Does Square intend to address Market botting?

[Prrringles]

Same story on every server. They suspend some accounts now and then but the biggest ones stay active for a -very- long time before they cycle to a new account. The post about how many accounts they terminate each week is just so they can say "look how hard we are cracking down on them". In reality non of the big RMT circles get sanctioned.

[dspguy]

I feel like market botting is less rampant than before. It is one thing when you have 20 crafters flooding the market and undercutting each other... but when it was the same 2-3 players (as per the crafted by line) that show up underneath your name after 5 minutes as opposed to one of the other 16 crafters that are relisting, it was really problematic.

[Immut]

This thread is doing a great job of showing who's using market bots lmao.

[Autumn_Dawnfire]

Game developers will always be in a neverending battle against bots they can't win because there will always be some way to counter something that's been programmed with something else that's also been programmed. Ban one bot and another one will show up the next day to take its place. That's why game developers do bot bans in waves spread out months apart. Once they know which account is botting, they can focus on that account to study the programmed behavior. Then they try to find ways to counter it that won't have an even greater impact on the game experience of those playing the game as intended. If they blindly ban the account, they've got nothing to watch to learn how to counter it. All you get is a never ending stream of new bots still existing in the game.

That is hog-wash, SE doesn't seem to care about cheating period. This is not a matter of "studying the program" to come up with a countermeasure. It's metrics, it always has been. They don't take action against bot's because they are paid accounts, that's the likely reason for the "ban in waves".

More likely:
Bot players spend $$: account, expansion, level skips for combat, content skip, and starts immediately making GC Seals. $$ earned by SE, enter rope a dope action, the the bot is banned in a "Wave" when economically optimal for SE. Conclusion: SE is a corporate entity that by definition does not care about a level playing field, only about how your perception impacts their bottom line.

Are they aware of which of players are actually botting? In all likelihood - yes. They simply do not care to act because they are earning money from those accounts.

Actual player: 1 account on average, up to 4

Bot: 8+ accounts

Coordinated reporting is the only possible recourse presented, and the vast majority of those reports are ignored by SE - period end of statement. They will not respond with what they need as proof. The "bot task force" primary job seems to be, disposing of reports.

What does work? Shaming SE. They like to point out publicly that they take a stance against cheating, bott'ing, etc. We all know that's complete nonsense, they take a stance when it's in the public eye outside of game, and that is about the *only* time.

SE does not care about bot's (or cheating) they care the public image they have a "level playing field".

IF - SE actually cared about the bot's - they would take legal action vs. the RMT sites, it's been done by others, and when a RMT site stands to lose... REAL money for their actions.. there is very little reason to be concerned with Bot's.

If you want SE to take action - posting a video on social media is more likely to get your results then contacting SE. Effect their brand perception, aka simply tell the truth.

[Autumn_Dawnfire]

PS SE does in fact sell gil. With every level skip.