Has Square Enix given up on countering RMT and botting?

[DiaDeem]

Give up? Don't they let us know somewhat regularly how many accounts relating to RMT have been suspended? If I remember correctly it's always a number in the thousands. I don't think they've given up, but I don't fully know how they tackle the issue.

[LittleImp]

Give up? Don't they let us know somewhat regularly how many accounts relating to RMT have been suspended? If I remember correctly it's always a number in the thousands. I don't think they've given up, but I don't fully know how they tackle the issue.

Despite SE's statements about ban-waves, there is little to no real impact on the prevalence of botting on 14. They make a show of banning the silly teleporting bots and a few RMT spammers, but the more impactful types of botting go more or less totally unpunished. An ex-FC mate of mine has been botting for 2+ years straight, running his in character in gathering loops 24-7, and has never gotten so much as a warning about it. There are many people like him out there, and they are doing significantly more damage to the in-game economy than RMT bots. On most servers, if you gather timed nodes regularly you'll pretty quickly become familiar with who is botting.

[ForteNightshade]

Despite SE's statements about ban-waves, there is little to no real impact on the prevalence of botting on 14. They make a show of banning the silly teleporting bots and a few RMT spammers, but the more impactful types of botting go more or less totally unpunished. An ex-FC mate of mine has been botting for 2+ years straight, running his in character in gathering loops 24-7, and has never gotten so much as a warning about it. There are many people like him out there, and they are doing significantly more damage to the in-game economy than RMT bots. On most servers, if you gather timed nodes regularly you'll pretty quickly become familiar with who is botting.

Adding to this, I've raided with people who used a second character to test what sort of hacks and crap they can get away with before doing them on his main. To quote them, "Surprisingly, almost everything I've tried." Another person knew someone else who bot crafted and she basically said, "I could crash the pot market in a day if I wanted to. Even if it's selling for 500 gil, it's still free gil to me." They're both still playing to this day and these conversations were years ago now. Cactuar has two notorious botters who have infested the crafting market for years and SE has done nothing.

The whole RMT reports are a complete show and little else. They do absolutely nothing towards impact botting, which is why people have become more emboldened over the years.

BroJobs, the god of trolls.

The irony is his new "trolling" seems to be posting relevant or factual claims and banking on people dismissing them over his reputation. Say what you will about BroJobs/Skiros' history, SE's response to botting has been utterly laughable at best. I don't doubt for a second Lost Ark handles them better because virtually every other mainline MMO does.