How do Server Economies differ so greatly, especially Legacy vs. Non-Legacy?

[Gunspec]

Do legacy servers have as much impact from RMT bots as non-legacy servers? Because when you look at some of the biggest spenders, you'll realize that they are entirely unequipped to have legitimately acquired their funds in the first place. A guy who pays 30 million for a mercenary run through old content, who doesn't have any crafting classes, nor the in-game sense to have earned that money, is probably just paying RMT for his thrills. That gil gets channeled to legit players who sell runs, who then spend big money on things like relic weapons and glamour. Then that RMT money starts cycling around, and you end up with newer servers that have inflated economies.

When you look at the census data and see what items are harvested the most, and then consider how much vendor gil you get from those junk items, you can get a notion of just one way the RMT are pouring money into the game. 2015 census suggested that nearly 25 billion gil made its way into the economy just through the harvesting of Jade (a practically worthless item that sells for 11 gil and is probably easy to bot since it spawns only on one wall).



They might as well have labeled this powerpoint slide "Ways in which RMT are impacting the game".

[StouterTaru]

Do legacy servers have as much impact from RMT bots as non-legacy servers?

People complain about not being able to make a character on legacy servers, I'm sure RMT have the same issue. Without that huge bot army creating gil from FATEs, dungeons, etc, the inflation is held down more than where they are rampant.