SE cracks down on RMT and 3rd party aps.

Sakino · Post by **Sakino** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 3:10 am

http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/polnews/news9096.shtml

Accounts Banned (Nov. 24)

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.

In relation to the severity of the violation, over 2,500 accounts were temporarily suspended, while over 9,000 accounts were permanently banned.
Details of the violations are as follows:

- Usage of tools that allow enhanced character movement.
Approx. 1,100 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.
Approx. 6,400 cases
- RMT-related activity
Approx. 4,000 cases

The termination of these accounts has led to the removal of approximately 45 billion gil from circulation.

We would like to remind players that the use of third party programs adversely affect game balance. Along with affecting game balance, other risks can arise from use of third party programs that are not immediately obvious such as possibly introducing damaging viruses and compromising 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.

During this round of account terminations, we mainly focused on RMT operations that were active within Japan. However, rest assured that our continued investigations encompass all regions where RMT activity is occurring.

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.

Kintrra · Post by **Kintrra** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 4:24 am

Scarily enough, I think they actually got some of the actual RMT this time as well. Our usual Sky RMT are gone from Alexander, as are the usual Castle Oztroja campers.

Post by **Karou Ariyen** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 11:53 am

Horray! 3 major RMT LSes were banned on Hades! Including that bish Claine who camps god armor drops and sells them constantly. Hades is looking up ^_^

Post by **Tivia** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 11:54 am

Impressive,

Now that is not a token banning like the sub 1,000 account one they did a while back. 700 accounts said "Token Appeasement" Effort at best. 9,000 accounts says we are damn serious about this bottom line be damned. SE is now the first MMO company to clearly take this seriously now.

Good job SE.

Post by **Shirai** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 1:59 pm

I wish I could say the same about Titan...

Same group that has been monopolyzing NMs for god pops for thew last 2/3 months and selling god armor, abjurations etc. is still there.

Ground NMs are still camped by the same botters.
The only thing gone is the Spider web farmers around Aht Urhgan.

Post by **Camu** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 2:03 pm

Even though I don't play anymore, its still awesome to see SE basically tell RMT "Lol, no.".

Post by **Sugami** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 2:33 pm

Huzzahs all round!

Don't worry Shirai, I'm sure they'll get them eventually ^^;;

Okuza · Post by **Okuza** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 2:42 pm

Just at first glance, it looks like they got about half the RMT I've noticed on Bismarck. A casual /search shows they still have a presence in Sky and Rolanberry, but some are missing. I'll find out more on Sunday, which is our usual sky-farming day. I'm really hoping they're gone, by my cynical side is just rolling around laughing at that. So glad I'm not scizophrenic. I'd never get along with myselves.

FFXI is designed specifically to support RMT over regular players. If it can't be scheduled, it might as well be RMT-only. That covers every single server-spawned H/NM in the game.

If SE really meant what they say in the sign-on confirmation about not forgetting RL, they'd have a game where the player picked the time to try to slay the dragon, not a game where the dragon picks the time to be slain. FFXI is designed from the ground up to conflict with RL rather than coexist with it. That's why RMT pays. People have lives. If they want any of the items from an NM, they mostly have to buy them. That means they're paying the RMT in either gil or dolars to do those things that have to be done on the game's time. RMT wins either way. ><

Sakino · Post by **Sakino** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 4:02 pm

Tivia wrote:Impressive,

Now that is not a token banning like the sub 1,000 account one they did a while back. 700 accounts said "Token Appeasement" Effort at best. 9,000 accounts says we are damn serious about this bottom line be damned. SE is now the first MMO company to clearly take this seriously now.

Good job SE.

I second the motion. Several JP RTMs were banned on the Phoenix server. However, the Chinese rusty cap RTMers are still there. SE said they were focusing on JP ones so I hope it is only a matter of time before the Chinese ones are gone as well.

Post by **Alya Mizar (Tsybil)** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 5:42 pm

Sakino, I believe those RMT were not Japanese, but those focusing their sales at Japanese players. "We mainly focused on RMT operations that were active within Japan". Active within =/= resident of.

Okuza, FFXI is NOT designed specifically to support RMT over regular players. Its just that they take advantage of the rules, the programing, and the loopholes in both. WoW is heavily instanced, yet the WoW Gold sellers are as big an issue there as our Gilsellers are here.

A RMT party was leveling in Qufim on Garuda yesterday afternoon.

The termination of these accounts has led to the removal of approximately 45 billion gil from circulation.

Been saving stuff to sell during Xmas?

Keavy · Post by **Keavy** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 6:46 am

I knew this was gonna happen. Ban gilsellers right around Christmas and clean out their banks. I told you! I TOLD YOU ALL! *Insert maniacal laughter here*

If SE keeps this up there might be a bright future ahead for FFXI.

Then, once things get going good our way they'll kill it to support their next MMORPG

Post by **Sugami** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 11:58 am

I've got about 1mil on me, here's hoping Hauby drops below it

Post by **Alya Mizar (Tsybil)** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 4:46 pm

Sugami wrote:I've got about 1mil on me, here's hoping Hauby drops below it

I heard a 1 M Hauby shout on Garuda BEFORE the bannings.

ScarlettPheonix · Post by **ScarlettPheonix** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 5:26 pm

Last night I heard a shout for Snow Rings @ 900k

Sakino · Post by **Sakino** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 10:29 pm

Yep most items on the AH are dropping in price as the weeks go by.

http://www.ffxiah.com/big_graph.php

On a general comparison... it looks like AH prices have dropped 10% in the last 30 days on average. It will be interesting to see what effects Christmas has on the prices this year however.

An aside comment: It must suck to be on the Fairy server.

Pheonixhawk · Post by **Pheonixhawk** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 1:16 am

Hahaha Some of the RMT I know have been banned on Phoenix server. One of them used to be a friend, who joined a RMT ls. Well last week he replied "Hey its me *name*" I was like.... wow i haven't seen you since you joined that ls. He repled "yeah, all of our accounts got banned by GM's" and I just laughed and laughed. He's not a bad guy, but I was ticked when he joined with RMT. Was hoping one day he would stray form teh dark side

Sakino · Post by **Sakino** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 3:55 am

Pheonixhawk wrote:Hahaha Some of the RMT I know have been banned on Phoenix server. One of them used to be a friend, who joined a RMT ls. Well last week he replied "Hey its me *name*" I was like.... wow i haven't seen you since you joined that ls. He repled "yeah, all of our accounts got banned by GM's" and I just laughed and laughed. He's not a bad guy, but I was ticked when he joined with RMT. Was hoping one day he would stray form teh dark side

Anuy or was it Aour was banned? I get the two names mixed up.

Pheonixhawk · Post by **Pheonixhawk** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 4:54 am

Aour. Anuy was a former mithra pride member. Still is I think

Post by **Sugami** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 1:20 pm

Tsybil wrote:I heard a 1 M Hauby shout on Garuda BEFORE the bannings.

Lucky Garuda, last I checked it was almost triple that price but here's hoping

Eviticus · Post by **Eviticus** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 3:49 pm

Whenever I can get back to FFXI, I'm gonna be a rich little kitten. >.> From what I hear, high ticket items prices are tending to go down.

Vatrina · Post by **Vatrina** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 4:31 pm

I know I'm the only kitty here from the nuclear squirrel server, but we never seem to catch a break. It's like every time they ban a set of sellers, their replacements have already been leveled from the previous bannings.

At least prices have been steadily dropping on the high end stuff. Of course the downside is that the drops from KSNMs has been dropping quite a bit too making them hardly worth doing.

Rinni · Post by **Rinni** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 4:32 pm

put it this way evi, with your 500k, it should keep you going a while. i was making a mint on shall shells. 18k a stack for months... this week?

they're now down to 8k... was 5k but crept up.

prices are all over the place.

it's going to be hard work to make any money at the moment.

Eviticus · Post by **Eviticus** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 5:59 pm

What makes it worse is I spent 400k on a couple farewell gifts to friends before I left. Maybe that stuff is worth 300-250k now. >.> 100-150k wasted.

Post by **Alya Mizar (Tsybil)** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 6:22 pm

Sugami wrote:
Tsybil wrote:I heard a 1 M Hauby shout on Garuda BEFORE the bannings.
Lucky Garuda, last I checked it was almost triple that price but here's hoping

At the time I heard that the AH price was 1.6 - 1.8M. I had been watching the price because my melee kitty was ~ L57 and saving for a +1. A good friend saved her from that fate by giving her a NQ though.

Finwich · Post by **Finwich** » Tue Nov 28, 2006 1:28 pm

Anuy is/was a member of Happysky, an RMT ls on Phoenix.

Sakino · Post by **Sakino** » Tue Nov 28, 2006 3:22 pm

Finwich wrote:Anuy is/was a member of Happysky, an RMT ls on Phoenix.

I saw her the other day so she doesn't seem to be banned. I'll have to have her tagged by a GM so they can monitor her for suspicious activities. Is she still a member of Happysky BTW?

Post by **Shirai** » Tue Nov 28, 2006 3:38 pm

Hmm..

we had a happysky on titan, they got banned pretty early after camping/botting Ulli with a group of 12 for a month or 2.
Now they own sky with 30+ characters and a different LS name tho. -.-

(Yes I know a few of them and all the characters they had in the past....)

Eviticus · Post by **Eviticus** » Tue Nov 28, 2006 6:56 pm

Garuda Hauby: 1.9-1.7M
Bahamut Hauby: 2.2-1.9M

www.ffxiah.com : Priceless.

Post by **Karou Ariyen** » Wed Nov 29, 2006 12:03 pm

So shiiga on Hades been harrasing me. I took it one step further, I reported to GM's that she was trying to sell me gil. A total lie. Actually No Not A Total Lie. Taiko and a few others on Hades said she was for real giving out gil in exchange for real money even with her own personal RL friends.

Last I checked that moron was in GM Jail. So Shiiga if you can read this, The Bitch Finally Gets What She Deserves. What Goes Around Comes Around. After all that insanity you put me through, you're finally paying for it. Now you'll see what it's like to be screwed over. Selling that gil you shouldn't have done. Good Day.

Post by **Sugami** » Wed Nov 29, 2006 1:21 pm

Eviticus wrote:Garuda Hauby: 1.9-1.7M
Bahamut Hauby: 2.2-1.9M

www.ffxiah.com : Priceless.

Gravey, still dropping

come on 1mil!