Dillemma, and legit question of ethics.

[Mithrahn]

What is Botting?

It is when you round up a bunch of popotoes and boil them into soup. /kidding

[Maddonious]

It might pain me depending on how useful they are to me but I will report them. I don't like botting and think its childish that they think they deserve more without actually putting in the work. I wont confront them as to not cause drama but I will send the report.

[Maddonious]

I dunno why you bother posting on here when it's a matter that can get them perma-banned it's kind of embarrassing posting allover the forums and if they frequent them it's basically public shaming them without actually mentioning their name. It is wrong but I think you guy should of taken a more private approach to this just my 2 cents on it.

They had a question and wanted our opinion. No need to get up in arms to defend cheaters unless you sympathize with them . The op didnt mention any names so no harm done against the ToS.

[Maddonious]

It depends on the type of botting. If it's a lvling bot like a fate farmer I don't care. Only time I care is regarding rmt, because that hurts everyone else, as it devalues their currency and their buying power if someone buys gil. I am 100% skeptic anyone who'd do this cares how it affects everyone else, so I already know talking with them will change nothing. If it were an rmt bot however I'd have no idea who it belongs to so......
If it's a gathering bot (not sure if those exist) it depends on whether it's on a massive scale. (setting it up to work very long hours and even nights a normal player can't do while sleeping)
I probably wouldn't report aside from rmt, and I wouldn't report my close friends.

So RmT is bad cause it inflates gil but gather bots are fine when they partially destroy the in game economy? Sounds a bit unjust to me. You are aware gather bots are part of how RMT's get some of their gil?

[Maddonious]

Not quite, GMs have access to the server logs of all activities and text chat. Sure, witnessing activity is pretty well open and shut, but that is not the only source of evidence open to GMs, and in this case it wouldn't just be GMs it would be the special task force that SE has to combat RMT types of activity, and they have more tools at their disposal.

I've had issues in the past with getting botters removed. While I think it has gotten better I still alert a GM directly about the person in question if I know they are botting after I see the tell tell signs. That seems to work better at removing them rather then the "task force" which doesnt remove any of the bots I report ever. GMs coming to the scene of the crime seems to the be the only working option from my experience and to not wait till later.

[Yasuhiro]

I'll tell my mum.

[Celef]

So RmT is bad cause it inflates gil but gather bots are fine when they partially destroy the in game economy? Sounds a bit unjust to me. You are aware gather bots are part of how RMT's get some of their gil?

Depends if he sells them or just bot them for personnal use no ? If so, it won't change anything to the game economy

[Shalan]

Depends if he sells them or just bot them for personnal use no ? If so, it won't change anything to the game economy

The fact that they're botting instead of spending time gathering materials themselves means they probably value their time highly enough that they don't want to spend it on gathering. If botting weren't an option they might have instead bought said materials from the market board or another player outside the board. They're still having an effect on the game economy.

[Atoli]

It might pain me depending on how useful they are to me but I will report them.

Interesting definition of friendship you have there.. D:

[Meeka19]

So RmT is bad cause it inflates gil but gather bots are fine when they partially destroy the in game economy? Sounds a bit unjust to me. You are aware gather bots are part of how RMT's get some of their gil?

I compared someone's personal botting that goes for feasible amounts of time 2-3h, I find it hard to believe that the market can only accommodate a handful of gatherers that also aren't doing it 24/7 like rmt bots do.
Also gathering is just walking places and twacking stuff as far as I know, and last I heard important gathering areas aren't gatherable indefinitely. The difference between npcing items to create gil and selling items the playerbase can use is that the same players affected by a market crash now get many crafted items cheaper, whereas just having gil injected in the economy is bleh.

It depends on what people prefer gameplay-wise. I get my gil generally through battle areas... and I'm not exactly wanting for more items, I have gil and nothing to use it on in particular. People that like gathering longer than battling and aren't into crafting seem rather unlikely.
I don't approve of rmt sellers or unrealistic gains however, and I don't feel any bot is fair or conducive to healthy gameplay.
Because if everyone used a fate farmer to lvl alts there wouldn't be people in potd or dungeons, and if everyone used a gathering bot the real gatherers would be profoundly annoyed, but I'm not sure if some things are worth erasing someone's account over as long as the issue isn't so pervasive that everyone's doing it, temporary bans seem fine though.