Confessions of Gil-sellerFollow

IMO, China-based and other offshore gilsellers are small potatoes, the real scum suckers are IGE and that ******* whose made himself a millionare doing this **** not just on FFXI but on just about every MMORPG anywhere.

Very informative. One thing though. I would cut down on using "big" words when it isn't neccesary to get your point across. Instead of making you sound smarter it just looks like your copying out of a dictionary.

I actually can relate to this, I know I might be shunned, neglected and abused... Whatever for this, but here's my short lil' story.

I did the same, I was furious with the gilsellers one day and decided to act friendly to get a admit from one that they sell gil, I pick one out randomly.. He replys to all my /tells right away, and very nicely. A few days of me talking to him, slowly working into getting him to admit, I realize how nice he is.. A man, 25 years old, he told me he was married and has a 7 year old daughter. He makes it by selling gil on FFXI, making just about no money in doing so, to feed his daughter and wife... Think about that for a little bit before I say, I offered to help him camp the NM he camped everyday. I did get an admission out of him and brought up my menu to call a GM, but did I? No. I felt total sympathy for him and his co-workers and spared him. (Until later I found out someone ratted him out, causing him and his friends' accounts to get banned). For a small time, I used to get on FF solely just to talk to this man and see how he was doing, sometimes helping him from time to time. This may sound corny, being this is coming from a game, but this man made me look a life in a totally different aspect. I don't know his status on what he is doing now, but for the sake of his wife and his daughter (hoping he'll someday read this), I wish you the best of luck, man. Take care.

I know what I did in assisting him was wrong and should get my account banned, so by all means feel free to inform SE of what I did and yada yada, get me banned for what I did. But I feel as if I helped this man's real life out, through game, by helping him earn just a few short bucks for his wife and kid. That's my little story.

In my opinion, arguing there is a supply than there is demand or there is demand and there is supply is Chicken-and-Egg. As they are always both supply and demand, and they come hand-in-hand. There are always people who want to buy gil, and there are always people are willing to sell gil for money.

It is probably true if you ban all gil sellers, or if there are no gil buyers than RMT would disappear, but that will never occur. It is best to manage the degree of RMT than end RMT. It will require efforts of both SE and players to manage RMT. Finger pointing is not where one starts in managing RMT, action is. For a player, that includes not to buy gil, not to MPK anyone (regardless of reason), etc.

Alot of hatred against RMT is because how they make their money. In Cerberus, there are NMs that are rarely farmed except RMT. Certain groups just monopolizes (RMT or not) certain NMs. There is alleged botting and MPK. But in a lot of cases, there are no alleged botting, MPK or whatever precieved evil methods, it is because there is little competition. In some ways, RMT actually increased the supply of NM drops and actually keeps the price of items in check.

Bad Necroposter!

(but it is a good read)

The way I see Vana Diel.. Coming from ... from what I understand.. The most inflated server -- Gilgamesh...


SE Nerfed LL, VE, And Argus.. Yet I still see campers there every time I pass by... They didn't resolve the problem they merely made this item less... desireable for a gil seller or a simple player...

You Have to understand that regardless of whether or not people buy and/or trade gil for real-world currency.. NMs, farmers, and anyone who wants to buy that new piece to go with their ensomble.. Will, infact, still be there..

This is a game.. I've seen a Dragoon named Longp farming in Passhow Marshlands every night since I started XI.. (About 1/2 a year ago) I don't understand why someone would need that much gil... however he is in a desolate area trying to earn his keep.

If you must have that Uber piece of crap for your character I suggest buying it... Earn your gil just like everyone else..

I hear people.. all the time ***** and moan about how a "GS" stole their mob.. How can you prove a person is a gilseller without first talking to them? Even if there weren't gilsellers it wouldn't mean that you can get every single NM..

I don't know why people don't understand this but...
--Just because a person is a gilseller doesn't mean they can instantly claim a monster.. It takes focus, practice, and probably THF/RNG to pull off the drop.. If a WHM is going to camp a NM.. they should quit while they're ahead.. level up Thief where you can flee atleast.. Get RNG for widescan.. and find your mob.

Gilsellers ARE infact people.. They have lives just like yours in which they goto work and make a small living.. I do admit it is frustrating being poor and IF I had the Ba**s I'd try to steal a few million from one of their "Secure" websites.

Complaining about the super ToS won't do anything.. You break the ToS every time you get pissed and swear at your whole linkshell cuz someone else "got the drop".

But.. I make pizza.. I don't sell gil.. I wouldn't be able to make enough to sell anyway.. lmao.. 59 Alchemy and I can bust out 200k in a few hours... it would take like a full 24 hr period to make 1 mil.

I said earlier tonight.. in my LS that if things don't change then our XBOX 360 n00b friends will quit simply because our economy is too inflated for them to get level 1 armor/weapons.. You want to blame gilsellers.. go ahead.. but I KNOW that people here in the USA are money hungry and looooove to jack up prices... they don't understand that it will eventually cost them FFXI entirely..

I guess I don't state my points clearly but my rant is over.. Feel free to rate down.. I rarely speak anyway... Theres nothing good to talk about until this...


EDIT: And In my personal opinion.. I have never seen a [GM] do anything to anyone that had actually done something Uber bad.. more like.. They're that Teacher that allways breaks up a fight instead of looking the other way.. I know you remember it from high school! I have made 3 or 4 GM calls in my day and not once have I seen results.. infact later the guy that caused an UBER MPK session in Garliage Citadel one day laughed at my efforts at having him reported and explained to me that he was very good friends with a few of them... Nothing happened to this guy and he killed about 15 people with his giant train of ..... everything (you know how everything links there)... But.. the NPC for the escourt quest died.. It was hillarious.. and now SE has nerfed zoned mobs to prevent this.. but somehow they have taken away that sense of adventure and danger.. the thing that actually makes you feel like this game could really happen.. Since when does an animal just dissapear? .. damnit I'm off topic now.. I'm done for the night..

Edited, Tue Jan 10 07:45:25 2006 by Laserous

Wow. This has actually been a really interesting thread, and while I know it is several years old, I don't really care. It's prompted me to say a few words.

Gilsellers: While their lives aren't exactly up to American standards, they're Communists. Basically, they won't starve to death. Their basic needs are taken care of at the cost of an honest job, be it working in sweatshops or selling cell phones. The reason people are so appauled at the thought of Chinese sweatshops is ignorance. They get food, shelter and medical. That twenty-five cents Chin-Mei got for making twelve baseballs today was extra cash for her to spend on what she wants. Extra food? Maybe, but consider her standard nutrition has been covered. A larger apartment? Again, maybe, but consider that she'll probably spend it on a phone or crappy little television. Luxury items. You're spending your extra cash on a luxury item like a game. True, they don't have the 'luxuries' we do, but once again, they won't die. If you're going to profit off the fun of others, at least play through the game honestly once to see what you're taking away from them.

Gilbuyers: To go into this, you have to consider why you started the game to begin with. Admit it. Narcissism. People love to be admired by other people, so what's a better medium than an online game where thousands of people will pass by your character and examine them daily? Gilbuyers are the exact same with the exception that they will (rather humorously) give anything beyond reason to look good. They'll shell out hundreds of dollars on a thirty dollar game just to be 'wearing' a certain item, ignoring the fact that the said item is nothing more than a digital picture. (You might as well have given your imaginary friend a fiver to buy a soda with. He at least cares about you.) The fact that this IS JUST A GAME and WILL EVENTUALLY PASS doesn't occur to them. All they care about is looking as good as possible as quickly. There's an old proverb, 'Haste makes Waste.' Look at the exp rings. You level quickly at the cost of certain skills because you didn't have the time to level them up, resulting in a weakened high level character. It's the exact same with gilbuying. You don't have the experience of hunting down that NM, of meeting people in the game that are willing to help you get that 500,000g airship pass for free along with Rank 5. You get there and strut while people think you're a moron for not knowing where to camp the O. Kote you're wearing. Worse still are account buyers. You didn't even get to choose your name, define who you were, just grabbed at the thing people were looking at and sauntered off without seeing the toilet paper stuck to your shoe. Create a character you want to be proud of, not for admiration's sake, but for your own. I haven't reached 75 on any job, but I could tell you how this one awesome paladin could hold hate on a mob while he was dc'ing and ended the battle alive, a feat that the next paladin in a higher level party couldn't do with normal connection. I could tell you that I know the exact range of certain bard spells to the point that I can properly cast on a poorly-spaced party. Most of all, I could tell you these things without needing admiration because I got satisfaction out of seeing my party benefit from them.

TruePlayers: You're the earners, the few, the proud, the brave and steadfast, and yet, you will thoughtlessly debase fellow players instead of help them out. You don't like it when people buy gil? Know a friend that did but just snapped at them for it? How about this...1.)Tell them to throw out the said gil. It'll boost the economy even a sliver and teaches the gilbuyer that it's worthless except in what people make it out to be. 2.) Take them with you to hunt down their 'real' equipment. 3.) Give them an LS and talk with them to teach them the real value of this game. Not gil. The players. If more people made the friendship and the stories behind the items meaningful, there would be no need for sellers. Hell. My favorite item in the game is a pebble. Not even a stack. One. A friend made it for me as a joke the first time I met him in a party, and we've been inseparable for over a year, now. If you doubt me, I'll give you my gil. Spend it all you want, but I don't doubt that the story you'll tell is, 'That wierd Hume chick just gave me her gil because I didn't believe her! What a wierdo!' Even something random like that is part of Vana'diel's unchartered adventures.

The Bleeding Hearts: For those of you that took the sides of the gilsellers, consider that they're not so dumb to reveal themselves that quickly. The TOS is in many languages, including Italian, Russian and Chinese. Chinese, as the written language, is universal to China since a certain emperor united the land. (Yes, a Terrantino film was accurate. *Gasp*) You can get DVD's with Chinese subtitles. You can see it on the freaking Bart train in San Francisco for crying out loud. There is no way they 'didn't understand the TOS agreement' because it's written out for them in their native language. Go figure. Do you honestly think someone poor MUST be of lesser intelligence? 'Cause I'm looking at some fairly compelling evidence that American education is falling behind China. Their textbooks are as thick as our phonebooks and thinner in the pages. If you sympathize with someone right away because they said this was a bad job and they were poor, it's because you were duped. Think about it. You're of the vein of people believing they can be the righteous, stand up for the little guy. What's more perfect than a poor, starving Chinese gilseller sitting all alone in his crappy little apartment with nothing but his computer (and aparently, a pot to ???? in) and twelve hours of time to play a video game when his friend can make a baseball for a quarter in less than five minutes? Yeah. I doubt this is their sole source of income. Also, consider the people in America that take up language studies on Mandarin and Cantonese. The church to spread the gospel, the Greenpeace, and the fat chick from Full House so that she can pose next to the starving babies and ask for more money from us selfish bastards. The gilsellers are classifying you as a Bleeding Heart to their cause as much as you are marking them as the poor, starving waifs. They understand, and furthermore, they can play the game, and I'm not talking about Final Fantasy.

So, why don't you just quit? Easy. It's a game. To invest so much emotional value into a set of pixels is ridiculous, even in hanging up the ol' controller. Invest, instead, on the people themselves behind the screen. The people that you talk to regularly, that you build relationships with and carry through rough times all in the name of good fun. Put away your wallets. You're not crippling some starving Chinese kid, you're just playing a video game. When you beat it, that'll be great, and there'll undoubtedly be friends alongside you cheering and smiling, but if you don't beat it, who cares? You'll have invested in something with a much greater payback. How many gilbuyers do you know have spent a night laughing about the sad drop rate of the relic sword with a few friends they've met? How many gilbuyers do you know will keep their account once they realize people aren't buying their wares? How many charity workers of Vana'diel are truly enjoying their work without proving a point? Don't play this game for anyone except yourself. Be it selfish ******* or fun-loving misfit, I don't care, as long as you're content, and nine out of ten times, you'll find contentment in others.

Yeah. More or less. Just pointing out that this is a game. How you play it with others and make a community is what counts, not how cool you look. Generalizations are easy tools to help further a point.