RMT Out of hand

[SCUBA_Instr]

Hi Wobble,

So this needs a new thread daily?

Yes, absolutely, in the hopes that a website moderator
will take the issue to the Square Enix Holdings board of directors.

[Wobble]

Hi Wobble,

Yes, absolutely, in the hopes that a website moderator
will take the issue to the Square Enix Holdings board of directors.

SE already knows it's any issue and just because a moderator or DEV doesn't answer doesn't mean they have not seen the millions already posted. I myself just block the first one I get if I get one and go /busy for an hour or so and that's the end of it. Also as someone here said even when SE makes filters the RMT just adapt and work around them. Now I wouldn't mind having an option to click and repot like we have with the blacklist, but I don't really see what they can do any different than they already are to slow/stop/fix this anymore than they have.

[SCUBA_Instr]

Greetings, Wobble,

SE already knows it's any issue and just because a moderator or DEV doesn't answer doesn't mean they have not seen the millions already posted....

Ok, i'll quote myself

take the issue to the Square Enix Holdings board of directors.

Wobble, are these distinguished supervisory board members aware
of the RMT threat and the RMT affect on paying gamers?
Mr. Yosuke Matsuda, Mr. Philip Rogers, Mr. Keiji Honda, Mr. Yukinobu Chida, Mr. Yukihiro Yamamura, Mr. Yuji Nishiura

Are gamemasters or moderators informing them?

[SCUBA_Instr]

Meanwhile,

The spamming situation on Adamantoise is becoming progressively worse
daily. More players have written off the benefits of the /tell chat and
gaming with /busy.

One of the notorious sicko spam software developers,
[found this while lurking on a bad-guy website] brags
about spam software that will send over 2000 spams/second.

Using server side code injection, they're hitting players before their
characters even appear upon login. A friend got hit by 5 different
spammers immediately when character appeared.

Another went afk for a few minutes and couldn't even count the
spams waiting for him in his chat box.

Spam software developers are advancing their capabilities. Square Enix
security staff (if there is one) shows no indication of mitigating
the problem.

[Blissa]

FYI I would be careful about complaining about RMT. I got banned for 9 days complaining about RMT!

[MilesSaintboroguh]

FYI I would be careful about complaining about RMT. I got banned for 9 days complaining about RMT!

Or did you post their names publicly that probably lead to a ban?

[Amenian]

FYI I would be careful about complaining about RMT. I got banned for 9 days complaining about RMT!

If you got banned it was probably due to one of the following:
1) Posting the name, either in screenshot or text, of an RMT spammer/bot/buyer.
2) Posting the website, either in screenshot or text of an RMT company
3) Offensive behavior towards others in the thread

You don't get banned for making valid complaints. You do get banned if you break the forum rules in the process of said complaints.

[Ashkendor]

Greetings, Wobble,

Ok, i'll quote myself

Wobble, are these distinguished supervisory board members aware
of the RMT threat and the RMT affect on paying gamers?
Mr. Yosuke Matsuda, Mr. Philip Rogers, Mr. Keiji Honda, Mr. Yukinobu Chida, Mr. Yukihiro Yamamura, Mr. Yuji Nishiura

Are gamemasters or moderators informing them?

If you think that the board of directors of a gaming company aren't acutely aware of the existence of RMT, I'm not sure what to tell you. RMT is prevalent in pretty much every MMO out there. If it's got a currency, it can be farmed by bots and sold for real world cash. RMT is nothing new - it's been around for decades now. The board of directors would have to be terribly ignorant about the world of MMO gaming in general to not know about its existence and know that their game would be infested with it just like every game out there.

The thing I dislike the most about these threads is that they imply that SE does nothing about it. They do mass bannings of characters associated with RMT every few weeks. Even making it easier to report (i.e.the "click to report" button) wouldn't make the tells go away. Most of them use a character to send a bunch of tellbombs, delete it, then make another one. That's why they have the trash names that look like keyboard mashing. By the time a GM got to your report, the character would be gone anyway. The accounts themselves are left active so that they can track the gil from the bots to the "bank characters" where it's collected for distribution.

In the end, the best way to discourage RMT is for people to stop frickin' buying gil.

[Amenian]

The thing I dislike the most about these threads is that they imply that SE does nothing about it. They do mass bannings of characters associated with RMT every few weeks. Even making it easier to report (i.e.the "click to report" button) wouldn't make the tells go away. Most of them use a character to send a bunch of tellbombs, delete it, then make another one. That's why they have the trash names that look like keyboard mashing. By the time a GM got to your report, the character would be gone anyway. The accounts themselves are left active so that they can track the gil from the bots to the "bank characters" where it's collected for distribution.

The mass bannings have done nothing to stop the frequency of spamming. It's only gotten worse as time goes on. An account wide blacklist where you blacklist an entire account when you blacklist somebody would go miles to make this more tolerable. Nobody implies that SE is doing nothing. People imply that what SE is doing is doing nothing. There's a pretty obvious difference there.

In the end, the best way to discourage RMT is for people to stop frickin' buying gil.

This kind of shit response is infuriating. You think people don't know this? You're telling people who don't buy gil that they shouldn't be buying gil to stop the tells. As if they have any control over the people that buy gil. How about at least trying to be constructive.

[Ashkendor]

The mass bannings have done nothing to stop the frequency of spamming. It's only gotten worse as time goes on. An account wide blacklist where you blacklist an entire account when you blacklist somebody would go miles to make this more tolerable. Nobody implies that SE is doing nothing. People imply that what SE is doing is doing nothing. There's a pretty obvious difference there.

I've seen plenty of people say flat-out that SE is doing nothing about it, which isn't true.

An account wide blacklist would definitely be nice, and might actually help some.

This kind of shit response is infuriating. You think people don't know this? You're telling people who don't buy gil that they shouldn't be buying gil to stop the tells. As if they have any control over the people that buy gil. How about at least trying to be constructive.

The fact is no matter what SE does, RMT will stay in the game as long as it's profitable to do so. As long as people are buying gil, it's profitable. I'm not saying the people complaining about the spamming should be doing anything about this at all. It's an observation, nothing more. There's obviously nothing they can do about it.

Indeed, so, since they leave the accounts active to allow tracing the gil and the "bank characters", I have to wonder why there are not harsh penalties for characters who are on the receiving end of gil for cash transactions from the "bank characters". Action against players who actually buy gil would send a message to others considering buying gil.

When they say action was taken against accounts involved in RMT, it's pretty safe to assume that that means buying as well as selling. They can't tell us details because of privacy reasons, though. If it's anything like other games I've been on, typically the first penalty is a temp ban and the loss of the gil. They don't want to lose accounts to permanent bans if they don't have to, but obviously some punishment has to be meted out. I'm sure with repeated offenses, accounts do end up permanently banned; the thing is, even if 20 people are temp banned and then never buy again, that's all profit to the gil sellers. They don't care if you get banned or not; there's always new suckers that are perfectly willing to try to pay to get ahead.