Does the community ever have a constructive conversation about RMT?

[galbsadi]

The solution is simple:

1.) Recognize that RMT is going to happen. There's not an MMO out there where it doesn't happen.

2.) Recognize that supply here is driven by demand. As long as the demand for gil from RMT exists, there will be others who will supply it, regardless of ToS in a given game. Banning the bots doesn't work, because they'll just create new accounts. Banning the cards doesn't work, b/c they'll just buy prepaids elsewhere. Further, I suspect they're probably behind the DDOS that always seems to happen right after a ban wave.

3.) If the demand is going to exist for buying gil...and it's not going away, the solution is for SE to either to either (a) sell it themselves (which would kill demand but worsen inflation) or (b) to create an official method of transfer between players (which would also kill demand without necessarily worsening inflation more than we already face). This is exactly what Blizzard did with the WoW token, and not only does it work...it gives Blizzard extra money (the buyer pays $20 for an amount of gold, the seller collects $15 worth of gametime for that same amount of gold, Blizzard profits $5 every time).

TL;DR: all the problems go away once SE decides to create their own marketplace and effectively drive the bots out of town.

[Wanzzo]

The solution is simple:

1.) Recognize that RMT is going to happen. There's not an MMO out there where it doesn't happen.

2.) Recognize that supply here is driven by demand. As long as the demand for gil from RMT exists, there will be others who will supply it, regardless of ToS in a given game. Banning the bots doesn't work, because they'll just create new accounts. Banning the cards doesn't work, b/c they'll just buy prepaids elsewhere. Further, I suspect they're probably behind the DDOS that always seems to happen right after a ban wave.

3.) If the demand is going to exist for buying gil...and it's not going away, the solution is for SE to either to either (a) sell it themselves (which would kill demand but worsen inflation) or (b) to create an official method of transfer between players (which would also kill demand without necessarily worsening inflation more than we already face). This is exactly what Blizzard did with the WoW token, and not only does it work...it gives Blizzard extra money (the buyer pays $20 for an amount of gold, the seller collects $15 worth of gametime for that same amount of gold, Blizzard profits $5 every time).

TL;DR: all the problems go away once SE decides to create their own marketplace and effectively drive the bots out of town.

They could do both. If we can transfer itens and gil through our chars and make a token-like transition for us to get more gil that will surely kill the demand.

[MPK]

The solution is simple:

1.) Recognize that RMT is going to happen. There's not an MMO out there where it doesn't happen.

2.) Recognize that supply here is driven by demand. As long as the demand for gil from RMT exists, there will be others who will supply it, regardless of ToS in a given game. Banning the bots doesn't work, because they'll just create new accounts. Banning the cards doesn't work, b/c they'll just buy prepaids elsewhere. Further, I suspect they're probably behind the DDOS that always seems to happen right after a ban wave.

3.) If the demand is going to exist for buying gil...and it's not going away, the solution is for SE to either to either (a) sell it themselves (which would kill demand but worsen inflation) or (b) to create an official method of transfer between players (which would also kill demand without necessarily worsening inflation more than we already face). This is exactly what Blizzard did with the WoW token, and not only does it work...it gives Blizzard extra money (the buyer pays $20 for an amount of gold, the seller collects $15 worth of gametime for that same amount of gold, Blizzard profits $5 every time).

TL;DR: all the problems go away once SE decides to create their own marketplace and effectively drive the bots out of town.

ORRRRR we can just ban them all

[Katie_Kitty]

RMT is popular because the game is popular, and some are too lazy to earn gil themselves. It is not the fault of older or rich players. I personally can make at LEAST a few hundred thousand a day passively (I don't craft either) so it always baffles me just how lazy some people are that they need to buy gil. Also, things like the bed mount are always expensive for a couple weeks with prices decreasing almost daily. RMT is an issue, but "taxing the rich" will do nothing to solve it. What the game needs is more gil sinks and a more equipped task force to handle RMT and bots. Blanket banning weekly doesn't do much. They need to be more proactive if they are ever going to get a handle on it.

Not everyone has time to grind for gil. I play for a few hours a day at most and there are other things I need to do in that time. Thus I am poor. Got nothing to do with laziness.