Has Square Enix given up on countering RMT and botting?

[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.

[DigbyCaesar]

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.

Yeah, they're shockingly easy to spot.

I just recorded 2 earlier today (good old shadowplay) and decided to pile that along with how it affects the market board because some people still refuse to believe that this is doing anything (market board at the end of the vid):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZjlvL3cId4

One thing worth mentioning, the second bot was wearing fully melded gear to boost spiritbonding and farm materia.

[Jijifli]

Yeah, they're shockingly easy to spot.

I just recorded 2 earlier today (good old shadowplay) and decided to pile that along with how it affects the market board because some people still refuse to believe that this is doing anything (market board at the end of the vid):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZjlvL3cId4

One thing worth mentioning, the second bot was wearing fully melded gear to boost spiritbonding and farm materia.

I love just skipping around the video, click 3:38, and see the bot mount, take a step to centralize itself again, then completely stop, jump in place, and THEN turn to its intended route on a dime. Ya, I'm sure normal people would be moving exactly like that every time.

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.

I just want to quote myself to add: I forgot GC too. It's very rare for these gathering bots in particular to have any rank ups in their grand company at all. And while yes I'm sure someone will come over going "Actually since it's not a requirement there's plenty of player who don't" and while technically true, I would like to think someone who's committed time to the game (you know, like being logged in 24/7?) would have at least touched their grand company. Specially when it does have items to help level said gathering and in general is actually content. So why does every 'player' I see that moves like in that video also conveniently avoid that section of stuff entirely, on top of only leveling 1 thing, on top of poor trade reaction? And yet must have exactly pixel perfectly taken paths, not straight, but always perfectly consistent? That takes a ton of practice and attention, and I'd think someone that committed to pathing wouldn't be that common either.

[Skiros]

Yeah, they're shockingly easy to spot.

I just recorded 2 earlier today (good old shadowplay) and decided to pile that along with how it affects the market board because some people still refuse to believe that this is doing anything (market board at the end of the vid):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZjlvL3cId4

One thing worth mentioning, the second bot was wearing fully melded gear to boost spiritbonding and farm materia.

There's a wealth of information in the thread I linked in the OP. People have amassed evidence for years now. People have even tried to organize efforts into pressuring SE through a public awareness campaign on social media. All of it has failed.

And that's because this playerbase is too stupid to realize when it's being harmed.

[Saraide]

There's a wealth of information in the thread I linked in the OP. People have amassed evidence for years now. People have even tried to organize efforts into pressuring SE through a public awareness campaign on social media. All of it has failed.

And that's because this playerbase is too stupid to realize when it's being harmed.

Isnt part of why bots get to fly under SE's radar exactly because they dont hurt the general playerbase? Unless a majority of people crafts their own shit, low market board prices are going to help the majority of players, not harm them. The lower prices are, the easier it is to get by just by gil you get from various rewards.

[Jijifli]

Isnt part of why bots get to fly under SE's radar exactly because they dont hurt the general playerbase? Unless a majority of people crafts their own shit, low market board prices are going to help the majority of players, not harm them. The lower prices are, the easier it is to get by just by gil you get from various rewards.

Content selling didn't hurt the general playerbase either. Someone else paying for their UwU clear doesn't mean you didn't get yours, nor does it impact your gameplay. Far as I'm aware too, nobody's accounts were being compromised from these top end sellers, since that'd be very bad for them to get continued business. Despite that, they put a very clear indication eventually to not advertise your content selling, and doing so is bannable for both PF rules and RMT rules.

Abuse of glitches for an advantage never hurt any players either, and instead made clearing stuff to advance player progression easier. Never forget Ungarmax. Yet, players who abused that were getting suspended, despite the fact that nobody would be negatively impacted by it, only positively.

Just because something "doesn't hurt the general playerbase" doesn't mean that makes it suddenly okay. Both examples listed above are cases that have no actual negative impact on any players, only, potentially, possible ones. And despite that, Square puts a stance against it. The only real difference here is more bots = more subs, and having an actual stance on bots means less people will bot, which is less subs.

[Saraide]

Content selling didn't hurt the general playerbase either. Someone else paying for their UwU clear doesn't mean you didn't get yours, nor does it impact your gameplay. Far as I'm aware too, nobody's accounts were being compromised from these top end sellers, since that'd be very bad for them to get continued business. Despite that, they put a very clear indication eventually to not advertise your content selling, and doing so is bannable for both PF rules and RMT rules.

Abuse of glitches for an advantage never hurt any players either, and instead made clearing stuff to advance player progression easier. Never forget Ungarmax. Yet, players who abused that were getting suspended, despite the fact that nobody would be negatively impacted by it, only positively.

Just because something "doesn't hurt the general playerbase" doesn't mean that makes it suddenly okay. Both examples listed above are cases that have no actual negative impact on any players, only, potentially, possible ones. And despite that, Square puts a stance against it. The only real difference here is more bots = more subs, and having an actual stance on bots means less people will bot, which is less subs.

Never have I claimed it makes it ok. Going after any of those TOS breaks is always a business decision however: is the effort worth the result? That's the thing that matters for SE. Run sellers were allowed to happen until it was bad publicity, being in everyone's face for years wasnt enough on its own but I am willing to assume that it significantly helped with making it bad publicity.

[DigbyCaesar]

Isnt part of why bots get to fly under SE's radar exactly because they dont hurt the general playerbase? Unless a majority of people crafts their own shit, low market board prices are going to help the majority of players, not harm them. The lower prices are, the easier it is to get by just by gil you get from various rewards.

This is the problematic perspective people have right now.

On the surface, the result to all this botting is "we get things cheaper". But what will you get to sell then if you have bots constantly undercutting you? What happens when new players come into this game wanting to make a few mil but literally can't?

There's more pressure to resort to RMT under the circumstances that exist now, and that pressure is being put on by RMT sellers. When people buy those 5000 wind crystals for 100k that was farmed by bots, that goes directly into the pockets of an RMT seller to redistribute.

Don't get stuck on the simplicity of things, botting has cascading effects.

[Saraide]

This is the problematic perspective people have right now.

On the surface, the result to all this botting is "we get things cheaper". But what will you get to sell then if you have bots constantly undercutting you? What happens when new players come into this game wanting to make a few mil but literally can't?

There's more pressure to resort to RMT under the circumstances that exist now, and that pressure is being put on by RMT sellers. When people buy those 5000 wind crystals for 100k that was farmed by bots, that goes directly into the pockets of an RMT seller to redistribute.

Don't get stuck on the simplicity of things, botting has cascading effects.

There are two things that become much harder in a bot infested economy, getting the money to buy a house (lol) and getting the money to buy the gold mounts. It absolutely negatively affects crafters and that's why I think SE should do something about it but unless you mean to tell me that a majority of players are heavy into crafting the unfortunate reality is that more people benefit even in the long run. Making a few million gil isnt even that hard right now with our messed up ingame economy.

[DigbyCaesar]

There are two things that become much harder in a bot infested economy, getting the money to buy a house (lol) and getting the money to buy the gold mounts. It absolutely negatively affects crafters and that's why I think SE should do something about it but unless you mean to tell me that a majority of players are heavy into crafting the unfortunate reality is that more people benefit even in the long run. Making a few million gil isnt even that hard right now with our messed up ingame economy.

I'm glad I've been given an opportunity to provide a window into the predatory nature of RMT.

Yes, to most of us, we don't need to worry about gil because we have everything pretty much maxed out, we know the ins and outs of the game, it still hinders our ability to sell what we used to be able to sell, but let's put that aside for the bigger picture.

To new players (and I've seen this too many times now), they come into this game not knowing what we know, so they look and ask around and the usual answer is "level up your crafters". So they look up guides on how to level this and that, and there's one website that usually stands out, people have sent this to me on countless occasions asking me what certain things mean in the guide.

Putting their questions aside, the first instruction in EACH of their crafter guides is "Get 3-5 million gil". Wanna know what they suggest below? "Use our gil store".

WE know that you don't need that amount of money to level your crafters, but new players do not. And when they go on these sites where it says "Use our gil store" they might question it, and funnily enough there's an FAQ just for those people on that very site that says:

Is your gil really legit? Is it still against ToS?
ALL of our gil is obtained legally by members of the Gillionaire Girls and cannot be traced back to any illicit activity that breaks Square Enix’s Terms of Services.

It is still against Square’s ToS to buy or sell gil; however we maintain a very low-key operation that has never resulted in anyone being banned, reported or even contacted by Square Enix.

You can be confident that you are not buying “dirty” money from us and your account will not be associated with anything that breaks ToS.

We do not accept gil from any sources that we cannot verify as 100% legitimate, as it could damage the integrity of our business and our reputation as the only dedicated seller of legit Final Fantasy XIV gil.

If you're wondering which website I'm referring to, look up FFXIV gillionaire and see how they plaster their operation on 2/3 of every page (including their guides). People come to me thinking they are genuinely reading good advice.

Edit: 99% likely that they get their gil from the bots who sell crystals and farm maps/eureka fates etc.