Formal Letter to SE about RMT situation.

[Zabuza]

As others have said, Yoshi is busy with the expansion. If you think the RMT problem for half the servers is so extreme to DELAY/STOP the expansion, then you're losing touch with the picture at large. Yoshi is not blowing off the NA/EU playerbase. He's busy being held tight to a rigorous schedule.
He also isn't blowing us off because once again, they have never made any announcements about anything RMT wise since XI. Ever. He's just going according to what they've always done.

What is to say that they have to delay/stop the expansion to deal with this RMT issue? Hell, they've been releasing all these content patches in between, I can't imagine adding a few QoL features like a right click report button would be that difficult would it? Are you also saying that the fact people have to remain on busy status all the time or they get spammed every single minute nonstop is not extreme?

My idea is and has always been since the beginning of this thread before it became annoying soap box protests and threatening to email everybody, was to give my 2 cents and sit tight. I - along with ALL the other players - know that the expansion is priority 1 and that IF anything is to be done, it will be done then. These disgusting threats of emailing CEOs and the board of directors is so over the top that it's crazy. It's escalating an issue to the highest extreme.

It's honestly screaming at a parent when they are busy making dinner. Wait for dinner to be made before you email anyone and rant and rave about how you're being neglected.

You realize that if nothing happens - if this doesn't change at all, and Heavensward comes out...Do you understand how many new players are going to be driven away? It IS going to be too late by then, that's the problem. To be honest, you are also exaggerating the "creepiness factor" of this. They are not going to be creeped out by this, I assure you. My guess is that they will give it a quick once over and then move on...and by once over I mean, literally reading maybe the first sentence if that.

[tocsin]

Exactly. if something isn't done about the RMT spam by heavensward, when all the game reviewers see it, we are likely going to be looking at another 1.0 situation. A Heavensward release with RMT issues, I can honestly see being the death knell of the game itself. This isn't 2001. There are a lot more options for MMO's than there were in FFXI times, and I cant logically believe that FFXIV can withstand the blow that FFXI did with RMT, in the way that it did. Nowadays, MMOs that those things happen to, they go under.

My guess is that they will give it a quick once over and then move on...and by once over I mean, literally reading maybe the first sentence if that.

agreed, that is exactly what they will do. But, if they read that first sentence 25-50 times, they might think to read a little further. I have never been one for sitting back and doing nothing while a credible threat ruins my passions. I want to stand up and defend it, to every last breath I can.

[Zabuza]

agreed, that is exactly what they will do. But, if they read that first sentence 25-50 times, they might think to read a little further. I have never been one for sitting back and doing nothing while a credible threat ruins my passions. I want to stand up and defend it, to every last breath I can.

Indeed, many times throughout history people have had to fight to accomplish their goals. This still holds true today. There are times where sitting back and taking it easy won't suffice. This RMT issue has been rampant for over a decade now, and things like this aren't easily changed, not without the will to fight for it. Call it creepy or disgusting if you want. I can think of far more radical examples of people who fought tooth and nail to see justice be done. Yeah I acknowledge this example isn't as extreme as that, but what we're doing here isn't that extreme either...Sending emails to these people? I get a bunch of spam/junk email every day, not to mention the spam /tells I get when I login to FF14, of course. If this is continued to be treated half heartedly, then nothing will change...

[Ophie-Mio]

What is to say that they have to delay/stop the expansion to deal with this RMT issue? Hell, they've been releasing all these content patches in between, I can't imagine adding a few QoL features like a right click report button would be that difficult would it?

All these content patches? You mean...the one? 2.5 was announced long before this thread ever came about. 2.5 was in testing and finished on the NA side when this thread was doing its thing. All its major work had been done though. There hasn't been anything else aside from that. Nothing else. Just a few story missions and one fight. 2.56 is what? One tweak to a fight, a line of code that they've already used elsewhere and a few bug fixes that they probably fixed a month ago. And you're ignoring how people said that there hasn't been any content updates besides the main story?

The "small" QoL fix is an entire filtering system or new way to report people that somehow can't be abused...
It's not as small as you think.

Are you also saying that the fact people have to remain on busy status all the time or they get spammed every single minute nonstop is not extreme?

Maybe it is the way it is on Cactuar but I get spammed with messages and see a lot more people without the /busy than I see the ones with it on. Everyone has different tolerance levels. It's extreme in its own way but it doesn't affect the economy and the fact that that remains intact.

As I stated in my original post, SE has never made a statement regarding RMT and its procedures or any changes since XI's economy was destroyed. Hell, even the reddit thread that asked Yoshida yesterday/this evening only managed to get him to respond with, "We have the STF working on it."

You realize that if nothing happens - if this doesn't change at all, and Heavensward comes out...Do you understand how many new players are going to be driven away?

It won't drive enough away to squash profits, that's for sure. And that's what will make the SE developers act even more quickly than the in-game economy crashing. Also, because you're still subscribed, it obviously isn't enough to drive you away either. "May not subscribed" isn't a loss of profits.

It IS going to be too late by then, that's the problem.

It won't be. People will say, "Finally!" and be happy as they have done before in the past. Once HW is finished, they may or may not implement a filtering system. If they do, awesome. Everyone wins. If not, *shrugs* a majority of the people on your list will be set to /busy and still subscribe.

Exactly. if something isn't done about the RMT spam by heavensward, when all the game reviewers see it, we are likely going to be looking at another 1.0 situation.

What? You mean the 1.0 situation where like, 90% of its fanbase didn't actually like it? That the subscription numbers were barely enough to make due? Free to play for a while because SE admitted that they released the game too early and that it wasn't finished? Really? You think that RMT spam and what the debacle that 1.0 was is anything alike?
Really.

A Heavensward release with RMT issues, I can honestly see being the death knell of the game itself. This isn't 2001.

I assure you, it's not. XI kept going with a lower population than this game will ever know. At no point did XI ever get 1 mil subscriptions... That game never died. It's still not dead even though its content has ceased. RMT will not kill this game just as it never killed XI. A large amount of MMOs or not, people will either stay because they like the game/want to play or they don't.

With that, I'm honestly done. I will sit back and see what they do after HW is out, while you two go back and forth with your ideals of a better world one MMO at a time.

Edit: Also, please, don't feel that you have to respond. I honestly won't re-enter this thread to see whatever you said. I'm happy imagining a /busy with this thread.

[REInn]

i totally agreed with this one.....

[AthrunZolza]

/signed. Athrun zolza (exodus)

The spamming has to stop :/

[Mature]

Tbh over the past week I've been getting less and less spam, there was a non stop friend request over and over again by bots but now it's nearly gone. Same for shouts and tells. Something must be getting done cause I can see the difference

[Riepah]

Tbh over the past week I've been getting less and less spam, there was a non stop friend request over and over again by bots but now it's nearly gone. Same for shouts and tells. Something must be getting done cause I can see the difference

Probably just coincidence. One day I'll get a bit less spam, the next it'll be three times as bad. Nothing *effective* is being done, that's for sure. They have to shell out a "Block whispers from people not on your friendlist/in your LS/in your FC status" already to give us a valid defense against RMT spam that doesn't cripple us like /busy does. It'd be such a damn easy thing to do and it'd be so damn effective that it disgusts me that they are STILL ignoring our pleas for such a thing.

I like the game, but the way the company handles it and its support is horribly bad. If I didn't have an FC and friends still playing, I'd quit for that reason alone. I don't know how everyone else feels, but the way they handle - or ignore - our RMT-induced plight does not make me feel like SE gives a crap about us customers at all. The RMT is so very out of hand that it astounds me that they didn't take any real measures yet, because it's definitely shooing away already existing customers as well as potentially new ones at this point. SE seems to be content taking the botters' money just as much as the real players', not caring if more and more RMT accounts scare away more and more player accounts, as long as they make enough money bottom line.

I have never, ever seen a pay to play title so very flooded by bots. For such a long time, even. I thought AION was bad back in the day, but it was nothing compared to this. It's nothing short of disgraceful.

[Zabuza]

Tbh over the past week I've been getting less and less spam, there was a non stop friend request over and over again by bots but now it's nearly gone. Same for shouts and tells. Something must be getting done cause I can see the difference

I haven't noticed a difference on my server, unfortunately. Still the same once per minute spam that I received when I made this thread a month ago.

[Saseal]

Tbh over the past week I've been getting less and less spam, there was a non stop friend request over and over again by bots but now it's nearly gone. Same for shouts and tells. Something must be getting done cause I can see the difference

I thought something similar a long time ago, when the RMT-related forum posts were newer to be seen. It was randomly good for two or so days and I thought "omg yay, they must have done something, after hearing our pleas! ". Yeah..... no....
It returned in full force afterwards.
This is why I say banning isn't enough. The wound isn't closed - it's still gushing RMT. Just took a few days for banned bots to be re-made.