Does Square intend to address Market botting?

[KageTokage]

The one time they did actually address it in a live letter they seemed to have a weird misconception that PvP was the primary place botting was taking place in and just urged us to "keep reporting people" for what little that's accomplished over the years.

[ReynTime]

Is it a fact that japanese DCs have drastically less botting happening? Even in the Worlds "adopted" by English speakers?

[KageTokage]

It's a little ridiculous how many different individuals seems to be running DC-wide bot farming operations.

I make it a note to check who crafted the gear on each of the bots on my server, and there's multiple cases where all of their gear was made by a "primary" bot on a different server, and further investigation would turn up still more bots geared up by that same individual on other servers, which suggests that it's a collective operation.

[Kes13a]

It's a little ridiculous how many different individuals seems to be running DC-wide bot farming operations.

I make it a note to check who crafted the gear on each of the bots on my server, and there's multiple cases where all of their gear was made by a "primary" bot on a different server, and further investigation would turn up still more bots geared up by that same individual on other servers, which suggests that it's a collective operation.

It is. With the sole purpose of gil generation for RMT transactions. I mean why else would a crafter need to sell their wares across multiple worlds?

Something a inept 5 year old could figure out... but seems beyond the people at SE as to what is going on.

[Prrringles]

...but seems beyond the people at SE as to what is going on.

Doubt it. They know but just don't care about taking action. I mean, how many people are actually complaining about this you think? 20? 50? 100? How much money do those people generate compared to bots with their retainer spam? SE is simply ignoring us.

[Prrringles]

To whom it might concern:

I made a final report to the STF maximizing the character count. It is VERY extensive and leaves pretty much no room for doubt. I gave them the chance to redeem themselves and regain our confidence by doing the right thing. I closed it off by reminding them to honour their own statement about RMT;

"Square Enix has a zero-tolerance policy for third-party tools and RMT. Items and gil obtained through third-party tools or RMT can affect the game’s economic stability and disrupt gameplay balance."

And that's all she wrote. My "fight" here is done. I am not expecting SE to do anything with the info I sent them (like all our previous reports and efforts fell on deaf ears). SE has proven we are not important to them eventhough they claim otherwise. You can all draw your own conclusions. But who knows, SE might surprise us (lol).

[ItMe]

I made a final report to the STF maximizing the character count. It is VERY extensive and leaves pretty much no room for doubt.

Any chance you could share it with us here?

[Prrringles]

Any chance you could share it with us here?

I could but I would need to redact big portions because SE does not allow to name an shame individuals (but hell freezes over if you call someone a doodoo). Can't be arsed really, some parts are in Japanese too to make sure they get the point. The TLDR is basically telling them WHO is doing it and HOW they are doing it (in detail). Then basically telling them how all that is destroying their ingame economy and dedicated crafting community (inserted links to this forum and reddit). Finally reminding them about their own code against RMT and doing the right thing (code of honour is an important aspect of Japanese culture).

It's all in there. I could not think of a better case excluding their actual data to back it all up. I have no idea how the STF works and how they review cases like this. I don't even know if they only review cases written in Japanese or if they google translate cases written in English. No clue at what rate they review cases. But I guess that's what you get with a zero transparency policy.

If no action will be taken we will have our answer guys (we kind of already do but ok). I'm not here trying to tell anyone what to do, but I myself (as a hardcore crafter/seller since basically 1.0) am done with the market board. I am unsubbing my retainers not holding any gil. I know SE won't even notice but whatever, this is where I draw the line. I am not going to waste my time and compete with automated scripts any longer.

Peace

[Kes13a]

It's all in there. I could not think of a better case excluding their actual data to back it all up. I have no idea how the STF works and how they review cases like this. I don't even know if they only review cases written in Japanese or if they google translate cases written in English. No clue at what rate they review cases. But I guess that's what you get with a zero transparency policy.

If no action will be taken we will have our answer guys (we kind of already do but ok). I'm not here trying to tell anyone what to do, but I myself (as a hardcore crafter/seller since basically 1.0) am done with the market board. I am unsubbing my retainers not holding any gil. I know SE won't even notice but whatever, this is where I draw the line. I am not going to waste my time and compete with automated scripts any longer.

Peace

Thanks Prrringles.

I am at that stage as well. unlike some who comment, who seem to feel the ONLY reason crafters complain is because it cuts into their "massive profits", one in particular we all know very well from their comments, I view the market as my version of 'pvp' because in theory, you are trying to outcompete other PLAYERS. the gil is secondary. once player who bot can compete, just like in pvp, it takes anything out of it since the cheaters are prevailing. at least in pvp they usually get banned... possibly

being told that you are only after gil and if you were a real crafter to find another market where there arent bots (hard to do anymore) is like telling an F1 driver that competing in go-cart races is the same as F1. its insulting, and is just burying their head in the sand about the problem.. or being part of the problem all together.

[Angelhearth]

being told that you are only after gil and if you were a real crafter to find another market where there arent bots (hard to do anymore) is like telling an F1 driver that competing in go-cart races is the same as F1. its insulting, and is just burying their head in the sand about the problem.. or being part of the problem all together.

After the last patch, where retainers get much more of the things crafter make, there isn't another market, they are basically all gone, because the players sell this stuff for scraps. I have no idea why they send retainers on Quick Explorations, since the few items that really give you high prices are very rare (ask me, I have 36 lvl 80 retainers with Neo-Ishgardian HQ gear + 9 that just passed 63). What they should have done was to add everything not crafted or sold by vendors to the retainer list, that would make the retainers more valuable, AND keep the MB from overflooding with crafted items.