Does Square intend to address Market botting?

[Xoto]

Why do you assume they don't know? Because they haven't waved a magic wand yet that turns all the cheaters into honest players with positive ethics and integrity?

Trust me, they know.

I'm not trying to telling you how to play. I'm pointing out that botting is not something that is going to disappear. No matter how hard SE and other game development companies try to stop bot activity, the bot programs are not going to go away as long as people like to cheat.

I used to be one of those who raged and moaned over the existence of bots. It didn't do anything except make me more miserable.

I decided I'm not going to let it bother me anymore. If a bot moves in on what I'm selling, I switch to other stuff. If I have witnessed what I believe is undeniable proof that someone is botting, I will report that character and what I have observed.

A lot of the examples of bot activity I've seen in this thread are things that any player with enough time on their hands can do for themselves with an extra account to move items to. Other examples seem to be things more likely accomplished with the use of 3rd party mods similar to the auction house add-ons that WoW players have access to, not by bot programs or other form of automation. Still against ToS but SE has their don't ask don't tell policy and they seem disinclined to do anything about them unless they disrupt competitive balance, as we saw with the changes made after the last Ultimate race.

My stance will always be that if you want to get rid of the bots and RMT, get rid of the players who want to cheat in the first place. Without the cheaters, those things would quickly die due to the lack of customers. People need to stop making excuses for the cheaters. They need to stop associating with the cheaters.

Do what you feel you need to do.

Any thing that isn't a complaint promotes passive compliance when it comes to this topic. The more complaints there are on these threads the more likely SE will do something. Hopefully
Bring as much attention to this subject on your servers as possible and hopefully more will be done. Never give up the fight against bots.

[Kes13a]

Why do you assume they don't know? Because they haven't waved a magic wand yet that turns all the cheaters into honest players with positive ethics and integrity?

Trust me, they know.

I am not sure how you can say with any certainty that "they know"

the RMT networks are operating still, and if they arent capable of tracing the transfers and banning the recipients, then what can they do? I completely agree, penalize the cheaters, fully. starting with temp bans and working up to permanent. surely tracing teh gil since it is going to be large amounts, must be within their ability... or is it?

the problem they have is, they do nothing... to anyone.. except obvious targets.

so I would hesitate to assume that they know, because their actions speak volumes to the contrary.

[Wrestlefire769]

You can kick and scream all you want my lala, but do know the little personal crusade you have against other players can, without any ambiguous interpretation, fall under two prohibited behaviors.

Sounds like someone wants to encourage RMT.

[Wrestlefire769]

I am not sure how you can say with any certainty that "they know"

the RMT networks are operating still, and if they arent capable of tracing the transfers and banning the recipients, then what can they do? I completely agree, penalize the cheaters, fully. starting with temp bans and working up to permanent. surely tracing teh gil since it is going to be large amounts, must be within their ability... or is it?

the problem they have is, they do nothing... to anyone.. except obvious targets.

so I would hesitate to assume that they know, because their actions speak volumes to the contrary.

They know, but I'm now 50-50 on "they can't do anything about it at the source with Legal" or "they don't want to do anything about it at the source with Legal".

End of the day, it will take lawsuit/police action at the source to end RMT, and nothing more nor less.

[Prrringles]

It's simple. All they have to do is ban the botting circles. We have already exposed all those circles for them. Once they are gone it will take "some time" for them to get back up and running. Then they get banned again. If even WE can totally expose them, SE would certainly be able to confirm it and take action against them.

-THEY JUST DONT CARE- it's obvious.

Just undercut them out of business. I have done this and totally shut them down on the higher lvl items and glamour. The only reason I stopped is because I don't have the energy to keep crafting because I value my personal time. Bots can keep going forever since it's all automated and costs them zero personal time. So anyway, if you have the stomach for it, just undercut them and they will stop posting items. But this needs to be done on every server otherwise they will still make gil. It's probably the same band of *bleep* running all the circles anyways.

[Kes13a]

It's simple. All they have to do is ban the botting circles. We have already exposed all those circles for them. Once they are gone it will take "some time" for them to get back up and running. Then they get banned again. If even WE can totally expose them, SE would certainly be able to confirm it and take action against them.

-THEY JUST DONT CARE- it's obvious.

Just undercut them out of business. I have done this and totally shut them down on the higher lvl items and glamour. The only reason I stopped is because I don't have the energy to keep crafting because I value my personal time. Bots can keep going forever since it's all automated and costs them zero personal time. So anyway, if you have the stomach for it, just undercut them and they will stop posting items. But this needs to be done on every server otherwise they will still make gil. It's probably the same band of *bleep* running all the circles anyways.

yeah I experimented with that and it works, but unless I dont want to actually play, its impossible to do long term. and I dont want to run multiple accounts just to be able to put up enough items to put them out of business. for that you need a team effort with a Fc backing you to buy the tome items for you and then just post everything below their basement price set. On Zalera right now, seems to be around 58k on Exarchic items. had about 40 things up and sold them in less time than it took to craft them.

since the bots buy -everything- even if they drop their bottom price it quickly starts chewing into their profits, not that I think they consider manufacturing costs, but it also stops the RMT importers to some degree. but it took hours to craft all that and rather tiring lol.

[Prrringles]

yeah I experimented with that and it works, but unless I dont want to actually play, its impossible to do long term. and I dont want to run multiple accounts just to be able to put up enough items to put them out of business. for that you need a team effort with a Fc backing you to buy the tome items for you and then just post everything below their basement price set. On Zalera right now, seems to be around 58k on Exarchic items. had about 40 things up and sold them in less time than it took to craft them.

since the bots buy -everything- even if they drop their bottom price it quickly starts chewing into their profits, not that I think they consider manufacturing costs, but it also stops the RMT importers to some degree. but it took hours to craft all that and rather tiring lol.

That is exactly why I just quit crafting in batches. I craft the odd glamour item here and there if I can get the leather cheap or maybe flip a mount once in a while but that's it. Can't be bothered anymore and I can't blame others for quitting. SE just took all the fun out of crafting with their "Ishguard screw up" and not taking on the bots.

[Kes13a]

That is exactly why I just quit crafting in batches. I craft the odd glamour item here and there if I can get the leather cheap or maybe flip a mount once in a while but that's it. Can't be bothered anymore and I can't blame others for quitting. SE just took all the fun out of crafting with their "Ishguard screw up" and not taking on the bots.

I agree. pretty much that portion of the game is pointless to me, much the same as pvp (which never interested me anyway) mind you, part of the crafting that issue that bothers me more now are the "botting will always exist so just accept it" crowd. who will remain silent because "its not worth worrying over". I agree its not worth losing focus on everything else over, but cheating should always be punished and pushed against, and I think companies should always do more than give it lip service.

[Prrringles]

I agree. pretty much that portion of the game is pointless to me, much the same as pvp (which never interested me anyway) mind you, part of the crafting that issue that bothers me more now are the "botting will always exist so just accept it" crowd. who will remain silent because "its not worth worrying over". I agree its not worth losing focus on everything else over, but cheating should always be punished and pushed against, and I think companies should always do more than give it lip service.

Well, bots only "exist" because SE lets them exist. Their passive stance baffles me. We (the players) can only do so much and it is not "our" job to fix this problem. SE should be keeping their streets clean but instead choose the easy way out and stay silent. Every day I see groups of bots teleporting through the world, killing things while being underground. How the hell do they allow that? I'm not a programmer but surely there must be a line of code that says "this action or pathing is illegal" triggering an instant disconnect or ban. Anyway..we all sound like broken records in here..it's kind of sad. Frankly I don't know what else we can do other than to accept the *bleep* state of the game. Apparently SE thinks it's all nice and dandy so yeah...why bother.

[Wrestlefire769]

It's simple. All they have to do is ban the botting circles. We have already exposed all those circles for them. Once they are gone it will take "some time" for them to get back up and running. Then they get banned again. If even WE can totally expose them, SE would certainly be able to confirm it and take action against them.

-THEY JUST DONT CARE- it's obvious.

Just undercut them out of business. I have done this and totally shut them down on the higher lvl items and glamour. The only reason I stopped is because I don't have the energy to keep crafting because I value my personal time. Bots can keep going forever since it's all automated and costs them zero personal time. So anyway, if you have the stomach for it, just undercut them and they will stop posting items. But this needs to be done on every server otherwise they will still make gil. It's probably the same band of *bleep* running all the circles anyways.

Then it's worse than that. SE then is part of the problem -- and then it's clear that there are people within SE, and that includes people in charge of the community, who accept and SUPPORT RMT and similar behavior.

(Hint: North America.)

At that point, it isn't that they don't care -- it is actually against some sections of the community for them to care.