The Special Task Force report (06/15/2007)

[Hawky]

The Special Task Force was put together in order to minimize the damage caused by certain members of the FINAL FANTASY XI community and to improve it as a whole - for this reason, the team is committed to monitoring its status on a daily basis. Here are some of the problems within the community which we have been focusing our attention upon.
We will also give you information on our current and future activities following the formation of the Special Task Force in Sept, 2006.

1.A word from the Special Task Force regarding hot topics within the community.

Certain monsters are always being hoarded, we never get our chance.

Certain Notorious Monsters (hereto after referred to as NM) within Tu'Lia and Upper Delkufutt's Tower which drop valuable items are attracting certain groups that camp in spawn spots.
These groups use illegal means to obtain rights on the NM, unfairly preventing other players from engaging with them. These groups have also been observed chasing other players away from these and other areas.

[Special Task Force]

We have been actively pursuing players who use illegal means to camp NM since October 2006.

However, many such players would simply create a new account, level up their character and continue with the activities which got them banned in the first place. The habitual mass exclusions that were taking place were losing their effect, so we decided to increase the frequency of these. This resulted in the increase in the number of groups of players that no longer directly violate the rules, but would still camp on certain areas, preventing other players from enjoying the game. For this reason, we are directly targeting these problem groups and we plan to continue to take action against them on a monthly basis.

Players announcing the sale of valuable items at Aht Urhgan Whitegate.

Certain characters constantly announce the sale of valuable items through shouts next to Aht Urhgan Whitegate. This certainly points to the fact that your activities have not made a dent in those problem players that swarm NMs.

[Special Task Force]

We have confirmed that the selling of Item Lot Tickets is indeed the work of the players which we mentioned above. We will be taking action as of this month. We have also set up a Special Task Force address. You may contact us and inform us of any such activities if you see them happening within the game. We will investigate any such activities and take the appropriate action.

Illegal Fishing

Many characters can be observed making automated movements along the bodies of water of Vana'diel. Their numbers have decreased, but there are still several of them moving from area to area and continuing their activities. You can even see them within the towns now.

[Special Task Force]

We have implemented a plan that addresses the issue of illegal fishing many times within a month, unlike other issues we also deal with. Also, we do believe that the number of such characters has largely decreased after the introduction of the Goblin Bounty Hunter.

However, while this has had the desired effect on such players, we have also confirmed that it has taken a toll on those who simply enjoy fishing normally.

We are currently investigating ways to keep this plan in effect, maximizing the effect on players breaking the rules, while minimizing the effect against players who fish and play normally.

We also have the means to take action against almost all characters that take part in illegal fishing activities. While they may return with new accounts, we are committed to increasing the frequency of our actions against these characters and aim to reduce the overall numbers of such characters within the game.

About characters which sell Quest Items frequently

There are a lot of characters selling quest reward items for much less than they are worth and in large quantities as well. As a result, the market has changed and it has become difficult for normal players to sell their items. While action was taken in order to correct the problem, the announcement was made after the measures were in place, causing a lot of confusion among players

[Special Task Force]

After investigating this issue, it was determined that a certain group gathering items after repeatedly doing a quest would give the items to a single character, who in turn who would put the items up for auction. It was also determined that a number of these characters within these groups were using illegal means to move their characters in FINAL FANTASY XI. This has been taken care of.

Also, announcing changes made to quests after they had been enacted has become policy in order to deter other groups from causing further problems. While this may have caused some confusion among our players, we will try and avoid this in our future efforts.
After enacting these changes to the quests, we have observed a marked decrease in the number of items being repeatedly put up for sale. We are aware that this same problem may occur with other quests and we are keeping a close eye to make sure things are under control.

Real Money trading

Real Money Traders should be punished, but it is unclear how players who obtain Gil are handled. The official announcement was not clear on this. There are a lot of voices in the community which say that they have bought Gil from RMT groups but were not punished for their actions.

[Special Task Force]

We are aware that the characters that farm Gil, use illegal programs to camp spots and cause trouble with other players are affecting the game-play of our users. In order to keep these under control, catching *Hunters who gather Gil is definitely a priority on our task list.

However, we are also aware of the fact that RMT would not exist if it were not for the existence of people who buy Gil. For this reason, we have decided to enact stricter standards against those players who choose to obtain Gil through illegal means. Please be fair and do not encourage RMT by purchasing Gil from these groups.

*Hunters: Characters which kill NM, clear quests and obtain items over and over again with the sole purpose of gathering Gil which is then handed off to the RMT groups.

[terraflarex]

I love the goblin bounty hunter.

[Kyreth]

Always nice having something like this to read on a Friday morning. Relaxing, even.

[Rocl]

You missed 2 pages, lol.

2.Half Year Results

Our Actions

The Special Task Force has taken action against various "RMT sites" and characters using illegal means to play the game during this past year. We have focused on the following two issues.

1.Action against RMT sites.
Identifying RMT site vendors and then freezing the Gil in those accounts.
2.Characters using illegal means to play the game
Most characters which hand off Gil to the RMT sites use illegal means to move within the game or hunt NM. Stopping these characters puts a damper on the flow of Gil into RMT sites, keeping them from pursuing their activities. Additional goals have been set to curb the amount of harassment being done by such characters towards our normal players.

Results

[RMT Sites]


Most of the investigation and actions focused on the most prominent RMT sites. As a result, the number of active sites has been reduced from 150 sites (estimated in November 2006) to roughly a third of their original number. We are continuing to enact counter-measures against smaller sites that were able to get past our original investigation.

http://www.playonline.com/pcd/topics...45/1945_16.jpg

[Characters using illegal means to play the game]

http://www.playonline.com/pcd/topics...45/1945_17.jpg

1." Characters using illegal means to play and lay claim on monsters
As of February 2007, the number of such characters has dwindled to roughly 1/6th of the original tally compared to November 2006. The number of accounts which we have had to take action against has decreased as a result of the counter measures being enacted by the Special Task Force. We believe that this is a definite sign that we are getting results.

2." Characters using illegal means to move in the game"
We identified an increase in characters using illegal means to move within the game in order to complete certain quests repeatedly. As of January 2007 we effected a mass banning to help bring this situation under control. We have also introduced technical safeguards within the quests themselves to also help combat the situation. Recently we have observed a marked decrease in the number of groups doing quests repeatedly which has resulted in a subsequent decrease of characters using illegal means to travel within the game.

3." Characters using illegal means to automatically play the game"
We have observed an increase of characters using illegal means to play the game automatically as of February. We are still unsure what effect our activities are having against these users. We will keep our players updated on the situation and continue our efforts to combat these individuals.

3.Future Plans

Due to our actions against the process of obtaining Gil and flow of Gil used by RMT groups, we have seen a marked decrease in the number of FINAL FANTASY XI related RMT sites. However, there are still sites that continue to exist. Until these sites are completely stopped, we can not say that the characters associated with these sites causing problems within the game have been completely wiped out.

We will continue to combat RMT and other illegal activities in our investigations. Especially in the case of players using illegal means to run through the game, we are considering new and innovative ways to catch and control such actions.

We will also continue to focus our efforts on the Hunters within the game, since we believe that they play a pivotal role in the RMT structure.

Until now we haven't had a chance to inform you, the players, of our actions and thoughts on the current situation. We do however plan to keep our community informed of Special Task Force actions and comments in releases such as this one on a regular basis from now on.

As a result of the Special Task Forces' actions, we believe we have started to affect the Vana 'diel economy and bring it back under control.
We hope to continue our efforts, cooperating with our development team and other departments in order to bring an effect on the game that is not a disadvantage to our users.

We will pursue our quest for the creation and maintenance of a healthy and fun FINAL FANTASY XI community. Thank you all for your cooperation and understanding.

4.Contacting the Special Task Force

We have prepared a contact point where you may submit any findings of illegal activities within FINALFANTASY XI (including RMT related activities and illegal third party tools) Please be sure to include the following when submitting your reports.

Reporting Illegal Activities

-The world where you observed the activity
-Area Name
-Date
-The name of the character(s) involved in the activity.

Reporting RMT sites and Sites which offer illegal third party tools

Please submit all reports to the Special Task Force at the following links
[PlayOnline Viewer]
PlayOnline>> Service & Support>> E-mail Support>>Report to Special Task Force

[FINAL FANTASY XI Official Website]
Report to Special Task Force

[Akiyama]

Nice, Rocl.

[terraflarex]

I'll give it up to SE, they might not have completely removed gilsellers, but they have definitely dropped the total number of them, and they can't make nearly as much money as they used to. Consequently, some players also have trouble making money now also, but that's the nature of the beast I guess. Shame I didn't know about that special task force contact point, bunch of gilsellers on remora were trying to sell velocious belt (sp? rare/ex speed belt you know wtf it is!) yesterday.

[rithridan]

So they only just made the "report to STF" button in the playonline viewer? Nice, the one time that I called a GM on a typical dsghkjikdsd GS in sky (Gilgameshers should know who I mean, though I think he's now part of the group in sea) and he told me to use the playonline viewer to report it to the STF using service&support etc.etc. So I log off to report it and could not find anything remotely resembling that option. Figures they implement it about a year after introducing the STF...

[Hawky]

You missed 2 pages, lol.

hehe thanks, guess the morning time made me miss out on the arrow

[terraflarex]

They probably didnt make an option to directly contact them before because they knew they had a metric ton of issues to deal with when the task force was established

[HAcoreRD]

I'll give it up to SE, they might not have completely removed gilsellers, but they have definitely dropped the total number of them, and they can't make nearly as much money as they used to. Consequently, some players also have trouble making money now also, but that's the nature of the beast I guess. Shame I didn't know about that special task force contact point, bunch of gilsellers on remora were trying to sell velocious belt (sp? rare/ex speed belt you know wtf it is!) yesterday.

It's progress, the impact they made is as it should've been from the start. I remember when I started FFXi, Leaping boots were like 150,000 gil. It was laughable back in November as with the amount of gil in flow, with less around, every gil truly counts.

SE's on the right path, pity it took so long.

[Popeh]

Agreed.

Botters still exist, RMT still exists but at least it's on the decline. I'm pretty sure that if it wasn't for the task force that this game would be all about botting and RMT now and any legitimate player would of had enough and left.

It's still not perfect. It probably never will be, but when your linkshell starts claiming 1/6 HNM's Vs 1/50 HNM's it's a sign that things are getting better.

[Epical]

It's nice that they're smelling the proverbial WAKETHEFUCKUP coffee, but a lot of that shit doesn't even matter lol.

Baby steps... baby steps.

[Hanyoko]

More witches!

There are two methods to contact. Via the website contact form and the POL viewer.

Though something I've seen an increasing trend is auto-leveling services. For example in Mount Z. small pack of melee hiding in a corner and within the exp gain circle are some blms nuking stuff. I wonder if that counts as STF material.

*edit* i cant wait to submit that shouter. You know the Jibjrgjb like name thats all "want your sky/sea gear! send /tell"

[Thistle]

However, we are also aware of the fact that RMT would not exist if it were not for the existence of people who buy Gil.

Good. I hate it when people forget (or ignore) that side of the issue.

[razorcat]

"We have confirmed that the selling of Item Lot Tickets is indeed the work of the players which we mentioned above. We will be taking action as of this month. We have also set up a Special Task Force address. You may contact us and inform us of any such activities if you see them happening within the game. We will investigate any such activities and take the appropriate action."

So call that task force every time people are shouting to sell? This should be interesting.

[Jackyl]

1." Characters using illegal means to play and lay claim on monsters

Assuming SE can detect bots - if they assigned a GM to every server for just 1 month and temp/perma banned every bot claim in Dragon's Aery and Behemoth's Dominion (it's fun being an optimist), the number of players "using illegal means to lay claim on monsters" sure would go down quick. 8)

[grover]

"We have confirmed that the selling of Item Lot Tickets is indeed the work of the players which we mentioned above. We will be taking action as of this month. We have also set up a Special Task Force address. You may contact us and inform us of any such activities if you see them happening within the game. We will investigate any such activities and take the appropriate action."

So call that task force every time people are shouting to sell? This should be interesting.

I'm pretty sure they are referring to the shouts you hear to buy the rights to lot on something. Kitty pants, sea torques, etc...

[Angelsin]

I think everybody would be more impressed with the STF if they knew of botters in HNM LS's that were banned.

[Hapernack]

Players announcing the sale of valuable items at Aht Urhgan Whitegate.

Certain characters constantly announce the sale of valuable items through shouts next to Aht Urhgan Whitegate. This certainly points to the fact that your activities have not made a dent in those problem players that swarm NMs.

[Special Task Force]

We have confirmed that the selling of Item Lot Tickets is indeed the work of the players which we mentioned above. We will be taking action as of this month. We have also set up a Special Task Force address. You may contact us and inform us of any such activities if you see them happening within the game. We will investigate any such activities and take the appropriate action.

So basically we contact them about the morons in whitegate sitting all day shouting about sales of Novio and Novia earrings and they'll go get them? Sweet!

[grover]

Players announcing the sale of valuable items at Aht Urhgan Whitegate.

Certain characters constantly announce the sale of valuable items through shouts next to Aht Urhgan Whitegate. This certainly points to the fact that your activities have not made a dent in those problem players that swarm NMs.

[Special Task Force]

We have confirmed that the selling of Item Lot Tickets is indeed the work of the players which we mentioned above. We will be taking action as of this month. We have also set up a Special Task Force address. You may contact us and inform us of any such activities if you see them happening within the game. We will investigate any such activities and take the appropriate action.

So basically we contact them about the morons in whitegate sitting all day shouting about sales of Novio and Novia earrings and they'll go get them? Sweet!

I don't think this means things like Novio/Novia that you can bazaar. I think they are referring to shouts to lot on Rare/Ex items.

Dasfasdgasdg: {W. Abj. Legs} {Byakkos Haidate} {D. Abj. Body} {Cast Lots} {Do you need it?} {/tell}

That kinda crap.