Weird PR move?

SE regularly bans ToS-breaking accounts under the big umbrella of RMT activities that they belong to in the thousands. Imagine now reading two headlines that address like it was some major breakthrough operation that SE had planned for weeks like some drug sting they executed. Suffice to say that I had a "Oh that's grea--wait a minute..." moment when I noticed how both articles mentioned the Endwalker expansion in the same breath.

Weird flex PR move or was there truly some special about this banwave that I missed?

Sources : https://www.gamesradar.com/amp/squar...money-trading/

https://www.gamespot.com/amp-article.../1100-6488498/

Looks like some journalists just noticed the regular bot bans for the first time. These sort of things are common for journalists who play this briefly then move onto the next game they are reviewing.

I think SE has nothing to do with it and one of the two saw news on it and thought it was a big deal enough to post it. And then because in game journalism it's just easier to copy, the other website copied it. I thought it kinda weird myself seeing these, like "uh these happen quite frequently?"

This article is very...random indeed.

While it is nice that the number of weekly bans is no longer in the 20K+ range, I question whether or not that's due to SE changing something or the RMTers deciding it wasn't actually necessary to make that many bots.

Must have been a slow news day, those are just random clickbait articles.

I'm not sure the author had checked bans from the previous months. There was a post about almost 10k accounts banned for RMT in February.

The real question that should be asked is, "Why are there so few bot bans listed?".

Most likely journalists thinking that 5000 people being banned will impress readers/make a headline because it's 5000 people being banned. Those who aren't a part of the FF14 community already would probably be like: "O.O uh wot? Drama?" Meanwhile we're here like this isn't anything new.

Also, throw in Endwalker because hype train and free clicks.

Yes thought so as well. Multiple sites publishing it around the same time

You know there's a content drought on ffxiv when even game articles starts making news out of nothing like this. The previous one was even larger so this isn't even news.

Might not be a bad idea to contact the authors of these articles to let them know the real situation.

I mean, none of those (or any other of the sites talking about the same exact "news", using almost the same exact headline) is remotely professional so... Just cheap-ass click baits.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Nepentha

Might not be a bad idea to contact the authors of these articles to let them know the real situation.

---

What's sad is that the MassivelyOP article was written by the guy that regularly plays FFXIV so he really should have known better.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Infindox

I think SE has nothing to do with it and one of the two saw news on it and thought it was a big deal enough to post it. And then because in game journalism it's just easier to copy, the other website copied it.

---

Probably. I'm guessing someone at Gamespot or someplace published an article and then the guys over at Gamesradar and Kotaku and so on said "wait, should be be writing about this too?", and here we are.

As late as these news websites are to the party, the fact that they're noticing it at all is potentially a good thing if they eventually realize exactly how bad the problem is and that these token ban waves mean basically nothing.

RMT bans are in the hundreds if not thousands pretty regularly.
Whoever is writing this as news should do more research lol

Now if only they'd ban the buyers too...

I think the RMT vendors deliberately conduct transactions in a manner that is convoluted enough that the GMs cannot conclusively pin down the activity as illicit and therefore leaves them unable to act on it.

IE, one method is having a customer list an overpriced item on the MB then buying it. It's more subtle then spam mailing millions of gil to someone or trading it to them as one giant lump sum as large transactions happen on the MB regularly.

These guys are running a business and they know how to work around SE's enforcement methods when it matters, sadly.

considering there was a ban around 10k early February, I am not sure why they found almost 5k noteworthy.

and the fact its only the low hanging fruit of RMT barkers most likely and NOTHING ELSE, wasnt even mentioned. the rampant botting in all other game aspects isnt that interesting I guess. but hey, SE banned the ones even a blind 5 year old could find... great job SE *golf clap*

The authors often aren't aware of the issue, many of them are just piggybacking off the first article in the first place. It's why we should reach out to them. Awareness is what we need, so we should open the media's eyes to the problem.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Nepentha

The authors often aren't aware of the issue, many of them are just piggybacking off the first article in the first place. It's why we should reach out to them. Awareness is what we need, so we should open the media's eyes to the problem.

---

Aaaaand.. you think game journalists want to know..?

It's rather typical VG Journos really don't research anything they write on anymore so it's mostly opinion pieces with smatterings of things they occasionally notice or more likely get a heads up on from people that actually played the game. So things like Banwaves will go unnoticed for years but other things will be picked up straight away and hyperfocused on..

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by kidalutz

It's rather typical VG Journos really don't research anything they write on anymore so it's mostly opinion pieces with smatterings of things they occasionally notice or more likely get a heads up on from people that actually played the game. So things like Banwaves will go unnoticed for years but other things will be picked up straight away and hyperfocused on..

---

Thanks, I remember the 'too much water' journo now that also didn't play much of Cyberpunk (before the console crowd tore into it because the game was in such a bad state that it made bethesda's stuff look polished). gamejournalism is not to be trusted.

A few articles about this were making the rounds on various gaming websites I frequent. None of them seem to realize that SE posts things like this pretty often.

There is a trace on one easy enough, don't do it... and it is certainly not all bots that got the boot.