Final Fantasy XIV has terminated over 30,000 accounts of gold sellers and botters in July. The number of bans has steadily increased in recent months.
What is happening in FFXIV right now? Square Enix is swinging the ban hammer again. About 33,500 accounts were permanently banned in Final Fantasy XIV last month. These are mainly accounts of the so-called “Real Money Traders” (RMTs) or gold sellers, who farm and illegally sell in-game currency through mass bot usage.
The waves of bans usually come at weekly intervals. One can observe a significant increase in bans based on the announcements from Square Enix on the official FFXIV site in recent months.
Why are there more gold sellers now? The increased interest of botters and gold sellers in Final Fantasy XIV is likely related to the release of the new expansion Shadowbringers, which has proven to be popular. More new players mean more potential customers for the gold sellers.
The number of banned accounts rose shortly before and after the release of the addon. In June, about 32,000 additional accounts were banned due to RMT activities, while in April it was approximately 20,000, and in January about 17,000.
How to recognize bots in FFXIV? In the game, you can often observe gold seller bots in the wild, particularly in starting areas. They are very easy to recognize:
- Their names consist of randomly thrown together letters
- They all look the same and are always in a group
- They use third-party tools to teleport underground in the area
Some new players on Reddit report that they could not complete their quests because of the bots. The bot characters would immediately attack and kill their quest monsters.
Botters and gold sellers are a problem that pretty much every MMORPG has to deal with, such as MapleStory 2 or Star Wars The Old Republic. Final Fantasy XIV is unfortunately no exception.
