Big Story from Azeroth: Blizzard needs to shut down WoW PvP...

Only being put here because it's so similar to a lot of my Final Fantasy XI rants (and what's with the damn download times on the update, even BEFORE the free login period begins, SE???)...

Big news in the gaming community this week that Blizzard banned a number of users for using bots in World of Warcraft PvP competition.

... because that number is SIX FIGURES of six-month suspensions.

Various reports put the number at somewhere between 100,000 and 200,000 banned characters (or is it accounts?).

That's 1-2% of the 10 million subscribers WoW has, and, PvP being the sole raison d'etre for a lot of these immature shitheads to play WoW, I would have to think we can add at least that number to the two million or so subscriptions which have fled WoW in the last few months.

Basically, it appears as if the entire PvP metagame (and if it's not all of it, it's a large, large fraction!!!) was based around the bot HonorBuddy, which allows players to farm honor in PvP play without actually committing to PvP.  No engagement is necessary.

They're still looking, but it now appears that this is a problem even an order of magnitude or two above the Salvage bans of 2009, which basically exposed FFXI for what it really was, and set the table for the company to transition to FFXIV.

There's really only two solutions:  Reset ALL PvP in World of Warcraft, or shut it ALL down until gameplay can be rebalanced.

This isn't 1 or 100 accounts.  This is the classic case of "If you owe the bank $100, it's your problem.  Owe the bank $1,000,000, and it's the bank's."

It is now clear that no meaningful PvP play is going on whatsoever on World of Warcraft, so it either needs to be reset or shut down.

This, on the heels of Blizzard actually doing something SE may have tried to do ONCE:  Blizzard won $7,000,000 from a WoW bot maker in court.

I always knew most WoW players were immature little pieces of shit, so none of this surprises me.

Take Your RMT and Pay To Win Shit and GET OFF MY GAME!!!

That took about 30 posts on the XIV Official Forums.

This one might well be a temp unless they realize it's the same guy from the XI forums, at which point I'm probably done there.

We have an RMT apologist on the XIV Official Forums, name Tocsin, I think from the Jenova server.

Goddamn bitch decides he wants to be against RMT, by allowing Square-Enix to sell the gil, making the game Pay to Win!

I'm gonna tell you right now.  I don't think SE has the manpower to start and RMT/P2W operation -- the credits to 2.55 seem to indicate they have no manpower to stop it.

What I hope isn't happening (and what I fear happened in XI) is that SE got a cut of some of the profits to leave them alone.

And it sounds like this piece of shit on the Official Forums would rather see this game decline to Pay To Win status.

Take that shit to MMMRPG XI, shithead!!  We don't need you here!

We've got enough of a problem when communication between players becomes damn near impossible/unfeasible because of talk and shout RMT spam.  We don't need RMT/Pay To Win encouragement here.

Otherwise, this game becomes XI, and it's fucked.  Period.

Hey Draylo, SHUT THE FUCK UP...

You want a great example of why Final Fantasy XI is a dead shell of itself there only to make a few extra bucks for Square-Enix now?

Here's the latest missives from the elitist fuck camp, in response to a Matsui article in the Official Forums...

After a fairly peaceful first page, the fun begins with this post by Olor on page 2:

"Mules are only usable in place of real players in serious content because of 3rd party programs. Frankly, it's part of the "not taking" people problem. The problem boils down to people being selfish though. SE shouldn't let people blatantly brag about cheating with zero consequences, it's certainly doing nothing to help the game. Yeah if the only way to get content done is to use 3rd party programs and have 2 accounts it does nothing to attract and keep new players playing. It's toxic."


That's the idea, Olor.  There's nothing more nor less to say about it.

What these people have been saying is that bots and illegal play are the only realistic manner in which the game ever has been remotely playable.  Without them, there is not only no player-base, but no game.

"I recognize that banning everyone who uses 3rd party tools at this point would annihilate the playerbase - and I know my viewpoints on them are not popular, but there needs to be some action taken so that it doesn't devolve further into "no 3rd party tools? No invite" than it already has."

This is one of the main reasons I don't complain about the current soloable state of Final Fantasy XI.  Because, barring that, you can't play this game without being a Draylo or a Thornyy or some other RMT/3PP piece of shit who needs to get belted up side the face.

"Or they need to just link to windower from the official website and make it clear that in order to play competitively you'll need to use it. The status quo, where spellcast and other 3rd party tools that automate gear changes are officially against the rules but people feel comfortable enough breaking the rules to all but brag they are using it on the official forum... it's not sustainable. Those tools are a big part of what's dividing the playerbase. "



Again, it's a question of what the player-base actually is:  Is it a bunch of cheating pieces of shit who are sustaining a game which needs to be shut down as a legal fraud, or is it a bunch of people who are trying to fight this shit and, because of economic reality, is hamstrung because the game is being built for the cheaters, and perhaps by them as well.

--

As one might expect, Draylo came to town with it:

"Don't speak for me you idiot. Alliance content opens up more challenging fights by design, compared to 6 man (legion was 10x harder than Delve 2.0 at release.) Alliance content lets you include MORE jobs and people to play with. With the current delve it actually penalizes you for bringing anything more than what is necessary to win (three people lol.) Any new person you add that might need to clear the zone for KI or just to have fun is adding 68k HP.... The drops are the exact same as if you went with three people and you have to share all of it. It's hardly me asking for EXCLUSIVE content just because I wanna be special, its asking for fairness. Divine Might was a perfect system but SE didn't follow through."

Here's your "fairness", you piece of shit...

If you believe the way you play the game and the illegal tools you use are that necessary for the game, then you get banned from the game any player who does not use them.  Period.

And, because you are a fucking moron, you don't realize you have the means by which to make that charge.

There is no "fairness" under a system which rewards outright criminal behavior.  It doesn't matter what the system is...

Criminal behavior begets criminal behavior, Draylo.  You and Thornyy, personally, might want to keep that in mind in the near future.

"You sound like a gimp idiot who detests windower and "cheaterz" because you aren't a good player. Nowhere in my posts have I stated I two box or that I cheat, I simply said that you can "trio it with mules". That is hardly saying anything. For your information you don't need "cheatz" to two box, most of the jobs in this game are extremely easy to play like BRD where you cast 4 songs and afk."

You admit it in this paragraph, you fucking jackass...

Being a "good player", in your opinion (and you've made a career on FFXI doing this), requires Windower.

Anyone who, through gear of legal type or illegal type, is not optimized is a "gimp idiot" who "[isn't] a good player".

"So they should remove all the lore and quest from the game because some person quit for FFXIV and is now coming back because that game is boring? Do you know why its boring? EVERYTHING is handed to you, the quests right now are exactly as you say, go to Point A, then B, then get reward. They aren't hard to do, and certainly aren't "time consuming" they take like 10~20 minutes per job or AF quest. The game is more accessible now than it ever has been, you can get to any area incredibly easy."

Why not, if they're going to allow you to have everything in the damn thing handed to you because you have illegal tools and they either won't or can't do anything about it?

This game ain't big enough for you and me, and one of us needs to have serious legal action taken against us for our conduct with respect to Final Fantasy XI, Draylo.

Trust me, Draylo, with your mouth, I can make my half of that happen real good and quick.

And the shit just keeps on coming...

Got another message from Cuddleslave, who promptly deleted her attempt to help work on the test server.

Why, you might ask?

Because, almost instantaneously after her long wait to get the thing downloaded and installed, she's welcomed with screams that Windower is now apparently workable with the test server.

This, on the heels of Square-Enix, in what is either going to be the consummate "It's a trap!" meme moment, or else the admission of what many people have known all along, having players declare which game client(s) the players use...

If there is any accurate subjugation of the temptation that this is a trap to get people to be banned for Windower, I expect PC North American players to fall on about the breakdown that this BluGartr shithead posted on the BG forum.

(Effectively, a mock-up chart of platforms and the like in the form of a pie-graph, where:

• About 1-2% use PS2s
• About 5-7% use XBox 360
• About 10% or so legally use PC's
• A sliver uses the Vita
• and over 80% cheats their fucking asses off with Windower

Interesting side note: BG has it's own survey up on which platform the players use, and 95% of them use a PC for at least one platform of use of the game.

--------

This seems to run about the realm of a lot of the other gaming I do online...

Pangya: Largely have stopped playing for the time being after it seems that you need illegal third-party operations to do anything over there. Hard to want to play when the top players routinely go well over 30-under par.

GSN.com: 35,000 on Lingo -- 22 words in 60 seconds... Yeah, who the fuck do you think you are fooling? And this is for credits which can be made into real prizes!

You know, there are days I almost wish I was still in jail... Too much more of this, and I might well be very soon. Hope I can make it to finish off with Square-Enix for XIII-2 before I either get shot or go postal...

Long Rant II: The concept of "What's Yours Is Mine!"

I guess the source of this long rant is basically examining this blog as a whole, juxtaposed with current events such as the London Riots, as well as several personal observations of people in the area in which I live.

I'm left utterly fucking flabbergasted as to where we have gone as a culture, especially in the last 3-5 years or so.

I guess it starts with a lot of the stuff that I saw in the piece on Internet trolls I've referred to numerous times from the New York Times Magazine.

Well, since that 2008 piece, it's clear that the “Malwebolence” mentioned there has gotten far worse.

“Lulz is watching someone lose their mind at their computer 2,000 miles away while you chat with friends and laugh,” – one anonymous respondent to the interviewer for the piece.

… completely forgetting that there are people who will DIE to your fucking “Lulz”.

(Or is that the point? A death is worth a trillion “Lulz” to you???)

Another incident noted in the Magazine article:

“Sherrod DeGrippo, a 28-year-old Atlanta native who goes by the name Girlvinyl, runs Encyclopedia Dramatica, the online troll archive [on which I do have an article about me]. In 2006, DeGrippo received an e-mail message from a well-known band of trolls, demanding that she edit the entry about them on the Encyclopedia Dramatica site. She refused. Within hours, the aggrieved trolls hit the phones, bombarding her apartment with taxis, pizzas, escorts and threats of rape and violent death. DeGrippo, alone and terrified, sought counsel from a powerful friend.”

She called a person who had this kind of an idea as to what made him tick for stating it out loud after his day-trading went splat for five figures: “The question we have to answer is: How do we kill four [billion] of the world’s six billion people in the most just way possible?”

The next year, he gave a talk to a convention for hackers in San Diego, high on drugs – one which got him in a lot of trouble with the Feds!

But, at the end of the day, the article tends to answer it's own questions about where a lot of this comes from:

“Why inflict anguish on a helpless stranger? It’s tempting to blame technology, which increases the range of our communications while dehumanizing the recipients. Cases like An Hero and Megan Meier presumably wouldn’t happen if the perpetrators had to deliver their messages in person. But while technology reduces the social barriers that keep us from bedeviling strangers, it does not explain the initial trolling impulse. This seems to spring from something ugly — a destructive human urge that many feel but few act upon, the ambient misanthropy that’s a frequent ingredient of art, politics and, most of all, jokes. There’s a lot of hate out there, and a lot to hate as well.”

Well, that destructive urge has only gotten far worse, especially in the last 3-5 years. It is one of the main things I've railed about in- and out-of-game on FFXI, and it applies not only there, but elsewhere on the Internet, as well as in “real life”.

That destructive urge has been cultivated and encouraged in so many people seen as “privileged”, and, more and more, is being loosed in events such as The London Riots and black-on-white feral thuglet violence in cities like Chicago, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Cleveland, and countless other examples of the early vestiges of what will be a Second American Civil War.

(Whether it will be a Class, Race, or Generational War is unclear.)

This is basically the kind of attitude that we have to deal with. This is from a “man” named Jason Fortuny, and is an attitude I've seen countless times in all different fora, not just on the Internet (so it is certainly not unique to him):

“Of course, none of these methods will be fail-safe as long as individuals like Fortuny construe human welfare the way they do. As we discussed the epilepsy hack, I asked Fortuny whether a person is obliged to give food to a starving stranger. No, Fortuny argued; no one is entitled to our sympathy or empathy. We can choose to give or withhold them as we see fit. “I can’t push you into the fire,” he explained, “but I can look at you while you’re burning in the fire and not be required to help.””

If this is the case, then complete “pwnership”, complete OWNERSHIP of one's entire existence is the final goal. Effectively, “What's Yours is MINE!”

“I” can tell “you”:

• Where you can go level

• What NM's you cannot ever hope to have an opportunity to kill

• That you will always suck and never gain the acceptance of the playerbase, so please get off our fucking game

• When you will be allowed peace and quiet

• Where you can be allowed peace and quiet (Often read: at no time and no place!)

• Whether you'll have a place to live when I'm done with you

• Whether you can basically live at all...

The new methodology in life means these little fucking thuglets can control your gaming experience, your Internet experience, what is considered “true” (just try editing Wikipedia once or twice for a good example of that), all the way up to your livelihood and your very life itself!

They want to own your character, computer, game, livelihood, and life!

They can go arson down a 150-year old furniture store in London, taking countless people out of their livelihoods. Two people were arrested (one was 15!!), and, if convicted, I would hope they fucking fry!!

They can do the same to a century-old pub, to the same effect!

And the fact is that THESE FUCKERS DO NOT CARE ANYMORE!

Their lives, absent the abject nihilistic destruction of all around them to make them the most important or most socially preferred in their circles, are OVER. And that's just as prevalent in prominent game-cheaters as it is here – the only difference is the scope of their damage!

And the only way that's going to be answered is in kind. The only way it's going to be answered is to understand that there is no way this is going to end until these people are violently held to account for their actions (and if the law can't do it, then Doug Llewelyn be damned!), else they will win.

Why will simply "taking back London with brooms" not work? Because there's more and more of them every day, and not all of them are insane/nihilistic rioters out to jack every piece of electronics and effectively leave London in fear because they are in control of when the next set of unrest sweeps England!

(An unrest which has already claimed a national-team soccer match and several tournament and league matches, as well as countless millions in damage, including a block-long Sony distribution plant – burned to the ground.)

In FFXI, it is now common belief that the cheating players are the ONLY REASON the game still exists in August of 2011!

In Magic the Gathering, it's believed the cheating players there were the only reason the game took off to the levels of a Professional Tour, with the likes of Mike Long and his ilk stinking up the joint.

That, as more and more people believe either they or a significant amount of the population have no further hope of improvement, that this kind of terrorist action (or the feral black-on-white “wilding” becoming more and more prevalent in the United States' cities) is the only means of advancement, socially or otherwise!

And the thing is: You can no longer control what's going to happen next. They glorify it, they encourage it, they believe it's the only way to play/live/operate (depending on scope).

If you don't want your ass jumped, they get to tell you where to go, how much to carry, etc. and so forth.

This is no longer just Vana'diel, people – this is real life, and it's the same – fucking – shit.

In fact, if they can drive you to a fetal position in the corner of your apartment, then so much the better to them – not only do they get “Lulz”, but you're an easier target when they start kicking down the fucking doors and finishing the fucking job they started!

I said that, the day I got arrested was the last day of my life that I had something to live for. In fact, on my Twitter, on the 13^th anniversary of said day, I said:

“Just "celebrated" 13 years of having nothing but stuff to live _against_.”

And that's just it. I finally got off the canvas at one point, recognizing I would never gain the acceptability of this world, and basically told a lot of it to go fuck off.

Not only do I have nothing to live for, but trying to find something which would be enough to do so with would land me in prison. (One of the reasons I believe I'm heading there in rather short order!)

But if it comes down to what I think it's going to come down to, then the pressures have been increased – and not just from the trolls...

But from types like Icanhasbailout from The Market Ticker Forums who posted the following call to arms on the site:

“You guys do realize that simply declaring war and eradicating the dependent class is the most efficient and honest method of achieving the end goal, and perhaps the only one which has a real-world chance of working. This may end up being the de facto solution simply by virtue of needing to do it to defend ourselves from the rampaging avarice of the FSA once their free **** is no longer being provided to them. A great number of these people are genetically defective and there is no hope for them or their progeny to ever become productive outside of the formal reinstitution of slavery (and even then it would be marginal productivity at best).”

Those with no empathy for another must come to a similar conclusion – and many do.

If you don't want to get your hands dirty, people, hunker down and stay down and hope they don't come for you.

Long Rant I: Shit, RMT won.

I have two long rants to type tonight, and neither of them are particularly pleasant.

The first concerns something that Cuddleslave has been keeping an eye on for me since my expulsion from FFXI:

RMT has won.

There is no polite way to say it other than this: RMT will dictate the future of online gaming, in that whatever future online gaming has, RMT will either control it or be on board with it.

I point to three very disparate sources to indicate how far this has gone in the last several years (the first two sent to me by Cuddleslave), and to indicate the level of disgust I have with online gaming in general.

First, a recent survey (crossposted to RMT-friendly FFXIAH.com) indicates that about a third of all gamers have spent real money on virtual content from another gamer or from a third-party site. About half of the same survey bought virtual currency as well, though this might include currencies for supposedly “free-to-play” games that you will suck at until you pay (and through the nose!!) for any real content (such as Farmville, Pangya, etc. and so forth and so on!).

In most cases other than the F2P's, this appears to be blatantly illegal conduct on both parties (since FFXI has supposedly banned the practice, I even have called for criminal actions on both buyer and seller on the charges of theft, under California laws). The problem has become that such a significant number of people have decided that buying currency, items, or characters is the only way to go that gaming companies are left to effectively subjugate whatever ownership rights they would otherwise claim to their content – since many of these are foreign entities (and, it appears, at least several appear to have ties to the Chinese government!!) or actually enforcing their rules would mean the end of their game.

(Evidence for the latter: Square-Enix never revealed the number of characters in Final Fantasy XI on the 2011 Vana'diel Census. If the number of servers being cut to about 1/3 of what they were the last Census is any indication, my guess is probably somewhere in the 500-750K range, rather than the 2M+ they claimed (*cough*halfofwhichwasRMT*cough*) in the last Census.)

But, as one person (Hevans from Ragnarok) put it in the FFXIAH.com forum:

“think you kind of answered your own question. the "pay to play" format is changing to "pay to play well".”

Basically, you pay for the product, then you (in subscription models) pay your subscription.

Then you abjectly HAVE TO pay to stay up to date (Great example: You are not even playing FFXI anymore if you do not play Abyssea. Whatever you are playing, it's not FFXI.).

And now, legally or otherwise, to the game company or to some illegal shady piece-of-shit operation in China, you basically have to pay to advance your character to a reasonable pace, especially if the concept of low-level play is essentially obsolete (which see: FFXI!).

So you cannot afford to play FFXI without being up to date on the expansions, security token for the satchel, and then probably more money to illegal outfits to ensure that you can get your character to where the game even begins (which is level 90 and about to be 95 the next major update!).

That makes me sick.

Why? Because basically it becomes about to the ilk of professional/high-level Magic the Gathering. Without a network of players or a lot of money, you – are – FUCKED. No polite way to put it.

(So much so that one person actually responded on the official forums to a player considering returning that he should only return if he has people to play with. A solo player has no business returning to FFXI.)

And this plays right into the little thuglets like BG and God knows what else. They know they have you by the balls, because they know that if you try to play fairly, then the social impact of the playerbase will effectively exclude you from any meaningful play, because you will never reach the point where they will accept you. So then, you either have to accept being inferior and suck dick for everything you can get (pay for ??? opportunities, etc. and so forth), or not be a part of the game at all!

I don't trust these fuckers. I'll get more into that in the second rant. But how am I supposed to play with a bunch of shitheads who basically walk around like they own the place? (Small spoiler of the second rant: … because it's that they effectively DO own the place!!!)

And how am I expected to uphold the rules if it's clear that the rules only have meaning to allow the players who are such arrogant little fucks to do this? It's almost as if Square-Enix themselves sponsors BG and it's players!

But back to RMT: What this has done is it legalizes it AND abrogates the black-letter law of the land in Vana'diel: That Square-Enix would own everything and you would have no rights to subvert that ownership.

If you're playing under the concept that Square-Enix owns everything and that the rules mean something, you are being defrauded and you have no recourse against Square-Enix whatsoever. (See the Spygate lawsuit and the Leong lawsuit, mentioned earlier in this blog.)

RMT buys you gil, some think it buys you time, but it buys you probably the most important thing that you can have in a social MMO: Status. Because you can basically build a character that people are going to want to play with a lot faster through these manipulations rather than doing the work for yourself. And an increasing part of the game does not give two rat's asses about actually knowing how to play: Which see the number of characters who either have every job at level 90 or every job they could conceptually ever need as such (thanks to Abyssea).

And hence, it impacts every player in the game – whether or not they take advantage of this!

The second thing Cuddleslave showed me was a thread on the Japanese official FFXI forums where some people have finally summarily had enough and are going to (if I read the rough Google translations correctly) out RMT players.

Understanding that the greater number of prevalent players use illegal content and RMT, they decided to go vigilante on them and begin to report them.

I hate to state this this openly: You're about five fucking years too late, Japan!!

If I heard it once while I was playing, I heard it a thousand times: Without illegal content and RMT, there is no FFXI. And it appears as if Square-Enix has seen fit to agree with this stance, saying one thing publicly and then doing quite another!

One of the classic moments of Vanafest 2009 was when Sage Sundi, in his Japanese Special Task Force report, did a “Star Wars” style scroll of literally hundreds and thousands of names of accounts who were banned.

Though “naming shame” is one of the greatest penalties Japanese culture can give, it hasn't slowed the RMT processes, which makes me wonder why vigilante justice like this wasn't implemented five years ago!

Some comments, from the rough translations:

Micktlll:

“There, the words "incompetent management is unable to satisfy even the collective enforcement of contract violations". Hence, "there are many in the game that the offender has been left unchecked and without disposition" means what? This "authorized" but many users are very much a travesty, and this "has been allowed by a tacit" It is quite irresponsible and attitudes and conventions that.”

What I think he was trying to say is that, through the repeat offenders and complete lack of enforcement of illegal content to “gain advantage and annoy players in doing so” was the result of incompetent management which cannot enforce the rules of any kind. This leaves many players able to commit these acts without penalty, effectively nullifying the ToS.

If that's what is saying, he's right and that's what I've been saying for years. The problem is, there are enough people who do this that, if they were successfully banned, the standing opinion is that FFXI would be forced to shut down.

Well, it is quite irresponsible, then, in both attitude and convention, for Square-Enix to continue FFXI under those conditions!

In a later post, Micktlll continues, in rough translation:

“If you're going out of the question. Meaning if it were not for the user to provide the terms and conditions.”

And this is where the concept of fraud enters play, because the playerbase has subjugated that, and stated openly that there would be no FFXI otherwise!! In their eyes, they believe they have the right to not only dictate what the laws are for their play, but also who gets to play what, where, and under what conditions.

Frankly, they own your FFXI experience.

Basically, Micktlll claims that the situation has been made a double-contract: One set of rules for one set of players, another for another. Almost like the World of Warcraft situation where players sponsored by gaming websites are subject to no rules whatsoever as long as Blizzard is being paid by said sites.

Probability that is going on in FFXI: 99+%.

Zetsurin of Bismarck apparently has told Micktlll the same argument we've heard on the English side a bazillion times. That Square-Enix made such a flawed game that the players have the right to shit all over the rules:

(rough translation)

“Hey, it'll Antalya, is set like a trick to the game, I had not been made out in the manual it?
After those operations that can not be perceived by the terms such violations, even in the game affect the way I heard no. There is no responsibility in the operation. This game does not even claim to have sold a healthy item is absent at all the user tools. So you brought the law does not apply. Was sorry (laughs).”

Basically, this person (I'll reserve calling him a shithead until I am clear that this is what he has said, but if he has said it, he's a cheating shithead who needs a beatdown!) says that the game cannot be feasibly played without Windower and illegal tools.

If that is what you said: Fuck you. You disgrace your family.

If it's not, then ignore what I just said.

Part Three: Diablo III and the RMT Auction House

But, as I said at the first of this long rant, it appears that not only has RMT won the day, but that it appears that RMT will control the future of online gaming.

This is true not only through the prevalence of purchased materials, but now has gone in to the creation of one of the new online mega-games: The Diablo III Auction House, which is going to have not only an in-game currency side, but an RMT side as well.

Also, as part of “quality control” (*cough**hack* PLEASE!!!!), the game can only be played as an online entity.

I'll tell you right now. I'll give it three months, and one of two things is going to happen to Diablo III:

Either:

• The entire RMT model will completely fail, and might well take Diablo III with it!!

• or anyone who basically plays Diablo III with any degree of seriousness will be forced to take part in RMT, and probably be playing the game with the sole purpose of making real-life money from it!

Basically, RMT will determine the success or failure of Diablo III. Even as long-awaited as Diablo III has been, Blizzard has come to the conclusion (and they will pay for it badly, at some point, probably through some degree of legal liability due to hackers and account compromisation!) that the number of people buying the game is not enough. They will need a constant revenue stream to keep the game going, and the only real way to do that? R – M – T.

You are going to have a bunch of little thuglet shitheads basically running all over the place to ruin everyone else's experience – and get paid to do so!!

It's bad enough when the money to do it (like some of the BG RMT shitheads) is illegal and under-the-table. It's a thousand times worse when not only is it brought above table, but it may well be the means by which Blizzard survives doing Diablo III into the long term!

This is a horrific idea, and yet you know that there are going to be people, in this real-life economy, with fewer and fewer options but to get into this kind of stuff.

And that's going to cost Blizzard dearly. Will I at least get Diablo III? Am I going to be around that long for when Blizzard finally releases the game?? Hell, I'm not sure I'm going to make Final Fantasy XIII-2 next January!

And part of that is the next long rant I'm going to do: The whole concept of what we've become as a culture, especially online: What's Yours is Mine!

As usual, they're fucking clueless...

The GM's and the BluGartr fucks.

Basically, let me give you my latest GM call:

"When the fuck are you guys going to do your jobs and ban the Windower/3PP scum? Since I seem to be the problem, ban me if you must."

To BG: Hint: An LM-17 is what this game needs from me right now.

Fuck Final Fantasy XI.

And after XIII-2, off to the shitlist you go, Square-Enix -- right next to that other set of cheater-enablers at Wizards of the Coast.

It's sad to see that Square-Enix has accomplished exactly nothing...

I was very excited for this game.

The last time I had any real excitement for FFXI was about 15 months ago, on the night of VanaFest 2010 in Japan.

And now, the BluGartr folks are taking over the Official Forums they openly slam as a joke.

I said it on Tuesday, and it goes double now. I have prepared remarks, unfit for the Forums, for Square-Enix.

I do have to question, though, whether Square-Enix actually gives enough of a rat's ass not to be sued. I've said, quite often, here that I would openly consider suing Square-Enix for fraud, if I had standing to do so.

A 2010 Federal case (Mayer vs. Belichick, New England Patriots, & NFL), if applied to contracts like the Terms of Service, would indicate that not only does Square-Enix have no obligation to uphold fair play, but they can actually abrogate their own Terms of Service at any elective point they choose.

(Thank you, by the way, to Brian Tuohy's The Fix is In website.)

I assume you are all aware of the Spygate scandal surrounding the NFL and the New England Patriots' (fraudulent) dynasty of the last decade. Mr. Mayer is a New York Jets season ticket holder and a lawyer. He sued after learning of the illegal tapings of Jets practices, which led to revelations that similar actions had been done before the Super Bowl win of the Patriots over the St. Louis Rams (only one of the most suspicious events ever held in the history of American sport!).

He sued on behalf of all New York Jets season ticket holders.

Page 4 of the ruling (go to the section of the linked page on the Spygate scandal and he has a link to the PDF ruling) covers a fact I've long been looking for sports fans to sue about with respect to many major sports. In fact, I directly made reference to this with respect to Major League Baseball's steroid scandal.

"3. Plaintiffs contend that in purchasing tickets to the New York Jets that, as a matter of contract, the tickets imply that each game will be played in accordance with NFL rules and regulations, as well as all applicable state and Federal laws."

How simple is that not to understand? The claim is that, by purchasing a ticket, there's an expectation that the game be adjudicated according to the rules of the game and the laws of the land. Simple, right?

Well, I assert that, by paying my $12.95 that, as a matter of contract, acceptance of that payment implies that Final Fantasy XI will be played in accordance to the Terms of Service and relevant rules and regulations, as well as all applicable state and Federal laws.

Just as simple, right?

So where do we go wrong?

The NFL dismissed the claim, and so did the original District Court, effectively that the person did not have neither standing nor:

"a claim on which relief may be granted. (Page 11)"

Basically, the District Court ruled that the fan had no standing nor claim against the NFL, even that the claims of illegal taping, etc. are admitted true!

Again, from Cornell Law through Karl Denninger through USLegal.com:

"Fraud is generally defined in the law as an intentional misrepresentation of material existing fact made by one person to another with knowledge of its falsity and for the purpose of inducing the other person to act, and upon which the other person relies with resulting injury or damage. Fraud may also be made by an omission or purposeful failure to state material facts, which nondisclosure makes other statements misleading."

So if the Court then decides that the fan has no standing nor claim to sue, what they are then saying is that the league can allow the Cheat-riots to cheat like Hell and that, even with that knowledge, the fan then has no expectation that the game is to be played even within the boundaries of Federal and State law?

That's exactly what the appellate court ruled!

Even with the known admissions and the penalties from the league, the Court ruled that the lawyer had no standing to sue, because he had no claim, because he -- even with the admissions, to restate! -- did not satisfy that "the plaintiff pleads factual content that allows the court to draw the reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged." (Page 11, right at the bottom)

Page 12 goes on to say that he did not suffer an "actionable injury (or, in other words, a legally protected right or interest)", and that "we ultimately conclude that Mayer failed to set forth a legally cognizable right, interest, or injury here", and on that basis, his claim was denied.

In fact, the only recourse the Court leaves them is to speak out against the league and the Patriots and to boycott the NFL. (Directly stated on the second-to-last page)

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As I've said: For over two years, I've considered filing a small-claims legal action against Square-Enix. This case appears to be precedent which would indicate that Square-Enix has no legal obligation whatsoever to uphold the Terms of Service -- of any kind!!!

If that's the case, then, similarly, the only recourse left would be to boycott and speak out against the company!

If that's the case, then Square-Enix needs to remove me from FFXI, tout suite.

OK, I think I've read everything now...

I know I've said (and, technically, still believe) that the only way to get rid of RMT is to jail RMT.

Well, what if the RMT is already in jail and being enforced through the government?

That is a charge being made in a recent article in the mobile Guardian out of the UK.

Basically, what is being charged is that the prison bosses (the wardens) in prisons throughout China, but mainly in the Northeastern part of the country, the RMT gamers you come into contact with might well be Chinese prisoners, playing the game (sometimes in 12-hour forced shifts -- kind of brings a new meaning to the term "hard labor"!!) to raise black-market money for the wardens.

If this is the case, and Square-Enix has no real "in" to China, then their claims to ownership of the material in their game are legally null and void unless they can cease all access to China, and especially to their prison camps -- which appear to be black-market cesspools for RMT activity across the MMO multiverse.

If Square-Enix actually black-letter owns everything in the game, as their Terms of Service state and I do believe they should enforce, they basically are up against the Chinese government themselves.

Wouldn't be the first company financially raided by China...

By request: Someone gets a blasted clue with respect to RMT...

I guess I forgot to post this one some time back, but I guess I might as well do it now, as I have the blog up.

Credit to Tohihroyu/Cuddleslave, the resident Galka Stalker ( :) ) of Leviathan, for pointing this one out...

She saw this post on the FFXIAH forums:

EGS (EgamingSupply) was the major FFXI RMT site, with it's CEO in jail (has been for quite sometime now) it was bound to shut down for unpayed fees and such. It went down on the 3rd and has been.

Now that's what I'm motherfucking talking about!!!

You aren't going to get rid of these operations without SHUTTING THEM DOWN.

Not that I think Square-Enix had much of anything to do with this (they have a playerbase level to uphold, after all -- and I'm stopping just short of the belief (which many players do have) that Square-Enix gets a cut of RMT profits)), but this is the ONLY way to rid the game of RMT.

THE.

ONLY.

WAY.

A Message for those running FFXI...

I guess that confrontation with Mrbeansman finally drew the attention of enough admins, as I've drawn a 72-hour forum ban as of last night's forum maintenance.

(Oh, and, by the way, Mrbeansman, I'll take you up on your offer if I can find you. Couldn't find a general idea of where you live )

Let me put it this simply, Square-Enix: If the piece of shit that the official forums (and most of the players on FFXI) is what you really want out of FFXI, then please do these shitheads a favor and ban me from the game and remove my account.

You have basically watched as, in less than two months, your grand vision of official forums on FFXI has turned into only slightly more civilized bunch of savages than the BluGartr cheating pieces of shit. The only reason you haven't seen the forums completely turn into BluGartr is because of the fact that they haven't gotten brave or arrogant enough to tell you how much gil they've bought or sold or how many accounts they've turned over.

You are literally watching as these players basically announce that the only remedy for kill-stealing and the like is: "Suck less."

Well, my only remedy for that is to tell them: "Fuck off".

You have openly and freely created a "game" in which little cheating trolls have their run of the place. Nothing has basically changed from the time in which a bunch of little cheating shitheads, upon seeing another player get a claim on a desired monster, would openly attempt to overload the connection and force the player with claim to disconnect so they could steal the claim AND the kill.

You have openly and freely created a "game" in which little cheating trolls basically take open pleasure in denying the other players in the game access to content, except at THEIR leisure. You have given these little pieces of shit control over who can enjoy what content when. I thought that kind of conduct was supposed to be illegal, Square-Enix.

I guess not. Trolling, griefing, and content monopolization are not only legal in FFXI, they appear to be the order of the day.

It's almost as if I have come up with the prototypical 2011 Final Fantasy XI player. He's a high-level admitted troll with a lot of friends and more than a bit of influence in the game.

His name is Juxtaposition. The little troll who's taken over Limit Break Radio and taken a decent running joke, ran it into the ground, made a career out of it, and basically has turned LBR into little more than insomnia relief.

But that's a sidebar. The fact is, Square-Enix, I've been banned from basically everything this supposed "community" offers.

From posting to the Wiki...

From basically every forum in existence (at least one without ever posting there or trying to!!)...

From posting this blog to the TTTO (the only person, to my knowledge, so banned)...

There's only one answer, and it has to be in-game as well as everything else FFXI -- and you can expect to have the forum admins and community team who post there get a nice message from me to this effect once the 72-hour ban ends:

Deal with the cheating shitheads or deal with me. And if it's me that has to go, your game is a fraud and I will continue to expose it as such.

I only play this game to shit on the cheaters. That's it. The playerbase has made the game so worthless that RMT has lost much of their interest in the game.

(And that, by the by, is the reason you've cut the number of servers in half over the last 18 months.)

And the forums are turning out predictably... Tons of BluGartr-level cheating bullshit...

I can see where this probably ends -- another trip to jail...

This is beginning to appear awfully 1996-1997 to me.

The official FFXI forums have been reduced to an utter BluGartr level cheater-friendly farce!

Complete with open trolling and griefing (one locked thread which called for Square-Enix to buy and incorporate the cheating fuck-tards with Windower was directly done to troll me into the forum).

Needless to say, it succeeded, because the frank matter is: It's either them or me, and either Square-Enix is going to have to make that decision soon.

A couple of posters on the forum actually get it: Any "threat" is effectively global, Karbuncle. If you're the type of players most of the players on the forum are, you don't want me associating with the younger people, Fiarlia.

Because the threat isn't just or necessarily a matter of bopping someone in the face -- the "threat" is a function that I will not participate in acceptance of a social situation which effectively requires you to either cheat or submit.

I've gone through this before. I used to play a game called Magic: The Gathering. I decided to take part in the Judge Program because I truly felt that, basically, every player was a cheating bastard who needed someone to finally say "NO!"

Well, that lasted one tournament. A Pro Tour Qualifier where the Head Judge openly accused me afterward of trying to kill competitive Magic in my hometown of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Diplomacy toward cheating only breeds more cheating, sir. I believed it nearly 15 years ago, and doubly so now.

(Oh, by the way, that tournament featured a couple of prominent Chicago-area Magic players who refused to take part in a Professional Tour event that weekend which they felt only accepted one particular deck archetype. Several weeks later, it was learned that the players were banned from competitive Magic for manipulating the ratings system through suspicious tournament reports. And, if I had to make a guess, the Head Judge of that PTQ may have been involved too.)

After a couple more years of this, I finally had enough and no longer play nor follow Magic: The Cheating.

When profit requires cheating, it's either them or me.

On top of this, has there been a bigger bunch of fucking whiners in history than some of these cheating (or, at minimum, enabling such) types on these boards??

*sigh*

Starcade = "Threatening and does not contribute to the discussion.", SE. Your move!!

The above was how one of my posts to the forums was deleted by forum officials.

The post was in response to several of the "tags" on a post talking about the concept of "brew holding".

My understanding of the concept is that players are using the "intended" action of the timers for stuff like the time limit for the Primeval Brew's "Transcendency" effect (3 minutes) while working with NPC's and the like (the clocks stop!) to hold NMs infinitely (the effect basically makes you the equivalent of a God -- 9999 HP and MP, +999 to all stats, etc and so forth).

So basically the Cheating Bitches of the English Forums are trumpeting the "intentional intended" motif, completely ignoring the fact that they are going far above and beyond the intention.

(Not to mention that holding the NMs themselves can also be declared illegal in certain cases -- which see the likes of King Arthro and his pops...)

But never let the facts get in the way of a good story.

But it's your move, Square-Enix. If this is the way you want this game, ban me from it. Plain and fucking simple.

As I later said on the forum:

So when is Square-Enix going to get it and understand that my presence in FFXI is probably:

"Threatening and does not contribute to the discussion."

Hey, Square-Enix... I've been banned from basically everything in this game but these forums and the game itself.

If the social nature of this game is THAT important to you that you are going to deliberately turn your back on fair play to keep "the customers" happy, then you have but one alternative: My removal from FFXI.

I will not "contribute to the discussion" of a playerbase hell-bent on the creation of a cheat-fest.

I would be far more "Threatening" in that concept than anything said here so far.

If you are that dead-set on allowing these people to run over your game, then you don't want me on it.

Your move, Square-Enix. I pay my money with the expectation the rules be upheld for all parties. Anything short of that is fraud.

ON EDIT: I think I know what they didn't like: The fact that I said that my posts wouldn't be considered "psycho" unless law enforcement and the police were involved. There's a reason I became the first blog banned from the TTTO.

The meeting of the Bot Bitches Society of America has been called to order.

So here we go with another reason the game has stagnated and the power structure which killed the game at 75 is going to finish it off...

The Bot Bitches Society of America has taken up residence in the forums to protest the new pop rules for Ground Kings.

... a move only about three weeks short of the entire time Ground Kings have been in existence too late.

Look, assholes, we get it... You pay to dominate the game with your bots and we pay to grovel at your feet.

This move was so long overdue, it wasn't even funny. We don't want to have to merc with a bunch of cheating bitches to actually play content in this game.

So please do me a favor and truly FUCK OFF!!

The vast majority of FFXI players are nothing but a bunch of whores.

Said it, there it is, meant it.

What finally made me come to the realization of it was more Campaign bullshit.

Consecutive Campaign battles -- one in Meriphataud and one in Rolanberry. There to help win a few battles and get a buffer for my 77 DRG (/DNC because I can't count on these whore shitheads to heal anyone but themselves) for Abyssea later this afternoon.

Both have Belfrys up, and people are openly being encouraged to extend the battles needlessly by letting them spawn infinitely.

WHO THE FUCK DO YOU FUCKING WHORES THINK YOU ARE??

The point of a Campaign battle is to WIN it.

Without that, there should be no rewards whatsoever.

Extending battles like that takes away resources which can be used in the rest of the Crystal War -- but, as we well know, the player-base would rather turn Vana'diel into an Abyssean nightmare, as long as they had all the cool leet gear to rule alongside the Beastmen.

Arrogant, fucking whores -- that basically describes the vast majority of the FFXI playerbase.

If it isn't that, it's bot-lotting, hacking the game, Besieged bullshit, claim-lots, etc. and so forth and so on.

The playerbase continues to show it's ignorance...

Got this gem from Jud a few days back, and had been meaning to write about it:

"Chin continues to do more good for this game and community than you could even possibly comprehend."

Face it... You defraud players like me, you're a piece of shit in my book, and so is her "employer", (and that is why I call them) Pet Food Cheater.

But it got me to thinking about FFXI and all the other stuff going on therein, and I decided to come up with some analogous (and, frankly, if you believe Jud, equally true!) statements, and to show you why I believe those statements to be equally true.

#1:

"The creator of (Windower/App/NASA/other illegal third party software) continues to do more good for this game and community than you could even possibly comprehend."

Let's get right down to brass tacks here.

First, there are things in this game you cannot take part in without illegal software, and, as long as Square-Enix continues to fraudulently look the other way, that's not going to change.

Without claim bots, you basically are shut out of HNMLS's.

Without Windower, there are mobs that it is claimed you cannot kill (like those who do actions precisely on certain percentages of life totals which will kill the alliance -- PW's final form being one example).

Without other illegal bots, you basically are shut out of the weekly Kupofried's Ring quests, etc.

But we're all supposed to accept this, right?

Bullshit. BUT: If what Jud said is right, these illegal applications would be some of the most important peieces of code in the game, because the game, to many, cannot be played without them.

Which see the jackass who said that if we didn't play with Windower, we could enjoy our $1,000 PS2, because that is what we are playing with if we don't cheat our fucking asses off.

#2:

"The Astral Burners and other 'griefers' continue to do more good for this game and community than you could even possibly comprehend."

This should actually be even easier. In the day and age where the game does not even begin, now, until you hit at least level 75, anything to allow players to level faster is encouraged...

(And, in the day and age where the little Internet pigs basically run roughshod over everyone else, if it stops another player from doing the same, the victory to the AB party/etc. is double!)

So exploits and using those exploits to cockblock other players is actually _good for the game_ in the eyes of a lot of these people.

In fact, if I had a dollar for every person who said that the Salvage banned should never have been touched, I'd have a year's worth of membership fees and then some.

#3:

"RMT continues to do more good for this game and community than you could even possibly comprehend."

I cannot understand how anyone chooses to pat cheaters on the back, then turn around and condemn RMT.

Here's the thing: If you allow players to abrogate the Terms of Service without penalty, you basically are then giving up any right of ownership to the content therein, if you are Square-Enix.

RMT, sickeningly, provides a valuable service to more than a few players in this game -- not unlike the Astral Burn illegal bullshit.

And it provides it to the players in both directions -- buying material, and selling material.

RMT, in fact, offers players the opportunity to advance their characters faster -- the only reason, probably, it not being allowed is that Square-Enix at least puts down on paper their assertion of ownership of their content.

They put a lot of other things down on paper that they fraudulently have no intention of ever enforcing, too.

Anyone who believes the likes of Chinchilla still contribute to this game have to conclude that RMT does so as well -- both to the players in the game who use it, and to the players who, ostensibly, are getting out and want to sell their characters for an ROI.

---

These are just three examples I came up with.

There's a take-home point here.

If the social aspect of Final Fantasy XI is as important as many players indicate it to be, the Terms of Service are null and void, and the only people who can really act to remove players should be the player base themselves.

Part Deux: I might just have finally gotten banned from the game tonight...

And you know what?? That'll just show Square-Enix' true colors.

Had another run-in with ghetto trash on the game tonight. Biggysmallz from Crenshaw, LA... )He gave me his address. He'll regret that one day... That's two for The List.)

(At least that's his claim. Watch, it's probably Adam the bitch.)

But he's not the one who's going to get me banned.

He's just the hoarding bitch who got me to basically call him (and he admitted as such to me) a "hoarding asshole".

That got Angelskiss (more like "Angels' Bitch"!!) involved.

You see, Angelskiss, I'm a threat to all of you. When I told you that you better hope they ban me from the game -- if you want to take that as a personal threat, so be it.

My very presence in Vana'diel is a threat, to one degree or another. My very presence is infringing on your enjoyment of FFXI, because I'm not going to accept your degree of bullshit.

So you better hope they ban me. I said it to you personally, and I say it here now, generally, to the cheaters who have overrun this game.

I'm done respecting the rank-and-file players, in any real capacity.

I was done with that shit when ChinCheater and the other cheaters got banned almost 18 months ago.

And I fully expect, 18 months from now: I'm in prison or dead.

I have no place in your Vana'diel. None.

You would not want me to act in the same way as you would.

Had a bit of an altercation during Abyssea today....

Had another one of those conversations today. And I think it was with Edwyth (on an alt). (If I am wrong and the person I spoke to was not Edwyth, then I apologize.)

Anyhoo, I first thought it was that shithead Adam Westwood, who said he was coming on Leviathan to take potshots at me...

Turns out that the person I did talk to was talking to Chinchilla on Skype or such, and wanted to know how I felt about her still being allowed on FFXI at all...

Needless to say, that didn't start my Abyssea run on a good note.

At this point, the allowance of Square-Enix to allow players like Chinchilla and Keichan/Kaeko/Kanichan to continue playing this game at all is not only an act of fraud on the company's part (as well as on the parts of the individual players), but is probably the only reason FFXI still exists.

Additionally, the only question as to if to sue Square-Enix would come down to a question of standing -- vis-a-vis,( in a legal sense) what damages, if any, would be allowed.

Especially with the amount of cheating and illegal shit running rampant in FFXI, these "players" are probably adept to advance further and faster than the legitimate players even after they get banned.

In fact, the person I talked to today had the audacity to say that it was entirely Square-Enix' fault the Salvage exploits took place, and that they should not have banned anyone for the duping.

Realize, at that point, that you basically kill two cardinal rules of the game:

Q12652, which bans all conduct within the game which is not done within intended parameters.

and the exploit rules, which disallow all conduct which exploits code for illegal purposes.

The latter is the reason I GM'ed the current Campaign XP situation -- 3 times now without appropriate response.

You know, I realize, within the context of a social game which the players want to destroy the balance of (simply for their own benefit), that it is considered insanity to demand the rules be enforced.

As I told the person: I feel not only condemned because I vociferously speak out, I feel condemned because I refuse to use 3PP and bots and exploits and the like.

This is not a democracy -- the players should have zero say as to what is allowed and what is not. That they appear to have that says basically allows:

-- Windower
-- bots, completely destroying any hope that non-RMT players have of taking part in several functions of the game
-- RMT itself
-- etc.

...and I find it a laugh my discussion partner believes that all RMT should be jailed, as I do.

Face it: The players want to use any means they can (cockblocks, bots, exploits, Windower, etc.) to advance in the game (often at the expense of other players).

If Square-Enix does not have the right to ban conduct as it sees fit (but then has to enforce what it makes a Term of Service), then what ownership do they have of anything?

*sigh* One of these days...

Walk of Echoes announced...

As one of the final update things before the big update to take us to level 80, they finally announce Walk of Echoes, what it will be, and what restrictions...

First off, the restrictions:

You must be level 70 or above.

You must have progressed at least to "Cait Sith" in the Wings of the Goddess storyline.

(But I think that's like mission 3 or something...)

What is the Walk of Echoes?

Basically, from what I read, a combination of Campaign and Besieged...

There will be a number of progressive battlefields, each with fearsome foes. There will be a participant limit AND a time limit.

While the participant limit has not been reached in a battlefield, anyone can join it, much as in a Campaign or Besieged battle.

There is a series of foes, and, at the conclusion, three (apparent) levels of booty:

1) Items dropped by monsters (lotted by any and all participants in that fight)
2) Items dropped at the end of a successful run via a Campaign Union-style chest...

(OH FUCKING GREAT!! JUST GIVE THE FUCKING BOT-LOTTERS FIRST REAL CHANCE AT THE 76+ GEAR... WHY NOT JUST TELL US ALL WE NEED FUCKING BOTS TO PLAY THIS FUCKING GAME???)

*rant over* Where was I...

3) Sufficient participation can give individual players further loot (*perhaps to combat #2*).

I think you see my main complaint above. Will be fun to _try_, but...

-----------------

Couple of other things:

Forgive me, Aneiro, if I have no sympathy for your "open letter". First off, we have our strong differences. Second, you've got graduation and beyond come August. At some point, much like some of the other programs, new people are going to have to come in.

But make no secret: I have very little respect, now, for the people who represent us, the players. I know there's at least one podcast AND the main information portal for the game which openly coddles cheating and misconduct. I just seem to find that it's more important in life to have friends and to have people with you than have any sense of integrity or reality in this world.

That's fine. It's one of the reasons I'm certain that something is going to come up -- and I'll be banned from this game in about three months. Someone is going to finally piss me off (and I estimate it'll be about the time of second Abyssea), and I'm going to be gone when I finally tell them to, bluntly, piss off.

I do not trust the FFXI community, nor the rank and file playerbase.

Speed Gamers: Two hours short of halfway. $17,152 -- probably about $7,000 or so short of where they need to be (I'm not certain they can get the "end of telethon" bump that's going to make up what probably is going to be the difference between getting their goal of $50,000 and getting a more realistic idea of $35,000...) if they want to make the $50,000 they made in last year's Final Fantasy marathon.

I don't know why I even try with Campaign Unions anymore...

It's really about as worth it as hitting a Moonfang Warrior today...

I think I've truly seen where RMT shitheads and botlotting fuckwads have basically ruined what was supposed to be a good incentive for people to do Campaign.

I mean, when hasn't there been a time when, in about a 7-way lot with 7-10 people in it, one or two people run off with all the meaningful stuff, leaving the rest of us to battle over the Slug Eyes and Silver Ores of the world.

Can't wait to see how they're going to with Abyssea in a couple of weeks...