Claims of permanent bannings of player accounts have become more and more frequent within the past six months. First, there were the controversial events that happened in late January of this year, regarding the banning of accounts involved in an exploit found in Salvage. Even more recently, the apparent banning of players who had found that their credit cards were charged twice for a month of POL service, and requested a charge-back. Today, even more accusations have been surfacing regarding the banning of players who fulfilled a more in-game related criteria for being banned.
A new thread has recently emerged on the Allakhazam forums regarding the banning of players who reportedly were “involved in RMT activity.” Multiple players caught in this recent round of bannings have stated that they have no idea what they are guilty of. The only reason these players could come up with as to why their accounts were banned, was that they had multiple mules/accounts used for gardening, something that players have been doing without issues for years. Many players have joined in the discussion, claiming that they too, have been banned within the past few days. When calling up customer service to ask exactly why they were banned, they were told that they were banned for RMT activities.
The focus of these gardeners, is to create multiple accounts or characters to grow plants, and harvest their procurements. There is no level restriction to gardening, and it is relatively cheap. The need for multiple characters/accounts is attributed to the restriction that one in game character can only have ten flowerpots. These players would sell their harvests to nearby NPC’s, and then send the profits to their main character. Perhaps these large amounts of gil obtained through selling items to NPC’s and then sent to a single character are raising a red flag with Square Enix’s automated systems?
At Fan Festival 2008, it was revealed that the Special Task Force (STF) had created a set of tools to help them more easily catch those involved in RMT activities. These tools were intended to be used to more easily catch any characters who were seen as RMT via established parameters. Could it be possible that the RMT PWNER is causing the bannings of legitimate players who are abiding by the games rules to get ahead in Vana’diel? Many of the problems with countering RMT activities is that your average rule-abiding player also falls victim. This has been seen in several updates where money making items for many players are adjusted, ruining income for both RMT and legitimate players.
The RMT PWNER and Auto-Jailer have both been important tools in the ever-growing arsenal of the Special Task Force. At initial installment, these functions seemingly performed their function well (minus a few issues with the Auto-Jailer) as RMT numbers began to make a steep decline. However, recent findings could be indicating that these programs are automatically banning players for performing certain actions who are not involved in real money trading. One discussion with Square Enix support staff confirms that they use some automated tools to evaluate account activity. These apparent Preemptive bannings at present seem to be irreversible. In any case, it is imperative that SE and the STF remember to pay close attention to their automated programs. After the January salvage bannings, it was said that the bannings were very inconsistent, making it clear that there is either no strong set of guidelines for banning a character, or that an automated system is not being checked as closely as it should. Leaving any computer to perform automated tasks without close supervision usually does not yield satisfactory results to one party or another.
With Final Fantasy XI in its 7th year of service, and Final Fantasy XIV set to go live next year, one thing is certain. Square Enix needs to greatly improve not only their tools and checks for banning accounts, but their customer support center as well. Players caught in the RMT crossfire, players who have been loyal fans of Square Enix and their online games are now outright refusing to partake in any more online services because of the way their account and morality have been treated.
@Exeter, True lol. These things are rants after all though, so you kinda have to expect us to go crazy with the bashing…
@Hileict, I played WoW for 3 years before I realized that it lacked alot for what I wanted in a MMORPG so I have had enough background with the game to formulate the opinion I have about it.
The “you and your family” comment was smoothered in sarcasim.
I do however think that playing Halo on-line is a chore because it take alot of effort to sit there and listen to a 12 yr old make weak ass attempts to talk trash that they came up with on thier own and not just repeating what they heard from an episode of Red vs Blue.
Reports are starting to come in that certain persons that were banned for Gardening/RMT and have contacted SE are starting to be reinstated. Some posts of this are up on BG.
@djplaeskool, hmm, I guess the SE community relations team really do read posts
This is why you don’t have automated programs to ban players…
When I heard about the automated dection tools SE was implying I was just assuming this was for suspicous trades and whatnot (IE: Buying certain items for 1M, lowbie having more gil than he should by normal means, etc.) however I do agree SE is going too far on this. If they wanted to stop RMT w/ gardening why not put a level restriction on it? Or make it where you can’t garden until you’re been a POL member for a certain amount of time like with fishing?
PFA, thank you for putting this up. S-E needs to see this story, and similar ones at other fan sites for XI, to truly understand just how badly they’ve screwed up this time. My own LS, which used a 16 mule account for gardening because we need money in game like anyone else, was crippled by their auto-banning tools.
We didn’t ever buy gil and we never sold gil. We would let the gil build to 6 million and then we would split it 6 ways between the 6 static LS static members. Then we’d start the process all over again. That was it.
How it all started:
At the beginning of July, the mule account was hacked because when we went in to check our harvests, the password was no longer valid and we couldn’t get in. I called S-E to report the incident and got the password changed and when we logged in, the 4.3 million we’d accumulated to that point was gone-the moneyholding mule was logged out at the delivery NPC in Port Sandy.
The LS hemmed and hawed over what to do. Do we report the incident and try to get the account rolled back to recover the gil or do we just carry on? Initially, we said we should just carry on-we didn’t feel right bout adding another 4.3 million gil to the economy without actually earning it, and it’s not like the guilty were ever going to be punished or have the gil taken from them. Plus, considering we just wanted to get back on with our business, we were content to let it go and start over because that account had a ton of gear and crafting items on it and we didn’t want to lose access to those items while the account was locked down pending an investigation.
Two weeks later, I go to log into the account again and lo and behold, the mighty ban-hammer was swung and the account was permanently banned. AFTER our privacy had been violated. AFTER we’d reported the incident for the sole purpose of getting access to an account that belonged to us in the first place.
So of course, I was very upset and called S-E to discuss it with them and they said ‘banned for RMT related activity.’ Well, of course I wrestled with them over the phone at length but because everything is controlled and centralized in Japan, the US support group can’t actually make any decisions or take any actions right there on the spot. All they can do is report it to ‘a special task force’, after which the inevitable waiting game must be played.
This is my biggest problem with the customer support for the US customers. When it comes to these escalated matters, they have no power, are unable to reason or investigate the issue for themselves and can’t make any decisions on these complicated situations. We need edicts passed down from on high.
Well, that’s not good enough S-E. Not by a longshot.
The biggest insult was the fact that they actually told me that ‘if the decision stands, you will not be contacted.’ There is nothing so insulting or degrading as being told that there is no appeals process for you to escalate your case. This is my reward for being a faithful player, a good paying customer and an honest participant in FF XI who did nothing to break the rules? A perma ban for an account I owned that was hacked and stolen from?
This is why I will not be playing FF XIV. S-E’s customer support is the absolute worst I have ever encountered in my entire life. Microsoft and Sony are both absolutely darlings to communicate with compared to this outfit.
I am, in all likelihood, probably going to cancel my content IDs for FF XI before the end of the month as well. I refuse to continue to give money to a company that obviously doesn’t care about what I have to say or about my long standing loyalty to them.
I have been playing Final Fantasy and purchasing S-E products since Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior (yes, back before they called it by its original name) was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in the late eighties. I own almost every Square, Enix and Square-Enix game in their catalogue since those days because the quality of their product shone so brightly. For me, a fan of their product for as long as that company has had any relevance whatsoever, this is a truly disheartening day.
I can’t say I’ll never buy another S-E product again. I am heavily invested in FF IV: The After Years at this point so I will finish that so I can experience the story. But every time I hear that familiar crystal theme or every time I watch FF VII: Advent Children (just bought the blu-ray of Complete), every time I see their logo emblazoned on a product, I will feel a melancholy within me of the promise that S-E failed to deliver on. They had such a wonderful track record with me to this point. It’s a sad ending for me and S-E.
With Star Wars: The Old Republic and DC Universe on the horizon, it’s time I set my MMORPG sights on long times ago in galaxies far, far away and on brave new frontiers. And the shame of it is…I could have been playing FF XIV.
Now I won’t.
My situation is identical to that of Greenpower’s. My account was banned four days ago.. I was even emailed saying it was a CC issue, and as I contacted SE they told me it was a Perma… now, I wasn’t told it was for “RMT activities” no, I was banned for “Irregular activity” What in gods name does that even mean, you may ask. Well I asked, and none of the five POL agents I spoke to could tell me. They themselves didn’t know why I was banned. WHAT? So I asked them, “I’m being banned just because I’m being banned?” POL agent: “Yes” WHAT?—After reading countless forums about LM-17, it now dawns on me that I wont be getting back my character. I’ve never Gardened, I don’t fish, I’ve done salvage once in my time on ff, I don’t bot.. I don’t buy or sell gil, in fact, I’m pretty poor, and my only source of income is when I do ISNMs, BC/KSnms. Owned.
To the few of you who so cynically argued in favor of SE.. Talk to me when its your account being wrongfully banned.
@Snowshadow, I understand that there are people that are very upset over whats been going on and rightfully so. But we all need to realize that when its all said and done it’s just a game and even though we do throw money into playing this game the issues having to do with this game and the game itself should not affect our real lives. Even you if your a major contributor to the community in the end It’s LIFE over FFXI
@Hileict,
Square Enix treating their fans how they treat them… when has that ever been the way a company does business? With any game (WoW) included, there’s always people that love and hate any new updates that come out. The player’s control SE’s reputation to a degree, however if SE didn’t mess up in this case, there wouldn’t be a surge of negativity to hurt their reputation.
@Zames, I’m pretty sure this sentence doesn’t make sense.
Are you trying to say that SE is unbanning accounts that have been reported as banned for gardening? Because if so, I believe that would be a good first step for them.
But not as good as a formal apology and a promise to secure peoples accounts/ have more account insurance and rights.
I fantasize, I know.
@Zidian,
SE apologize? Maybe in bizarro world but not here! They’re too prideful to admit wrong and deny that if anything is wrong it’s their fault and it’s the players not them.
@Dymlos,
Yup sadly I agree with you. SE’s got some major public relation problems in regards to their management style.
@Corrderio, the problm with a time limit set til you can gardin is that the rmt will just wate til they can its not like a $1.00 will kill them