Does Square intend to address Market botting?

[Jojoya]

Jojoya, I'm replying to you even though I said I wouldn't. I read your post. What are you hoping to achieve in arguing your position? To have people stop complaining about bots on a thread about bots?

I'm hoping some of these other posters will understand that it is a complex situation so there are no simple solutions such as "bots will disappear if SE bans the accounts", that SE does know what they're doing even if the visible results aren't what players are hoping to see, and that cheaters are always going to exist

One way or another, if they want to enjoy a multi-player game they're going to need to learn to find ways to do it despite the cheaters.

Players should continue to give feedback about how the bots are impacting their game experience. They should report any characters they suspect are cheating through the channels that SE has designated.

But they need to stop acting like they're doing SE's job better than SE can when all they're doing is compiling a list of names of characters showing suspicious behavior. SE has already done that and more.

what I find amazing then Jojoya, is that this issue is something other mmo producers deal with far more effectively.

You say SE can do nothing, so why can other companies? how is it FF XIV is listed in the bot forums as "VERY BOT FRIENDLY" yet you dont see the same in there about all other games?

I didnt see a mention of what SE could actually do thats well within their jurisdiction... hire an actual NA STF team. doesnt matter what code the cheaters break, having people investigating and banning offenders would serve as a deterrent, an option you failed to mention, and that is indeed... something SE can do.

What other MMOs developers are dealing with botting far more effectively? What specifically has happened to make you feel those efforts are far more effective?

I didn't say there's nothing that can be done. I said the deterrents SE can implement aren't a solution to the problem. The solution lies with the other side - they need to decide they're going to stop cheating then do it.

You say the bot forums call FFXIV "VERY BOT FRIENDLY". Well, pancake batter is VERY WOODEN SPOON FRIENDLY while meringue isn't. In other words, more context is needed to know what that rating is referring to - ease of set up and use compared to other game bots, or risk of getting banned for using it? Is that a rating based on maker analysis or player anecdote? How are other games described in comparison?

Why does there need to be a separate STF for NA? It's the exact same game on every server being run by SE.

I did mention banning as a deterrent near the top of my post. I said it's not a solution since it doesn't get all cheaters to stop. It's also something that SE is indeed doing even if they're not banning every character that a player has decided is a bot.

Despite what the forums would like us to believe, I still see little evidence of the market board being directly botted.

There are definitely third party tools getting used to facilitate market pricing, though not necessarily bots. Some price adjustments happen way too fast for a system that doesn't have a good scanning tool built in for player use and a clunky interface for making price adjustments.

We know scanning tools exists. They were feeding data to the marketboard websites that SE kept getting shut down. I'd be pretty shocked if someone hasn't developed a partial version of TSM for FFXIV. That's not truly a bot since it does require some player input to function instead of doing everything on its own once started but it can certainly seem like a bot to those who only see changes happening faster than should be humanly possible.

Whether bot or not, third party tools are against TOS and suspected use should be getting reported to SE for review and action if appropriate. If SE goes the "don't ask don't tell" route with these tools, they are opening up a can of worms since player markets are directly impacted. The ACT parser doesn't directly impact another player's game experiences (it's misuse of information the parser compiles that can).

At least in WoW, everyone had the opportunity to download TSM or other add-ons with similar function so a player upset by the advantage an add-on might give could use it themselves. That's not an option here for PS4 players. It's probably why the other multi-platform MMOs keep their player bases and account licenses segregated by platform type. The third party tools that PC users can install won't impact the game experience of the console users who can't install them.