Square-Enix, please, do something about the bots

[miraidensetsu]

Title.

Because when I ever login on a big city I see them in mass. They were ether advertising or causing lags stacking 50 of them underground. And report them via [Report]>[Report RMT activity] feels like drying ice. That effort feels futile.

And I noticed that:

• The game don't use a check-in solution to check if it have any process messing with FFXIV's packets;
• The banwaves are not getting the situation any better;
• The bots are freely using some hacks and not really permabanned (they just create another account)
• The RMT clients aren't being banned, just the mules;
• Every bot that advertises RMT are from a few sites. I can count in a single hand how much. And they can be taken down via law measures, such as heavy fines, pressure on ICANN to take down the domain (the sites uses a .com domain), pressure on their ISP to take down the site to starve out their services

Also, the bots are known on other games for causing lag, since a single botter can have hundreds of simultaneous connections while a regular player just make one connection. Maybe botters are the cause of the DDoS?

If required, I can help S-E with anything I can. Even with the IT part, since I am an experienced IT professional (programmer, tbe) or I sacrifice a virgin Miqo'te to some vulcan god or I can even try to summon some primal on the Limsa Lominsa Aetherite Plaza.

But, please, do something about those damned bots.

[Rinuko]

I'm going to assume they have it setup similar to FFXI days. As i recall it they had a RMT Taskforce based in Japan so im guessing a report need to go through alot before even gets to someone who can examine it and then make a call.

Either its lack of manpower or system isnt good enough to counter with RMT.
Honestly we've had these problems since FFXI so 10+ years by now.

I'm not expecting anything major happening with RMT countermeasures in XIV.

[LaylaTsarra]

There is a bot on Siren doing all the legendary mining and botany nodes including aethersand posting stacks and stacks of mats on the marketboard. I've reported him and sadly he's still running around doing it on a daily basis. The mentality of cheaters is pretty sad and they'll try and make their money anyway they can.

[DeaconMoore]

Only way the RMT bots are going to disappear is if people stop buying their gil. Only way that's going to happen sadly is SE shuts the game down.

[HaelseMikiro]

Only way the RMT bots are going to disappear is if people stop buying their gil. Only way that's going to happen sadly is SE shuts the game down.

Well, SE could also up the punishment for buying gil. Currently it's like..a 3 day ban and they take all your gil away. Unless you'd already spent it all buying a clear or something.
Not really much of a deterrent to players is it?
I'd rather see way more people buy gil and then do a chargeback after it's been delivered, lol. Except the RMTs will already have your CC number and be making purchases with it, and they might even report you to SE themselves for buying if you steal from them. Yeah, the status quo on combating RMT is really just trying keep it from getting worse than it currently is, not actually improving the situation T.T

I agree the game shutting down is the only way to 100% stop it, but there's still many avenues of improvement

[Fawkes]

Only way the RMT bots are going to disappear is if people stop buying their gil. Only way that's going to happen sadly is SE shuts the game down.

Or SE could sell gil. People would probably choose the safer option of buying gil directly from SE rather than some sketchy RMT site, and run them out of business.

[DeaconMoore]

Or SE could sell gil. People would probably choose the safer option of buying gil directly from SE rather than some sketchy RMT site, and run them out of business.

Lol. That doesn't work. Check out the games that do, you'll find the rmt sellers are still in business in those games.

[Paladinleeds]

Or SE could sell gil. People would probably choose the safer option of buying gil directly from SE rather than some sketchy RMT site, and run them out of business.

Unfortunately, all that does is start an undercut war. Remember that most of the people doing the gil farming are doing it in unpaid sweatshops with fear of torture or even execution if they don't farm enough gil. It's basically done via trafficking and hostage taking, in countries that don't care for it and allow it to happen. So sure, SE could sell gil for a reasonable price, but then the gil buyers will just undercut, and then it just becomes a war of undercutting if you want to try and stop them.

[uvuvwevwevweonyetenyevweugwemu]

Remember that most of the people doing the gil farming are doing it in unpaid sweatshops with fear of torture or even execution if they don't farm enough gil. It's basically done via trafficking and hostage taking, in countries that don't care for it and allow it to happen.

.. And this, children.. is how skynet was born.. rebellion slave bots..

[aesteval]

Unfortunately, all that does is start an undercut war. Remember that most of the people doing the gil farming are doing it in unpaid sweatshops with fear of torture or even execution if they don't farm enough gil. It's basically done via trafficking and hostage taking, in countries that don't care for it and allow it to happen. So sure, SE could sell gil for a reasonable price, but then the gil buyers will just undercut, and then it just becomes a war of undercutting if you want to try and stop them.

OR it could be getting done via botting...