gil Sellers won't buy bands because they must be manually sold. Since the process can't be automated it is less efficient than sending dozens of bots out to mine or bot WP for bloodied blades et al. It would also increase their social footprint on the game since you need to use PF to advertise them, thus making it easier to call attention to them on the Party Finder board.

With other items, RMT companies can easily and automatically list them on the market, which performs all the labor of finding a buyer to get them the gil they need for them.

[Alatarian]

I suspected something like that for that outcome. How about the others though?

Realizing fully that people buy gil for other reasons but from my present point of view selling this band for gil seems to be a negative thing for RMT in the game as their prices are now forced to be below a certain range in order to make buying from them more appealing than buying the band directly from SE.

I am not sure of their pricing models so I can't say what they can survive with but so far as I can tell in order to even operate you need to drop real cash for the game itself plus whatever other overhead you need to function in it (electricity, internet, some store front of some kind online or phone, etc.) Can they be really hurt by placing these exclusives in a shop that they cannot get and players can sell?

If so then I don't have a problem with this if it diminishes their presence. And as it can be traded doesn't that also mean anyone who doesn't want to buy a real item with real cash can just legit farm or sell in game things for gil and get the wedding they want?