Enforcement is in the toilet

[CNitsah]

Probably tinfoil hat here, but I think part of why Square-Enix doesn't care about automation and low subscriber counts for FF14 is because the same thing exists in FF11 and that game is not only still around, but still gets updates and makes money for them.

I doublt that. It's well known that FFXIV is the major part of the MMO division, often estimated at 90+ % of the mmo division revenue, and that most of the rest is from DQX. FFXI is very minor, with the game still paying its infrastructures (playonline included), but doesn't bring that much profit. FFXIV going FFXI would be a major problem for SE, given the MMO division is 65% of the revenue of the videogame division and 50% of the global revenue of the company (from their last annual report).

I do think they don't really care about the low player count though : it is well known whales represent 50% to 80% of the revenue in the micro transaction in any mmo that has them. As long as they're here, lower playerbase is not a problem, as long as they reach a certain threshold. Free trial is there for that. They might begin to question it if the new expansion get significantly less pre-order, but for now, in the late expansion, this is probably seen as a non problem.

Tinfold hat me think the reason we still don't have the tardis update is because people would more easily give up their house and unsubscribe if they could get a big house interior in a small house, which is still pretty easily accessible in most server.

[Pricia]

I'm tired of bots. Why even have achievements if people are just going to bot them? It doesn't mean anything anymore.

[VigilantofStendarr]

I just love how a Malfoid shitpost gets taken care of much faster than a speedhacker getting reported hundreds of times. Lol

[CCheshire]

I just love how a Malfoid shitpost gets taken care of much faster than a speedhacker getting reported hundreds of times. Lol

Well, the night is young, so I bet you can create 15-20x shitposts before the next day happens and the mods wake up to clean too.

[Carighan]

I just love how a Malfoid shitpost gets taken care of much faster than a speedhacker getting reported hundreds of times. Lol

OTOH, this shows that enforcement isn't in the toilet. Luckily the community team still takes care of the worst threads plagueing the forums at least.

[Sunhwapark]

Enforcement is weird, I think someone would just appeal that their botting 20mil MGP over several days was justified because it "alleviated their stress" with the MGP minigames, and they would just turnover the punishment and say "sorry dear player for making you stressed, you're free to go" and then the person hops and skips back into the gold saucer to do another 72hour Cuff-a-Cur session without breaks. I kind of get why a console or whatever player may feel a bit jaded against PC where it's possible to automate their entire game and just click some buttons to collect their payouts.

I do wonder what the point of paying for the sub is at that point if you're just botting 24/7 but still pretend to parade around like a common player, then again... not my sub not my concern....
A bit unfortunate though that all this automation has pissed all over any sort of sense of achievement in most aspects of the game though.

[CCheshire]

Enforcement is weird, I think someone would just appeal that their botting 20mil MGP over several days was justified because it "alleviated their stress" with the MGP minigames, and they would just turnover the punishment and say "sorry dear player for making you stressed, you're free to go" and then the person hops and skips back into the gold saucer to do another 72hour Cuff-a-Cur session without breaks. I kind of get why a console or whatever player may feel a bit jaded against PC where it's possible to automate their entire game and just click some buttons to collect their payouts.

I do wonder what the point of paying for the sub is at that point if you're just botting 24/7 but still pretend to parade around like a common player, then again... not my sub not my concern....
A bit unfortunate though that all this automation has pissed all over any sort of sense of achievement in most aspects of the game though.

Nope, if you're caught botting MGP, although it's mostly worthless, then they keep giving you days off until the final permaban at the end.

[MicahZerrshia]

It's been like this since 1.0

There was such a horrible bot and rmt problem in 1.0 that it was incedibly frustrating for the actual players. The bots would all sit at an aetheryte camp so you would warp in and there would be all these souless bots just standing there. Want fleece? To bad, all the sheep camps in Coerthas are taken up by bots. Try to mess with the bots by taking their mobs or trying to take over their camp? Well at some point the ppl running the operation sees and reports you then you get disciplined, even though you reported them beforehand. So you go to another zone and yep same thing. Want to report it? Go ahead, nothing will be done and the only reply you would get with any complaints is "Wait til 2.0!". Well its 8.0 now and nothing has changed, except for the bots now do everything underground or in instances and the game is so scripted that even players are botting to get the tedious tasks done.

SE has never had a good track record with rmt and bots in this game. And the special task force is either a farce, or have their hands so tightly tide they cannot do much rendering them mostly useless. It's been this way literally since the day the servers went live for the very first time. So, if nothing has been done in 16 years, nothing ever will be. You either need to accept that a large portion of the playerbase is just bots or find a new game, which also likely has bots, and see how that company tries to combat them and how disruptive they are.

[BigCheez]

It's been like this since 1.0

There was such a horrible bot and rmt problem in 1.0 that it was incedibly frustrating for the actual players. The bots would all sit at an aetheryte camp so you would warp in and there would be all these souless bots just standing there. Want fleece? To bad, all the sheep camps in Coerthas are taken up by bots. Try to mess with the bots by taking their mobs or trying to take over their camp? Well at some point the ppl running the operation sees and reports you then you get disciplined, even though you reported them beforehand. So you go to another zone and yep same thing. Want to report it? Go ahead, nothing will be done and the only reply you would get with any complaints is "Wait til 2.0!". Well its 8.0 now and nothing has changed, except for the bots now do everything underground or in instances and the game is so scripted that even players are botting to get the tedious tasks done.

SE has never had a good track record with rmt and bots in this game. And the special task force is either a farce, or have their hands so tightly tide they cannot do much rendering them mostly useless. It's been this way literally since the day the servers went live for the very first time. So, if nothing has been done in 16 years, nothing ever will be. You either need to accept that a large portion of the playerbase is just bots or find a new game, which also likely has bots, and see how that company tries to combat them and how disruptive they are.

Every MMO has bots trying to play the economy for RMT. FFXIV is the only MMO I've ever seen where botting is extremely prevalent among players.

It's much easier to ignore the RMT bots because they don't really impact the game much besides providing an avenue for idiots to buy currency with real money. Players using automation to accomplish things in-game is much more insidious because it kills the integrity of the game.

Imagine a competitive e-sports game where the majority of players at the top ranks were cheaters. I guess Apex Legends is a pretty good example. Do you think many people would be motivated to put the time in to get good at the game? Or do you think they would be less likely to bother because it would just be assumed that they were either cheating or being boosted by cheaters once they achieved their goals?

[MicahZerrshia]

Every MMO has bots trying to play the economy for RMT. FFXIV is the only MMO I've ever seen where botting is extremely prevalent among players.

Thats why I said, every mmo has this problem but it all depends on how the company handles it. SE hasn't done anything about it in 16 years so there is really no use wasting your breath on it anymore. Gotta either accept it or move on because SE is not going to do anything.

And the only reason its so prevalent in the community on top of SE's fear of punishing players is because rewards are lacking and everything is so heavily scripted that content gets stale fast. Why work hard for something when you can go have actual fun somewhere else and then come back later to stand in LL and show off? I don't and won't use bots because I like to actually play my games. But I also don't do much of the content because outside of them scripting all the fun out what am I missing out on? A mount I will never use? A piece of gear that I will throw away next month? But not everyone feels that way, but they also don't want to do the exact same fight, delivery quest or mini game they have already done 75 times so they bot it because they know they can.

Getting rid of how heavily scripted absolutely everything and making things a lot more random is would be a good first step to combating bots. But again, SE doesn't care enough to be bothered. The only way to change would be a massive player loss specifically in responce to botting, like the one they had due to DT. Which simply won't happen and they know it, which is why they won't bother.