And so Game Informer has finally had enough -- that took about two weeks of Dark Souls bullshit...

I really have to be careful, because I'm not in the business of getting arrested again -- yet.

I still have commitments to friends and the like to take care of, but too many more gamers like the pieces of shit I have to deal with on Game Informer slamming me because I basically gave up on Dark Souls and said it was a Tournament of Champions RPG and I may well have to give up gaming if I don't want to end up like that guy in the last post I wrote to you.

But, basically, I try to log in tonight and find about a five-day ban for "Aggressive".

Aggressive? Hey, Game Informer Mods, you ain't seen fucking "Aggressive" til you come over here -- and I left your head editor the link to this blog in my Tweet to him.

And these little fucks can call me an ass, but when I call them on their shit, that's "Aggressive". If that's the case, ban me now, revoke my subscription to your magazine (which I pretty much asked Customer Service to do!), and be done with it.

My contempt for the US gamer knows only enough bounds that I can keep myself out of jail for a few hours at a time. And that's basically ONLY because I have commitments in the real world -- otherwise, I'd be in prison and I'd probably like it (or be dead soon enough that it wouldn't matter).

Too many more like the elitist Dark Souls players, and that might not be the case much longer.

There is the occasional story which makes me think there are some people who get it...

I was running around the different gaming forums when I came across this little gem on Game Informer:

Grown Man Tracks Down and Chokes 13 Year-Old Black Ops Player

Glory, hallelujah! We finally get a gamer who has had enough and uses the one recourse that is going to actually provide a deterrent for these little pieces of shit who do this all the time!

Kids are not "going to grow out of it", and you are an ignorant fool if you think otherwise.

Yeah, he's going to jail for it -- since we seem to honor violence by those who are allowed to perpetrate it like the little piece-of-shit who got him to snap...

But still, good on him. Seriously.

Time to cut and run, Square-Enix...

It's good to see the online-gaming version of an alcoholic company (Square-Enix) has finally admitted that their new game is shit.

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2011/09/27/wada-final-fantasy-xiv-greatly-damaged-franchise-s-brand.aspx

I'll leave this comment from the CEO of the company, Yoichi Wada, from today:

“The Final Fantasy brand has been greatly damaged," said Wada regarding Final Fantasy XIV.

You're half right, Wada-san.

You need to cut bait and run back to the types of games you are competent to create, and cut off this continued abortion to be a company which you have clearly demonstrated that you are NOT and WILL NEVER BE.

Get out of the MMORPG business, Wada-san.

Oh, THIS is fresh...

Got another message from the Galka-stalker ( :) ) -- and the reason I use your Galka name here is because your YouTube/Google handle is effectively impossible to pronounce or spell...

She got her signature deleted by a mod over on the official forums.

Well, she's pissed and fired off this salvo...

"Wow SE seriously? I post saying I'm AGAINST using Windower & bots & yet you remove it? Maybe Starcade was right...you're gonna regret supporting the cheaters someday SE. I play YOUR game without third party tools. Deal with it."
I'm no longer sure. Legitimate play no longer exists on FFXI. You lose all social acceptability if you aren't cheating over there. You can't sue them, because you basically get no rights at all, vis-a-vis gameplay, for your $12.95/mo (it might get you the right to log in, but they can grief you, deny you content, and basically run you off the game -- and you have no rights to redress for breach of contract, theft, and several other civil torts in the courts).

About the only recourse you have is to find some of these cheaters and go old-school on their asses.

Square-Enix and BG are in some sort of financial cahoots here. Cuddleslave, time to eject.

PS: You want a good example of this, and a good laugh/throw-shit-at-your-computer moment?

1) The entire "How to not get banned by association?" thread, full of people who openly should have their computers smashed...

2) Someone was actually told by a GM to simply restart Windower if that was what was causing their problems, completely ignoring that Windower is fucking illegal!

Fire that asshole!

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...

Square-Enix fucks up again, and Blu Gartr shits all over... Gamestop!!!

The more I see what happens on BG, the more I am convinced that Square-Enix must be paying these cheatinous fuckers.

So I'm toodling around tonight and see a complaint thread on the recent PC release of Deus Ex Online by Square-Enix, including a coupon for a third-party online service which would be in competition with one which Gamestop either currently has or is about to unveil.

Hence, GameStop started pulling all of the copies, opening them, and removing the coupon, per their policy.

In fact, Square-Enix recently admitted that they were in the wrong, because they did not notify (as they were legally contracted to do -- not that Square-Enix' online division seems to give Goddamn #1 nor #2 about contracts.

So, even with that, everybody is shitting all over Gamestop on the BG thread, which you can find if you can stomach it.

Here's a few protips for the uninitiated:

1. If it's anywhere the public can get to, it's already been opened. If it's that much of a problem to you, then go find somewhere that can actually try to defend little scumbuckets from robbing the place blind. Given your mentalities, those places may become fewer and further between, but there you go...

2. If you believe the company is allowing Gamestop employees to play new games and then sell the slightly-used games as new, then you have a fraud situation, and maybe theft as well. Now, you being FFXI bastards, you probably know this term from the other side of the equation, but that's at least a civil tort, and you might even make the case that they stole the product to use it and could accuse them of theft.

3. Learn to take advantage of the rights and privileges you are afforded. Let me give you an example: When the PS3's were very hard to find around the time of the release of Final Fantasy XIII, the only place which had one was an older (and used) PS3 from a Gamestop here in the Inland Empire of California (yeah, the shithole armpit of the state, but them's the breaks). So, took it home, and found that the controller wasn't quite right. It was within the 30 day guarantee -- though I also purchased the one-year extension -- so I went back to another Gamestop, showed them the controller, they tested it, and then got me another (used) one which works as well.

But, of course, since your bread seems to be buttered by Square-Enix, you can't get past the fact that THEY WERE THE ONES IN BREACH OF THEIR CONTRACT!

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!

This game has a future, with these louts running it?

Been about a month and a half since I posted to this blog.

Can't say I've missed the game that much. And, from what little I've read, it really sounds as if the little petulant shits have basically done exactly what I've thought they would.

It makes me wonder if there's a lot more to this than I first thought: That Square-Enix actually does like what a number of gaming companies do for World of Warcraft arena stars: I learned that a number of arena players, including apparently several who would've otherwise been banned from the game for open and blatant misconduct: Many of these players are openly and blatantly sponsored by these companies, giving them free license to do whatever they want.

So it makes me wonder if Square-Enix actually sponsors some of these little fucking shits to do whatever they want -- as it has been basically admitted that doing so is the only way Final Fantasy XI or XIV can survive. (BTW, today is August 1st -- XIV has now been in monthly-fee-free Gamma Test for 10 months.)

But that's just a side rant to what I was looking at -- a comment from something I've been reading about since I learned it from some WoW players at a party I was at some time back.

My main rant is about how these guys at Square-Enix expect to have a future (and now one has to wonder if the main single-player FF games are propping up the online company!) after ordering all the players, as a condition of future play, to sign up with Paypal or other ClickToPay device -- even if they already pay by credit card.

This, first, means that Square-Enix has finally thrown in the towel that they have to admit that they cannot keep a secure registration server in any way, shape, or form. We all know, if we've been around this garbage for any considerable length of time, that various RMT companies and hackers have basically been able to have a fairly free reign over whatever accounts they wish to compromise. (Not to mention that most players are too fucking stupid to keep things safe, or too tempted by the money involved...)

Second, it basically, as many players have already pointed out on the forums, puts another layer of bureaucracy on the system, raising the potential of an extra added fee, each and every month, at some point down the line. (I know there is none at present, I'm not as stupid as you think I am.)

Finally, it shows that Square-Enix knows FUCK ALL how to do much of anything.

They don't listen to the players (Hell, if you ain't a cheating piece of shit, you might as well not even bother talking on the forums, because Square-Enix isn't listening to you!),

they don't do the things which would make their game better (at this point, why do you even bother not just having Abyssea absorb everything and turn all the game mechanics into Abyssea-like shams like what they turned Dynamis into before I was thrown out?),

and they basically do everything in their power to reduce the game into exactly what I had hoped Abyssea would've done -- a power-trip piece of crap that you basically have to be in with at least one group who's got an in to the company (see proposed theory above).

Even most players will admit that, unless you already have friends established in the game, you might as well not start, nor return, to FFXI.

How the fuck do these incompetents (and that's the company as well as the players) expect this game to have a future with that kind of stupidity running it?

Two quick thoughts...

1) Where's the number of players, Square-Enix, or are you too fucking embarrassed to tell us?

2) An answer to a comment question which should've been obvious, but the cheating idiot wants me to s-p-e-l-l i-t o-u-t f-o-r h-i-m...

Cid from Bahamut:

He basically said, to basically draw me into a rage in which I'd fly to Japan and smash all the servers (tempting, but ultimately useless -- it's the players' conduct as well as Square-Enix' enabling of the shitheads), that the JPs use Windower too.

It's hard not to see why, when the Americans basically make it a prerequisite of actually playing the damn game. "Enjoy your $1,500 PS2", anyone?

So he wonders why I think he's proud of that...

Hmmm, maybe because it makes you look like you actually run the place?

The attitude of an FFXI player seen as successful...

Though the poster is lying through their fucking teeth vis-a-vis not needing third-party software to do it (especially given that I found this on BG), I felt this would give a good idea of the elitist view of FFXI these days:

Aksannyi wins Asshole of the Day:

"God, these people are so good at completely missing the point. YES, we want people to assimilate, INTO PEOPLE WHO KNOW HOW TO PLAY THE GODDAMN GAME."

First off, bullshit. You believe you're the only fucking people who can tell them how. Hence, you're effectively the only people who you believe have the right to.

Second off, most of the ways you guys "KNOW HOW TO PLAY THE GODDAMN GAME" are fucking illegal, both with ToS and probably with respect to law.

"No one is saying that they need to start using third-party programs..."

Then why does your site advertise them all over forums Square-Enix claims to have read?

Fucking liars, the lot of you.

"or seeking out gimps to make fun of..."

Isn't that the whole reason you play, to Lord yourself over the rest of the playerbase? Go kindly fuck yourself, AND perform anatomically impossible acts.

"... just learn how to fucking play."

You first, without those programs and exploits and RMT and all.

No Parser, no Windower, none of it.

And you wonder, with an American audience like that, why Square-Enix is in such bad financial trouble.

They're shitheads, they're almost certainly criminal, but they run the damn place now.

Just want to show what the few legit players which are left are up against. It's time for you all to go, I'm afraid.

More BluGartr bullshit, with commentary as appropriate:

Gogglehead: "He seems to have no grasp as to how MMO's actually work."

It's almost as if you're admitting that the social necessities of MMO's effectively allow, encourage, and force cheating, if not outright criminal activity. If the social network of the players is more important than the ToS (as it now is in BG-FFXI), then the ToS is nullified, and the players can pretty much do whatever they please within the game, as long as you have enough social standing to basically be allowed to even play the game anymore.

Eeeks said it best just yesterday:

"In essence, he's saying that a person's $12.95/month merely gives them the opportunity to log into the game. In order to actually play and enjoy the game, Starcade absolutely insists a player must to engage in a list of activities that he deems immoral in order to be social acceptable to others in-game and to be able to enjoy the game's content. He blames everyone but himself for his failure to integrate into FFXI's in-game culture and to simply enjoy playing the game. "

First off, this is not only true as a function of what you fucking shitheads have done to the game, and continue to do in my absence, but it is a legal function of the apparent lack of standing that an individual player has to insist that the ToS be enforced!

It's a direct offshoot of both Mayer vs. Belichick, Patriots, and NFL and Leong vs. Square-Enix Holdings. If one actually takes those cases as precedent, then, not only is what I said true, but that's the MOST a person can expect. Your $12.95 don't get you shit unless you bend over and suck very good dick of the people who truly run this game -- none of them working for Square-Enix!

You don't get something very cleanly here: FFXI's in-game culture is something which I could not integrate into, because there would be open criminal activity. To "enjoy the game", I would have to know that playing the game in a manner consistent with the rules actually meant a damn.

And if you believe that you can pass that off as being the case, read your own fucking forum, you of the "Enjoy your $1,500 PS2" and the like. The in-game culture of FFXI requires all those acts (as long as you have the support of "enough players"), and Square-Enix has openly turned their backs on it, as (even by your own admission) cheating is required to "enjoy the game".

It continues:

"Since not everyone will play FFXI on his terms, he flipped out and started his crazy campaign. It's the pattern that's stretched across his entire adulthood. Right now it's FFXI, but it's been Debbie Gibson or that Wizards of the Coast thing in the past. His crazy little mind will eventually fixate on something new."

Why does everyone see the enforcement of Square-Enix' STATED RULES AND TERMS as "my terms"?

This is what I don't get.

If you actually believed that, then let me give you a small list of the things I would do if this were truly under my terms:

• Salvage: Gone, and all gear nullified.
  
• Skillups in Besieged: Gone.
• Every player with Windower: Automatically banned, and it would be part of the code to sniff it out.
• Server-wide ignorance of events like Besieged and Campaign: Highly punitive. All progress in the effected expansions would be ceased under certain conditions, including even XP.
• Criminal charges for in-game content when appropriate under the stated laws under which the ToS is governed (California law for US players, as one example).

I could go on, but there's a short list of things which would go FAR beyond even Square-Enix' present interpretation. I'd throw out entire game scenarios because you fuckers have blown them up.

But then you go further:

"Starcade insists that players must do the following for others to accept them and to enjoy the game's content: troll others, grief others, use 3rd party programs, out-compete everyone and monopolize all content everywhere in the game at once, and engage in RMT activities."

That's a pretty good read -- no exaggeration. Effectively, YOUR OWN SOCIAL CULTURE (which seems to be more important than anything else in FFXI) forces this conduct on other players, or they will be effectively subjugated to "lesser person" status.

The shithead concludes:

It never crossed his mind that all that's really needed to enjoy the game is a relatively normal personality. People shy away from batshit insane individuals like Starcade.

Fuck off. Straight up -- fuck off.

You are one of an increasing number of people in this society (far beyond in-game) who tries to enforce unlawful behavior, among other things, as the way to do things.

If you were right, they'd have to lock me up on principle -- no threat would be required! I'd be the problem for actually trying to make a social situation workable for somebody who wouldn't have to openly show up at someone's door with a baseball bat for some of the crap that's been gotten away with for quite some time in FFXI. Imagine how a player would react if he paid thousands of dollars for a character and then the fucker compounded the theft by recalling it back.

Hell, just after you posted this, Byrth actually made (and stated s/he did) the same argument on both your forums and the official forums, that Windower is, in complete abrogation of the stated Terms, legal. Now, if you wish to complain about my insistence for purity and all that, you're a bigger piece of shit than I gave you credit for.

You expect me to work within this system. I tell you openly -- that's not possible.

But there were three more comments that I wanted to address for the moment:

1) Theinen: "He's going to suicide-bomb VanaFest 2011."

Why would I want to hurt what few honorable players might be left (read: greater chance of that being the Japanese)?

2) Head Shithead Isladar: "If the Official Forums are really "BlueGartr Lite", as he's stated, then you are all my precious little bunnies and I heart you."

Effectively admitting that the desired result is BG dominance over FFXI.

3) I need to find the quote, but someone basically said that the statement about the $12.95 only getting you log-on rights, and that you had no rights to see the game rules enforced (and all of their results) could come from a simple 10-minute reading of the ToS.

In that case, they basically are saying that the social structure of the players runs the game.

Forget the GMs at that point, player bannings should be on the basis of player petitions.

And what of the Salvage bans? What had to happen to get that done??

What infuriates me is that these fuckers can't read:

So let me try this again:

All of the stuff listed in my last post is now legal, but:

Under one caveat: Enough players (for whatever value of "enough" will be accepted by the shitheads running the game) have to do all these things to be socially acceptable.

There. Let's see the fuckers get around that.

I'd also probably need to open my checkbook too for my allowance of using a fleehacker, if rumors I'd been hearing on the game just before my banishment are true.

And, knowing you fuckers, they probably are...

Couple of shitheads' misconceptions I need to clear up...

Vana'diel rejoices? I can believe it. And fuck them all for it!

Couple of BluGartr shitheads need to get a correction.

First, the concept that "every female in the game is now safe".

Who's safe? Do I have to play the "Who the fuck are you?" card again?

Second, the lawsuit would not be for me getting banned. Hell, taking this long for it to happen might well be another cause to sue.

My point is: If I were to sue, it'd be for the absolute breach of contract that Square-Enix has committed against the legitimate players (what few there are).

As of right now, your $12.95 a month doesn't even get you the right to play. It basically gets you the right to log in, maybe!

Trolling is legal.

Griefing is legal.

Third-party programs are legal.

Content denial/"denial of enjoyment" is legal.

Content monopolization is legal.

Hell, with the recent revelations of Chinese jails formenting RMT farmers to pay off protection money for the wardens, I would say the base black-letter law of the game that Square-Enix owns the entire game and everything in it is now null.

Hence, RMT is legal in FFXI.

All of this is true under one caveat: "Enough" players have to be doing it to make it socially acceptable.

So, for whatever value of "Enough", here's Rule #1:

You no longer have the right to play Final Fantasy XI without the consent of Square-Enix and "Enough" of the playerbase.

Another legal loss against fair play: Leong vs. Square-Enix

(Yes, I will continue to follow the game, and will expose the playerbase for the barn animals they are. In fact, in no uncertain terms, I will use any legal means at my disposal to disgrace Square-Enix and degrade the playerbase with the truth about this game.)

I've been researching various case law for legal action against Square-Enix, and I have to say -- it doesn't look good for any of us who would like to think that you can even be defrauded by such a corporation.

San Franciscan Esther Leong sued Square-Enix for various and sundry claims surrounding the fees which can be charged a player who becomes in more serious arrears with their accounts.

The case was quickly dismissed, with prejudice, because the court would never be satisfied that it could do three things to satisfy standing -- and these same three things, which are in Article III of the U.S. Constitution, according to the dismissal, are the same three reasons I didn't sue Square-Enix two years ago:

1) The plaintiff has personally suffered a cognizable injury.
2) The injury is fairly traceable to the defendant's alleged illegal conduct
3) The injury is redressable by court decision.

Basically, even if 1) and 2) were true, then, much as in Mayer, 3) effectively allows the court to walk away from any fraud claim, with the assertion that it cannot redress the injury through court decisions -- hence, rendering impossible that the plaintiff could ever be defrauded...

Effectively, the courts have ruled that most plaintiffs are too stupid to be defrauded, because the court can just walk away from the situation and tell the plaintiffs off.

I guess I can now put the comments not fit for the forum...

First off, you can make it official: LM-17 as of this morning. I will do everything (within the law) in my power to destroy your gaming community.

Here's the comments I was hoping to get a Dev or an STF member or other administrator to read:

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

This may very well be my last post as an FFXI player, because I'm almost sure you guys may well have me game-banned for telling you off.

This is basically to the forum admins, GMs, SGMs, and Community Team, who are completely blind to the freaking fact that your forums have turned into only a slightly more civilized version of the piece of crap cheater-fest which is BluGartr, which Square-Enix OPENLY states it has been reading for a long time, yet refuses to even remotely investigate rampant RMT, third-party program, and bot usage, as well as open and blatant content monopolization and denial, admitted and encouraged on the forums.

Hell, during my suspension, you had an OPEN ADVERTISEMENT to Windower in your Gameplay: Other section of your Holy Official Forums up for at least 24 hours!

The players want Windower.

The players want to abuse other players and lessen their play experiences.

The players want to feel they are the only players fit to play this abortion of an MMO.

I'd even make a guess the better number of players want RMT - which see Abyssea-leeching and turbo-levelling 30-90.

When are you going to come to the freaking realization that your game is full of:

-- griefers

-- trolls
-- cheaters
-- players who openly dominate content to monopolize it
-- players who openly dominate content to deny content to all others
-- freaking elitists who basically believe they are the only people who should be allowed to talk about the game, because their equipment, and ONLY their equipment, actually stands the test of anything in FFXI
-- assholes, and if you don't like that term, I'm sorry... That's about the kindest way I can describe them.

Some of these idiots need to be slapped. And since you aren't going to do anything to them, you sanction their blasted behavior, in-game and in all manners surrounding it!

Look, if you guys don't want to freaking care about the amount of violations and cheating that are going on in the game, then do yourselves one Hell of a favor and ban me from the game. If this is the community of FFXI, I want it destroyed and will do what I can to see it destroyed.

The actions of the administrators, as well as Square-Enix as a company leave one with no choice but to understand that you and the company have ZERO INTEREST in game fairness, game balance, or anything else the players basically have abused almost since the moment you first put the game out! This goes back to the days where players would openly attempt to disconnect a competing player to deny him content by spamming useless job abilities to force the player to "lag out".

You have basically been blind to seeing this game turned into a cheater-friendly playground where the only player with any social acceptance is the type of player for whom the only remedy for them denying the rest of us content we have, in fact, successfully claimed and accessed is for US to suck less?

The degree of arrogance of the "players" of this game is utterly shocking, and you expect me to respect these jackals? What planet do you live on?

It appears, in your eyes, players like ME are the problem, not the cheaters, trolls, content-deniers, botters, RMT, etc. and so forth and so on!!!

It's like I tell people: It would appear that players who openly abuse the game, yet retain and (sometimes as a result) enhance their social standing among the community are more valuable to you as a company than anyone demanding the rules be upheld!

Listen: What you are doing and allowing is fraud, by it's purest definition. This is true in the respect that no player who actually expects a fair game is getting what they paid for. I wouldn't pay $12.95 a month if I absolutely knew that you guys were going to completely ignore that the game has been turned into a dungeon full of little rats (and that's the players), and a company which has disgraced it's hallmark franchise brand by ruining it's first MMO by allowing cheating, enabling cheating, encouraging cheating, and, in many cases, _requiring_ cheating!

If the "community" and the "social aspect" of this game are so important that your in-game rules are effectively nullified, then your MMO division can go straight to Hell and XIII-2 will be the LAST purchase I make from your company -- and that's if I make it that far!

There's a reason XI is faltering and XIV is a non-starter -- because you guys can't run ONE MMO fairly or equitably. So you let the little brats in because you need the money so bad because XIV is a complete Epic Fail I wouldn't touch if you paid me to do so -- so much so that it's still in Gamma Test since it's release last September! (Nice way to instill confidence, by the way -- Battle System Revamp nine months in...) Those little brats make both games inaccessible to new players, and unrecommendable to same!

And now you guys want to start up work on a THIRD MMO? No thanks. I'll touch that one even less than I did XIV (ZERO).

But the fact is that if you guys are going to openly encourage the type of players you see on this forum, you don't want me at Fanfest (because there would be a serious incident there), and you don't want me on XI anymore. Forget the forum, you've allowed that to be turned into BluGartr Lite!

If you want me to follow the rules, start freaking enforcing them in the game!!!

(Or will that mean that you will have to admit to everybody there would not be a game at that point?)

And one more thing: Now that I've had some time to do some research, your Holy Official Forum _IS_ BluGartr Lite -- they've taken over. They're laughing at you almost as much as they are laughing at me. You honestly believe you're going to to get anything positive from those cheating jackalopes, please do them a favor and have me banned, since their money and their pwnage is more important to you than any fair play.

Here's an example: The guy I would want to belt, Mrbeansman? He was trolling YOU guys and finally drew a two-week forum ban, much to his pleasure.

They think they not only own MY experience, but YOURS, Square-Enix.

Deal with them, or with me. Choose.

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

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)

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

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...

A _THIRD_ Square-Enix MMO?

How about proving to me, Square-Enix, that you can run ONE MMO competently and fairly before we start discussing the realities of putting out a third MMO?

Here's the ANN report on that one.

XIV is EPIC FAIL -- what, you going to replace that with this?

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.)

So the update has come and gone for May 9...

And I can't say I'm the World's Happiest Camper with most of it...

Voidwatch:

Tried once, and died miserably to the worm because the status of when you are in a Voidwatch Operation Battle is the same as a Confrontation in some other mechanisms (Fields of Valor Elite Regimens, some WotG fights, etc.) -- hence, it wiped my pet and it hits like a truck.

Don't like that it sounds like it's bringing some of the Abyssea stuff over here. Hopefully, once we learn some more on this, it'll improve.

Grounds of Valor/Revamped (High-Level) Monster Placement:

Gee, they really don't want low-level players in the dungeon areas anymore. Once you go up the spout in Dangruf Wadi, you're in 90-land now, Toto! Wasn't paying attention, and a 90 goblin ate me for lunch.

Be interesting to see the benefits you get from continuous GoV work, but gotta get a rhythm going on that.

Neo-Dynamis:

YE-OUCH!!!

Someone's trying to kill Dynamis.

I can understand lowering the drop rate on singles.

But effectively eradicating it entirely??? 45 minutes in Bastok Monday night, just completed 70 minutes in Xarcabard. ZERO coins.

That said, if they can balance the drop rates, the action is soloable for a careful 90, and there are some other changes as well:

• Killing a pet's master kills the pet.
• If all on a monster's hate list dies, the monster despawns effectively immediately.
• Beastmen and Xarcabard demons link with each other, but NOT with Statues or Eyes.
• The 2-hr can be really quick. Watch out on the summoners!! (Learned that night 1.)
• Regular mobs can now be snuck and invised against -- no more True Sight and Sound.
  

Actually did have a decent run in Xarcabard. One time extension gave me a total of 70 minutes in there, and I killed the WHM demon NM and got a pop item drop. Got 3 AF2 in Xarcabard, and 2 I could use (RDM and MNK -- BLU was the other.) MNK now 5/5 AF2.

If they get the coin rates balanced, this could be a godsend. Until they DO....

Protip to Square-Enix: Coins are what make people money and get them to come back. Most of the AF2 gear is either gotten a couple times over, obsoleted by AF3, or both.

Adventuring Fellows:

I really need to break out Sharlene some day. She's hot. :)

Abyssea:

I thought they ninja-nerfed the drop rates on Pursuer's Wings just before the update.

I do like the knowledge on lights -- each light has a 0-255 strength list. /heal - ing shows you that along with your time left.

And the NPCs coming to the home nations?? Let's just say I finally moved my home point back to Bastok! :)

Battlefields/KCNMs:

Haven't tried any, but will take the Inventory Space +6 from finally getting to trade all those buggers in! :)

Other administrivia:

Got my Prishe statue. She's now pointing at nothing in particular. All hail Prishe fan-service.

Working on Axe WSNM points after finishing Staff, Polearm, and Dagger. Club next, then some Shinryu soloing.

Ninth Vana'versary:

Ring is different, now a 9000 point bonus limit, 12 hours to use it up, 10 charges.

Another Dinner Jacket uselessness, sounds like. Early indications: Looks cool, though.

Mog Bonanza:

A number of changes, mostly to Empyrean stuff and rescaling the game to Abyssea. A number of items have been removed, as well, as a result. This is mostly about changes to additions to level changes.

Rank 5: No changes. Mostly battlefield entries and statues.

Rank 4: A number of changes.

• Joyeuse has been reduced from Level 3 to Level 4. And there was a time that was one of the most sought-after things in the game!
• Same with Valhalla Helm, Yinyang Robe and Nocturnus Helm.
• Carbuncle's Pole and Redeyes added to the list.
• Most of the craftables removed from all levels, except for HNM stuff/Black Belt stuff (Behemoth Tongue, etc.) here.
  
• Bahamut V.2 "Wyrmking Descends" Orb added.
• Also downgraded: Kupon B -- Beaucedine Dynamis AF2 armor -- Rank 3 to Rank 4.
• Also added: Kupon S. Win this, and you can pick any one job of your choice and gain all the necessary seals (but the seals only -- still gotta buy the rest and farm the feet!) to upgrade any one job's AF3 to a full +1 set. This is cool. And doing this at Rank 4 keeps things from getting too far out of hand. That's for later!

Rank 3: Gil breakdown for the top three tiers is the same. Downgrades already listed, plus the following...

• The Great Sword "Nightfall" from the Fiat Lux BC (remember that obsolete situation?) has been added. Aneiro, if he didn't get it before, really might want that one!
• Nocturnus Mail has also, as the Helm, been dropped one Rank, from Rank 2 to Rank 3.
• Byakko's Haidate, elite body-piece, downgraded one Rank, from Rank 2 to Rank 3.
• King Arthro's Velocious Belt (Haste +6%) also similarly downgraded from 2 to 3.
• The Synergy item Galley Kitchen has been added for that chef who needs everything.
  
• Level 4 Sarameya ZNM drop Hachiryu Haidate downgraded one Rank, from Rank 2 to Rank 3. Anyone still doing ZNM's at all?
  
• Roundel Ring (Oztroja (S) SCNM drop) has been added. Great curing piece!
  
• The Nomad Moogle Rod (an exclusive item to Japanese events) has been put at this level. But you can't give the Moogle Pies to yourself, and, unless they vastly upgrade the "gift" you can give, why the Hell is this a Rank 3???
• Odin drop: Valhalla Breastplate downgraded to Rank 3 from Rank 2. Which see Abyssea obsoleting a lot of other things, like Einherjar.
• The Elite Salvage gear: Ares' Cuirass, Skadi's Curie, Usukane Haramaki, Morrigan's Robe... Downgraded to Rank 3 from Rank 1! Talk about an admission as to the obsolete nature of Salvage!

Rank 2: Downgrades already listed, plus:

• Tier 4 ZNM Tinnin staff drop, Alkalurops, downgraded one rank, from Rank 1 to Rank 2.
• Dynamis Lord drops Shadow Ring and Shadow Mantle both downgraded one rank, from Rank 1 to Rank 2. And if Dynamis isn't fixed tout suite, it could be completely obsolete.
  
• Shinryu drops Twilight Mail and Twilight Cloak added.
• Jailer of Love "drop" Novio Earring downgraded the same one rank. Rank 1 to Rank 2.
• Ebisu quest items stay up at this level, as does the Pandemonium Key (for those suckers who want to try Pandemonium Warden).
• There's an item called a Cat's Eye, which is a jewel, which has been added in the May 9 update, added to this tier. Apparently, the .dat people (got this from FFXIAH) have said that it will automatically complete the alexandrite leg of any Mythic weapon. But you do not get the alexandrite you've spent back.
• The most interesting addition, though, to this tier, is the Kupon EA. Now, of course, you can conclude that this is not a preview of the Peyton Hillis Madden 12, but this has to do with Empyrean Armor. Like the Kupon S, you select a job. But with the Kupon EA, you receive ALL FIVE AF3 +2 PIECES COMPLETED from that job! WOW!!!!

Rank 1: Most of the items have been changed, as a number of the other items got downgraded from previous versions of the Mog Bonanza. With the gil, you get the choice of, for the Grand Prizes:

• Kupon A: For an AV drop. (As in the previous Mog Bonanza.)
• Kupon P: Pandemonium Warden drop. (As in the previous Mog Bonanza.)
• The Ridill, the Kraken Club, the Defending Ring, and the Ebisu Fishing Rod are also at this level, as before.
• Kupon EW is a slight change from previous Mog Bonanzas. It grants a fully completed (to this point) Empyrean Weapon of your choice. A winner of a Kupon EW would get a more completed weapon than a Kupon E winner did before, but it's the same concept. The list of trial completions is on the website linked above.
• Two mega-additions from the Nomad Mog Bonanza from Vana'Fest 2010: Kupon RW and MW. I don't think I need to say much more than the Relic or Mythic of your choice, respectively!
• Two new Grand Prizes have been added to the gear set. The Ochain (effectively the upgraded Aegis), and the Daurdabla (basically the best stringed instrument in the game). Not known if these two items will be level 85 or level 90 -- my guess is the latter.
• Three final Grand Prizes have been added for the person in need of lots of cash that even the gil prize might not satisfy: Each Dynamis nation's TEN THOUSAND-PIECE (the one you would normally have to collect to gain the final part of your Relic Weapon). Let's put it this way, the gil prize is usually about 100,000,000 gil. The Sandy and Windy ones of these could be worth, at pre-Neo prices, 120-150,000,000 gil!

So salivate over all that. Sales begin near the end of the month and the numbers come out mid-July.

My choices:

Rank 5: A statue I do not have.
Rank 4: The seal set, job unknown.
Rank 3: Tough call, though I no longer see equating Xarcabard Dynamis drops to the same level as elite Salvage gear.
Rank 2: The AF3 +2 completed set, obviously. Job becomes a real pain to decide at that juncture!
Rank 1: OH DEAR GOD... Call me if I win, after I am revived.

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!!

A Day I Thought Would Never Come: A Streak Greater Than The Undertaker's -- OVER -- 3,166 - 1.

Interesting week. Heavy lifting will leave a mark -- pinch bruises on both my biceps and the right one does not look pretty.

Finally getting a breath or two after a very stressful first calendar quarter.

Quick update:

WHM legs +1, RDM hands +1 (completely through Dominion Ops), 8/10 Monk Level 2 Merits (3 Formless Strikes, 5 Invigorates), 83 WHM, 62 PLD, and 1060-something/1600 bynes for my 2nd Relic polearm update.

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

And now I must mourn the death of an FFXI game mechanic.

Besieged is now officially dead as a game mechanic. Siren has lost it's first Besieged, finally the last server to do so.

On Sunday, April 10, only eight days short of the five-year anniversary of the release of Treasures of Aht Urhgan, Square-Enix reports that the Astral Candescence on Siren has fallen, and the long-standing record of Siren is now 3,166 victories, but now one defeat.

It has been little secret that the explosion of XP in Abyssea has largely rendered Besieged irrelevant, but this action probably, more than anything, kills the mechanic once and for all.

It was disturbing, after the suspension, to see the Besieged records reset -- but this basically might be the last real action for the Siren server before it gets merged in the major update next month.

I moved to Siren because I felt the Besieged record indicated players who would work hard for the betterment of all -- and it really started that way.

Until the Asura Disease creeped in, little by little...

But now Abyssea has basically eaten Besieged once and for all.

R.I.P. Besieged. I might help out occasionally to visit your grave.

Catching up Starcade...

Well, we are less than seven hours from the restart, and I'm about to get a nap before the game restarts.

Before I do, a quick update on where Starcade stands...

Six jobs are level 90.

DRG (fully capped and merited), DNC (fully capped and merited), SAM (fully capped and merited), BST (fully capped and merited -- all hail the Power Sheep!), RDM (not capped, but fully merited), and MNK (my first job in the game, my 6th to 90, neither capped nor merited).

WHM got to 77 -- just got my Raise III in a BCNM before the stoppage. NIN is 50-ish, others getting there.

Dynamis: Lengendary is still going, though for how long after the Dynamis changes, I dunno. Got my polearm to level 2, and now working on the 16 100-Bynes to get it to level 3 (farming for gil, mostly Abyssea pops like the Orobon Cheekmeat and Pursuer Wings). We got our Xarcabard win, finally, so we're branching out a bit. Next run is supposed to be Windurst. Only win I do not have is Tavnazia.

Abyssea: Shit-ton of DD atmas (have Razed Ruins, Voracious Violet, and many others). Have all zone bosses, Caturae, and the Discernment Abyssite and Crimson Traverser Stone. The only win I don't have is The Wyrm God himself.

AF3: No +2's. +1's abound, including four on DRG and three on DNC -- but I still don't have the base feet for DNC, even though I've had the eight seals for quite some time!

Wings: Got stuck on the last Bastok mission, so got Sandy a fair way up until I got stalled on a mission that needs help there! So haven't gotten to the end of that.

ToAU: Does anyone do that any more?

Zilart: On Apocalypse Nigh.

So that's a quickie update. Off to bed.

Another ISP-cap warning...

On one of my first posts since returning the blog to active service, I sounded a warning to gamers on certain ISP accounts.

After some research and what I found out today, sounds like I have to do another one.

First thing anybody should do if they are on or considering a capped ISP: Meter your Net usage with a program like NetMeter, like I did.

THEN: Try to find out what your ISP is saying your Net usage is.

Today, I did some research, and, with the NetMeter numbers and what the (soon-to-be-former) ISP was saying -- and nothing was adding up. (In fact, the ISP's numbers were double the NetMeter totals.)

No one's been on the account other than authorized people.

And when did this start, apparently? Two weeks ago. Gee... Coinkydink???

I THINK NOT!!!

Be very careful going forward. They might try to get you coming _AND_ going... They'll gladly over-meter you to nail you for overage charges.

If you must be on a capped plan, get and document how much Net your system is using.

And get it on paper, so that if your ISP tries to stiff you, you can challenge them.

Ides of March V: An Uneasy Return

It all began with a meeting, or so the legend says...

I'm sure the community is abuzz with the announcement that the game would return this weekend. With a 10% conservation in power consumption (meaning that Square-Enix will be minus their air conditioning for a long period of time, as well as shutting off a few more lights), they are able to offset the server power usage (which was about 12% of their entire power usage as a company!!!) and can, hence, return the game to service on Friday morning at 4 AM PDT (8 PM JST Friday night).

This is, of course, with the caveat that, if the situation should worsen (and I'll say right now that I doubt it won't, especially as Japan gears up for the spring and summer -- if there isn't some degree of major continuing conservation effort or some major power rerouting, the game is going to be down more than it is up over the summer!), the game could go back down at pretty much any time.

--

That said, two thoughts:

1) I'm shocked it's only going to be about a two-week suspension. Fukushima Daiichi is GONE. Their power infrastructure took a massive hit with the earthquake, tsunami, and all-but-certain nuclear meltdown. Without a major power rerouting, this could end very badly.

2) I swear to God that I have seen some of the most shameful trolls I have ever seen in and around FFXI on the official (English) forums in the last 10 days.

They basically confirm many of the worst suspicions which made me angry enough to raise Hell and to take names on this blog.

I know that people troll for a reaction and all that garbage, but the fact is that to even have it within one's mind to be as callous, disrespectful, and just downright not able to have one ounce of human compassion because THEY JUST WANT THEIR GODDAMN GAME, GOD DAMN IT!!...

*sigh* And we wonder why most of the Japanese, even with accommodations like the auto-translate system and the like, want nothing to do with the English-speaking playerbase...

Well, anyway, you have it back Friday.