Tackling RMT: What creates buyers in the first place?

[Jojoya]

So I previously brought up that to truly make a difference in the RMT problem, SE needs to go after the buyers aggressively. As long as there are players willing to buy, there will be someone out there aiming to sell for profit.

But what factors lead players into becoming buyers in the first place? Can any of those factors be reduced or eliminated to players are less likely to want to buy?

This is lengthy so let me give you a TLDR now. Those interested in my reasoning can continue to read after it.

TLDR: The developers need to reduce the gil cap to something reasonable and standardize the number of marketboard listings available to all players instead of making them dependent on the number of retainers. Players need to reduce the prices they are charging on the marketboard. Collectively, this will give the average player greater buying power and reduce the demand for RMT.

The base factor leading to buyers is simple: a desire for gil (or whatever a game's tradeable currency is). That desire is usually generated by the gil cost of items the player wants versus the gil they have available and how easily they can get to the needed amount.

Those who heed some internal honor code will avoid the temptation to purchase the gil even if they can't see themselves being able to earn it in a reasonable amount of time. Those who are prone to cheating or whose desire for the target item is overwhelming are more likely to turn to RMT when they don't feel they can get the needed amount in a reasonable amount of time.

Lowering the gil cost of needed or desirable items and/or increasing access to gil then become ways of reducing willingness to engage in RMT.

Personally, I don't think that increasing gil rewards is needed. The game is generous with gil, giving it as a reward in almost everything we do other than Gold Saucer and PvP. The individual amounts seem small then you realize you've collected them 100 times in the space of a day or two and the amount is much larger.

The game has little in the way of unavoidable costs to act as gil sinks and some of those can be eliminated after reaching level 50.

Teleport fees can be absorbed through use of Aetheryte tickets obtained through Allied or Centurio Seals.

Repair fees can be avoided as a crafter and are not that high for those who aren't.

The marketboard buyer fee is unavoidable but the seller fee can be reduced or even avoided on some worlds by assigning your retainers to city states with reduced seller market taxes.

With the exception of housing, there is little sold for gil by the game that is desirable and cannot be obtained in any other way. The game usually sells the desirable items for non-tradeable currencies like tomestones.

With the game giving us so much gil but little need to use it except to purchase housing, why is there still a demand for RMT gil?

Marketboard prices set by players.

I'm not going to blame that entirely on the players. I'd assign about 40% of the blame to the developers

Why do I give them part of the blame? Because they're the ones that set and control the gil cap. It makes no sense to set the gil cap to 999,999,999 when the most expensive purchase in the game is 50,000,000 and the vast majority of player transactions are under 1,000,000.

YoshiP mentioned during the last Live Letter how western players on average are approaching Island Sanctuary differently from their JP counterparts. Most western players engaged with Island Sanctuary are evidently visiting their island every day or two, managing it day to day. JP players, according to the translations of YoshiP's comments, have a need to fill in any empty spaces they see as soon as possible. This leaves them with less time filler over the course of a week.

But western players have their own obsession to fill in empty spaces when those empty spaces are related to money/wealth. Being raised in mostly Capitalist cultures, we are conditioned to seek more wealth to raise our quality of life even if that quality of life starts to exceed what's necessary and reasonable.

When you give us a gil cap of 999,999,999 to fill not just once but several times per character (via retainer storage), you're going to get a lot of players trying to do just that. Considering how long it would take to get there just from standard game play rewards (once unavoidable game fees are subtracted), players turn to a different source to bridge that gap.

Other players and the marketboard.

If I want to reach gil cap and reach it as fast as possible, then I need to both sell more and charge more for the items I'm selling on the marketboard. I need to play more often to be able to list new items as soon as previous listings are sold. It's still going to take a while to reach that first billion but the goal will be attainable. My wealth comes off the backs of players who don't have the advantages I have or are unwilling to use them.

The player limited to 4 to 5 hours a week will fall rapidly behind in wealth compared to those who can play 40+ hours a week. That wealth differential means players who desires some of those nice items the wealthy player is selling at inflated prices to reach gil cap faster ends up feeling pressured into resorting to RMT and far too many will cave into it.

So 40% of the blame to the developers setting the system as it is. Why 60% of the blame on players?

Because we are presumably rational adults that have learned to control our actions and desires.

We don't need to reach gil cap. We don't need to set inflated prices for what we sell on the marketboard. We don't always need that latest glamour day one of release at any price when we could wait a month and the price will have dropped down to a fraction of the original as competition and supply on the marketboard increases. These are the things that lead to RMT.

Even if SE did not change the gil cap and did not normalize the number of marketboard listings each character gets access to, we have the ability to not pursue game wealth beyond the amount reasonably needed.

If we're going to remove RMT from gaming, we all need to do our part instead of putting all the responsibility on the developers.

[PirateRyanG]

Increasing access to gil pushes prices up, not down. It would lead to more people buying gil.

Players aren't going to willingly reduce their prices anyway. Ever. Prices always go up. Supply and demand.

It's not even hard to earn gil right now anyway. If you had a healer and a tank, you can earn about 60k an hour just by doing adventurer in need on leveling dungeons. You can probably make more by crafting or gathering, but still. More people like the combat, I guess.

[GTK0HLK]

I believe most people already blamed the Players.
I for one blame most players on the marketboard, for what I consider, foolish selling practices.
mostly undercutting In singles, rather than in bulk.<I have sold so many stacks of items by selling them in 2-4 stacks at a higher price netting me money off the undercutters. and I only bought their stacks in the first place cause I needed the item to craft something.., whilst lowering other players overall GIL costs to advance>
But that's just my view.[and I probably haven't run into the threads or posts where people are blaming the Devs/SE/CBUIII]

(But I have seen people get mad at the devs for the latest store change, which is reasonable to assume is only temporary, whilst they deal with RMT)

[DixieBellOCE]

The base desire for people to RMT is Laziness.

Has nothing to do with the economy of the game, its a person being too lazy to earn it that they would rather just pay.

[Deveryn]

It really does come down to a player problem. So many are in a rush to do this and that and get whatever. They can't think long term.

[GTK0HLK]

agreed.., it's why I consider it a partial nature to P2W games. Whilst there is no inherent large scale issue to prevent your progress in XIV that can be overcome with Lil effort.

Sadly people have built themselves the ridiculous acceptances and notion of similar processes, or interactions of games that have indirect or direct Pay to proceed.

<even if it's a norm in one market/gaming platform, or any other. it doesn't mean people accept, want it for everything or should be for all. In the end it Ruins the game. and this ain't about profits. but the overall enjoyment for the majority of players.> but even so. this probably is only a noticeable fraction of the issues with RMT.

[Tiramu]

The only solution is to permamently ban anyone involved with RMT. As soon as they find someone involved with RMT, trace it forward and back, and ban every account involved.

One strike, and you're out, no exceptions. Bots, sellers and buyers. Kick them out, the biggest deterrant is losing your money and utterly wasting hours, months or years of your life invested into the game.

But that wont happen because we'd lose a sizable portion of the high end raiding community, RP and "in game business" communities and they'd claim to be "targetted".

[DragonFlyy]

You want to stop RMT, make the game single player.

Or remove all trading so gil/items can't be traded and then remove all leveling so characters themselves have no tradable value. Also remove housing.

[DragonFlyy]

The only solution is to permamently ban anyone involved with RMT. As soon as they find someone involved with RMT, trace it forward and back, and ban every account involved.

One strike, and you're out, no exceptions. Bots, sellers and buyers. Kick them out, the biggest deterrant is losing your money and utterly wasting hours, months or years of your life invested into the game.

But that wont happen because we'd lose a sizable portion of the high end raiding community, RP and "in game business" communities and they'd claim to be "targetted".

And do we ban the people who sold something on the AH and received money that was purchased with real money?

[Axious]

Speaking on market board. I personally enjoy Ffxi better.

Seller sets a price and no one can see it. Only information available to anyone is recently purchased price.

Lock items for 24 hours after placed onto the market board. Or tax the seller upfront every time said item is placed on the market board.

Personal bazaar where people could click on you to see what you are selling would be amazing.

Sorry for getting off topic.

I agree with Dixie and Deveryn though. Laziness accompanied with impulsive behavior.