Bots (3rd party tool automation users) flood @ Ragnarok, effective way to report them

[MugenMugetsu]

The list has the RMT names visible and only "actual player" names blacked out... It is still considered name and shame and is bannable. People have been in the past for the same thing. You would have to black out ALL your listed names for it to potentially slide.

Your concern is commendable, and appreciated. We all need to lookout for our fellow forum posters (forumites?), however, I've seen numerous posts of chat logs, and screenshots where names have been in clear view with no ill effect to the posters. I dunno. Maybe they got lucky or maybe in some cases the case of "name and shame" is overlooked. Either way, in this particular instance I feel that leaving the names, if for no other reason than so a Community Mod can see just how bad the problem is. The lists that were posted are sooooooo long that it really gives a clear picture that this situation needs to be addressed and resolved.

I'm of the firm belief that even with the evidence posted in the screenshots you requested have the names marked out, that regardless of who with SE sees it, there won't be any immediate action taken. If those RMT/bots are going to be banned it won't happen until the next wave of bans. Personally, I don't think Snugglebutt has anything to worry about, but in the off chance that he does, and he doesn't mark out the names, or at least partially mark them out, then he/she will have to deal with the repercussions. So, Snugglebutt, if you get a message indicating that you're going to be banned, please, by all means, let us know so we'll have a definitive answer as to whether or not we can, or can not, post images without the names of players marked out even in the event that those players are obviously not legitimate players who intend to play the game like we do, but rather play the game because it's their job.

[MugenMugetsu]

@Stoneheart, I think your willingness to believe that SE are going to do more than what they are currently, and have been, doing in regards to banning RMT, and bots, is awesome. I really do. I used to feel the same way. I would post in threads about the issue. I even made one or two threads about the issue myself. I made a thread requesting that someone, anyone, PLEASE go over to the Japanese General Discussion forum and plead with the Japanese players to make SE aware of the situation with RMT on NA servers. Heck, I even went so far as to ask people to go to the French, and German General Discussion forums and ask that those players please raise awareness about the issue. I sincerely felt that through the players voicing their concerns and raising awareness that SE may actually take more action against the RMT and bots. I felt that with enough effort, and enough awareness raised and concern shown about the issue that we would get a response from one of the Community Mods regarding the issue. Even if all we got was a response from a Community Mod along the lines of, "We've read your concerns and your voices have been heard. We'll pass the message along to the dev. team so that they can implement systems to help stop the RMT spam, and to help you guys more easily report, block, and blacklist RMT." or something similar, at the very least. Many, many, many threads about the issue later and we have yet to receive a response from a Community Mod, member of the Dev. Team, or anyone with SE.

I'm not trying to be a downer. I'm just stating the facts because I don't want your hopes that there will be anymore action against RMT and bots to be crushed. I guess this post might kind of be doing that, but I guess it's better now than 100 pages later in the thread (if this thread got that popular). You'd be building yourself up seeing more and more support for your cause only to find that in the end nothing ever came of it. That would not be a good feeling. It wasn't a good feeling when I came to the realization that no matter how many threads we make, SE are going to stay the course in regards to how they handle the banning of bots and RMT. SE aren't going to implement a right click report feature. They aren't going to add more functionality that would help us, as players, to help them combat RMT. I sincerely hope I am wrong. I truly, truly, do. I'd love to have to put my foot in my mouth because this post made me look like a fool. However, I'm just another person who really felt that if we put forth enough effort to make our concerns known to SE, SE would do the right thing and provide us with a response as well as action that we could see in game that would reduce the RMT spam and the number of bots in addition to the regular waves of account banning that SE perform on a regular basis.

Just take this one thread for example: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...RMT-situation.

That thread alone has 150 pages, and that's just one of the many, many, threads requesting that action be taken against RMT and bots.

With all of this said, from what I have learned, our efforts are futile. Not to say that they are falling on deaf ears. It just appears that SE are going to do things their way and they have no intentions of doing things any differently.

Edit: I actually created this thread: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...nd-Yoshi-P.... over a year and two months ago. That's a screenshot from my game, and the RMT spam is still just as bad, if not worse, than it was then, and we still haven't had any features added, such as right click report, and the report function through the support desk is still just as cumbersome and time consuming as it was then.

Here's the thread where I asked that someone please go to the Japanese forums and plead our case: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...-Suggestion...

Here's where I posted in the Japanese General Discussion forums asking for help: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...e-community%21

Here's another which is related to the last thread I posted: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...o-RMT-issue...

[Noshpan]

Wall of text edited down for size.

I think I posted in that thread, too. Even with the same suggestion (which I make every single time I deign to post in RMT/bot threads). I don't know if they simply don't have enough of the budget to give players more efficient tools to deal with it. I understand wanting to be very thorough to ensure that the number of innocent accounts banned are at a minimum. I just wish that there was a method that didn't take me at least two minutes to stop what I'm doing to make a report. And I'll admit that I've long since stopped bothering doing just that. (Except for bots. Oddly, I don't spot the bots as much. Not saying they're not there, I just don't encounter them frequently.)

Only game I've seen with more bots/rmt per actual player is Blade and Soul.

[nexas506]

Too bad we couldn't use a text command / macro to report people, bots specifically.
For all the macro proficient people;
/reportbot <t> <pos>

[Noshpan]

Too bad we couldn't use a text command / macro to report people, bots specifically.
For all the macro proficient people;
/reportbot <t> <pos>

That's assuming that you can even target them. Most of them time when I see bots I am unable to target them. I can target the mobs they're attacking, but I can't target them. And since they tend to kill mobs insanely fast, I have to target their mob several times to get the full name.

[TaranTatsuuchi]

TYpically when I see bots, they're standing in one place killing anything around them.

Sometimes I'll see them teleport around or speedhack.


What I've taken to doing, regarding the gibberish names, is set my filters to friendlies only and cycle through the piles of bots and emote at them, afterwards i copy my chatlog into the report ticket.

[Cakekizyy]

TYpically when I see bots, they're standing in one place killing anything around them.

Sometimes I'll see them teleport around or speedhack.


What I've taken to doing, regarding the gibberish names, is set my filters to friendlies only and cycle through the piles of bots and emote at them, afterwards i copy my chatlog into the report ticket.

The ones I see are attacking mobs from underground or inside mountains where mobs can't attack back.

[Snugglebutt]

Thought this was funny, I covered up enough of the names to not get myself in trouble but made me laugh that this RMT bot army all dead in a pile like a bloody mass of bodies as a warning to others. Now if only GM's would ban the accounts of such bots instead of just leaving their rotting corpses over Eorzea. I was having quite a crappy day till I saw that which cheered me up, figured would post it so others might enjoy it. It's just a shame a quick search and look around and I found another 100+ (alive) RMT bots which are not banned yet even though they all level 50 ones. There are no RMT bot armies past level 50 though thanks to the HW gating they still remain stuck in ARR zones only, which isn't to say there are no level 51+ bots but those are only player ones not RMT bot armies.