The bot problem is rising and real.

[Mirhd]

You don't even need to be in-game to see it in action.

https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/community/

... Wow. I rarely ever visit Lodestone community pages, so I had no idea there were so many bot FCs. Keyboard smash names as well... not even trying to hide themselves. I don't know whether to be impressed at their persistence, or depressed that SE really isn't taking this as seriously as they should. Rampant botting at this level isn't a good look for them as a company. >_>

[Hash_Browns]

You don't even need to be in-game to see it in action.

https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/community/

Why are bots even forming FCs?

[SomeRandomHuman]

Why are bots even forming FCs?

craft/gather bot FCs so they can operate more privately.

craft bots do all their crafting and such in there while gather bots dump the mats in the box and/or trade amongst each other. There was a post in this thread that broke it down more in-depth.

[Mirhd]

Why are bots even forming FCs?

For the FC EXP Action, I'd image. The quicker they level their clone derplander BMs, the sooner they can get to spamming dungeons for gil.

Above poster beat me to it.

[Just-Communication]

For each bot you need to have an active subscription, no? So first they need to buy the game, then get a subscription, and then carry out their activities. Doesn't that mean the people behind these bots make sufficient money through RMT profit from the initial investment? And, would they running multiple instance of the game on a single machine or would they require separate machines?

I imagine people already know this but bots are just the outcome when the disease is something else altogether.

[Hash_Browns]

For each bot you need to have an active subscription, no? So first they need to buy the game, then get a subscription, and then carry out their activities. Doesn't that mean the people behind these bots make sufficient money through RMT profit from the initial investment? And, would they running multiple instance of the game on a single machine or would they require separate machines?

I imagine people already know this but bots are just the outcome when the disease is something else altogether.

I'm going to assume FFXIVs bots do things similar to stuff like RS. So stolen credit cards.

[KageTokage]

Why are bots even forming FCs?

All types of bots benefit from having access to a FC chest for easy item/gil transfers.

For each bot you need to have an active subscription, no? So first they need to buy the game, then get a subscription, and then carry out their activities. Doesn't that mean the people behind these bots make sufficient money through RMT profit from the initial investment? And, would they running multiple instance of the game on a single machine or would they require separate machines?

I imagine people already know this but bots are just the outcome when the disease is something else altogether.

Someone actually mentioned that their bank straight-up blocked transactions with SE presumably because of all the chargeback fraud the bots were doing.

[Hash_Browns]

Someone actually mentioned that their bank straight-up blocked transactions with SE presumably because of all the chargeback fraud the bots were doing.

This reminds me of a similar situation that happened with RS years, and year ago.
They had to remove free trade because bots were killing the game.

RuneScape had such a bot problem that banks threatened Jagex.
Either stop the CC fraud, or they will refuse Jagexs transactions all together.

Jagex was forced so have a dedicated bot busting team, and continues to do so to this day because of how bad it hurt the game.

[Freyt]

https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...513f58d2ca6958

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is over 8,000 accounts banned within the span of a week, right?

I commend the efforts of the team responsible for this, but there's clearly an issue here that needs to be resolved.

[KageTokage]

It's unfortunate that while they're fruitlessly banning all those thousands of RMT accounts the small-scale bots that control the economy and such go almost completely ignored.

There's been a sudden increase in the latter type and I don't doubt it's likely related to 5.1 drawing near.