Parsing unfair but okay?

[Dracosavarian]

I just realized that statement is contradictory as if you try to report someone for "absentee play" the GMs will adamantly insist they can't do anything about it and redirect you to the nigh-uselessSTF instead.

It isn’t so much the top part that covers the discussion at hand, but rather, the last two sentences.

[SaberMaxwell]

It isn’t so much the top part that covers the discussion at hand, but rather, the last two sentences.

The relevance here, I believe, is: "They're not enforcing one part of that section entirely, the one that's arguably more important to enforce and affects a much larger proportion of the playerbase. Why would they enforce the other part?"

[Dracosavarian]

The relevance here, I believe, is: "They're not enforcing one part of that section entirely, the one that's arguably more important to enforce and affects a much larger proportion of the playerbase. Why would they enforce the other part?"

That you know of. If you have statistics and logistics on what Square Enix has, and has not enforced in regards to their Terms of Service, I’m open to hearing it.

[HyoMinPark]

That you know of. If you have statistics and logistics on what Square Enix has, and has not enforced in regards to their Terms of Service, I’m open to hearing it.

Statistics, of course not. But it’s fairly common knowledge that a lot of the crafting/gathering and PvP bots continue to go unpunished in this game.

[Dracosavarian]

Statistics, of course not. But it’s fairly common knowledge that a lot of the crafting/gathering and PvP bots continue to go unpunished in this game.

Perception is not often the reality of the situation as a whole. It is only one side of the coin, seen from an external viewpoint and, demonstrably in this case, the one that is the least informed in regards to the question at hand.

[HyoMinPark]

Perception is not often the reality of the situation as a whole. It is only one side of the coin, seen from an external viewpoint and, demonstrably in this case, the one that is the least informed in regards to the question at hand.

There is a ring of crafting and gathering bots on my server that have been reported multiple times since Stormblood—and nothing has ever been done about them. They have continued to happily bot away unabated. The only comeuppance one got wasn’t even from SE but from someone hacking their account, deleting their FC, and spending all their gil. Pardon if I don’t have the most favorable view of the enforcement of the ToS with regards to this.

That said, ToS or not, it’s common knowledge that parsers are don’t ask, don’t tell. Multiple big name streamers openly display them on their Twitch channels, and they aren’t reported or banned for them. Yoshida knows that parsers keep the raids relevant beyond getting gear, so he’s not going to advocate massive enforcement of banning players that use them. It’s truly astounding the number of people in this thread that advocate blindly reporting people out of nothing but pure vindictiveness, and then act as if they are the righteous ones in this situation. GCBTW, indeed.

[Dracosavarian]

There is a ring of crafting and gathering bots on my server that have been reported multiple times since Stormblood—and nothing has ever been done about them. They have continued to happily bot away unabated. The only comeuppance one got wasn’t even from SE but from someone hacking their account, deleting their FC, and spending all their gil. Pardon if I don’t have the most favorable view of the enforcement of the ToS with regards to this.

That said, ToS or not, it’s common knowledge that parsers are don’t ask, don’t tell. Multiple big name streamers openly display them on their Twitch channels, and they aren’t reported or banned for them. Yoshida knows that parsers keep the raids relevant beyond getting gear, so he’s not going to advocate massive enforcement of banning players that use them. It’s truly astounding the number of people in this thread that advocate blindly reporting people out of nothing but pure vindictiveness, and then act as if they are the righteous ones in this situation. GCBTW, indeed.

Be that as it may, and I do sympathize with your frustration as RMT and Botters are the scum of the earth, and were a particularly vexing pain point for me mining Darksteel ore in the Gusgen Mines in FFXI back in the day…

The fact that others are breaking the Terms of Service does not suddenly give carte blanche for one to do the same.

[Anonicat]

There is a ring of crafting and gathering bots on my server that have been reported multiple times since Stormblood—and nothing has ever been done about them. They have continued to happily bot away unabated. The only comeuppance one got wasn’t even from SE but from someone hacking their account, deleting their FC, and spending all their gil. Pardon if I don’t have the most favorable view of the enforcement of the ToS with regards to this.

That said, ToS or not, it’s common knowledge that parsers are don’t ask, don’t tell. Multiple big name streamers openly display them on their Twitch channels, and they aren’t reported or banned for them. Yoshida knows that parsers keep the raids relevant beyond getting gear, so he’s not going to advocate massive enforcement of banning players that use them. It’s truly astounding the number of people in this thread that advocate blindly reporting people out of nothing but pure vindictiveness, and then act as if they are the righteous ones in this situation. GCBTW, indeed.

You are 100% right.

[Sylve]

Statistics, of course not. But it’s fairly common knowledge that a lot of the crafting/gathering and PvP bots continue to go unpunished in this game.

Bot ban waves happen irregularly because if SE were to ban a bot the instant it gets discovered, the bot makers just change it immediately and create a new bot account.
By allowing them to run for some time and the banning in huge irregular waves, it makes it a bit harder for them to change what got them caught.
It also concentrates illicit material in comparatively fewer bots.

There's also some bots that get put on watchlists so they can trace the legit account that is the source player for the bot accounts.

If it helps any, think of it more like drug busting.
Sure, removing the dealer as soon as he appears on the street is good for the community. But unless they take down the supplier, a new dealer will pop up every day.
So they watch the dealers to catch the suppliers.

[HyoMinPark]

Bot ban waves happen irregularly because if SE were to ban a bot the instant it gets discovered, the bot makers just change it immediately and create a new bot account.
By allowing them to run for some time and the banning in huge irregular waves, it makes it a bit harder for them to change what got them caught.
It also concentrates illicit material in comparatively fewer bots.

There's also some bots that get put on watchlists so they can trace the legit account that is the source player for the bot accounts.

If it helps any, think of it more like drug busting.
Sure, removing the dealer as soon as he appears on the street is good for the community. But unless they take down the supplier, a new dealer will pop up every day.
So they watch the dealers to catch the suppliers.

Yeah, I don’t think that’s how things work in this game. If so, well watching this ring of bots for 4+ years is certainly quite generous of the STF.

Be that as it may, and I do sympathize with your frustration as RMT and Botters are the scum of the earth, and were a particularly vexing pain point for me mining Darksteel ore in the Gusgen Mines in FFXI back in the day…

The fact that others are breaking the Terms of Service does not suddenly give carte blanche for one to do the same.

The developers aren’t enforcing the ToS when it comes to parsers because of the reasons I stated above—they know that if they suddenly start taking action, Savage dies. There’s no point in continuing to run it outside of getting gear. The competitive raid scene is built upon chasing leaderboards, and that scene keeps the content alive. As long as the parsers aren’t used to harass, SE will do nothing about them. When they are used to harass, the person is punished under the harassment clause—not the third-party software clause. See: Arthars.