Policy Change needed on "RMT & Services"

[Sythen]

So its a given that is an issue dealing with automated bots running around the ARR areas and farming Gil, Every MMO has this issue these days.

But seeing Real money services being advertised while I'm sat crafting in The Crystarium is bordering on "Taking the Mick".

Its a given that the Support services and the GM's wont take action against a player without proof, but the folks that choose to only accept contact about a service they are advertising through platforms like discord are side stepping the very support services and GM's that are in place to prevent people being scammed because no interaction in game took place, So no chat logs are even there to reference to use as evidence.

There needs to be a policy change on these issues, and a change on how the "Special Task Force" is handling the bot situation because frankly, its getting out of hand.

Now, before you run off shouting "Oh, just another complainer", here are a few "possible" solutions and policy changes that could be considered.

1. Ambiguous and shady advertising services promising content clears (like for the Ultimate raids and Current Primals) Should Fall under RMT.

2. Advertisements that ask for a player to contact them through a third party platform (e.g. Discord) Should be considered RMT. (Why? The servers log EVERYTHING, even tells between players, so taking it to an outside platform prevents logging of a transaction, cuffing the special task force from taking action against these people that breach the ToS)

3. Bots, as they come in swarms, is a rather hard task to handle, but having the bans come in waves gives bots and their controllers time to offload gil and make a profit between these waves.

A heavier handed tactic needs to put in place, and GM's in general should be given more power to handle these bots.

Giving your GM's the ability to issue a ban on the spot for obvious bots as and when they come across them breaks the cycle, preventing botters from banking gil and turning a profit.

If its a man power issue, then, you have a growing player base, maybe its time to recruit more people to combat that issue.

If a profit cant be made by botters and RMT services, they will leave.

There are my suggestions in an off the cuff post, by all means folks, add to it, or suggest more, but its something that we do need addressed (obviously, changes take time, but please, Dev team, lets work on this in a more proactive manner <3)

And please, keep the thread constructive, we all hate the bots, lets get this handled. <3

[KageTokage]

The whole underlying issue is indeed that the GMs are not permitted to do spot bans even if they see obvious offenses.

Reports need to go through so many loops and hurdles before they actually get approved, especially when it comes to cheaters using bots and/or hacks. The average bot RMT or otherwise is not difficult to identify, but the workload they're trying to place on the STF is so huge that they can't actually be doing full investigations to prove that they're cheating and instead resort to highly flawed automated methods of detection.

GMs on the other hand have more then enough time to take a cursory glance at a player to tell if they're botting or not then purge them.

[JediFirefly]

I'm not going to argue all the points because I tend to agree that the RMT spam can be a bit extreme and reporting the player doesn't seem to be doing anything because hours later, they're still there doing the same thing.

However, your #1 item is not RMT in anyway. Mercs are offering clears for gil, in-game currency. RMT is "Real Money Trading". No real world money is changing hands in this instance. While I don't agree with the practice and won't use it, if you have nothing better to do with your gil and are willing to pay someone in game to do it for you, have at it as far as I'm concerned.

[Sythen]

However, your #1 item is not RMT in anyway. Mercs are offering clears for gil, in-game currency. RMT is "Real Money Trading". No real world money is changing hands in this instance. While I don't agree with the practice and won't use it, if you have nothing better to do with your gil and are willing to pay someone in game to do it for you, have at it as far as I'm concerned.

I agree, its not technically RMT, but if you think about it, if these people are advertising clears for Gil, Why don't they advertise that fact? Why go to discord to discuss it?

[JediFirefly]

I would guess if they are being 100% on the level that it may be easier to discuss terms and conditions and whatnot via voice chat as opposed to text, possibly?

[Sythen]

I would guess if they are being 100% on the level that it may be easier to discuss terms and conditions and whatnot via voice chat as opposed to text, possibly?

For discussion of what goes down, Voice is simpler and more convenient i will give you that, but if you look at all (the ones I've seen anyway) of these advertisements, they don't specify a any pricing in their advertisements, that why reporting them for "RMT" does nothing, as they arn't advertising RMT.

But going through discord means they can freely talk about pricing and exchange payment details without having to worry about being banned, as there is no evidence being logged by the servers through any in game chat methods.

If they were offering these services and only wanting payment in Gil, there is no issues advertising that or discussing the basics in game would there?

[JediFirefly]

You have a point, however I feel the bigger problem is the bots standing around the main aetheryte in every main city say spamming, or the alliance of teleporting BLM bots killing mobs that are the bigger issue with RMT.

Not the 1 or 2 merc PF groups that are up.

[Sythen]

You have a point, however I feel the bigger problem is the bots standing around the main aetheryte in every main city say spamming, or the alliance of teleporting BLM bots killing mobs that are the bigger issue with RMT.

Not the 1 or 2 merc PF groups that are up.

I completely agree, but i thought i would cover both under 1 post.

[KageTokage]

I find the the RMT bots rather easy to ignore, but having all those other types doing FATEs, gathering, crafting, PvP, dungeons, etc is really obnoxious.

[Sythen]

The are indeed easy to ignore, but if we continue to maintain the same stance on all of this silliness, its going to get out of hand.