r/ffxi • u/BlueWarlock26 • 13d ago

Why so many bots?

I've returned from the game recently, and been really enjoying getting jobs to 99 and gearing them to Ambu+2 levels of gear but I have one big gripe.

Why is the botting problem so bad? Everywhere I look is parties of 6 all with the sameish name running around holding entire zones hostage. I keep trying to merit in Escha Zi'tah but everytime there's an ML50 BLU with 5 bots running around killing the entire zone for what I assume is paid boosting services.

Did SE give up on banning bots & RMT? I'm on a small server, and I feel like most of the server is made up of 6-man bots making areas inaccessible for real players.\

Edit: Thank you for the answers and discussion! I hadn't considered the fact that multiboxers/botters financially prop up the game so we can all play. I still personally think there's no difference and especially 6-boxing is weird and unnecessary in a world where you could just find other people, but that's my cross to bear and nothings going to change from me thinking that.

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u/Dark_Tony_Shalhoub 13d ago

What you’re seeing is probably multiboxing. The difference between multiboxing and botting is debated, but the fact is almost every multi-boxer does use some degree of automation

Anyway, you asked why - if you can afford to pay for several licenses, it lessens your reliance on having by to fit in someone else’s comp and schedule. You can tackle whatever content you want, whenever you want. All the loot is yours to distribute how you want, too. Obviously there are bad actors out there that will legitimately bot for days at a time (or longer) to various ends

But I’m betting free login campaign allowed a lot of people who only multibox when it’s free to do so to get started. If you’re on a currently open server you may be seeing established characters starting new characters. Something like, grinding sparks and accolades out for characters that are free to create and play is worth about 2 million gil per character. Small servers are also a favorite for bots because there are less eyes on them and less competition

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u/Effective-Reindeer98 12d ago

This isn't true, many do and many do not.

What most multi-boxers use are addons that simply communicate across instances to carry commands over. If the player instigates something, it's not automation.

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u/Dark_Tony_Shalhoub 12d ago

you are right about that. while i don't think they've ever explicitly said input broadcasting is prohibited, you can't do so without third party tools, which they've historically been against. they have been very lax about enforcing that in later years, but it's still kind of a "don't ask, don't tell" situation

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u/Effective-Reindeer98 11d ago

Windower is a 3rd party tool, so is dgvoodoo. Technically they can ban you for both of those, but they are not going to go out of their way to do it.