How hard is it to ban the chat /shout spammers in game?

[Wigett]

So , my blist is so full, and the spam u get when entering a city, is boarderline funny.. but its really not funny..

I wish they would have a way to click on the name and insta-ignore/ban/report with a screen shot of RMT spamming in /shout /yell . for now, i have done what contless others have done. had to take /shout /yell off my chat. its just silly u cant catch/fix this. with all the watching u do and banning of people for all kinds of stuff.. u cant have an automated process check the chat logs in citys. and ban them when they advertise RMT...

please fix this. its really annoying.

[RunsWscissors]

not only that u cant even blacklist the spammers coz the chat window wont stay put long enough for u to figure out their gadlgadgaldkgasjdg;adgagl;askdjgal;sdkj a;sldkgjasl;dgjasl;dkgjasl;kdjga name. Christ fix this man it cant be that hard to code chat throttling I mean EVERY other game has done it.

[KraggyKor]

It's easy if you're prepared to put staff on the job .. the results seem to show SE's concern.

There is supposed to be a throttling mechanic, SE said so, but it's trivially defeated by the spammers (the random characters they change at the end of every message) it's worthless, much like SE's entire anti-RMT effort it seems.

[Corrderio]

I've been wondering this and why they haven't made an effective spam system.

[Pugmalion1]

not only that u cant even blacklist the spammers coz the chat window wont stay put long enough for u to figure out their gadlgadgaldkgasjdg;adgagl;askdjgal;sdkj a;sldkgjasl;dgjasl;dkgjasl;kdjga name. Christ fix this man it cant be that hard to code chat throttling I mean EVERY other game has done it.

I play on PS3, so I can't speak for the PC interface (though I imagine it's even easier), but blacklisting those spammers is really easy, even when they are clogging up the chat window with ads. You just press select to get to the chat window, then up on the d-pad. It will auto-highlight the last name to say something. You then press square and select the /tell option. It will put the /tell dialogue in the chat window below along with the spammer's name, like this: /tell Annoying Spammer.

Just change that dialogue to this: /blist add "Annoying Spammer". Then, submit. It's not as easy as it should be, of course, but it works. I have a keyboard hooked up to my console, so it makes life easier, especially when it comes to then reporting the spammers. I can just copy the spammer's name and paste it into the cheating report ticket.

[Istym]

It's easy if you're prepared to put staff on the job .. the results seem to show SE's concern.

There is supposed to be a throttling mechanic, SE said so, but it's trivially defeated by the spammers (the random characters they change at the end of every message) it's worthless, much like SE's entire anti-RMT effort it seems.

Hit the nail on the head. A premium MMO title requires premium resources and support, however, from the look of things its quite apparent the bean counters at Square Enix have decided to run Final Fantasy ARR on a shoestring budget. Doesn't look good for the future tbh.

[reaver_angels]

Hey I use the ''shout'' for recuiting people into my -free company-. Your article explains:-

How hard is it to ban the chat /shout spammers in game?



You should explain more in detail about what type of people you're addressing the chat/shout spammers to/about.

[Bahd_Monkey]

You should explain more in detail about what type of people you're addressing the chat/shout spammers to/about.

OP did. He and everyone else is talking about the nonstop spam from RMT, i.e. people advertising websites that offer to sell gil for real cash.

[Wigett]

Yes, im not talking about ppl recruting for runs, its the RMT spammers.. for some reason, i dont think it takes a ton of resources. im in IT, u can have a simple program that scans the chat logs every 20 min, which u know they keep the logs, then look for key words. thats not to hard. have that list sent to , a real person. to do a quick review to ensure honest people dont get banned. then have that person select those to ban... 1st make it a 24hr. if its not a RMT they will call and dispute, and once your service dept. looks at the complete log, they can determine if a re-instatement needs to happen or. perm.ban. cause they are gold spammers.. not sure, they guys can make an MMO, i know this is like "cake coding" to them. . it seems they are really not concerned
or they would be addressing it more. just seems silly to me that their is so much of it.. it can be frustrating.. at times.

[Lhun]

Honestly, I think SE is waiting for the first month subscriptions to kick in for new accounts. And, to be honest, I don't blame them. If you could get millions of dollars from RMT spammers, who are violating your TOS, and THEN immediately ban their accounts, it would be good for SE and the future of the game. I would think it would be bad business practice to not take the money from their hands - ESPECIALLY since they are profiting from something you spent tens of millions to create. I see the gil selling spam and I laugh, because I just ignore it, I'm never going to buy it, or pay attention to it, and I smile because it's basically a free sale from SE, and potentially millions and millions more once they pay their subs and immediately get banned.

Gil-Sellers do get banned by SE. Se's "Special Task Force" is a very, very active and serious thing. They've already banned about 1000 accounts. In FFXI, chinese gold farmers/sellers got banned so hard to the point where they simply vanished and stopped being visible and annoying. I'm sure SE made a tidy profit off them too.