Has Square Enix given up on countering RMT and botting?

[DigbyCaesar]

If I have to go out of my way to look for bots then maybe, the situation is not that bad? I have done a lot of gathering before EW (haven't done much recently), and I never saw anything out of the ordinary. My friend who has been gathering and crafting a lot recently also hasn't noticed anything unusual. He still gathers, crafts stuff, and sells on the market every day without a hitch. Maybe our experiences are just different?

Again, I'm not saying bots don't exist, or they're not a problem. But considering that neither I nor people I know could perceive this "destroyed" economy in any significant way, I just don't think bots are THAT big of a problem. Could SE do a better job handling bots? Sure. But if the majority of players remain unaffected, the issue will remain low on the priority list.

"If I have to look for cockroaches then they probably aren't there."

They aren't going to tell you that they're bots.

[Padudu]

If I have to go out of my way to look for bots then maybe, the situation is not that bad? I have done a lot of gathering before EW (haven't done much recently), and I never saw anything out of the ordinary. My friend who has been gathering and crafting a lot recently also hasn't noticed anything unusual. He still gathers, crafts stuff, and sells on the market every day without a hitch. Maybe our experiences are just different?

Again, I'm not saying bots don't exist, or they're not a problem. But considering that neither I nor people I know could perceive this "destroyed" economy in any significant way, I just don't think bots are THAT big of a problem. Could SE do a better job handling bots? Sure. But if the majority of players remain unaffected, the issue will remain low on the priority list.

Like the poster said above you, most bots are prevalent at gathering nodes/Gridania/maps. Heck I've seen people literally use bots to hold bard concerts at the golden saucer from time to time, so not as uncommon as you might think. If you want a good population of bots, Eureka and the bunny fates. There's always just a large group of bots constantly doing bunnies over and over, it's easy to see after a while. They absolutely do tank items prices though, I'd say anything in Diadem/ARR crafted items are most susceptible to that

[Mandudez]

Normal GMs in XI had a lot more power.
I don't know why they're essentially bookkeepers in XIV.

It's honestly an insult to the player base when most of them probably think they are reporting in game issues to an actual GAME Master rather than someone who may have never even played the game once in their life. Well they used to at least. I haven't gotten a single /tell reply back from any "GM" on any reported issue since EW.

[Raoabolic]

It's honestly an insult to the player base when most of them probably think they are reporting in game issues to an actual GAME Master rather than someone who may have never even played the game once in their life. Well they used to at least. I haven't gotten a single /tell reply back from any "GM" on any reported issue since EW.

I wish I was that lucky, the only GM contact I had was horrible to the point I wish they just ignored my ticket rather than yank me around. Oh well, outside of localization issues, the NA/EU doesn't have too much say on the direction of the game itself.

[KageTokage]

Something I've been wondering about is if the bots presently in use have any ban evasion measures implemented because in some other MMOs they'll do things like immediately cease actions specifically when they get tells from GMs or detect them nearby, or in more extreme cases, DC themselves. While the GMs can make themselves invisible, it doesn't work on the bots who are reading data directly from the game client as opposed to actually "seeing" anything.

That would potentially throw a huge wrench in getting anyone banned with how difficult it is to communicate with the enforcement teams as is.

[DigbyCaesar]

Something I've been wondering about is if the bots presently in use have any ban evasion measures implemented because in some other MMOs they'll do things like immediately cease actions specifically when they get tells from GMs or detect them nearby, or in more extreme cases, DC themselves. While the GMs can make themselves invisible, it doesn't work on the bots who are reading data directly from the game client as opposed to actually "seeing" anything.

That would potentially throw a huge wrench in getting anyone banned with how difficult it is to communicate with the enforcement teams as is.

Honestly, I hope that's the case, because that's the closest believable explanation as to why bots aren't being dealt with.

But I don't think that would entirely check out, they probably do have something to assist with evading bans, but GMs have other ways to contact players. The support desk being the usual go-to, but more importantly, when a GM wants to speak to a player for breaking some rules, they take them to the fabled GM prison.

And they also have other methods (or should have other methods) to track player activity in certain circumstances. Such as having logs of items obtained, logs of transactions made, and heck, a log of that single user's uptime (like being fully active for about 2,000 hours without a minute's rest).

If our reports are being seen by SE, then either SE are knowingly choosing ignorance for profit, or maybe whoever's in charge of that department is choosing negligence due to complacency. One way or the other, our reports are clearly going nowhere. That doesn't mean don't report players though, even if no one reads it, that's what they suggest, so we do it. And that's also why we're here in the forums, because this is the only place we can tell them that they're doing something wrong.

[Ironthorne]

"If I have to look for cockroaches then they probably aren't there."

They aren't going to tell you that they're bots.

I saw this reply coming a mile away

Never said that this game doesn't have bots

Again, I'm not saying bots don't exist, or they're not a problem.

But apparently, you'd prefer trying to sound clever than actually engaging in good faith discussion. I know you have the best intentions in mind, but good luck convincing anyone with that approach.
Like I said, this doesn't affect me in any way, so I'll just leave the fight to you. Good luck, sincerely.

[KageTokage]

Just standing around by the ephemeral nodes will readily out who is/isn't botting strictly due to their awkward movement patterns; particularly how they mount up and take flight before moving to the next node.

You also can often guess at who is/isn't a bot by simply glancing at the level-capped gatherers/crafters in player search and taking note of the ones that have only one DoW/M job at 90 with none of the others touched at all.

[Jijifli]

Just standing around by the ephemeral nodes will readily out who is/isn't botting strictly due to their awkward movement patterns; particularly how they mount up and take flight before moving to the next node.

You also can often guess at who is/isn't a bot by simply glancing at the level-capped gatherers/crafters in player search and taking note of the ones that have only one DoW/M job at 90 with none of the others touched at all.

Or the fact their flights are always pixel perfect. Not in getting there, but the path it ends up taking. It's terrifyingly consistent, which is hilarious, because people aren't going to be that pixel perfect when doing something like gathering.

Don't forget how a huge chunk of them are incapable of handling, *Checks notes* A single trade window and completely freeze. And before someone says it, no one single in general trade isn't a ToS violation. However, it's certainly strange when one will gather for hours on end, suddenly get a window, and just freeze for however long you choose to keep the window open. Of course the second you do drop it, they're right back to work, which makes it clear what code it's trying to pull.

[KageTokage]

If I had any experience of recording/clipping footage, I'd probably make a short looping GIF of the awkward mounting/flight sequence literally every type of bot uses since it's most easily observable quirk they have vs. normal players.