Time to address the real problem - RMT buyers

[Jojoya]

Might stop if the leader of said FC was banned, or at the very least the player in said FC mushing them around with peloton

Would the said players lose anything meaningful if they lost their accounts, or are they just using disposable accounts to show off? If they're just disposable accounts, they may end up making new accounts to start over.

Some people have so much money they don't care if they waste it. Ultimately, account bans aren't going to stop that type of player unless they've managed to obtain something extremely rare on their account that they're unlikely to obtain again just by spending money.

Most players aren't in that position. They might have use RMT to purchase something the first time but take it away and they probably won't want to take the risk a second time.

I've seen enough gripes about the pricing to think otherwise. It's not the crafters' fault though. It's not quick and easy to do all that. I know from experience.

There are people out there and even on this forum that are still doing without because of pricing. Imagine how many more are just thinking about spending a little extra cash. They probably have a bunch of extra retainers as well because they don't know how to approach their inventory.



It's really not that simple and beyond their scope. (to whom it may concern: please slap yourself if you even thinking of saying "small indie company" in response to this.) A lot of people trade money whether they're passing it to alts or handing out prizes. The only clue might be in the name of the character, but even that can be a problem as many people get their accounts hijacked.

A lot of the price is in what other players are charging for the tomestone crafting material. Crafters don't control those prices - the players with tomestones do.

As an example, the marketboard prices on my server for the tomestone materials jumped from an average of 3k gil each to 12k gil each last week as players started using the tomestones to get their first stage relics instead of buying crafting materials to sell. The cost of those materials along with all the rest of the materials needed ends up passed on to the buyer. Weapons and chest pieces need 10 of the tomestone materials so that's already about 90k more it's going to cost the crafter to make the item.

That becomes another factor in the demand for RMT services - what players are charging for the items they want to sell. When players are setting prices too high, a lot of the buyers turn to RMT to be able to afford those items. RMT sells the gil to the buyer, infusing more gil into server economies via both bot farming and taking gil off compromised accounts that may have been sitting unused for a while. Because there's more gil, sellers feel safe increasing their own prices so they get richer. And the cycle begins again as more players decide they must turn to RMT.

The cycle exists because there is no penalty for buying from RMT. If there was a meaningful penalty, few players would turn to RMT and the amount of gil entering the game economy wouldn't increase as swiftly. Because players would have less gil, they wouldn't be willing to pay as much. Crafters would start lowering their prices sooner to make the sale because the players able to afford the original prices would already have what they want.

It's one reason why I have no problem undercutting by large amounts or even crashing markets on some items despite other sellers sometimes attacking me for doing so. I'm bringing prices back down into a reasonable range. It leaves players with more gil to spend to buy the other things they want from other sellers, reducing pressure to resort to RMT to get the things they want.

But still the core problem ultimately lies with those willing to buy from RMT for instant gratification instead of putting effort into earning the things they want, whether that is doing the content that rewards the item via their own efforts or earning the gil through legitimate game play to buy it.

[LittleImp]

It's for the same reason people buy Ultimate clears; Wealth is a flex. It lets you pose as a benefactor to people and do things to feed your ego. A lot of people that buy gil constantly give it out, or buy things for people to force them into weird transactional relationships. I've known people like this over the years.

As for what they spend it on, look no further than the new Criterion mount. Hundreds of players are irrationally shelling out anywhere from 50-150mil for an ugly mount, and I guarantee a lot of the money moving around is tainted.

[dspguy]

What kills me is that SE is more than capable of tracking down buyers and banning them. Look at the lottery fiasco. While it was a fiasco... it also showed that SE could really parse data across multiple server mechanisms (the lottery module, housing module, etc) and recreate what happened to then make it right in the end. If they are able to handle reverse engineering that whole mess but can't do something simple like tracing gil transfers between RMT and buyers?

I'll say it right now - if there were actions I could take in game that would get me banned, that would be enough of a deterrent to make me not throw away years of time spent on my character for ill-gotten gains.

Reminds me of some exploit in FFXI in some raid zone. There was some way to multiple drops or something like that. It was clearly an exploit. The players were warned not to do it and then the ban stick came out and destroyed many end-game raiders with wanton destruction. Go after the players and stop the RMT.

[Canadane]

What kills me is that SE is more than capable of tracking down buyers and banning them. Look at the lottery fiasco. While it was a fiasco... it also showed that SE could really parse data across multiple server mechanisms (the lottery module, housing module, etc) and recreate what happened to then make it right in the end. If they are able to handle reverse engineering that whole mess but can't do something simple like tracing gil transfers between RMT and buyers?

SE has literally taken dirty money away before in XIV, back in early ARR. So they've demonstrated the fact they've been able to do this forever.
The great Salvage bans on XI was something to be feared, and I'm just hoping it happens again soon in XIV.

[Jeeqbit]

They said they are tracking the items that get bought so that if you bought them and they find out it was RMT, they can delete the items bought through RMT. That does affect the buyer because now they know there is a risk they could be wasting their money if the items are later deleted.

[Dohmi-Zeiva]

I would very much like Yoshi to address the entire botting issue in depth both during a live letter and via one of his lodestone posts.

It honestly feels like they have put it in the too hard/not profitable enough basket.

Lazy.

[Deveryn]

I would very much like Yoshi to address the entire botting issue in depth both during a live letter and via one of his lodestone posts.

It honestly feels like they have put it in the too hard/not profitable enough basket.

Lazy.

He's more or less addressed it already when he's responded to add-on questions. He doesn't want the game to impose a crazy amount of restrictions.

The first and most logical thing that would have to get looked at is the free trial.

[Kes13a]

He's more or less addressed it already when he's responded to add-on questions. He doesn't want the game to impose a crazy amount of restrictions.

The first and most logical thing that would have to get looked at is the free trial.

he doesnt need to "impose restrictions" he needs to have a competent team, not the STF since they have proven they cant do anything meaningful, and they need to start account actions on BUYERS.

screw the botting, if the market dries up the bot problem will sort itself out. all they are doing now, is going after the symptom, not the cause.

ban the people who buy gil. period. stop dinking around with the low hanging fruit. they own the servers, they own the data, they have zero excuse NOT to be able to do this. they can track the money, and if you start giving a vacation to real people, and then ban them for a second offense, that sends a better message than banning thousands and thousands of throw away accounts.

[Atelier-Bagur]

he doesnt need to "impose restrictions" he needs to have a competent team, not the STF since they have proven they cant do anything meaningful, and they need to start account actions on BUYERS.

screw the botting, if the market dries up the bot problem will sort itself out. all they are doing now, is going after the symptom, not the cause.

ban the people who buy gil. period. stop dinking around with the low hanging fruit. they own the servers, they own the data, they have zero excuse NOT to be able to do this. they can track the money, and if you start giving a vacation to real people, and then ban them for a second offense, that sends a better message than banning thousands and thousands of throw away accounts.

I bet you my entire life savings what you just suggested was probably one of the first thoughts they had when they ran into this problem. Easier said than done.

[Kes13a]

I bet you my entire life savings what you just suggested was probably one of the first thoughts they had when they ran into this problem. Easier said than done.

I wouldnt. knowing how "well" the STF functions, I doubt they have seriously considered this option at any point. it isnt easy. it needs a competent team of humans to review and assess.

it requires effort on their end. auto bot banning is far simpler and means the STF can still have their tea circle and not work for a living.

I am sure SE could come up with a competent team for it, and pay them... if they cared....