An Open Letter: Dear SE, you and current RMT/bot issues

[Kes13a]

Dear SE

You have a problem, and it will not diminish by following the well worn path you are currently on. As proven time and again, you can ban thousands of bots and they just return. Now, I am not going to say, work harder at that, I am not even going to say give up on it. But I am going to say, you need a different approach because the bots simply will not give up.

As crime shows say... follow the money, or in this case, the gil.

Bots exist for one reason if you were not aware, and that reason is to generate gil to sell to players. I doubt this is news to you.

What you need to start doing , is to inconvenience the buyers. 3 day vacation for first time offenders, maybe a week for the second and the third time, gone. Perma ban.

This is something that can be, if not already, tracked on YOUR end, there is no need for client side code or spyware. This is you, you having code which I am sure already exists on your side of the software. If someone suddenly gains a lot of gil, it should set off a flag for a GM to look at. Lets face it, no one in their right mind spends 5 million gil (or more) on a level 30 item when every other listing is for 1500.

Penalizing the buyers works, I know. Years ago they used to do this in games, and it is a deterrent if you enforce it. You already say its against the ToS.. so enforce it. No one is going to want to lose their in game progress buying gil. So, go after the buyers, once that gets around, and that it is enforced, with a potential perma ban at the end, the market will dry up and the bots will decrease.

There is no downside to this for you. You are enforcing the ToS, you are fighting the bots, and in the end, its a win for you and your reputation, and for the players. You also do not have to add any clientside code that people will complain about, this is all something you can track in your database.

If you do see this, or get this approach, I think it will go a long way to combating a pervasive online gaming problem. Thank you for your time.

[KageTokage]

I think their main problem is that they seem unwilling to ban people unless they can be 100% positive there's some kind of illicit activity going on, which is why the content selling ads get a free pass but the gil spammers in the capital cities get purged routinely.

They are also seemingly unwilling to draw lines and connect the offenders with their clients/associates because while I've already reported multiple floor bots that were spam mailing maps to map farmers and subsequently gotten them banned, the map farmers themselves remain untouched.

[ICountFrom0]

True, because you COULD make a bunch of map farming underground bots, and then mail them all to one person, to get that person banned, if that was how it worked.

[KageTokage]

True, because you COULD make a bunch of map farming underground bots, and then mail them all to one person, to get that person banned, if that was how it worked.

There's a reason why you need to have someone on your friend list to mail them stuff.

Incidentally, that used to be one of the ways the RMTers conducted transactions but SE started cracking down on it due to how obvious it was.

Using the market board for transactions leaves a layer of ambiguity that seems to be deterring them from taking action against it.

[Kes13a]

There's a reason why you need to have someone on your friend list to mail them stuff.

Incidentally, that used to be one of the ways the RMTers conducted transactions but SE started cracking down on it due to how obvious it was.

Using the market board for transactions leaves a layer of ambiguity that seems to be deterring them from taking action against it.

not sure how "ambiguous" it is to sell a level 20-30 item for 5 to 10 million gil and some "random" decides they have too much gil and will buy it when there are many cheaper alternatives. all I know is whatever system they are trying to use is not working, and the only way to do it, is go after the gil transfer mechanism and the end buyers of the product to have any effect.

[ICountFrom0]

There's a reason why you need to have someone on your friend list to mail them stuff.

Incidentally, that used to be one of the ways the RMTers conducted transactions but SE started cracking down on it due to how obvious it was.

Using the market board for transactions leaves a layer of ambiguity that seems to be deterring them from taking action against it.

Sure, but that just means a person has to be stupid enough to accept a friend request, that shouldn't be grounds to be deleted.

[KageTokage]

I'm not saying that they should just automatically ban anyone who seems to have a connection to a confirmed bot, because that would be idiotic.

It should, however, be grounds for an additional investigation and weighted against the suspect player(s)...which is clearly not the case because I've reported all of the map farmers on my server and not one of them has been removed yet despite them routinely getting aid from other bots that are blatantly hacking and are getting banned.

There is something fundamentally wrong with how they're investigating reports for the number of bans to be as low as it is.

[Seyoun]

All of you are still fighting the good fight? God bless your souls. I received the "long-time player" survey from SE today and it made me think of you guys. Filled it out with commentary about the botting and MB situation that I hope won't fall on deaf ears (Yeah, I laughed out loud too when I said that) but as they say: previous behaviour predicts future behaviour - so I'm not betting the chicken farm on that.

Ah, I miss the days of being in MB wars nearly all day every day then having to go out gathering because my mats were running low and I like to keep my costs down, only to see a rival out there, and the situation quickly escalating into who's able to finish gathering materials first and leave to start crafting while the other is still out there sweating about being undercut. Popping sprint, doing button mash and timing tricks to dismount and start gathering at nearly the same moment, canceling the start-gathering animation at normal nodes while doing ephemerals to move between them faster and get a pop, and using other techniques as "weapons". LOL! Player search camping and rushing back to check the MB to update prices when the campee appears in town (I was accused of botting by so many times for "magically" knowing when they updated their prices.)

Sigh. Man, I miss you guys. FFXIV was my GAME. If SE fixes this problem, you bet your sweet bippy I'm gonna be back. Anyway, keep your spirits up! Have a good weekend. Bye! o/

[Kes13a]

All of you are still fighting the good fight? God bless your souls. I received the "long-time player" survey from SE today and it made me think of you guys. Filled it out with commentary about the botting and MB situation that I hope won't fall on deaf ears (Yeah, I laughed out loud too when I said that) but as they say: previous behaviour predicts future behaviour - so I'm not betting the chicken farm on that.

Ah, I miss the days of being in MB wars nearly all day every day then having to go out gathering because my mats were running low and I like to keep my costs down, only to see a rival out there, and the situation quickly escalating into who's able to finish gathering materials first and leave to start crafting while the other is still out there sweating about being undercut. Popping sprint, doing button mash and timing tricks to dismount and start gathering at nearly the same moment, canceling the start-gathering animation at normal nodes while doing ephemerals to move between them faster and get a pop, and using other techniques as "weapons". LOL! Player search camping and rushing back to check the MB to update prices when the campee appears in town (I was accused of botting by so many times for "magically" knowing when they updated their prices.)

Sigh. Man, I miss you guys. FFXIV was my GAME. If SE fixes this problem, you bet your sweet bippy I'm gonna be back. Anyway, keep your spirits up! Have a good weekend. Bye! o/

in all fairness, I have not been doing any MB for months, and a lot happier about that too. but it is sad when a sizable portion of dev created material is basically useless, but I guess SE doesnt see it that way. I mean the bots use it still right?

always welcome back on Zalera any time Seyoun, MB pvp against real people is always best lol

[Liam_Harper]

What you need to start doing , is to inconvenience the buyers. 3 day vacation for first time offenders, maybe a week for the second and the third time, gone. Perma ban.

Honestly this is far too lenient. If they made it official that there were 2 safety nets, players would probably RMT even more.

It should be an instant perma-ban for the first time, with an official warning to ensure players are aware of it. This isn't something you can do accidentally, you make a clear choice to break ToS. There's no reason to give second chances.