Wednesday, September 30, 2009

And now I guess I can add another idiocy to the list, because I can do math...

I made gripes about this before more on my end of the mix, but, finally, today I've become convinced (and at least one player has (if he's not yanking my chain -- and I'll know about that tonight) confirmed it) that the lot system has basically been hacked beyond all recognition too!

Would be no realistic surprise: Consider how much of end-game actually revolves around said lot system, and you would see the motivations. See how much botting goes on, and you realize that the ability to basically get in to the lot system (effectively, hacking the game) is almost trivial to these jackasses.

So, last night (more, this very early morning -- we spent most of yesterday doing more shopping for my roommate, and my roommate putting together my Christmas present (logistical reasons -- we both expect a "crimson Christmas", for one...)) I'm in Campaign, starting to work on levelling my DNC now that my DRG is fully merited and capped.

So, a small Union (not one of these grandiose 15-member jobs) goes out in Batallia in the Shadowrealm, and, after the battle, we get three small items.

This one jackalope lots over 800 on ALL THREE ITEMS. If this guy is that consistently lucky (even lotting 800+ on all three is 125-1), I want him on my next Vegas trip.

So, I finally decided to let loose (not to the player directly) about the lot system. I'm lucky to see one effective-discard item every fourth or fifth battle. I'm routinely seeing players win multiple items (in fact, the last effective-discard I won, the other nine items went 3 each to THREE DIFFERENT PLAYERS) in the same battle.

After this, at first I thought I heard a player being sarcastic about it. So I wanted to see if he was.

If he's not putting on a damned good mask (and I'll know it by his conduct in Dynamis tonight -- I'll explain), sounds like he can confirm that, in fact, lot-botting is going on all over the place.

His story: He was in a former Dynamis shell and left because he found out that he could never really get a drop because people were lot-botting out from under him.

Well, I previously discussed on this blog what we do in Lengendary, and he was interested in getting in. Kiana, our leader, got me sack privileges (without telling me) some time back, and has asked us to recruit people to get our numbers and attendance up. So, clearly telling the guy that we aren't the best Dynamis LS around (but, I will still assert, the fairest), I get my first open recruit.

We'll see how that goes tonight.

-----------

Bonus Idiocies on the FFXI Internet:

And, in more evidence of what my roommate and I call "Teh Stupid (It Burns!!)":

Ringthree, if you want me to die in a fire, set it, bitch.

When you post that Square-Enix is trying to get FFXIV out quicker than most people expect, ask yourself why... Either they're playing us for absolute rubes (without standing to actually sue them), or they're trying to retire FFXI as quickly as humanly possible knowing you people have pissed on it's grave.

Monday, September 28, 2009

Oh, where do I begin? Exploits, Cheaters, and Idiocy Gone Mad...

Let's see if I can get through this post while I am arguing the finer points of the jackalopes which continue to pollute FFXI (welcome to my blacklist, Linsivi -- you basically come out and tell me that the game is no fun without Windower and then deny using it??? WTF are you smoking?)...

Don't believe me? Here's two MORE examples of exploits which should get people banned:

-- Modus Veritas and Absolute Virtue. It has long been my position that Absolute Virtue CANNOT BE LEGITIMATELY KILLED. So, in yet another attempt for the cheating idicocies to continue to run over the corpse of FFXI, someone came up with a chart stating that AV could be one-shotted if an alliance of SCHs could land at least 9 Modus Veritas' and one Helix spell.

Anyone who wants to tell me that's an "intended use of game mechanics" is fooling themselves.

-- The new one today, basically, through the use of NPC timer-locks of various sorts, allowing a player or party to rack an infinite XP chain at any realistic time they chose to (or at least that's what it sounds like).

Is this what FFXI has degraded into?? Do we just have to cheat our asses off to make this game workable? The argument I had in WG seems to imply so...

I mean, can't anyone take the rewards given out during the pursuit of victory as only the side effect of victory??

Getting right down to it: Simply participating in Besieged to skill up could be cheating in and of itself. (Don't believe me? What _IS_ Besieged?? I'll leave that as an exercise to the reader...)

Saturday, September 26, 2009

A week I didn't think I'd make it through, to be honest...

And the interesting stuff of this autumn is already begun -- I face criminal charges October 13 in Moreno Valley, probably have to miss a convention to make a final pre-trial bail hearing (it's not a major charge, but it is a criminal one - which would be about my sixth or seventh on my record in the last 15 years), and then I have to deal with the skill-up Besieged losers, which gets me a Sunday morning meeting with a GM and my official warning for swearing up a storm and telling the fuckers who've ruined this game exactly what I think of them...

... to wit, as I said Sunday morning, I told the GM exactly what I thought of how Square-Enix was doing as well. I was actually trying to get the GM to fully ban me and be done with it, for I will make no secret:

I have lost all material respect for other people. I've seen way too many people do what they want without regard for anyone else for me to stop what I'm doing now and call them the shitheads they are -- in-game or otherwise.

I fully expect (if these latest efforts against bots don't materially finally force Square-Enix to throw in the towel on XI completely) to be banned from XI in the fairly near future. I fully expect to be in jail soon after.

In-game: In a week that was, after Sunday, more "calm before the storm" motif:

Sunday Dynamis: Jeuno. Win. Claimed another Montiont on points.

Wednesday Dynamis: Bastok. Just ran out of time -- pretty low on DD (have been noticing high-level numbers going down across the board, even before the FFXIApp shutdown, lately), but we got close.

WHM 42 (and quested for Teleport-Vahzl), BLM 21.

Actually got two BC's down the Aht Urhgan storyline -- finally completed Black Coffin and Shield of Diplomacy. Next Stop is Puppet in Peril.

Almost have DRG XP capped completely. Next stop on the Campaign trail is getting DNC to 75.

Bye bye (at least some) bots, and don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out...

Didn't get a chance to play tonight, since I was not only letting my friend do her work, but then she wanted to show me something (which, inevitably, got us onto about a four-hour situation), and then, at 3 AM, checked my old high school's football score, and, just before I got to bed...

They have completely blown up end-game again.

FFXI has FINALLY -- FUCKING FINALLY -- shut down one of the largest-scale bots on the damn game, FFXIapp.

It was a pay-bot for a lot of players, and seen as a necessity by the botting cheating motherfuckers who basically have made this game a complete farce.

Bye bye to it, and, if they can find out who played with them, bye bye to them too.

We've already seen significant reductions in the number of players in Dynamis, Besieged, and Campaign. Could this basically finish off much of high-level Vana'diel?? We know most of the high-level players cheat their fucking asses off...

Apparently, by one source, the creator of FFXIApp has made HALF A MILLION DOLLARS off this shit????

Why do people continue to work on this game if there are so many of you fuckers willing to cheat the system blind??

You know what? Maybe Square-Enix should take a real good look at whether it's even worth it to put out the November update and Shantoto Ascension if it's clear that most endgame linkshells now can no longer kill a fucking bee in Gustaberg.

The word is that the aforementioned creator has been C&D'd -- the real question is going to be whether further legal action (and, if the aforementioned monetary gain is even close to correct, I'd be real hard-pressed to see why they wouldn't) is going to compel the release of what linkshells and players actually gained access to this shit.

Salvage Bans, Round Two, anyone???

Fuck your bots.

Fuck you cheating asses.

Get off the game and don't come back.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Various idiocies I've seen...

1) Being accused of ruining others' play experiences by calling them out for the shitheads they are. Not that that's not what I want, but, if Square-Enix is actually going to declare me as such, then they not only prove my point, but expose this game as the whore fraud that it is!

2) In Whitegate, a BLM (or was it a RDM) was advertising that he wanted a group which could provide him FORTY THOUSAND XP AN HOUR. *spit-take* WTF???

3) Last night in Qufim, trying to do Fields of Valor under the influence of an Anniversary Ring to get my WHM to 42 for Teleport-Vazhl, I had but one Gigas to complete this given page when I come upon a Gigas BST with his little leech. So, knowing I have to defeat both of them if I take out the Gigas first, I decide to start with the leech, then casting a Dia II on the Gigas to draw claim and agg.

Within only a few seconds, some other bitch has decided to kill-steal the Gigas. He "apologizes", but I see right through it. He basically declares completing his own page more important than mine, even resorting to that and completely ignoring that I had already drawn its fire!

And he's the one spouting off the language this time. Not that I wasn't interested in watching the asshole dig himself deeper, but I find less and less room for "accidents" in this game.

And then he actually has the unmitigated gall to use this as a springboard to recruit me for his linkshell. Uhhh, no.

4) I could've sworn I blacklisted Crystilbitch -- err, Crystilady. Taken care of now.

5) Would someone please explain to these people that Square-Enix isn't just going to hand you everything?

I'm sure I'll come up with more examples of The Stupid in Vana'diel...

Sunday, September 20, 2009

The first step toward being banned has now been taken...

Oh, you didn't like that, so you GMed me on the 19th, eh??

Yeah, I got the warning (but only a warning) -- abusive language (though was that to the other players or the GM that I finally vented off on the zillionth RMT tell that I received), and GM Pieschti got an earful!!!

Let me warn YOU, Square-Enix:

You will have to ban me from FFXI, eventually. It's that good and goddamned simple. In fact, as I've said before, you probably should've done it already.

I WILL NOT RESPECT PLAYERS WHO DECIDE THEY WANT TO RUN OVER THIS DAMN GAME.

You are asking me to give more than I know they are worth, between the RMT scum who should be taken to prison and the shitheads who basically have run over this game.

If you have a problem with that, you have the same problem with me that Chairtwo does.

What, you only want my $12.95 a month? Is that all you want from me, and you are, in no way, obligated to clean up this game??

If I'm only $12.95 a month to you, guys, then end it now and be done with it.

And then be prepared to be embarrassed publicly. I'll expose this game as the fraud it is.

Quickie update, and a study in the impact of the RMT fuckers...

Quickly:

WHM 40, probably going to get 42 Real Soon Now to get Teleport-Vazhl and my AF weapon.

BRD 19, if I didn't say that already.

DRG Merits FINISHED. 5 Angon, 3 Deep Breathing, 1 of each of the others in Level 2. Going to cap XP on that mother in Campaign this week, then start on getting DNC to 75 and breaking the latent on my Destroyers.

More Besieged Bullshit. SSDD. Square-Enix really needs to cut skill-ups out of Besieged, like they did in Campaign.

Sunday Dynamis: For the life of me, I can't remember what we did -- not that I wasn't there and didn't participate...

Wednesday Dynamis: Low-manned a Windy run, til we got to the Death House. Then, OOPS!!! Yeech.

Was going to do a Garrison run in Saruta, but my roommate needed me before they could finish the preparations.

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

From time to time, I check up on some of the other sites, and had made some very pointed comments about the RMT stuff posted on JPButton.com

Let's just say it wasn't taken too well, but someone actually came up with a link to a developers' blog for another MMO, EVE Online, which discusses actions taken against RMT on that game.

I'll give you guys the link, and have this up as I go through this, because I do believe that's proprietary information and I'm not sure I can put the images of the charts up here if I wanted to: http://www.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&bid=687

Meet "Unholy Rage" -- the effort by EVE's developers to continue to deal with RMT and all that stuff. Leading up to a stated point on June 22, 2009, the developers of the game kept an eye on RMT, trying to deal with not only the demand for the in-game currency, but how to eliminate the illegal selling of same and acquisition by those parties of same.

On that date, "Unholy Rage" deleted 6,200 paying accounts. (Paying attention, Square-Enix? These were actually accounts that were being PAID FOR already. No trial account bullshit, at least not in that number. Consider this about the equivalent of the Salvage bans on FFXI precisely five months before this.)

What they found afterwards was very interesting:

1) The number of maximum users at any given point dropped about 10% instantaneously, even though the number of actual accounts banned only represented about 2% of the paying customer-base.

2) The amount of resources each user used on average dropped THIRTY PERCENT.

What these two things mean is very simple: High-level RMT takes a tremendous amount of computer resources away from the legitimate play of an MMO.

If you don't believe me, consider that if all users on that game were to use the same amount of CPU resources, EVE Online would be using FIFTEEN TIMES the amount of CPU resources it currently does.

(And I'm sure you could find the same results in FFXI, WoW, or any other place a similar study would be done on.)

Basically, what this showed was that a very small number of accounts, by illegal acquisition and selling of in-game items and currency (which is theft from the company, because those are proprietary online property of same), were using a tremendous amount of resources.

This doesn't even account for many of the other foibles of the Square-Enix War Against RMT (which they are indisputably losing), such as hacking into the servers to steal credit-card information, etc..

Now, consider one particular area of the game (one "solar system", as they call it), as they give the access of the Ingunn zone just before and after Unholy Rage.

The chart effectively shows that, once the RMT accounts were deleted, except for one large blip and a couple smaller ones, Ingunn basically disintegrated as a relevant area of the game.

I would take one issue with what the developers said in their blog: I don't see that as an "improvement".

I see that as a revelation that there may be very little need to keep the Ingunn area in the game any longer.

I said, back in January, that I believed that there was so much abuse in Salvage that they needed to shut that game mechanic out completely.

It is a situation such as demonstrated in the EVE blog's second chart to which I refer in saying as such. There was essentially (barring a couple small blips) essentially NO LEGITIMATE PLAY WHATSOEVER in that zone. What used to have about 200 players or so at any real given time now had essentially zero in many points.

Any game mechanic or zone which shows this kind of (lack of) traffic, regardless of the game or the mechanic or zone, should be eliminated from the game entirely.

Part of what allows RMT to thrive is the ability to easily gain significant amounts of Real Money Saleable items (usually currency, but also in-game items as well). If it can be demonstrated that, through this or other illegal abuse, the entirety of play is essentially illegal conduct, eliminate the zone, for it's extraneous to the game!

The EVE developers then show one chart regarding a very popular addition -- a Memory Augmentation implant -- with respect to supply and cost.

This obviously was a very desireable item to sell for RMT, since the supply immediately HALVED on the day of Unholy Rage. The price, during the (1 month?) temporary ban period for some of the accounts, went up about 70% as a result.

The instant the temp-bans expired, the market immediately flooded and the cost dropped, but prices and supply have now stabilized at their post-Unholy Rage levels when essentially all of the temp-bans quickly became permanent.

(Do you honestly believe, Square-Enix, that any temporary ban for this type of misconduct (*cough*including the Salvage bans*cough*) would get them to actually act in concert with the rules? Of what value are the damned rules if there's no value in actually playing by them?)

This should be no surprise for people who saw all the little RMTaru shits basically running around and gardening their way to gil being under $20/million (to which it has gotten again -- maybe because of all the stripped/stolen account items, people???).

RMT destroys in-game balance, people!!! There is no polite way around this statement. Especially in the "factory" settings (if you want a real good indicator of just what RMT does and how they do it, check out this YouTube video from MTV, reporting on Chinese RMT factories: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ketOtwjAdO4), it is a true "rinse-lather-repeat" situation.

It should be no surprise that it would appear that there are not only RMT who are committing these acts, but other RMT looking for new ways in!

This is why these people must be met with criminal prosecution and eradicated from MMO's (and probably the Net itself!) once and for all. This means prison time and LOTS OF IT.

The next chart has the developers making the claim that there's not that much impact in the in-game market, but it's clear, if you actually look at the chart, if you were to take out the designation of Unholy Rage (and the dates on the X-axis), it can fairly easily be determined as to when it took place. There is a significant (though, in no means fatal) correlation between the Unholy Rage event and the reduction in the amount of in-game currency involved, with the one spike up towards prior levels when the temp-bans were removed.

Bottom line: THE ONLY WAY TO GET RID OF RMT IS TO JAIL RMT. REAL LIFE PRISON, END OF STORY.

If you do not have the resources to do this, you do not have the resources to deal with RMT, and probably do not have the resources to put on an MMO in the first damn place.

There's one more interesting thing that EVE Online does, which is also kind of a matter at least designed to deal with RMT: Make EVE Online not "pay to play", but "play to play" -- for a certain amount of in-game currency (certainly not insignificant, I am sure), you get what's called a PLEX (Pilot's License EXtension), which gives you 30 days of "free" game time.

Effectively, that is your monthly fee. And if you can make enough in-game currency legally, you don't have to pay for EVE Online anymore.

Just a thought...

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Some jackasses need a little "education"...

Crystilady, Jesterking, and all you other sad sods from that last exchange in Al Zahbi, this one's for you:

Had another round of the good ol' "I'm just in Besieged for the fucking skill-ups" brigade...

You know, Leviathan used to be a proud server, until some of you shitheads basically overran it with that it was all about "Look at me and my skill-ups. I don't care... The game will make sure we win!!"

It's like you're making them do it for the rest of us -- and then, when it can't make up for your sorry deficiencies, you count on the Japanese to get the Candy back so you can start your mighty little circle jerk again.

So I guess it's no real secret that the numbers of players in end-game events are down -- the winning streaks are evaporating -- and the game is turning into yet another abject joke.

If I were like you guys, the last freaking job I would take to Besieged would be a RDM to try to cure your sorry asses.

If you're not in Besieged to win, I got four words for you:

GET THE FUCK OUT!

Seriously. If all it is about to you is getting that last little skill-up so you can crow it to everyone else that you are so fucking leet and don't really care one way or the other, figuring that Square-Enix will have your backs to bail your asses out, then, please, just don't bother impacting the rest of us.

Oh, and Crystilady: I still don't trust your ass any further than I can throw it -- GM me if you dare.

ON EDIT: Heck, forgot a good part of the rant...

1) I don't play this game to make friends.

2) I don't trust much of anybody to be playing this game without cheating or otherwise abusing either the system or the other players.

3) I haven't had fun in this game in over a year, now. (Maybe a moment or two, but not consistent "fun".)

4) The only reason I still play is, as I said in January when some of your heroes got banned, to spite you.

Hear that deafening silence?

That's Square-Enix, with respect to any real news about the game, except when they want to whore us into spending more money to keep the Titanic afloat!

We have literally received ZERO in-game information (except for knowing how much the RMT slime and their cheater denizen have basically taken over) since the Sunbreeze Festival SIX WEEKS AGO.

Instead, it's Dog Tags this and Minis that...

I don't want to spend $107 on a fucking dog tag about a game that is basically only being kept alive as a $12.95/month whore with herpes, Square-Enix!!!

How about you actually either do something with XI or close it down, you idiots????

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Yep, the bitch ChairTwo made his decision, and lies with the cheating terrorists...

Banned from FFXIclopedia.

Fine. You're lying down with the cheaters, and are with the terrorists who are destroying this game.

Just give RMT their sanction too, right? Go right ahead, bitch.

So how much more is it going to take to finally get me banned from FFXI completely, then?

All I can say is, at minimum, they better ban me from Fan Fest or I'm going to jail there.

You decide that a guide to Astral Burning is more appropriate than calling the fucking scum the fucking cheating bitches they are, then, ChairTwo:

YOU'RE ONE OF THEM, AS FAR AS I AM CONCERNED!

FUCK YOU.

FUCK YOUR PRO-CHEATER ATTITUDE.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

So ChairTwo wants to warn my ass about being disrespectful...

Well, I got my warning note (a fairly stiff one) from the FFXIclopedia people...

To ChairTwo:

At the rate things are going, you guys might as well just call up Square-Enix and have me banned from FFXI completely.

I'm serious. See my post from Saturday night, just above. I will not respect illegal conduct, nor the thuggish little brats who promote it.

You've got a problem with that? You've got a problem with me.

I've already been banned from the vast majority of the FFXI Community sites -- I can add yours to the list if it comes to it.

Are you with people who want to play fairly, or are you with people who want to cheat?

Your next move will tell me all I need to know on that one.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Well, let's catch up the last two weeks, and then I have two words for you...

First, before I get to a general rant (which has some tentacles in FFXI), the last two weeks:

Dynamis: Several city runs, the last two (including one I didn't make due to a vacation) Sandy. Got a couple of free lot to nothing pieces, but nothing that I really needed. Did finally cash in a whole bunch of singles for a 100-piece.

Levels: BRD 19, but not that much more, since the hotel connection I was at was so shitty that I was BSODing in Vegas, and really haven't been doing that much except:

DRG merits: Finished Angon, will probably get Deep Breathing #2 tonight or tomorrow. One more after that, then I start XP-capping DRG.

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

*sigh*

We've all gone fucking insane. There's no other way to put it.

I think I can put the whole world, and my experiences in it, into the two words that were said in the last podcast of one of the podcasts (world soccer) that I subscribed to:

"Hate wins."

I swear to all that is holy, the world has lost it, completely and utterly.

Let's see, where do I begin:

-- Let's start with tonight. So I basically come back from my going out to give my friend some peace, and within ten minutes:

1) The door rings, with no one there -- hoping that is only a one-time that someone got locked out,

2) Someone shuts off the breaker (or it completely trips, and not just half-way) to the far side of my room, where I have my computer),

and 3) Probably the most bizarre example yet of why American sports has completely lost it's fucking gourd.

Serena Williams lost her match in the semifinals due to a point penalty after a foot-fault in which she is now accused of threatening to kill the lineswoman who called the foot-fault.

Hate wins, right, Serena?

Where the Hell did I get dropped off tonight??

Crazy-ville??

Then, I go back and remember last weekend, when I was away in Las Vegas at Anime Vegas.

Hate to say it, but I should've cancelled the moment Laura Bailey and Travis Willingham announced their cancellations.

I sat through three days of watching a bunch of spoiled little brats walk around like they owned the place, the industry guests left literally begging people to actually have the audacity to purchase anime.

But I guess hate wins, right??

Then I get back to the soccer podcast. From what I can gather of it, apparently there was a belief on the part of one of the hosts of World Soccer Daily over the course of time where Liverpool supporters were being accused of causing a deadly incident at some point in the past.

Well, over the course of Wednesday and Thursday, August 26 and 27, he must've really set off the Liverpoolians, because English hooliganism came out in full flower, once again, on the Internet.

His life, his wife's life, his friends' lives, his childrens' lives, the whole damn shooting match -- all over the Internet, people wanting to take shots at him.

So the podcast is finished. Their stint on Sirius, over.

As he said, "hate wins".

I'm done dealing with people in a reasonable manner if it's clear that dealing with people in a reasonable manner is not going to do anything.

How does this have to do with FFXI?

Everything.

Between the RMT fucktards and their physical takeover of Vana'diel (which seems poised to succeed), many of the upper-level players quitting the game (finally realizing it as a lost cause -- and you can see that both on places like the TTTO, and in many of the in-game events where high-level players might be needed (we might truly need divine intervention not to lose the Crystal War)), and this fucktard who posted a guide to the blatantly illegal practice of Astral Burning, hate wins.

It's about time I admit that this game is either going to get me banned from it or me arrested for finally taking someone out -- unless the anime fandom does it first (and I have the address of one guy in Redlands, CA who wants such a fight -- the only reason he doesn't get it is because I have a roommate that I care more about than crippling some nerd punk who steals all his fucking anime off the Internet).

*sigh*

About GM Call Congestion with RMT...

NO SHIT SHERLOCK!!!

You just figured that out NOW, Square-Enix????

What I'm talking about is the latest little blurb SE has talked about, finally admitting that the RMT advertisements and illegal phishing bullshit has finally essentially overrun their GM service.

They tell people to understand if they don't get a personalized response. Now, I'm not clear if this finally means they are going to stop "form-lettering" us -- basically "We got your call, we're investigating, keep telling us, thanks..." in various forms...

I've been seeing this for months!! Sometimes 3-4 times a day. And yet I'll still report their asses.

Until these sites are shut down and the people involved put in prison, they're going to take over the game physically. Period. No amount of GM calls or STF action short of criminalizing them (in Chinese court, if necessary) is going to stop this.

They now feel they OWN FFXI, and will OWN FFXIV.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

The Stupid is Burning all over Vana'diel, Part III: A Little Self-Deprecation

Sometimes, even I get bit by The Stupid.

Going through Davoi on a lark to see if I can luck into a Dragoon's Testimony. On the lower level, right next to the high-end middle section that you have to go around to get to.

Figuring I'm safe, I take my time.

Then, I notice something:

The Farkiller is Ranged Attacking me -- and has called for help!

Now, I've got four of them on my ass, and fail to Warp out.

Hello Campaign!

*ensue laughing now*

The Stupid is Burning all over Vana'diel, Part II: Sage Sundi gets it, way too little and late

There are days I begin to wonder if people within FFXI actually DO read this blog.

Reference two reports from JP Button from Elmer the Pointy, regarding comments made by Sage Sundi at the recent CESA Developers Conference.

First report: "POL Died For Your Sins": http://www.jpbutton.com/?p=3573

That one is rather brief, and sets up:

Second report: "STF and RMT: A Game of Cat and Mouse": http://www.jpbutton.com/?p=3613

Finally stating what I have said for quite some time on this blog, Sundi states openly (I think for the first time) that the RMT players (which, given some of the data we have received, I will claim are at least half the characters in all of Vana'diel) are criminals.

I have said, and continue to maintain, that the players behind RMT need to be jailed. All of them. Now. In fact, years ago. If an American player were to commit RMT, at minimum s/he would be subject to theft laws, and probably far more, given the information which the second article has stated Sundi has discussed at that conference.

Basically, Sundi, as put in the article which Elmer posted, identified five "eras" of RMT abuse.

First, The Era of Simple Cheats

(2005-2006)

In any such enterprise (legal or otherwise), it starts small. Basically, RMT could use "poshacks" (position hacks) to "warp" characters around or give them other illegal advantages in the game.

Square-Enix responded by adding chat log investigation and means to separate parts of the chat logs from other parts (separating talking from actions, etc.).

The RMT scum responded by going to the Second Era.

Second, The Era of Bots

It is no secret that Bots have taken over much of action of FFXI in Vana'diel, even to the point of endgame linkshells literally paying thousands of dollars and millions of gil for more advanced bots. (Which see the NASA bot discoveries, including some I put in this blog)

Sundi, as Elmer points out, talks about this era more in the realm of fishing bots. Basically, using bots in such a way that takes fishing and makes a ton of money on it. Sometimes involving being on literally 24/7, and others (as has been employed in later "eras") with massive numbers of characters being involved in the process.

Various countermeasures were employed, including fishing fatigue, level requirements, and those damn Goblin Bounty Hunters.

So the RMT scum took it up a notch!

Third Era: The Era of Illegal Access

(still presently going on, as evidenced by the continuing advisories for illegal access)

This is where things begin to get quite serious. RMT using phishing (and perhaps worse, which I'll get to in a second) to gain illegal access to the players' accounts, World Transferring them (in many cases), and stripping the characters blind.

Various countermeasures include the Security Token, continued advisories, a reported attempt to ban FFXI from the RMT hotbed of China entirely, and that Square-Enix is trying to work with law enforcement, as this now is computer hacking.

However, there is significant belief that, in fact, Square-Enix' own servers are being hacked for some of this information, especially as time has grown quite recent. This is the "Physical Hostile Takeover of Vana'diel" by RMT and illegal players I have been talking about. if these people are not forcibly removed from the Internet with the maximum force of law (which will require prison), forget about both FFXI and FFXIV -- because it is becoming more and more clear that, as a computer-expertise question, the scum are far ahead of Square-Enix in this game. The mouse is laughing at the cat.

(For one example, one of our newer Dynamis LS WHMs cannot play at this point, stripped naked and left in Mount Zhaylom (and God only knows on what server!!), and waiting for a rollback.)

Go on BluGartr to see how common this is getting. It is clear that the criminal scum are winning by a wide margin, and could basically compromise most any account (and, in many beliefs, the Security Token is NOT an issue to them!) they so chose to do. One person even said on the BG forum to basically forget about it, because "If they want to get your stuff, they will."

At that point, you're not playing anymore. You're just giving RMT more ammo to work with. Why continue?

But this is where the real declaration of war and the question of "Who really owns Vana'diel?" starts coming in. And, said clearly: Without eradicating this bullshit, Square-Enix should simply NOT BOTHER RELEASING FFXIV.

AND close down FFXI.

Want a good look as to why? Read the TTTO (and other places) and see how many people are leaving FFXI recently...

People are now seeing FF MMO's as a lost cause (note that I don't just say FFXI, which Square-Enix has clearly given up on). And, unless something is done to almost literally hang the fucking RMT scum by their toenails, it is.

But that wasn't even enough for the RMT...

Fourth Era: The Era of Cultivation

Basically, this is where the Gardening stuff took off. Though all across HELM, Gardening was one of the most visible means by which this was done. This is one of the reasons I truly believe half the characters in this game are RMT only.

The sheer number of characters which would be required to raise that much gil quickly is immense.

Square-Enix responded with the Gardening nerf, individual-IP bans, etc.

But then the RMT went even one step further than that:

Fifth Era: The Era of Chargebacks

Sage Sundi now does admit that the credit-card issues leading to the implementation of SafeSecure, etc., are RMT-related, as the RMT are now hacking for credit-card numbers, leading to all those charge-back issues that have ran over Vana'diel in 2009.

The fact is that, with information we now know, the RMT have gotten massive numbers of credit card numbers, and probably many right from the Square-Enix server.

This all leads to one very important truth:

The evidence appears to indicate that RMT has illegal access to much of Square-Enix' records, and can basically assault any player, any time it so chooses.

Square-Enix, either throw these fuckers in prison, or, as the joke would go: Shut Down Everything.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

The Stupid is Burning all over Vana'diel, Part I: Advertising Illegal Conduct will get you reported...

Oh, I've gone down this road before, and it is clear to me that people still don't listen.

In fact, in the last few days, the wiki has put up probably one of its most controversial guides:

A guide to the illegal Practice of Astral Burning.

Yes, that fraud and canard again.

And it has been met with being reported to the FFXIclopedia people...

... and, by me, to the Special Task Force:

===================

Request for investigation, based on this page on FFXIclopedia:

http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Astral_Flow_Party

This person, ([name deleted]) of the Hades server (I do not believe that is his/her actual character name ([though I gave the STF my closest guess])-- though numerous character names (include [four people] (in a screenshot of "SMNs getting ready to burn"), and many others credited with "improv[ing] SMN Burns" ([12 other names submitted]) as well as involvement by [two other names I saw on the page]) posted a page on the wiki endorsing and guiding people in the process of Astral Burn Parties...

... a practice which, if there is such a thing as zone monopolization as an illegal concept, is also illegal (as a matter of the definition of what they are doing).

The page claims 60K XP for a 45 minute run -- I am sure you don't have to be an extreme expert to realize that cannot be legally done in Final Fantasy XI without zone monopolization. The sheer number of mobs involved (one listed case in the page claims over 250 mobs killed) would make this impossible except for the concept of zone monopolization.

I want an investigation of these players under the foul of zone monopolization during numerous runs on Hades server, as advertised in the above-listed wiki page.

I want a final and binding ruling on the practice of Astral Burning, and suggest that it be declared abusive and illegal on the basis of zone monopolization.

Thank you for your time.

Starcade of the Leviathan server

============

In all cases, names were removed, but at least 19 names of players involved (directly or otherwise) with Astral Burn parties on Hades have been reported to the Special Task Force for investigation due to massive zone monopolization, because it should be obvious to anyone with 1/3 of a clue that the number of mobs killed in such a short period of time essentially requires complete control and monopolization of the zones involved, which is illegal (and which makes the practice of Astral Burning illegal).

I don't want a GM on this. I want the Special Task Force to either remove these players or publicly declare the practice of Astral Burning legal -- with the knowledge that the latter act will render the illegality of "zone monopolization" defunct.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

"Issues with the PlayOnline Central Servers..." Yeah...

Round 2 of the Hostile Takeover of Vana'diel... For about 4 hours this morning (that I wasn't on -- errands for the roomie...), many players could not get onto (or, technically, off of) POL.

Elmer the Pointy hits it square-on:

http://www.jpbutton.com/?p=3573

Anyone who still doesn't believe that something is going on RMT vis-a-vis a direct attack on the Square-Enix servers (which would amount to a physical hostile takeover of Vana'diel) is far more optimistic than I am.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Oh brother... Playtime might be limited for the foreseeable...

We've got some Internet problems in Southern California with AT&T... Bandwidth and Up and Download capacities appear lower than usual...

No real mystery as to why: The fire season may claim Mount Wilson, a key communications hub for everything Santa Barbara-Tijuana, as one of its first victims in the Station Fire, only about 5% contained with little hope of containing it for TWO MORE WEEKS.

So, things could get hairy for a bit, and I don't want to get in the way of my friend's work or her friends. If I can get on, I'll be on. If not...

Just to let everybody know.