Does Square intend to address Market botting?

[KageTokage]

From a business standpoint, there really is no reason for them to go after the bots other then improving the game's image.

They'd effectively be spending more money to lose money by banning paying customers.

[BraundoniusBigd]

Yeah it's a matter of what is the bots' net impact on profit for SE. Apparently positive since obvious bots who have operated for years don't get banned lol.

[Oxidized]

From a business standpoint, there really is no reason for them to go after the bots other then improving the game's image.

I actually am not sure this is true. When a botter gets banned, as long as they perceive that the cost of starting up a new account is outweighed by the profits they can make over time, they will simply purchase a fresh one, a cycle that can probably make SE money if it is played correctly.

Of course, this is hypothetical, since botters do not get banned :P

[Kes13a]

well, I guess at least SE will have a steady income after real players that appreciate their content and effort get frustrated and leave.

way to go SE

[Voidle]

Shame they made the game addicting enough for some people to put up with it.

[Kes13a]

Shame they made the game addicting enough for some people to put up with it.

more a shame that some people are so "addicted" that they essentially condone cheating

[Myrany]

While I agree that bots are a huge problem, I fear that going on witch hunts for bots is going to catch a bunch of MB aficionados in the crossfire.

It happened to me in WoW. Someone reported me as a bot because I managed to take their market away from them and dominate it for the 4-12 hours a day I was on. Bliz in their infinite stupidity simply banned my account without doing any research at all. I DID eventually get my account back but it was a horrid process. I wasn't even using TSM. I was just checking the AH between each activity and adjusting prices. So maybe every 30-60 minutes.

Be careful who you report. Be VERY sure they are indeed bots. There are people out there who like I used to be live and breath for the MB. Some of them might be hard to distinguish from a bot.

[Kes13a]

While I agree that bots are a huge problem, I fear that going on witch hunts for bots is going to catch a bunch of MB aficionados in the crossfire.

It happened to me in WoW. Someone reported me as a bot because I managed to take their market away from them and dominate it for the 4-12 hours a day I was on. Bliz in their infinite stupidity simply banned my account without doing any research at all. I DID eventually get my account back but it was a horrid process. I wasn't even using TSM. I was just checking the AH between each activity and adjusting prices. So maybe every 30-60 minutes.

Be careful who you report. Be VERY sure they are indeed bots. There are people out there who like I used to be live and breath for the MB. Some of them might be hard to distinguish from a bot.

I imagine that even you, in your living and breathing the market, took breaks, ate, went to sleep, maybe even left the house and were not online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

as you stated, 4-12 hours a day... thats simply lack of observation on the part of blizzard and the other player. We have people who are so brazen the only time they are "offline" is after maintenance" and they havent logged the bots back in. thats it. the rest of the time they are on and marketting.

[Commander_Justitia]

We fully understand how frustrating it must be, but please keep paying your sub and be happy, as the STF will do nothing about it. They are too busy picking the next promotional items you should buy to prove that you are a real fan.

[Kes13a]

We fully understand how frustrating it must be, but please keep paying your sub and be happy, as the STF will do nothing about it. They are too busy picking the next promotional items you should buy to prove that you are a real fan.

if they actually SAID anything, we would know one way or the other. the really FRUSTRATING part is that they just seem to be ignoring it, and the people frustrated by it. doing nothing AND refusing to even acknowledge the issue is the worst thing possible. personally, I am just telling everyone about how bot infested this game is and how little SE is doing about it.