Accounts Banned (Nov. 20)

[MaachaQ]

Nov. 20, 2008 03:00 [PST] From: FINAL FANTASY XI
Accounts Banned (Nov. 20)

We would like to report the termination today of multiple accounts held by players involved in the usage of third-party tools or cheats, or engaged in RMT (Real Money Trading) activities.

Based on the results of our investigation, around 10,660 PlayOnline accounts were terminated while around 280 accounts were temporarily suspended.
Additionally, we have increased the number of mass bannings against certain PlayOnline violations in order to prevent illegal acts.

Details of the violations are as follows:

- Usage of tools that allow enhanced character movement.
Week of October 19, Approx. 280 cases
Week of October 26, Approx. 530 cases
Week of November 2, Approx. 340 cases
Week of November 9, Approx. 380 cases
Week of November 16, Approx. 330 cases

- Usage of tools that circumvent game mechanics with respect to the timing of ability use, etc. in certain areas or at points where Notorious Monsters appear.
November 19, Approx. 30 cases

- Using cheats to automatically repeat a particular action.
Week of October 19, Approx. 580 cases
Week of October 26, Approx. 1,480 cases
Week of November 2, Approx. 1,540 cases
Week of November 9, Approx. 1,560 cases
Week of November 16, Approx. 680 cases

- Gil and item exchange for real world money.
Week of October 26, Approx. 60 cases
Week of November 2, Approx. 180 cases
Week of November 9, Approx. 380 cases
Week of November 16, Approx. 540 cases

- Instances of areas or monster monopolization.
October 23, Approx. 100 cases
October 30, Approx. 110 cases
November 14, Approx. 120 cases
November 18, Approx. 30 cases
November 19, Approx. 20 cases

- Involved in compromised accounts
Week of October 19, Approx. 160 cases
Week of October 26, Approx. 180 cases
Week of November 2, Approx. 520 cases
Week of November 9, Approx. 660 cases
Week of November 16, Approx. 100 cases

- Accounts from people that were previously confirmed to have RMT connections, or that had violated the user agreements but re-subscribed to PlayOnline.
November 20, Approx. 50 cases

The termination of these accounts has led to the removal of approximately 1.3 billion gil from circulation.

We would like to remind players that as well as adversely affecting game balance, the use of third-party tools or cheats can also have consequences that are not immediately obvious, such as introducing damaging viruses, and comprising the security of private account details. Usage of third-party tools will not be tolerated within FINAL FANTASY XI, and we will continue to severely penalize any players found to be in violation of the PlayOnline Member Agreement.

As we continue to ensure a fun and balanced environment for FINAL FANTASY XI, we hope that our players enjoy the game as it was intended and take care to avoid involvement in activities that violate the PlayOnline Member Agreement.

Thank you for your continued cooperation and understanding.

http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/pol...ews14739.shtml

[Kimiko]

FINAL FANTASY XI Official Web Site

Originally Posted by SE

Today's report will outline our actions conducted from October 23, 2008 to November 20, 2008 in dealing with players violating the user agreement, as well as details on the activities, results, and goals of the Special Task Force.

Click here for details on the Special Task Force's activities in dealing with players violating the FINAL FANTASY XI user agreement.

Special Task Force Activities and Future Plans


As demonstrated in the above graph, the number of accounts banned gradually decreased from June to September, but drastically increased in October.
There are two reasons for the increase in bannings. The first reason is that the Special Task Force strengthened its activities against accounts involved in selling gil starting last month. The second reason is that we've obtained new methods for dealing with RMT through our investigations and, as a result, have been able to investigate more accounts than ever before, effectively increasing the number of accounts banned.
Using these new methods, we not only are capable of verifying accounts directly involved in RMT but also accounts that are being used to accumulate the gil sold through RMT. These new methods have proven especially effective against violators of the user agreement involved in RMT such as hunters and illegal fishers.

Another factor in the increase in bannings is that we strengthened our activities against illegal fishing last month. Through these strengthened activities, we have been able to deal with violators of the user agreement who had escaped from the bannings up until now. Consequently, the number of violators has decreased and the number of reports in October has decreased by about 500 in comparison to September.

Since we have confirmed that the strengthening of our activities starting last month has been successful, we will continue to utilize these same activities in the future.
Additionally, the Special Task Force is cooperating with the development team in creating some systematic countermeasures that would further decrease the number of violators involved in illegal fishing.

Matters of Concern Within the Community
In the following section, we will be explaining the Special Task Force's direction and plans in dealing with matters of concern within the community.

- I've received advertisement messages for RMT sites from characters I don't know. Multiple characters are sending them to me, so even if I set them to "ignore," I continue to receive the messages.
We have received a large number of reports about violators of the user agreement involved in RMT sending messages that advertise for RMT sites. The sites that are introduced through these messages are oftentimes embedded with programs that steal users' PlayOnline IDs and passwords, and carry the risk of unauthorized access. Please do not view the sites mentioned in messages received from characters you do not know, even out of interest.
We are planning to introduce systematic countermeasures to PlayOnline to deal with this issue.

- It seems that there are more violators of the user agreement illegally fishing on the ferry between Selbina and Mhaura than before.
Among the reports regarding illegal fishing, reports about the Selbina/Mhaura ferry have been on the rise. One reason we can think of for the increase in reports is that some of the players on the 14-day free trial are using the ferry for RMT activities. Since users on the 14-day free trial cannot play in areas requiring expansion pack data, they have been mostly using the Selbina/Mhaura ferry to illegally accumulate gil for RMT.
The Special Task Force has expanded its activities to deal not only with the violators involved in illegal fishing but also with any accounts associated with these violators. We believe that the strengthening of our activities will be able to decrease the number of violators involved in illegal fishing.

Reporting to the Special Task Force
The Special Task Force relies on everyone's information regarding violations of the user agreement to help keep FINAL FANTASY XI an enjoyable environment, and we appreciate your continuing support and cooperation.

Report to Special Task Force

*Please contact the Square Enix Information Center by telephone or through the "Contact Us" e-mail support under Service & Support in regards to unauthorized access or other concerns regarding your account.
If you become aware of unauthorized access outside of the Information Center's hours of operation and possess multiple PlayOnline IDs, log in from another PlayOnline ID and contact a Game Master (GM). The GM will make the accessed account temporarily unavailable.
However, please note that a GM cannot perform account related actions such as changing one's password, so it will be necessary to contact the Information Center at another time.

[bombard]

A higher number banned before the holidays! No Gil for you this christmas kids.

I'm glad they started using numbers on their graphs. The early ones were beyond pathetic.

I'm trying to figure out why they don't start banning IP's along with CC's of repeat offenders -- I mean if they we're just re-banning (over and over) a vast majority of the same RMTs then they would be running out of people to Ban with those numbers. An average of the awesome detailed graph is about 6000 accounts a month, that's insanely high -- I've always wondered if they inflate their numbers to make it look like they're doing good.

Can they really be properly investigating each case by banning (on average) over 8 accounts an hour per month? [6000 / (24*30)]

[Destinye]

They started banning IPs..Koreans/Chinese bitched. They'd have to ban ranges not just specific IPs. Why would they inflate numbers to "look good"?

Unless you've been living under a rock not playing FFXI, you will know they have been doing good.

[Valena]

It's already somehow inflated since they are joining together all serveurs results.

Whereas you'd probably only be interested in your serveur activity.


I don't think they would have much use in banning IPs. It's way more profitable to automaticaly flag suspicious a renewed account from an IP where a previous account was banned.

Then you get the montly fees, and minor investigation to throw the banhammer.

[Mayareira]

Ten thousand...
More like a Banling Gun.

[Mizango]

"- I've received advertisement messages for RMT sites from characters I don't know. Multiple characters are sending them to me, so even if I set them to "ignore," I continue to receive the messages.
We have received a large number of reports about violators of the user agreement involved in RMT sending messages that advertise for RMT sites. The sites that are introduced through these messages are oftentimes embedded with programs that steal users' PlayOnline IDs and passwords, and carry the risk of unauthorized access. Please do not view the sites mentioned in messages received from characters you do not know, even out of interest.
We are planning to introduce systematic countermeasures to PlayOnline to deal with this issue."

Thank goodness, this shit is getting annoying as hell. I wish SE would just ban gil buyers as well, but then again I'm sure that would be the equivalent of a receiving self inflicted gun shot wound to the head.

Nevertheless, it would still deliver the lulz.

[Skjie]

Originally Posted by bombard

A higher number banned before the holidays! No Gil for you this christmas kids.

I'm glad they started using numbers on their graphs. The early ones were beyond pathetic.

I'm trying to figure out why they don't start banning IP's along with CC's of repeat offenders -- I mean if they we're just re-banning (over and over) a vast majority of the same RMTs then they would be running out of people to Ban with those numbers. An average of the awesome detailed graph is about 6000 accounts a month, that's insanely high -- I've always wondered if they inflate their numbers to make it look like they're doing good.

Can they really be properly investigating each case by banning (on average) over 8 accounts an hour per month? [6000 / (24*30)]

A classmate of mine is RMT and he explained that he loses 2~3 accounts a month, but because he has so many going, it doesn't hurt that much.

Well, until I punch him in the mouth at the end of classes.

[ShinseiRyu]

I think the higher number of bannings is because of the new trial accounts.

[Destinye]

Originally Posted by ShinseiRyu

I think the higher number of bannings is because of the new trial accounts.

Their report already explained the number is higher than usual because they have new means of investigating, so they're catching more offenders.

[Crisco]

Originally Posted by Destinye

Their report already explained the number is higher than usual because they have new means of investigating, so they're catching more offenders.

Makes me think of this again:

[Important Update Details]
- A part of the internal specifications has been changed.

[Lasky]

Kinda funny that it took them banning 10,000 accounts to take as much gil out of the economy as MillionDollarMan self-supposedly has~

[bombard]

I still wish they'd release names and servers of whom they banhammered. Like a wall of shame -- kinda a POIDH kinda thing.

lol @ RMT classmate. nothing like making money while you're attending class.

[Lahina]

True, but they also allow people to make new accounts with the names of the people they've banned, and while Ramguangto most assuredly deserves your hatred every time he pops back up, a stolen "real" character, or someone with a similar name, or even a newbie who happens to have taken the name, don't deserve the bile the bellwether fucktards on every server would sling them.

[bombard]

lock names. I feel bad for the ext's I see starting to pop back up again on carby

I've seen Ext, Exta and Extf so far lol.

99% of the names are keyboard in the face names usually anyway. Shouldn't be that impeding .

[Destinye]

Originally Posted by Lahina

True, but they also allow people to make new accounts with the names of the people they've banned, and while Ramguangto most assuredly deserves your hatred every time he pops back up, a stolen "real" character, or someone with a similar name, or even a newbie who happens to have taken the name, don't deserve the bile the bellwether fucktards on every server would sling them.

Yep, especially since a lot of people live to just talk shit/make life living hell for others, I'd feel bad for any new person who accidentally makes a name that's "shamed".

[Uryuu]

Originally Posted by Lasky

Kinda funny that it took them banning 10,000 accounts to take as much gil out of the economy as MillionDollarMan self-supposedly has~

I see what you did there.

[byte]

Really when I see them post these "updates" I just *snore*. I don't care a how many RMTs they just banned.. gimme update notes!

[arus2001]

Still think they can easily be BSing us with numbers as all we have is good faith to go on.

Just wish crafting could be more than imitating an RMT just to make a few k here and there when most anything you have left to buy costs a million gil or more.

[euph]

Id like to see the solid number that SE gives us of people that still illegibly play. Weren't there like 1,000,000 at the peak of XI? Im talking out of my ass just wondering. Goin' on that whole "they are bullshitting us" idea lol

[ringthree]

Originally Posted by euph

Id like to see the solid number that SE gives us of people that still illegibly play. Weren't there like 1,000,000 at the peak of XI? Im talking out of my ass just wondering. Goin' on that whole "they are bullshitting us" idea lol

Allegedly? Is that the word you were going for?

500k, has been like that for a long time. I don't think they ever asserted a number different from that. The game is pretty much in a state of equilibrium.

[Max™]

Oh shit, they got Ryk-... oh wait.

[Corrderio]

Originally Posted by ringthree

Allegedly? Is that the word you were going for?

500k, has been like that for a long time. I don't think they ever asserted a number different from that. The game is pretty much in a state of equilibrium.

I think XI hit around 1.5M around the time CoP came out. I could be wrong though.

[Charismatic]

Pretty sure that was characters and not accounts