Idling Clone Players are annoying for many reasons.

[Rasseru]

First off, I don't mind players having many accounts of characters. But, when they are all online and idling 24/7 in a popular gathering place like in town. It becomes really annoying after time and seems unfair to others for the reasons below.

• Major Reason: Taking up players slots that could be used for other active players. Basically wasting data and making longer logins, ques and loading. For those who have lower hardware specs; this slows the loading because a crowd of players in a busy place. Having a few extra "Idling Clones" could make this happen.

• Major Reason: Spying on players; I seen some Idling Clones spread out in many towns. If one player makes a comment about them that is negative or disapproving. They will sometimes send you a "Tell" to mock you and paste back your comment. Hinting that they are spying with their network of accounts. This is concerning if one chooses to stalk a player or undermined players.

• Minor Reason: Showing off their wealth to others. To have that many accounts online by using a powerful computer or computers to have many account online. Also whatever 3rd party program they are using to run many FFXIV copies of the game. I frowned upon this for showing how insanely privilege they are with their setup. This could sour players' mood by seeing them a lot. Knowing that they are clones and own by one person.

• Minor Reason: Becoming more than a fun attraction; This occurs when they take their popularity to the next level and brag about it. They will shame others that are disapproving them and get their followers to mob harassment others who are against them.

• The Bots Reason: They are not doing activities to be bot. But, it gives the image that they are acting as bot. As they not breaking the rules for idling; like everyone else does sometime. The main concern is making it feel like they are bots. It gives a ruined feeling when players see bot activities in a game.

I know, I might get flak from others for voicing my concern on this. I just feel its getting out of control with more people making accounts to do Idling Cloning for self interest than for a better reason. But, I think Devs and the GMs should take a look at this minor issue. As it effects game play and the community.

[Curisu]

Until now I didn't even know that they exist.
I've never seen someone talk about it or someone showing off their wealth.

[Vidu]

Major Reason: Taking up players slots that could be used for other active players. Basically wasting data and making longer logins, ques and loading. For those who have lower hardware specs; this slows the loading because a crowd of players in a busy place. Having a few extra "Idling Clones" could make this happen.

This is only a problem during times where server space is actually an issue - so usually only the first few weeks after an expansion-launch and during that time there is an auto-log-out function to kick idle players of the server. At any other time? Not a problem - at least not for the server.

Major Reason: Spying on players; I seen some Idling Clones spread out in many towns. If one player makes a comment about them that is negative or disapproving. They will sometimes send you a "Tell" to mock you and paste back your comment. Hinting that they are spying with their network of accounts. This is concerning if one chooses to stalk a player or undermined players.[/LIST]

There is a simple fix for this: If they sent you harrassing tells, you can report them. Keep in mind that publicly shaming someone could also be reported, though - so maybe you're better off with getting a tell than a flag on your account...

Minor Reason: Showing off their wealth to others. To have that many accounts online by using a powerful computer or computers to have many account online. Also whatever 3rd party program they are using to run many FFXIV copies of the game. I frowned upon this for showing how insanely privilege they are with their setup. This could sour players' mood by seeing them a lot. Knowing that they are clones and own by one person.

...wow, thats some round about way of thinking... I would have never reached that conclusion, but now that we're at it... we should also ban players idling anywhere showing off Ultimate/Savage clears (because showing off their skill) or anything they bought on the mogstation (thats showing off their wealth aswell, after all!) - maybe for mogstation outfits we shouldnt be allowed to combine them, so that we can only display that we bought one costume at a time! Mogstation mounts and minions should also be made invisible.
Seriously... this is very much a "you"-problem.

Minor Reason: Becoming more than a fun attraction; This occurs when they take their popularity to the next level and brag about it. They will shame others that are disapproving them and get their followers to mob harassment others who are against them.

Again: You can report harrassment. So can they btw - I'm just mentioning that again, because you talked about antagonising idling players before. And you can dislike bragging (so do I), but I dont see any harm in that? If they talk in shout-chat and do so in a way thats not harrassment but is bothering you for some personal reason, you can also just blacklist them.

The Bots Reason: They are not doing activities to be bot. But, it gives the image that they are acting as bot. As they not breaking the rules for idling; like everyone else does sometime. The main concern is making it feel like they are bots. It gives a ruined feeling when players see bot activities in a game.

Ah yes, lets ban people for giving you a bad feeling by doing nothing at all! I'm sorry, this is just absurd.

You'd only have a valid point if there would be actual stress on the servers - and whenever thats the case, they already respond to by turning on the auto-log-out. As you pointed out yourself: They're not doing anything against the rules when just idling. Once harrassment starts - from either side, mind you - there is the report-function to deal with said harrassment. Just standing around isnt doing any harm to anyone, unless they choose to find some round about way of thinking to find something to be upset about (a way of thinking, might I add, that involves certain assumptions your must make before hand).
And when would the cut off point even be? How long are you allowed to idle? Is it only restricted in towns or everywhere? Can I idle in my house as long as I like while waiting for my hour long PvP queue?

...and why am I getting the feeling that I'm responding to some troll-post here... maybe I should give myself some advice and remind me that there are better things to do right now... like, playing the new patch while not minding what other people are doing with their money and freetime and/or within the game as long as they're not harming me. Which they're not as long as they're just standing around doing nothing whatsoever.

[CazzT]

Major Reason: Taking up players slots that could be used for other active players. Basically wasting data and making longer logins, ques and loading. For those who have lower hardware specs; this slows the loading because a crowd of players in a busy place. Having a few extra "Idling Clones" could make this happen.

Valid and important point. Sadly the only one you made.

Major Reason: Spying on players; I seen some Idling Clones spread out in many towns. If one player makes a comment about them that is negative or disapproving. They will sometimes send you a "Tell" to mock you and paste back your comment. Hinting that they are spying with their network of accounts. This is concerning if one chooses to stalk a player or undermined players.

Stalking other players isn't something you should be doing in the first place. In this scenario, I would have to side with the person who has multiple accounts as they're doing nothing wrong while the person stalking them very much is.

Minor Reason: Showing off their wealth to others. To have that many accounts online by using a powerful computer or computers to have many account online. Also whatever 3rd party program they are using to run many FFXIV copies of the game. I frowned upon this for showing how insanely privilege they are with their setup. This could sour players' mood by seeing them a lot. Knowing that they are clones and own by one person.

This sounds more like a "you" problem. If I see someone with multiple accounts that obviously is not a bot, I don't get salty because they make/have more money than I do. That's just petty.

Minor Reason: Becoming more than a fun attraction; This occurs when they take their popularity to the next level and brag about it. They will shame others that are disapproving them and get their followers to mob harassment others who are against them.

If they are mocking others for not being as "real life wealthy" as themselves, I agree that's not cool. But I've honestly never seen a multi-boxer do this without provocation.

The Bots Reason: They are not doing activities to be bot. But, it gives the image that they are acting as bot. As they not breaking the rules for idling; like everyone else does sometime. The main concern is making it feel like they are bots. It gives a ruined feeling when players see bot activities in a game.

Only two types of people will mistake them for botters. Those who are still relatively new to MMOs and don't know what bots are. And those who think literally anything not 100% vanilla is botting.

I know, I might get flak from others for voicing my concern on this. I just feel its getting out of control with more people making accounts to do Idling Cloning for self interest than for a better reason. But, I think Devs and the GMs should take a look at this minor issue. As it effects game play and the community.

I will agree that AFK idling is an issue. But I'm not seeing multi-boxxers being a large part of that issue. On Siren, in Limsa, it's normal to see 20-40 (sometimes more) people just standing around doing nothing at literally ALL hours of the day/night. None of them are multi-boxxers that I've noticed
By and large, I'm just not seeing multi-boxxing as an issue. Especially not for four of the five reasons listed here.

[Yshtola]

Imagine being the OP.

[Axxion]

I know exactly you are talking about. I like them. They are very interesting

[Fhaerron]

I don't really see the issue?

It's super easy to ignore people and if they send you annoying tells you can always blacklist and report them.

[AleXwern]

These players you talk about are such a small fraction of playerbase that I don't know how many zeroes to put between point and one in the percentage. Them not existing doesn't have any kind of noticeable difference in performance of servers/clients.

[SweetestLily]

You're causing your own misery at this point. Please don't be a Karen.

[Rasseru]

I don't really see the issue?

It's super easy to ignore people and if they send you annoying tells you can always blacklist and report them.

Yes, any person would normaly do this. But, if they become a presence in a world for so long... it hard to ignore them. Also, if reporting something that hasn't really broken any rules. The GM might not find it a immediate concern to take action.

These players you talk about are such a small fraction of playerbase that I don't know how many zeroes to put between point and one in the percentage. Them not existing doesn't have any kind of noticeable difference in performance of servers/clients.

My concern that this percentage is growing in some worlds. You might see more than 20 in area like a town or spread out acting as a "spying network" at every aetheryte in ARR. Most of them are stuck in ARR zones because most only purchased that version of the game. I don't find a single non-clones a issue than the ones that are hordes of them. But, they are benefiting Sqaure-enix in sales.