RMT Countermeasures!

Nobodyreal · Post by **Nobodyreal** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 11:48 am

http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/inform ... 60209.html

Since the end of last year, item values have risen astronomically on all Worlds due to the manipulation of prices by a small percentage of the player base. The development team and the GMs carried out a detailed investigation of this problem, and discovered the existence of a group using illicit methods to produce large amounts of gil that are later sold in the real world (Real Money Trading). We would like to take this opportunity to outline the measures that have been taken to correct this issue.

Based on the results of this investigation, more than 700 accounts among those found to be involved in large-scale RMT operations have been terminated. We will continue to monitor accounts suspected of dealing in gil created or obtained in an unfair manner.

Thanks to these measures, more than 300 billion gil has been removed from circulation, and the overly inflated prices of items have begun to fall to more realistic levels.

Furthermore, emergency maintenance has already been performed on all worlds for the purpose of implementing RMT countermeasures. This maintenance took place over two stages, starting on January 17th.

As has been previously stated, acts of RMT will not be tolerated in FINAL FANTASY XI, and any violations of the user agreement will be dealt with severely. We would like to assure our players that all efforts are being made to ensure a fair playing experience.

We hope to have your continuing understanding and cooperation in creating a Vana'diel that everyone can enjoy.

Removed 300 billion gil from circulation. Billion. With a B.

Kintrra · Post by **Kintrra** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 11:55 am

And people say SE doesn't do anything. /slap!!! XD

Damned good thing tho, only problem is, that's 3 Billion gil across the worlds...I'm curious what it is on each world myself. ^^

Post by **Sugami** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 1:44 pm

It's about damn time too! 700 accounts, damn, that's a lot of money SE won't be getting. I wonder what these counter-measures are?

Post by **Holydragoon** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 4:02 pm

this was great news to wake up to =)

It's been a while since we've seen any major RMT actions, could this be a sigh of things to come to help balance the economy a little?

Post by **Alya Mizar (Tsybil)** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 4:35 pm

{/cheer}

{/dance}

{/hurray}

There's what? 30 servers? 10 Bilion / server average.

Dukuji · Post by **Dukuji** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 5:04 pm

Now it’s time to do some investigating; check the common gil selling sites.

I just checked IGE and here is what they have to say:

We always strive to give you the best prices for FFXI gil, so we have slashed FFXI gil prices on all servers - $39.99 for 1 million gil!.

Final Fantasy XI Gil is now as low as $37.99 per 2,000,000, and as always, deliveries are done 24/7 within a few minutes from the time your order is placed

That's WAY up from two months ago when it was a little less then $10 USD for a million.

At http://www.mmoshop.com/ they brag:

Huge Selection, Great Service & Unbeatable Prices
20,000 FFXI GIl (on selected servers) for as low as $ 100. 43 USD. Act now and take advantage of this unbeatable low price.

Over $100 USD for 20k gil? That's the highest gil to dollar ratio I've ever seen. They also had no gil for my home world of Alexander.

MOGS has the lowest price for gil but they only sell in 500k or 1M amounts on Alexander.

Alexander - Gil 500k $9.99
Alexander - Gil 1000k $12.99

Another site, TheSale, has gil for $41 for three million and $28 for two. (All Alexander prices)

Looks like SE still has the hammer of the gods in their possession. I applaud them and hope they keep up the great work.

Edit: Added more information on gil selling sites.

Post by **Nivez** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 5:10 pm

well looks like the gil per dollar ratio has finally decreased increasing the value of gil, this should be intresting (and hopefully push prices lower on the servers)

Sheala · Post by **Sheala** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 5:13 pm

Sugami wrote:It's about damn time too! 700 accounts, damn, that's a lot of money SE won't be getting. I wonder what these counter-measures are?

The first character cost $12.95. I am going to round that up to $13 for simplicities sake. $13/month x 700 = $9100/month . This is the minimum Square-Enix is lossing for deleting these accounts.

I counted 32 worlds not including the new Hydra server. That is an average of 22 accounts (rounded up) per server. I don't believe I have ever seen less than 2000 players on Phoenix at any time. If this is average, then one percent of the player base was controling nearly 10 billion in assests per server.

The post also made the point this wealth was achevied through illicit means.

SE here is simply pruning some diseased twigs to save the health of the whole tree.

P.S. Now if Square-Enix would only do something about the lags and disconnections.

Post by **Nivez** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 5:27 pm

12.99 per mil is about where the prices were last year at this time, meaning SE effectivly did a rollback of gil, hopefully prices of items will begin to fall soon.

Post by **Yukira** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 8:00 pm

Hahaa! About damn time, so eat THAT you banned suckers! No one will miss you...

Ahhh, I'm feeling SO much better now...

Post by **Shirai** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 8:06 pm

Nivez wrote:12.99 per mil is about where the prices were last year at this time, meaning SE effectivly did a rollback of gil, hopefully prices of items will begin to fall soon.

Tho if I do a /sea {Notorious gilseller/botter} they are still around so I'm sceptic.

But I have noticed a drop in several items.

Scorp. Harness went from 14 mil to 9 mil currently.
Noble's Tunic has gone from 14 to 22mil and now back to 15 mil.
As are other items gradually downing in price.
As for some checkups on IGE, most servers are sold out of gil.
(Unfortunately you can still order 100mil on titan >.<)

*Shakes fist @ SE, HEY! you forgot something!)

ScarlettPheonix · Post by **ScarlettPheonix** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 8:18 pm

Its been suggested by a few posters on alla that the banned accts or mules were more or less the go betweens, not the fish bots but the ones that hold the gil, put the items up on AH or whatever.

Tianshii · Post by **Tianshii** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 8:51 pm

I was in a GREAT mood already when I logged on today (finally got my beloved Samurai

to do the Valentine's Day Moogle quest with me).. this made it EVEN BETTER!!!

{/cheer} SE finally doing something I can be proud of!
Thank you to Sheala also, for breaking it all down. That was an interesting tidbit of info there

*dances around with her fabs new Charm Wand & praises SE*

Pheonixhawk · Post by **Pheonixhawk** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 9:46 pm

Thats wonderful. TAKE THAT GILSELLERS, 1000 KAPOWIES RIGHT IN THE KISSER.

Keavy · Post by **Keavy** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 9:41 am

Like i've said on other forums it is clear that SE took their time and clearly investigated instead of just banning based on suggestions from players or suspicions.

Yes it is slower but its the same way the police work and it makes sense. Sadly like with the police and the war on drugs the war on RMT cannot be won as easily as people think. Let's say we take out IGE. Some other smaller RMT company will take its place and that's my biggest fear. As we get rid of more we're gonna get more and as gil prices increase it will attract more to do it.

The only way to end RMT for good is to weed out the gilbuyers and sellers. Ban both and make it explicitly clear that RMT on either end will not be tolerated and regardless of your reason you will be banned.

Post by **Sugami** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 1:09 pm

Wow $9100/month they've lost, I wouldn't have thought they'd want to lose that much money and rather just let the gilsellers slide.

May encourage me to come out from hiding and maybe level ninja some

Katina · Post by **Katina** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 2:12 pm

The strong and honest and good players *like moi* will persavere. IDC how many they delete. Those gil sellers play this game as a way to make ends meet I bet. Just like how yall work to make it.

U lose your job and u go find another and keep going. SE has only prolonged the inevitable. SE can only fight half the problem. One being or item can not be defined w/o a polar opposite.

Gill sellers cant exist if Gil buyers dont but how does one stop gil buyers and sellers?
Answer u cant and u wont ever. It's up to each of these individuals to chose for them selves wether they want to or not. Nobody can change a person only that person can change theirselves.

Words of the wise mage

Keavy · Post by **Keavy** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 1:07 pm

They'd rather lose the $9100/month than risk a game populated solely by gil sellers and buyers. After all, for FFXI to be worth SE's time and money they need at least 100,000 subscribers.

Also, not sure if anyone else saw this but shortly after the G4 takeover of Tech TV and the bastardization of the best show on TV (The Screen Savers) they had a segment on how RMT was a great way to make money off of an MMO and even offered a list of websites/forums to help you get started.

That information has since been deleted (Part of G4's attempts to hide their past) but still I imagine that at least some of the new RMT's on the block were inspired by that episode.

Also, has anyone else noticed that G4 hates FFXI yet shows the love to WoW on a near-constant basis? I only say this because I do watch G4 for Star Trek and X-Play and I notice that on X-Play whenever someone mentions an MMO WoW is brought up and not only that, Adam was pretty brutal in his review of both FFXI when it was initially released and when the CoP expansion was released and I also imagine that ToAH will get the same beating if they review it. Compare that to WoW where they couldn't say enough good things.

I know it comes off like I'm a biased fanboy (Which I am) but all I ask is that regardless of how the reviewer feels about the genre or the franchise give the game a fair review. I love Final Fantasy but if they release a steaming pile I will call it a steaming pile and refuse to defend it.

Maybe I ask too much.

angeladark · Post by **angeladark** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 10:30 pm

Point Keavy... Besides, how can that accurately score something, as they said on their review of "Neverwinter nights", based on pure potential. Potential is what a MMORPG is at its core. I've seen many people love or hate an MMORPG for various reasons. So I must conclude that all MMORPGs have the potential to be really great or really bad. Sadly, it is the attitude of mainstream media to give in to sheer statistics and numbers, basically whoever has the bigger member base, wins. And it's not just G4/XPlay, also look at Gamespot, EGM and IGN... Same thing is repeated about FFXI and WoW. Do they review the entire game every time an update is done or an expansion is out? No. They review enough of the MMORPG to give an "accurate" account of it and call it good.

Eviticus · Post by **Eviticus** » Sun Feb 12, 2006 9:09 am

Katina wrote:Those gil sellers play this game as a way to make ends meet I bet. Just like how yall work to make it.

So do drug pushers and professional hit men. Don't make it right.

AgentSeethroo · Post by **AgentSeethroo** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 4:26 pm

Keavy wrote:...the G4 takeover of Tech TV and the bastardization of the best show on TV (The Screen Savers)...

Amen! I miss Kate and Leo! Come back, Kate! Come back, Leo!!

Stupid "Attack of the Crap."

angeladark · Post by **angeladark** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 7:01 pm

I miss Pat and Leo. I want the kilt, man! ^^

Keavy · Post by **Keavy** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 10:11 pm

I just miss quality nerdy programming.

Like how you could tune in to Tech TV and see the hosts discuss how to patch security flaws in your OS. Now we get drinking games and discussions about what internet porn site has the best looking girls.

Like one person said, G4 is quickly becoming Spike 2.0

Post by **Yukira** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 10:23 pm

Eviticus wrote:So do drug pushers and professional hit men. Don't make it right.

Of course these are matters of different level, but still.....agreed.

AgentSeethroo · Post by **AgentSeethroo** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 11:02 pm

Keavy wrote:I just miss quality nerdy programming.

Like how you could tune in to Tech TV and see the hosts discuss how to patch security flaws in your OS. Now we get drinking games and discussions about what internet porn site has the best looking girls.

Like one person said, G4 is quickly becoming Spike 2.0

Yeah, I agree.

I miss the days of ZDTV, though. It all started going downhill when they changed to Tech TV.

Kahvi · Post by **Kahvi** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 11:03 pm

Sugami wrote:Wow $9100/month they've lost, I wouldn't have thought they'd want to lose that much money and rather just let the gilsellers slide.

May encourage me to come out from hiding and maybe level ninja some

When you figure that they banned accts to total up to that much a month was being lost. then yes you would think it is crazy. but when you see that they come right back buying the base game, expansions and start up again. then SE is actually making money off of banning them.

Tue Feb 14, 2006 12:12 am

Keavy wrote:I just miss quality nerdy programming.

Quality nerdy programming from my long ago and mispent youth. Ominibus was live theater for the TV camera. The show took lessons from all those pre WWII movies that were merely stage plays filmed. It truly tried to take advantage of the TV camera and sound stage. I first saw "Our Town" and "Waiting for Godot" on it. A quiz show called "What in the World" came on right after Ominibus. It featured a pannel of archoligists who tried to guess the provenance of an item.

In those days TV was in B&W onry, and New York City had a whole 9 chanels, about 5 more than the second biggest market. Not yet a mass market item, the shows were designed to appeal to the elite and educatued classes.

Then came Milton Berle, Gunsmoke, Lucy, Tenisee Ernie Ford (who was quite sophistacated for the era and his own immage), and TV sets that cost less than a month's wages.

Since then it has been all downhill and uphill at the same time.

MithraPride

RMT Countermeasures!

RMT Countermeasures!

$$$