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

[imperfect]

I would say FFXIV's lack of dealing with bots could be on one of, if not their greatest failure so far.

[Jpec07]

That list is baffling to me.

I would be perfectly okay if they took a 3 month break from content to tackle the problem of RMT. That many bots means it's putting a huge strain on server resources, in addition to the strain that comes from automated player searches for /tell spam.

It's worse in FFXIV than any other game I've played. Part of me wonders if they have to deal with it on JP servers like we do in the US. We know the developers play, so either they don't care about the problem, or they are blind to it.

[MugenMugetsu]

I wouldn't get my hopes up about SE taking any more action than what they are already doing in regards to RMT and bots. The STF bans accounts on a regular basis, but outside of that there won't be any additional actions taken. This is the 45874395874390574903574308574039785th thread pertaining to the issue of RMT and bots and of the 45874395874390574903574308574039785 threads about the issue, we have received no response from any Community Mods and there has been no additional actions taken by SE.

Nowadays it feels like any additional threads we create requesting that SE take more action, and any more requests that we make for SE to implement QoL features to help us deal with and report RMT and bots is just.....

[Stoneheart]

Hello everyone,

Thank you for the feefback so far, there have been great contributions.

@ Snugglebut, great addition, indeed a list of 200 RMT / bot active accounts active at a particular moment is something extremely concerning.

@Snoshpan This is the most basic and easy approach, it's been there for years and it's solid. Concerning that this game does not have it. It makes it look primitive.

@ Mugenmugetsu, JP are hardworking but not open to acknowledge errors or flaws unless these are obvious. Let's continue to raise concern and highlight this issue.
I am sure they are watching and reading, and willing to Help. We just have to highlight how extreme the situation is. Current workaround does not work and a reactive approach like the periodic bans is inneficient.

A proactive (from SE) approach and further assistance from players would help. Mentors that are helping new players could expand their activities by identifying these accounts for swift action.

Thank you again for your feedback and keep the contributions coming so this game can be moved from the , as previously highlighted by imperfect and jpec07, bot populated MMO ranking.

Best regards,

[MilesSaintboroguh]

That list is baffling to me.

I would be perfectly okay if they took a 3 month break from content to tackle the problem of RMT. That many bots means it's putting a huge strain on server resources, in addition to the strain that comes from automated player searches for /tell spam.

It's worse in FFXIV than any other game I've played. Part of me wonders if they have to deal with it on JP servers like we do in the US. We know the developers play, so either they don't care about the problem, or they are blind to it.

RMT does exist on Japanese servers, but they're a drop in the ocean compared to other servers with the same problem.

[odie]

I was trying to do THM/BLM stuff the other day and couldn't kill my quest targets because all the RMT was beating me to it. I wasn't able to progress until after a maintenance cleaned them out.

[Snugglebutt]

Hello everyone,

Thank you for the feefback so far, there have been great contributions.

@ Snugglebut, great addition, indeed a list of 200 RMT / bot active accounts active at a particular moment is something extremely concerning.

In SE's defense to me it seems all these new bots might have been created because SE banned enough of their old ones. It is just an assumption on my part and maybe wishful thinking but even so all these new ones need banning too. I made a support ticket reporting around 150+ of them but my eyes and fingers got tired after squinting to read the vast amount of gibberish random characters on that many names all in one go. Hopefully SE will act upon the ones I reported and ban all the ones I missed that were/are around those ones at the locations themselves. I continue to report because I hope they are doing something about it even if I do not know for sure.

[LarienTiwele]

Snugglebutt: Remove your image with the names first off... Naming and shaming of qny kind can instead get YOU banned. Secondly, SE does actually work on those reports. They may not vanish right off though - The Special Task Force (STF) actually monitors all those bots reported and traces them back to tbe "origin" bot - and then bans them all in one massive wave. That is why you see waves like that with so many new ones, and you can see these by watching the Lodestone page and checking the "actions taken against RMT".

[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.