More bots

[Soulfien]

I know this is an old topic, but it bears repeating due to the simple fact that even counting the MMO Eve online, this MMO is where I get harassed by bots more than I ever have in any other MMO I've played. I'm not sure if Square Enix gets enough money from these clowns to look the other way, or if it's because they just don't care, but it's apparent to me that they're not even trying to deter them.

It's not difficult to set up roadblocks to make it difficult or costly enough so that it's not worth their time to harass other players... at least to this extent:

Friend Requests: Give us a button that both blocks and reports bots who send friend requests. There is currently absolutely nothing to blacklist a friend request. Of course, SE would then have to respond to the reports and I'll get to that later.

[Soulfien]

Names! This goes along with friend requests. The same websites are being made into names. Why? Because there's not a single thing preventing it. Filters are your friend. They require just a little bit of code and they prevent so very much. It's easy to code. I learned how to do it early in my coding class. Filters are your friend. If SE blocks names that are really URLs, they completely shut down the friend request bots.

Have a filter for tells: It's not difficult to determine what is and is not a bot advertising easy buying and selling of gil at stupidbotsite.com. In the MMO World of Warcraft, it was easy enough to filter that many people used an addon written by a third party that would automatically flag, block, and report all incoming bot tells. There was no reason to completely turn off tells like there is in this game. If a third party could do it for free, how easy would it be for a huge corporation like this one? Yeah...

[Soulfien]

Ban bot accounts: Yes, if you ban the entire account forcing them to continuously purchase new accounts, they'll go away! A simple report button that sends a copy of their last "tells" and "says" to the GMs should be all it takes to ban a bot's entire account.

If SE just did these few simple things, bots would almost completely disappear. I don't believe that they're doing everything they can or that bots are too difficult to detect. Hell, I can walk through town and "detect" 20 bots.

[krauser232]

They are fixing that on 3.0,check patch notes.

[Soulfien]

That is amazing news!

[Niwashi]

Well, the patch notes did at least mention that free trial accounts won't be able to send Friend requests. (A bit odd. I thought they already couldn't.) I didn't notice any mention of fixes for the chat spam, though, nor for fixing the messed up interface on Friend requests. (It's possible I may have missed something, though. The patch notes were pretty long.)

[Soulfien]

Well, with maintenance going on, I can't access the patch notes so we'll have to wait to find out.

[Causality]

Friend Requests: Give us a button that both blocks and reports bots who send friend requests. There is currently absolutely nothing to blacklist a friend request. Of course, SE would then have to respond to the reports and I'll get to that later.

I blacklist them from the chat dialog that occurs when I deny thier friend request. A simple right click blacklist. Done.

[Causality]

Well, with maintenance going on, I can't access the patch notes so we'll have to wait to find out.

http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodest...686.1426681112

[2.0] Players can no longer send friend requests when playing with a free trial account.
* Players can still receive friend requests when playing with a free trial account.

[Garlyle]

Another thing you may want to note:

Time Period: Jun. 11, 2015 to Jun. 17, 2015
・Accounts receiving disciplinary action for RMT advertising: 1120
・Accounts receiving disciplinary action for RMT/illicit activity: 4158
・Action Details: Permanent ban from FINAL FANTASY XIV

・Accounts receiving disciplinary action for participation in RMT/illegal activity: 215
・Action Details: Temporary ban from FINAL FANTASY XIV

From the "Actions Taken Against In-Game RMT & Other Illicit Activities (Jun. 18)" post. These updates regularly appear on the Lodestone.

The idea that they're doing 'nothing' about these is false. However, so long as there is a service they can sell and people who will buy it, RMT exist in games.