Has Square Enix given up on countering RMT and botting?

[Skiros]

Lost Ark has a severe RMT spam issue and lo and behold:



I wonder when we can see the same in FF14? Are the developers even aware of all the undercutting bots and long-time crafting and gathering bots that exist right now in NA and EU? Or have they completely given up?

https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...Market-botting

The fact that we can have a 64-page thread on market undercut botting all the way from 2020 (and believe me it was a thing prior to 2020 already. The problem has started since at least late HW), and yet there has been zero progress and zero developer feedback either indicates that Square Enix has completely given up on this issue or they're not even aware of it.

And what about people speedhacking in Feast? And of people hacking the GCD in Savage fights? Of people using bots to do their rotations for them in Savage?

Why has there been not a single word from the developers that they're even AWARE of this issue?

I can't believe Lost Ark has a better response to RMT and botting than FF14! It's time to take this seriously, SE.

Lost Ark is banning more bots than FF14 did in an entire year LOOOL

https://forums.playlostark.com/t/inc...ot-bans/233996

[Espon]

What do you mean by no response? They post every week on the Lodestone the number of accounts that have been banned.

[Jijifli]

What do you mean by no response? They post every week on the Lodestone the number of accounts that have been banned.

Which are the ones teleporting under the ground with likely stolen (thereby chargebacked) money, yes?

Remember, bots are marked separately from rmt too. They even mention it on their report. Them slapping the lowest of low hanging fruit isn't much. I'm sure anybody just playing the game could catch those obvious ones, even a brand new player.

[Skiros]

What do you mean by no response? They post every week on the Lodestone the number of accounts that have been banned.

To anyone who actually unironically believes in this:

The weekly RMT ban announcements target the lowest hanging fruits. These are the bots that advertise Gil in the main cities, and teleporting bots that rush the ARR MSQ.

Actual endgame RMT bots and bots in general are hardly targeted. Read the thread linked in OP to see how disruptive undercutting bots are. These undercutting bots, many of which serve as vehicles for RMT, are banned at an extremely low rate, so much so that some of them have lasted years and are still undercut botting on the market board.

The very fact that there is a 64-page thread over years in a FRINGE subforum indicates that this is an ongoing and serious issue with the game.

And Square Enix has not fixed this issue, nor have they even ever talked about the existence of undercut botting.

Unless it’s your level 1 GLA/ARC/MRD bots named Aalsdkjflaj Galskdjfalskjdf sitting in Ul’dah/Gridania/Limsa, then the answer is no. People have been reporting things like Market Board undercutting bots and crafting/gathering bots for years, and a lot of them are still around happily botting away.

That is just ONE issue of many that relate to RMT and botting. Many other issues have never ever been mentioned by the developer team, like speedhacking.

[SieyaM]

This doesn't really say much of anything though. They claim bots don't last longer than 10 minutes in game, but if that's true then why restrict the chat so much? I haven't seen RMT advertising in area chat myself but I suppose it is a problem elsewhere if people are complaining about it. As for botting in Savage, I have never heard of it before now so if it is a thing no one is complaining about it enough outside of very tight raiding circles.

[KageTokage]

I've noticed considerably less of the ARR gil farmers, but whether that's due to them moving onto more "sustainable" methods of farming or actual improvements in their enforcement is anyone's guess.

The fact that they had apparently found some kind of long-standing exploit with NPC vendors in some ARR zones/cities that mandated an emergency maintenance a few weeks ago speaks a lot for how diligent they are about finding new methods to abuse for gil, though...

What do you mean by no response? They post every week on the Lodestone the number of accounts that have been banned.

Yeah, then those accounts are replaced nigh instantaneously. There's a difference between a response and a meaningful response, as simply banning every mass-produced, easily detected bot that pops up without taking measures to prevent them from earning/transferring their gil accomplishes nothing as they're still managing to fulfill their purpose before any action is taken.

If they want to actually hurt them, they need to be banned immediately, as a full week between ban waves is more then enough time for them to farm up a substantial amount of gil then either sell it or transfer it elsewhere.

Them slapping the lowest of low hanging fruit isn't much. I'm sure anybody just playing the game could catch those obvious ones, even a brand new player.

The thing that bugs me is that even the "advanced" bots that farm EW materials or treasure maps are still painfully obvious but the enforcement teams either haven't learned how to recognize their extremely systematic behavior or they're not even using certain factors like movement patterns as a reference point in determining which accounts are suspicious and worthy of investigation.

[Absimiliard]

How is it that people keep taking these bait posts?

[CrayonsAndPaint]

BroJobs, the god of trolls.

[Skiros]

BroJobs, the god of trolls.

Not trolling! I was just surprised Lost Ark is even putting effort into banning RMT bots! I've played FF14 for so long I never expected any MMO dev to care about banning bots anymore! Then I thought - hey, why *is* it surprising that Lost Ark is banning these bots and communicating with its players on what steps they are going to take?

Guess I've been too numb to the inaction and the general laissez-faire attitude to this problem among the playerbase these days!

It is refreshing to have a game that at least pretends it gives a damn about the botting! And the fact that the average bot lasts 10 mins in LA when endgame bots last for years in FF14 (which as you probably know I am intimately familiar with) is just sad!

[DPZ2]

Not trolling! I was just surprised Lost Ark is even putting effort into banning RMT bots!

Lost Ark depends on selling players the materials to succeed in future gearing attempts. Why would they not shut down a competitor to their source of income?