Formal Letter to SE about RMT situation.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

Considering an rmt character is only used once, deleted, and replaced, using your blacklist like that really doesn't help. they ban the accounts as best they can, and, im sure you've noticed, we dont really have any detrimental effects to the player. They can make the game hell for rmt if they want, but it will make it hell for the player too.

some games have a tell/shout filter on if you say anything more than twice every 10 seconds, you get a 2 minute chat block. So yeah, we could have that. And it would help against rmt. They ban thousands of accounts a week. Its not like they arent doing anything, its that they can't do more without making it hell for everyone who plays legitimately.

[SpookRooster]

No detrimental effects to the player? So constant walls of spam, sometimes multiple times in a row from the same spammer, advertising shady deals to buy or sell in-game currency is not detrimental? The effect is has on the in-game economy? What about the ridiculous prices of housing? The multiple clicks it takes to decline and blacklist a friend request from one? What about the tedium of deleting them from your tiny blacklist when you should be playing the game and not sorting through spam?

Oops, cut off again at a measly 1000 characters. Hope double posting is alright.

[SpookRooster]

A proper solution wouldn't be detrimental to the player. Like people have suggested, add the option to report a message or player as RMT. The way these idiots have their messages written, it should be pretty easy to catch only the ones that are true RMT and immediately fix the issue. The fact most of these accounts are stolen is sort of a non-issue. I imagine players were being idiots and gave these scum their passwords.

Another solution would be to take the battle straight to the sources - get these places like happygolds shut down. Ban all of China or something. What we have is pretty much nothing.

EDIT: Korea illegalized RMT. Just putting that out there.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

stuff

They already block the Chinese IPs, as far as i know, thats why there is a Chinese version of the game only for them. they just use VPN's to connect. Like most things SE does, they find a way around them. They have chat filters in place, they have updated the chat filters numerous times, and guess what, the rmt got around them each time.

And reporting them like that would help yes, BUT it doesnt automatically delete the account, so said rmt can delete that character, make a new one, and send you a new message withing about 2 minutes of you reporting them. I'm just pointing this out.

They cant really outlaw rmt, as they have NO jurisdiction over china. China itself would have to make rmt illegal, and you know they arent going to do that. they cant try to shutdown the websites either, because they are located in CHINA, where they have no jurisdiction.

[SpookRooster]

And yet other large scale MMOs don't have this problem or at least, not the the degree where it harms the quality of the game.

Fact is, Square are not putting nearly as much effort as they should into combating this. Every single RMT I've seen is level 1, stands in one spot, occasionally jumps, and I guess they either walk or teleport. I may have encountered one that teleported while I wasn't looking. They stick around in the city states and spam messages. It should be ridiculously easy to ban for this activity. No real player behaves like this.

Since they won't do anything to fix this, at least give us proper tools to hide these messages. Or even better, so not to make us write down phrases or some crap, allow Guildwork to be installed. I hear it works, but I'd rather not get banned for trying to play the game without being harassed.

[Zabuza]

And yet other large scale MMOs don't have this problem or at least, not the the degree where it harms the quality of the game.

Fact is, Square are not putting nearly as much effort as they should into combating this. Every single RMT I've seen is level 1, stands in one spot, occasionally jumps, and I guess they either walk or teleport. I may have encountered one that teleported while I wasn't looking. They stick around in the city states and spam messages. It should be ridiculously easy to ban for this activity. No real player behaves like this.

Since they won't do anything to fix this, at least give us proper tools to hide these messages. Or even better, so not to make us write down phrases or some crap, allow Guildwork to be installed. I hear it works, but I'd rather not get banned for trying to play the game without being harassed.

SE has a don't ask don't tell policy when it comes to add-ons. Also you can bypass the 1,000 character limit by making a post and then editing it(really have no idea why it's like that lol.)

I've stopped putting many replies to my own thread at this point because pretty much every solution has been thrown out there and suggested. We've desperately clamored for even five minutes of a dev's time to reply to our post to acknowledge our plight at least, and tell us they are doing something. But alas, we are insignificant to them it seems. Eight days left until early access, twelve days left until full launch. I tried for months to help SE help themselves. Only time will tell what the reaction will be from new players about this come Heavensward. I suspect quite a few will quit over it. Those of us who originally posted fervently in passion have mostly died off with a whimper upon the realization that nothing was going to change no matter what we did. The sad but unfortunate truth.

Only one thread in the General Discussion forums has gotten more replies per day than this, ever(Made the thread about two months ago with 1,050 replies.) So comparatively, the outcry has been about as profound as it can be with the available playerbase of these forums. Yet...the devs haven't popped in to leave even a canned response. Ignoring such an outcry, they've shouted their message pretty loud and clear. They simply don't care about us at all. Not even a single iota.

Only thing that would make them care is a mass unsub, which isn't going to happen from the veterans. Might happen from the wave of new players who become instantly repulsed though as they hear chime after chime as they're watching their opening cutscene, only to realize the moment the cutscene ends that their chat log is filled with pink garbage—shady almost criminal messages harassing them to buy their gil. They will think the easy blacklist option will relieve the pressure, only to find out minutes later new cockroaches have crawled out of the woodwork with more messages. More agitating chimes grating in their eardrums—a constant high pitched maddening shriek of persecution. Overwhelmed and absolutely sickened, their experience in the beautiful realm of Eorzea will be sullied, tarnished by these abominable cretins. Their trigger finger will race to the exit game button—followed by a prompt unsub.