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*