There should be an easier way to report bots

[MarshallCross]

I contacted the customer service to report a bot, and while the customer service is always nice, it's unfortunately useless to contact them directly, because I am always being referred to the website where I have to type and report everything there. To be honest, nobody in the game will bother to invest over 10 minutes for each bot because there are tons of bots. Especially when I'm playing on PS, I'm supposed to drop everything and visit a website to report a single bot. They should definitely include a function with which you can automatically report a bot with a right click on the character, just like RMT in chats with a right click on the name - 99% of the players will not put more effort than that into reporting and thanks to this function, all players would be the game's watchdogs. It would really be nice if the community could help with decreasing the number of bots, and maybe a small reward would also encourage players to participate in reporting (e.g. 2000 gil per bot). The bot problem could be decimated very quickly, because they are always in the same places (mostly in ARR areas).

[Neoyoshi]

I contacted the customer service to report a bot, and while the customer service is always nice, it's unfortunately useless to contact them directly, because I am always being referred to the website where I have to type and report everything there. To be honest, nobody in the game will bother to invest over 10 minutes for each bot because there are tons of bots. Especially when I'm playing on PS, I'm supposed to drop everything and visit a website to report a single bot. They should definitely include a function with which you can automatically report a bot with a right click on the character, just like RMT in chats with a right click on the name - 99% of the players will not put more effort than that into reporting and thanks to this function, all players would be the game's watchdogs. It would really be nice if the community could help with decreasing the number of bots, and maybe a small reward would also encourage players to participate in reporting (e.g. 2000 gil per bot). The bot problem could be decimated very quickly, because they are always in the same places (mostly in ARR areas).

There is absolutely no chance in the twelve that an in-game bot reporting system would be abused by other players; players would never just mindlessly report every player they come across- flooding the system, making it incredibly difficult for actual human beings on the SE staff to spot check each and every report that comes through.

People here are way more responsible then to abuse a system like that.

Right guys?... RIGHT?


Sorry, on a serious note; i don't trust the userbase here with a system like that- i don't mean to dismiss or shut down the idea, it's just....
..I don't trust people to be that responsible, in any MMOERPG environment- but that's just me, I have no idea what SE thinks about this topic.

I've seen this type of system abused a number of times before in other MMORPG games in the past.

The current system to me; personally- feels like the best middle ground that exists, until something better comes along to replace said system.

EDIT:One more thing about the system, and the idea of "players being watchdogs". We have a RMT chat reporting function because the player can prove that; a goldseller's weblink is about as definitive of a report of a player breaking the ToS as one can get, so that's very easy for players to circumvent and for the staff to check, because it's a chat log.

Bots on the other hand are a completely different story, because players cannot prove that a bot is an actual bot, it's just not possible. Yes there are things a player will pick up from what suspected gathering bots look like, we've all seen what those habits tend to look like, and our eyes and common-sense will tell us we are looking at something that is automated (a bot), but can we prove it? Sadly no we can't.

That's why i believe the reporting system exists the way it does, the team that handles this stuff likely needs more then a players name and someone accusing them of botting; they need a substantive reason to open up a case against a player for botting; that's would be why (i believe) the format of bot reporting does take more effort.

[Jojoya]

There is absolutely no chance in the twelve that an in-game bot reporting system would be abused by other players; players would never just mindlessly report every player they come across- flooding the system, making it incredibly difficult for actual human beings on the SE staff to spot check each and every report that comes through.

You mean just like players do with the RMT advertising report system? Except they don't because there's penalties for misusing the system.

A right-click reporting system for botting and other illicit activity could have the same penalty for misuse.

The game definitely could use an improved right-click interface for reporting in general. Right now it's open System Menu, open Support Desk, open Contact Us, open Report Harassment/Cheating then manually have to type in the player's name/world (which someone could do incorrectly by accident). It would be much easier if we could go directly to Report Harassment/Cheating via right click so the information like player name/world, date/time, location, etc. would automatically get added to the report and we only had to fill in the description.

[ReynTime]

It wouldn't matter.
They're not going to do anything effective against the bots that aren't charged back.

In some servers you can identify and see the same gathering/crafting bots that have been reported for over a year. The issue isn't reporting them. It's SE not wanting to do anything.

[Ayuhra]

There is absolutely no chance in the twelve that an in-game bot reporting system would be abused by other players; players would never just mindlessly report every player they come across- flooding the system, making it incredibly difficult for actual human beings on the SE staff to spot check each and every report that comes through.

People here are way more responsible then to abuse a system like that.

Right guys?... RIGHT?

TBF in WoW you pretty much just right click a player and it brings up a window with that character's name (I think? I know you don't need to type the name out) and you just write a quick description of the botting behavior. So the sort of thing OP is requesting has been in WoW since forever.

[LaylaTsarra]

I have a full coffer set of msqand side quest gear on this alt. I haven't gotten around to sell any of it because I don't spend a lot of time on my home server and the undercut bots these days are pretty bad. If you aren't able to adjust prices frequently you simply won't sell stuff. It never used to be that way but things have changed for the worse.

[DrWho2010]

since a lot of bots operate under the map they should just make anything under the ground a lethal deathzone.

[KageTokage]

since a lot of bots operate under the map they should just make anything under the ground a lethal deathzone.

The funny thing is they already installed a "no's man land" down there where if you touch it, the game automatically boots you back to the nearest aetheryte, so they could feasibly just extend the radius of said zone so that any degree of out of bounds movement would be effectively shut down.

[Neoyoshi]

Oh geezz, I often forget what these things look like when I let years go by without looking at them. 255 characters does seem, well... doesn't feel very word-y. D:




I do also agree with the need for an easier why to get from pointA (targeting said player) to pointB (the reporting interface).

Reading some of the replies and thinking about this has reminded me of when I was heavily on my own mission in reporting gathering bots during the ARR days, and
then again during the stormblood launch; where I recorded video sessions of the bot activities instead- but it got really draining very quickly.

I don't know what the right or correct answer to any of this is, all I can hope is there are smart people out there coming up with better mousetraps.