Preliminary Draft: Petition for change in POL policies

[Eanae]

/sign

[Catrina]

ditto

[Nynaeve]

/sign

[CharlotteW]

just making a personal note here: i think being able to use the registration codes would be one of the more solid ways of increasing account security.

I agree, and it might also deter RMT'd accounts. How many E-Bayers would even think of giving the original registration codes?

Of course, if you're like me and lost some of your codes (lost FFXI and RoZ, have the other 3 expansions though), you're SoL, but oh well.

As for Toxic's comment, maybe just requiring ONE code is sufficient enough. Like your WoTG code. If you lost that already....

EDIT: The quote function fucked up, and I'm too tired to fix it properly.

They use your POL registration code, not your FFXI one(s), AFAIK.

Last time I talked to customer support, they took my CoP, ToAU, and WoTG codes as sufficient proof. I explained to them that the other codes were 5 years old, and lost.

[Spira]

I guess i didnt mention just now.. but i would sign the petition if there one..

meanwhile, everyone can still help by filling out their customer survey form

https://secure.square-enix.com/enqt/e/S ... 007US/html

area to focus on:

"Which parts of the GM Policy are you unsatisfied with? Please select the answer that best applies."
and the section just after it "Please explain in detail the reason(s) you felt unsatisfied. (within 600 characters)"

you have till monday the 24th.

[Lily]

The logical progression of this situation leads to a conclusion that is very disadvantageous to Square Enix. When an account from a legitimate player is comprimised, the account then becomes involved in RMT activities. The Special Task Force in time will eliminate this account. New accounts are stolen in turn, and the process repeats in an endless cycle.

Therefor, from a financial standpoint, doing nothing about this is hurting the company. Customer satisfaction aside, oversight of this issue would be extremelly detrimental to Square Enix.

Petitions rarely work, but of course I'd be happy to sign it!

In the end, the only ppl playing on their servers would be RMT using their own and hacked characters... ;x

Joking aside, I'd sign this.

[Callisto]

I'd sign as well when a final copy is made.

[Eander]

I'd sign fo sho. I'd be ready to /slice if my account got ganked, knowing there was absolutely no way to get it back.

[Falisa]

I'd sign

[Asha]

I would sign this. I would even be willing to pay an extra fee per month if there was a way for SE to take your account info before any issues occurred, and somehow lock your account to you. I liked the steps that Wafik listed on the previous page. I think that it's time for SE to be proactive in account protection as well as getting those accounts back. Maybe even allow a GM to temp ban or lock an account if someone has called to report the thefts in progress. The SSs of GMs doing NOTHING while someone lost what they put so much time into is just disgusting. Even if a GM were to simply send that person to jail and limit losses is something. Show me where to E-sign.

[Stanislaw]

As a person who's been hacked not just once, but twice, I'll sign.

[Silenus]

Great idea; this recent hacking wave has me very nervous about continuing to pay fees to a company that seems indifferent to my online security

[Avilaa]

I'll definitely sign when the petition is released. I also commented on the survey thing they released.. too bad you can only type so much in that though.

[Liquidedust]

Just tell us when the draft becomes finalized and I'll sign it, the recent happenings on account hijacking certainly has me thinking SE seriously need to rethink their account security (well they should have remodelled it a long time ago but better late then never I suppose to save others in the future).

[Airenn]

So... do I just say I'll sign?

Or is there somewhere we need to go to actually sign?

[Bradley]

additionally i just wanna say, for people who either just lurk/don't like to post but do in some part agree with it, i'd appreciate it if you posted a response

Guilty!! If topics were not continually derailed, and intelligent discussions were the norm instead of e-peen comparisons I would probably have posted here before now. Although I admit, I have enjoyed reading BG for a long time.

Seeing friends lose accounts, reading clueless GM discussions, and hearing the Customer Support nightmares, I did the only thing I thought appropriate, and wrote the letter below to SE and to POL. I think the Customer Support Survey inherently provides the "petition" you are looking for. (Depending on the sincerity in improvement by SE). That being said, any attempt to organize individuals into a collective voice gets my support, because that is THE ONLY way, a change will occur.

In my entire professional career I have never seen a company treat its customers the way POL and SE do.

Dear Customer Support:

I am a working professional in the Information Systems field with 17 years of experience. In my spare time, I have enjoyed playing FFXI for the past 3 years. I am writing this letter in an effort to initiate some action on the part of Square-Enix (SE) to address what has become an alarming trend. In recent weeks I have had friends have their account’s compromised by a hacker(s). Their characters gear and items are removed and the character moved to a different server.

I will be first to acknowledge that each user has the responsibility to ensure they provide adequate security for their PC; Anti-Virus software, firewalls, etc. That being said, there are new Trojans and key loggers that such anti-virus software won’t currently detect, and unfortunately, lead to accounts being stolen.

SE has done a wonderful job making a game that people have found enjoyable enough to spend literally years playing. People often have an emotional attachment to their character after spending so much time building and creating them. I know SE is actively creating new player content, and we all eagerly await that, however I feel that one of the biggest threats to the continued success of SE is your security. These attacks do not only affect the player who was compromised, but every player around them. There are numerous community threads discussing not only the problem, but SE’s inability to assist. ( viewtopic.php?f=2&t=27042 ). With the continued popularity of MMORPG’s I am sure that SE would like to create a reputation for providing “the best” gaming experience for gamers, in all aspects.

While I can acknowledge my responsibility to secure my PC, I am appalled at the inability of Customer Support to resolve this issue for players. The most recent example is a player on my server (Remora) named “Mystics”. His account was compromised on Saturday, obviously this was planned knowing that no Customer Support would be available until Monday. Several GM calls were made in an effort to, at a minimum, temporarily suspend the character to prevent irreparable damage. The GM response was simply to contact Customer Support, and no effort was made on the part of the GM to “jail” or temporarily suspend the account. While disappointing, I can understand that a few GM calls on the matter does not necessarily prove sufficient evidence the account was compromised, and therefore makes it difficult to take action.

This player had paid for FFXI for 4 years, played FFXI for 4 years, and in a matter of a couple minutes this was taken away. As suggested by the GM, Mystics contacted Customer Support on Monday December 10th. Customer support was unable to assist him because he could not verify the current CC information, name, and address as input by the hacker. This information was changed 2 days prior. While he could provide ALL of th registration codes, the CC used to pay the account the previous 4 years, the address for the previous 4 years, the Content ID, and the previous password, Customer Support was unable to reset his password and restore his account. The game community now has a thief and a hacker, replacing a long time “customer” of SE, with no recourse to him available. Appalling.

I strongly encourage SE to address these issues to ensure their customers have confidence in the gaming experience SE can provide. Not only for FFXI but future games offered as well. Possible solutions to this may include additional verification of prior CC # and address before changing to a new CC #, allowing users to elect locking the game to a specific machine ID if possible, an additional administrative password used to change the POL password, allow verification of ownership based on historical information, or the registration codes.

As previously stated, I have enjoyed playing FFXI for 3 years, however having been witness time and time again to the unfortunate loss of accounts to hackers, and hearing the Customer Support nightmares. I am losing confidence I will be long time customer of SE. I sincerely hope you aggressively pursue a solution to this growing problem, and determine ways in which valued customers can be retained when their accounts are compromised.

Regards,

[Gunslinger]

Edit: Beat to my point by Bradley, more or less.

While I agree that a change is needed, I highly doubt that they're going to do it based on any sort of user-submitted petition (they probably have some lawyers they pay ludicrous salaries to write them). In fact, I imagine they’re looking into changing some documentation already if their survey is any indication of their intentions.

That said, I respect your effort and wish you the best of luck.

Also to the OP: Like your avatar :D I got to hang out with Cedric and Omar a few times when I was living in Southern Cali… awesome guys, if not a crazy time lol.

In my entire professional career I have never seen a company treat its customers the way POL and SE do.

You’ve never had another company take a dump on you? Lol, I wish I had your customer service luck. I’m sure if you buy 10 random items from different big-box retailers and try to return them without a receipt you’ll get at least one that will give you real SE-like quality. Sadly it tends to be the norm with a lot of big corporate entities, rather than the exception.

[Bradley]

You’ve never had another company take a dump on you? Lol, I wish I had your customer service luck. I’m sure if you buy 10 random items from different big-box retailers and try to return them without a receipt you’ll get at least one that will give you real SE-like quality. Sadly it tends to be the norm with a lot of big corporate entities, rather than the exception.

heh, well.... I may have over stated my opinion. I think "most" companies make a good faith effort to resolve issues or disputes. While I may be upset that Bestbuy will not accept the return of my 52" Plasma, I understand their position in not being able to prove the purchase without a receipt.

I can only assume not allowing account pw's to be changed without current credit card information is based on some legal liability. but that is just a guess..... its just seems that you can throw a mountain of evidence at every Customer Support rep from POL, but because the manual next to him says he is not allowed to change the PW without the current CC information, he can't do a thing. The requests by POL for people to obtain subpoena's are absurd, and clearly an attempt to stonewall.

....I hope I have been lucky, and that SE and POL are the "exceptions" to traditional customer service, their rating of "F" supports that anyway lol

[Trent]

i'd sign

[Rhae]

I'd sign