One of the most enduring MMOs available, Final Fantasy XI saw big changes in 2007. In addition to the release of its newest expansion pack Wings of the Goddess and the Starlight Celebration for the holidays, the team cracked down with its No Real Money campaign. In an effort to control the notorious inflation of the economy that real-money transactions (buying and selling in-game items for real-world money) cause, Square Enix began aggressively cracking down on real-money users with bans and virtual confiscations. We got a chance to talk to the team about their campaign, and are happy to present it here as we prepare to explore the world of Vana'diel in 2008.



GameSpy: What led to the No Real Money campaign? FFXI has been live since 2002, what finally caused this hard-line approach?
FFXI Team: During the year 2002, the RMT activity was not as noticeable and did not have such a strong presence. But, even since that time, I believe that not only were we the ones watching out for RMT, but the whole MMO community was. Although the actual spread of the voice and the economic balance within the game, including the thriving play style using cheat tools, became greatly noticeable about a year ago, we have been placing countermeasures against RMT trade and cheats even before then.

In regards to why now, as a declaration to the RMT trade and for the community as a whole, we wanted to express our seriousness with this problem and our determination to exterminate it in a form known as our Special Task Force (STF).

GameSpy: What are the metrics of success or failure? Is there an end point, when SE will say that there is a tolerable amount of RMTs in the game and stop issuing bans?
FFXI Team: There are two methods we use. First, with the number of targeted accounts and the tendency of the game economy, a guideline to measure the activity was internally formulated to an understandable number value. Separate from this, we measure the community reaction by using comments on all major forums in North America, Europe and Japan for reference, and the number of reports of mail forms specifically for advertising RMT. By further analyzing the combination of above, we actually feel the decrease in number of RMT sales and the dishonest conduct within the game.

However, thinking of this as the early steps to a complete extermination, I can foresee that if we were to stop the monthly banning, the activities will quickly recover. Until we reach the point where RMT would never have commerce on FFXI, we will not ease on our investigations. Then, once we reach the point where the community actually feels the complete extermination, that will be when the STF duties will be done and the team will disperse.

GameSpy: The banning of Real Money Transactions occurred alongside banning of players "cheating" in any other form. How are the two equivalent?
FFXI Team: RMT activity is the conduct of selling Gil and items, but from the backend it begins from the meshed structure of supplying the products. Many times, these conducts are done by individuals or from an organization, and this is where STF investigates from both angles and performs their extermination.

Of course there are those users who use cheat tools but are not linked to RMT at all. But by allowing this, as a result RMT organizations can obtain similar tools and openly proceed with their activities. Also it is possible that any person that uses a cheat tool can have their account hacked and become a victim. For that reason, for STF, not only because it is written so in the User Agreement, but in order to keep the number of victims from increasing, the usage of cheat tools is prohibited.