Another Crack at the Dev Team

[Tarage]

And before the likely 'They are developers, they don't have the time to deal with our silly questions' defense arrises, let me simply say this. I am attending a college specifically geared towards the Video Game Industry. I've had to be a part of the process for designing, marketing, and coding an actual game. Yeah, it was a lot of work, and yeah, I didn't have a whole lot of free time, but I'm sure I could have been far more helpful than SE. In fact, this has been a lesson for me of how NOT to be a developer.

[Myrrial]

Hope you got the bit I edited in. But if not its not a big deal; as the heart of the question still stands. I'm sure it will just get ignored anyways.

Keep the thread going. I keep getting insta-KO'd by Battle Dance the moment I get back up in Campaign anyways. Need someone to talk to.

Edit: In regards to development. My old roomie went to school for the same thing and now works in MMO development for Flying Labs (they do the Pirates of the Burning Seas game). One huge problem that game is facing from what my friend there says is that the people at the top of the leadership ladder make a strong effort to listen to the players but that they listen to all the wrong ones. Obviously SE has to weed out a lot of bad suggestions too. And I'm sure that they do get flooded with absolutely stupid requests. Unfortunately SE has, for some reason, decided to at least look like they just want to ignore everyone.

The sad part is that at these FanFests they insist to write them and that they -do- read our e-mails and that they -do- care. But their actions hardly show that. Especially in these interviews. The sad thing is that if they say one thing even remotely interesting we'll be pleased even if 99% of our thoughts and concerns get ignored. Because that 1% information is more than we usually see. And it continues to give us a false sense of hope that maybe someday we'll get our answers.

[Darkhavans]

I'm gunna be fucking pissed if they give us more "Oh, you'll have to figure that out yourself." or "We've given you all the information you need." Someone will die...

[dendryte]

No. But SE -does- need to understand theres a problem and that they can help. Their software does -nothing- to protect us. Where are the security questions? Where is the number pad with a pin number that has the keys show up at different points each time you log in? MAPLESTORY is more secure than FFXI. A free Korean piece-of-crap MMO figured that out. People hijack FFXI accounts because they -know- that SE doesn't care and does nothing to protect those accounts. SE needs to understand that if they man-up they can do something about this.

I agree with the motivation behind your comments, but if an attacker is able to execute arbitrary code on a computer system, then such mechanisms are easily defeated. You can make the television harder to remove, but your door is still unlocked.

A secondary password (a password or security question or something similar) required for viewing or making changes to account information would be a good addition in my opinion, as users access that information less frequently and could always make required changes from a secure system, PS2, etc.

[Sunrider]

Hope you got the bit I edited in. But if not its not a big deal; as the heart of the question still stands. I'm sure it will just get ignored anyways.

I got it now.

I'm almost sure my original questions will be ignored, but I figure if I bug 'em through enough forums, something will eventually get through. Much like zerging, it's a numbers game.

[bombard]

I laughed way harder at Lordender's post than I should have.

as do I. He's always cracked me up also. lol.

[Myrrial]

I admit that I do not have a powerful understanding of most computer related things. But the Maple Story "I need your PIN number." thingie seemed nice to me. Its a transparent window that "floats above" the application and has you point-and-click in your numbers with your mouse. If you refresh that page, the numbers are jumbled around. I think the entire point is that you don't ever actually hit anything on your keyboard so its added resistant to being keylogged or whatever. I have no idea -why- on earth anyone would want to hijack a Maple Story account. But I'm sure there are people who have no idea why folks would want to jack an FFXI account either.

But again, I'm not techno-savvy. My concern is that some form of defensive measure should be in place where there currently isn't one. If I were being paid to come up with a defending structure for MMO security then I would give it more thought. SE more than has the funding and ability to get the job done. What they need from -us- is the information that this change is necessary.

[Tarage]

No. But SE -does- need to understand theres a problem and that they can help. Their software does -nothing- to protect us. Where are the security questions? Where is the number pad with a pin number that has the keys show up at different points each time you log in? MAPLESTORY is more secure than FFXI. A free Korean piece-of-crap MMO figured that out. People hijack FFXI accounts because they -know- that SE doesn't care and does nothing to protect those accounts. SE needs to understand that if they man-up they can do something about this.

I agree with the motivation behind your comments, but if an attacker is able to execute arbitrary code on a computer system, then such mechanisms are easily defeated. You can make the television harder to remove, but your door is still unlocked.

A secondary password (a password or security question or something similar) required for viewing or making changes to account information would be a good addition in my opinion, as users access that information less frequently and could always make required changes from a secure system, PS2, etc.

Thats the wonderful thing though, they can make it a lot harder. So hard that people won't be able to break passwords. How? It's something I learned in my Data Structures class. Most times, when someone wants a password to something, usually something from a hash table, they will spam attempts at it. On a modern computer, this is very easy to do and doesn't take a whole lot of time unless you have a really good hash function. However, with the introduction of a small delay, say... a second or two, you turn a task that could take days into a task that could take years. This is but one thing SE could do to help. They choose not to.

[shukuffxi]

I'd have one single question. I'd ask nothing else:

"When other companies make strives to have a strong connection with their player base, why do you make almost none?"

Asking a few questions 2-3 times a year for weak interviews gets us no where. Getting some kind of thing like the "Five questions a month" officially posted on Playonline.com, and having people at the premiere sites get to pick the questions (better than letting SE pick the random question some idiot will post like "We have a cheese sandwhich now, but where's our peanutbutter sandwhich?")

OK I lied, there would be a second question:

"GIVE US BACK THE TRIBUNE, WITH IT'S INTERESTING STORIES AND NICE PICTURES AND MORE ABOUT VANA'DIEL" :/
Seriously, the tribune was pretty freaking awesome, it had some weak stories, but also some really great ones, and some nice pictures. Vana'diel is a great world setting, it's always interesting to learn more about how things are interconnected and such, and the history.

[Lordender]

I am jaded. At the last Fanfest, I had the opprotunity to talk briefly one on one with Michael Christopher Koji-Fox about the disconect between the players and the developers. I expressed to him that if we would be given the chance to ask five or so questions a month of the Dev team(Like that of what Blizzard is currently doing with Starcraft II), the fan base would feel vastly more connected to the game. He claimed to like the idea a lot, and promised to pass it to Sage Sundi

Either my idea was liked and the Dev team is just being their usual uselessness, or this is another case of SE ignorance. Either way, the lack of answers and idiotic questions such as the now imfamous 'Cheese Sandwich' have caused me to become quite jaded. SE's promises no longer mean anything to me, because I've been lied to so many times. I only play for my friends now, something SE should be thankful for because I believe it is keeping a good chunk of the playerbase here. However, even that won't last forever if things continue this way.

If SE ever wants to be concidered as anything but a joke at customer service, they should take all this to heart. However, that is wishful thinking. It's Ragnarok all over again...

SE doesn't try with their playerbase, time and again its been fail after fail. The only reason why most pissed off people stay with FFXI is because of the friends they made, don't want to start over on a new game, don't like other mmo's out there or have false hope that SE will deliver that homerun patch everyones been waiting for since ToAU ended.

Who remembers when SE told bercus they wanted to do a monthly feedback thing that never happened? I do, its just one of the ways they fail their community. I remember just before I quit the guy that I actually sold my gaiters to(who was japanese) was telling me how his friends have been quitting because they didn't like the expansion, how empty its been since released so its not NA only that are unhappy with SE.

[Stromgarde]

I would be happy if he got it across to SE what a slap in the face the AV video was to the endgame playerbase, since they clearly weren't aware of it at Bercus's interview.

[Myrrial]

If I can make it to the next FanFest I'll make a video in the same style as SE's Absolute Virtue video featuring an endgame group's vague tactics used to take down Bubbly Bernie. Complete with dramatic fade-out and back in to success. Oh, and mocking subtitles because I'm a jerk.

[Dreampainter]

if this AV bs continues on until the next fanfest, I'll make a video parody of the one they released with real players trying to defeat him. Of course the very last clip of the video will not show victory, but what really happens to those who fight AV: death and destruction raining from the sky, along with a scene of AV going from spot to spot while picking off those who dare to Reraise.

[evilpaul]

Ask them why Ninja sucks, please.

[Virtuous Saint]

If I can make it to the next FanFest I'll make a video in the same style as SE's Absolute Virtue video featuring an endgame group's vague tactics used to take down Bubbly Bernie. Complete with dramatic fade-out and back in to success. Oh, and mocking subtitles because I'm a jerk.

You are too cool.

[Myrrial]

I detect sarcasm. But given your name maybe you can help us figure out how to take AV down?

[ronin sparthos]

if this AV bs continues on until the next fanfest, I'll make a video parody of the one they released with real players trying to defeat him. Of course the very last clip of the video will not show victory, but what really happens to those who fight AV: death and destruction raining from the sky, along with a scene of AV going from spot to spot while picking off those who dare to Reraise.

Send them a video with the various character death yells as players die struggling to AV as loud as humanly possible, then your idea would be perfect - end it with a manafonted meteor where everyone makes the death groan in tandem.

"When other companies make strives to have a strong connection with their player base, why do you make almost none?"

This would be funny. I can imagine the pause followed by the rebuttal as to why they have wonderful customer service. "We gave you Nomad Moogles in Selbina and Mhaura, what more do you want? We gave you your cheese sandwich with 1agi and 10hp, what more you want? We gave you Einherjar, with a 3% drop rate on abjurations, what more do you want? We gave you a Hydra with retooled Gavial Mail craftables, what more do you want? We even tossed in 3 HNMs with no purpose and a Sandworm with no drops, WHAT MORE DO YOU WHINY BASTARDS WANT?

"GIVE US BACK THE TRIBUNE, WITH IT'S INTERESTING STORIES AND NICE PICTURES AND MORE ABOUT VANA'DIEL" :/
Seriously, the tribune was pretty freaking awesome, it had some weak stories, but also some really great ones, and some nice pictures. Vana'diel is a great world setting, it's always interesting to learn more about how things are interconnected and such, and the history.

Seriously... the tribune was a wonderful read every time it came out and cleared up alot of things ingame regarding the lore, there was no reason to pull the plug on something GOOD. Fucking cut the stupid linkshell community beta and put the tribune back where it belongs as it was always a fun read. I still dont understand why they ditched the tribune when it was interesting and relatively easy for them to whip up every month or so.

On ingame security, all they need to do is have some security questions in order to change stuff like credit card information/password, ask some questions before allowing players to use the World Transfer Service (seriously, its being ABUSED LIKE FUCK by RMT) like a POL reg key or a security question AND a POL reg key and they would have the beginnings of a roadblock against the RMT abuse. When you call on the phone they ask you for your reg codes right? So do the same or ask that magic security question that is safely stored on THEIR servers.

The excuse that its all on the player to protect themselves is laughable when they claim to be fighting a war against RMT and the war is on the playerbases doorstep. It's time to protect your players. It was nice to see that they posted about the adobe exploit, even though they seriously copy/pasted what Blizzard had up the day before.

Baby steps SE, Baby Steps.

[Lordwafik]

Don't show up to the interview for 2.5 hours, then after 2.5 hours, walk in the door with a "Nidhogg" sign on your head.

[Guitarman]

Don't show up to the interview for 2.5 hours, then after 2.5 hours, walk in the door with a "Nidhogg" sign on your head.

Few things make me laugh out loud, this one did.

[aurik]

Don't show up to the interview for 2.5 hours, then after 2.5 hours, walk in the door with a purple "Nidhogg" sign on your head, sit quietly for an hour, then say "aquarian body" and leave.

Maybe this way they'll understand what camping kings is like.