RMT Countermeasures o_O

[Erebus]

SE guy: Well, customer satisfaction is at a new low, what should we do?

SE guy#2: Hmm, let's ban a couple of IGE accounts from this list we have with all their names and how much gil each have. That oughta shut them up for awhile.

Playerbase: Huzzah! GG, SE GG! Oh Happy Days!

SE guy: LOLZ

[Daahan]

I think most people are underestimating how great an effect this is having on the economy.

Nobody has ANY money to spend. Gilbuyers have lost their source, and probably 90% of the people buying high-end luxury items now are gilbuyers. Supply is way outstripping demand; look at the number of bazaar's in Rolanberry fields! Prices are going to go down by a LOT before they level off, provided IGE remains out of stock.

I don't think that the prices of big name items are going to go down by a lot, but they will go down by a little.

with all this "inflation" (word is dead horse that's been beaten several times), prices have hit a notch and locked itself there. There is always undercutting and multiple of the same item or gear for sale, but it generally stays around that area because it's the new norm.

If there are any economists here, you'd understand that it's not deflation, it's just a decreasing rate of inflation (although the way FFXI economy works is veeeeery different from RL economy, same concept though)

IGE, gilsellers, gilbuyers, and bad itemization (like berticus said) is the cause of this. They all remain; therefore, the prices will remain. That's my opinion on the matter. I could be proven wrong in the future, but I'm not convinced that it will happen otherwise.

[Heian]

SE guy: Well, customer satisfaction is at a new low, what should we do?

SE guy#2: Hmm, let's ban a couple of IGE accounts from this list we have with all their names and how much gil each have. That oughta shut them up for awhile.

Playerbase: Huzzah! GG, SE GG! Oh Happy Days!

SE guy: LOLZ

This guy won the thread, please stop posting.

[epigram]

Pretty much until things settle down I've decided to hold off on buying any dynamis currency, and crafting any SH or Weskit. Only consumables seem to be returning profit and the 78 RR gorgets on the AH is just causing mass undercutting in the only major profit area I had...

I still have a good chunk of gil from christmas sales but, I'm not buying anything until prices are reasonable...

I think I'll to back to farming for a while to get gil, still there are a few items that always give good return on the amount of time it takes to get them, and that don't revolve around competition or nms :D.

[mrfridays]

You'd pretty much be a fool to buy anything until the economy stabilizes. Right now, cash is king. Stay liquid if you can. The VALUE of gil is going to increase substantially.

[Matricide]

explain something to me, how the hell do you people claiming its a duping hack know its a duping hack? "illicit" can mean anything.

i haven't seen it anywhere or even rumors of it, and i scour forums all day every day at work. that includes JP forums. you're going to tell me some chinese gilsellers found a duping hack and kept it secret without anyone else finding it?

what are the odds of this? were gilsellers the first one in sky or sea? they're always the last ones to find out the money making schemes even if they whore the shit out of them, and they almost always do what they can NOT to get banned because it's counter productive.

if there was a dupe hack there would have been a rollback.

[Kurp]

I have fun playing this game, a lot of it.

Does anyone else? It's hard to see through all the rain clouds above your heads.

[rahvin]

Sorry SE, but all the old gilseller faces remain.
All they did was ban the mules, but they left pretty much every gilseller acct unscathed.

its like the FBI busting a huge coccaine/heroin ring, but instead of arresting people, they just take the drugs...only the drugs, leaving everything else, so they can just make more drugs.



SE put a temporary roadblock on the economies decline, but if they're not banning gilsellers so they can get that extra 12$/month for every account, they economy will continue to decline at a rapid rate.

I guess you didn't read the announcement very carefully lol. They never said "we banned all gil sellers". They said that of the people selling gil in FFXI, there was a small group of them using "illicit" (read: hacks) to generate large amounts of gil (read: duping). These people were banned, along with all the gil on their accounts. Any gilfinder who plays the game like the rest of us and just monoplizes whatever NM for whatever reason didn't get banned, because they aren't resorting to "illicit" measures.

Do you play the game or something ??
Every damn gilseller on my server is still around. Its the same for every other server from what I've been reading....

yeah he does play the game,reread what he typed. The ppl who where selling gil in the game(since the ppl who farm and sell are one and the same) and using illicit means to get said gil, where banned. longleyboy and his crew and all others who just monopolize are not banned bc they dont use Illicit means (from what we know is bullshit). so therefore, ummm yes you would still see the gilsellers around who dont not use the illicit means of monopolizing (again i know thats bullshit). At least SE hasnt caught them yet using illicit means.

[divisortheory]

explain something to me, how the hell do you people claiming its a duping hack know its a duping hack? "illicit" can mean anything.

discovered the existence of a group using illicit methods (i.e. hack) to produce large amounts of gil (i.e. create gil that wasn't there before) that are later sold in the real world

Let me ask you something. Remember that time when they said there was a bug allowing them to constantly Steal beastcoins in Molvapolos? Now, if it allowed them 100% steal rate but nothing else that would not be a big deal because they'd be making what 300k / hour? Oh noez. Obviously that wasn't it. What else could it be except that they were literally constantly using steal? As in their JA timer was reset. Now, if they can do that with steal, don't you think they can do it with Mug also?

QED

if there was a dupe hack there would have been a rollback.

There was, they deleted 300 billion gil.

[Septimus]

RMT Countermeasures

Since the end of last year, item values have risen astronomically on all Worlds due to the manipulation of prices by a small percentage of the player base. The development team and the GMs carried out a detailed investigation of this problem, and discovered the existence of a group using illicit methods to produce large amounts of gil that are later sold in the real world (Real Money Trading). We would like to take this opportunity to outline the measures that have been taken to correct this issue.

Interesting. De we have a rebuttal?

Square never does anything. Emo, whine, cry. Emo, whine, cry, bitch, moan, complain.

Square did something, but it isn't enough. They let RMT happen to keep me in my black pit of darkest despair.

Sometimes I cut my self to relive the pain. He, he, he, he, toot.

Seriously, what does it fucking take to make people happy? "They didn't ban the gilfarmers." Well, at least they removed 300,000,000,000 gil from the servers to reduce the hella-death inflation. That is approximately 9,375,000,000 gil from each server. Nine billion three hundred seventy five million gil gone forever from your server and my server.

People complain about how much everything costs and when Square tries to fix it, people complain ever more. I am more than happy to point out when Square makes a mistake, this is not one. Yes, they could go further and hopefully they will, but at least they did this.

Now, the 300billion gil question is how many of the people who sit on these and other boards all day complaining about gilfarmers will sell their gil to IGE? I guess the real question is how fast will they sell their gil to IGE?

[nivlakian]

RMT Countermeasures

Since the end of last year, item values have risen astronomically on all Worlds due to the manipulation of prices by a small percentage of the player base. The development team and the GMs carried out a detailed investigation of this problem, and discovered the existence of a group using illicit methods to produce large amounts of gil that are later sold in the real world (Real Money Trading). We would like to take this opportunity to outline the measures that have been taken to correct this issue.

Based on the results of this investigation, more than 700 accounts among those found to be involved in large-scale RMT operations have been terminated. We will continue to monitor accounts suspected of dealing in gil created or obtained in an unfair manner.

Thanks to these measures, more than 300 billion gil has been removed from circulation, and the overly inflated prices of items have begun to fall to more realistic levels.

Furthermore, emergency maintenance has already been performed on all worlds for the purpose of implementing RMT countermeasures. This maintenance took place over two stages, starting on January 17th.

As has been previously stated, acts of RMT will not be tolerated in FINAL FANTASY XI, and any violations of the user agreement will be dealt with severely. We would like to assure our players that all efforts are being made to ensure a fair playing experience.

We hope to have your continuing understanding and cooperation in creating a Vana'diel that everyone can enjoy.


(02/09/2006)

From:FINAL FANTASY XI
Jan. 17, 2006 10:45 [PST]

FINAL FANTASY XI Update (Jan. 17)

At the following time, emergency maintenance was performed on FINAL FANTASY XI.

This maintenance was to fully address the countermeasure against third-party software, which was applied during the maintenance on Jan. 13, 2006.

We thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

[Affected Period]
Jan. 17, 2006 11:00 (PST)

[Affected Services]
FINAL FANTASY XI

[Important Update Details]
-After the update that took place on Jan. 13, players were unable to obtain items by using the job ability "Steal" from some monsters in the following areas. This restriction has been removed.
Oldton Movalpolos
Newton Movalpolos

-Once the players obtain items from the monsters by using the job ability "Steal," items can no longer be obtained from them by using the same method. This restriction can be removed by defeating the monsters.

-Changed the position of some monsters in Newton Movalpolos.

From:FINAL FANTASY XI
Jan. 13, 2006 03:00 [PST]

FINAL FANTASY XI Update (Jan. 13)

At the following time, emergency maintenance was performed on FINAL FANTASY XI.

It came to our attention that some players were using third-party software to repeatedly and automatically steal items from monsters in certain areas. Emergency maintenance was performed to address this issue.

To counter this exploit, it is no longer possible to obtain items via the job ability "Steal" from certain monsters in specific areas. This measure is only temporary, and the issue will be fully addressed in upcoming days.

We would like to take this time to remind our players that the use of any third-party equipment or software to change or modify the game in any way is strictly prohibited. If you come across such software, we ask that you please refrain from using it, no matter how minor it may appear to be.

We thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

[Affected Period]
Jan. 13, 2006 3:00 (PST)

[Affected Services]
FINAL FANTASY XI

[Important Update Details]
-Items that can be obtained via the job ability "Steal" have been removed from some monsters in the following areas.
Oldton Movalpolos
Newton Movalpolos

edit: just posting for sake of reference

[RustyMetal]

300billion aint bad over 26 servers?

GG SE, took them long enough.

[Matricide]

explain something to me, how the hell do you people claiming its a duping hack know its a duping hack? "illicit" can mean anything.

discovered the existence of a group using illicit methods (i.e. hack) to produce large amounts of gil (i.e. create gil that wasn't there before) that are later sold in the real world

Let me ask you something. Remember that time when they said there was a bug allowing them to constantly Steal beastcoins in Molvapolos? Now, if it allowed them 100% steal rate but nothing else that would not be a big deal because they'd be making what 300k / hour? Oh noez. Obviously that wasn't it. What else could it be except that they were literally constantly using steal? As in their JA timer was reset. Now, if they can do that with steal, don't you think they can do it with Mug also?

QED

if there was a dupe hack there would have been a rollback.

There was, they deleted 300 billion gil.

You just proved my point, if there's something resetting JA, yes, that's illicit, but NOT duping. duping is taking what's there, and creating an exact copy of it. having hide/steal/reset timers reset is not the same as duping. like i said, if it was duping there'd be a rollback, and deleting 300 billion gil is not a rollback.

there'd be more than trillians of gil if there was a dupe hack even around for a week. 100^10. you see what i'm saying?

[berticus]

niklavian, are you saying that the dupe bug was stealraping beastcoins?
lol

[divisortheory]

You just proved my point, if there's something resetting JA that's illicit, that's NOT duping. duping is taking what's there, and creating an exact copy of it. having hide/steal/reset timers reset is not the same as duping. like i said, if it was duping there'd be a rollback, and deleting 300 billion gil is not a rollback.

So let's say you steal a gold beastcoin, then use a hack so that you can immediately steal another gold beastcoin from the same mob. You wouldn't call that a duping hack? It's a "hack", that involves repeated creation of the same item over and over, otherwise known as "duping". We can get in a terminology argument all you want, but my point remains perfectly valid regardless of how you want to label such a hack.

[nivlakian]

niklavian, are you saying that the dupe bug was stealraping beastcoins?
lol

Actually, I didn't say anything. Just posting to what SE seems to be referring.

[Zigrah]

Wow... this could actully have very bad long term effects... but I dunno.

Now is a ogod time to hoard actual gil where for the longest time it has been hoarding items. There was nothing truly wrong with the economy in the sense that things were inflated but somewhat normalized around the board.

Suddenly we're going to have people with a crapload of gil getting richer by the second as prices go down and people who will be extremely poor by comparison seeing crafting supplies and most itemsyou farm will eventually go down. Simply put, the rich are about to get richer and the poor are going to get a lot poorer. For SE to take this long to react to RMT and for longlyboy to have been on the server still to MPK my old linkshell while they try to kill Vrtra... I'm really not impressed at SE for this. This might fix inflation or it might make a stock market crash where some items will only be affordable by a small percentage of the server. That's if these accounts really did poof.

[Matricide]

So let's say you steal a gold beastcoin, then use a hack so that you can immediately steal another gold beastcoin from the same mob. You wouldn't call that a duping hack? It's a "hack", that involves repeated creation of the same item over and over, otherwise known as "duping". We can get in a terminology argument all you want, but my point remains perfectly valid regardless of how you want to label such a hack.

it's still not duping, it's just an exploit. duping would be having 1, then 2, then 4, then 8, and finally 12, then mass duping stacks of 12. duping is nothing to joke about in a MMORPG, it spells 100% disaster.

[Septimus]

You just proved my point, if there's something resetting JA, yes, that's illicit, but NOT duping. duping is taking what's there, and creating an exact copy of it. having hide/steal/reset timers reset is not the same as duping. like i said, if it was duping there'd be a rollback, and deleting 300 billion gil is not a rollback.

there'd be more than trillians of gil if there was a dupe hack even around for a week. 100^10. you see what i'm saying?

What is the difference between duplicating a gold beastmen coin from one you already have and having a 100% steal rate of beastmen coins every 30 seconds or so? It's still producing items in a way that is not intended, you are merely arguing technicalities.

[Genosync]

Anyone remember MNKs boosting to max attack by using the teleporter at Kirin, then popping Kirin and watching the monks all rape him instantly?

Think of it as the same thing as resetting JA timers.