Reddit as always has been a resonance chamber of dissent when it comes to botting and RMT. Almost daily new threads appear about people who spotted bots or reported bots. Heated discussions take place in these Reddit threads about what is supposed to be done about it. You have people claiming that you should do nothing, not even reporting them. You have a group figuring out who they are and where they reside within New Eden to report and kill them and you have many people in between. Some blame CCP games for not taking action for monetary reasons. Some say CCP lacks the resources to actively combat them. And more likely than not, there are people on there that are botters or work for botters trying to derail and obfuscate the discussion.
The fact of the matter is that botting and RMT are detrimental to the game. And players defending botting or RMT should be ashamed of themselves. Also, this constant negativity towards CCP is also detrimental to the community and brings nothing of value to the discussion. If you are not going to be part of the solution then be quiet and do not derail honest discussions about the subject.
In one of the threads today I spotted a comment from CCP Peligro, I will link it here https://www.reddit.com/r/Eve/comments/aiot32/New_corp_for_banned_bot_runners/eepmrlt/?utm_source=reddit-android
And this part stood out to me the most;
“I’m not happy to see the constant negative feedback coming from our community, but i am happy that you are voicing your concerns, and i urge you to keep that up. change will come. down w/ the bots. ”
This specific developer is responsible for tracking down illicit activity in EVE revolving around RMT. And he is totally right the negativity brings nothing to the table. Either you support CCP or you do not. All they ask is for you to click a report button if you suspect someone is breaking the rules. Yes, it takes time for them to act on it. And I suspect that the more often A single entity gets reported they get priority. We have no way of knowing how CCP prioritizes the reports. And they cannot make that public because it would benefit bothers greatly.
In my previous article, about botting, I said I wished CCP would communicate the numbers more openly and luckily enough they did. And I stand by my reasoning why. If CCP keeps the players informed and makes the changes visible then the community will follow and be more willing to help. You btw can find the latest dev blog on this subject here.
https://www.eveonline.com/article/pljaph/new-year-security-update
We as players are limited in how we can combat RMT and Botters. But the main thing we can do is condemn players who participate in it. The second thing we can do is keep reporting it. We are not CCP Games personal police force but if we want a healthy game clicking a button should be no big deal.
CCP show us your hard work and we will work with you.
Fly Dangerous o7
