Does SE actually do anything when we report bots/gilsellers?

[Kharybdis]

((Apologies if in the wrong forum, mods/admins move as needed.))

Does SE actually do anything when we report bots/gilsellers?

I ask because today it sort of hit home that I've been reporting this one group of botters (that group that's in North Shroud, for anyone who's on Balmung) for over six months.

Six. Months.

I've used both the in-game interface and the one in the Support Center on the Official Site. And I'm not the only one who's been reporting them. Tonight, while I was grabbing their names to report them yet again, another player ran up and commented that she/he has also been reporting them for at least the same amount of time. Other times I've stopped to report, other players have commented that they've reported the group before. One goes into other zones, if the topic of bots comes up in /shout, this group is usually brought up as an example.

I understand that there needs to be an "investigation" of sorts. Tracking down the actual transfer of gil with the RMT probably isn't an easy task. And I also get it that the BLM bots are near-impossible to get rid of. They're like cockroaches, a GM could hide by the various BLM quest points and ban every bot that appears, clicks the objective, and then falls underground for days and days, and not really put a noticeable dent in their population. But one would think the botting issue would be quite easy in cases like my server's notorious North Shroud group -- you can just sit there and watch them. I'm currently watching while the healer of the group repeatedly targets the same mob, then casts Cure III... all while the rest of the party lays dead at her feet. It's such a... normal sight to see them there when running to do Ixal dailies, that I'm actually shocked on the rare occasions that they're not logged in.

I don't know... I guess it was a bit of a disheartening thing to realize that I've been doing this for so long, and that I'm not the only one who's reported them. Is it even worth my time to stop what I'm doing and report these things anymore?

[Wobble]

My guess is if they do it's very low priority. I have also reported only to go back daily for a week different times a day to see the same bot and even a few weeks later they were still there. I got tired of reporting bots being that I have to jump through to many hoops to do it then see no results. It's as easy as a GM sending them a tell and seeing they are not answering yet performing actions.

[Wulfyn]

I'm starting to think it does no good. Blacklist is always full I have to go into busy mode to stop getting /tells, which keeps me from getting invites or trades because I forgot I'm "busy". After all, bots are paying accounts and that's money in SE's pocket. Yea I know bad thoughts....

[Miste]

Reposted from another thread but,

Myself and a bunch of other players caught someone speed hacking/position hacking, and had at least 20 reports go in about it, that player is still around, and still botting 24/7. This is many months going by as well.

There were bots running around mining/harvesting with the AFK chair on them and have been reported by tons of players and still there botting almost 24/7, they eventually notice the AFK chair and fix it though, but they still there. So no, I don't think SE bans ANYONE unless they are RMT. It's pretty much a free ride if you wanna bot and cheat you might as well since you aren't gonna get punished for it.

[Edeline]

I'm starting to think it does no good. Blacklist is always full I have to go into busy mode to stop getting /tells, which keeps me from getting invites or trades because I forgot I'm "busy". After all, bots are paying accounts and that's money in SE's pocket. Yea I know bad thoughts....

While I agree on your post, I also have to tell you this is a different case. Spammers are lv1 characters created for the sole purpose of spamming for a while, getting deleted, remade and so on. You will never be able to stop the spams without restrictions that would affect normal players (there are some that would affect the playerbase not so much, opinions may vary). You can't control who gets a new account, makes chars and starts spamming and you can't stop them. Now these lv50 chars farming for months are different and there could be several reasons why they're not banned:

1) Like someone said, maybe it's not top priority
2) They're subs paid for SE, money.
3) Gil has to be transfered in one way or another, easy to track who gets it from the bots, thus easier to track down who buys gil. Keeping the "evil gil source" up while catching the buyers because you can't stop the sellers.

[Gillionaire]

Also, it's really not that easy to distinguish a bot from an actual player.. Unless they're just sitting there doing stupid things that are obvious. And who's to say that when GM checks them they'd be doing the same thing?

Busy sign on top, many players already do this because of the incessant RMT tells they get. I have it on too most of the time because it gets annoying.

Unresponsive to /tells.
Also, due to the RMT /tells I keep getting, I actually have all my /tells go to a different chat tab. Many people I know do this as well. I have 1 for social LS/FC. Another for party/raid chats and yet another for crafting messages. I keep my /tells on the party/raid tab and when I'm not in a party or a raid.. well, that doesn't get checked.

Now, I'm not saying your suspicions are unfounded or false, most of those people you noticed probably ARE indeed bots.. But without sharing your experience of having been there for days on end noticing the same players repeating the behavior, GMs have no way to know for 100%.

Also, I think the problem with detection stems from FF14's Cross platform nature. You'll see some people logged on for almost 24/7. afk,busy,dancing whatever it may be.. Because the game doesn't kick you out. Many will just never log out. So it's impossible to track people based on playtime which I'm sure many other games do.

[Chihaya]

Also, it's really not that easy to distinguish a bot from an actual player.. Unless they're just sitting there doing stupid things that are obvious. And who's to say that when GM checks them they'd be doing the same thing?

Pretty sure this is the group the OP is referring to, they been there for over a year really. In that same spot killing the Plasmoids.

They aren't on 24/7 but it is pretty obvious they are botting - same action over and over again, and people kill them with /trade alot since they usually don't have /busy on.

[Shazic]

Sorry, but no. They don't.
This is just the reality without candy talk.

[Buff_Archer]

We have them on Diabolos too... and I hear they exist on other servers also. Let me guess, are they in an FC where the tag next to their name is a string of numbers? I saw screenshots of them on another server where they were just like ours except the number used for the FC label was different. Of course I can't say what that is because perversely enough I'm the one who'd get punished here.

Lots of people have reported these on Diabolos as well. And given up. As have I. Sad that someone is able to run these bots nonstop across several servers. If they were shut down at least they'd have to level new ones up from 50.

[Trixxy]

They don't because jp mmo devs don't care about major issues on non-jp servers.