Then there are parasites, like mistletoe, that feed and grow and feed and grow until they overwhelm the host, killing it.
The RMT industry is of the second type, and in the frenzy of feeding off a new host they do not seem to know or care about the damage they are doing. How does RMT damage the game? Well:
1. Decimation of Quest Mobs: If you have been in any of the main hunting areas lately you have surely seen the results of too many "gold" farmers running amok in the fields completely denuded of all mobs. The game is tuned so that mobs are spaced far enough apart and repop at intervals so that players are not overwhelmed while trying to hunt them. Drop into this 4-5 bots that zig-zag around auto-mashing attacks so that the moment a mob aggro's on them they zero in for the kill. Like SHerman marching to the sea, in their wake they leave not a blade of grass.
2. Market manipulation: because of the 24/7 playtime and huge numbers of kills, the farmers get an inordinately high quantity of valuable drops, some of which they broker for outrageous sums of Kinah. How can anyone afford those prices? Simple, just buy a few million Kinah! This practice means that if you are in a high-end legion where you are expected to equip your toon optimally, you are left with almost no choice but to buy Kinah so you can afford the gear you need. If there was no RMT the prices would come down to a level that the high-end players could afford.
3. Poisoning the market: Just as they hunt with bots, they also harvest with them, and even if their path is not optimal, simply because they can harvest 24/7 they will amass huge amounts of every harvestable, which they then flood the market with. Any first-year economics student can tell you what happens next. The prices for goods plummets until it is no longer worth the time and effort for real players to harvest. Once all the real players are gone, the RMT harvester can raise his prices and, once again, force high-end crafters to buy Kinah to afford the materials they need.
4. Destruction of the Ozone: No, wait, RMT doesn't do that, yet.
What does it all mean, Bludwyng?
Now, as I see it, here is the major issue right now. It is NOT the fact that these bots farm the mobs we need for quests. It is not the fact that they sell Kinah so some losers can gain an advantage and avoid actually playing the game that they are paying to play. No, the number one problem is the cyclical spam in the channels that makes it almost impossible to hold a conversation without first blocking half a dozen toons. This raises the frustration and anger of the players to the point that they leave the game.
This game is 20 days into it's first month, the free month you got when you paid for the game. At the end of that 30 days players have a decision to make: Do they pay for another month of the game and wait for NCSoft to get a handle on this problem, or do they cut their losses and cancel their subscriptions. Sadly, many will choose the second option and, in this industry, with the number of new games to play, once gone they will not return. This game will go the route of Vanguard or Age of Conan or Warhammer. Many players have not even waited for the end of the 30 days and they are already gone.
So what can I do about it?
Simple. Do not feed the
Do not respond to the spammers (they aren't listening anyway, so who do you think you just yelled STFU at?). Do not discuss the spam. Do not allow it to damage your playing experience. You know how to block them. Just block the new names as they come up and move on.
But the biggest single thing is: Do not abandon the ship. NCSoft will get this sorted out, and when they do we will have better tools to handle it with.