I heard the Special Task Force is going to hitt the bots hard now, that the patch has

[Prrringles]

You better believe I'm blaming the buyer. No one is forced to buy.
A seller without a buyer isn't accomplishing anything other than wasting their time.
But good to know you're a true supporter of RMT, telling others it okay to use it since it's there. You are helping to perpetuate the problem.

I stopped reading after this. It's okay, you don't know me, I get it. A low post kid stepped into your 2k+ posts territory, fine. But if you want to spread lies and accuse someone of supporting illegal activities, this is the wrong place to do that mate. You might want to reduct something there before someone reports you for those accusations.

That said, I'm not going to reply to the rest of your reply -- I didn't even read it. Have a good day mate.

[Jojoya]

I stopped reading after this. It's okay, you don't know me, I get it. A low post kid stepped into your 2k+ posts territory, fine. But if you want to spread lies and accuse someone of supporting illegal activities, this is the wrong place to do that mate. You might want to reduct something there before someone reports you for those accusations.

That said, I'm not going to reply to the rest of your reply -- I didn't even read it. Have a good day mate.

I don't care what your post count is. That's got nothing to do with discussion.

But don't pretend the players who engage in RMT aren't the real problem. It wouldn't exist if not for them. When you start making excuses for them, you ARE supporting their activities.

By the way, those activities aren't illegal. There are no criminal or civil laws on the books in any country stating it is illegal to operate bots in a game or buy game currencies using real money.

What those activities are is a violation of the terms of a private contract between Square Enix (or the game developer of whatever game is involved) and the game user. They're a violation of the moral and ethical codes that most people adopt when it comes to concepts like fair gameplay.

You can live in your echo chamber all you want but you're not going to get far in life when you shut out the opinions of others won't blindly agree with you.

[Angelhearth]

You can live in your echo chamber all you want but you're not going to get far in life when you shut out the opinions of others won't blindly agree with you.

I seriously believe it's you living in an echo chamber. Well, actually not in an echo chamber, more of your own world.

[Jojoya]

I seriously believe it's you living in an echo chamber. Well, actually not in an echo chamber, more of your own world.

Believe as you will.

Bots will never disappear until those buying their service disappear. It's that simple.

[Kes13a]

Believe as you will.

Bots will never disappear until those buying their service disappear. It's that simple.

I agree. but I think the problem still lies with game companies not coming down hard on the buyers. once upon a time if you bought currency or services you first got a temp ban, that was usually enough to stop most people from using teh services. the second was usually a perma ban. these days, its like they dont even bother with the buyers, which I think is the wrong approach.

Yes, go after the bots, by all means, work against those, but people using the services supplied by bot activity need to know its also against the TOS and be dealt with in a more severe manner

[Jojoya]

I agree. but I think the problem still lies with game companies not coming down hard on the buyers. once upon a time if you bought currency or services you first got a temp ban, that was usually enough to stop most people from using teh services. the second was usually a perma ban. these days, its like they dont even bother with the buyers, which I think is the wrong approach.

Yes, go after the bots, by all means, work against those, but people using the services supplied by bot activity need to know its also against the TOS and be dealt with in a more severe manner

I completely agree that game companies need to hit the buyers a lot harder.

It's not that difficult to figure out who is buying. Just trace the gil that's coming through bot farming or account compromises and see where it goes. When it's used to buy a cheap item for crazy amounts of gil from a seller account that has otherwise normal activity, you just found a buyer. RMT dealers aren't going to be giving away large amounts of gil to random players - they're in it to make money.

I know some players fear they might be identified as a RMT buyer incorrectly just for engaging in an unusually large transaction with a friend trying to help them out. That wouldn't be a problem as long as the source of the friend's gil isn't illicit activity such as botting or a compromised account.

[Prrringles]

It "seems" the main bot account on my server got banned or suspended 2 days ago. Prices instantly bounced back to healthy levels. \o/. If true then I guess the STF is doing their job afterall.

[Jojoya]

It "seems" the main bot account on my server got banned or suspended 2 days ago. Prices instantly bounced back to healthy levels. \o/. If true then I guess the STF is doing their job afterall.

I hope it's true! Good luck to your local market.

[Prrringles]

I hope it's true! Good luck to your local market.

Nah, false alarm. Mr bot is back after 3 days of absence. I knew it was too good to be true. Thank you for your service, STF.

Edit: Probably just a temp (3 day) suspension..for getting caught..using a bot.. (if it even was a suspension).

[Kes13a]

Nah, false alarm. Mr bot is back after 3 days of absence. I knew it was too good to be true. Thank you for your service, STF.

Edit: Probably just a temp (3 day) suspension..for getting caught..using a bot.. (if it even was a suspension).

best way to check is through Lodestone. If they are banned, they disappear. There is a ring that operates on the Crystal data center and the lead "crafter" disappeared, subsequently because they only removed the head and not the network the new crafter bot had little trouble reactivating under a new name. I was temporarily full of joy when Aether Amazon disappeared. they reappeared unfortunately under a new name, which since they are still active... I wont post, but pretty sure crafters on Crystal know who I am talking about.