How is the botting situation in this game?

[RareItems]

Not as bad as FFXI lol.

[Nepentha]

Not as bad as FFXI lol.

Yet. is the operative word.

[Naoki34]

I must admit I'm more than a little bit surprised that people are openly discussing bots, naming bots (though not linking to them), and discussing the benefits of botting openly in this forum. Usually people keep this on the down low so I'm really surprised there are multiple threads on this topic on the front page.

I have only played this game for a short time but I have not seen any bots (other than some garbled names shouting about gil in Limsa Lominsa). How is the botting situation in this game? Another game that I came from had a slight botting problem in PvP where someone could simulate a match with bots before the actual match to perfect their play. Are there similar problems in this game where people cheat in PvP?

The bot you say? Well, it's complicated to manage when 5000 accounts are banned but they are directly replaced by 5000 new bot accounts.
I remember a TV report from WoW, the people who manage the bot and goldseller, have a pallet of 1000 boxes of the game in stock behind them in case of a ban.

Even with an account ban, it's still obviously profitable for them, because where there's demand, there's supply.

PvP? PvP content is just so SE can say that there is PvP. Even in WoW where it's not Dark Age of Camelot, it's better done.

[Nepentha]

The bot you say? Well, it's complicated to manage when 5000 accounts are banned but they are directly replaced by 5000 new bot accounts.
I remember a TV report from WoW, the people who manage the bot and goldseller, have a pallet of 1000 boxes of the game in stock behind them in case of a ban.

Even with an account ban, it's still obviously profitable for them, because where there's demand, there's supply.

PvP? PvP content is just so SE can say that there is PvP. Even in WoW where it's not Dark Age of Camelot, it's better done.

It's a vicious circle. Botters clog up the marketboards with cheap items and materials they sell at rock bottom prices because it's nothing to them, their costs are 0 and none of them are actually at their keys to put any work behind it. Players find themselves unable to sell because they can't keep up with the bots. Players then go to gil sellers in order to purchase more expensive items like housing. Rinse, repeat.

[Pinen]

The botting situation is rampant and unlikely to be attended to any time soon due to the simple fact that FFXIV is a Japanese game intended for a Japanese audience, and I can only assume that the situation isn't as bad on Japanese servers.

Take a look at the Japanese General Discussion forums and check the first couple of pages there, and take note of all the GM/Moderator replies in threads (the crown icon). Compare that to the first few pages on this forum, and it should be obvious at a glance that English-speaking servers are not a priority for Square Enix, and Square sees us more as a secondary by-product of of the game's success in Japan, not a core audience. As long as they don't notice subs dropping and there's no viral negative publicity, the English-speakers can be neglected.

[Nepentha]

The botting situation is rampant and unlikely to be attended to any time soon due to the simple fact that FFXIV is a Japanese game intended for a Japanese audience, and I can only assume that the situation isn't as bad on Japanese servers.

Take a look at the Japanese General Discussion forums and check the first couple of pages there, and take note of all the GM/Moderator replies in threads (the crown icon). Compare that to the first few pages on this forum, and it should be obvious at a glance that English-speaking servers are not a priority for Square Enix, and Square sees us more as a secondary by-product of of the game's success in Japan, not a core audience. As long as they don't notice subs dropping and there's no viral negative publicity, the English-speakers can be neglected.

Yeah, my opinion for awhile now is this continues until there's bad enough publicity to make them take notice thanks to PR problems, or they start losing subs to the point they notice a revenue dip.

[Kes13a]

Yeah, my opinion for awhile now is this continues until there's bad enough publicity to make them take notice thanks to PR problems, or they start losing subs to the point they notice a revenue dip.

especially since any questions about the whole issue will NEVER make it to Yoshi P. any questions that do are so softball, might as well be nerf darts

[gumas]

to be honest i think any mmo publisher feel 50 50 about botting, i think some of them really want to let it that way because it "fill up" the population so they can boast "our mmo has 5 million active players" even though half of them probably bots they couldnt care less.

[Nepentha]

to be honest i think any mmo publisher feel 50 50 about botting, i think some of them really want to let it that way because it "fill up" the population so they can boast "our mmo has 5 million active players" even though half of them probably bots they couldnt care less.

And someday all the game is, is bots. I guess they can enjoy that revenue stream.

[Melichoir]

to be honest i think any mmo publisher feel 50 50 about botting, i think some of them really want to let it that way because it "fill up" the population so they can boast "our mmo has 5 million active players" even though half of them probably bots they couldnt care less.

It's a balancing act that has to do with 'best bang for buck'.

Botting is generally a net negative to any game because it typically gets out of control if left unchecked. But spending a million dollars to go after 2 bots (as just an example) isnt worthwhile. So they probably dont go after every bot all the time cause it's just expensive to do so, relatively speaking. Furthermore, botting might be necessary for market balancing. This is only a thought I have on it, but considering how laissez faire the MB can be, if there were NO bots, you could really end up with detrimental monopolies on items. The items that bots tend to drive down in price are 'common items' - or items that are obtainable by very rudimentary tasks. More 'rare' items tend to be sold by players actually doing the content where botting is incredibly hard to pull off. By having a 'third party' interact wtih the market and actively push down pricing on certain common and universal items, it may help against janky shenanigans on the MB. Particularly since there is no 'government regulation' of the MB. It literally about as close to a capitalist free for all as you can get.

To be fair, it doesnt always play out the way I suggest, but it's a thought. But I do wonder how much of an influence Bots provide in the market one way or another.