FFXI Virtual Theft

[6souls]

This made the front page of yesterday's St. Paul/Minneapolis' newspaper Pioneer Press.

http://extras.mnginteractive.com/liv...irtual_300.jpg
When a virtual crook struck this gamer, he called real cops

His virtual friendship betrayed when hard-won treasures are stolen, one online role-player finds scant justice in vanquishing his foe.


BY JOHN BREWER
Pioneer Press
Article Last Updated: 02/01/2008 12:08:51 AM CST

Sots was gone.

And not just Sots, but also his enfeebling earrings, his blessed trousers - even the faerie piccolo.

For video gamer Geoff Luurs, 20, the looting of his player account in Final Fantasy XI was unimaginable.

Luurs, formerly of Blaine, collected jewels, charms and rare coins - some 50 items - over four years while playing FFXI, an online role-playing game where he adventured as Sots, a tiny magician.

Worse yet, Luurs suspected a fellow gamer and friend by the character name of Ayri had emptied him of treasure worth 75 million Gil, the currency used to measure success within the game.

"I was upset, but not so much over the items. I was more upset that it was a friend, someone I trusted," he said.

Luurs decided to get justice and took his virtual beef to Blaine police.

He told them Ayri could make real money, he said about $3,800, from selling the loot to gamers who would rather pay for it than play for it.

Luurs got the figure from ige.com, a site where gamers buy and sell virtual goods with real currency. In online gaming, there's a big market for players who'd rather buy powerful characters and tools than spend months or years toiling at killing monsters and going on quests.

So, would police charge Ayri with theft?

No.

Investigators said points earned in games are devoid of monetary value. So if Ayri didn't steal any value, he didn't commit a crime.

Luurs still insists his Gil were worth something.
"The people I play with have spent years of their life getting it. This is their hobby. Some people build model planes, some people build rockets. This is just what we do," Luurs said.

He's not the only one to think that way.

"What happened here is somebody stole almost $4,000 and got away cold," said Joshua Fairfield, an associate professor of law at Washington and Lee University in Virginia.

He said he thinks if the monetary value of the goods had been higher and if a corporation instead of individuals had been involved, cops would have investigated.

"This is just a matter of zeros," Fairfield said. "The first time IBM loses $10 million, we're going to see some police action."

The money is there online. Industry observers estimate the 30 million or so gamers around the world turn over about $2 billion in real money for virtual goods each year. If all of the wealth across all of the multiplayer online games were turned into hard currency, that virtual world would have a gross domestic product of $28 billion.

"So the argument that a magic sword isn't real, that doesn't make sense to me," said Fairfield, himself a gamer. "You can ask the question, why would somebody buy that? But you can't say it's not worth real money."

Regulations governing gaming differ by country and culture. In South Korea, for example, where gamers can achieve celebrity status, theft of virtual goods is a property crime. In China, the government has busted and sentenced dozens of virtual thieves since 2003.

Fairfield said it's just a matter of time before the United States does the same.

The government has just begun looking at online wealth to figure out if it can be taxed. If it can be, the thinking is legislation will have to be stepped up to protect virtual goods because the government has assigned the goods a value.

For gamers, though, the value goes beyond money.

"These games are enormously social. These are groups of real people making real friendships," said Fairfield. "That is why virtual property is valuable. It's the fact that these items have social value. You have them, your friends want them, and that makes it extra cool. We don't buy cars just to get around - we buy cars to impress the neighbors."

Mia Consalvo, an associate professor of telecommunications at Ohio University, said crafting legislation to help gamers will be difficult.

"The government hasn't caught up with how online players think and feel about gaming," she said. "You really have to put in a lot of grind time to achieve things, get items. It is theft to the person involved because all of your time that you put into gaining that stuff is just gone."

"How do you relate that kind of loss to somebody who hasn't had that experience?"

In FFXI, about 500,000 players have to help each other to protect the virtual world of Vana'diel, a planet besieged by destructive beastmen.

"So you're sort of this group that is helping each other," said Consalvo. "That's really powerful to feel wanted and valued. If you do your job well, people respect you."

And it's the loss of status and respect that makes online theft - which is in no way uncommon - so hard on its victims.

But with an estimated 30 million online gamers worldwide, a groundswell could erupt to help change things, said Julian Dibbell, author of several books about online culture.

"I'm not surprised that's where the (Blaine) cops went with it," he said of the decision not to pursue charges. "Whereas if they (the thieves) had walked into the kid's garage and stole his snowmobile," they'd do something.

Blaine police said there was nothing they could do for Luurs.

"We cannot validate any actual dollar loss," said Aaron Herzog of the department. "(Luurs) understands that and knows it."

Luurs said he never really expected the police to help him.

"It doesn't hurt to try. Maybe if there's enough cases where it happens, maybe they can help somebody in the future," he said.

But that didn't mean he gave up on getting payback.

"I tried to (talk to him); he never responded," said Luurs of his suspect.

So Luurs went after Ayri.

In a world where friends are everything, Luurs contacted other players to tell them what he thought Ayri had done.

"I notified people on his new server. He got kicked out of the activities he was in," Luurs said. "I got what little justice I could."

He also got back the character Sots, but his gear was gone.

Luurs replaced most of his missing items with the help of friends, including his girlfriend, a fellow FFXI player he met online and just moved in with in Boston.

But he said one thing is harder to restore.

"That trust that was there is not there anymore," he said. "My girlfriend doesn't even have my account information anymore, and I live with her."

John Brewer can be reached at 651-228-2093, or at [email protected].

HE WAS ROBBED - VIRTUALLY

What Luurs' missing items are worth in Gil, the currency used to measure success within the Final Fantasy XI game:

Vulcan's staff: 430,000 Gil. Signed by Caige.

Neptune's staff: 425,000 Gil. This item was signed by Haruo and cannot be replaced because he does not play anymore.

Errant Houpelande: 50,000 Gil

Enfeebling earring: 1.5 million Gil

Sorcerer's ring: 700,000 Gil

Prism cape: 450,000 Gil

Herald's gaiters: 20,000,000 Gil. Nearly impossible to replace because of rarity and difficulty to obtain.

Faerie piccolo: 40,000 Gil.

Blessed mitts: 200,000 Gil

Blessed trousers: 200,000 Gil

21 Ancient Beast coins: 210,000 Gil

Peacock charm: 1.8 million Gil

Hedgehog bomb: 700,000 Gil

Total value of all 50 items: 75,913,000 Gil

http://www.twincities.com//ci_8134692?I ... cities.com

[Kimiko]

How hard is it for people to understand this one simple concept?

DON'T GIVE OUT YOUR ID/PASS!

edit: I'd be more concerned that the thief in question had access to his CC information than 70 million gil worth of virtual currency.

[Eanae]

Giving out passwords, idiots, etc.

[ronin sparthos]

Vigilante Justice, i say.

[Charismatic]

They really had nothing better to write about, huh?

[ronin sparthos]

People die playing MMOs, people kill others over sports.... whats new.

[6souls]

They really had nothing better to write about, huh?

the fact that account stealing is getting this much attention is a positive, though. I wish that they would have listed the servers involved. I've seen the name Sots before, I just don't know where.

[BerenTebogo]

Was a well-written article, we can play the usual card about account ID that I love to play, but he didn't whine on BG, he did what he could, I see no harm in praising that.

Like it was said, any more publicity to account safety is good publicity, in my opinion.

[Tormentormike]

They really had nothing better to write about, huh?

the fact that account stealing is getting this much attention is a positive, though. I wish that they would have listed the servers involved. I've seen the name Sots before, I just don't know where.

This was posted somewhere else on these forums, he posts here as well. Has the sig with "Sots obtains a Ridill" and no jobs close to wearing it >.>

Edit : His topic is a few threads down, "To a Former Friend".

[Alimzor]

it started on the Titan server

Hi Sots

The guys has two characters: Geneyus and Sots

[Tajin]

Was a well-written article, we can play the usual card about account ID that I love to play, but he didn't whine on BG, he did what he could, I see no harm in praising that.
Like it was said, any more publicity to account safety is good publicity, in my opinion.

That and I get funny vibes whenever some "serious" newspaper writes about videogames, they way the article is written is pure comedy.

And not just Sots, but also his enfeebling earrings, his blessed trousers - even the faerie piccolo.

:nikkei:

[Zansho]

Was a well-written article, we can play the usual card about account ID that I love to play, but he didn't whine on BG, he did what he could, I see no harm in praising that.

Like it was said, any more publicity to account safety is good publicity, in my opinion.

I agree. However, he set himself up for this hacking by giving out his information. WHY DO PEOPLE DO THIS?
I'll never understand.

[Tajin]

Boo he did post here :<

What do we do as evolved animals when faced with deception and failure?


FUCK YOU SATH!

[BerenTebogo]

Boo he did post here :<

What do we do as evolved animals when faced with deception and failure?


FUCK YOU SATH!

:nikkei: :nikkei: :nikkei: :nikkei: :rocl: :nikkei: :nikkei: :nikkei: :nikkei:

[Tajin]

:ashira: :ashira:

[Thevaultdweller]

Wasn't that the guy who spent his points on a Ridill when his WAR was level 12 or something?

Edit: Yes it was--Didn't see the topic below this one.

[Sesshoumaru]

hmm hmmm!

some one who had their account hacked go to NY Times and let them know about it!

Brb gotta go make a call to the NY Times, point them to a story maybe they will bite lol. It sure as hell is way more interesting and illegal then this whole Sots thing. People eat up the whole Hacked / phish / virus thing. I wonder if NY Times is still open this late...

[Altron]

I read that this morning too and knew I seen that name somewhere before.

[Rufio]

Oh, God! Not his Faerie Piccolo!

[Sesshoumaru]

Recently the player community of FFXI has been plagued by malicious acts by Hackers. Many popular FFXI fan sites have been the target of these attempts. Even when playing the game it is possible for these characters hiding behind the anonymity of the web to try and lure unsuspecting players into visiting sites where there computers and then FFXI accounts can then be compromised. While I am not the spoke person for the players who suffered from these attacks I thought perhaps it would be of interest to those at the NY Times and the public in general.

What occurs to a compromised account can be found in the story by JOHN BREWER of the Pioneer Press (St. Paul,Minneapolis). While not exactly the same situation of those who were the target of internet hackings, as the person in the story actually divulged his information on his own, it is very similar in that once these criminals steal your FFXI account information they strip your account of any valuable items and then place the game character itself into a form of internet slavery. While enslaved these accounts perform deeds and actions in the game that would lead to the account being banned under the terms of service (ToS) of Square Enix. To a person who is part of the FFXI community, many people have invested over 4 years of work into their characters, having ones account hacked and stolen is a kin to an artist having over four years of their artworks stolen with very little chance of every recovering those works.
With over 30,000,000 people worldwide in the massive multiplayer online role playing game community (MMO) it is almost assured that any help, or even any attention that is brought to this serious issue will be much appreciated.

Sent to the NY times, doubt they will bother but hey even a small blob buried on what ever page would be cool.

However since I didn't get hacked it would probably be best for some one who did to notify their major news papers. Hell I'd even think it be worth it to go to that "Shame on you" show." I have seen much less interesting/ important things on that new segment then this.

Feel free to tear this apart, but only if you bother to do a better write up to send in, other wise I really wouldn't care what you say.

Edit: lol got this auto response:

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