Does Square intend to address Market botting?

[TheLoveJenovan]

I only have a couple more days before my sub lapses, but I thought I'd put in one more post. I agree with Jojoya and Dspguy, and they make great points.

My experience has been that RMT increases marketboard prices. On Jenova, the only seller for many items are RMT accounts trying to sell items with significant markups. This is because legit crafters have given up on selling many or most items on the marketboard. RMTers undercut and resupply very quickly and create a "firewall" such that legit crafters can't sell their items, unless the pricing hits the RMT floor. Legit crafters then give up on selling on the marketboard for many or all items until a new patch comes out.

For example, take an Indigator Coat of Crafting (HQ), which has been available for a few months since the last patch. The cost, if you buy the mats, is about 180-200k. The RMTs sell these for 599-699k on my server. If you post one at, say 260k, the RMT accounts will undercut you within about 10 minutes. When the RMT account's item is sold first, they can often restock it and undercut you again within 10 minutes--or another RMT account has already filled in the spot. If you continue to drop your price by 5% every hour, the RMTers will keep up until the price reaches the cost of mats. I'm very patient, but it's a big hassle. I and most other crafters have given up, and so once my item sells at the floor price (180-200k), I just don't bother listing another. The price of the item then shoots back up to 599-699k, after all legit players have given up.

I also believe Square Enix relies on RMT companies for income. In scenario 1, SE employs a bunch of STF staff--more than 5 now, ostensibly--and ban a ton of paying RMT accounts, losing out on that income. In scenario 2, SE pays lip service and writes posts claiming to ban x thousands of RMT accounts or write posts about hiring a bunch of STF employees, then they do nothing more than banning the free accounts of gil barkers. Scenario 2 obviously makes them more money if it's enough to keep a significant number of legit players from quitting their subs.

Finally, this is an article from over 10 years ago on WOW, but it shows how problematic RMT can be from a human-rights perspective. I used to think that the RMT farmers were bots, but after studying those on Jenova for about a month, I've concluded that these accounts are played by a team of "employees." These employees are likely poorly compensated or not compensated at all.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...et-gaming-scam