Do you feel that you have the "right" to AFK bot, or take other necessary measures?

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Originally Posted by HazyAssaulter

https://old.reddit.com/r/ffxivdiscus...to_afk_bot_or/

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I like how reddit needs a banner saying "Disagreement shouldn't mean confrontation". We need one of those here cause that point seems to fly by fanboys' and whiteknights' heads.

On the topic, while players are at fault the major culprit here is SE not only for not buying more servers years ago when the problems became obvious to everyone that played, but also for not implementing strict and severe zero tolerance measures and punishments against people that use 3rd party programs, amongst which are programs to bypass AFK boot.

If I afk it's literally for a moment, usually to do cat litter or let my dog in/outside or use the restroom. i don't afk for long periods of time. I try to get as much playtime as I can before bedtime/work.

I don't blame anyone for doing it. Everyone paid for the expansion. It's on SE to provide people with a means to log in or reliably queue up. They've done neither. The queue system is still a mess and 2002 errors are still extremely frequent during peak hours on high pop data centers.

To people angry at AFKers: you're essentially saying that it's ok if some people can't play or have extreme wait times just so long as you don't experience those same things yourself. It's also a selfish mindset IMO.

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Originally Posted by Ahelissa

I don't blame anyone for doing it. Everyone paid for the expansion. It's on SE to provide people with a means to log in or reliably queue up. They've done neither. The queue system is still a mess and 2002 errors are still extremely frequent during peak hours on high pop data centers.

To people angry at AFKers: you're essentially saying that it's ok if some people can't play or have extreme wait times just so long as you don't experience those same things yourself. It's also a selfish mindset IMO.

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To AFK bypassers: You are essentially saying it's okay if some people can't play or have extreme wait time just as long as you get to play yourself. It's real "fuck you I got mine" energy.

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Originally Posted by HazyAssaulter

To AFK bypassers: You are essentially saying it's okay if some people can't play or have extreme wait time just as long as you get to play yourself. It's real "fuck you I got mine" energy.

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Try to be at least a bit creative and dont just copy and paste like a young boy from elementary scool.

I get annoyed at people who AFK and don't do anything else. There are people who are eager to play Endwalker and continue the story, but they get the short end of the stick. All because some Miqo'te in 2b boots decide they like to spend their monthly subscription AFK'ing in Limsa for an extended amount of time despite the que times being atrocious.

On weekends I just accept the fact that I'm unable to play. The silver lining is it gives me time to spend time with friends/flatmates or get around to reading my books, actually do productive things.

During the weekdays, especially now because my uni broke up for Christmas, I can play as much as I want because que times arent *that* bad in the early afternoon.

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Originally Posted by Missbone

Try to be at least a bit creative and dont just copy and paste like a young boy from elementary scool.

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Try to be at least a bit creative and dont just copy and paste like a young boy from elementary scool.


Damn I copy pasted again. Sorry, still figuring out how this works.

Why would anybody admitting to afk automation on the official forum with their account directly linked ?

You aren't going to get straight answers here.

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Originally Posted by HazyAssaulter

To AFK bypassers: You are essentially saying it's okay if some people can't play or have extreme wait time just as long as you get to play yourself. It's real "fuck you I got mine" energy.

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I'm not saying they're right to do it. But I think a lot of people wouldn't resort to it if the alternative wasn't babysitting a queue for 3-5 hours after work in the evening to *maybe* have a chance at playing. This is a blunder on SE's end. Full stop.

I don't blame anyone for doing this. I always ask my SO to get me in queue or move my character when I am making dinner or running quick errands. I do log out if I know I'll be away for the night or a few hours. I don't use bots though.

One of my closest friends actively bots.

He's perpetually logged in. And he often asks me on Discord if his character is still active when he's at work.

Not excusing it. Just saying I've seen folk do it.

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Originally Posted by CoffeeBuns

I don't blame anyone for doing this. I always ask my SO to get me in queue or move my character when I am making dinner or running quick errands. I do log out if I know I'll be away for the night or a few hours. I don't use bots though.

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There's a huge difference between using 3rd party automation tools and simply doing it yourself by hand. I don't see how the latter is punishable in any way. It's not breaking any rules, and it's really not detrimental to anyone else's gameplay.

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Originally Posted by Vahlnir

There's a huge difference between using 3rd party automation tools and simply doing it yourself by hand. I don't see how the latter is punishable in any way. It's not breaking any rules, and it's really not detrimental to anyone else's gameplay.

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I actually got people mad at me in game when they asked me about it when I was waiting for a certain fate to spawn.

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Originally Posted by Vahlnir

There's a huge difference between using 3rd party automation tools and simply doing it yourself by hand. I don't see how the latter is punishable in any way. It's not breaking any rules, and it's really not detrimental to anyone else's gameplay.

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Yes, I should clarify there is Huge difference between manually keeping yourself logged in, versus literally starting up an AFK bot before you go to work for the day, come home, and immediately start playing.


It's a huge insult to everyone in the queue.

Botting or otherwise automating gameplay is never okay.
I wish SE was harsher on this.

Doing it yourself is fine.
Some people legit wanna play by idling around in town. If they meet the criteria of interacting with the game every 29 minutes then so be it. I won't police how they wanna spend their time and money.

Anti-afk botting is a natural consequence of the high demand. I don't play during hours when it's an issue, but I can understand the appeal to someone who can only play for an hour a day but needs to sit in a 3 hour queue to log in. Bots will beget more bots, but that's also inevitable with multi-hour queues in multiple servers.

Similar issues were posed during the ARR launch, and the only real solution is new servers. Frustrating, I know, but players are always going to do whatever they can to access the game until then. I can see software safeguards being put in place (such as an enhanced anti-bot afk timer) but I'm uncomfortable with people getting banned from playing when the problem's source is Square's (understandable) inability to meet demand.

If anything, I prefer Square to be cautious on how much they intend to expand. There's real pressure for them to overshoot and get everyone in all at once during the launch rush, but adding so many servers we'll need merges in 6 months wouldn't be the right path for the long term. Especially when we're going to be adding a new datacenter within the season.

After being locked out of the game for over 2 weeks, I must admit that I have cooked dinner while periodically every 5 minutes touch my keyboard, so I do not have to wait in a 5 hour queue when the food will take less than 30 minutes. I feel guilty just doing that alone. I have been super lucky with the queue actually saving my place, but that means nothing if my partner gets booted to the back of the line resulting in both of us just not playing and going to do something else for the night.

I am kind of torn because on one hand I feel bad, but on the other hand I promised friends I would help them with various things in game and if I just leave for 5 hours by the time I get back they will have gone to bed. Some also have very limited time, so if we are all on and I have low blood sugar I am going to hit that space bar to not get booted until my getto grilled cheese is out of the microwave/toaster.

That being said, I don't think people should be botting or running a program just to go afk all day doing nothing in the game. Unfortunately people will do this, many will do this, and all you can do is report them if they are doing it maliciously. Today I just logged in to do shadowbringer beast tribes dailies and their was apparently a speed hacker, I didn't even know that existed in final fantasy until today.

Like many posts of similar nature there isn't really a way to stop this besides reporting the offenders. I would rather not have square spy on every piece of software I have on my PC to check for a bot program, because as I have seen with steam and other anti hack software they flag the most random things such as a trainer being installed for darksiders 2 to fix the lack of depth of field options in the game. This was flagged in 7 day to die a long time ago which is an entirely different game.

i find it okay to afk bot, if its only for a short period of time - 1 or 2 hours, if you are walking your dog, making dinner etc....

No I don't.

I do afk for short periods if I gotta go make lunch/eat, or do something else that I'll be gone a short period of time for though. I'll walk by and press a key to keep myself from getting booted. If I know I'll be away too long to stay logged in though, like to go to work or collect my kids from school - I log out. Only fair to give others a chance to play. (Plus I don't know how to keep myself logged in without being nearby to prevent it, nor do I care to know how.)

I do know a couple of people that log in at work and press a key every 25 mins to stay logged in until they get home though, I get why they do it, their jobs mean they literally wouldn't get to play if they didn't because by the time they get through the queue when they are home they will be going to bed. However this makes them part of the problem... it's like people who don't understand how zip merging works when driving and block two lanes to prevent people "skipping the queue". /eyeroll

Nah, i taught a relative how to log my character in, i just text her my one time pass when she asks for it and when im home its usually good to go or close to logged in.

If you're going to sleep or to work, you have no bussiness staying online the entirety of it, but at the same time i cant blame people for doing it.
Its a no win situation regardless.

The first weekend was swamped with people, but after that I haven’t had to wait longer than like..30 minutes to get into game..at most. During prime time in the evening. (Japanese server).

So I don’t think it’s as big an issue in Japan as it is in the west.

For myself, I’ve never felt the need to do anything to keep me in since again, queue was only 30min at worst.

If I am going to make dinner or any other chore and I happen to be playing already, I will periodically go to the computer and move the character a bit or jump to remove the AFK status, but it's never more than 15-30m.

Have fun being "moral" and wasting your sub money and not enjoying the expansion. I for one do not care one iota about displacing someone from the server.

The pretense that people maintain over their supposed altruism when it comes to limited resources is almost comedic. The queues during Raubahn and now this? People don't seem to understand that they're making zero difference. The queues didn't work back then and trying to get rid of anti-afk bots will not work either now.

On the other hand there are a lot of people who use these bots who cope with their own "moral failings" with all sorts of rationalizations, like blaming the company solely (even though your action has a direct consequence on others because this is a scarce resource), declaring that you have inalienable rights as a "customer" etc. These are just cringe. Accept that you're selfish and move on. Who cares? People seem absolutely aghast at the thought that they could be in the moral wrong. But really, you make moral compromises every day; you just don't realize it.

Anyways, both sides of the debate are just stupid.

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Originally Posted by Penthea

I'm not going to demonise someone who did something like got their SO to move their character every so often while they took their dog for a walk or cooked a meal. If they're playing the game before and after the short afk I'm fine with it. Similarly I'm not going to have a fit because someone had someone else go into queue for them so they could play by the time they get home from work. They're intending to play as soon as they're able.

It's those who manage to find a way to keep their character logged in even while they're sleeping irl for several hours is when I start to have an issue.

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THIS. While I don't do the afk thing, I sometimes wish I had more than a half hour until auto log out. I have a husky, and they NEED walks. I've felt so bad asking my roommates to walk him in my stead, because it's really difficult to walk a husky for less than a half hour. You just can't. They need at least an hour or two of walking every single day, and even if you only did it for a half hour, my dog would probably plop down and refuse to come home until I've walked him. They are stubborn and will not stop until they are fully exercised. :p I've started making a habit of doing it BEFORE I log in from now on, because the queues are unbearable during the day anyway. I'd rather play at night.

No.
I log in about 0730 US EST, when the queue is less than 40, and will stay on as long as I can stand.
If I have to make coffee or put dinner in the oven, I might return to move my character. If I have to go away longer, I just log out and forget about playing for the rest of the day.

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Originally Posted by DamianFatale

THIS. While I don't do the afk thing, I sometimes wish I had more than a half hour until auto log out. I have a husky, and they NEED walks. I've felt so bad asking my roommates to walk him in my stead, because it's really difficult to walk a husky for less than a half hour. You just can't. They need at least an hour or two of walking every single day, and even if you only did it for a half hour, my dog would probably plop down and refuse to come home until I've walked him. They are stubborn and will not stop until they are fully exercised. :p I've started making a habit of doing it BEFORE I log in from now on, because the queues are unbearable during the day anyway. I'd rather play at night.

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agree, you can't even go to take a nice sh*t because you get logged off, or take a shower, or cook something to eat while playing. it's bad, but it's what's working for people to be able to play.

all this "not being able to play" is giving me the chances to try Lotro (new graphic update there) or Swtor (new UI, new character creation, etc) and to make and try new decks over MTG arena alchemy/standard, everyone is trying to take the wow leftovers doing what blizz isn't doing, now SE gave them another chance.

now, I will keep with my human daily activities into 10 min each xD

I don't do it myself because I usually log in and play at times when there are no queues due to my working hours.

However if you buy and pay for the game you are entitled to play it however you like.

If you want to stand and dance in Limsa all day long and just chat with your friends then that is completely fine.

Botting to avoid the afk is a bit shady though, although I wouldn't mind if my friends do it if they need to go away for a while.

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Originally Posted by Skiros

Have fun being "moral" and wasting your sub money and not enjoying the expansion. I for one do not care one iota about displacing someone from the server.

The pretense that people maintain over their supposed altruism when it comes to limited resources is almost comedic. The queues during Raubahn and now this? People don't seem to understand that they're making zero difference. The queues didn't work back then and trying to get rid of anti-afk bots will not work either now.

On the other hand there are a lot of people who use these bots who cope with their own "moral failings" with all sorts of rationalizations, like blaming the company solely (even though your action has a direct consequence on others because this is a scarce resource), declaring that you have inalienable rights as a "customer" etc. These are just cringe. Accept that you're selfish and move on. Who cares? People seem absolutely aghast at the thought that they could be in the moral wrong. But really, you make moral compromises every day; you just don't realize it.

Anyways, both sides of the debate are just stupid.

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Too many people bringing morality into this. It's so ridiculous. While many can play, many others who can't are actively attacking people who are able to. They seemingly want stringent punishments for players who are able to play - not just the botters, downplay any opinions on issues someone might have for something as little as having a level 90 job, and more! It's a disgrace. This supposed "great community" seemingly showing it's true colors. All because they can't have their turn with the toy. Today all I have read has really opened my eyes. I find it very difficult to relate to someone who cannot play, when this is how many of them respond.

I have cut my playtime short day after day, as to not be a burden on the queues. I wake up in the middle of the night, exhausted, so I can play early and get out early. I just think if this is how people are going to respond, I'm done with it.

Personally I have a screen sharing program that I have access to on my phone that I'll use to take control of my pc, login, and queue up about an hour before work is over, and I also use it to avoid logging out if I need to go somewhere and it's peak hours

You could argue it's a bit scummy, but it's sure as hell better to get a jump start on a 1000 person queue an hour and a half before getting home than it is to get home to a 5000 person queue

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Originally Posted by Skiros

Have fun being "moral" and wasting your sub money and not enjoying the expansion. I for one do not care one iota about displacing someone from the server.

The pretense that people maintain over their supposed altruism when it comes to limited resources is almost comedic. The queues during Raubahn and now this? People don't seem to understand that they're making zero difference. The queues didn't work back then and trying to get rid of anti-afk bots will not work either now.

On the other hand there are a lot of people who use these bots who cope with their own "moral failings" with all sorts of rationalizations, like blaming the company solely (even though your action has a direct consequence on others because this is a scarce resource), declaring that you have inalienable rights as a "customer" etc. These are just cringe. Accept that you're selfish and move on. Who cares? People seem absolutely aghast at the thought that they could be in the moral wrong. But really, you make moral compromises every day; you just don't realize it.

Anyways, both sides of the debate are just stupid.

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Sub money isn't really being wasted at this point, what with the all the free time they're giving out