Losing the RMT spam war SE?

[Elusana_Celah]

Now ? That must be a new company on the market.

For a new company to be here Behemoth must be a cesspool for gamers who can't play a game without paying their way to the top. So profitable for RMT on Behemoth server that we're attracting fresh RMT companies. I employ everyone to report people if you know they bought gil... Even if SE won't do anything I am literally at my wit's end with this. All we can do is sit here and endure it and it feels like nothing we do ever changes anything. SE won't comment about it anywhere or give us any reassurance that things are being done besides weekly 'bans' yet none of those bans seem to have changed anything on Behemoth at least... it's gotten so much worse, not better.

[Freyah]

The only way that this problem will be fixed is just ban the gil buyers as well. A few examples need to be made of those that buy gil.
First offence : 1 week game ban. Second offence : 3 week ban. If caught a third time then perma game ban.
Though personally, I lay blame at the door of greedy grasping crafters that add a few zero's on any item. That's another can of worms entirely.

[Ymal]

I was away from the game for 5 days, RMT was already bad when I left but gd when I logged in yesterday I don't think I ever saw that much RMT tells. And let's also mention that those messages are getting only creepier. This is honestly one of the thing ruining the game for me right now.

This is getting really, really bad. SE needs to realize that one of the first thing a new player see in this game is RMT. I made an alt not long ago, the cut-scene to go to Gridania barely started that I was already receiving RMT tells.

[Freyah]

They just need to go after the gil buyers more actively and name and shame them. There's no better deterrent than having your server reputation ruined, with a black mark permanently fixed on to a players lodestone page.

[Riepah]

They just need to go after the gil buyers more actively and name and shame them. There's no better deterrent than having your server reputation ruined, with a black mark permanently fixed on to a players lodestone page.

I really don't think gil buyers should be getting second chances like this. Permanent ban on first offense would be a better deterrent and more appropriate, in my opinion.

[Freyah]

I really don't think gil buyers should be getting second chances like this. Permanent ban on first offense would be a better deterrent and more appropriate, in my opinion.

I agree with you on that. In my opinion gil buyers are undermining server economies, thus ruining every player on that servers buying power. It's a double edged sword that s/e need to firmly get a grasp of quickly as the expansion approaches.

The alternative approach would be to enforce a gil ceiling cap ( which would be an unpopular move I think ).
Quite frankly, the way things are going right now it won't be much longer before we reach Diablo 3 levels of stupid pricing when the R.M.A.H was around.

[TriksteR]

The amount of RMT tells I receive is absurd, maybe make it so you can only send tells at lv3 or 5 after doing a quest but you are still able to receive them? (Sorry if someone already mentioned this in a previous post, I haven't read the whole thread)

[Elusana_Celah]

The amount of RMT tells I receive is absurd, maybe make it so you can only send tells at lv3 or 5 after doing a quest but you are still able to receive them? (Sorry if someone already mentioned this in a previous post, I haven't read the whole thread)

That would just increase botting and they'd still spam us the same anyways lol

[Riepah]

The amount of RMT tells I receive is absurd, maybe make it so you can only send tells at lv3 or 5 after doing a quest but you are still able to receive them? (Sorry if someone already mentioned this in a previous post, I haven't read the whole thread)

This wouldn't help. In this game, bots can play all the way to level 50. What they SHOULD do, is give us a status that blocks incoming whispers from people not on our friend list, in our FC or any of our linkshells. /Busy is way overkill, blocking invites, trades etc., but it's the only real defense SE gives us against the spam. It's more than high time that they give us a proper protection that *doesn't* cripple us in everything else.

[Havenchild]

Some of the people in this thread are absent of mind on the issue. In addition, if you come from a server like Balmung where character creation is in fact quite limited, you lose a lot of credibility in your argument. A big server like Balmung would actually be heavy feeding ground for RMT if you removed the character creation lockout entirely.

The overall situation I would imagine on most servers, is RMT is a thing. Someone stated that RMT goes, where it is supported and I also agree with that 100%.
However, that is ultimately not the end all solution. Just because other players we cannot feasibly control make these purchases, does not mean the other several thousands of the server should suffer through it.

If you are on the side where you do not see what the big issue of RMT is in FFXIV, I invite you to come to other servers where it is a serious mess, and still maintain the same position. Getting a good 4-5 tells per minute is absolutely dominating in chat. Essentially you play on /Busy no longer able to receive tells from anyone now. These accounts may not be reported entirely either, but the blacklist function needs to be account-wide. If a player account is hi-jacked, that is essentially that players fault not SE's. Put a claims system in place that pending investigation, can allow players to potentially reclaim accounts if they are in fact hi-jacked.

SE needs to provide the tools against RMT and that is what kills RMT as well as stay on top of it with disciplinary action on these accounts.

As for people saying RMT is "infinite" and never ending? Simply Untrue.

Several MMOs, both supported servers and private servers have dealt with RMT in numerous ways and each iteration I have seen personally has worked dramatically after implementation.

1) Systems that legitimized RMT from the company work very well.

2) Systems that have account wide banning. (Big one!)

3) Systems that have a trade functions locked behind pay walls (both inter person trade and selling on market), this does not include ability to actually buy items from the market.
(PSO2, essentially eliminates RMT outright.)

4) Continuous IP bans. People largely feel you can get around this with no work, however that is untrue. These companies, are hampered down by continual IP bans and get increasingly discouraged by them because it essentially shuts down their entire operation for a good amount of hrs per day. The day to day RMT fades into oblivion because they lose advertisement time and accounts in the process. They lose money way faster trying to advertise by making new accounts then what they actually make. (Ragnarok Online, both supported and private servers). Credit card fraud is a thing. So? How is that an excuse to not attack RMT? It's not. Keep attacking them and you will see, the chat cleans up noticeably to eventually nonexistent no matter how severe the starting point.

SE reports they have taken some sort of action against accounts that support RMT.

RMT and other illicit activities upset the balance of the game and, as such, are prohibited under the Terms of Service.

Because we have confirmed the existence of players who are engaging in these illicit activities, we have taken the actions listed below.

Time Period: Mar. 12, 2015 to Mar. 18, 2015
- Accounts receiving disciplinary action for RMT advertising: 646
- Accounts receiving disciplinary action for RMT/illicit activity: 2,491
- Action Details: Permanent ban from FINAL FANTASY XIV

- Accounts receiving disciplinary action for participation in RMT/illegal activity: 11
- Action Details: Temporary ban from FINAL FANTASY XIV

Let's focus on the last bit. Why are accounts that participated in RMT/illegal activity only temporarily banned? Are we assuming only 11 people were victims of credit card fraud? No. This 11 is likely people that actually bought gil and somehow let that slip out and got caught however the actual number should likely be way higher. These people should be permanently banned with an additional claims system in place if it was in fact an account that was stolen and used for the sake of advertisement.

Do not kid yourselves. SE can do several things more to actually fight RMT advertisement/tells. The reason they don't is because in the end they profit from them. The reason they only temp ban? The exact same.

I'm aghast. RMTs are back to shouting in hub cities like in the early days of 2.0. It's gotten so bad that I've just turned off shouts (in addition to /tells). They're probably doing this because they know SE doesn't give a damn; why NOT be more bold, if you know no one will do anything to stop you?

This is effing ridiculous. SE, you need to step your game up and step it up soon before no one is playing yours anymore except RMT bots.

I have also started seeing the shouts on my server.