RMT Advertisers are ruining the game for me and many others.

[ElenaLeffel]

Sadly, when playing the game, especially in the past two months, I have noticed an extremely high amount of RMT Advertisers, and I'm getting them Quite Frequently. We used to get them, don't get me wrong, but there were far less back before the free trial.

This wouldn't normally be a problem, especially in most other games I have played, because there are actually ways to avoid seeing them, and reporting them quickly.
As soon as I got a PERSONALIZED RMT Advertisement, I snapped (Personalized as in, "Hey {Character Name}, listen to this! ...." etc. I couldn't take it anymore.

So I'm going to create a List of Things that Can be done, Features that can be added, or tweaked, to help alleviate this problem, As I consider whether or not to renew My subscription, which is sad, because I love this game.

Sadly since there is a 1000 Character Limit, I'll have to Add the other ideas In the comments... Sigh....

[ElenaLeffel]

1 - We need The Ability to remove /Tells from the Chat log. Not all of them mind you, just the ones that are from bad people. (IE RMT Advertisers, etc.). I would Highly Recommend this feature automatically happening with People who you blacklist, for ease of user use. (Probably the Best Short Term Idea)

[ElenaLeffel]

2 - We Need An Easier Way of Reporting. The current way of reporting Players for violations is quite time consuming, and atrocious. The current way requires more time than it's worth, seeing as how I get at least 2-3 other RMT advertisements by the time I'm finished reporting one. (Not all the time, but a lot of the time) An example of an easier way of reporting would be,
>Right Click Player Name< = >Report< = and then the user selects the violation that the user has caused. This would allow Square to see the exact message that was sent, the time, etc.
Reporting a User auto Blacklists, or adds the option to blacklist player after reporting.
This could also be used for other methods of Game Abuse & Player Harassment.
(I believe this feature would be the Best Long Term Solution, other than option Y)

[ElenaLeffel]

3 - I have had so many RMT Advertisers that I have had to clear my Blacklist once a week. (I mostly have the game on, 24/7) and sure, while that may not seem like a lot to worry about, it causes a problem. The Blacklist is limited to 200 Accounts. This causes a problem because once your blacklist is filled with 200 people; you have to manually delete every single one. This takes time. A lot more than it should really, when there is no easy way to report them. Either the Ability to Fully Clear the blacklist or an unlimited amount of accounts in the Blacklist, With the Latter being more preferred by me.

[ElenaLeffel]

X - (The Following is an Idea, from other Games I am aware of, something I mention, but don't necessarily want, to show just how bad this can get) Auto-Temp Ban. Players start out with a rating of 1/10, (or whatever numbers, just for an example) this number counts towards Votes against a player. Say it only takes 2000 votes against a player to cause an Auto-Temp Ban, if the Player was right to report the player; they get a 1+ to their Rating for reporting other players. (So they end up with 2/10 votes on the next report) a player is maxed out a 10 votes each, meaning that it would take 200 Reputable Players (10/10 votes) to create an Auto-Temp Ban. After the Auto-Temp Ban has been declared against the player, Square has 1 day to review the account, to see if it is in the wrong. If it is, the account gets the corresponding punishments for RMT advertising, if it's not, The players that voted get their Votes Reset to 1/10.

[ElenaLeffel]

Y - Remove The Free Trial. (Again, this is an idea, and I don't mean to delete the free trial entirely, let me explain) One thing I noticed was that there are two different types of free Trials. The Free Trial which you can sign up for, freely, and the Recruit a friend Trial. I would recommend keeping the Recruit a friend Trial, and removing the free Open Access trial. That way, it keeps out the RMT Rabble. Sadly this causes a problem for users without access to friends who play the game, and may not be the best practice for Square to do. (Perhaps a Trial Integration with Facebook? just a sub thought)
And of course, there is the fact that the Recruit a friend trial could be abused, I'm sure this happens, but I have an idea to prevent this as well. If a friend you have recruited gets reported for RMT Advertising, you are no longer able to recruit a friend, Preventing RMT Bots/ advertisers, from abusing that system.

[ElenaLeffel]

Idea X - Y might not be the most Ideal for FFXIV, but I leave this here Regardless. Do what you will with it.


I Absolutely Love this game, I want everyone to know that, and I want the game to be the best it can be. The amount of these RMT Advertisers is comparable to that of SWTOR, and many other games that suffer from them. And that's sad, because many of those games are Free to Play, while this one is not.

I am Heart Broken to even consider Canceling my subscription, But What am I paying for if I'm being Bombarded with Illegal Ingame advertisements, that Square seems to be doing nothing about?

I'm Conflicted with this, and Hope to see some change to reassure me.

If any of you know of any ways to help this issue, please inform me, I want to know. And Hopefully Square takes this to heart.

[ElenaLeffel]

*Note, I Realize these Issues are Server Specific, that being said, I believe having Features 1 & 2 Mentioned above would be helpful, even without needing them specifically for RMT Advertisers / Bots.

I hope this is the right Place to Post this, Still A Newb When it comes to the Forums. XD

[OlyverW]

you can bypass the character limit by editing your post. And ya it is getting to be quite the pain dealing with the RMT I used to go busy now I just muted tells though I still get the random RMT friend request -.-

[ElenaLeffel]

Yeah, That's Another thing Altogether.... I hate Getting Friend Requests, and Mail from RMT People......... Sigh......