Does Square intend to address Market botting?

[KageTokage]

It's kind of silly that they aren't more active about getting rid of the bots when the FC rankings effectively make it impossible for them to hide their excessive activity (Unless they're one of the odd few aren't in a FC).

[Jojoya]

It's kind of silly that they aren't more active about getting rid of the bots when the FC rankings effectively make it impossible for them to hide their excessive activity (Unless they're one of the odd few aren't in a FC).

But at least the FC bots make themselves easier to identify through activity. It's a place to start.

[Kes13a]

But at least the FC bots make themselves easier to identify through activity. It's a place to start.

unfortunately they may identify them but they do nothing about them. They cannot say "we are observing to get information about how they are doing it" thats nice and all, but nice isnt going to make the people who actually put in the time and effort feel any better about these bots continuing to exist

[Rurouni_Auron]

But at least the FC bots make themselves easier to identify through activity. It's a place to start.

You do not need to identify shit..

All you need to do is find a worthy item (Check Shinryu's Gunblade and Chakarms for example) and see if there's someone undercutting the price by 1 Gil.
Check their profile and company of that character: If it is a company of 9 characters, 1 main omnicrafter with 1 LV80 DoM or DoW job and 8 mules and no company estate then BINGO you found the shit.

Took me less than 10 minutes to find all those botting companies on each server of Chaos.

Evidently; you don't need to be smart to do all this, which tells a lot about the intelligence and IQ levels of SE support and special douchebag team.

[TheLoveJenovan]

Identifying bots is easier than that. They could start by polling their databases for accounts that have been active (i.e. not AFK) for more than 36 hours. This is so easy to do--it would literally take someone 5-10 minutes to write and execute the SQL query script--that it leads me to believe that SE truly doesn't care about the problem.

[TheLoveJenovan]

I've been sending back-and-forths with SE Customer Support, and it appears that they've outsourced this service to act as a "firewall" from their users. My original query was about getting a World Transfer credit after transferring to a new server inundated with market bots.

Message 1

We apologize for the inconvenience. Unfortunately, that service is not an available option. Although this service is not available, we will take this information and forward it as feedback to the appropriate department. While we cannot guarantee implementation, we would like to assure you that it will be reviewed by the appropriate party.

I’d otherwise be happy to pay for further transfers, but since the reason I am transferring is because Square Enix is not enforcing it’s TOS with bots, I’d like to at least transfer to a server in which there aren’t flagrant violations of the TOS. This wasn’t the case for my old server (Jenova) or the server I’ve transferred to (Zalera), which is why I’d like to try the Diablos server.

Ideally, it would be best if Square Enix just enforced its TOS. However, after months of reports in-game and reports to the Special Task Force, nothing has been done about these bots.

If you’d like more detailed information on this problem, I have participated actively on a thread.

https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...Market-botting

I even spent about 10 minutes identifying all of the market botting rings on the Crystal data center. These rings are on nearly every server, they almost all have top-10 Free Company standings for their respective server, they appear to be tied to RMT, and they have basically ruined the marketplace for legitimate players.

https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...=1#post5431506

[TheLoveJenovan]

Message 2

Greetings,

We appreciate you bringing this to our attention. It will be forwarded to the appropriate party. Thank you for taking the time to contact us today and we look forward to your opinions of our upcoming titles.

Thank you,
Paz

Frankly, there’s tons of content for new players and seasoned players, like myself. For the continued engagement of seasoned players, like me, we’re just looking for a fair game to play.

At this point, I’m not looking forward to Square Enix’s upcoming titles; I just want Square Enix to fix the product they’re already selling. This has been codified in the Terms of Service (TOS), but the TOS is not enforced by Square Enix. It’s like watching a game of football with no rules. At some point, there’s no point in engaging in a game when anything is allowed. For FFXIV, this means that bots are *allowed* to run rampant from 6 months to many years. They even have the top rankings for Free Companies and Ishgard rankings in the game.

Please fix the game with its pervasive and flagrant cheating before creating new content. We, as a community, have even done the legwork in identifying the most egregious bots. We’re just asking you to clean up your game.

https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...=1#post5431506


Message 3

We appreciate your feedback. We apologize that the product/service you are referring to does not meet your expectations. Your feedback will be forwarded to the appropriate party. Thank you for taking the time to contact us today.

Thank you,
Jon

The product/service I am referring (Final Fantasy XIV) doesn’t even meet Square Enix’s expectations. As I’ve stated, they have outlined a Terms of Service for play, which prohibits bots, but they do not enforce penalties on bots.

I hope Square Enix can deliver a product/service that at least meets their own expectations.

[Kes13a]

this reminds me of Raiders of the Lost Ark

Maj. Eaton : We have top men working on it right now.

Indiana : Who?

Maj. Eaton : Top... men.

[Jojoya]

You do not need to identify [snip].

All you need to do is find a worthy item (Check Shinryu's Gunblade and Chakarms for example) and see if there's someone undercutting the price by 1 Gil.
Check their profile and company of that character: If it is a company of 9 characters, 1 main omnicrafter with 1 LV80 DoM or DoW job and 8 mules and no company estate then BINGO you found the [snip]

Which is a process of identifying likely botters.

So yes, identification is necessary. Otherwise SE might as well just ban your account because there's no need to identify who's actually botting, they can just pick players at random. Right?