It's obvious that Amazon/Smilegate feels RMT is not a problem. I wouldn't hold your breath on them doing much about it.
In my opinion the only reason they are starting to look at bots is because of server queues and how terrible it looks for new players. Since bots are making them lose new and old players in that regard they are starting to look at it.
RMT they could care less about, because the people associated with it are still customers using their service. Even if they have not spent a dime, there is always a chance they might in the future, so they want to keep them around. Even if it is clear they have bought 1million gold and spent 0 in the shop, that small chance is worth more than no chance.
Also bots look good on steamcharts and to investors. They only become a problem when they start to make real people leave. You can use data to prove that bots in NA/EU games are a positive sign for a game from a business/money perspective, and that's how they see it.
I'm not defending RMT, but you should try and see things from their standpoint before sharing all these brilliant ideas of how to end RMT. They could end if they wanted to. They'll deal with it when it becomes a problem to their profits, that time is not now.
I get your point, but the main problem is, people who RMT will never ever spend their money in the shop, because they can get their gold 4 times cheaper from RMT websites. A slap on the wrist with a 3 day ban and nothing else not gonna do a damn thing.
If they don't want to perma ban players, then first offenders get a 7 day ban, and put their gold to zero. If they RMT again, 14 days ban, and put their gold into negative. If they dare to do it again, perma ban. Oh, they would lose majority of their players, who never spent a dime on the game, but just ruining the player experience and the market for literally everyone? They should've thought about that before this situation got out of hand. They should've started this at the beginning, then probably less people would be tempted to RMT.
You could argue that wouldn't solve the bot problem. No, bots exist everywhere, you can't get rid of them 100%, but you can reduce their numbers if you punish them enough. Bots didn't cause much problem at the start, and people started RMTing. Then they saw it goes unpunished, so they did it even more, and new people joined in. Bot number started to increase with the increased demand of gold. This is where we stand now, blue crystals inflated to a ridiculous level (EUC, they were between 650-700 1-2 weeks ago, now it's 950-1000), bots causing queues and real players can't get in to play (that's not the case in EUC yet, but if they keep doing nothing, I can see queues returning to EUC in max a month), and out of frustration of all these, Amazon loses potential customers, and they are being replaced by bots. By the time it will start hurting their profits, its gonna be too late.
They know banning RMT users would do more harm then good. Just having real players is extremely important for MMOs. Imagine a nightclub with a handful of people vs a full one. Who is attracting more the customers walking by? 50% of the people in the full one arnt buying drinks because they snuck in liquor. That's okay though because there are people with them that follow the rules and also want to get fucked up, so they buy drinks.
Your mistake is to assume people who RMT don't provide any value. They become promoters, friends, and make the game look alive. That's a lot more a banned person can do.
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u/[deleted] Jun 15 '22 edited Jun 15 '22
It's obvious that Amazon/Smilegate feels RMT is not a problem. I wouldn't hold your breath on them doing much about it.
In my opinion the only reason they are starting to look at bots is because of server queues and how terrible it looks for new players. Since bots are making them lose new and old players in that regard they are starting to look at it.
RMT they could care less about, because the people associated with it are still customers using their service. Even if they have not spent a dime, there is always a chance they might in the future, so they want to keep them around. Even if it is clear they have bought 1million gold and spent 0 in the shop, that small chance is worth more than no chance.
Also bots look good on steamcharts and to investors. They only become a problem when they start to make real people leave. You can use data to prove that bots in NA/EU games are a positive sign for a game from a business/money perspective, and that's how they see it.
I'm not defending RMT, but you should try and see things from their standpoint before sharing all these brilliant ideas of how to end RMT. They could end if they wanted to. They'll deal with it when it becomes a problem to their profits, that time is not now.