More than 5,000 Final Fantasy XIV accounts have been banned in a single week because of real-money trading.
Square Enix has announced that more than 5,000 Final Fantasy XIV player accounts were banned. This after they were caught trading with real-money or even advertising the use of real money.
The exact amount of banned players is said to be 5851, with 5037 of those being directly involved in real money trading and 814 of those being banned for advertising said activities.
Final Fantasy XIV is a highly popular MMO and even more so after the release of the Shadowbringers expansion and Square Enix says that such activities are a threat to the game’s balance. Real Money trading or “RMT” is an action where digital in-game goods (e.g., items and virtual currency) are traded with real money by player to player.
Some of these actions include Paying for powerful in-game items, paying mercenary groups to help clear difficult content, or just buying in-game currency.
Some games actually have their own systems to support these activities while MMOs like Final Fantasy XIV condemn the activity.
As Square Enix states, using real-money in-game for trades or any other activities is strictly prohibited in their Terms Of Service.
The developer is so adamant about this rule that these numerous account bans have happened between the 25th of February and the 3rd of March, which just goes to show how extensive this problem actually is.
Of course, this isn’t their first major show of force, if you recall in 2019 Square Enix banned over 10,000 players for similar rule-breaking.
As this illicit behaviour is still occurring Square Enix is looking to prevent information about these real money trading activities from spreading.
If you witness or know of someone trading in real-money you can report it in the chat log with a specific tag signifying someone is being reported for that behaviour.
Final Fantasy XIV is an MMORPG and features a persistent world in which players can interact with each other and the environment. Players create and customize their characters for use in the game, including name, race, gender, facial features, and starting class.
The popularity of Final Fantasy XIV is such that there are over 40,000 players enjoying the game, and in turn, it is to be expected that there will be a few lawbreakers. Hopefully, with these mass bans by Square Enix, the number of players involved in illicit behaviour will drop.
Remember that there are games that allow Real money trading so if you really want to trade in real currency then why not join those games instead.