Buy/Sell/Trade FFXI Accounts... What's The Big Deal?

The only thing that stops me from buying 'IN-GAME-CURRENCY' is let me remind you of a pure and simple fact, You're playing a video game. There are challenges you're faced with in a video game that you're suppose to put forth the effort into besting it. One challenge it happens to be is obtaining gil.

You're on a virtual computer game. You enter your avatars world. Should you leave your avatar waits for you. Now granted you want the best for that little dude that waits on you. You treat him/her like they are part of yourself. Buying gil sounds like a nice advantage right? You could go and buy everything you want for yourself! It goes with out any trouble and you don't have to put forth the effort. Wait... Isn't that why you play the video game in the first place? To put forth the effort into PLAYING THE GAME?

Free things always come with a price. $40-$50 dollars in this sense. Now granted we pay that much for cloths for ourselves sometimes even more. We never stop to realize the consequences of buying that one item ever. I say this, because if you reread the ToS(Terms of Service for those that are obviously thinking about buying gil.)It clearly states that you as a player: Due to this statement selling gil is strictly off limits for the truth of THEFT Let me come into your home take everything you have and go sell it. Sounds fun doesn't it? You're basically doing the same to a big company.
"But it's only one time! They've got enough in this game. They wont miss it! They'll never catch me!" Let me remind you have what had happened not to long ago. Remember that time where the servers where full of people that had a lot of salvage gear? They were cheating to receive this gear. The words I just stated were said over and over. SE keeps years of logs and will not hesitate to use those logs ever. One time users of the 'Salvage Dupe' got banned just the same as people who used it more then once. Make no mistake SE had to go through at least 3 years of logs to figure this stuff out. What makes you think SE wont do this if the RMT flares up. To quote the Terms of Service again: Now after saying all that are you still willing to buy gil? If so, let everyone that comes into this little space of a forum, come to your house and take everything out of it and sell it. You'll never miss it. You can always go get more. Its only a one time thing!

**SHORT VERSION**
Don't be a dumb ***. You'll only get yourself banned and who wants that for spending $40-50 on things you cant have in real life or even in the game after being banned!

======={Sources}==========
http://support.na.square-enix.com/rule.php?id=20&la=1&tag=ff11user

screw that i rather spend my money on real life stuff like foods :o

This conversation has been rehashed hundreds of times on this board before. To summarize my points from previous threads:

1) FFXI was designed under the premise that the only real currency for in-game achievement was time investment and effort.

2) This design pattern is particularly attractive to the standard MMO customer base, which has more free time to invest than other real life resources.

Because of #2, anything (like RMT) that appears to circumvent #1 will be attacked, as it threatens the perceived integrity of the existing achievement ladder and methods.

The attacks will take the form of arguing backwards from a preconceived conclusion. Some will use the morality argument, and some a technical one, but the goals are the same: protect the status quo.

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Personally, Point #1 is enough for me to conclude that RMT is a bad thing within the bounds of FF11.

That having been said, any attempt by the #2 demographic (of which I am no longer a member) to extend the argument beyond this particular game is little more than self-righteous bloviating.

Demographic #2 should realize they are an increasingly shrinking customer base. Most new online games are actively looking for ways to include RMT as a parallel system, (if perhaps not a replacement one), for the standard MMO achievement ladder. It makes them more money, brings in vastly more customers, and skews towards demographics that are more mainstream and thus easier to support.

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Perhaps the ultimate irony is how many gamers crave the legitimacy that comes from games entering the mainstream, but so viscerally reject the mainstream entering their games.

OSHT!!??

So yeah maybe the people who play for fun don't care, maybe the people who play to prove they have the biggest e-peen sometimes care just a tad...but the people who play to escape the day to day running of their own lives tend to give a particular kind of damn about RMT.

Maybe they have a job they hate. Maybe they're alone and have no day to day contact with people. Maybe they're infirm and unable to live their lives in a way many of us take for granted. Maybe they just hate their mom and dad for not buying them that game/coat/car or whatever kids these days want.

So yeah. These people play the game as an escape. So they tend to put a lot of time into the game, they tend to get themselves established characters or atleast ones they are proud of for the time they have put in. So say they've played for a few years and have some super neato crap. They do things for the challenge, they do thinks for the thrills that it can give them and for the fulfilment it can bring.
Then you have the RMT player, who comes along shooting down their gear and acting all superior because they can afford to spare the £40 or whatever it may well be to get some gil.

Because IRL they can afford to throw money around wherever they may choose. Some people don't have the ability to simply waste extra money upon the game. Some
people can barely pay the £7.99 a month.

So when they come across people like the OP who say "RMT is good! OMG just buy lewtz" it's a wonderful little reminder to them that once again being well set IRL can get you ahead. It's a nice reminder that you can just skip out all the time consuming activities of the game just by spending a little bit of cash. It puts a price tag on everything they have done, it makes things that brought them a great sense of accomplishment, meagre and worth very little.

I'm sure a lot of you know the joy of doing a BCNM with friends or what not, and getting a drop actually worth something, actually worth selling. It's a great feeling of getting some kind of reward for your hard work. (Or even luck yeah) That's kinda spoilt by the realisation that people with money to burn can simply get that and much more by spending money.

If you don't have the time to play the game, don't, if you're way too busy GTFO. You're far too important to be wasting time doing things for recreation.

Wow that turned into a bit of pointless rant.

Anyway - Yeah RMT IS WRONG! THEFT! etc etc.

Don't do it kids! Stay in school.

I personally believe SE wouldn't do this, not because they seem 'greedy' but because so many more people would do it if it were legal. If SE controlled Gil in such a way, the entire Economy of the game could be affected, and not necessarily in a good way.

Epic thread.
not.

Hook, Line, Sinker.... Done!

i want my 4 minutes back!