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RMT Countermeasures

From Square-Enix: 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.

Comments

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billion?
# Feb 09 2006 at 11:29 AM Rating: Decent
300 billion? Well... forst of all what kind of billion is that? A UK billion or a US billion? They are totally different. UK billion = 1000 x million. US billion = 1 million x million. If it's the latter then that truly is a lot of Gil!!!
RE: billion?
# Feb 09 2006 at 1:34 PM Rating: Default
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373 posts
one thousand * one million = one billion
one million * one million = one trillion

I don't care if you're from the US, the UK, or Mars. Math is the international language.
RE: billion?
# Feb 09 2006 at 2:22 PM Rating: Decent
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72 posts
I don't care either. The guy was right. A UK Billion is mathematically considered to be a different term, a million million. You are, in this circumstance, wrong.
RE: billion?
# Feb 09 2006 at 12:16 PM Rating: Default
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75 posts
What the hell are you talking about? 1 billion is always a thousand million(1,000,000,000).
so they removed over 300,000,000,000 gil. That's a lot.
Yay!
# Feb 09 2006 at 11:06 AM Rating: Decent
I'm glad to see that SE cracked down. To those that scoff at SE's actions saying they're too slow ... I'm sure it takes time to gather enough evidence that an account does indeed belong to a gil seller.

In this day where someone will sue a company at the drop of a hat, I'm sure SE is protecting their butts too. It's not just gil at stake here.
RE: Yay!
# Feb 09 2006 at 11:23 AM Rating: Default
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996 posts
No, it doesn't.

Set up some transfer logs on the server in question.

You set up a sting - SE buys some gil from a seller marketing on the Internet. Now take the charname that sold the gil, and find out who gave that character the gil. There you go. It's really not that hard.

You don't have to target "suspected gilsellers". You just set up traps for anyone stupid enough to fall in them.
FINALY^^
# Feb 09 2006 at 11:04 AM Rating: Default
thank god FINALY there takin some acction thats works most things i buy reguraly are like half wat there where a few weeks ago^^
solution
# Feb 09 2006 at 11:04 AM Rating: Default
While yes, this is a lovely little gesture on SE's behalf it won't solve the problem. I insist that the only way to fix the problem is to set a price range on ALL items. Yeah yeah, it'd have to be a large range... but still. IF they did it right they could even make it somewhat profitable to craft at low levels...
17th
# Feb 09 2006 at 10:44 AM Rating: Decent
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6,424 posts
The RMT measures taken on Januari 17th involved the Steal cheat in Movalpolis.

I think they used a cheat to reset abilities, then constantly used Steal + Mug + Hide on the same (despawning and respawning?) goblin. They would have created (mug) and obtained (selling gold beastcoins?) loads of gil before SE learned of it.

Gilbuyers beware... SE _IS_ watching you!
RE: 17th
# Feb 09 2006 at 11:05 AM Rating: Decent
This would of only be available since the MPK patch which was in december. I don't think all the gil was comming in that way. Getting gold beastcoins do not put any gil in the economy and mug is pretty small change.

I suspect more ppl using BOTs to fish right beside an NPC and sell stuff as they go. Running 24/24, 7/7, 365 days a year.
checkmogscom
# Feb 09 2006 at 10:41 AM Rating: Decent
I just checked a couple of gilselling websites, and saw some FFXI Gil "Out of stock". Not the bigger companies mind you, but I think just eliminating that gil hurt some of these companies.
IGE Prices
# Feb 09 2006 at 10:37 AM Rating: Good
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487 posts
Well, if you check over at IGE, you will see a vast difference. Atm, 8 servers have no gil for sale, and 9 have only a partial list of gil for sale (although the rest still have a full palette available). However, you will also note that the restricted supply of saleable gil has allowed IGE to keep their margins up... The price for IGE gil has gone up over 100% in the last two weeks, so this should also have a strong effect on keeping folks from buying the extraordinary amounts of gil that were around and stockpiled for Christmas. I strongly suspect that SE's measures have had a great deal of success. Not only have they managed to remove a vast pool of gil, but they have restricted the supply coming back in to replenish the pool. Suspect prices will drop more than 60% (pure guesswork) on the items that shot up during Christmas season.
Thanks
# Feb 09 2006 at 10:32 AM Rating: Good
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594 posts
Thanks SE.

Prices have recently started to drop and even out a bit on Bismarck.

2-4 million for a HQ stave is not bad at all. And Igqira Weskit went from 12mil to just over 7mil in the last few weeks. Even Arhat's Gi +1 dropped from 9mil to 5mil. It is working.
Seller? ban the buyers!
# Feb 09 2006 at 10:29 AM Rating: Good
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429 posts
I just really read what this says. Please note this phrase:

Quote:
We will continue to monitor accounts suspected of dealing in gil created or obtained in an unfair manner.


It never says that they're really looking at banning all gilsellers, only the ones who make their money unfairly.

Just from this, I would have to agree with Nephew that people found a loophole and were maxing gil that way.

I do think that this is a step in the right direction. An average of 4.3 Billion per account banned could possibly help, but this shouldn't be construed as the end all solution.

As long as there are people who want to buy gil, there will be people who will sell it. I agree with mizango. It's a 2-way street. Maybe if enough of the buyers were punished, people would be forced to take notice and realize that gil buying is as much, if not more of, a crime than selling.

I say ban the buyers, they're ultimately the ones responsible for high prices. If the buyers aren't there, the sellers will go away on their own.

RE: Seller? ban the buyers!
# Feb 09 2006 at 2:08 PM Rating: Default
you know, i am willing to bet, that if SE removed all the buyers, you would cut the player base almost in half or worse, and SE knows it. They would lose so much more money by doing that, and we all know its all about the money...

Ban the buyers... wow.

it just means that now when we are out trying to farm we may be competeing with 5-10 new peeps who never farmed before, in the same areas, crowding the mobs. Its gonna be a whole new can of worms for us now...
RLT? really?
# Feb 09 2006 at 10:23 AM Rating: Default
Imagine that? People buying and selling gil...
what is the world coming to?
why... this is the first time I've ever even heard of the concept >.>

phish...

RLT's will be back, they're the monsters of FFXI.
And just like the monsters in the movies...
...they always come back.
working?
# Feb 09 2006 at 10:22 AM Rating: Decent
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239 posts
I'm happy with what SE has done and have noticed changes... SH on bahamut has gone from 16M to 12M recently and continues to drop
Who got banned?
# Feb 09 2006 at 10:21 AM Rating: Decent
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196 posts
Quote:
a group using illicit methods to produce large amounts of gil


Using "Illicit" means to obtain their gil makes it sound like SE banned a few people who were scamming/botting but probably didn't ban the known gil farmers on each server. Basicly, if the gil farmer doesn't bot then they aren't in violation of the TOS since they probably send the gil to a separate account where it is sold from. If this is the case, this other account is the one engaging in RMT and not the character who actually farms the gil. Taking 30 billion gil out of the economy makes it sound like they banned these storage accounts which is probably why IGE has been out of stock for gil on most servers.

As for the question of whether this will stabilize the economy, it will eventually but it's not a quick fix. It will take time for the prices to come back down, but they've already started to.
^^
# Feb 09 2006 at 10:06 AM Rating: Decent
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50 posts
im happy they did it least they are trying they cant just go omg i think your a gill seller poof your gone... what the are looking for is proof. and it looks like theyy got 700 of them thats a lot of ppl and there will be more.
Ilicit Methods?
# Feb 09 2006 at 9:55 AM Rating: Decent
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418 posts
I'm happy that SE has banned some accounts, and removing 300 billion gil from the economy is good, although divided by 30 servers that's 10 billion/server.

It sounded to me like SE discovered another gil creating cheat and banned those accounts. Other gilsellers who have found "legitimate" ways to make gil were probably not affected.

An example would be this naked female hume Miusde on Gilgamesh. She sits by the Upper Jeuno Stables AH almost 24/7 and synths Sole Sushi. If other cooks try to compete, she undercuts brutally until they drop out of the market, then the prices slowly rise back up.

Also, to Psymia and others I've heard mention "normal" prices... what does that mean? The prices like they are on Hydra? I've watched Darksteel Ore go from 6k to 60k since I've been playing but I'm sure it was even less at one time. What price in that continuum is "normal"? Just something to consider.
RE: Ilicit Methods?
# Feb 09 2006 at 4:14 PM Rating: Decent
Sage
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147 posts
what i mean with "normal":
the ratio from my "income" to "what items cost" should be about the same as before.

so if i was able to get 6k from a Darksteel ore (whew that was long ago) and had to pay 1k for a stack of meat mithkabob
-->
when i get 60k from a darksteel i'm willing to pay 10k for it :)
____________________________
Psymia on Server Leviathan
Ummm
# Feb 09 2006 at 9:37 AM Rating: Decent
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107 posts
This is great news and gives you a little faith back....but will it do anything?

For example, monster signa, 1.4 mil on Odin. Whos going to say "aha the gilsellers are gone, better sell it for 300k now.".

Also, just 700? We have around 30 servers. 700 / 30 = 23. 23 gilsellers gone from our server is nice, but im sure there are more...
RE: Ummm
# Feb 09 2006 at 12:36 PM Rating: Decent
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435 posts
Quote:
For example, monster signa, 1.4 mil on Odin. Whos going to say "aha the gilsellers are gone, better sell it for 300k now.".


I don't think anyone will say this. But they will put their Monster Signa up for 1.4M and it'll be a lot less likely to sell because no-one can just go out and buy gil. The seller will eventually get tired of being hammered by the outrageous AH fees and the price will drop. Probably not drastically, but other items on my server have already begun to decline.

After Christmas was the worst I had seen, and I've been playing this game for two years. Light and dark crystals were 10k a stack, and the Vermillion Cloak was almost 20M. Over the past week or so, the crystals have come down to about 3k and the cloak is a...semi-reasonable...14M. I wouldn't be surprised if prices continue to fall to what they once were way back when.

Keep in mind that some inflation is normal. Gil very rarely leaves the economy- most people would give their gil to friends before they go. The more gil there is out there...well, it tends to be of less value. I could get into a broader economic discussion...but...I'm making myself sleepy. Gotta go >_>
yeah right.
# Feb 09 2006 at 9:31 AM Rating: Default
43 posts
Kudos my ***, it took them god knows how long to do anything and when they finaly do the effort is half-hearted at best. >< As if GS's can't make new acounts. I'll be impressed when I finaly see IGE on the news in a class action law suit or somthing. That is, if SE dosen't realy own that company as I've heard thrown around. >/
RE: yeah right.
# Feb 09 2006 at 9:52 AM Rating: Default
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64 posts
700 accounts over all the servers, well, it's just the same old SE BS. The accounts banned are probably the Joe Schmoe college hacker types, not the REAL issue like IGE and their airplane hangars full of terminals and sweatshop employees... so let's keep it real... SE knows who butters their bread. They can make an example of 700 individuals and try to make it seem like they are really doing something, but its really not anything.
:D
# Feb 09 2006 at 9:20 AM Rating: Decent
Go SE Go get them bastards!!!
hmm
# Feb 09 2006 at 9:19 AM Rating: Default
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730 posts
700 accounts banned, but I`m having trouble finding one actual Gilseller that`s not online on Fairy.
/sea all Sneakk
/sea all Mrfab
/sea all Your
/sea all Lumon

All present and correct.
RE: hmm
# Feb 09 2006 at 10:43 AM Rating: Decent
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93 posts
omg i saw Mrfab PL'ing a pty in qufim a few days ago, i noticed one of the members of the pty doesnt have a linkshell and rank 1. banning accounts doesnt help that much... they always come back /sigh
RE: hmm
# Feb 09 2006 at 10:42 AM Rating: Decent
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93 posts
edit: double post

Edited, Sun Feb 12 11:11:09 2006
Gil out of the economy
# Feb 09 2006 at 9:18 AM Rating: Default
In my head there was something wrong... There was only 2 reasons why there was so much gil in the economy.

1. SE was creating gil and feeding it to RMT
2. Some ppl have found a loop hole in the game where they could make gil fast like with the rusty caps and padded caps back then.

There is so much gil comming out of the economy every day, and so little gil comming in the economy every day.

Lets take a look at the gil going out of the economy; chocobo, AH fees, Guilds supply, NPC buying (subligar for cashmere), and I must be forgetting a few.

Now lets look at the gil comming in the economy; killing beastman's, killing some NMs, fishing, selling to NPCs (this usually is in far smaller scale then buying from NPC), and I must be forgetting a few.

Before the subligar, I would say it was somewhat balanced, but now we should see more gil comming out then gil comming in. I'm very happy that they took the time to weed out the ppl that makes this game die. There will still be RMT camping NMs with bots and 3rd party which gives other ppl no choice of buying the item on AH. They fixed one problem, now they need to put a stop on those RMT ppl using bots.
YAY~!
# Feb 09 2006 at 9:17 AM Rating: Decent
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you......and in case SE wants to know there is a group of gillsellers on the Garuda server. Their names all start with Wst. Ask any veteran player and they will aggree with me I promise you.
#REDACTED, Posted: Feb 09 2006 at 9:13 AM, Rating: Sub-Default, (Expand Post) I dont know why people are saying we should stop ******** at SE. It takes them over 1-1 1/2 years to change something, that obviously means they dont care about us as much as we are forced to like their addictive *** game...
Just the first step ... I hope ...
# Feb 09 2006 at 9:12 AM Rating: Excellent
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248 posts
A nice first step S-E, but don't let it end there. As Asakawa pointed out, big ad distributors like google and yahoo still give the RMT's lots of visibility. Just Google "FFXI" and you'll get a whole list of gilseller ads down the right side of the page ...

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=ffxi&btnG=Google+Search

Time to go after the big boys now S-E and get them to take down their ads/links to this blatantly illegal RMT activity.

Edited, Thu Feb 9 09:17:20 2006
Information
# Feb 09 2006 at 9:08 AM Rating: Decent
Thankyou S-Enix for letting us know how many accounts and the value taken out of the game.

This kind of information is appreciated.

300 BILLION - (wow!)



Edited, Thu Feb 9 08:08:31 2006
lol
# Feb 09 2006 at 9:03 AM Rating: Decent
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66 posts
lolol ^_^
i just read the article on 1up.com that someone posted....
and what do i see at the bottom of the page?

" *google ads*

FFXi Gil In Stock
FFxi Gil low prices all servers 24/7 Instant Delivery, USA Service
****.com"
RE: lol
# Feb 09 2006 at 9:10 AM Rating: Decent
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6,424 posts
google ads scan the website page they are on, to display matching ads...

Needless to say, you will never become a FF XI premiere site with google ads...
*thumbs up*
# Feb 09 2006 at 9:02 AM Rating: Good
kudos to SE.

people need to stop being so vile to SE and give em break. people ***** at em for creating a game they indulge into. that's too bad =\

jophi
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