Is it OK to use bots in FFXIV?

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

SE ban bots and RMTs in waves every few months.
Unfortunately this means for those few months the botters and RMTs have free reign and are only moderately disadvantaged for a short time when those ban waves occur.

The most affected part of the market however is the sale of crystals/shards/clusters, which would likely be prohibitively expensive if it wasn't for those botters to be frank, so it's a double-edged sword.
If SE could be more proactive on the issue, they would also need to address the balance of obtaining crystals and shards in great enough quantities as well.

Every week. They purge every Thursday.

[ZeroRaziel]

Every week. They purge every Thursday.

If they do, how comes this bot is still there for a month now? Despite numerous reports?

I've seen this exact botting pattern mentioned on this forum before, but this thread was moslty ignored:
https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...Market-botting

If had a bit more ruckus on a reddit though:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...games_economy/

[Gothicshark]

If they do, how comes this bot is still there for a month now? Despite numerous reports?

I've seen this exact botting pattern mentioned on this forum before, but this thread was moslty ignored:
https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...Market-botting

If had a bit more ruckus on a reddit though:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...games_economy/

Lots of people undercut and don't need a bot to do it. I check my Retainers fairly regularly every day and adjust the prices to undercut when possible. No bot needed.

[ZeroRaziel]

Lots of people undercut and don't need a bot to do it. I check my Retainers fairly regularly every day and adjust the prices to undercut when possible. No bot needed.

Gothicshark, please read through my previous post =/
This one, to be precise:

https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...=1#post5365959

I higly doubt that your regular retainers check would match this kind of behavior...

And you most likely haven't looked at that reddit link
https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...games_economy/
you quoted neither.

[Veliaire]

Lots of people undercut and don't need a bot to do it. I check my Retainers fairly regularly every day and adjust the prices to undercut when possible. No bot needed.

Yes, but do you check 40 retainers every 20 minutes every day of the year? Its pretty easy to tell who is a human being is who is a bot in this game. Lets not try to pretend otherwise.

[SecretIsland]

Lots of people undercut and don't need a bot to do it. I check my Retainers fairly regularly every day and adjust the prices to undercut when possible. No bot needed.

Yep. This. Some people are just hardcore and no-life the market board. Doesn't always have to be a bot.

If you see them teleporting then yes, it is a bot. Otherwise, no.

[Xoto]

Yep. This. Some people are just hardcore and no-life the market board. Doesn't always have to be a bot.

If you see them teleporting then yes, it is a bot. Otherwise, no.

Lmao this guy wants to pretend bots aren't running the marketbaords... Man when did you join? Feb 2021... nice welcome to a bots heaven in ffxiv

[KageTokage]

Yep. This. Some people are just hardcore and no-life the market board. Doesn't always have to be a bot.

If you see them teleporting then yes, it is a bot. Otherwise, no.

The undercut bots typically have alts camped out by retainers 24/7 and will undercut within less then a minute of something being listed at a lower price them then them.

This is especially easy to identify if the alts in question are level 21, which is the absolute minimum you need to be in order to have access to a retainer.

And no, they don't teleport. The only bots that teleport are the ARR gil farmers who just want to make a quick penny from speeding through the MSQ as quickly as possible and basically are committing account suicide because they're well-aware of how quickly they'll get banned.

[ZedxKayn]

The ToS will tell you it's not OK, the punishment (or lack thereof) botters receive will tell you it's OK.

[ForteNightshade]

Every week. They purge every Thursday.

Ehhh. Those are the easily noticeable RMT bots that mostly stand around Limsa. SE is horrendous was it comes to market board bots, gather bots and crafting bots. Even outright cheaters often got on to be ignored for years despite numerous reports. And the thing is, all they have to do is shadow these "players" to see them botting as it's fairly obvious.

Unfortunately, it seems the GMs aren't given much authority in this regard, and it's the STF that handles these bans. Which is hilariously understaffed. All in all, SE doesn't do a whole lot about bots.