Accounts Banned (Mar. 22)

[test123]

http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/polnew ... 0030.shtml

Mar. 22, 2007 04:00 [PDT] From: FINAL FANTASY XI
Accounts Banned (Mar. 22)

We would like to report the termination today of multiple accounts held by players involved in the usage of third-party tools or cheats, or engaged in RMT (Real Money Trading) activities.

Based on the results of our investigation, over 6,800 PlayOnline accounts were terminated while over 1,100 accounts were temporarily suspended.
Details of the violations are as follows:

- Usage of tools that allow enhanced character movement.
Approx. 1,050 cases

- Usage of tools that circumvent game mechanics with respect to the timing of ability use, etc. in certain areas or at points where Notorious Monsters appear.
Approx. 500 cases

- Using cheats to automatically repeat a particular action.
Approx. 2,650 cases
* The above number reflects the total number of accounts banned within the period of a month. This does not include individual cases handled by GMs.

- Accounts from people that were previously confirmed to have RMT connections, or that had violated the user agreements but re-subscribed to PlayOnline.
Approx. 2,500 cases

- RMT-related activity
Approx. 1,200 cases

The termination of these accounts has led to the removal of approximately 134 billion gil from circulation.

We would like to remind players that as well as adversely affecting game balance, the use of third-party tools or cheats can also have consequences that are not immediately obvious, such as introducing damaging viruses, and comprising the security of private account details. Usage of third-party tools will not be tolerated within FINAL FANTASY XI, and we will continue to severely penalize any players found to be in violation of the PlayOnline Member Agreement.

As we continue to ensure a fun and balanced environment for FINAL FANTASY XI, we hope that our players enjoy the game as it was intended and take care to avoid involvement in activities that violate the PlayOnline Member Agreement.

Thank you for your continued cooperation and understanding.

Sorry if this should be anywhere else.

[Kirst]

134 billion gil. I like it. Nice to see now the majority are for rmt related activity.

[Fallso]

Eat it, gilsellers.

[Ryko]

Funny story: Today at behemoth camp, RMT claimed. Upon fighting it, at 19%, 2 of them DC'd. On the second disconnection, the mob went unclaimed and we downed it in about 10 seconds, scoring 2 hides to be split between 8 people.

Now I know why they disappeared.

Funny timing.

[Mifaco]

OK, now with 134 billion gil gone, can we lower the AH tax next patch? Please?

[Ryko]

Dynamis and Limbus fees*

[Eddie]

Be cool if they had per server stats. But still, it's rocking.

[rithridan]

I wonder what SE will have in mind to compensate for the amount of gil that is being drained out of the system at this rate. As mentioned before it is getting increasingly difficult to keep a steady income whilst participating in Limbus and/or Dynamis. Let's say a server averages 40 Dynamis runs a week thats 40 million gil drained on a per week basis for Dynamis alone. Add in Limbus (getting more popular with more people getting sea, even now), AH costs, Chocobo, (Air)Ship, etc. It wouldn't surprise me if there is more then 100 million gil "spent" each week.

Now where did we used to get our biggest source of "new" gil from? I doubt it's from all the people doing quests, or killing NMs, or killing regular beastmen. The biggest source of "new" gil comes from gilsellers doing everything in their power to gain fast gil through minimal effort (even if it includes cheating, like fishbotters). I'm all for kicking their asses and making ffxi the game it's supposed to be, but they will need to do something about the gil flow instead of just removing gil from the game in my opinion.

edit: go me for taking 10 minutes to post :/

[Lordwafik]

I hope the faust bots my LS GM called are gonna be blasted.


1 RDM and 2 WHM kept faust alive and well untill they could login 10 BLMs (logged in or pos hacked? who knows), so we gm called them for fishy behaviour, GM himself said if it were up to him he'd nuke their accounts on the spot, and they've started linking RMT to credit cards, they might be preventing a bad CC from starting FFXI in the first place, something along those lines.

[Lordender]

I hope they do some kind of economy patch in the near future. I don't mean to sound cheap but 100k a week for limbus burns a hole in my pocket. I imagine it being worse for people who do limbus + a split run dynamis ls.

[Ashky]

Nice, I just spent 700k on an Arhat's Gi +1 when I should have held on to it and let deflation knock it down a few more million. Go-Go 100k Scorpion Harness!

[Isiolia]

Nice, I just spent 700k on an Arhat's Gi +1 when I should have held on to it and let deflation knock it down a few more million. Go-Go 100k Scorpion Harness!

So...the would pay you to take it?

[Slautman]

Camping KA right now... Looks like they missed a few RMT D:

[Tekki]

What they need to do is make new accounts anti-RMT friendly. WoW uses similar tactics for new accounts by restricting certain activities I believe. E.G. for at least a 2-4weeks you cannot trade or use the delivery box system. You should be restricted on your travel to stay in the noob areas. You should only be able to put a limited amount of items on the AH. They could also go as far as making Vanguard Online like restrictions on names. In VO it is against the ToS to make garbled named or basically make characters that seem to show no effort in their creation.

I think its also time to go back and look at key quests and make them anti-RMT. Quests such as Genkai quests, chocobo quests, Airship passes, Zilart quests, to name a few. Key quests that they do with ease now that allows them progress at the minimal level.

If they have been able to hit crafting RMTs with the ban hammer then they should also prevent future crafting RMTs by adding some sort of travel requirement to the skill cap levels. This should either be in the form of traveling to cities that would prove difficult without the help of legit players or accounts. Or at the very least, easy fights in areas designed for level 50+ players.

Id like to ask that this suggestion be added to the FFXI: Square-Enix Direct Discussion section. SE is doing an awesome job with the monthly ban hammer against the RMTs but I think anti-RMT tactics on the character creation level could relieve a lot of stress on their side. They could also make it a lot easier to spot new RMTs. With restrictions such as these, Im sure RMTs would still try to make new characters, but at that level and with the amount of restriction time it would be easy to spot them from legit players.

The bottom line is that if a RMT wants to create accounts to play in this game, it should take them over a month of dedicated hard work to create account even worth using. By the time they do this, they will stick out like a sore thumb or eventually will have their month+ of hard work wasted with routine banning.

[Gippo]

wtf, wow.

on average, each account had 16m gil on it

thats a TON of gil, even with multiple characters on each account

[Demitrius]

Okay, holy crap, 6800 is a freaking lot of accounts. That's over 200 per server. And 160 billion gil is no joke, that's 5 billion gil per server gone from the economy. This is a big one.

Hopefully the dozen or so I reported in the Dominion the other day got the boot. Fuckers gotta stop CFHing our dragons.

[Coren]

I used to pos left and right, then got my suspension back in december. I have since deleted everything I use, but they finally caught up with my mule and I have lm17 on him like 4 months later. lolwtf?

btw anybody got that 800 number so I can call and ask wtf happened (or took so long)?

[Kirst]

Be cool if they had per server stats. But still, it's rocking.

Isn't it about 6 months since the RMT task force was set up? Maybe they will release server by server stats one day as a proof of service.

[Dezzimal]

What they need to do is make new accounts anti-RMT friendly. WoW uses similar tactics for new accounts by restricting certain activities I believe. E.G. for at least a 2-4weeks you cannot trade or use the delivery box system.

As an Ambassador from the Wonderful World of Warcraft I vehemently deny any such allegations. There are a lot more RMT in WoW from what I've seen, but its less of an issue as there are plenty of avenues to explore for making gold. There is no such restriction on new accounts to my knowledge.

[gandorf]

I just /sea all valkurmdunes and no fishing bots there ^.^. Seems like task force is doing a great job so far.