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

[Aodh]

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).

The update to the ToS + Registration Server now allows them to not only ban all the accounts associated with those violating ToS, but also prevent them from signing back up. It turns into an attrition battle where they ban one credit card, and the gilsellers need to get a new credit card to sign back up. And the cost of paying for this task team would very much counter any possible benefit they could get from new account signups. SE seems to be trying to take out the people creating the gilselling accounts rather than just the accounts themselves.

[Fredthecat]

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.

i have seen no change, go camp ulli or a ground NM; Its disgusting how many of those chinese fucks are there.

[Lithiani]

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.

They farm the shit out of limbus, and they do merc out for the chance of torque drops, and will sell the tradables (nov. ear for ex.)

[Aodh]

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.

i have seen no change, go camp ulli or a ground NM; Its disgusting how many of those gilselling fucks are there.

Fixed. >_> Not all gilsellers are Chinese and not all Chinese are gilsellers.

[Kyreth]

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.

i have seen no change, go camp ulli or a ground NM; Its disgusting how many of those chinese fucks are there.

If you hadn't been reading, up to now they've been focused on blowing away the RMT banks- the ones holding and moving the money.

You want to see the change, go watch the RMT prices for Gil going up and the economy in FFXI deflating. That's what the bansticking has been directed at- killing the massive influx of RMT Gil overloading the system. Successfully.

Within a month, these investigations into RMT sites have resulted in the termination of around 100 accounts, and the removal of several billion gil from the game. At the same time, we have confirmed that several of these sites have shut down or ceased RMT activities related to FINAL FANTASY XI.

100 accounts. Several -billion- Gil. That's the kind of stuff they've been aiming at prior to this. Now they have a team designated to go after the nonsense-named hordes camping any NM they can hack or bot.

Let's see how they do. So far, I like what I see.

[Lithiani]

Yeah, so far, S-Es bansticking the bank mules has had a negative effect on the endgame linkshells enjoyment of content, because the RMT respond to the banks going boom by farming more

It was predictable, but very annoying.

[Silmarwen]

...

[Aodh]

Yeah, so far, S-Es bansticking the bank mules has had a negative effect on the endgame linkshells enjoyment of content, because the RMT respond to the banks going boom by farming more

It was predictable, but very annoying.

Any specific examples or are you just bitching for the sake of bitching about things that happened months before this task force was created?

[Trinsie]

This may sound comletely retarded and not prove much but couldnt they like idk buy 1 mil from a company for $10 when it gets delivered by the asdfsagas named bank character then check who all the character has sent mass gil to recently temp ban them and delete the gil holding character?

Maybe I am not thinking into it enough but that would be pretty tricky way of doing it.

[Lithiani]

Roughly 60 extra RMT, who are all permanently encamped at every HNM, trigger and valuable NM. They've also taken to having a mule account permanently stationed as airlock control in the double monolith room on the route to olla, to try and deny people passage down to triggers.

[Kyreth]

Yeah, so far, S-Es bansticking the bank mules has had a negative effect on the endgame linkshells enjoyment of content, because the RMT respond to the banks going boom by farming more

It was predictable, but very annoying.

Of course they are. S-E's realized that already, thus the whole RMT-buster team they put together.

Now we see if the talk matches with the effort. At least it's forced the roaches out into the open where we can get them stomped...and S-E's actually asking us to help keep them exposed.

Here's to hoping the RMT's get reamed like [GM]Dave on a hangover revenge binge.

[Lithiani]

This may sound comletely retarded and not prove much but couldnt they like idk buy 1 mil from a company for $10 when it gets delivered by the asdfsagas named bank character then check who all the character has sent mass gil to recently temp ban them and delete the gil holding character?

Maybe I am not thinking into it enough but that would be pretty tricky way of doing it.

They already did that. Presumably the RMT have gotten around that (someone on here theorised that the farmers are now holding all the gil, and the delivery mules only hold the bare minimum necessary to make a delivery.

The problem now is the RMT have generated many extra characters in order to farm more (to replenish their lost bank funds), and the competition from those extra RMT farmers is negatively affecting the endgame players themselves, much more than before.

SE now need to trace back the gil to the senders and the helper characters, and ban them all.

[Popeh]

Special Task Force (11/06/2006)
While it may be initially difficult to see any progress, rest assured that we are building a fair playing environment one dungeon and one notorious monster at a time. While the special task force will be independently gathering information, we also hope to enlist the cooperation of the community in our investigations.

Like they have ever listened to a single call about RMT'ers, yet!

Don't get me wrong, i'd would genuinly hand on heart, shoot every Gill Seller point blank in the face with an AK47 and feel satisfaction.

BUT ...

How many calls get placed per week regarding Gill Sellers - How many times do we just get ignored? How many times are we quoted "Have a good day, is there anything else I can help with?" followed by a prompt conversation end session.

Maybe SE has woken up to the fact that players have had enough and are leaving left right and centre. With no players, the only thing left is an army of Gill Sellers .... selling to who?

They either sort it fast, or they risk losing the game.

Let the crap talk stop (as it's been happening for months talk talk talk) and let's start seeing a legitmate player controlled Ulli camp!

One final point is that it's nice they havn't forgotton about third party tools. When we do/if see a decline in RMT players then lets hope it doesn't get replaced by cheats, as this board has revealed we have plenty of! AK47 for you too!

[chiz]

Really glad they're focusing on the farming accounts now rather than just the banks. Eliminating the bank mule accounts was the single biggest reason for the economy's depression and although deflation isn't a bad thing, I think its had a much bigger negative than positive impact on the legitamate player base. Eliminating billions of gil (much of which was created by normal means) from the economy without any form of replacement is about as catastrophic an event as you can imagine, similar to the theories of a meteor hitting Earth and wiping out the dinosaurs.

Specifically targetting the farming crews should eventually serve its purpose. Some of the info SE released definitely shows this, # of accounts controlling the # of characters and being able to track accounts to specific IPs or credit card/billing info will help cut the problem at its source. RMTs will go through a lot of trouble to sell gil as long as its profitable, but having to jump through these hoops every 1-2 months will hopefully make it more trouble than its worth.

[Sylvana]

Yeah, so far, S-Es bansticking the bank mules has had a negative effect on the endgame linkshells enjoyment of content, because the RMT respond to the banks going boom by farming more

It was predictable, but very annoying.

Any specific examples or are you just bitching for the sake of bitching about things that happened months before this task force was created?

I think he is bitching for the sake of bitchign but I do remember a case of a HNMLS bank mule getting banned in one of the rounds of account bans. Either mistaken as a gilseller or was really actually selling part of their funds, i nono.

[Aodh]

SE now need to trace back the gil to the senders and the helper characters, and ban them all.

This would have been a violation of privacy and a violation on their own terms of service, EXCEPT they just changed the TOS to allow this kind of behaviour. Now they can, give them a little time to use their new legal powers.

I think he is bitching for the sake of bitchign but I do remember a case of a HNMLS bank mule getting banned in one of the rounds of account bans. Either mistaken as a gilseller or was really actually selling part of their funds, i nono.

Most people seem to bring that up then it gets back to a 'I heard it from a guy who was in my previous LS sometime' type of thing. It's more than likely happened in their old days of enforcement, but no one's said anything recently which means they know better and drop it. ^.^b

[Khamsin]

I bet if, included in their task force, there was a group of GMs whose sole job was to hop from NM to NM and remain visible to players 24/7, it would help things greatly.

They could be sleeping on the job, and still could accomplish something. If you saw a GM standing off to the side during a Fafnir window, or at ulli spawn time, I think many people would be much more cautious about fleetooling or botting.

[Kasper]

With regards to RMT, we have begun investigation of around 100 web sites in Japan and 50 in North America, and are planning to focus our efforts on the largest and most active sites (30 or so sites in Japan, and 10-15 sites in North America).

Finally sounds like they are going after the actual websites that sell gil as well not just the in game RMT characters. Law suit against IGE soon maybe? You can keep banning the in game mules/chars but as long as the company still exists then they willl create new mules/characters. If you get rid of the companies then they wont have any reason to create new characters which will solve most of the problem.

[Demitrius]

If I get a 3-day ban for Windower use, and all the gilsellers are gone, I'll gladly stop using Windower. Less lag that way anyway. It's a minor inconvenience, at best. We all played plenty long without using windower. Less lag that way anyway, right?

[Khamsin]

I forget, what was the reason SE can't do:

1) Change TOS to disallow third party services related to their game.
2) Sue anyone offering third party services (such as selling gil, distributing hacks, etc.)
3) Actually winning because the judge upholds the TOS, and respect of SE's property

Is it because TOSs don't hold up in court? Because suing internationally is too difficult?