Rude Awakening (and not the type most of the BG Brigade would want)...

Tohihroyu and I often used to do Dynamis, in a group I informally called Dynamis Tonight.

She got me and her boyfriend and we decided to go to Dynamis-Xarcabard and hope we could get a camp.

We, largely, couldn't, but that's not the gist of this post.

What we did fight went down far too quickly for us to even proc most of the time.

So we decided to go farm some Animated Weapons.

We got the sword pop, then I decided, "What the hey?"

75-90 seconds later, one dead Animated Longsword.

As time was running down in our run, we did the Claymores next.

Once we got a pop and got full, maybe 90 seconds, goodbye Animated Claymore.

So then I decide to get brave (read that as:  Stupid) and try to get the Scythe, remembering how much of a bear it was to get Tohihroyu her item for her scythe.

4 minutes to go in the run, we pop the Animated Scythe.

2 minutes, it's dead.  Easy.  None of us got hit, my pet maybe twice.  Would've been probably a minute and 15 seconds if not for Phalanx by the enemy.

Where am I going with this?

I pretty much now have to retire from Dynamis, save work for the other two.

It got so sick that, had we 20 more minutes and the pop, I might've tried the Dynamis Lord himself!  (To wit I almost WISH we would've wiped.)

I'm, literally, way too powerful with a Delve axe/Wildskeeper Axe combo, full merits on Beast Affinity (which makes my pets, what, Level 123?), and most of the Delve armor for BST or DRG.  (Steelflash combo for earrings, Haste belt from plasm...)

Just, wow.  I feel sad.  After getting my fourth Wildskeeper KI by finally winning Foret (only one left is Yorcia), I now have both my Mandau and my Gungnir in storage.

I know there are other things to do.  More plasm to farm, etc.  But Dynamis was good to me -- VERY GOOD.

Another dupe-fest going on? Wouldn't shock me in the slightest...

With only ten minutes warning (and much to the chagrin of any Dynamis, Wildskeeper Reive, etc. people), Square-Enix took the game down about 12:30 PDT this afternoon.

It's almost 4 as I type this.  The game is still down.

The longer it's down, the more I think we've got another exploit-fest on our hands.

The reason is in the follow-up that was posted about 30 minutes later.  "Unimplemented items" have been dropping in certain battlefields.

That's either a fire-able fuck-up (either the coder or someone in QA), or we've got another STF problem on our hands.

And given a lot of the gear that's already been announced (and the scruples of much of the NA playerbase), I wouldn't put it past anybody to start duping the shit out of these +188 weapons to break the game completely.

The thing is, this isn't just some small situation.  This is either a major code fuck-up or a straight-up exploit.

My money's on the latter.

Could SE finally be waking up, or is there something else at play here?

Been noticing a couple of heartening developments that the GMs appear to be doing:

The first is that it appears that a single GM has been scouting Empyreal Paradoxes (or, more, the lobbies for the Shinryu Abyssea boss fights) for bot-skillers -- those people outside every...  damned....  possible...  area who repeatedly use spells or the like to bot themselves silly, or so it often seems.

Well, somebody's been looking for them in some of the more out-of-the-way places.

Also, a report from FFXIAH stating that a PLD was caught flee-hacking to sac in Delve.  (Geez, you fuckers too cheap for Mazurka???)

Reactions have been predictable, but there is one ominous overtone I do need to make note of:

It is not much of a secret that it really does appear, Adoulin notwithstanding, that the absolute future of the MMO division of Square-Enix is whether they can get Final Fantasy XIV off the ground again.

It should also be no secret that the real word about that Square-Enix was going to start de-emphasizing Final Fantasy XI into what was then called "Rapture" (think of how that term is used!) came about just after the largely-North American Salvage bans of January 22, 2009.

It is widely believed that Square-Enix is deliberately attempting to kill Final Fantasy XI.

Frankly put, the easiest way to do it is also the one thing that Square-Enix needs to do if they are going to have an MMO division at all -- enforce their damned rules.

Conservative estimates are putting it at 80% of the North American playerbase which would have to be removed if the rules were enforced.

Keep all this in mind as the Mog Resort and three new areas are opened this week.

So it's July 1st, 2013. Let's rack up the evidence that Square-Enix wants us all to play Final Fantasy XIV this fall...

• Seekers of Adoulin has been out for three months.  Zero storyline updates, with the biggest update being a single mechanism which has effectively obsoleted everything else in the system.  (So much so, I end up bored to tears if I can't find a Delve plasm shout.  (Have three weapons and three armor pieces now.))
• The game is rapidly devolving to where a F2P model would actually be preferable to what we have now.  If things are allowed to continue as they have been for the last three months, you are looking at about 4-6 players controlling the server with RMT tactics and basically all control and access to meaningful content.
• It has been eleven months since the new SP 1-hours began on the server.  They appear to be nowhere close to implementation.
• Cait Sith?  (or any reasoned explanation to play SMN at level 99 other than game abuse)  Nowhere to be found.
• Only reason to even THINK of RDM is as a solo Refresh-monkey.  (And as a subjob.)
• Most Colonization is now blocked off.  Unless someone has to work their way through (and, often, that's a one-shot deal -- which see if you want to go to the Morimar Wildskeeper Reive), they basically can't do many assignments, can't do some of the quests, and are basically at the mercy of an, at best, ambivalent server.
• Relics, Mythics, and Empyreans are largely worthless, sans entry pieces to current content.
• No address/mass bans to any of the real problems in the game (Fell Cleave illegalities, mega-box botting, Windower).  Nothing's been addressed.
• Whether it's simply the mega-boxers or a deterioration of the casual player, the player-base is degenerating back to a closed-minded bunch of pieces of shit.

XBox Done: They're still done...

More non-FFXI.

Well, Microsoft is backpedaling like a bad cornerback.

No more always-on requirements for XBox One.

Used game restrictions taken down.

So why are they still fucked?

Not only because they have the spying abilities of the new Kinect, but, now, they have to not only change the architecture around how the One is going to work, but also confront the reality that their entire economic model for the XBox One is now done, at least vis-a-vis games.

I fully expect, either after the One or during, that Microsoft will fully divorce from the gaming industry.

Non-FFXI: I thought I saw everything, until I saw Microsoft's arrogance this week...

On occasion, something happens which just goes so far beyond the pale that it just has to be brought to attention.

What Microsoft did at E3 this week, in releasing what is only-purportedly a gaming system later this year, most certainly qualifies.

In fact, I will go even further:

Not only do I believe that Microsoft has permanently killed the XBox brand with their arrogance and general fucked-up attitude on things, but that Microsoft (with almost certainly help from a lot of parties which people do not want to know about!) is attempting to kill the entire gaming industry in the United States and replace it with an entertainment console...  Excuse me, surveillance device... industry.

Moreover, any person who even puts one of these XBox Done s (not my name for it, but far too good to pass up) in their house not only deserves what they get, but they are too stupid to be part of any reasoned society in this day and age.

Why?

Let's take this step-by-step:

Monday:

Microsoft gets the plum opening spot in a full day of release press conferences at E3.

The price point is $499, for starters.

This got me to start immediately calling it the "XBoxOnePercent", as Microsoft opted to completely disdain all the backlash Sony got at the start of the last generation.

Combined with the farcical release conference Microsoft did last month, I set off the following diatribe on Twitter:

"People really need to get together and call this what it is... #XBoxE3 is the #XBoxOnePercent. Priced for the 1%, for 1% of gamers. FU."

And wouldn't you know it, within THREE MINUTES, I get this stupidity:

"@darkstar7646 get a job! Do u own any new tech? An iPad? A computer? A cellphone? $500 is nothing for what it getting."

So, Brad. what am I getting for that money that you feel I need to have a job for?  (BTW, only the computer, no iPad, no cellphone even...

Two trailers started without sound, and a rape joke was thrown in for good measure...  Gee, almost sounds right at home with some of the male gamer types running around these days...

But it's what happened the next two days that should've really gotten antennae twitching:

Tuesday:

Wired UK came out with a highly-disturbing situation from the patent application Microsoft filed for the XBox One Kinect (which is mandatory for the system at all times).

The application indicates that the Kinect actually will have the ability to monitor the number of people in the room and compel (as a condition of licensure and the ability to play the game/view other content) the owner to pay for an additional license fee based on the number of people viewing the content.

And it may well not stop there.  As Wired UK reports, the patent application says:

"delivering audiovisual entertainment has progressed from physical media to digital downloads...In delivering such media, content providers often seek compensation based on the number of times content can be presented on a particular system."

So, at it's end, what could happen, for just ONE example, is that you may only be allowed to play an XBox One game a certain number of times (or a certain length of time!) before you would be forced to pay an additional license fee.

In an extreme case, your next purchase of Madden for the XBox One could well be by the hour of playtime!

Then it starts getting really fun. as the Wired UK article continues:

"The limitation placed on the content might simply be a fixed number of users views, a number of user views over a certain time period, a number of simultaneous user views or views tide to user identities. This could even allow for age restriction -- i.e. if the Kinect recognises you as being under 18, it won't show 18 movies."

The only way it could feasibly do that is for the Kinect to be able to actually have full view of the living room involved, and that view might well be transmittable to a third party!

(By the way, one of the other bugaboos revealed this week by Microsoft is that the XBox One must be connected to the Internet for authentication purposes once every 24 hours, or the system is an effective brick -- NO content can be accessed.)

Especially with the Edward Snowden leaks (for which, frankly, he will be most-certainly executed without trial once finally cornered), this leads to a number of highly-frightening scenarios:

1) A number of parties have already come up with the "Microsoft is watching you masturbate."  Consider the ramifications for the likes of that in the Bible Belt.

2) One of my FFXI "agents in the field" found another meme poster which indicates that the only people who might even be allowed to access the content are people who only allow those who have license to the content.  In an extreme case, your brother walks into the room, and the game stops.  Since your brother does not have a license to the content, you now don't either, until he leaves.

3) If it can go that far, consider the possibilities that, since the XBox One must be allowed to access the Internet at some point every day (perhaps at all times, for certain applications), the possibility that Microsoft could contract with third parties for surveillance purposes (say police, NSA, Homeland Security, etc.).  I give it literally January 1, 2014 (unless someone does the smart thing and sue this abomination off the market once and for all before then!) before we find out that someone got arrested for something they did in the "privacy" of their own home (har har), or that the Kinect can recognize a fugitive from justice and catch them.

And I could come up with numerous others...

Wednesday:

In the biggest Fuck You to it's customers, Microsoft executive Don Mattrick openly said that anyone who either does not elect to or cannot consistently access the Internet has no business on the XBox One and should, instead, remain in the previous inferior generation with the 360:

""Fortunately we have a product for people who aren't able to get some form of connectivity. It's called Xbox 360," he said."

Fuck you, Don Mattrick.  It's almost as if you are saying that those of us (including me) who would much rather play offline have no business in "YOUR WORLD" and will be eventually taken out of the equation...

And then we get to the summary of a lot of the limitations which XBox fanboys are going to have to subject themselves to for the XBox One:

• Not only does the system require Internet connectivity once every 24 hours in all cases, that requirement, under certain conditions, can be as strict as once an hour!
• Your system becomes a brick, in that no games can be played on it (nor, I would assume, any other content), if this limitation is not met.
• No lending of games to a friend without that friend buying the (license to play the) game.  You still have to put it on his system's hard drive (all games must be loaded from disk to drive -- there is no play from disk on the XBox One), but if he wants to play it himself on his own profile, he must buy license for it.
• Since all games are effectively loaded onto the XBox One similarly to PC gaming, used game discs become effectively worthless!  The only "used game trading" which would be allowed would be with Microsoft-authorized retail outlets, and no one knows what that process is going to entail.
• Although Sony loses some points for requiring Playstation Plus for online play (you can almost expect some attempt at hacking Sony's servers not only for information, but to take down PS4 online play, at some point), Microsoft does something Sony does not:  To access Netflix, you must not only have a Netflix subscription, but an XBox Gold one as well.

To me, the only way this idiocy could ever see retail is if there is a grand master plan here.  (And one which would require a lot of help.)

Bluntly, let's get real here:  The end-game (probably coming with the XBox One) entails the following (and I fully expect these announced before release):

• Any attempt to circumvent the ability of the Kinect to have full, unblocked access to the necessary information it is attempting to receive and transmit immediately ceases all content on the system.
• Microsoft, at it's sole discretion, can terminate any system with a kill-code, and, since the XBox One must be connected at least once every 24 hours to work at all...
• The Final Insult (and Microsoft has done this already with it's PC software -- Microsoft Office 2013 can only be used one-to-one -- one machine, one copy of Office 2013.  That machine dies?  So does that license of Office 2013):  You aren't buying the console or any games at all.  You are only buying the license to the console and to the games, which can be revoked by any legal or relevant party, without appeal, at any time.

In that last case, you're buying a $500-deposit cable box you will never see the money back on.

Next shoe drops at Square-Enix... US President out, Euro President to oversee both regions...

Can't say any of this shocks me.

Reading Anime News Network (via Polygon), and this comes up:

"Square Enix America president and CEO Mike Fischer officially left the company this month. Fischer declined to comment on his resignation other than to say he left on good terms. Square Enix announced plans to let go of Fischer last month after laying off half of its marketing staff and around 20 employees in accounting, IT, and events. He has moved on as vice president of digital music and video for Amazon in Japan. 

Square Enix Europe CEO Phil Rogers will be taking over Fischer's former position. Rogers will now supervise both the European and American divisions."

Just more to keep in mind as time goes on.