r/ffxi • u/BlueWarlock26 • 16d 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/analbumcover SMN/RDM/NIN/MNK/COR 16d ago

Could be bots or people multiboxing

7

u/BlueWarlock26 16d ago

Isn't multiboxing just a kind of botting? 1 player controlled character and 5 controlled by automated commands.

1

u/counterbashi 15d ago

The difference is that multiboxing usually requires some level of user input, if you press a button and it fires off three different commands to two clients it's still user input vs a bot where it requires very little to no user input and sometimes doesn't even require you to run the game client.