Too many bots, too few bans: The Shadowbringers edition.

[KageTokage]

I miss the Aethersand bots on Balmung. They helped lower the price of Crystals. 9999 Lightning crystals for 3 gil each was nice while it lasted.

I'm honestly surprised if they haven't come back yet there because I've been seeing aethersand bots for the past week or so on Cactuar.

I personally have no issues with crystal/cluster supplies due to gathering aethersands myself whenever my GP caps, but they really kind of twist the economy into something it shouldn't be by tanking the prices on mainstream materials/crafts to extreme lows. Things tend to start off normally while there's tons of DoL/H players supplying the market, but once interest wanes and people start quitting then they gradually take over.

[CorbinDallas]

The people in here jumping to the defense of players exhibiting bot-like behaviors are drawing my suspicions tbh. Almost like they've got skin in the game.

Anyway, if somebody asked me if I'm a bot, I'd just respond that I'm not a bot and ask why the accuser thinks so. There's nothing wrong with an honest concerned inquiry and I really don't think that counts as harassment. It's not like taking a few seconds to type a response to a tell is going to affect your gathering or FATE grinding substantially.

Imagine if some stranger came up to you while you were out and about doing your own thing in a store or something, after watching you for 5 minutes, and just abruptly asked you if you were committing fraud or stealing.

That's what being accused of being a bot is like.

[KageTokage]

I would find it kind of rude if someone came up to me and asked if I was a bot, too.

It's less offensive and equally effective to try and get their attention with an off-hand remark about something or a simple greeting.

Still, just because someone talks doesn't necessarily mean they aren't using a bot. It's extremely trivial to script a bot to make it give a canned response if a certain keyword is detected in chat (Though they'll issue this response so immediately that it tends to draw more suspicion rather then it dispels), and if someone is monitoring their bot they may respond to try to get you off their back.

Ultimately, it's better to judge from their overly patterned behavior more then anything else.

[CorbinDallas]

I would find it kind of rude if someone came up to me and asked if I was a bot, too.

It's less offensive and equally effective to try and get their attention with an off-hand remark about something or a simple greeting.

I don't mean to offend or appear to be "defending bots" as the person I quoted is suggesting, I just think there's literally no point in bothering anyone in a PM, bot or not.

Its not our job to police the game and interrogate people. If we see suspicious behaviour, then by all means report it. If you clearly state that it's a suspicion, and you end up being wrong, then I doubt anything will happen to you.

I just think this whole questioning someone if they're a bot thing is completely unnecessary. It was in every other game I played.

[KageTokage]

On the subject of "policing" people, I repeatedly find my cursor going towards the "Kick from Novice Network" option with how many mentors I routinely see pulling overnight gathering, crafting, or FATE farming routines using bots, but I know that actually doing so is ultimately only going to get me in trouble.

It's rather frustrating to be in a situation where I technically have the power to punish people for something, but can't; moreso when the STF and GM teams are continually useless about it.

[ElazulHP]

Most of the gathering bots I've seen are usually farming Aerthersands. It's the same ones every time too. They're on 24/7 since I started paying attention and to my knowledge still there as of at least the end of Stormblood. There are also crafting bots that will sit in their houses and craft the end game items 24/7. Usually being in a bot FC based in a house so they can put up a bell and stuff and just sit there with nobody able to see them physically. The one I see the most has a bunch of naked level 20 mule characters he uses to list all the stuff he sits in his house making 24/7 under the same few crafter characters. None of which have ever been banned to my knowledge.

[KageTokage]

The one I see the most has a bunch of naked level 20 mule characters he uses to list all the stuff he sits in his house making 24/7 under the same few crafter characters. None of which have ever been banned to my knowledge.

Exact same thing is going on Cactuar. One omnicrafter bot, only has SMN/SCH at 80, is in a FC with three mule characters that constantly cycle log-ins to check their items and undercut if someone is selling lower then them.

I almost never actually see them in person so they either buy all of their materials from the MB or have someone supplying them constantly.

Some people believe it's some kind of large-scale Aether DC-wide RMT farming scheme, as it's been noticed that the players exhibiting this pattern are always online/offline simultaneously which suggests they're running everything from the same PC.

[ElazulHP]

Exact same thing is going on Cactuar. One omnicrafter bot, only has SMN/SCH at 80, is in a FC with three mule characters that constantly cycle log-ins to check their items and undercut if someone is selling lower then them.

I almost never actually see them in person so they either buy all of their materials from the MB or have someone supplying them constantly.

Some people believe it's some kind of large-scale Aether DC-wide RMT farming scheme, as it's been noticed that the players exhibiting this pattern are always online/offline simultaneously which suggests they're running everything from the same PC.

I see mine regularly because the guy has a house directly next to mine. His mule characters visit the MB/Bell directly outside next to our two houses. I've talked to some people who think the guy does the same on other servers as when he's inactive on our server similar bots are active on other servers so perhaps its the same guy. I couldn't say for certain though so just speculation on my part.

[KageTokage]

Honestly, the thing that annoys me the most about this matter is that they revised the social aspects of the ToS to make them stricter and applicable to a wider variety of scenarios, presumably with the intent of trying to further discourage harassment, yet they can't be bothered to improve anything when it comes to the enforcement of illicit activity. The sole change we got was them noting how many bots are being banned each week in the wake of the same live letter where they had an interview with the head of the STF, but it really just comes across as them trying to say "Look, we're doing something!", but "something" isn't enough if it's not scaring people into stopping or avoiding illicit activity entirely.

I feel like someone needs to bring this up to their PR or in another interview or something because posts in the forums clearly aren't getting the message across.

I've also been contemplating getting a CWLS or discord together to see if a collective approach to reporting people could be more effective because the issue might partly be that I'm the only one even reporting most of the people I see.

[alacruxe]

Imagine if some stranger came up to you while you were out and about doing your own thing in a store or something, after watching you for 5 minutes, and just abruptly asked you if you were committing fraud or stealing.

That's what being accused of being a bot is like.

You act like I've never been accused of botting. :P I've been playing MMOs for over 15 years. I've been there and done that.

And again, it's really not that hard to say no.

edit: As an addendum, if, say, an officer walks up to me and asks me if I'm doing something illegal, I'm not just going to stay silent and walk away. That's completely asinine and only makes it all the more likely I'll be arrested. Or shot, since this is American police we're talking about.

Obviously regular players don't hold the same amount of power, but they still have the ability to report you. And you're a lot more likely to get reported for botting if you stay quiet and continue acting like a bot. If you don't wanna get reported, do the thing that makes you not get reported. It's so easy.