Special Task Force Response

[Bwelch]

What will Square Enix be doing to combat major North American Gil-selling services such as IGE?

The Special Task Force will deal with all RMT related problems within FINAL FANTASY XI regardless of what region they occur in. While Japan is the first region to be focused on, we will be targeting major RMT sites located within the North American region and continue our efforts to do what is necessary to deal with this problem.

The recent banning of numerous accounts affected several major RMT sites that were located in the North American region. Our investigations revealed that many of the sites were related in some manner regardless of the physical region in which they were located. We are using this information to further our investigations against RMT related organizations.

What actions are going to be taken against the buyers of gil?

While we are investigating those that buy gil, we are mainly taking action against those parties selling gil at this stage. The previous mass banning (that took place in Nov of 2006) also targeted those selling gil, except in cases where certain parties bought gil in exceptionally large quantities over a long period of time. However, we are continually assessing the situation and will continue to expand our efforts.

Is it possible to make the sky god pop items ra/ex as these are one of the number one things that RMT bazaar and sell in the game?

In principle, the development team considers any valuable item dropped by a High Notorious Monster to be a Rare/Ex item. We are aware that some of these items, particularly tradable items that have average to little effect have garnered the interest of RMT parties because of their popularity. The items in question are trigger items for popping monsters. It is a necessity that they come in different types and making them Rare/Ex would severely inconvenience other players. For this reason we do not have any plans to currently change this mechanic.

However, we are aware that certain parties are attempting to hoard certain monsters from other players and the STF/GM teams are taking special measures to combat these activities.

Please attack not only the gil delivering bank accounts but also the farming and NM/HNM RMT accounts. Please trace who the bank account received the gil from and who they received the sky pop item from.

While we can’t tell you exactly what is being done, we are taking care of this issue and will take action when we confirm the relationship.

What is being done about the high level crafting RMT? Many RMT these days have multiple 100 crafts and/or use bots to get items from the guild shops.

While we can’t comment on specific investigative techniques, as that could compromise our efforts, let us just say that all in-game RMT related activities, regardless of their form, are subject to action.

In what ways will the Special Task Force be different from normal GMs? GMs do not actively look for problems to fix, only react to player calls. Will the Special Task Force seek out problems in Vana’diel?

The STF is completely independent from the GM team specializing in assessing and taking action against issues created by RMT related activities, improper third party tool usage etc. GMs are designated support professionals, while the STF team does not directly interact with players. The STF receives input from various sources including calls made to the GM team, information gathered from various premier and community sites. This information is then used by the STF to help pinpoint and stop various illegal activities happening within Vana’diel.

Have you thought about creating forms on the official site where players can submit suspected RMT activities (name of character, world, what area, etc.) that the Special Task Force can investigate?

We are entertaining this notion. However, we are also accepting input in the form of GM calls and mail forms to gather information from our players. In the future if we determine that there is a need for more input we may create a specialized form to handle such matters.

Deleting the gil from the economy forces RMT to redouble their efforts and causes even worse conditions for normal players trying to fight NMs or HNMs. What will you do to combat these RMT from punishing players again by redoubling their efforts on gil-related monsters?

The STF is aware of the importance of taking action against the gil farmers that work with the RMT organizations. They are taking the necessary steps to further investigation/action against RMT related organizations by not only targeting accounts found to be trading RMT related gil, but also going after the farmers who collect and harvest gil for these organizations.

As outlined above, the anti-RMT actions are part of a larger operation. Consequently, having some of the RMT related parties gathering at the spawning sites of Notorious Monsters is an unfortunate side affect of this larger strategy. However, this only enforces our belief that there is a need for our actions against these organizations to continue for the foreseeable future.

As long as there are monsters that only appear once every 24 hours, there will be monopolization problems in Final Fantasy XI. What does the Special Task Force team propose for fixing out of date game play mechanics so as to provide less opportunities for monopolization and RMT to thrive?

Currently there are few monsters in FINAL FANTASY XI which appear regularly with exact a 24 hour (or longer) period. The spawn periods have some additional random interval which is from several hours to several days.

We feel that the real issue that needs to be dealt with is the players using third party tools to improperly claim or monopolize Notorious Monsters, such as those that were banned in the last mass banning. Taking action against such players we feel, is more important than the spawn times of Notorious Monsters and we will continue to focus our efforts on combating the violation of the Rules and Policies.

http://ffxi.stratics.com/content/asksquareenix/061211/

[MF Perm]

first

edit:

As long as there are monsters that only appear once every 24 hours, there will be monopolization problems in Final Fantasy XI. What does the Special Task Force team propose for fixing out of date game play mechanics so as to provide less opportunities for monopolization and RMT to thrive?

Currently there are few monsters in FINAL FANTASY XI which appear regularly with exact a 24 hour (or longer) period. The spawn periods have some additional random interval which is from several hours to several days.

We feel that the real issue that needs to be dealt with is the players using third party tools to improperly claim or monopolize Notorious Monsters, such as those that were banned in the last mass banning. Taking action against such players we feel, is more important than the spawn times of Notorious Monsters and we will continue to focus our efforts on combating the violation of the Rules and Policies.

This is terrible news.

[Gatsby]

Whenever I see the Special Task Force Unit, I always think this is SE's bone so we'll STFU.

[Khelek]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...Legend/wtf.jpg

[Kyreth]

first

We feel that the real issue that needs to be dealt with is the players using third party tools to improperly claim or monopolize Notorious Monsters, such as those that were banned in the last mass banning. Taking action against such players we feel, is more important than the spawn times of Notorious Monsters and we will continue to focus our efforts on combating the violation of the Rules and Policies.

This is terrible news.[/quote]

On the other hand, you could now be seeing the task force camping the botters camping the HNM's.

Which would be hilarious if they actually DID something. Like bansticking the offenders on the spot. I'd happily give up a Fafnir claim to a legit LS if it meant getting to watch an RMT linkshell go poof.

[MF Perm]

It's not so much that I don't believe they'll do something against botters, it's more that I think camping for 3 hours for these guys is fucking boring.

Timed BCNM's with shitty drop rates plz.

[Fhqwghads]

We feel that the real issue that needs to be dealt with is the players using third party tools to improperly claim or monopolize Notorious Monsters, such as those that were banned in the last mass banning. Taking action against such players we feel, is more important than the spawn times of Notorious Monsters and we will continue to focus our efforts on combating the violation of the Rules and Policies.

Christ they are stupid. There are plenty of 24/7 CGF who more than likely do not use any 3rd party tools, rather they rely on numbers and a persistent presence at highly desirable NM camps. Sure ridding the servers of hackers is important, but wtf @ downplaying people who harm the game just as much by trying to virtually monopolize targets?

[Lordender]

Is it possible to make the sky god pop items ra/ex as these are one of the number one things that RMT bazaar and sell in the game?

In principle, the development team considers any valuable item dropped by a High Notorious Monster to be a Rare/Ex item. We are aware that some of these items, particularly tradable items that have average to little effect have garnered the interest of RMT parties because of their popularity. The items in question are trigger items for popping monsters. It is a necessity that they come in different types and making them Rare/Ex would severely inconvenience other players. For this reason we do not have any plans to currently change this mechanic.

I stopped reading after this, it amazes me that this own company's staff still doesn't have a clue on what goes on in game. Boy they are going to pay the price when the next big mmo hits in terms of business loss.

[MF Perm]

What this game needs is an NA Dev team to make the Mystic Quest version of an expansion so we're all happy with the game as is.

[Lordender]

if this was an NA game company we wouldn't have nearly all of these problems.

[Dustybrown]

The items in question are trigger items for popping monsters. It is a necessity that they come in different types and making them Rare/Ex would severely inconvenience other players. For this reason we do not have any plans to currently change this mechanic.

I'm glad SE is here to tell me these things. Hell, I was thinking that RMT sitting in Ulli room 24/7 was inconvent.

I guess not.

Edit for anger: Who does it inconvenience, besides the fucking gilsellers?

[Sixtail]

We feel that the real issue that needs to be dealt with is the players using third party tools to improperly claim or monopolize Notorious Monsters, such as those that were banned in the last mass banning. Taking action against such players we feel, is more important than the spawn times of Notorious Monsters and we will continue to focus our efforts on combating the violation of the Rules and Policies.

Christ they are stupid. There are plenty of 24/7 CGF who more than likely do not use any 3rd party tools, rather they rely on numbers and a persistent presence at highly desirable NM camps. Sure ridding the servers of hackers is important, but wtf @ downplaying people who harm the game just as much by trying to virtually monopolize targets?

You can't punish people for playing longer and showing up in bigger numbers. I hate-hate-hate-hate-hate RMT, but there's no way SE's going to punish people who never log out and show up in mass numbers. So by that logic, killing botters/hackers is the way to go.

[Tajin]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...Legend/wtf.jpg

QFT

/sigh, more reasons to keep raping mobs in FFXII with my overpowered toons >.>

[Talint]

This news wouldn't suck so much, if the STF would just confiscate everything they got from the banned RMT and have a police auction.

It'd be awesome. Players could actually get autumnstones in exchange for gil, and not have to worry about it going to RMT.

[Khamsin]

This news wouldn't suck so much, if the STF would just confiscate everything they got from the banned RMT and have a police auction.

It'd be awesome. Players could actually get autumnstones in exchange for gil, and not have to worry about it going to RMT.

Or have a welfare NPC.

Every time an account is banned, any legit gil (not produced by dupes or exploits) is put into a reserve. This amount is divided among all the unique credit cards (multiple accounts on one card count as one) on the server, and the next time a player visits the Welfare NPC, they get their cut.

Or put the banned gil into a public free chocobo/limbus/AH fee reserve until it gets used up.

[Kuya]

*Sigh* More disapointing things. Im getting antsy for new update info.

[Nighteagle]

How about for sky gods they take Ullikummi down to a reasonable time too. Like 3-6hr instead of 3-12 (i think 12 is tops). More Ullikummi pops would help also. I can't count how many times I've gone to sky for 6-7 hours and never even seen Ullikummi.

I know a lot of people are so sick of sky b/c of the RMT on my server. They Monopolize autumnstone so much, that some sky ls's make a ls bank from money drops to buy the autumnstones.

Aside from sky, End Game HNM are getting kinda annoying. Almost any end game ls (that wants to actually stay a ls and not break) has to bot every now and then, or they wouldnt survive vs. other end game ls's or RMT. Which is retarded that in order for some people who play the game by the rules and have fun instead of cheating have to pay. I'm all for adding the Faf/Nid/KB/Aspid drops to the KS99, or maybe to some of the new HNMs in ToAU like Hydra, Cerberus, maybe the new Khimera 19 or w/e.

I totally agree with MF Perm when he said these things are boring to camp. I myself like camping though b/c I have fun trying to get a claim of a NM over others. Botters just take the fun out of it.

[Lordender]

ff12's end game is better than ff11's lol now isn't that sad?

[Intense]

I think most of you guys are missing the point.

The Task Force is around to take care of RMT, not deal with the development side of the game. To think that the task force will care about the spawn rate of Fafnir, you guys are barking up the wrong tree.

I even see the task force rep referencing the development team when the interviewer asks certain question. Quit the "oh i stopped reading at...." because youre not getting the full story.

[Aladwar]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...Legend/wtf.jpg

Thread over.

Great to see that SquareEnix is continuing to do what they do best, coming up with evasive answers that don't actually answer any question their users ask. If "actions" are truly being taken, I'd seriously like to know why the hell almost every server is still plagued with RMT.