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.

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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.