Besides the Gil Sellers... there is also BOTS

[Aerowaffle]

Actually, this game requires a lot of grinding... now I'm not advocating usage of bots here, but for some people who have a job it would take ages. Teens come home from high school and hit up their PC right away, adults have more responsibilities. What is actually the downside to this, other than that they can level up to join in on the epic endgame content this game has to offer? As I said, I'm not supporting botting, but I do understand why some would choose to do it, just want to discuss this issue.

MMOs, this one included, try to alleviate that inequality of game time a bit by having the daily roulettes, weekly drop cap from WoD, weekly hunt mark, etc. Things that are gated by real time helps the people who don't have much time to spend on ffxiv per day by allowing them to advance their character quite a bit for the time they spend.

[Twivana]

Actually, this game requires a lot of grinding... now I'm not advocating usage of bots here, but for some people who have a job it would take ages. Teens come home from high school and hit up their PC right away, adults have more responsibilities. What is actually the downside to this, other than that they can level up to join in on the epic endgame content this game has to offer? As I said, I'm not supporting botting, but I do understand why some would choose to do it, just want to discuss this issue.

[Discordia]

Actually, this game requires a lot of grinding... now I'm not advocating usage of bots here, but for some people who have a job it would take ages. Teens come home from high school and hit up their PC right away, adults have more responsibilities. What is actually the downside to this, other than that they can level up to join in on the epic endgame content this game has to offer? As I said, I'm not supporting botting, but I do understand why some would choose to do it, just want to discuss this issue.

I have a job. I work full time and will work more hours than I would care to (weekends). Sometimes I don't play this game for days, weeks and last year, for months. Still didn't stop me from having 3 DoW to 50, all crafts and gathering to 50 on a new character when I had a Legacy character I could've just used. You just need to commit yourself a few hours a week and not worry about what other players are doing. Just sit back and relax and enjoy.

[Avenger]

For months now the same chars (from same FC) have been standing in the same place, not moving, and fighting the same things over and over by casting. Strange way to play the game.

The surprising thing was last night they were lying there dead instead - I wonder if some game mechanic changed or if their positioning was off for some reason.

[Twivana]

For months now the same chars (from same FC) have been standing in the same place, not moving, and fighting the same things over and over by casting. Strange way to play the game.

The surprising thing was last night they were lying there dead instead - I wonder if some game mechanic changed or if their positioning was off for some reason.

Thats funny. I was discussing this issue with my server group on FB and we were talkin about geting mobs and using those aoes to kill the bots LOL

[Jormungand]

I had a slight idea to make it so it's tougher for gil sellers to spam, though it's more or less a temporary block.

Make it so they cannot whisper, or add someone to your friend list until they get to level 10. Unless they are already on your friend list, or are in your FC. As for the friend list, the only way to add someone while being under 10, is to be added by someone who is already over on one of their classes.
Most honest players who have only just started playing the game already resort to /say and /shout for communication as well as talk in FC or Linkshells. This really wouldn't hinder people, and would instead hinder gil spammers.

The effort required to log in with a character, level it up to begin spamming, only to be forced to delete that character and do it again to resume spamming would incur more losses than gains for advertising.

[Voltron_HD]

so as messed up as this may seem, (never tried it) but if you do see one of these bots and want to spoil the "fun" go fetch a monster, equip a healer class and let the AOE hit the bot and you heal the monster lol. Repeat until the bot is dead. (this is assuming you can even heal the enemy)

[MetaRed]

I've seen a couple types of bots that are especially annoying:
1. Blm spiritbonding bot that scathe claims a plasmid and spams bliz 3
(Mildly annoying)
2. Turn 4 bot that does nothing but summons and dismisses EOS on a 10 sec loop lots on all loot and leaves 200 secs after chests are opened.
(Much more annoying because turn 4 makes it really hard to try to kick the bot because you can't kick for 5 min once an instance starts, can't kick during active combat, and can't kick once chests are opened and loot is hot.)

[Aerowaffle]

I've seen a couple types of bots that are especially annoying:
1. Blm spiritbonding bot that scathe claims a plasmid and spams bliz 3
(Mildly annoying)

I've managed to kill a few of these types of bots. So long as it isn't in a /busy status, and isn't among a crowd of similar bots. Once the bot agros something, I send a trade invite. The bots don't seem to be able to handle trade invites, as they just stop all actions until they are dead, or the trade gets canceled.

The bot's chocobo tried its very best to kill those plasmoids, but tend to accidentally agro a second one thanks to the cone aoe attack. With a mournful "kweh" the chocobo vanishes.

The bot is then pummeled to death.

[Kosmos992k]

I have a job. I work full time and will work more hours than I would care to (weekends). Sometimes I don't play this game for days, weeks and last year, for months. Still didn't stop me from having 3 DoW to 50, all crafts and gathering to 50 on a new character when I had a Legacy character I could've just used. You just need to commit yourself a few hours a week and not worry about what other players are doing. Just sit back and relax and enjoy.

Indeed. Also, unless you as a player wish to participate in the end-game content, which is largely optional, you don't even have to worry too much about grinding everything to 50 etc, just play what you enjoy. There is so much content in this game aside from the MSQ and coils/EX primals, if you take your time, it's really hard to run out of things to do.