Botting

[Bixby]

Don't need a source. Talk to one of your friends. Get them to make an alt. Befriend the alt. Then have them delete the alt. See if their alt's name shows <deleted>. I have a few <deleted> on my friends list from people I befriended from 1.0. however maybe like 2 or 3 RMT names on my blacklist show <deleted>.

But here, have a source anyway:

Hello, all! This is LGM Enkrateia here. I don't mean to bump up an old discussion; however, this particular quote is related to a concern that seems to be increasingly included in RMT solicitation reports.

As time goes on, we are getting more and more RMT reports including the information that the blacklist is already full of RMT, so more cannot be added. Some reports that include a bit more information note that only prior entries that have changed to "Deleted" are being removed to make room for new entries.

I wanted to provide a bit of information and insight to address these concerns, which will hopefully help keep you from filling up your blacklist with RMT names that are never removed.

Once an account is found guilty of RMT solicitation, it is suspended indefinitely. However, the characters on that account are not deleted, since the suspension of the account is sufficient to prevent further solicitation from the account. Deleting the characters is an additional step that is not taken, since it is unnecessary, time consuming, and could result in account damage or loss in the case of a suspension that needs to be lifted, such as in the case of a compromised account used for RMT solicitation.

The blacklist is recommended as a temporary resolution to alleviate the unwanted solicitation, and is not meant to be a permanent state you place these names into. Removing the names periodically should allow us time to complete our investigation, and free up room in your blacklist if another account is used to solicit RMT.

I will be monitoring this thread to try to provide answers or insight into questions or comments about the topic of RMT reporting and handling. I do also understand that it is a very frustrating concern for many of you, and ask that you keep discussions, comments, and suggestions civil.

Lead Game Master Enkrateia

[Adrian74]

Nee... Uhm... I was wondering a thing the other day when watching a fisher that moved to the sides like an idiot for more than ten minutes in a suspicious place... (Probably because when you are more than 30 minutes fishing a message advises you that you can't fish in that zone anymore, and now I understand why that message)... Of course I thought it maybe was a bot... I wrote and tried to interact with that crazy player but nothing happened, continued walking to the sides in the same pattern.


What I'm wondering is... How there are bots? Do they pay for having an account?... Because that way it would be expensive as hell... You pay 25 €, get the game and an account, gets banned because bot, you make another account... Isn't it expensive? Do they access the game for free for using bots or what?...

There's a guy that made four characters identical, one of them is the 'leader' and moves forward while the other three are selecting the leader and following him... I have seen them gathering together like that, three seem cheapy bots. I have seen them crafting, doing quests... Does that person have four accounts in Mog Station?....

Isn't it confusing?

[Meshico]

Just keep reporting them, I reported a few more yesterday.

I don't have expectations that as soon as I hit the send button these guys will then dissapear...although they did yesterday which makes me wonder if they have somehow tapped into the report system, and gives them a heads up and they just stop.

Hmmm I wonder.

Any-who just keep reporting them and have faith that they will get dealt with in the timeliest manner possible.

[Ravno]

If they are still here after few month, are you sure, they are bots ? Not a multiboxer or a dude who spam a '/tenemy /ac "spell" <t>' macro while actually sitting behind his desk ?

There's a guy that made four characters identical, one of them is the 'leader' and moves forward while the other three are selecting the leader and following him... I have seen them gathering together like that, three seem cheapy bots. I have seen them crafting, doing quests... Does that person have four accounts in Mog Station?....

Perfect exemple. Seems like a boxer to me. (And you can register 8 ffxiv key per SE account)

[Synapse]

SE takes long time to ban the RMT(yes they do ban them) because they don't want to accidentally ban a normal player.

What if i get my entire FC to report a player i hate.. and report them as Bot?

[cloverkitty]

Reporting a bot does not necessarily lead to a ban. Even if you report them every time you see them.
This has turned into a WitchHunt and that makes it hard for SE to process reports due to the large number of you don't conform you must be a bot.
SE has to investigate these characters and log checks.
1. Not responding to tells is not grounds for being a bot (I don't respond to tells from those I don't know on my main or my alts).
2. When i farm I typically only wear crafted, or pink gear this is so I can get spiritbond while i am farming (2 for 1). That does not make me or my alts a bot
3. While farming i will get into a rhythm typically while listening to music, as a result i will follow a similar or same type pattern for an extended period of time. When playing on a controller it just becomes repetition.
4. If I am farming sometimes I just use Smn or if i need certain sub skills on arcanist. This allows me to sick my pet and let them take the mob down while i take down another or just stand there. Again this is not botting. This is simple Macros on my hot bar. I am still present and I am still hitting the buttons. This is called farming. It can take a while and it can be mind numbing.
5. When farming mining or botany points I do get into a rhythm, (run towards a target, hit the desired spot over and over again) then move on to the next point. This again is not botting it is with a controller.
6. When i run out of stuff to do (which happens when you have everything capped). i play on my alts and take advantage of the extra leves from crafts i do. I don't take the time to level anything more than what I need to complete the tasks and the story/quests. I enjoy building from nothing and I have very little to show. I only play these once in a while. This does not require botting either.

Both actions can look like botting. 1 of them is not.

This is the situation with SE. They see macros and command sets being entered in the logs and they don't see an active tool being run (most of them don't access the game but instead pull data and perform actions or movements the same way you and me do.
So if they cannot show that you have been trading with known RMT, and they can't see the bot in the logs. Then that account will not be banned.

Due to this bots have become more sophisticated with the intention of not being detected.
Sometimes they will catch a few, but most of the ones they catch are the ones that are not doing a good job of hiding their actions, or are trading with known RMT.

Hope this helps. A report does not = a ban. 100s of reports encouraged by another player also does not = a ban.

However if you do push to mass report and it can be shown in the chat log you are pushing people to report a particular person, that person is not shown to be a bot but knows you pushed for the reporting. You can become the one in GM jail or banned for harassment. So be careful how you go about handling suspected bots.

SE is not going to sit around 24/7 and watch for everyone that has a rigid pattern in actions, that would take too much time, cost to much and put users under the thumb causing them to want to leave.

This has all Basically turned into a WitchHunt and nothing more. Anyone who does not conform to their standards is a bot that is not the way it is supposed to work and just water down the effectiveness of the reports.

[MorbidAngel]

Well..from my recollection..GM's give 3 /tell and if you respond you're off the hook. This was back in the FFXI days so not sure if it's changed or not.

[LalaRu]

TOS have included that you MUST react to GMs chat. I you don't, you are violating TOS and this is sufficient for your account being sanctioned.
I think this has been included to cut the head of people who states they were busy and didn't paid attention to the chat.

[Icehunter]

Because SE can't ruin what other players already ruined long before botting became common place. Bots aren't the ones constantly undercutting items into oblivion. Also, didn't yoshi say recently to be discrete if you're going to use addons and 3rd party tools? I know he was talking about the parser and FFXIVAPP, but a lot of the bots out there are 3rd party addons to XIVAPP..so...

Proof Please.