Time to address the real problem - RMT buyers

[Jojoya]

Strengthening Enforcement Against Real Money Trading (RMT) Activity

We strongly encourage players to refrain from engaging with these groups, as there would be no reason for RMT vendors to exist if players do not use their services.

Players use their services because there is no penalty for doing so.

Because there are players willing to use their services, banning accounts related to RMT sales has little effect. They simply make a new account with part of the profits from their previous transaction, knowing that the profits made with the new account can be used to start yet another account when it gets banned in turn.

If you want to shut down RMT, you need to shut down those who are funding their industry - the buyers. That's only going to happen if you start aggressively pursuing them, penalize them in a meaningful fashion then publicize that pursuit and the resulting penalty. Make it clear to other players who are considering RMT that it is not worth it.

That doesn't have to mean permanently banning an account for a first offense. Some players (especially younger ones) may not really understand the serious problems caused by RMT. But a 30 day ban with an accompanying explanation of how RMT impacts the game for everyone should send the message loud and clear to those willing to listen.

Those not willing to listen that are caught a second time? Permanently ban the account. Take away everything that player has worked to get for the past several months.

Those found to be engaging in RMT would of course have the chance to appeal their bans. False positives can happen.

It's also a good way to collect some very funny stories from the cheaters that can be used to help publicize the actions that are being taken against RMT buyers and the futile excuses some use trying to escape punishment. Player names would not be used since that would be a privacy violation. The player names could be replaced with the names of FF franchise villains for additional entertainment, and potentially attract even more attention in the player community to the problems caused by RMT.

But honestly, SE. If you truly want to do something about RMT activity, you need to go after those who create the need for the RMT services in the first place and you need to make it very clear that you are doing so. Any business will end up going out of business if they can't get enough customers.

That's how you need to fight RMT - drive away their customers.

[Stormpeaks]

Strengthening Enforcement Against Real Money Trading (RMT) Activity



Players use their services because there is no penalty for doing so.

Because there are players willing to use their services, banning accounts related to RMT sales has little effect. They simply make a new account with part of the profits from their previous transaction, knowing that the profits made with the new account can be used to start yet another account when it gets banned in turn.

If you want to shut down RMT, you need to shut down those who are funding their industry - the buyers. That's only going to happen if you start aggressively pursuing them, penalize them in a meaningful fashion then publicize that pursuit and the resulting penalty. Make it clear to other players who are considering RMT that it is not worth it.

That doesn't have to mean permanently banning an account for a first offense. Some players (especially younger ones) may not really understand the serious problems caused by RMT. But a 30 day ban with an accompanying explanation of how RMT impacts the game for everyone should send the message loud and clear to those willing to listen.

Those not willing to listen that are caught a second time? Permanently ban the account. Take away everything that player has worked to get for the past several months.

Those found to be engaging in RMT would of course have the chance to appeal their bans. False positives can happen.

It's also a good way to collect some very funny stories from the cheaters that can be used to help publicize the actions that are being taken against RMT buyers and the futile excuses some use trying to escape punishment. Player names would not be used since that would be a privacy violation. The player names could be replaced with the names of FF franchise villains for additional entertainment, and potentially attract even more attention in the player community to the problems caused by RMT.

But honestly, SE. If you truly want to do something about RMT activity, you need to go after those who create the need for the RMT services in the first place and you need to make it very clear that you are doing so. Any business will end up going out of business if they can't get enough customers.

That's how you need to fight RMT - drive away their customers.

That requires actually putting ressources in banning RMT, which obviously they dont want to do because it costs money, the whole gift thing is just showing that, slap on a band aid on it and hope it fixes it (it wont, it'll only ruin gifting for legit players)

[Conadrium]

By limiting gifting they ARE spending money. Just money they don’t have yet. It’s a bad solution that won’t work but don’t be disengenous.

[Oizen]

I've seen so many games do this exact shit, half assed answers easily bypassed by someone who'll just make another account but an entire feature ruined for real players.

[Zsolen]

You are right. You can't just try to attack supply. You also have lower demand.

[Renalt]

I'm curious why people even buy gil. I gave away 16 million about...2 months ago and it was a chore to even get rid of that.

[Oizen]

I'm curious why people even buy gil. I gave away 16 million about...2 months ago and it was a chore to even get rid of that.

You can spend a lot of gil in housing, and the people involved with RMT typically have multiple houses as the system basically not only encourages RMT, but rewards it.

[Deveryn]

You can spend a lot of gil in housing, and the people involved with RMT typically have multiple houses as the system basically not only encourages RMT, but rewards it.

I doubt it's just housing, as that's so hard to get. Crafted gear tends to be on the expensive side and people would likely rather spend the money than try to find someone who could help them out.

Newer players are likely ignorant to the fact that they can earn a lot of gil just from regular play, so they're more likely to fall for these traps. An effort could be made to educate people, but folks would rather bitch about stuff and yell "small indie company" when something doesn't go their way.

[Rolder50]

I doubt it's just housing, as that's so hard to get. Crafted gear tends to be on the expensive side and people would likely rather spend the money than try to find someone who could help them out.

Newer players are likely ignorant to the fact that they can earn a lot of gil just from regular play, so they're more likely to fall for these traps. An effort could be made to educate people, but folks would rather bitch about stuff and yell "small indie company" when something doesn't go their way.

I'm not too sure on the crafted front either. Crafted gear these days isn't that expensive so long as you give it a week or two to calm down. If you're in some kind of world first raid group and need that day 1 gear, you'll have a dedicated crafter or five on the team anyway.

[Deveryn]

I'm not too sure on the crafted front either. Crafted gear these days isn't that expensive so long as you give it a week or two to calm down. If you're in some kind of world first raid group and need that day 1 gear, you'll have a dedicated crafter or five on the team anyway.

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.

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.

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.