Like many MMOs, Final Fantasy 14 has a thriving underground market. While this is explicitly forbidden in FF14's terms of service, some players looking for a leg-up can seek out sellers of all kinds so long as they have real-world cash to pay for their wares.
In a blog update last week, Square Enix confirmed that it was taking firm action against these "real-money traders." Between October 13 and October 19, the Final Fantasy developer banned almost 3300 accounts for taking part in illicit trades and banned a further 1,487 accounts for advertising real-money trading services. In an update posted today, Square Enix further warned against real-money trading and said it had taken steps to further crackdown on illegal trades.
Final Fantasy 14's gifting feature has been curtailed in an update to the online store today. "This change was implemented as a countermeasure against fraudulent purchases made using the previous version of the gifting feature," wrote Square Enix, "as we confirmed instances of gift codes being purchased for the purpose of resale, as well as real-life criminal activity where purchases were potentially made using stolen credit card information."
On the surface, this update just adds an extra step in the real-money trading process, requiring sellers and buyers to be added to their respective friends lists in order to continue the trade. However, Square Enix seems to be aware of this and has implemented another back-end system that "tracks the individual who purchased an item, as well as who it was gifted to. Should we determine a purchase to be fraudulent, the gift may be deleted even if it has already been delivered via the moogle delivery service."
In addition, Square Enix has restricted what can be gifted and what can't be. Anything that has a one-time use per character has been excluded from the gifting feature, meaning things like mounts, emotes, minions, face paints, and certain fashion accessories can no longer be gifted. Non-single-use items like weapons, house furnishings, and dyes can still be gifted freely.
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