Why do they even have a "Report cheating" option in-game when I'm told not to use it?

On multiple occasions, I've been able to get in touch with a GM regarding the matter of cheaters (Bots, namely), but every time I asked them about how I should go about getting rid of them, they've directed me to 'Report bugs/offending players" option at the Lodestone's support desk, which they claim will send the report to a "team better equipped to deal with cheaters" then the in-game report .

Granted, I've already used it in the past with absolutely no results (I'm currently waiting to see if they'll do something about a gathering bot I recorded flying straight through a mountain on its path...), but if the in-game report cheating function isn't actually good for anything, why is it there?

https://static-cdn.jtvnw.net/jtv_use...ge-300x300.png

What else can you do? XD It is a shame that it feels like the team is not very well equipped to monitor a ever-growing game. Hopefully some money is put into the support team, it is nice being able to speak to someone to know that someone is listening on the other end.

That's also another major beef I have with the report system, which is that anything pertaining to cheaters will never be replied to.

In WoW, the GMs would straight up tell me that the offending player had been dealt with after I reported them. If I don't know whether or not they're even reading my report or why the player wasn't banned after I reported them, it doesn't help me to make adjustments that might lead to them being properly punished the next time I report them.

I appreciate how prompt they are in responding in harassment claims (Except for when said claims are directed at me after I held up someone's gathering bot for several minutes by opening a trade with it while I was reporting it...), but they really should address cheaters with a similar degree of priority and importance when they're controlling the economy, monopolizing houses, and overall directly and indirectly detracting from the gameplay experience of countless players.

I think this is a issue on a lot of servers I have seen bots appear from thin air and then mine the node in the ground as well as then in a team or group slide in unison to the next node I know that sometimes people have these bots out of pure laziness but then i see one of the owners of the bots seriously have 6 large houses in the mist from selling all the items the bots collected. I feel like when i report this to the GM's they tell me that they will handle it but then the next day and everyday after that i see those bots again and i think the same thing its so frustrating! I don't know if the GM's just aren't doing there jobs or they don't care or if its SE who isn't taking action

they are not going to advertise how they catch cheaters because then they will figure out a way to not get caught.

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Originally Posted by DrWho2010

they are not going to advertise how they catch cheaters because then they will figure out a way to not get caught.

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That would be relevant if they even banned the more problematic cheaters in the first place. The only ones they seem to ban are those warp-hacking gil farmers, but those are never created with the intent to last, because their primary source of income (The MSQ) eventually dries up.

The bots I mentioned have owned the houses since the day they added the subdivisions, so they clearly don't know how to catch them to begin with or just don't care. I'm leaning towards the latter considering that PvP is still swamped with them after multiple threads complaining about it.

Still, it was be nice if they could at least reply and say something like "The player in question was not found be performing any illegal activities" so I'd know if I'm wasting my time or not.

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Originally Posted by KageTokage

Still, it was be nice if they could at least reply and say something like "The player in question was not found be performing any illegal activities" so I'd know if I'm wasting my time or not.

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Well..... if you haven't heard anything or still see the player in game, maybe that should be your hint that you are wasting your time?? im not trying to bash, im just saying the hint could be right in front of your face and still not notice it.

Part of me wants to keep sending in reports on the basis of thinking they can't seriously be that bad at recognizing a bot, but another part of me thinks they just straight up don't care and aren't even trying to resolve the matter.

More bots just means more money in their pockets, after all.

I have reported a lot of bots before and no results, I already give SE suggestion to reply these reports too.
I feel they dont care about it...

I honestly feel that they aren't as lazy people think and that they have more or less done the best that they can, If you were falsely reported for cheating would you rather a have SE look into the logs following the report, then make a decision based on their findings? or would you rather there be some stupid automated system where if you get reported X times you automatically get banned? If you ask me I would rather have to deal with a handful of rule-breakers that will eventually get banned than have to deal with people that didn't even break ToS getting banned in massive amounts, which I might add people have been wrongfully banned in the past and have had SE overturn their bans as a result

SE strongly discourages cheating and just because they do not take immediate action when someone gets reported does not mean that they wont. they just look at it from the perspective of "innocent until proven guilty" which I think is the more sound way to go about it

Whatever stance they're taking, it clearly isn't working, because there are frequent complaints of the same players getting away with botting, hacking, win trading, etc. for months, if not years on end despite being reported multiple times, sometimes by multiple players.

I've been reporting the same three bots on my server for upwards of a year now, but they're still going strong and now currently trying to expand their activities judging from the sprouts in their guild that are botting FATEs to level as I speak.

Something seriously needs to change, because I really don't understand why they can be so prompt in dealing with harassment reports, yet seemingly overlook cheaters entirely.

Simple: if u get caught by cheating (using bots/hacks) your account will be terminated, while if u caught by player harassment you can only get few days of ban. Take guess why is this a thing.

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Originally Posted by Akor

Simple: if u get caught by cheating (using bots/hacks) your account will be terminated, while if u caught by player harassment you can only get few days of ban. Take guess why is this a thing.

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Sadly, that's a really, really big "if", in the former case, considering the laundry list of obvious signs of botting the players I've been reporting give off, yet the so-called "action team" (I think "inaction team" would be more appropriate at this point) seems to think they're totally legit.

Also, you kind of missed the point of my topic, which is that despite there being a "report cheating" option in-game, I've received direct word-of-mouth from the GMs that using it is unlikely to accomplish anything, as it's not sending the reports to the mythical action team I mentioned earlier who supposedly are the ones who actually handle cheaters, not the GMs. For all we know, the main reason people aren't getting banned could be that everyone is simply using the in-game report and expecting something to happen when the Lodestone report function is secretly the only one that's functional. Overall, the whole situation just reeks of "They don't actually care" if they're not making something like this clear to people.

Oh, and even if you do somehow get caught, a perma-ban isn't likely to happen if it's the first offense, because a certain player was notorious for hacking in PvP, and got away with it for several months, but was ultimately only given a temporary ban of a few days once the countless reports being made against him finally spurred them into doing something. Last I heard, he was still hacking, just outside of PvP where he's less likely to be reported,

Just go in trade mode little bit and the player will notice that hes bot isnt moving :P

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Originally Posted by Ssmiley_Bjakkzz

Just go in trade mode little bit and the player will notice that hes bot isnt moving :P

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I did that before and ended up getting reported by the botter not long after, so I'd suggest against doing that. I was honestly kind of hoping that would happen under the silly assumption that the GM might actually heed my complaints about the player, but like usual, he just pointed me in the direction of the useless Lodestone report function.

A good number of the bots seem to be only half-AFK much of the time and are likely being multi-boxed with the player's main, so even if a GM did decide to contact them, they'd be able to get them off their case quickly.

Hellluuuuuu