SE's anti-RMT efforts - how it should be done

WSIMike

Just thought I'd share some thoughts with some who, perhaps, in the past have played FFXI during the time the RMT was pretty bad, the economy was ridiculously inflated and gil was flowing through the RMT sites like water.



Seems SE's task force has been having a profound impact on the prevalence of RMT in the game.



On top of what they do behind the scenes, here are some highlights of what they've done that are readily seen by the players:



- Made drop popular items like Emperor Hairpin, Peacock Charm, Leaping Boots and such BCNM rewards, instead of NM drops. They've replaced the NM drops with rare/ex (no trade/no sell) versions of them so now it's pointless for RMT to monopolize those items - they can't do anything with them. On the other hand, since any player has the ability to get a shot at the actual original items via BCNMs, there are more available on the AH and so the prices have come down dramatically.



- On the heels of removing those items, many RMT took to fish-botting and for a while - a short while - you'd see numerous lvl1 fish-bots lining the shorelines all over the place, with the stupid non-names like "KLKLTPTPQR" that are part of the scenery in other MMOs like Lineage II where RMT is allowed to run rampant. You'd see them in Qufim Island, in Valkurm Dunes, etc. The fish market on the AH was showing a serious impact from this. Square fought back with something I, and others, feel is just brilliant. They've implemented a sort of NPC police force into the game in the form of Goblin Bounty Hunters that patrol the shorelines. They are faster and stronger than a normal goblin of their level. Basically, if you're too low level for an area and are standing there fishing, you're going to be attacked. I had my doubts at first, but within a few days of them being implemented, you'd hear people saying all over "Where did all the fish-botters go?" They're practically nowhere to be found now.



As a result of this, and other consistent actions on SE's part, the economy has come down *dramatically* in FFXI. I regularly see items selling for *way* cheaper than I ever remember them selling for - by 100s of thousands.. even millions in many cases. The economy has come very much back down to earth and it's actually feasible and realistic for a "normal" player to actually obtain items that were once only available to the extremely rich.



Another indicator... as of a few days ago, I saw something on IGE that I have *never* seen.. or at least have no memory of ever seeing. IGE was once selling gil at a minimum of a million (maybe more) and it was going for right around $10, if not less, so plentiful was the gil. Since SE's counter-measures, I recently - as of a few days ago - gil was being sold as small as 100k increments for around $12. It's gone up a little bit since then and they're now selling as low as 500k increments, but regardless. This is a far cry from the millions they once offered up for relative pennies. Another sure sign that SE's efforts have been making a serious dent in RMT activity.



So... for anyone who's still a nay-sayer, who would believe RMT has no impact and thus, controlling it has no impact on a game's economy. Look no further for proof that it absolutely does. Likewise, for those who either currently play FFXI, or have in the past and are unaware of just how effective SE has been and just how seriously they're taking the RMT in FFXI.... let this be proof enough that they are taking it very seriously, are addressing it very aggressively, and it's having a very noticeable impact.



It also helps to underscore how RMT in other games (like Lineage II, where many members will argue, to this day, it's not really that big a problem.. riiiight...) really do not do enough to combat it and allow it to run rampant.



I, for one, applaud SE for their efforts and am really happy to be playing a game by one of too few companies out there who take RMT seriously as they do.

Wizardry

Yes i agree to a point,because somewhere along the way i read a blog ,that stated they didn't expect this sort of thing .Therefore it could run fairly rampant witrh out SE having any tools to combat it.

Now lies the absolutely huge problem that really bothers me.There is no doubt the game devs also play this game as prolly many of  SE employees do.Now ALL of these players were allowed to cheat freely and fish bot freely for over 3 years before they finally decided to do something.The speed cheats,warp cheats,mining cheats were well known and very little was done to combat this.Ok i'll admit that at first they made a mistake by not expecting cheats,but after even 1 year this shoulda been looked after.

Where this leads me is to firmly believe,ALOT of the emplyees DEVS behind this game CHEAT!.They waited till long after they achieved 100 crafts/100 fishing and all the GIL they needed to last them a lifetime,BEFORE they started to show an effort.All those players are free and safe now that they have already achieved everything in the game.

Now the economy is back to where it should be ...EXCEPT the valuable items,they are still very exspensive to buy ,even if they have dropped below insane costs.There is alot of inactive players now ,more or less just hanging out who do NOT drive the market anymore.This means that any new player will have an incredible hard time to gain 1 million gil.1million gil will still NOT buy your elite items,and that's if you never upgrade and save every penny you earn.Very little sells on the AH anymore,wich is proof of inactivity.

I know alot of players would like this game to last a very long time,but SE had better do something soon to bring back activity amongst all players,so the low-mid end market can thrive as it needs to.

I do however commend them for showing a great effort NOW,and not completely turning a blind eye as games like WOW and L2 do.Wow has started to follow suite just recently,however i don;t believe the cry baby's who claim there accounts have been hacked[rflmao]ya right ,they would have to hack the server,wich means they have everyone's INFO or you gave out your account info,wich again is not a hack.

WSIMike

Originally posted by Wizardry


Yes i agree to a point,because somewhere along the way i read a blog ,that stated they didn't expect this sort of thing .Therefore it could run fairly rampant witrh out SE having any tools to combat it.
Now lies the absolutely huge problem that really bothers me.There is no doubt the game devs also play this game as prolly many of  SE employees do.Now ALL of these players were allowed to cheat freely and fish bot freely for over 3 years before they finally decided to do something.The speed cheats,warp cheats,mining cheats were well known and very little was done to combat this.Ok i'll admit that at first they made a mistake by not expecting cheats,but after even 1 year this shoulda been looked after.
Well, yes, it would have been nice for it to have been resolved sooner and I'm not about to pretend to know why they waited as long as they did.. if they were even "waiting" in the first place. SE, like so many other companies, are/were completely new at the MMO thing and didn't know what to expect when they were coding the engine. It's not beyond reason that it simply took them a very long time to get things in place to where they could combat it effectively. Plus, when the economy went completely berserk, I'm sure that was a serious flame under their arses to get something going. And they did.
Really no point to go back and harp on what should have happened after 1 year when the game has been around for around 5. They did what many companies *still* refuse to do with their games, started taking it seriously and routed a significant amount of man-power and money into resolving the issue.
Where this leads me is to firmly believe,ALOT of the emplyees DEVS behind this game CHEAT!.They waited till long after they achieved 100 crafts/100 fishing and all the GIL they needed to last them a lifetime,BEFORE they started to show an effort.All those players are free and safe now that they have already achieved everything in the game.
Well, okay, this is along the lines of suspicion and even conspiracy theory, and so I'm not even going to respond to it. But I highly doubt that's the reason.
Now the economy is back to where it should be ...EXCEPT the valuable items,they are still very exspensive to buy ,even if they have dropped below insane costs.There is alot of inactive players now ,more or less just hanging out who do NOT drive the market anymore.This means that any new player will have an incredible hard time to gain 1 million gil.1million gil will still NOT buy your elite items,and that's if you never upgrade and save every penny you earn.Very little sells on the AH anymore,wich is proof of inactivity.
I know alot of players would like this game to last a very long time,but SE had better do something soon to bring back activity amongst all players,so the low-mid end market can thrive as it needs to.
Well, first, there have always been very costly items on the AH and that is due to supply and demand, just like in real life. The more valuable or rare an item is, the more expensive it's going to be. Such pricing also guarantees that the best items aren't available to everyone with minimal effort. That said, I will say that the prices don't always make sense, but then we have only ourselves - the players - to blame for that. For example.. a Venerer's ring... +3 Accuracy... goes for 75k, while a Life Belt, +10 Accuracy and just about the same level, goes for 35k. Why? Because the V. ring is harder to get apparently. You figure that one out .
Anyway... I also don't know where you get the impression that AH is inactive. There are *constantly* things moving through there. There are no fewer people crowded around the AH in Jeuno (and now in Whitegate also) than there ever have been. I'll see some items moving where the entire sales-history is full of sales just from that day, and it's still the AM. The AH, and the economy, are fine.
I do however commend them for showing a great effort NOW,and not completely turning a blind eye as games like WOW and L2 do.Wow has started to follow suite just recently,however i don;t believe the cry baby's who claim there accounts have been hacked[rflmao]ya right ,they would have to hack the server,wich means they have everyone's INFO or you gave out your account info,wich again is not a hack.
I can't speak for WoW, though I know Blizzard regularly posts banning reports for that game. NCSoft is a joke when it comes to Lineage II's problems and LII remains among the worst examples of RMT botting run amuck in a MMO.
Don't try telling that to the die-hard LII players, though... they're very protective of their game and can be rather nasty when reminded that they're playing a game that is largely controlled by RMT. Their argument is "well it's only because in LII there are no instances, so the problem seems worse." Funny... there's no instances in FFXI either... yet I don't see RMT bots flooding any popular leveling areas. Oh wait.. that's because SE is actually dealing with them consistently and aggressively. Minor detail.  They like to believe it's somehow getting better in LII (even though a quick glance at IGE will prove very soundly that adena is still being farmed and sold in large quantities at low prices - like it always has. Again, while FFXI's gil supplies are clearly lacking thanks to SE's *true* efforts in combatting it).
But anyway... yes, I think it's safe to say that SE and FFXI should be commended for their efforts - and that they're effective. But, some will still want to look at the past and say "oh.. but they let it get out of control 2 years ago!!" And...?

 

musflo

I really love how S.E. has upped their ANTI-RMT game, (I've been playing since ps2 launch, and I've quit over 6 times now and I've come back within 4-6 months) , I am trying to get alot of people back into FFXI , maybe the game's population will increase because of these new efforts but I really do wish that they had done this a very LONG time ago.

Solkin

I think they are doing a pretty god job.  You can't get everyone, but the company that tries and succeeds get my vote.  I've been playing since PC release in '03 and I have seen what the economy has done the past 4 years.

The inflation was so bad that it was getting rather stupid.  Once SE started banning accounts the economy massively deflated and has now recently stablized again.  I quit last spring for EQ2, *gasp* OMG it's not WoW?  Yeah, WoW sucks, but thats another story.  Anyways, for an exmaple when I left I sold off most of my high valued items and just sat on the gil.  I sold my Jujitsu Gi for 800k when I left and early this year when I came back, I re-bought it for 60k.

In my opinion, SE is doing a comendable job dealing with RMT, with things like making popular NM drops Rare/EX and banning accounts, etc.  They aren't going to nab them all, because the human race in general would rather take the easiest path to there destination, even when it involves cheating and back stabbing to get there.  It's sad really.  They will just keep popping up, and SE will conitnue to add counter measures, but then someone will sit in there basement coding some other hacking program to get around the system.

Of all the online games that I have played, I would have to give SE top honors for there systems, and there efforts with cheating. 

WSIMike

Originally posted by Solkin


I think they are doing a pretty god job.  You can't get everyone, but the company that tries and succeeds get my vote.  I've been playing since PC release in '03 and I have seen what the economy has done the past 4 years.
The inflation was so bad that it was getting rather stupid.  Once SE started banning accounts the economy massively deflated and has now recently stablized again.  I quit last spring for EQ2, *gasp* OMG it's not WoW?  Yeah, WoW sucks, but thats another story.  Anyways, for an exmaple when I left I sold off most of my high valued items and just sat on the gil.  I sold my Jujitsu Gi for 800k when I left and early this year when I came back, I re-bought it for 60k.
In my opinion, SE is doing a comendable job dealing with RMT, with things like making popular NM drops Rare/EX and banning accounts, etc.  They aren't going to nab them all, because the human race in general would rather take the easiest path to there destination, even when it involves cheating and back stabbing to get there.  It's sad really.  They will just keep popping up, and SE will conitnue to add counter measures, but then someone will sit in there basement coding some other hacking program to get around the system.
Of all the online games that I have played, I would have to give SE top honors for there systems, and there efforts with cheating. 

Agree 100% with everything you said there.



This is why I will continue to support SE as a company and will continue to play FFXI (well, other than the fact that, to me, it's the most worthwhile MMO out there; I've played almost 30 and I keep coming back to Vana'diel). I am happy to pay my monthly subscription to them.

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