Discussion: How Can We Handle Botting Better?

[TwistedTea]

As a newly leveled BTN/MIN on Balmung, seeing gathering bots from large FCs/well-known crafters is utterly demoralizing.

For the most part, I've given up on trying to make gil through direct gathering activites. Because even when you find a niche, those who bot will drive the price so low, it's not worth it for anyone who legit does DOL.

I second the notion that others have stated: Go after the coders/sites behind these bots.

[KisaiTenshi]

I second the notion that others have stated: Go after the coders/sites behind these bots.

Careful what you ask for. The reason why most of these bots are created outside the US is because they don't see these things as copyright violations. In the US... well take this recent one as an example:

Look up "epic games lawsuit"

7. Defendants’ cheating and (name removed)’ inducing and enabling of others to cheat ruin the
game playing experience of players who do not cheat because they create an uneven playing
field, violate universally understood notions of fair play, and diminish the integrity of the game.

8. The software Defendants are using to cheat infringes Epic's copyrights in the
game and breaches the terms of the agreements to which Defendants agreed in order to have
access to the game. The same is true for Defendants' unauthorized public performances and
displays of unlawfully modified versions of Fortnite on YouTube.

Take note that using a parser would also be lawsuit material. While Square Enix has generally looked the other way for some of this, it is not a sanctioned thing, and if they really want to sue someone, they can.

[JackHatchet]

It's one of those situations where Square-Enix should have nipped modding and damage meters early on, and kept a firm stance on the matter, because as time goes on--people will test and push those boundaries until either the community as a whole comes to accept that Square-Enix doesn't care (which is what is happening now), or Square-Enix will go through some massive purges to reassert dominance of their own game, of which would decimate half the community. I'd be willing to be that if you combined the modders, parsers, and botters into one group--they're probably 20-30% of the community.

[Canadane]

I'd be willing to be that if you combined the modders, parsers, and botters into one group--they're probably 20-30% of the community.

I'm going with something like 80% or more of PC players.
And that's just a guess on parsers. I don't even consider botters real people/players.