Botting on my server is ridiculously rampant. People don't even bother trying to hide it, and you basically trip over a dozen automated crafters on the main streets of Uldah. It's extremely dismaying as a legitimate player. I always feel like people who don't really care about the game and cheat at it, be it in auto leveling, power leveling, or craft botting get rewarded greatly for their efforts. And I only get a character who can't keep up and a worn out enter key.

I kind of blame a series of faults for the issue:

-The crafting game isn't engaging and people feel comfortable only using the standard method to complete a synth. This has made it possible to successfully level crafting with one key press and without looking at the game. Far too easy to automate.

-The crafting game takes too long to complete. Pairing with the above stated, even if you went through the attentive effort to try to achieve a HQ result, the probability is so flakey it doesn't feel worth it in the end. Hopefully the upcoming adjustment will help this. In the meantime, I think the length of the minigame has turned people away from wanting to do it hundreds of times required to level up.

-Admitted lack of GM monitoring by SE while trying to rework the game. Doesn't help that in FFXI there wasn't a very strong presence either. I think people feel safe to get away with anything that can't be concretely undisputed in a chat log. Like using fowl language that someone reported offense to.

-Several players don't seem to value their character as much yet and don't feel particularly threatened by being banned.

-Popular notion that a mass banning of known botters would greatly impact the server populations and playerbase. A lot of people are comfortable and confident it just simply won't be done.

-Too much emphasis and importance placed on needing all classes leveled. You may not need to have subcrafts leveled anymore but there's still a strong disadvantage in the game in not having all the crafting classes brought up. For battle classes it's pretty much mandatory. Hopefully the upcoming adjustments and job system corrects this.

-Cumbersome GM call system even if you were bothered to try to report someone.

-Since it's become such a widespread practice, people considering it feel safe that botting in this game is not only safe, but also a wiser thing to do. No one wants to tattle on friends and linkshell members, especially if they benefit from having someone around to do one stop crafting for them.

Sorry for lack of articulation, in a rush out the door. Everyone is free to disagree with my points of course.