SE Please implement a Chonoscroll/PLEX system in FFXIV: ARR

[Kiroh]

Your problem is that I don't "Think". I've seen it happen.

This isn't a new idea.

You're right, you don't think. If you even half believe there is a single game out there without a large RMT population you are sadly mistaken. The only thing that gets rid of RMT is when people stop playing the game and there's no one left to buy their products.

This isn't a new idea, and it's not going to change anything. It won't even make it harder for RMT to make money because RMT don't actually put any work into the game in the first place. Unlike you, they simply start a bot program and let it run until they've made enough of what they want to sell to make a profit. That you think you have the solution to change that and know more about combating RMT than SE does (or at least enough so you think they should change their billing system to support what you want them to do) is arrogant, ridiculous, and just plain wrong.

[Abriael]

You're right, you don't think. If you even half believe there is a single game out there without a large RMT population you are sadly mistaken. The only thing that gets rid of RMT is when people stop playing the game and there's no one left to buy their products.

Unfortunately for your misguided argument, the examples are there in front of everyone. On TERA and EVE Online RMT is a lot less widespread and they didn't manage to ignite the inflative process that they do in other games.

This isn't a new idea, and it's not going to change anything. It won't even make it harder for RMT to make money because RMT don't actually put any work into the game in the first place. Unlike you, they simply start a bot program and let it run until they've made enough of what they want to sell to make a profit.

Running an RMT operation requires large resources and manpower. Bots don't run by themselves completely unsupervised. In FFXIV bots work only for a small part of the operations RMT does, as the preferred method is multiboxing (that is definitely manned).

Sorry, but you should really make some research before writing.

That you think you have the solution to change that and know more about combating RMT than SE does (or at least enough so you think they should change their billing system to support what you want them to do) is arrogant, ridiculous, and just plain wrong.

And you think you know more about combating RMT than CCP Games and En Masse Entertainment?

[Kiroh]

And you think you know more about combating RMT than CCP Games and En Masse Entertainment?

No, but I think the 25 year old gaming company that has been making games before even the ideas for these two companies existed MIGHT possibly know better about what works in their games the you or anyone else does.

Unfortunately for your misguided argument, the examples are there in front of everyone. On TERA and EVE Online RMT is a lot less widespread and they didn't manage to ignite the inflative process that they do in other games.

See where I said population affects RMT? Now check the huge population decline in Tera since it was released and try to figure out why maybe it's not as widespread as more popular, and populated, games.

[Abriael]

No, but I think the 25 year old gaming company that has been making games before even the ideas for these two companies existed MIGHT possibly know better about what works in their games the you or anyone else does.

25 years making offline games doesn't help one bit in combating an online issue. All the experience SE has on this is the (mostly failed) experience in FFXI and the experience in FFXIV, that isn't even a real study case because the game was an explosive flop.

On the other hand, both CCP and En Masse have been more successful in combating RMT that Square Enix has ever been. So yes. they do know better. Results don't lie.

So yeah. SE has everything to gain from taking a page from the book of those that managed better.

See where I said population affects RMT? Now check the huge population decline in Tera since it was released and try to figure out why maybe it's not as widespread as more popular, and populated, games.

Actually the population of TERA is definitely healthy and stable at the moment. This without mentioning the fact that EVE online's population is very large and still growing.

[Kiroh]

25 years making offline games doesn't help one bit in combating an online issue. All the experience SE has on this is the (mostly failed) experience in FFXI and the experience in FFXIV, that isn't even a real study case because the game was an explosive flop.

On the other hand, both CCP and En Masse have been more successful in combating RMT that Square Enix has ever been. So yes. they do know better. Results don't lie.

So yeah. SE has everything to gain from taking a page from the book of those that managed better.

Source?

In what way was XI a "Failure", and what evidence do you have that CCP and En Masse have been successful at all, much less more successful in combating RMT? If you have some kind of report suggesting this system is in any way effective by all means link it up.

[axemtitanium]

You're right, you don't think. If you even half believe there is a single game out there without a large RMT population you are sadly mistaken. The only thing that gets rid of RMT is when people stop playing the game and there's no one left to buy their products.

This isn't a new idea, and it's not going to change anything. It won't even make it harder for RMT to make money because RMT don't actually put any work into the game in the first place. Unlike you, they simply start a bot program and let it run until they've made enough of what they want to sell to make a profit. That you think you have the solution to change that and know more about combating RMT than SE does (or at least enough so you think they should change their billing system to support what you want them to do) is arrogant, ridiculous, and just plain wrong.

RMT is a bit more complicated than that but for the purposes of argument, let's say that you can just bot botany (pun only partially intended) to gather items to sell. First, this is one of the slowest but most easily automated money-making tasks in the game. However, by increasing competition for the price of gil, you decrease the amount of money they make per time doing this bot task. If they can't make enough gil in 1 month of botting to cover the cost of subscription, internet costs, and computer costs, then this ceases to be a profitable solution.

Let's go the next step up: farming for fleece. This requires much more monthly subscription cost since each account must be separate to get the proper leves. It's probably still bottable to some extent, but might require some supervision, which adds a human labor cost. Again, lowering the amount of real money that gil sells for will lower the RMT's bottom line and make this unprofitable.

Next step up: spiritbonding in Natalan. This again requires multiple monthly subscriptions AND requires at least 1 actual person to be operating the character at all times, but has the potential to be very profitable. Who knows if RMT gil prices will fall to the extent that this stops being worthwhile over time.

And a hypothetical final step that you suggested: selling U/U item drops. This is probably completely unfeasible since it requires at least 7 people working full-time to help 1 paying customer. These 7 people also have to get well-geared so there's a high up-front cost before it becomes profitable. It's probably more trouble than it's worth, especially because that initial gear investment is completely lost if the account(s) get banned.

In each of these cases, yes, RMTs can use the PLEX system to pay for their own subscriptions but that only serves to lower their bottom line even further since it cuts into their profits by having to use the product they're selling. I know SE has been combating RMT for 10 years now and they're probably decently good at it. However, EVE Online has proposed an alternative to traditional RMT-management which seems to have worked.