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

[Verlyn]

It's posts like this that seriously make me shake my head. What kind of development process are you guys using over there where not ONE person says "Hey, the way we're implementing this could create some serious issues." Perhaps someone did, and was ignored for whatever ridiculous reason. You cannot seriously believe that asking players politely not to do something will have the desired effect.

What serious issues are being created? I'd like to hear this.

You people need to chill out. No gil is being generated here. All of it is simply changing hands. Supply -> Demand. Someone has something other people want to buy with gil, so they buy it. No "RMT" is happening here and it sounds like associating the term with this is causing the devs to misunderstand exactly what is happening.

If anything, you know what this really means? Something in the cash shop is attainable in-game for enough gil. How is that a bad thing? I thought you people wanted that.

I interpreted the dev response as "Well, we didn't expect people to start selling it. That's interesting. We need to look into whether this is good or bad before we act. If it IS bad, please stop propogating the problem until our fix."

[Krr]

Pretty much, Please stop so we don't have to spend time on a fix.

"I won't sue you, but please stop hacking my servers and stealing my financial information. I would have to update my security architecture and NEITHER of us wants that!"

I mean, they could call it what it is, a mechanical exploit, and make doing it reportable. Which would stop 80% of the cases, because in order to sell these things, you have to post a pf listing or shout somewhere, which = dozens of reports from salty players.

[Airget]

Yea, gotta be honest that response is a bit of a troubling way to look at the situation. If they never intended for the bracelets to have the potency of being sold they should of easily seen what people would do for those who have the money to spend and thsoe who don't.

Quite honestly I'd still say so what if people want to sell it, maybe they have 100 dollars they don't mind buying for those who don't want to pay cash for those perks? Is it really that bad in perspective if people are just offering a service that isn't provided via gil by using their own money to help others who don't' want to spend cash on the perks?

SE at the end of the day is still making money off the service the only difference is players are acting as a middle man to provide a service for those who may not want to spend real cash on the extra services.

[Ophie-Mio]

babble babble

Ah, but you forget that not every Gil seller is an actual business. There are individuals who also sell gil (a friend of a friend on FFXI used to do this to see his Canadian gf) and this is right up their alley.

The RMT gil businesses will thrive because people will need the larger amount of gil to afford the bands and the individual sellers will have another avenue to make gil.

All of it is simply changing hands. Supply -> Demand. Someone has something other people want to buy with gil, so they buy it. No "RMT" is happening here and it sounds like associating the term with this is causing the devs to misunderstand exactly what is happening.

Yes, this is RMT. Any time an exchange of goods happen with the use of real money to get gil, it's RMT. Normally it's backwards where people get gil for their real money but in this context, the real money gives gil in the hands of someone else. Also, look at intention. I highly doubt any of these people mass buying bracelets are doing it so the people who don't support the cash shop will still get a chance at marriage. They are doing so for an in-game profit. This is RMT with a different face.

[Synestra]

Buying overpriced items and rising the prices

Its more smarter to buy cheap and sell high than buying high and selling even higher, that can easily backfire badly and you potentially lose more money instead gaining it.

[Teryaani]

I mean, they could call it what it is, a mechanical exploit, and make doing it reportable. Which would stop 80% of the cases, because in order to sell these things, you have to post a pf listing or shout somewhere, which = dozens of reports from salty players.

OHMYGODTHIS. Add a T&C popup that the player agrees to in the mogstation and then handle it in reports.

[chrillix]

What serious issues are being created? I'd like to hear this.

Well it's at least some kind of issue if SE felt the need to make a dev post about it, asking people not to take part in selling the bracelets for gil. MY issue, as a crafter, is that instead of having to put in-game time towards making gil anybody can now drop a hundred dollars on bracelets and sell them for gil with no in-game effort required.

Also, gil changing hands for real money is a serious issue, and at this point Bracelets basically equal real money.

[Verlyn]

Yes, this is RMT. Any time an exchange of goods happen with the use of real money to get gil, it's RMT. Normally it's backwards where people get gil for their real money but in this context, the real money gives gil in the hands of someone else.

Real money might have been used to obtain the item, but the item is the thing being exchanged for gil. It's not a guaranteed change, either and the value will fluctuate by demand.
Again, no gil is being generated by this. RMT is bad because bots are generating inhuman amounts of gil and introducing it into the economy by selling it to people through shady services that harvest their accounts.

This is just some guy plunking $20 on a ring and offering it up for sale.

[Verlyn]

Well it's at least some kind of issue if SE felt the need to make a dev post about it, asking people not to take part in selling the bracelets for gil. MY issue, as a crafter, is that instead of having to put in-game time towards making gil anybody can now drop a hundred dollars on bracelets and sell them for gil with no in-game effort required.

SE is responding because a large amount of people are talking about it. They haven't even admitted whether or not it's a problem yet. They're just being cautious right now, because a decision has yet to be made.

[Massterchef]

As you know, the promise wristlets were designed to be tradable so that one person would be able to purchase a pair of wristlets and gift one to their partner.
While the trading and selling of these items for gil is not against the terms of service, in the event this type of trend continues and topics continue to arise regarding whether or not this is considered real-money trading, we will have no choice but to change the design of this system. Therefore we would like players to stop selling and trading the bracelets for gil so that they can continue to be used for their intended purpose.

For future reference since the bracelets are going to be sold for gil regardless. All purchases should be made bound and other options need to be created for gifts. There should be an option to buy in pairs, where one is bound to you and the other trade-able and made bound to your significant other. Meaning whoever you trade it to is locked into getting married to you. If anyone wants to buy a gift for a friend at a later time, an option to do so in the cash store should be available where you enter their character name/server and the bracelet will be delivered to said person.

Boom, problem solved.