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.