RMT Enforcement - Something Interesting is happeneing

[Vamelo]

I report every one I see. I know the spammers are expecting this and have knock-on toons ready, but I think we can exhaust their supply, make them work harder for less and eventually exhaust them. The key to this is management having people dedicated to responding to the reports A.S.A.P. like NOW!!

That takes money to pay people who aren't really adding to the game - it's a subtractive process which bites into the profit margin, SO. As long as management is willing to INVEST, I'm willing to report

If we can't drive them out of the game we can at least drive them up the wall. Unfortunately, they can always find new fools to replace the old ones. So...this measure will only do so much.

[Kosmos992k]

There's only a handful of people in the dev team, but there are millions of us. Utilizing the community was the best decision they have made yet when it comes to combating a community issue.

Indeed. The one thing that I still don't see a way to do, but I think would work really well, is harnessing community peer pressure against those using the services of RMT gil sellers and the like. It's currently an invisible offense as far as other players are concerned, even if SE determines someone bought gil, only the account holder in question knows about it other than SE. I'm not necessarily calling for naming and shaming, but if a person's account is suspended, perhaps their character should show as being in jail for the duration of their sentence. That would at least alert other players who know the individual to the situation.

Also, the ability to change names enables the shedding of a bad reputation for the price of a name change. I think that the account name for your SE account should be shown in your search information to make it easier to keep track of who is who.

Lasting consequences to player reputation that cannot be escaped with ease might apply some of that pressure that is needed on those using gil sellers and other RMT services.

...and as TaranTatsuuchi posted, make it easier for us to report bots as well as spammers. Even if the guideline was only to report bots using geometry or teleport hacks, it would help immensely.

[Welsper59]

Short of masking their names on tell, say or shout, I'm not sure what they can do to circumvent the quick reporting of the RMT spam accounts. They might further distance the spam accounts from the rest of their accounts, but if this is a war of attrition SE has shown that they continue to track RMT accounts effectively. Sometimes more effectively than others. Even using a VPN to mask your IP address there are still ways to identify accounts running on the same client (for example), which I am sure can be used to effectively trace accounts. Not to mention a wealth of behavioral information SE has collected that better enable them to trace RMT activity.

If people continue to report bots as well as the spammers - even though it takes a bit more effort to report 'bots, even a small % increase in bot reports would result in far more of the farming/crafting bots and other accounts being traced and eliminated.

Sometimes, it's not even a matter of finding a complex way around. Simple brute force can be enough to get by. RMT have already been doing that approach, by increasing the amount of bots on the servers they can do that with (advertising or otherwise). That decrease in bans for the future I mentioned was mostly referring to GMs/STF just becoming either demoralized or just unable to keep up. I mean, it's usually bots we're dealing with when it comes to RMT, not real people actively at their computers remaking characters (maybe even the accounts). Machines don't get tired of doing the same thing over and over.

Again, this is just from first-hand experience with companies like Blizzard and SE (during the XI era) and their approach to, along with results of, their efforts to combat RMT.

[Kosmos992k]

That decrease in bans for the future I mentioned was mostly referring to GMs/STF just becoming either demoralized or just unable to keep up. I mean, it's usually bots we're dealing with when it comes to RMT, not real people actively at their computers remaking characters (maybe even the accounts). Machines don't get tired of doing the same thing over and over.

Again, this is just from first-hand experience with companies like Blizzard and SE (during the XI era) and their approach to, along with results of, their efforts to combat RMT.

That's what makes it important for the STF to use their databases effectively to identify likely bots and RMT accounts, in addition to reacting to player reports. Also, doesn't the new reporting system include an automated component that after a certain number of reports suspends the character for review?

I'd think that one of the bigger roles that the STF will use, is using smart technology to find suspect activity in the game logs and rate it on a scale so that they can investigate the most likely cases first.

[LaylaTsarra]

I haven't had to clear my blacklist in weeks. I rarely get a tell spam now from RMT. I do see shouts in the cities but I quickly report those too when I see them. It's certainly having an impact on my server from what I can see.

[Amariel34]

I haven't gotten a RMT tell in ages, but there are some in Limsa that say and shout. I report immediately. What I wish we could do is report ones we see out and about. I saw one in a mountain wall killing mobs. I had to report it the old-fashioned way. And I still see them porting around as well. I wish SE would fix whatever coding is allowing them to exploit like that, or give us an easier way to report them when they aren't saying anything.

[Theodric]

They're not really an issue on Balmung but it's good to hear that they're being dealt with. Does this include other bots, though? I see them on Balmung - either out gathering stuff or teleporting around doing quests in groups and vanishing before I can target them.

[TaranTatsuuchi]

They're not really an issue on Balmung but it's good to hear that they're being dealt with. Does this include other bots, though? I see them on Balmung - either out gathering stuff or teleporting around doing quests in groups and vanishing before I can target them.

I believe so, with character creation restrictions always on, you can do a search right after a ban wave and there not be any obvious rmt bots.

But, they make loads of them after a maintenance or downtime when their automated processes can manage to create the characters.

[MilesSaintboroguh]

They're not really an issue on Balmung but it's good to hear that they're being dealt with. Does this include other bots, though? I see them on Balmung - either out gathering stuff or teleporting around doing quests in groups and vanishing before I can target them.

Bots are handled in a slower process so the task force can track where the gil is going to and then ban the master account and its puppets in one fell swoop.

[Kosmos992k]

Bots are handled in a slower process so the task force can track where the gil is going to and then ban the master account and its puppets in one fell swoop.

Indeed. I think that's part of the reason for the spike in bans, the much better intelligence from the enhanced reporting options may have helped them uncover masters and puppets in greater numbers.