Does Square intend to address Market botting?

Yes, why should they decrease their activity when they still can make even more gil.
The less gil other people make the more can be sold to them for real money.

Right now those who undercut 24/7 run the entire market.

Thanks Charlotte_Wells. If you've found some bots on your server (Zodiark) and would like to see if we have them on our list, please share them with us on discord.

This is a permanent link, as some people haven't been able to join
https://discord.gg/3jsausZ

Some people have wondered whether bots have become worse recently. They have.

Here is a histogram showing the age of FC Market bots. Most of the ones we've found are ~50-200 days old (2-6 mos).

We've only scratched the surface in finding bots. Feel free to help us on discord (https://discord.gg/G6YnKdQ) to find them all!

https://i.ibb.co/9VQj5Kf/fc-bot-age-20201014.png

thanks @TheLoveJenovan

its too bad that the STF or anyone with any avenue to changing this trend will ever see data like this. (if they see any NA, EU data on bots at all)

I am pretty sure that most serious crafters/market users have seen this trend. there are outliers who sell to niche markets the bots have not discovered yet or ignore due to lack of meaningful return, but the general trend has been increasing usage. it could be due to the pandemic and people being lazy, or just an increase in cheaters, who knows, its easy money for people who RMT thats for sure, which is likely the big draw.

it is however getting to the point where 11 jobs and their activities are becoming a waste of time because of the bots, thats 1/3 of the game jobs. Since combat bots are becoming big as well... how long until the other 2/3 are meaningless and I decide continued support of SE through my subscription and store buying is as well.

Might've been mentioned already, but loading up the item with a few materia goes a long way to get your item sold, even if bots undercut you. It's especially effective on the Aesthete set, where some crafting materia are worth over 10k each (at least on Hyperion).

Thanks MillyBays. I had tried this for some time, and it can help (though people were still sometimes buying the cheapest). I suspect that the bot will follow suit with this trend, if it gets done enough. I hope that doesn't happen.

The weekly post of INactions Taken Against In-Game RMT & Other Illicit Activities (Oct. 15)

Quote:

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Dear Special Task Force,

There are thousands of bots on North American and European servers that have been running for 3 months to 2.5 years. Many of us have quit because the bots ruin major parts of the game, like the market board. Since there are only 4 members in the Special Task Force, we as a community would like to help you identify bots by reporting a weekly list of unbanned bots. To date, we have identified 89 bot rings including 467 dummy accounts for the bot Free Companies. We ask that you ban these bots, the dummy accounts and remove these fake Free Companies to prevent a resurgence, which has happened when a bot is banned but not the bot Free Company.

We will send an updated list every week on Thursday, after the "Actions Taken Against In-Game RMT.”


Date: October 15, 2020
Bot rings not terminated: 89
- Aether: 16
- Primal: 10
- Crystal: 35
- Chaos: 11
- Light: 17
Dummy accounts in bot FCs: 467
Average bot ring age: 239 days
Oldest bot ring: 1030 days

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing

Most bots are confirmed in game using methods listed in the spreadsheet. Unconfirmed bots are easily found from top-50 FC rankings on each server.

Thank you,

North American and Europe FFXIV Anti-Bot Community
https://twitter.com/ffxivbotreports
https://discord.gg/G6YnKdQ
https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...Market-botting

親愛なる特別タスクフォース、

北米とヨーロッパのサーバーには、3か月から2。5年にわたって実行されている何千ものボットがあります。ボットがマーケットボードのようなゲームの主要部分を台無しにするため、私たちの多くは辞めました。特別タスクフォースのメンバーは4人しかないため、コミュニティとして、禁止されていないボットのリストを毎週報告することで、ボットの特定を支援したいと考えています。現在までに、ボットフリーカンパニーの467のダミーアカウントを含む89のボットリングを特定しました。これらのボット、ダミーアカウントを禁止し、これらの偽のフリーカンパニーを削除して、ボットが禁止されたときに発生したがボットフリーカンパニーではない復活を防ぐようお願いします。

「ゲーム内RMTに対して取られた措置」の後、毎週木曜日に更新されたリストを送信します。


日付：2020年10月15日
ボットリングが終了していません：89
-オード：16
-プライマル：10
-クリスタル：35
-カオス：11
-ライト：17
ボットFCのダミーアカウント：467
ボットリングの平均年齢：239日
最も古いボットリング：1030日

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing

ほとんどのボットは、スプレッドシートにリストされている方法を使用してゲームで確認されます。未確認のボットは、各サーバーの上位50のFCランキングから簡単に見つかります。

ありがとうございました、

北米およびヨーロッパのFFXIVアンチボットコミュニティ
https://discord.gg/4usVDw
https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...Market-botting

---

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TheLoveJenovan

Some people have wondered whether bots have become worse recently. They have.

Here is a histogram showing the age of FC Market bots. Most of the ones we've found are ~50-200 days old (2-6 mos).

We've only scratched the surface in finding bots. Feel free to help us on discord (https://discord.gg/G6YnKdQ) to find them all!

---

I like what you do, I think it's important work and thank you for doing it.

But this graph can also be interpreted this way : "Old bots are being banned and the people behind them are creating new one. Only a part of them pass through the net and stays active for long period of time"

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by TheLoveJenovan

Some people have wondered whether bots have become worse recently. They have.

Here is a histogram showing the age of FC Market bots. Most of the ones we've found are ~50-200 days old (2-6 mos).

We've only scratched the surface in finding bots. Feel free to help us on discord (https://discord.gg/G6YnKdQ) to find them all!

https://i.ibb.co/9VQj5Kf/fc-bot-age-20201014.png

---

This data doesn't show botting has gotten worse recently. It shows a cluster of younger bot accounts (assuming you've accurately identified them to begin with), which conforms to the expectations everyone should have given that the more a bot is used and the older it gets, the more probable it is that it gets that SE takes action against it. This will naturally lead to a skew right distribution. You would need a reliable way to determine the population of bots at a given moment and track changes in that data over time to show that botting has gotten worse recently.

Would it be possible to file a lawsuit against SE for failure to enforce its TOS?

getting really tired of these bots. We need a way to light a fire under their asses and show them their is actual repercussions for allowing bots to run rampant like this.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Eloc

Would it be possible to file a lawsuit against SE for failure to enforce its TOS?

getting really tired of these bots. We need a way to light a fire under their asses and show them their is actual repercussions for allowing bots to run rampant like this.

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I don't think you would get much traction doing that. Short of potentially getting yourself banned by taking to social media and blowing it up so that it is a giant egg in their face I don't think much will change. Even then I don't think you'll get much traction either.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Eloc

Would it be possible to file a lawsuit against SE for failure to enforce its TOS?

getting really tired of these bots. We need a way to light a fire under their asses and show them their is actual repercussions for allowing bots to run rampant like this.

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Not a lawyer, but probably not. Aside from the fact that you agreed to arbitration as part of the ToS, I believe the following means any such case would be DoA:

Quote:

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11.2 Disclaimer of Warranties. ASIDE FROM THE EXPRESS WARRANTY PROVIDED WITH THE SOFTWARE, TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, SQUARE ENIX EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, REGARDING THE GAME SOFTWARE, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NONINFRINGEMENT. SQUARE ENIX IS MAKING THE GAME AVAILABLE "AS IS" WITHOUT ANY FURTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND. YOU ASSUME THE RISK OF ANY AND ALL DAMAGE OR LOSS FROM USE OF, OR INABILITY TO USE, THE GAME. SQUARE ENIX DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE GAME WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS OR THAT THE OPERATION OF THE GAME WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE.

---

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Eloc

Would it be possible to file a lawsuit against SE for failure to enforce its TOS?

getting really tired of these bots. We need a way to light a fire under their asses and show them their is actual repercussions for allowing bots to run rampant like this.

---

I do not think that a lawsuit like that would really go far, or do much. its their house and their rules, ToS agreements are usually written to cover such things

plus, their weekly reports, while vague in the extreme, would show attempts by them to curb the bots.

the only thing you could really do is be, or befirend, a large YouTuber or streamer and start having them do things on how bad botting is
dropping sales and subscription rates as well as reputation that cheaters prosper in their game and can make real money doing it... will be the only metric they understand

It's just a game, and every game there will be griefers whether they are real people or not. But in the past few weeks I've been really undercutting people and keeping near a summoning bell / mb a lot. Not anymore because I'm tired of trying but I'd be really quick at changing prices. Some people might appear to be botting, but that's not the case in all cases. So it's hard to determine. I'd like to believe some of my competitors are botting but I can't prove it and I won't report them either. Just keep pushing that summoning bell and hope for the best. I can't tell you how many times I lost a sell by an undercutter who undercut a few seconds before me lol!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Eriane_Elis

It's just a game, and every game there will be griefers whether they are real people or not. But in the past few weeks I've been really undercutting people and keeping near a summoning bell / mb a lot. Not anymore because I'm tired of trying but I'd be really quick at changing prices. Some people might appear to be botting, but that's not the case in all cases. So it's hard to determine. I'd like to believe some of my competitors are botting but I can't prove it and I won't report them either. Just keep pushing that summoning bell and hope for the best. I can't tell you how many times I lost a sell by an undercutter who undercut a few seconds before me lol!

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I was doing that a little but fed up with the competition and just poured like a mighty amount on the mb and dropped prices to a a fraction of the cost to agitate people who were undercutting me by like 1 over and over.. I think they got the point then. I still hit that same product from time to time and chuckle quietly in the dark of my man cave.

I think no one who is serious about the market and who spends a lot of time there is worried abotu people who stand on the summoning bell, it what I do, and I know, just as I am sure you did, that at some point, they'll sleep, they'll eat and you have a window where yours will be the lowest price and you might make a sale

thats not who the thread is about. lets face it, its the crafters version of pvp, and for me, as close as I'll get.

the thread is about the 24/7 "people", that never sleep, eat, leave the keyboard. just like the other style of pvp players dont like bots in their area, why should we like bots in ours?

there is no satisfaction in dropping the price 1gil, 1000 gil or even 10000 gil because the bots dont care, they wont think you are crazy, they just undercut by a gil again.

at this stage I am thinking the bots and RMT rings are run by SE to provide a revenue stream. little other explanation for letting them run without consequences

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sauteed

I was doing that a little but fed up with the competition and just poured like a mighty amount on the mb and dropped prices to a a fraction of the cost to agitate people who were undercutting me by like 1 over and over.. I think they got the point then. I still hit that same product from time to time and chuckle quietly in the dark of my man cave.

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You probably crashed it below their floor price so they stopped really. Since the bots kinda go "if it is below this, don't update" I've been doing that on a lot of items lately once I see a particular bot in a market, I'll flood it with like 30 of an item at 1/3 its price to just force it to never sell stuff.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by NamidaTekika

You probably crashed it below their floor price so they stopped really. Since the bots kinda go "if it is below this, don't update" I've been doing that on a lot of items lately once I see a particular bot in a market, I'll flood it with like 30 of an item at 1/3 its price to just force it to never sell stuff.

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It is possible. I don't know much about how they set any of it up but I got the feeling some of them might have been legit humans but I do agree bots are a serious problem all over the game. Have not noticed as many out in the world lately at least in various primal worlds lately but they are all over the mb and standing around at the grand company or standing by main city aetherites too.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sauteed

It is possible. I don't know much about how they set any of it up but I got the feeling some of them might have been legit humans but I do agree bots are a serious problem all over the game. Have not noticed as many out in the world lately at least in various primal worlds lately but they are all over the mb and standing around at the grand company or standing by main city aetherites too.

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Ya I've got three crafter bots in my sights that I try to go through various markets to hunt and crash the prices on them. I've tried sending them multiple tells as well and never get a response even though they are on for multi-day spans (i've had FC mates who are on at my sleep hours check them) and they never leave their apartment. I've tracked and reported a large number of gathering bots who again I've watched, followed about, attempted to interact with on multiple occasions over multiple hours and even tried opening trades and other things to get a response, never do they just keep doing their thing for again...days on end and always the same thing for months.

The bot enforcement/handling is pretty abyssmal.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sauteed

It is possible. I don't know much about how they set any of it up but I got the feeling some of them might have been legit humans but I do agree bots are a serious problem all over the game. Have not noticed as many out in the world lately at least in various primal worlds lately but they are all over the mb and standing around at the grand company or standing by main city aetherites too.

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From what i noticed: Each world i've seen yet has 1 or 2 crafters which are running an MB Bot that uses 8 characters with 2-8 retainers each. As they dont offer an item twice this results in an insane amount of inventory slots so that they can "occupy" almost any relevant slot.

Yeah I need to agree with this. On aether on most servers it's tough to tell who is a player and who is a bot. Adamantoise is pretty much controlled by bots. I even reported to a gm a possible tool people use but it's still being used I think

Most of the crafter/market bots though dont seem to turn busy on often (since they sit in inns or apartments constantly). I've nailed down two for sure on Bryn and send them hello and question tells most days random times. Especially when I see their class has changed in the search. No responses ever. Pretty easy to identify and yet...nothing done even after reporting for weeks.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by NamidaTekika

Most of the crafter/market bots though dont seem to turn busy on often (since they sit in inns or apartments constantly). I've nailed down two for sure on Bryn and send them hello and question tells most days random times. Especially when I see their class has changed in the search. No responses ever. Pretty easy to identify and yet...nothing done even after reporting for weeks.

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No response doesn't mean it's a bot.

Not saying that it's not a bot, just that lack of response isn't proof. Some players turn off tell display in chat because they're tired of getting the phishing scam tells (which seem to mainly target players in housing districts, I've never gotten one unless I was in housing) - or they're tired of getting harassed by players who can't tolerate heavy marketboard competition and accuse them of botting. They're under no obligation to respond to inquiries from other players, only to inquiries from GMs.

If your proof when opening a ticket is "I saw this player in an apartment/house for 2 hours and they refused to respond to my tell so they must be a bot", the GMs aren't going to bother to forward it to the STF.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

No response doesn't mean it's a bot.

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i mean, its brown, it sits on the ground, it stinks, there are flies... its poop. But i guess you are the type that has to taste it as well to decide

i mean one false positive does not ignore the other 10 red flags these are bots. They are very easy to track. On my server there is a solo non-fc person that sits at the bell in the jeweled crozier all day. is 100% a bot. The hard ones to spot are the ones who actually play the game, level up, do content, but still use a bot because hey, nobody is goona do crap about it an it helps them get gil cap.

The best example are the so called porn-bots. It seems like there is one person using pornstarnames for their bots and all those bots share the same prefix for the fc name, without doubt they very likely have a relation but are still up for years, they dont even purchased the SbH Add-On as they are still running in SB Areas. And Yes!!!! They have been known as bots and reported for a long time and of course nothing happens. There are also individuals appearing on every world in a datacenter with the same name and those are completely dominating the marketboards - Really, these aren't just casual players who rather craft then doing raids. But why? Simply because they do nothing else than make an insane amount of money but don't spend a gil to own a house, get a minion, an orchestrion or even an unsynced lv 50 primal mount. These are definitely accounts made for gil-farming.

Simply put: Stop ignoring honest players while demanding an extreme grind. Those people kill the entire crafting endgame. I know several players pausing right now and they used to pay more real money per month for shop items or additionals than an entire bot-ring for an year. Really even conventional Gil sellers are on my radar because they cant sell anymore. Please Square. it's time to act now it's not like in the past where we have seen a blackmage calles. "gfjkdkhjf dfgjkghdkjdf" in the south shroud it's more essential. if you want to discuss my or my peoples insights let me know. And really eithet me or my friends think in the interest of crafters or gatherers. I also think about regular players (who need to afford) and the last thing i want is to get insane prices that would lead (casuals) toward RMT. Thanks

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Eloc

i mean, its brown, it sits on the ground, it stinks, there are flies... its poop. But i guess you are the type that has to taste it as well to decide

i mean one false positive does not ignore the other 10 red flags these are bots. They are very easy to track. On my server there is a solo non-fc person that sits at the bell in the jeweled crozier all day. is 100% a bot. The hard ones to spot are the ones who actually play the game, level up, do content, but still use a bot because hey, nobody is goona do crap about it an it helps them get gil cap.

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So every player that doesn't give you personalized attention when you demand it is a bot as far as you're concerned? Sorry to burst your bubble but you're not the center of everyone else's universe and no one is required to talk to you.

Yes, some of those characters sitting in their housing not responding to tell are probably bots - but it's going to be less than you think if that's the only criteria you're using as proof.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Charlotte_Wells

Simply put: Stop ignoring honest players while demanding an extreme grind. Those people kill the entire crafting endgame.

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Don't blame bots for SE's decision to trivialize endgame crafting. Bots have been with us the entire time. They're annoying, but the markets were still OK. The utterly pathetic state of the markets is new, however, and unsurprisingly happened only after SE decided everyone should be able to effortlessly level and craft anything. Guess what happens when supply increases and demand decreases simultaneously...

˙ʞuɐʇ sǝɔᴉɹԀ :ɹǝʍsu∀

Yes, thats what i mention in most of my other posts. The mb bots are another dimension
and can't be compared with the other ones that always have been around. It's just 1-2 people
exploiting the entire system. In the above post i mentioned bots in general because often
here i get the feeling that some doubt they exist / are so easy to spot.

The market here is btw. still extremly good. Neo Ishard Rings for example sell for 380K.
(Which is higher than in the 2nd week when the items were introduced)
But due to automatic pricing and restocking most of the sales go to one account.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Charlotte_Wells

The market here is btw. still extremly good. Neo Ishard Rings for example sell for 380K.
(Which is higher than in the 2nd week when the items were introduced)
But due to automatic pricing and restocking most of the sales go to one account.

---

Then it's not really a market if there's only a single bot constantly updating their listings..

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Charlotte_Wells

The market here is btw. still extremly good. Neo Ishard Rings for example sell for 380K.

---

The market isn't great. Neo Ishgard rings and such aren't really a safe seller at 200-300k on Zodiark. Usually that's just a lapse where the bot sellers have been cleaned out of stock and regular players move back in. I had a look at the market myself recently and noticed the same, but most of those items were bumped down to 30-40k within a day or two. You might sell a few in between bot restock if you're very lucky but it's not stable.

To be honest, if there were no bots I doubt rings would sell at 380k either. Many of us gave up on the market months ago because 30-40k isn't worth the effort, but if the bots were all banned you'd have regular players start to move back in and flood the supply. Crafting is simply too accessible, both for bots and players. You can 1-button-no-food-no-HQ-mats craft Neo Ishgardian nowadays.

Now the market for the sale of 480 items on Brunhildr looks like this 5-6 bots are fighting among themselves, and sometimes players are squeezed into the market when things are good prices. Today two bot has completely equalized all prices for 480 items from 50-120k to 25-30k, and one of them always drops prices to the bottom, the only time when you can sell things is when he does not have them in stock and you remain to fight with bots that throw off 1-1000 gils. As they say, the report is not a report, the team to fight in bots can be seen only able to catch fools with unreadable nicknames like *ajfuhfu871h11 1j19h19*.
-----
And no one asked the developers in interviews, maybe they are actually cooperating with bots? They report about 1500-3000 banned per week, but it looks like only those crooked nicknames that don't even try to hide.
It would be better if they provided a file with nicknames, so that anyone can check who they are banning and for what, as in War Thunder.

I can confirm Moogle is run by bots. Basically all the farmable stuff is sold by bots (herbs, minerals, dusts, crystals). Craftables are mainly sold by 2 bot accounts (both listed in the spreadsheet). On Moogle there is also a bot account selling the farmable mounts non-stop (mainly dodo, eldthurs, night pegasus). I have seen no change in the past 6-12 months. All the usual suspects are still very much active.

I have no idea if SE even takes these reports serious. I would say that with all the data available to SE these bot accounts should be easy to identify. Makes you wonder if the bot accounts are just too profitable for SE (9x8 retainers per account) to remove. I can't think of anything else for not instantly removing them from play.

Edit: Just wanted to add that I'm a crafter since basically the launch of FFXIV. Been staring at the market board for years now so I have a decent view on what's going on. I've noticed that bot activity increased drastically since the release of Shadowbringers. Might be due to FFXIV going "mainstream" with all the marketing for Shadowbringers and influx of WoW players. The Moogle server was kind of fine before that. There were bot accounts for raw materials here and there but basically none for craftables. I also feel that servers were kept pretty clean before the launch of Shadowbringers. Reported a few "suspicious" account before and they were all removed within 2-3 weeks.

I would be happy if they even reported the worlds they are being banned from.

Does anyone have any feedback for the way I wrote this report on the issue? Is there any way I could've been clearer? By the way, I replaced the crafting character's actual name with "[REDACTED 4 U]" so hopefully that appeases the "shut up you're going to get banned just for talking about other players' suspicious behavior" crowd.

Quote:

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■World Name
Behemoth
■Zone
Market Board

■Character Name
[REDACTED 4 U]

■Detail
I've observed suspicious activity by this player over the course of months. I can not prove definitively that they are botting and engaging in RMT with the limited amount of information available to me as a player, but I believe if your team investigated them you would be able to see what they're up to. As a player, I've observed at least 49 different retainers selling items crafted by this one player. Of course, they would need multiple characters and possibly multiple accounts to have access to so many retainers. All the [REDACTED 4 U]-crafted items for sale across all these retainers are updated many times every day, throughout the day, in order to have the lowest asking price on the Market Board by 1 gil. In order to constantly update the prices so often on so many items on so many retainers, it seems very likely that they are using 3rd party botting programs to update the prices. All the gear crafted by [REDACTED 4 U] that's being sold across these 49+ retainers must be earning them hundreds and hundreds of millions of gil. I can't think of a reason for so much work to go into amassing this much gil unless it is being sold for real currency. Here is a list of the names of retainers I've observed constantly selling items crafted by [REDACTED 4 U]:
Booodxr
Itssnl
Icded
Sodangerous
Auyuuuuuyyyy
Guesssso
Nottheflu
Dammaaa
Meiavida
Intheoryy
Hugeadvantagee
Degreesoffreed
Lulaaazz
Radioactivestufff
Smallgains
Briggghtliggghttt
Hoisteed
Rtxon
Cannabis-infused
Tttenettt
Mostek
Nocovid
Covidmanagementtt
Focaaaals
Ol'faux
Sheiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit
Alexmuffet
Dasamazinssa
Deffrauddd
Wiwwwwaa
Dannnkk
Detevtetedd
Tragedyofthecommons
Bonedryy
Uldarite
Operationcrush
Cooooook
Chlorelol
Willlferal
Suitteewhisper
Lulaaazz
Dugestcirb
Yolomanssssssser
Stridbrit
Intelinside
Someyears
Hoooyaaa
Eeisjohn
Nveedia

This activity is making it difficult and unfun for regular crafters to engage in the game economy, since all the [REDACTED 4 U]-crafted items tend to have the most competitive price most of the time due to their ability to update the prices on so many items, so quickly with whatever ToS-breaking assists they are likely using.

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Can't we all just regularly (say weekly) spam the same report to the STF? I don't think complaining in this thread alone is going to do it. More collective action should be taken to take these accounts down I guess. Does anyone else have any input on how to efficiently achieve this?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Prrringles

Can't we all just regularly (say weekly) spam the same report to the STF? I don't think complaining in this thread alone is going to do it. More collective action should be taken to take these accounts down I guess. Does anyone else have any input on how to efficiently achieve this?

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by their 'actions' I think the STF is just bunkered down in Japan and concentrates solely on that market. they have it under control there, they can justify their existence and the NA and EU are just inconvenient headaches that they will ignore and hope the issue solves itself. despite repeated and very clear reports, the botters seem to be grinding out gil for RMT and while they SAY they are against it, it continues unabated. yes, they ban the RMT shouters, they ban likely hundreds of 'Wkjsdhfskj Pjdsjhf' bots, but they are never addressing the actual issue.

Its hard to say they have to be incompetent, so my leaning is that they dont care.. period. or worse, get a cut of RMT sales.

I feel like the same bots are being reported over and over again, but for whatever reason, SE just isn't banning some of the bots even though they are obviously involved in third-party software. I'm trying to ignore it, but it kind of pisses me off when nothing is being done about obvious cheaters/exploiters.

I don't mind competing against no-life players who hound the MB constantly, but it's clear when certain crafters aren't even leaving their apartment to farm their own materials and no mounts or minions are being purchased on their account. What are they even using the gil for? :mad:

Most botted accounts also use randomly generated FFXIV character names, follow very similar Namedate options, and character design. There's no individuality to these characters at all. Their sole reason is to farm gil and it's infuriating.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kes13a

by their 'actions' I think the STF is just bunkered down in Japan and concentrates solely on that market. they have it under control there, they can justify their existence and the NA and EU are just inconvenient headaches that they will ignore and hope the issue solves itself. despite repeated and very clear reports, the botters seem to be grinding out gil for RMT and while they SAY they are against it, it continues unabated. yes, they ban the RMT shouters, they ban likely hundreds of 'Wkjsdhfskj Pjdsjhf' bots, but they are never addressing the actual issue.

Its hard to say they have to be incompetent, so my leaning is that they dont care.. period. or worse, get a cut of RMT sales.

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Well, if that is the case - and it probably is - then that is pretty sad. And I wouldn't put it past them since it was the same in FFXI. Their "JP onrly mentality" never changed. It pisses me off because I pay a chunky monthly fee for retainers myself and my stuff sendom sells because of these mb bots. Basically all I do is crafting/selling and the fun is long gone.

I'm sure all fanatic crafters here are in the same sinking boat. If nothing changes then surely the crafting community will die off. I for one am not going to camp the bell 24/7 or continue to spend hours a day crafting stuff that never sells anyway. SE is miserably failing here, what a joke.

I don't think the devs that seem really invested in the enjoyment of FFXIV like Yoshi-P would want to let something like this continue, since it takes a lot of the fun out of the game for a big subset of players.

Could we work together to talk to the devs about this directly, like during the Fan Fest stream that's supposed to happen early next year? If we coordinated an effort to bring this up and explain this during a Fan Fest Q and A, maybe we could spur them to focus on the NA server bots and finally do something about them.

[QUOTE=Jojoya;5427975] The most the GMs will do is forward the information to the STF.

unfortunately you are wrong, I have many communications and several answers, the GM Team is "isolated", they are not allowed to process any feedback, neither to the community, nor to the STF teams or players! at the moment clicking Support Desk -> Contact Us -> Report Cheating is absolutely useless, it has no effect at all, you get a polite answer that it was read and understood and that they are really sorry that you feel so bad but please understand you must report to the STF via the website.