Why are people rewarded for cheating?

[SekhmetM]

Welcome to MMO\\'s ... you see them ban alot of accounts but there is only so much you can do about cheaters..

Except there are actual measures SE COULD do to prevent them like otger MMOs. This isn't a new problem to the MMO industry. Companies like Blizzard and NCSoft know how to prevent RMT at least at the basic level. As of right now, SE supposedly "bans" them. They have not tried anything in actually preventing the damned RMT. (besides a report box that takes a ton of trouble to work with)

Block common RMT words. Let players choose to block /tells and friend requests. Have agents in-game supervising zones and banning bots.

It doesn't have to be perfect, we just need some F-ing effort put into actually preventing them. You can't compare this to IRL criminals because we don't live inside a computer which monitors ALL activity that is easily accessible.

[KingJace]

Bots are eyesores. Having a group of multiboxed characters all standing on one another wearing the exact same gear, doing the exact same motions, moving together... it looks ugly in my opinion. They also affect my gameplay if they are attacking mobs I need for a quest. These are the reasons I want them out of my game.

In addition, I feel it invalidates the months I spent learning how to do something the 'right' way when some bozo buys his way there and then asks things like

This^^

This is what I mean by how people let the bots empower them. A realization occurs "What have I been spending all of these months doing?" You second guess the reason why you're playing the game and then you use bots as a scapegoat to blind yourself from reality.


Me I don't care about bots that much because I'm too busy doing other things to have fun. The more intrusive features you add to the game (surveillance) the less fun it becomes. I don't know about you but I don't like to be mistakenly suspended or banned because some system that plays big brother.

You guys are out of your minds if you think that'll really add fun to the game. There is so much fun content in the game. Why let a small majority ruin it?

[shawnaus1986]

You can't make any gil because everyone undercuts the shit out of you... it get stupid just let your product sit.

[KingJace]

You mean argument like this?



You have presented no argument. All you have said is, "I don't like this thread, stop it" but in a very long winded way. You have presented no logical assessment of the influence of BOTs or the lack thereof. Not only do you blur the focus of the thread, which is the ineffectiveness of SE's anti-botting actions, but you also presented a classical straw man by attacking a group of people (those who buy gil) as if those are the same people in this thread, in an attempt to discredit them.

Why beat the dead horse over and over? Do you like fact checking? Maybe you should take some time and sit out in the fields and observe. You'll see that I'm right about the overall impact of bots. I'm not back peddling on my stance. So please continue to nitpick and pick the most scandalous quotes to raise my enmity .

If you are here to discuss, you should first present an argument, not a rant. I don't think this thread helps the game either, and I don't believe SE is really slacking on anti-RMT/botting. If this thread was in the JP forums, the mods would have closed it by now. But your previous reply really only belongs to a personal blog, not in a discussion thread.

I see. A rant. Fair enough. I appreciate your efforts to project what's going through my mind. But I suppose a majority of the responses here in this thread have been completely helpful with providing constructive ways to this "bot crisis" Heck the title of this thread is proof enough that this is just one big complaint thread. If you REALLY want to discuss as you have so eloquently underlined for me then you should contact SE directly instead of wasting time here.

[KingJace]

Then people should either use private services and abandon the MB or realize that it's not the sellers only that undercut people. There are many other players out there that want to see their items sold as well and are willing to drop prices.

(I apologize about these massive replies taking additional blocks but I'm a bit lazy with trying to squeeze everything in one post.)

[Zephyranthes]

They pay subscription too.

Seriously, that's the only thing I can think of. One doesn't need to be a genius to figure out FCs which are entirely bots or know that those players in black mage AF standing around Uldah's Aetheryte are bots. If they're not causing any serious issues, SE just lets them around and do a mass banning from time to time to keep them regulated.

[KingJace]

Fine words coming from a person that accuses the opposition that they're actually secretly part of the problem. I've never bought any amount of currency through third-party RMT in any online game, nor have I used a program that let me cheat in an online game, so you can shove that assumption where the sun don't shine.

Thank you. I wish there were more honest law abiding citizens in the game such as yourself. Unfortunately there aren't. Just people pretending to be.
I agree with your tell spam idea. That is what I mentioned about impossible actions that you can actually prove.

I don't agree with complaints after complaints encourages SE more. This game has been out for how long now and the bots aren't all gone. SE is doing what they can. Trust the system.

[Aerowaffle]

This^^

This is what I mean by how people let the bots empower them. A realization occurs "What have I been spending all of these months doing?" You second guess the reason why you're playing the game and then you use bots as a scapegoat to blind yourself from reality.


Me I don't care about bots that much because I'm too busy doing other things to have fun. The more intrusive features you add to the game (surveillance) the less fun it becomes. I don't know about you but I don't like to be mistakenly suspended or banned because some system that plays big brother.

You guys are out of your minds if you think that'll really add fun to the game. There is so much fun content in the game. Why let a small majority ruin it?

You keep saying that you fear being mistakenly banned. How do you propose that they would mistake you for RMT activity? What system do you think SE would implement that would cause this problem?

And no, bots are not being used "as a scapegoat". If I get several tells filling my log from RMT bots, that is directly the bot's fault. The people who buy gil are cheating. There's no way around it. People cheating makes the game less fair, and attempting to play fair when others are not makes the effort less enjoyable.

[Niwashi]

That being said, as you mentioned, it's very difficult to prove somebody is a bot, especially in a game that offers controllers. A person who doesn't respond to you might just not be at a keyboard. I have people try to drag monsters AoE on me because they were "checking if I was a bot" while I'm fishing and it's utterly ridiculous.

I tend to keep a completely optional minion (usually my Coeurl Kitten) out while I'm gathering, and the fact that I enjoy watching it is only part of the reason. RMT bots are unlikely to bother with the quest to obtain such fluff, so having obvious fluff makes me look less like a bot. Having glamours, or at least color-coordinated dyes, for your gathering gear can help a bit as well, for the same reason. Bots don't care about aesthetics. But yeah, it's annoying that we have to worry about how we'll look to other players when we just want to relax at a fishing hole for a while. It's even more annoying when it doesn't even work, and people still accuse any gatherers of being bots regardless.

Bots do affect at least some people's game, so I do think SE should try to eliminate them as well as possible. But when players try to stop bots, it turns into a witch hunt that's as likely to harass other players as it is to actually find and stop real bots. If you see what looks to you like it might be a bot, you can go ahead and report it to let SE make that determination, but don't harass the player, who may well not be a bot. (And yes, even just asking if they're a bot, if you don't have any other reason to talk to them, is harassment. Players shouldn't be obligated to keep justifying their existence to everyone who comes along.)

[Sadana]

This^^

This is what I mean by how people let the bots empower them. A realization occurs "What have I been spending all of these months doing?" You second guess the reason why you're playing the game and then you use bots as a scapegoat to blind yourself from reality.


Me I don't care about bots that much because I'm too busy doing other things to have fun. The more intrusive features you add to the game (surveillance) the less fun it becomes. I don't know about you but I don't like to be mistakenly suspended or banned because some system that plays big brother.

You guys are out of your minds if you think that'll really add fun to the game. There is so much fun content in the game. Why let a small majority ruin it?

Look, we're of differing opinions about this. My feelings on the matter (that bots/cheaters are ruining my admittedly subjective enjoyment of the game) are not going to change due to your also subjective arguments to the contrary.