Warning: Proud Beard

[Yugl]

I think it's even more wrong to put paying customers through the hassle of being banned, freaking out, having to call SE's questionable at best C&S department, and wait for them to possibly reinstate their account. If this sort of shit happens to a legitimate player, they should, at the very least, waive the monthly fee for that account for the month it happened on. That would be good customer service.

Not like SE would know anything about that

People complain and bitch about SE's customer service for a reason: it really IS that bad.

Well it's either that or ban a handful of RMT (Not enough to make a difference). Look at how many people they ban per month then tell me they can find that many RMT by looking through each case individually. If they did utilize this approach, RMT character creation would rival that of character deletion. In this case, SE barely addresses the problem of RMT.

However, I am not suggesting bans for trial accounts NPCing crytals is good. NPCing a crystal within 14dys of FFXI is not a unrealistic or strange occurrence. Yet, at the same time, individual case analysis is too slow to work. The solution? A general means of tracking RMT with the ability to return characters immediately. Will a generalized approach his regular players? Obviously. There is almost no means of making the distinction between a normal player and a RMT (Hell, some HNMLS players RMT gil) on a generalized base. Nor is it practical to analyze case by case. In short, generalized concepts work to promote swift bans while returning characters sorts out the serious players.

[Deimos]

i also want to post a warning abuot proud beard. last nite the Eiherjar ls I created was trying our 3rd try on odin and we needed a few more people so i invited proud beard cuz he has alwys seemed like a cool guy whne i sell my wildgrass 2 him. he alwys gives me a good price evne tho he always makes sure i kno that he has a no refund polisy for armor but i never buy armor anyway lol.

neway odin is rly hard but this tiem we managed 2 win, and e body dropped!!!! I made this ls just so tht i could get ebody so i was so excted to see it drop so i could finaly get teh best armor 4 my beastmastr. i only lotted 100 but it shuldnt have been a big deal cuz every1 was supposed 2 pass 4 me. they all knwo that the ls rules r that the leadr (me lol) gets everything first. but proud beard didnt pass even tho every1 was telling him to pass and kept yelling at him and doing <call5> n stuff. i thot he prolly just went afk 2 taek a sh*t or smth lol. but then rite b4 i shuld have got the e body he ninja lotted it and beat me and stole my ebody!!!

now look @ him:

http://steam-punk.net/ffxi/proud_beard.jpg

he wont answer my tells at all and i know he isnt afk cuz i watchd him and he keeps talking to Sylqclkjasd and Sylcvuilasr and Sylrualdxr. also now he only gievs me half as much gil 4 wildgrass wtf. so every1 should be rly careful about asking proud beard 2 come to yr events hes not as cool as u think.

[Mistress Stowastiq]

Thanks for the heads up Kaeko.
If it is true it might be because the activity itself looks a bit odd. It might depend also how long he waited and who he spoke to before selling the crystal.
If he sold other drops he got or just immediately went to sell it without interruption or conversation in chat.
If he spoke to friends in game and said that he was just doing it to test the STF, it might also get him in trouble.

Most newbies I meet have to learn to sell things to proud beard and they learn by asking.
If the STF was to consider it a seasoned player on a new account instead of a newbie, he would have to wonder why the player did the activities in the order he did them in. Most experienced players would spend more time farming or sell all drops if they didn't mule them to a main with high fame. Just one crystal is unusual.

Another factor is he could have been lumped in with another player's report to STF. If you are trying to write names down for a STF report on rmt gilgardeners, it is possible to mistake a name if its not altogether obvious, especially if he was in a cluster of rmt at the time.

I think if he got the crystal from a Guild NPC after dialog, or after speaking to the new player npc, then banned, it would be more worrisome for legit players.

RMT likely also test the system to see how far they can get and continue with what works.

In the pov of a GM, how suspicious/legit would the player look?

[Cesaria]

Well I'm just in the middle of harvesting my plants... mostly sandy/windy mules... one in bastok but I never sell to the Galka cos I forget he's there (always go into choco stable). Mules have "proper" names, account's been active well over a year and a half and is usually logged in (I craft, bazaar, equip store on it as I'm forever too lazy to mule switch on Ces) - sends gil to my main character. Mules are mixed between level 1 and level 5-10ish depending on how bored I've got in the past on them, all have some event gear on them... let's see if that sets off any banning flags.

Isn't it ridiculous that I'm actually WORRIED doing this?

[Gwynplaine]

I don't see any proof. Just some crummy internet hearsay and a bunch of credulous people. POID.

[WyldFyre]

That's been in the TOS forever.

Wrong.

I think it was added in before/during/after their inflation buster of '05.

[Therin]

Proud Beard stole my E.Body

That was great, A+.

[Yugl]

Wrong.

I think it was added in before/during/after their inflation buster of '05.

So how is that not "forever"?

[Milton]

-

[Kaeko]

Wasn't the story based on a trial account?

I thought it was well established that this likely doesn't apply to normal accounts so while this is a nice test, it's generally already understood that you'd be safe.

I probably shouldn't have posted this in its own thread but too late now.

[Mistress Stowastiq]

Wasn't the story based on a trial account?

I thought it was well established that this likely doesn't apply to normal accounts so while this is a nice test, it's generally already understood that you'd be safe.

I probably shouldn't have posted this in its own thread but too late now.

Kaeko your credibility at least has the command to draw people's attention to the subject. I don't think it was a bad idea to post it.

[Kaeko]

Also, I know this may sound like an attempt to save face, but when you post something like this, it's not about being wrong or right necessarily, but to draw attention and possibly debunk or verify the OP.

(I'd like to be right obviously though).

[Yugl]

Well that new player I asked hasn't returned yet, so it's verified for now Kaeko. Then again, you can never "verify" a fact, only uphold it's validity temporarily.

[WyldFyre]

Then again, you can never "verify" a fact, only uphold it's validity temporarily.

k, let me know when water stops being wet & two plus two no longer equals four.

[Yugl]

k, let me know when water stops being wet & two plus two no longer equals four.

All of mathematics is a definition. I could easily suggest that two is the quantity of five and make that statement false. If you want to continue this conversation though, I suggest you take it to PMs instead of derailing the topic.

[NikeahOrazu]

k, let me know when water stops being wet & two plus two no longer equals four.

And everyone knows 2+2=fish

[ringthree]

Also, I know this may sound like an attempt to save face, but when you post something like this, it's not about being wrong or right necessarily, but to draw attention and possibly debunk or verify the OP.

(I'd like to be right obviously though).

I don't know if you are necessarily wrong though. The situation appears to have been at least partially resolved by SE without their mention. It also appears people are getting their accounts back. When you posted this thread it was still unresolved.

Your warning was well timed and may have helped some people. You also may have fallen onto some of the other conditions for auto-banning even if the explanation you posted wasn't exactly correct.

[Mizango]

Agreed. If this helped anyone, anywhere get a bs ban lifted then im all for it.

I mean, Im glad I never attempted to trade with this NPC, there have been times were I almost did because of a dare but holy shit.

[aalryn]

k, let me know when water stops being wet

Water stops being wet at about 0' C

[NikeahOrazu]

Water stops being wet at about 0' C

But isn't it not water then I believe the technical term is 'ice'