http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/polnews/news8139.shtml

Jul. 21, 2006 06:00 [PDT] From: FINAL FANTASY XI


About Action Taken Against Third-Party Tool Users



Today, a number of accounts which were confirmed to have violated the user agreement by using unauthorized third-party software tools within FINAL FANTASY XI to enable abnormal in-game movement were discovered and have been permanently suspended.

Based on the results of an investigation, over 2,000 PlayOnline accounts have been either suspended or terminated on Jul. 21, 2006 for the malicious and intentional use of these third-party tools.

We would like to take this time to remind our players that the use of any third-party tools will not only destroy the in-game balance, but will also encourage RMT (Real Money Trade) activities. We will continue to take strict actions against those individuals that we have confirmed to have used such tools.

Please note that some of these third-party tools may cause character information to be altered, erased, or personal information to be leaked to unwanted third parties. If you come across a third-party tool over the Internet, we ask that you please refrain from the download of such a tool, no matter how minor it may appear to be.

To ensure our customers could enjoy their games safely, we will continue to apply measurements to combat these third-party tools and violations.

We thank you for your cooperation and understanding in this matter.



Some people who got suspended are claiming it is because they logged in 2 characters at once on the same PC using windower to do so. So 2boxing PC users got raped as did supposedly some POS users. If SE intends on suspending people for using the windower, then FFXI is surely dead. No reason to play FFXI (or any MMO) on PC if I can't window it.

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Eternus Ifrit Server Atariii LS member
75 BRD with a bunch of subjobs

I'm suspended, and i only use windower, i could not play at all otherwise due to other people needing the PC.


If SE doesn't like it they can go fuck themselves with any other final fantasy titles they make.

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75THF 75RDM 75BRD 70BLM
LS: SPQR


WoW
70 Druid Night elf Boulderfist

what, no bans? aww

Well the game doesnt allow you to do anything other than gaming to prevent cheats. The problem is that buy doing this they encourage people to cheat since the windower is like the "marijuana" of cheats. Sure its not harmful on its own, but that program leads to other programs.

Most people who get the windower almost always try out a hack or two for fun or just to "see what its like." People who wouldnt normally use a hack use the windower and then dip their toes into the lake to see what its like.

Its why I hate the windower and always have. The same thing happened in DAoC. The only difference is that Mythic (DAoC developer) added an in game windower after the cheating got a little crazy. Adding that ingame windower helped bring some cheating down.

I wish SE would do the same. Although the blame doesnt lie with only SE, it lies with both the end user and SE.

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COBRA KAI DOJO NEVER DIES
RIP Shiloh

The problem is that they randomly suspended/banned people. There are well known hackers/botters/RMT still alive and kicking while some people who just use windower only have been suspended. It is like SE took all the PC FFXI players and threw 2k darts at them to decide who to suspend. All of Ifrit's RMT are reportedly in sky doing what they always do, while other legit players got suspended. I could understand if they were doing this based on proof of hacking, but they are not.

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Eternus Ifrit Server Atariii LS member
75 BRD with a bunch of subjobs

I disagreeeeee with that logic : windower leads to more cheating.

i used from like level 30 blm onwards until the day I quit and never felt compelled to cheat, and that was what I gathered how most people felt..maybe it was different in your gaming experience though. Unless you count having a good enough pc to run two accounts at once as cheating which I often did, and let others use mandos for r3 and that.

Heres the thing:

it can't be windowed, that sucks
someone develeops a way to window it, thats great
SE and yourself think that leads to more cheating so they break windower, sucks
guy fixed it, they break it, etc for a few months. both sides say that SE can't detect it anymore so it stays unbroke.

Instead of spending all that time/money/effort into combating azrails windower, why not make their own sodding windower lol. MrArgus has been out for how long and seemingly nothing done to combat it, which has a more detrimental effect on the game - windower or MrArgus.

I am glad they did this though, yes I feel bad for people like Navyr who are getting fuxked in the ass yet again by SE but at least I know that if I ever wanted to come back I'd probably be banned within a few weeks because of my flagrant use of windower lol


edit: totally forgot what I originally wanted to say when I saw this lol


assuming this is done because of windower, which im inclined to believe it is because of Navyr's plight, then it just underlines how out of touch SE is with their playerbase. If they really do ban people purely for using windower then there will be a mass quitting of players that they miss. They're fucking windowers in the ass with this but they're about to get double-teamed if they carry on with such madness

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I will continue to use the windower, if i don't i cannot play, so i guess they will just have to fully ban me.

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75THF 75RDM 75BRD 70BLM
LS: SPQR


WoW
70 Druid Night elf Boulderfist

times like these I'm glad I play on a ps2

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After reading through 15+ pages at the BG forums, it is common belief that NO ONE was banned or suspended because of windower only and that there had to be some sort of other third party tool being used.

I also disagree that Pot leads to other drugs but its true in the big picture. Mikey and Talisin used the windower and they never once even thought about cheating. Im sure lots of people only use the windower.

However, the fact that people have to go looking for it is whats bad. People stumble onto other things.

If people didnt have to use the windower or look for it, then cheating would go down. Well, in this game it might not. The damage is already done.

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COBRA KAI DOJO NEVER DIES
RIP Shiloh

That is some seriously selective reading there. Pretty obvious from that thread and a few of my conversations with people that there are accounts suspended that did not hack at all, and there are hackers who still play. I already know of one person that for a fact doesn't hack and is suspended lol.

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Eternus Ifrit Server Atariii LS member
75 BRD with a bunch of subjobs

I bet I'm banned and I haven't been on PC in over a month. And Yarr, I love the analogies.

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[In Yarr we trust.]

Actually it is obvious from that thread that most of the people who got suspended admitted using hacks of some sort. Logic leads me to believe that the others are just not admitting it.



The fact is no one knows for sure whether or not anyone is cheating or is not. Not flaming you but unless you are with someone 100% of the time they are playing there is no way to know for sure.

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Melior

Of course they aren't admitting whether they hack or not. There are also hackers on that thread that did not get suspended either. When I said I know someone for a fact, then yes I do. I have a few RL friends who play FFXI and the one who did get suspended last night has a level 40 as his highest job and has never used MrArgus or anything (trust me I would know about this)... Hell he has probably played a grand total of 4 times in the last 6 months. I haven't checked my account yet though, but even if I got suspended it wouldn't really bother me much. I am in no hurry to find out as I have not played FFXI in a month myself lol.

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Eternus Ifrit Server Atariii LS member
75 BRD with a bunch of subjobs

I used the windower for a few weeks and didn't like it. I can understand a whole family using one computer needing to minimize it occasionally, but we have like 2 extra computers that're shitty but run the internet, so I just use them.

Using the windower reminds me of how bad the resolution and stuff on the PS2 is, and I could never stand playing on it unless I had to talk to someone on some random IM thing.

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[In Yarr we trust.]

Goddamn this company needs to get their priorities straight.


(Like making ffxi-2 )

I hope its like the last sequel they made.

the problem is that people dont like to get ban\suspended for using a windower. Yes I agree its stupid because the game should beable to do this on its own.

However, every time you log into this game you agree to follow the ToS and tha ToS says no 3rd party programs. No exceptions.

You break those rules you get in trouble.

People also get mad because other people hack and cheat and got away clean. The reason for this is that we have no idea how they track who cheats and who doesnt. For all we know they can detect who is using cheats in one zone and not in another, or some fucked up reason like that.

The important thing is that ALL people who were suspended are breaking the ToS.

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COBRA KAI DOJO NEVER DIES
RIP Shiloh

See but they didn't ban everyone who was violating ToS they just hit a random group of people pretty much. That and really after announcing another MMO in development, nerfing BLMs and manaburn, and still not touching 3 kings drops SE really is asking to lose all its subscribers. FFXI for PC should have been windowed to begin with. Unless some major changes are made, I don't see FFXI lasting more than another year or so. It is quickly becoming the joke of MMOs. Instead of fixing the root of the problem they just ban a quick 2k accounts to scare people. Instead of boosting other jobs so they can get in end game alliances they nerf BLM parties on HNM. Hell they could have just balanced the whole TP given by melee to HNM vs TP given by nukes to HNM issue. They waited how long to nerf BLM? BLM have been raping Dynamis and Divine Might for a long ass time.

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Eternus Ifrit Server Atariii LS member
75 BRD with a bunch of subjobs

I think the reason they didnt ban everyone is because... well... they dont know about everyone. SE probably has some strange way of detecting a cheat. It could be in one of the new zones where they added some special code, who knows. The point is that we dont know how they check.

Chances are though that your right et and that they litterally took a list of all the people using hacks and picked 2k at random. This is probably just a warning call.

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COBRA KAI DOJO NEVER DIES
RIP Shiloh

All in all, it's really funny.

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Kurt Cobain said that weed didnt get him high enough anymore...and so he tried Heroin. This helps form an effective 'gateway-drug' argument.

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Graduate student/clinical psychology
"The World breaks everyone, and afterwards many are strong in the broken places." Hemingway

That sounds more like telehacking or speedhacking than windower users.

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