THIS HAS TO END

[Pixela]

Yes, anyone can setup a yell bot and anyone can have alts botting. Actual players do that, shocking I know.

[Dzspdref]

Yes, anyone can setup a yell bot and anyone can have alts botting. Actual players do that, shocking I know.

No, not "anyone can setup a yell bot" ... nor "anyone can have alts botting."
Only those people playing against the TOS using 3rd party outside software to run that bot can do it.
I use the vanilla in-game program only, and there is NO WAY for someone to make a 24/7 in-game yell bot with the ONLY LEGAL version of the game.

[Alhanelem]

No, not "anyone can setup a yell bot" ... nor "anyone can have alts botting."
Only those people playing against the TOS using 3rd party outside software to run that bot can do it.
I use the vanilla in-game program only, and there is NO WAY for someone to make a 24/7 in-game yell bot with the ONLY LEGAL version of the game.

Actually, many keyboards can be made to press a key at periodic intervals right on the keyboard without even installing anything. So no, you don't really need third party tools to spam a chat macro. The gaming keyboards many of us have been using for years can do that. Are you going to brand people cheaters just for having modern gaming hardware?

[Catmato]

Actually, many keyboards can be made to press a key at periodic intervals right on the keyboard without even installing anything. So no, you don't really need third party tools to spam a chat macro. The gaming keyboards many of us have been using for years can do that. Are you going to brand people cheaters just for having modern gaming hardware?

Just because it's hardware rather than software doesn't mean it's not a 3rd party tool. Any kind of automation that you can't do with in-game macros is a third party tool.

[Alhanelem]

Just because it's hardware rather than software doesn't mean it's not a 3rd party tool. Any kind of automation that you can't do with in-game macros is a third party tool.

Then they'll have to ban me for owning a gaming keyboard. Which literally no other PC game in existence would consider cheating. Sounds fair. And that gaming mouse? OMG, i've got a super duper gameplay advantage over you with that!

This is ignoring the fact that if you have nothing better to do you can just press macros yourself. The method witch which people spurt inane chat macros doesn't change how annoying or not annoying they are. There is also no way for you to legitimately distinguish someone automatically spamming a macro and manually doing so other than irregularity in frequency. using /wait commands you can repeat the same thing three times with a single macro. So I guess you're telling me you're totally fine with chat spam as long as they're not using a keyboard or a program to do it? (The reality is, chat spam is against the rules whether you're automating it or not)

If you think the community shouldn't be able to come up with reasonable QOL improvements when SE won't or isn't able to, then man, I hope you never play WoW, where you're literally expected to have custom UIs to play. Most guilds won't even let you join them if you don't have one (or assume you're bad because you're not tracking your DPS).

You have to look at the spirit of the rule, not just the letter. I'm totally okay with people using UI mods and such. That doesn't mean I'm okay with cheating, like speed hacking or teleporting around the map. There is a clear difference between those things. Someone with less than great vision might use an external tool to make the HP bars bigger or a different color because SE never bothered to implement accessibility options for people with poor vision or color blindness. Are you going to report people for that? I'm curious for what your case is that those people are hurting your gameplay experience. Many people like these aren't looking for a gameplay advantage, they're looking to be able to play in spite of physical disabilities.

[Typral]

The point of the grinding is to prolong the games life artifically. It's sad but what else can they do when they refuse to expend resources for this game :/. The only reason you see people with so many now is because literally more than 70% of the population plays more than one character which exponentially increases all their gains for each character they have. SE set up all their events and reward systems so that it benefits people who multi-box characters.

[Zehira]

Yes, very difficult to find legit players you want to play with depending on your schedule. It seems more and more players have filtered out or don't pay attention to /yell. They are all for linkshells.

You gotta try Reddit if search for one in /yell doesn't work.

[Sirmarki]

Yes, very difficult to find legit players you want to play with depending on your schedule. It seems more and more players have filtered out or don't pay attention to /yell. They are all for linkshells.

You gotta try Reddit if search for one in /yell doesn't work.

Yes, I have yell turned off now for 90% of the time. I turn it on occasionally to see what is happening, and then realise nothing has changed, and it is equally as depressing and annoying as before.
I tend to focus on my Linkshell now, which is active at 7PM my time. Daytime GMT seems completely dead now, with JP sellers and mercs dominating the entire yell, so yeah, it's pointless having it on.

I kind of wish that SE would add a /safelist option (seeing as the blist is pretty much useless now - capped at 100), that way I can filter though and safe list actual players who are known for creating groups for people to join.

[BST]

You can leave /Yell off and just check FFXIAH (You can view any World's /Yell) for the latest shouts, if you really want to see. I only check the website if I'm looking to sell Orbs.

[Splendid]

I read through this entire thread, and I agree. This has to stop. I remember this time last year still seeing real people actually shout for stuff, but now it’s just blocks of bot text selling stuff to each other. I understand that lower population servers don’t have as much of this going on—as openly, but make no mistake, they are there farming endlessly without a real person at the wheel. I don’t want to leave Asura because I’ve been here for four years and there’s a lot of people here I still enjoy playing with. I don’t know what happened between the beginning of the year and now but Asura is way over capacity even though the bulk of the characters online are bots and multiple account holders. I can’t even get into Nyzul to do one casual run today because a literal horde is down there with their legions of multiple accounts spamming the entrance to get in.