Formal Letter to SE about RMT situation.

[Welsper59]

An easier way for us to report them. (That support window is slow loading all that cut'n'paste and then the nag nag nag that your support ticket has been answered).
In game GM's to catch and insta-ban.
Ban the buyers without the buyer we wouldn't have the seller.

Not many MMO's bother to do much about it the odd ones that have successfully countered RMT have used some or all of these.

Easier reporting would certainly go a long way to making the process a lot more smooth. Their current report system is ridiculously inconvenient and laughable. The sort of thing you'd learn in an entry level ICS course.

In-game GMs are great for that purpose, but not very feasible in most cases. The ban hammer in-game has its own protocol to follow, which involves a lot of "are we sure X is doing Y?" sort of thing. Ridiculous, definitely, but standard practice. It's exactly why a lot of "legit" players that bot their levels never get caught for doing it. Having a round-the-clock in-game GM (ideally having 2-3 per server) is a lot of employment related flags to raise, thus the not very feasible part, as it's not just NA/EU, but also JP... probably even China.

The market already exists, so the banning of buyers, while meaningful to some extent, does not curb the presence of RMT. It's an established business, so them being on any given MMORPG is inevitable, one being profitable or not. In most cases, they're not even spending their own money on subscriptions.

In this game, it really just comes down to the optional chat filters that many of us have been asking for since day 1. It is literally the end-all, be-all of stopping or minimizing RMT advertising, which is the way we experience RMT presence the most.

[Zabuza]

So, after a long hiatus I am back, sorry for the disappearance everyone. (Was busy writing a book about gaming itself, I encourage gamers to check it out, it's in the sig )

Upon returning, I couldn't help but notice there still does not seem to be a right click report function. Has anything changed at all? Has any of the RMT harassment been mitigated? It seems on the server I moved to before leaving(Leviathan), the badgering has increased slightly. What is it like on other servers?

[Lucke]

What about something like /anon or /hide, that will make your name hidden from searches. Won't work on your friends though, they'll still be able to see you. RMT just go down the search, not coming up on the searches may help. Message filter would probably be best, some way to turn off receiving /tells except by friends, and if you start a /tell to someone not on your friends' list, they can still respond if you are /busy, at least till you relog.

[Zabuza]

What about something like /anon or /hide, that will make your name hidden from searches. Won't work on your friends though, they'll still be able to see you. RMT just go down the search, not coming up on the searches may help. Message filter would probably be best, some way to turn off receiving /tells except by friends, and if you start a /tell to someone not on your friends' list, they can still respond if you are /busy, at least till you relog.

I hadn't added the /anon type suggestion yet, though that is very similar to custom chat filters that allows only friends to speak to you. Either way, there's a lot of options for SE to choose from here. I'm mainly wondering if it's still as much of an issue now as before, seeing as I've been watching the forums from the shadows, and there hasn't been too much protesting of RMT.

[Laurima]

Nothing has changed much tbh, judging from the frequency of pricing on Phoenix, lots and lots of people are buying more gil now, (last advert I reported was saying $2.3 per Million Gil)

Theres quite a few more Bot Farms that I've noticed too, mainly in Gridania, Right click report would actually help report these damn things. (keyboard smash names too long to type quickly and I've counted 15 in a huddle by a Gridania Marketplace board a few days ago) ><

[Niwashi]

I'm mainly wondering if it's still as much of an issue now as before, seeing as I've been watching the forums from the shadows, and there hasn't been too much protesting of RMT.

I think a lot of us just got tired of raising complaints that are clearly falling on deaf ears. Neither the RMT, nor the spam they advertise it with have slowed down any. We can keep reiterating the dozens of ideas for stopping it, slowing it down, or at least mitigating its annoyance factor. But the ideas have all been discussed at length, most of them many times over. SE isn't doing anything about it.

[Cyrusskorrey]

Where has this thread been all my in game life. Zabuza Ge Ming your post is everything i feel and agree with.
[Cyruss Korrey AKA: Blue Castle - Signed]

[Kerwin]

Having a way to report a player via by right clicking their character would help out a ton. There's no way I can document 5+ bots in a /follow train with jumbled up 10 character first and 10 character surnames. I would report every bot I would see if the process was some how easier.

I feel slightly bad knowing I let these bots go unreported, but the time it takes to report them is just not worth the effort imo.

[TaranTatsuuchi]

So, after a long hiatus I am back, sorry for the disappearance everyone. (Was busy writing a book about gaming itself, I encourage gamers to check it out, it's in the sig )

Upon returning, I couldn't help but notice there still does not seem to be a right click report function. Has anything changed at all? Has any of the RMT harassment been mitigated? It seems on the server I moved to before leaving(Leviathan), the badgering has increased slightly. What is it like on other servers?

Sad to say, I don't think it's ever gotten better.

It's less noticeable on the biggest servers due to the character creation restrictions being pretty much in place at all times.

But I had to disable tells on midgardsormr when I played on it...

Having a way to report a player via by right clicking their character would help out a ton. There's no way I can document 5+ bots in a /follow train with jumbled up 10 character first and 10 character surnames. I would report every bot I would see if the process was some how easier.

I feel slightly bad knowing I let these bots go unreported, but the time it takes to report them is just not worth the effort imo.

Emote and cycle through targets.

You can then copy from the chat log into the report. (Still would rather have an easier way of reporting.)

[Zabuza]

I think a lot of us just got tired of raising complaints that are clearly falling on deaf ears. Neither the RMT, nor the spam they advertise it with have slowed down any. We can keep reiterating the dozens of ideas for stopping it, slowing it down, or at least mitigating its annoyance factor. But the ideas have all been discussed at length, most of them many times over. SE isn't doing anything about it.

Yeah, I can understand that sentiment completely. I don't know how much more can be done at this point. The devs replied, acknowledging this as an issue, yet we still lack a basic right click report function. I can understand why people would be frustrated. It's really a shame that the spam still continues strong as ever.

Where has this thread been all my in game life. Zabuza Ge Ming your post is everything i feel and agree with.
[Cyruss Korrey AKA: Blue Castle - Signed]

Faded into obscurity when I left, because of what Niwashi said above. Quite a few of the people who fought ardently for measures to be taken stopped replying in the thread entirely, most likely giving up. Can't really blame them.