Over the last few years, Final Fantasy XIV became infamous for the bots that appeared in every zone. The bots would have “Money For Gil” ads. Gamers usually got them to stop popping up by setting their statuses to busy. While the new patch wouldn’t stop the “Money For Gil” ads altogether, it will allow for players to report the bots more easily.
Before the patch, there were two ways of getting rid the “Money For Gil” ads. One way was to block them, but in an article on Kotaku Cecilia D’Anastasio describes the process as:
like playing whack-a-mole, if only the moles were infinitely-spawning fly larvae.
The other method to get rid of the “Money For Gil” ads was having players go online to fill out a “bug report” form or to the Final Fantasy XIV forums, which D’Anastasio said was “clunky as hell.”
The upcoming patch “Patch 3.4” would allow players to report the “Money for Gil” ads in Final Fantasy XIV’s chat log box, but messages would have to blocked on a case-by-case basis. In their “Patch 3.4” notes, Square Enix said that:
Any reports sent using this function will be processed automatically. When it is confirmed the reported player is sending [real money transfer] messages, their ability to speak with other players will be restricted.
While this may sound all well and good to millions of Final Fantasy XIV players, players are going to have to be wary of whom they are blocking. With such a large number of players, there are bound to trolls playing the game as well. If a player just doesn’t like another player for what ever reason, the patch also allows them to block those players just as easily. To combat the “block happy” players, there will be real people going through the complaints. They may take note that player is blocking a lot of players. Violators may be sent to the “GM Jail,” a place where Game Masters send players who they have seen breaking the rules.