Does Square intend to address Market botting?

[Dragonkat]

All I can say is don't bother.

It has now been four days since I reported a player from a group of "playful men" we shall say that anyone who is paying attention knows are botting FC's across multiple servers. With FC's full of level 1 characters that are clearly mules for retainers to run bot scripts.

Guess what i've gotten back now? from the GM's after throwing their own ToS, chapter and verse back in their faces to tell them it's their duty to make sure players aren't running automated scripts?

*cricket noises*

FOUR DAYS!

Why the **** do we even have GM'S if they aren't gonna do their jobs and my using *'s and indirectly calling out people probably stands me having a better chance of getting a forum ban then the botting player who decided it'd be cute to do a laugh emote at me tonight as i was harvesting Levin mint by him?

Botters now who have also switched their language from the default to D to try and hide themselves in player search to make it that much harder to find a report them I might add.

Dear Square, you have a bot problem, and your refusal to deal with it is ready to make me give up on crafting period. I'm not gonna put the time into more skysteel tools or penta melds if my effort can instantly be undone by farmers you wont deal with and 80 levels and countless hours of work gets me 30K for endgame gear.

And before you even start Jojoya it's not about profit it's about the fact they won't stop it. Get that through your head too before you start blathering on again.

[Kes13a]

unfortunately... the GM's do not deal with bots. thats the 3 person STF in Japan.

and yeah, you'd just get crickets from them too.

[Wrestlefire769]

You do realize that there is a significant portion of the Community Team who's in league with the RMT, do you not?

[Dragonkat]

unfortunately... the GM's do not deal with bots. thats the 3 person STF in Japan.

and yeah, you'd just get crickets from them too.

That's just it, it IS the GM's Job. It's right in their own ToS

Behaviour that disrupts the game balance
Square Enix strictly prohibits the use of third-party programs or tools – including programs and tools that permit automated or “absentee” play – in Final Fantasy XIV. Accordingly, the following activities are prohibited:

- Modifying, analysing, integrating, and/or reverse engineering game software or data.
- Creating, distributing, using, or promoting utilities that interact with the game.
- Exploiting Square Enix programming bugs or glitches.
- Automating gameplay processes.

The Game Master (GM) may speak to players to investigate and confirm “absentee” play, and if the player continues with this behaviour, contrary to the GM's instructions, this will be treated as “absentee” play and subject to penalties.

I quoted this in my ticket, it's not the STF's job to look into this, that is a buck pass by people who won't address the problem.

And again, if the GM's can't, or as pointed out above won't do their job by being in league with the botters. Why do we have them?

[Wrestlefire769]

And again, if the GM's can't, or as pointed out above won't do their job by being in league with the botters. Why do we have them?

The illusion that the TOS is uniformly enforced.

[ItMe]

And again, if the GM's can't, or as pointed out above won't do their job by being in league with the botters. Why do we have them?

I wonder if the problem isn't more "we don't have enough of them."

[Dragonkat]

So this just got sent to the GM's for all the good it will do probably.

This character is using automated crafting scripts and his free company is one of the many [redacted] Fc's across the data centers that is using automated scripting to disrupt the balance of the game. They are using lvl 1 characters with multiple retainers, and automated bots are undercutting any player trying to sell items on the market board on regular intervals. While flooding the market with items being made by [redacted] Who if you follow him will be online 24/7 crafting or gather, will not respond to tells, and has set his language as D when he is an English player in a deliberate effort to hide himself from player search. The behavior of this FC is obstructing any player being able to sell our own items without checking our sales every 5-10 minutes. Making it impossible to enjoy any other aspect of FF14. And the use of automated scripts is a clear violation of the ToS as is the obstruction of other players to engage with the markets without having to fight these automated sellers. These automated sellers are also disrupting the balance of the market by flooding it with goods made using automated scripting. Furthermore these players are directly filling the coffers of RMT traders and obtaining gil through the use of third party tools. Which I thought Square had a zero tolerance policy against? It is the duty of the ff14 GM's and NOT THE STF per your own rules to enforce them, and attempt to make sure these players are not engaged in automated behavior by contacting them. And if they are found in violation of multiple parts of your own ToS as shown above I expect action to be taken against them.

And we all know who they are if you pay attention for more than 5 seconds. There is one FC with multiples across every data center. Who just all happen to have the same name, and just happen to have one omnicrafter in them with the rest of the players at level one. who just happen to have similar naming conventions. and just happen to all be the same in the FC rankings using automated scripting to get points. and just happen to be immune from being called out because it's "name shaming"

It's pathetic that Square can't or won't take action against obvious cheating and bot FC's.

[Voidle]

I am just a very dedicated crafter who never sleeps and frequently updates my retainer listings every 5 minutes. I don't know why people complain about me when all I want to do is craft and sell things without ever doing any other content. I'm definitely, 100% not a bot. Please stop reporting me. uWu

[Voidle]

Seriously how hard is it to detect 100% uptime activity? These bots don't rest, don't sleep, don't eat. Red flags are everywhere, nothing's being done about it. I'm just fortunate enough that there's only one extremely 'dedicated crafter' on my world that if I update enough times, which is a huge pain, which I shouldn't have to do if they weren't allowed to have an account, I can move some gear at a slight profit. I'd rather compete against dozens of other legitimate players because at least they'll eventually do other content and stop crafting long enough for me to actually breathe.

If they're worried about there being not enough gear or items on the market due to player count, trust me, if you let people sell at the actual prices these pieces should be at, they will craft them. Isn't the whole point of being a crafter to meet a 'shortage' anyways. If you kill the reason for being a crafter by letting these cheaters keep their accounts months on end, what's the point of even providing crafting content? Isn't it embarrassing that if you examine any player's gear, atleast 1/3rd to 1/2th will be crafted by a bot? It's disgusting.

[Kes13a]

Seriously how hard is it to detect 100% uptime activity? These bots don't rest, don't sleep, don't eat. Red flags are everywhere, nothing's being done about it. I'm just fortunate enough that there's only one extremely 'dedicated crafter' on my world that if I update enough times, which is a huge pain, which I shouldn't have to do if they weren't allowed to have an account, I can move some gear at a slight profit. I'd rather compete against dozens of other legitimate players because at least they'll eventually do other content and stop crafting long enough for me to actually breathe.

If they're worried about there being not enough gear or items on the market due to player count, trust me, if you let people sell at the actual prices these pieces should be at, they will craft them. Isn't the whole point of being a crafter to meet a 'shortage' anyways. If you kill the reason for being a crafter by letting these cheaters keep their accounts months on end, what's the point of even providing crafting content? Isn't it embarrassing that if you examine any player's gear, atleast 1/3rd to 1/2th will be crafted by a bot? It's disgusting.

on Zalera... I wish there was only 1 "dedicated crafter". I think the market is sitting at about 5 right now, and thats not counting the RMT importers