Square-Enix, please, do something about the bots

[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..

[miraidensetsu]

What laws are these sites breaking that would call for fines or having domain shut down?

Intelectual property laws. Everything that's inside the FFXIV software are Square-Enix's intelectual property. Ever your character can be included into that, legally speaking.

The same argument they use to take down youtube videos can be used to take down botters websites. And, considering that botters are actually earning money also with services like "level your char up to 70" (putting a concurrence against SE's Mog Station and their Tales of Adventurer item) or gil selling, most countries lets the injured party to demand compensation for damages to their business (like the DDoS they caused).

Yes, I would like to see S-E suing botters. If I was Yoshi-P, I would made a reunion with the legal team to make the banhammer hit harder. And, coming from an company as big as Square, the lawsuit will appear on every gamer site (and even on IT generalist ones). It will scare off new botters (at least those that is less daring).

[KageTokage]

I don't think the bots are ever going to be addressed unless there's a serious outcry about it, at least on the level of the housing issue. Unfortunately, from what I've noticed on my server, people are often oblivious to bots, don't care about them, or actually want them around due to driving down the prices on items (Which is strictly beneficial for the crafters who are too lazy to gather their own materials).

The fact that it's largely a non-issue on the JP side of things is also likely another factor playing into why it's being handled so poorly.

[Aryalandi]

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.

The system in FFXI was vastly more inclusive, you had the GM taskforce (several of them rather than the seemingly almost none we have now in ffxiv) who's entire existence was to look over reports, and would at times actually communicate with me the 126 *kept track* times my Blue Mage spookily stalked up on an RMT in full Immortal Lion gear and reported them.

You could stand there for five minutes after sending the report and watch as the person suddenly had the red ball of eminent death by their name, they would disappear from the world with my blue mage as the last thing their characters ever saw.

Then within five seconds of that you would get a message thanking you for your report with assurances that the matter was being looked in to.

I miss that sense that stuff was actually getting done and that I just had a hand in brutally murdering the existence of 126 abominations in epic immortal lion fashion

[Luna_Ariana]

I don't think the bots are ever going to be addressed unless there's a serious outcry about it, at least on the level of the housing issue. Unfortunately, from what I've noticed on my server, people are often oblivious to bots, don't care about them, or actually want them around due to driving down the prices on items (Which is strictly beneficial for the crafters who are too lazy to gather their own materials).

The fact that it's largely a non-issue on the JP side of things is also likely another factor playing into why it's being handled so poorly.

Ye sadly even if we do know who the bots are I think we mainly dont do anything bout it hence SE doesn't do anything bout it either. Even if you report a Bot who got something wrong in their botting script and so something weird doesn't affect hence SE rather checks them by Chatlog only and not the vids/pics we send them cause it "might be edited".

Maybe it is good to adress this Issue within the Liveletter which will come incase they may wanted our Questions again. or we really cry loud about it like we did with housing...

[Nightroad]

I know that this is a serious issue , but all I could think of : Good luck in finding a virgin Miqo'te.

[Mwynn]

Maybe it is good to adress this Issue within the Liveletter which will come incase they may wanted our Questions again. or we really cry loud about it like we did with housing...

Be surprised but... in one of the latest Live Letters (I think it was before SB hit) the very first Posts contained that Question.
It had over 100 Likes if not even more so yet ... has been totally ignored.

As you can probably think, Glamour Questions were more prioritized...

The fact that it's largely a non-issue on the JP side of things is also likely another factor playing into why it's being handled so poorly.

There were tons of Aetherial Reduction / Ephermal Node Bots on Mana Datacenter according to a few Discord Members who play on Shinryu and other Servers.
That said during 3.56 Heavensward times, how it looks now during Stormblood, I hardly can imagine, tho I'd be not surprised if those are still around.
Even JPN Servers have their Black Sheeps, tho their Community is a bit more punishing when it comes to Players doing awful things or like this.

Basically I remember a Rampage going on because a Female Player was being harrassed of a Streamer / Raider, which the Community decided to raid a entire House with naked Roegadyns as punishment.