Time to address the real problem - RMT buyers

[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.

[Renalt]

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.

Actually now that I think about it...maybe put a fear tactic in. Have people in the guise of a Gil seller and if those people try to put gold...to the GM Jail for you and be like "This is your only warning". Word spreads, people can't tell if a real RMT or if a GM anymore, and they stop risking their accounts to buy gil.

I'd say that is worth testing for a month or so.

[Katt_Felista]

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.

Because you think this is a "mistake" ?

Tons of other mmo's introduce 1st month exploits for their third party resellers / gm friends to make a lot of reserves in the game currency /mats / items to resell and switch /swap exploits and bugs from one month to the other to try to never get the normal playerbase find out these cycles and where to get , for a limited time, abusive amount of currencies.

Happened in Age of conan (lots of scandals around the whole GM echelons and their mods favoritism with high end guilds and so on), Lineage 2, Tantra Online, New World (saw the same Fest of obvious duplication bugs and easy exploits to allow some guilds to make incredible amount of mats / money Exactly like Fallout 76, in aoc, specific old dungeons droping literally gold instead of silver for a few weeks, then that other dungeon is patched but another one does the same, then it's a specific area droping gold instead of silver, then it's changing all the raid boss strats an capacities / way skill works in yakhmar or vistrix one week or patch after the other to render them extra difficult or hard to clear without knowing some exploits or how the changed mechanic work, almost forcing guilds to reprog the raid bosses, but rmt know how to kill them day one still offering then sales for these clears,then it was, in one patch u can duplicate extremely rare and expensive gems into gear slots, by using a specific way with the keyboard and trade window, then this is patched, then this comes back 2 patch later, yada yada yada) Priston Tale, lots and lots of innumerable mmos, old like news, have these "cycles" of exploit picks and supposedly "patching" of said exploit when "found out" (but only if they are found by normal players reporting them and discovering the scam, mind you. Just don't let the normal playerbase profit from it ! it's only our rmt privilege access, PATCH IT NOW !)

I've seen too many examples of these conveniences for rmt users to think, it is "innocent" when it profits only RMT's that have exceptional DAY ONE , just right away, minutes after a patch is out, they have this "newfound" exploit knowledge at the minute and can profit from it a month long before patched. See. It can only come from inside ressources / some GM/ mod / admin giving it out. Only imbeciles and naive people think these are "mistakes", mistakes that keep repeating themselves in various cycles and coming back in further patches... when people forgot these existed after a while, somehow.

[AwesomeJr44]

Oh Im sorry, see my big dumb idiot white knight brain dont work sometimes so it can be a little hard for me to read your thought provoking intelligent posts. Thank you.

The funniest part about this response is that you clearly meant it as sarcasm but it's far more accurate if taken as genuine. And before anyone gets offended, he's the one who said it, not me.

[Shibi]

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...

I'm rather surprised that they didn't do this first. With a few roaming world-appearing GMs here and there to tackle the problem, jumping world to world in places like Eureka, with public executions, the problem should have been lessened. Less people will buy if there is a stronger chance a GM might appear right next to them and Akh-morn them into the seven hells.

The STF have been forever and continually useless, and the GMs answering our in game tickets have for far too long done a schultz-like "I know nothing, nothing" when it comes to reporting RMT. SE has always given the impression that they are just too busy, and too cheap, to deal with the problem.

They still need to seriously step up the number of staff dealing with this, and they need to make it international, and not just for their home market.

[Stormpeaks]

The funniest part about this response is that you clearly meant it as sarcasm but it's far more accurate if taken as genuine. And before anyone gets offended, he's the one who said it, not me.

It's always the same few people and god they are comedy, just infinite shilling

[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....

[Rolder50]

Actually now that I think about it...maybe put a fear tactic in. Have people in the guise of a Gil seller and if those people try to put gold...to the GM Jail for you and be like "This is your only warning". Word spreads, people can't tell if a real RMT or if a GM anymore, and they stop risking their accounts to buy gil.

I'd say that is worth testing for a month or so.

That wouldn't really work because most gil sellers just spam links to external websites, you aren't buying or interacting with the spammer.

[Liam_Harper]

What annoys me in this situation is that the only reason they're taking such heavy action is because it costs them money via chargebacks from previously stolen credit cards. The players are the ones affected negatively.

However ingame RMT and botting which don't lose them money (even earns them money via subs) have very little measure taken against them. The players are the ones affected negatively.

[Kes13a]

I'm rather surprised that they didn't do this first. With a few roaming world-appearing GMs here and there to tackle the problem, jumping world to world in places like Eureka, with public executions, the problem should have been lessened. Less people will buy if there is a stronger chance a GM might appear right next to them and Akh-morn them into the seven hells.

The STF have been forever and continually useless, and the GMs answering our in game tickets have for far too long done a schultz-like "I know nothing, nothing" when it comes to reporting RMT. SE has always given the impression that they are just too busy, and too cheap, to deal with the problem.

They still need to seriously step up the number of staff dealing with this, and they need to make it international, and not just for their home market.

the problem is.. the GM's are PROHIBITED from doing that. the entire existence of the STF is to deal with that. and only a moron would think 4 people can do that for ALL of SE's servers, yet thats the expectation. I am sure the GM's would love the ability to do something, but likely busy with player issues. I wouldnt be surprised if the GM's are not even able to pass things over to the STF.

the STF is honestly god given useless. I dont know if they send people there that have a few months left before retirement or what, but they are VERY overpaid for what they seem to actually accomplish. it needs to be a bigger team to be more effective for anything. right now it appears to just be cronies collecting a paycheque