11/06 - SE's anti-RMT 'Special Task Force'

[spooky]

Nice to see that they say they will start doing something about it. Only time will tell how it turns out. I really hope they do only go after RMT and hardcore botting LSs, instead of Windower users and people that do harmless things like .dat swap. (Yes I do think .dat swapping is harmless, if you don't STFU, because no one cares.)

[Demosthenes]

We will address the RMT issue mainly through eliminating the presence of gil sellers, but also by warning or penalizing specific players who buy gil regularly and/or in large amounts.

IT'S OVER FFXI IS FINISHED!

[spooky]

So what, the person who occasionally buys a little Gil is alright? It just seems funny that they made that exception considering the tough stance on the rest of the issues.

Think about the number of people that have "occasionally bought a little Gil", it's probably a lot, SE can't afford to loose that many accounts so they refine it to "people that buy a lot" this way it still looks like they are doing a good job, but they don't have to ban as many people. Also, not trying to justify this but say for example people might have bought some Gil in the past, 1-2M or something, and then never again. It seems somewhat silly to me to ban people in that situation.

[Aodh]

Think about the number of people that have "occasionally bought a little Gil", it's probably a lot, SE can't afford to loose that many accounts so they refine it to "people that buy a lot" this way it still looks like they are doing a good job, but they don't have to ban as many people.

You don't have to punish everyone, but this wording seems like they're willing to tolerate a little buying and selling.

[Daahan]

I hope this is not like when I was in high school, when there was a "School Spirit Task Force", which did absolutely nothing to promote school spirit.

[Lithiani]

I know a number of people who bought some gil when they started the game, and have since realised that it's a stupid proposition over the long term. There are probably quite a lot of people who have done the same thing, to get started in the game.

Square are likely sensible enough to realise that complete elimination of RMT is highly improbable. Their priority should (and seems to, by this announcement) be to eliminate the RMT legions who are simultaneously denying genuine players access to endgame, and artificially limiting supply to inflate prices, giving such an advantage to those who do buy gil that those who do not cannot keep up.

EDIT: There's also the factor that starting in FFXI at the current time would be a very daunting proposition. Square are still wanting to attract new subscribers, and a bit of low level RMT does help that. It's not a point I'm defending, it's just a fact of life.

I don't think they will crack down on the "buy a mil to get started" kind of sles, player-to-player. Or at least not until the multi-million gil endgame legions are quite thoroughly dispatched, by which time the impetus for that kind of low level sales is less, as the market is a lot more balanced from the perspective of the new player with nothing more than an adventurers coupon to their name.

[Viena]

Improperly labeled charts make my eyes hurt.

[Coldplay4tw]

Hope they do more than just talking this time..


Or is that to hope too much?

[ircgeek]

It's easy for all of us to be skeptical about these efforts after all this time based on S-E's track record of customer service, but you gotta admit... The last couple bannings are showing they're making an effort. I know a couple people who used speedhacks got the axe in the past couple months, and I'm sure people here know a few, too. It doesn't feel like S-E is just deleting the boogeyman this time around - you're actually SEEING accounts get deleted, where in the past it always felt like we were just trusting their word that those accounts got canned.

[Lithiani]

I'm more concerned for the "arms race" that's in progress. Asde from 60 new 1-75 RMT over the past month (12 of whom now never leave Ullis room), there are another 60 being leveled. It's fairly obvious that the RMT have realised that the ban progress will continue, and are trying to just throw numbers at the issue. it woudn't surprise me if they have a number of mothballed characters just ready and waiting to activate when the ban round of bansticking hits.

[TsingTao]

Very good stuff. I hope they step on the neck of every RMT crafter right after they clean out Ulli's Aery.

The thought of actually being able to camp a NM again when I'm bored on somewhat even footing is a fun one. Heck, I'll even take my THF out of mothballs if they kill enough RMT.

Edit: Page 3 claimed in the name of our new Anti-RMT Overlords.

[*Shinzon*]

I'm more concerned for the "arms race" that's in progress. Asde from 60 new 1-75 RMT over the past month (12 of whom now never leave Ullis room), there are another 60 being leveled. It's fairly obvious that the RMT have realised that the ban progress will continue, and are trying to just throw numbers at the issue. it woudn't surprise me if they have a number of mothballed characters just ready and waiting to activate when the ban round of bansticking hits.

You're definatly correct, the fact is that unless the people who are actually holding the credit card information for those hundreds of characters are banned. Theoretically, they could monitor the amount of accounts that are registered from a single credit card. That would eliminate the sites that might contract with the larger gil selling websites to help them keep a storage of accounts.

On Alexander the mules that never get banned are the sky and sea rmt, that are working in collaboration but are never cought and always put up the largest amount of money. The other mules that camp Simurgh and the other various nms are always the ones who are banned first or, deactived and a new group put in to keep them from being placed on a suspicious list or whatever.

So they definatly have work cut out for them unless they go after the already established monopolies first, because the smaller groups make the more obvious mistakes. So they'll have to set pretty specific policies I think in order to make this work, and with the way updates always get extended and the amount of time it took them to get this special force started, I can't say I'm hopeful until I see it.

[Kurohyou]

So does this mean they're able to track down gil/delivery box/trades/purchases from sender>buyer after all?

Or can this Special Task Force buy gil from IGE/ect and delete the character and it's connecting accounts (Credit Card, ISP) upon delivery?

That's what I first thought too. Really, that would be the fastest and most obvious way to prove without a doubt that X account is selling gil.

[Lylie]

Man, will ppl ever stop crying?

SE does nothing against Gil sellers: ppl whine.
SE bans thousand of accounts, and creates a team to eliminate Gil sellers: ppl whine.

[Asy]

Man, will ppl ever stop crying?

SE does nothing against Gil sellers: ppl whine.
SE bans thousand of accounts, and creates a team to eliminate Gil sellers: ppl whine.

Whining about whining = this thing called contradiction.

[spooky]

Man, will ppl ever stop crying?
SE does nothing against Gil sellers: People whine.
SE bans thousand of accounts, and creates a team to eliminate Gil sellers: People whine.

I don't really see people whining here - more cautious opinions; this is a forum after all...

[Lithiani]

Banning the sea RMT would hurt them a LOT. Sky is easy to get access for, and sky RMT can easily be replaced. Sea is an entirely different proposition.

[TsingTao]

I doubt they make as much money in Sea as in Sky. It's certainly more of an annoyance to get another crew out there though. Wins for the "Fuck you!" factor alone.

[shat]

So does this mean they're able to track down gil/delivery box/trades/purchases from sender>buyer after all?

Or can this Special Task Force buy gil from IGE/ect and delete the character and it's connecting accounts (Credit Card, ISP) upon delivery?

That's what I first thought too. Really, that would be the fastest and most obvious way to prove without a doubt that X account is selling gil.

to me it's more complicated than that. IGE acts as a middle man between the gamer and the rmt gil farmer company. the IGE mules and accounts aren't the ones permacamping ulli and LoO. what SE would have to do is find the IGE mule and work backwards but it might be difficult. yeah, you can tell that Aejhfhsj traded Igemule 50mil but killing the bank mules is the easy part. the hard part would be ridding FFXI of its bane. because SE is afraid to use common sense in their bannings, i think they will have problems with getting rid of Flycat, Flygirl, Flyapple, Flycool, and Powerfuloctopus.

[mikazuki]

So does this mean they're able to track down gil/delivery box/trades/purchases from sender>buyer after all?

Or can this Special Task Force buy gil from IGE/ect and delete the character and it's connecting accounts (Credit Card, ISP) upon delivery?

That's what I first thought too. Really, that would be the fastest and most obvious way to prove without a doubt that X account is selling gil.

yes and yes, and the best part for SE is that it's very cost-effective, they can spend $10 on gil, ban just 1 account (more likely 5, 10...50) and RMT who sign up again will immediately pay back more than the $10, in fact if SE ban accounts on the correct day, they'll get $ while not providing the full month's service, and then get paid double by the RMT signing up a new account (through the royalty from selling a box of the game, if the first month is free).
for a short time (such as a year), the more they ban, the more $ they make. assuming the CGF actually give up at some point (if they don't the special ops team will be paying for themselves at least).
ideally they'll let the CGF manaburn their way to 75 and then ban them the moment they try to camp anything, obviously this hasn't been done yet but maybe it can happen. in this way the RMT will expect to receive a pay off for a month of hard botting work, and get nothing^^ then FFXI becomes a losing proposition.

for those wondering 'how much gil can i buy before getting warned?' if you're buying $100 gil/month, that's too much, RMT love ppl like you, if it's $10/month, you'll probably get warned in a year or so when it becomes a more significant amount.
the reason SE have noted this distinction is that while being aware that low level sales will continue, the large transactions being removed will again make farming FFXI less tenable commercially, i'm not sure why they're giving out all this information (besides it being obvious anyway) but the statement is very transparent.
by 'penalise' players who buy large quantities, i'm going to guess they mean take the gil away, this is where they already have a record on the selling trader so 'oh it's my friend giving me some gilz' is no excuse. this makes more sense than punishing ppl by jail/suspension (or outright ban) because a smart player would either put the gil on another account and wait out the ban or just buy gil when they were about to take a break anyway.

as for focusing on certain 3rd pt apps, yes it specifically means:
bots/pos hax/flee hax/similar BAN ME PLZ
windower/parsers OK FOR USE
you can see this clearly because the wording strongly implies the distinction, and because of the departure from a previous statement regarding 3rd pt saying that players should not use tools 'however minor they appear to be'.

incidentally it's 1635 days since jp ps2 release; about 4.3yrs, this is a quick response in the corporate world