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 suspended or permanently terminated.

Based on the results of an investigation, over 1,400 PlayOnline accounts have been either suspended or terminated on Aug. 30, 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 trading) 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 the game 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.

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If I had to guess
# Aug 30 2006 at 8:15 PM Rating: Decent
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567 posts
The extent to which this ban interferes with RMT is limited to things like botting, speed hacks, and warp hacks. There is no one on my server that I know of who has been kicked for using windower by this "police action".

For those who don't know, Windower, by allowing one to run tools in the background, and by use of its plugin interface, allows harmless things (Like seeing your party members' TP, or displaying the distance to the mob) and harmful things (ffxiapp, bots, hacks). SE probably couldn't give a damn if you alt+tabbed to look at Alla, or a video, or **** (or all 3), but the same tool that lets you alt+tab also provides an interface for REALLY bad programs. Which is why SE has such a beef with windower.

To be honest, I felt that this was one of their better press releases, because it actually spoke of the real problems, not "Third party tools bad. You go to Hell".

Some quotes are in order:



Quote:
confirmed to have violated the user agreement by... enabling abnormal in-game movement were discovered and have been suspended or permanently terminated

A follow up:

Quote:
Based on the results of an investigation... accounts have been either suspended or terminated... for the malicious and intentional use of these third-party tools


Yep. The GM's ACTUALLY DO STUFF. Granted, once in a ***** Ice Age, but there you have it.


Quote:
use of any third-party tools will not only destroy the in-game balance, but will also encourage RMT (real money trading) activities


It's hard to see alt+tabbing being the RMT concern, but when you consider things like hacks, I would have to agree with SE's Statement.


Quote:
To ensure our customers could enjoy the game safely, we will continue to apply measurements to combat these third-party tools and violations.



They actually have souls. Although, in the future, it would be more believable if the statement actually had Authors, and wasn't a computer printout. Thanks for trying though.
If I had to guess
# Aug 30 2006 at 8:15 PM Rating: Decent
**
567 posts
The extent to which this ban interferes with RMT is limited to things like botting, speed hacks, and warp hacks. There is no one on my server that I know of who has been kicked for using windower by this "police action".

For those who don't know, Windower, by allowing one to run tools in the background, and by use of its plugin interface, allows harmless things (Like seeing your party members' TP, or displaying the distance to the mob) and harmful things (ffxiapp, bots, hacks). SE probably couldn't give a damn if you alt+tabbed to look at Alla, or a video, or **** (or all 3), but the same tool that lets you alt+tab also provides an interface for REALLY bad programs. Which is why SE has such a beef with windower.

To be honest, I felt that this was one of their better press releases, because it actually spoke of the real problems, not "Third party tools bad. You go to Hell".

Some quotes are in order:

Quote:
confirmed to have violated the user agreement by... enabling abnormal in-game movement were discovered and have been suspended or permanently terminated

A follow up:
Quote:
Based on the results of an investigation... accounts have been either suspended or terminated... for the malicious and intentional use of these third-party tools


Yep. The GM's ACTUALLY DO STUFF. Granted, once in a ***** Ice Age, but there you have it.

Quote:
use of any third-party tools will not only destroy the in-game balance, but will also encourage RMT (real money trading) activities


It's hard to see alt+tabbing being the RMT concern, but when you consider things like hacks, I would have to agree with SE's Statement.

Quote:
To ensure our customers could enjoy the game safely, we will continue to apply measurements to combat these third-party tools and violations.


They actually have souls. Although, in the future, it would be more believable if the statement actually had Authors, and wasn't a computer printout. Thanks for trying though.
windower-like
# Aug 30 2006 at 7:49 PM Rating: Decent
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336 posts
Quote:
...huh? So being able to have a browser window open so I can look up quest info on Alla makes it easier for gilsellers to sell gil? That makes so much sense, I think I'll have a brain ******. RIGHT NOW.


Yes... their tools most likly are plug-ins running through Windower as stated before. Without windower, their hacks don't work. Don't be suprised to see a crack down on anything "windower-like"
Crap gil vendor stuff and why the hell is there exp down
# Aug 30 2006 at 5:21 PM Rating: Default
I find this gil seller thing very disturbing,people are spending their own money so they can get gil,you see the higher level stuff on auction,it costs like 1,000,000gil,I am not someone who does buy gil,I can just about afford the game which is overpriced anyway.If people can afford and want to buy gil,let them,its their money,SE are rich enough as it is so why do they have so much against the people who buy the gil.I am not saying its wrong,but if people are willing to spend extra cash instead of taking 100hours trying to raise cash so they can finally afford a weapon that can deal damage to those enemies that slaughter them.This gil vendor business is not unfair and why hate the people who do it,yes they have more money than you but so what,its about as unfair as people being a higher level than you,well if anything is unfair it is the treatment of this,if they want to punish the people,why not just take all their money away and half the exp they get for a week or 2's worth of gameplay,or stop them from getting special stuff like no chocobo raising.What they don't realise is that not everyone reads user agreements,people buy a new game from SE that is online and PC or whatever console.But when you buy a PC game you need to install it which takes hours,you need to type up all your deatails and not everyone has a useable credit card for it so they need someone else to use their card,thats another hour give or take.by the time they have finished wasting hours of their time doing all that they don't want to read pages of crap about gil sellers and so on.What they want is to play a game they just paid for and can't return as it doesn't run on CD as much as possible when they are paying £9/$15 and so on but for god sake,you make them pay quite a fair bit of money to use the service,elelctricity bills and internet bills so people are paying a lot just to play it.And while I am at it why the hell is there a exp down system,you don't lose experince in battle,you still did the battles before.
Crap gil vendor stuff and why the hell is there exp down
# Aug 30 2006 at 7:49 PM Rating: Decent
Thief's Knife
*****
15,054 posts
Anonymous wrote:
I find this gil seller thing very disturbing,people are spending their own money so they can get gil,you see the higher level stuff on auction,it costs like 1,000,000gil,I am not someone who does buy gil,I can just about afford the game which is overpriced anyway.If people can afford and want to buy gil,let them,its their money,SE are rich enough as it is so why do they have so much against the people who buy the gil.I am not saying its wrong,but if people are willing to spend extra cash instead of taking 100hours trying to raise cash so they can finally afford a weapon that can deal damage to those enemies that slaughter them.This gil vendor business is not unfair and why hate the people who do it,yes they have more money than you but so what,its about as unfair as people being a higher level than you,well if anything is unfair it is the treatment of this,if they want to punish the people,why not just take all their money away and half the exp they get for a week or 2's worth of gameplay,or stop them from getting special stuff like no chocobo raising.What they don't realise is that not everyone reads user agreements,people buy a new game from SE that is online and PC or whatever console.But when you buy a PC game you need to install it which takes hours,you need to type up all your deatails and not everyone has a useable credit card for it so they need someone else to use their card,thats another hour give or take.by the time they have finished wasting hours of their time doing all that they don't want to read pages of crap about gil sellers and so on.What they want is to play a game they just paid for and can't return as it doesn't run on CD as much as possible when they are paying £9/$15 and so on but for god sake,you make them pay quite a fair bit of money to use the service,elelctricity bills and internet bills so people are paying a lot just to play it.And while I am at it why the hell is there a exp down system,you don't lose experince in battle,you still did the battles before.



So does IGE pay you by the word or by the post?
____________________________
Final Fantasy XI 12-14-11 Update wrote:
Adjust the resolution of menus.
The main screen resolution for "FINAL FANTASY XI" is dependent on the "Overlay Graphics Resolution" setting.
If the Overlay Graphics Resolution is set higher than the Menu Resolution, menus will be automatically resized.


I thought of it first:

http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=10&mid=130073657654872218#20
Crap gil vendor stuff and why the hell is there exp down
# Aug 30 2006 at 9:36 PM Rating: Decent
As much as I hate to say it the only way to remove gill sellers from that game is to get people to stop buying it. As long as there is a demand someone will find a way around whatever SE does and will find a way to make gill fast and turn it into real world dollars.

Funny note I saw a GS'er war in LoO all camping Lord. 3 - 4 LS's all GS'ing LS's all trying to steal claim, lag each other out, and MPK people. So remeber there is no honor amongst thieves and as long as someone wants to take the easy way out and buy currency there will be someone there to sell it to them.

Best solution to this problem is to acknolodge that some people do buy gill and will continue to do so. So here's what you do, SE opens a currency purchasing program, allot X Gill per server and a max monthly order per user. This way SE can control how much artifical gill is actually introduced and how much a user can purchase. If every user had the option to buy 1M gill a month from SE for a premium price of $15.00 they can go after the others and shut them down. I mean if they really wanted to eliminate RMT why havent they sent a cease order to IGE and the other Major Gill selling sites. I mean you cant kill the mom and pop shops they can move fast but who here doesnt know IGE sells gill. If SE really wanted to stop it they should go after the provider. If the gill sellers have no one to sell to, they cant make money. If there is no one to sell to there is no one to buy from either.

So for those who want to give me stupid *** comments like does IGE pay you per word etc you can **** off. I dont care about your stupid comments. I will however hold conversations with users who have something intelligent to add.
Crap gil vendor stuff and why the hell is there exp down
# Aug 30 2006 at 9:21 PM Rating: Decent
**
362 posts
IGE sure as heck doesn't pay by the comma! :D
Crap gil vendor stuff and why the hell is there exp down
# Aug 30 2006 at 9:18 PM Rating: Decent
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362 posts
IGE doesn't pay by the comma apparently...
Crap gil vendor stuff and why the hell is there exp down
# Aug 30 2006 at 6:41 PM Rating: Good
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488 posts
You feel so strongly about being supportive of RMT but... you're anonymous?

Are you seriously not able to comprehend why RMT damages the game? Beyond that point, just like you technically aren't supposed to pirate software and music, you can't decide on your own selfish terms because you bought FFXI and pay for it every month that you have the right to do whatever you want when it infringes on the rules and regulations.

The rules are put there for a reason, RMT and speed hacking among other things ruins the game for everyone. I think you're misunderstood if $12.95 a month entitles you to ruining the game for thousand of other players on your server and breaking the rules you agreed to with SE.
Quote:

What they don't realise is that not everyone reads user agreements,people buy a new game from SE that is online and PC or whatever console.But when you buy a PC game you need to install it which takes hours,you need to type up all your deatails and not everyone has a useable credit card for it so they need someone else to use their card,thats another hour give or take.by the time they have finished wasting hours of their time doing all that they don't want to read pages of crap about gil sellers and so on.


Who's fault is that? SE isn't responsible for all the grief it took you to download and install it or the fact you don't have a credit card or that you didn't want to take time to learn the rules.

All and all, crying on a forum board about how SE is a mean kid with a magnifying glass for actually providing customer service and upholding their terms of agreement is not only pointless it's sad really.
Crap gil vendor stuff and why the hell is there exp down
# Aug 31 2006 at 12:46 PM Rating: Default
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1,391 posts
Rwolf wrote:
All and all, crying on a forum board about how SE is a mean kid with a magnifying glass for actually providing customer service and upholding their terms of agreement is not only pointless it's sad really.

I'm sorry, since when did SE actually provide customer service?

I'd call it a customer disservice. Their cust reps are pathetic in every way. From GMs to technical assistance they're all totally clueless, useless and never beleive a word the user says.
Crap gil vendor stuff and why the hell is there exp down
# Aug 30 2006 at 5:50 PM Rating: Decent
**
799 posts
just to explain one possible reason why buying gil can be bad for the game:
(fictitious situation) let's say I buy 100 million gil.
I go to the AH and really couldn't care less HOW much an item I want is, since I didn't have to do much to get the gil. therefore, the price of those items goes up as the people who buy gil have the in-game money to pay any extravagent price.

on the other hand, if you cannot buy gil, then chances are considerably higher that items being sold for impossibly high prices will not get sold as fewer people will actually have the gil to pay for those items. People who need to work for their in-game money will be more frugal with what money they DO make.

I think an alternative to allowing the selling of gil would be to have your characters get paid for playing. If people don't have time to farm or craft, then their actions within the game have to mean something. How about if players with characters above a certain level, or with more than x-amount of jobs open, were automatically paid a certain "allowance" in-game? Like a sort of virtual pay-check. If you kill mobs, if you get experience, if you actually DO anything in the game, then you would be eligible for your monthly "salary".

meh, it's just an idea.
Crap gil vendor stuff and why the hell is there exp down
# Aug 30 2006 at 11:38 PM Rating: Decent
So what you're saying is introduce a Final Fantasy 8 SEE-D type system?

In all honesty, that seems like it could work. Introduce a new "Salary" system for FFXI in which actions you do that benefit your home nation, such as Missions, Garrison, maybe even introduce NMs with bountys placed on them, would earn you an "Envoy Rank", and each rank would get X ammount of gil per Earth Week. Let's say Rank one gives you 10k a week, and rank 20 the max giving you 5m per week. Just an idea.
My 2 cents
# Aug 30 2006 at 5:12 PM Rating: Decent
**
677 posts
I think it's mainly hacks like speed hack, bots, pos-hacking that SE targets rather than windower. In it's raw form windower offers no advantage in-game what so ever (well, apart from less disconnects due to stupid anti-virus, firewall, etc) so I doubt SE would take serious action against anyone using windower (and
    only
windower, no plugins).

It's liek the old saying goes, anyone who says they got banned for using only windower was either gloating about it in shouts or says, or is lying their bottoms off.

Still, nice to see that SE are doing something to try combat the cheaters that ruin the game. Hmm, wonder how long it will be before someone moans that it's not enough, 1 day?
And ...
# Aug 30 2006 at 3:59 PM Rating: Good
**
328 posts
The bans over the last few months have targeted players using speed and warp hacks. It seems that SE is monitoring the use of these tools much closer now and taking action on a more regular basis. Will this get rid of gil sellers, most likely not. But it does seem to be getting rid of players who use tools to gain unfair advantage over other players. IMO, tools like the Windower do not give a player an unfair advantage and thus generally do not get banned.
It would be like the plauge in england
# Aug 30 2006 at 3:44 PM Rating: Decent
**
363 posts
so one daytaru SE will think out banning the windower users, then when they realize the server populations go for 1200 to 230 people, and how much money lost that would be, they will just slap people on the wrist. Now i am in that 230 ever since i got the bad version of windower that loaded up my computer with so many thrown errors it took me a week to rebuild, but still SE wants money, and with the majority of users using windower at some time in their SE career, SE wont want to lose THAT much money over a ToS violation. Just my thoughts as i now long on afraid my account is no more b/c of windower use a month ago....
Thanks!
# Aug 30 2006 at 2:59 PM Rating: Decent
Quote:
After all, SE hasn't published an up to date guide in a long time, so every time I need info for a quest, I have to logout.


SE doesn't publish game guides. That's Brady. And those guides were such piles of crap, I don't want them publishing them anymore. I log out to get info on a quest when I need it. It takes two minutes. Do you honestly need a seperate program to save you the time equivalent of a ****?

As far as windower goes, it's the program that allows most of these bastards to run crap like packet sniffers and whatnot. I'm more than a bit convinced that those fools camping HNM using third-party means to guarentee a claim would not be able to do so without the use of a windower.

C'mon. You've been playing the damned game for a couple years now. (At least I have.) Everyone knows that SE has politely asked you not use it this whole time. And if you are, what's makes you think anyone's going to feel sorry for you if you get booted and all you did was install a windower.

Thanks, SE, for getting rid of more asshats. Hopefully, we'll see the impact on gameplay soon. (Prefferably on the higher end stuff.)
Thanks!
# Aug 30 2006 at 3:31 PM Rating: Decent
So, your telling me it is perfectly acceptable to have to logout, and back in, multiple times to get quest information while in a group doing a mission or quest, or to see where I am on a map (like the ones you need to do a coffer for). For game play and enjoyment, it doesn't make sense to have to do that.

As for full screen mode stoping packet sniffers and stuff like that, it doesn't, the program can be ran before the game starts, or remotly from another computer and a few basic tools like pstool from sysinternals.com. One could easily schedule a job with the at command and run the bot non-interactivly while playing the game.

However, like you, I have played the game for sevearl years, and do not appreciate gil sellers and NM botters, and yeah, I do use the windower, it's the most usefull tool I've ever seen for FFXI, if I get banned, oh well, I'll move to another game.

Window crashing during game play
# Aug 30 2006 at 9:23 PM Rating: Decent
Having read these postings, I can't help but add my two cents. If anyone else disagrees with me, they are entitled to their opinion.

First I must say that SE shouldn't force people to have a windowed game or not. This should be a personal choice up to the user. Personally I find the fact that I cannot talk to anyone on instant messenger, look at any email, or do anything else at all while play FF11 to be a tab bit annoying; especially when waiting several hours for a party invite. However this can be avoided if a person owns a second computer like a laptop.

Secondly it's not only the fact that I cannot do anything else while sometimes endlessly waiting for hours on end for a pt invite. It's the fact the game crashes so freaking easily. For example I can crash the game "loose full screen mode" by simply hitting alt + tab or by hitting alt + escape. This has become especially annoying when using alt macros, and leveling my NPC. "Well I never do that!” you might say to yourself. Well image this, you summon your npc and you are a mage. You have finished about three battles, and you have about 30 to 45 minutes before your npc calls it a day. You then gear up for the next fight, and want to pull a mob by using your alt + 1 macro which is fire 2 or some kind of attack spell. You then with think oh I'm targeting the wrong mob, I want that one slightly to the right. So you hit tab. Poof your 30 to 45 minutes has just gone out the window because you accidentally held down alt and hit tab at the same time. You now have to wait another 20 hours before you can summon your npc again. Well maybe you decide to call a GM to see if you can have your timer reset if you just explain what happened. HA! I tried that one time. Basically I was told in a nutshell many things can make the game crash, and that I had to wait another 20 hours before I can use my NPC again. Now it could have been the way I worded my request to the GM, but mostly likely everyone has to wait the 20 hours regardless of what happened. Using a windower would prevent this because instead of making the program crash and pop up an error message about how you just lost full screen mode, it would just continue on to the next program if you had any other open besides for FF11. Having been a student in a programming class myself, I must add I would have received a failing grade if I had a program that crashed as easily as FF11 does when I hit alt + tab.

Third I must say that just about every other game/software out in the computer world, that I have seen lets you do other things besides for use only their specific product while using your computer. To name a few of them; World of Warcraft, Silk Road, Guild Wars, Microsoft Office, Text Pad, Mozilla Firefox, Altris, Novell's Console One, ect. The point is that the programmers of these programs realize that computers are typically used for multiple purposes and don’t land lock you into just using their specific product while you want/need to use it. A windowed version of FFXI would allow users who are waiting for a NM to pop, waiting for a pt, ect; to talk with their friends, look at email, look up quest information, or do some internet research to name a few possible things.

Finally having used the windower before I learning that it was actually against the rules of the game to play with; I must say the people who made it had several good ideas. For example the ability for a player to see the party's amount of tp was very useful. Apparently there was several plug-ins which included being able to see the amount of xp an hour got, and how many things of the types of enemies that you were fighting you had to kill before you gained your next leveled. I never used any of the additional plug ins, only read up on them.

So what is the point that I'm trying to get past in a nutshell? Basically I think if at all possibly, SquareEnix should make a windower and give users the option to use a windowed version of the game or use the default program they already have; instead of forcing some of the users to violate the rules and run the risk of running third party software. Thanks to everyone who has read my long winded remarks, and if you have anything you would like to comment on please feel free to leave a post. Also as a side not my grammar and spelling are not the best, so please bear with them. After all I’m not perfect only human :).
Window crashing during game play
# Aug 30 2006 at 10:57 PM Rating: Good
*
80 posts
JCDakra wrote:
Having read these postings, I can't help but add my two cents. If anyone else disagrees with me, they are entitled to their opinion.

First I must say that SE shouldn't force people to have a windowed game or not. This should be a personal choice up to the user. Personally I find the fact that I cannot talk to anyone on instant messenger, look at any email, or do anything else at all while play FF11 to be a tab bit annoying; especially when waiting several hours for a party invite. However this can be avoided if a person owns a second computer like a laptop.

Secondly it's not only the fact that I cannot do anything else while sometimes endlessly waiting for hours on end for a pt invite. It's the fact the game crashes so freaking easily. For example I can crash the game "loose full screen mode" by simply hitting alt + tab or by hitting alt + escape. This has become especially annoying when using alt macros, and leveling my NPC. "Well I never do that!” you might say to yourself. Well image this, you summon your npc and you are a mage. You have finished about three battles, and you have about 30 to 45 minutes before your npc calls it a day. You then gear up for the next fight, and want to pull a mob by using your alt + 1 macro which is fire 2 or some kind of attack spell. You then with think oh I'm targeting the wrong mob, I want that one slightly to the right. So you hit tab. Poof your 30 to 45 minutes has just gone out the window because you accidentally held down alt and hit tab at the same time. You now have to wait another 20 hours before you can summon your npc again. Well maybe you decide to call a GM to see if you can have your timer reset if you just explain what happened. HA! I tried that one time. Basically I was told in a nutshell many things can make the game crash, and that I had to wait another 20 hours before I can use my NPC again. Now it could have been the way I worded my request to the GM, but mostly likely everyone has to wait the 20 hours regardless of what happened. Using a windower would prevent this because instead of making the program crash and pop up an error message about how you just lost full screen mode, it would just continue on to the next program if you had any other open besides for FF11. Having been a student in a programming class myself, I must add I would have received a failing grade if I had a program that crashed as easily as FF11 does when I hit alt + tab.

Third I must say that just about every other game/software out in the computer world, that I have seen lets you do other things besides for use only their specific product while using your computer. To name a few of them; World of Warcraft, Silk Road, Guild Wars, Microsoft Office, Text Pad, Mozilla Firefox, Altris, Novell's Console One, ect. The point is that the programmers of these programs realize that computers are typically used for multiple purposes and don’t land lock you into just using their specific product while you want/need to use it. A windowed version of FFXI would allow users who are waiting for a NM to pop, waiting for a pt, ect; to talk with their friends, look at email, look up quest information, or do some internet research to name a few possible things.

Finally having used the windower before I learning that it was actually against the rules of the game to play with; I must say the people who made it had several good ideas. For example the ability for a player to see the party's amount of tp was very useful. Apparently there was several plug-ins which included being able to see the amount of xp an hour got, and how many things of the types of enemies that you were fighting you had to kill before you gained your next leveled. I never used any of the additional plug ins, only read up on them.

So what is the point that I'm trying to get past in a nutshell? Basically I think if at all possibly, SquareEnix should make a windower and give users the option to use a windowed version of the game or use the default program they already have; instead of forcing some of the users to violate the rules and run the risk of running third party software. Thanks to everyone who has read my long winded remarks, and if you have anything you would like to comment on please feel free to leave a post. Also as a side not my grammar and spelling are not the best, so please bear with them. After all I’m not perfect only human :).



I think some of you are missing the point.
Don't have quest info and complain that you have to log out to get it? You make it sound like it's SE's fault, ditto that you alt tabbed by accident and could not call your NPC for another 20 hours. Guess what, that's the breaks. Would you call a GM and ask him to kindly let you reclaim KB after you accidently called for help? Should SE include windows for playstation and xbox so those players don't have an unfair disadvantage? Is it somehow George Bush's fault you don't have a router or second computer? SE does not want people using windowers for various reasons above that all amount to one thing; It compromises the security integrity of the game.
All you're saying is that because you don't like the rules it's ok to break them.. In RL you go to jail for that. It's like saying it's ok to steal cable because you think they charge too much.
SE's Biggest problem and the reason players will never be satisfied about the RMT situation is that they don't sue IGE right out of business like they should be doing, not that they're trying to protect themselves from further abuse of the system. This isn't directed specifically at the above poster but to anyone who thinks it's "ok to break the rules" because you don't like them. You read the TOS before you loaded the game, and you should either play by the rules and enjoy it (accepting its faults) or go play something else.
RMT are a royal pain to those of us who would like to play the game as it was intended to be played, seeing the same LS camp the same mobs every day for over 3 years when it's impossible that they still actually need the drops for their members is annoying, but logging on and ceaslessly complaning how much better things could be instead of how good they are in spite of those things is even more annoying.
Even the best of us get aggrovated sometimes when your LS is trying to kill something while trying not to get mpk'd or claim stolen by the same RMT that should have been banned and have had thousands of complaints about their behavior.. but there is a simple solution: Go do something else. And bear in mind there are many many LS that are not involved in RMT that do exactly the same thing day after day, month after month, year after year. All you can do is either join them or ignore them, neither is satisfactory but it's not worth bursting a blood vessel over. Some people just have nothing better to do with their time then to sit around most of the day waiting for something to pop.
Sad but true. I'm sure when I log on to the game all the mpk'ers and RMT regulars will still be online, up to their same old crap. What frustrates me the most is that they go after some violations of TOS wholeheartedly yet completly ignore others or play favorites depending on the GM.. but that's a different issue. One that's not likely to be changed so you just have to consider it part of the game and deal with it. (take that with a grain of salt, because dealing with it within the rules entails sending ignored email to SE.. but it still does not entitle you to "snk to their level" by violating the rules yourself.
Window crashing during game play
# Aug 31 2006 at 7:07 AM Rating: Default
Seeing some people's repsonse to this and the windower is amazing. So I'd like to put in my two cents as well.

I have a buddy that just started playing FFXI w/ me on the XBox360, and he told me it was b/c he got tired of playing Halo online. The reason was the only way you could get any decent ranking was to cheat, which was fairly easy to do. One thing he told me that people did was use 2 ethernet cards and have the connection to the XBox routed through a separate PC acting much in the same way a common router does. Then the PC is used to control the flow of data, block IPs, etc. All of this while the game is running in "Full Screen Mode" on the XBox. This type of activity could be easily duplicated in FFXI.

Also, most PC users are at a disadvantage by not being able to get to the web while playing. I'd like to see how many people own a PS2 or XBox360 and have an internet connection capable of supporting FFXI, but don't own a PC. B/c if they do, then they can get to the net while playing FFXI and not have to log out to do so. And as far as the console users not having tabs...Well, actually the XBox does, and it allows you to chat via XBox Live w/ people outside of the game. I watched my buddy play the game and help another friend get registered so he could join in fun.

I'm a big fan of the windower. And I play other games that require Full Screen use, but when I need to they allow me to keep playing while I go look something up or chat w/ a friend. And I do remember another problem solved by the windower...If you use a controller and it gets unplugged or disconnected for some reason, the only way your getting that back is to relog, unless your using a windower. The reason being is that windows can remount the controller, while the windower can keep the game from receiving the controller DC message.
Window crashing during game play
# Aug 31 2006 at 1:31 AM Rating: Good
***
1,105 posts
Quote:
Don't have quest info and complain that you have to log out to get it? You make it sound like it's SE's fault, ditto that you alt tabbed by accident and could not call your NPC for another 20 hours. Guess what, that's the breaks.


Game crashes when you alt-tab? Sounds like poor coding on SEs part to me. Don't blame a person for doing this by mistake, but it's really sad that SE never really addressed this issue.

Hey, if somebody wants to use their instant messenger while waiting for a party, I think that's great, and it's bogus that it's not allowed unless the person happens to have an extra computer (not everybody does).

Yes, you can use it maliciously, but you can also just use it for convenience, which is not harmful whatsoever. I use Ventrillo with my ls, and I like to see whose talking in case I couldn't recognize the voice at first. Sometimes I use messenger. Sometimes I have a map open. Hell, I even have a laptop right next to me, but I don't use it on the principle that every game should allow windowed mode, or at least minimizing. I pay for the game, the least they could let me do is use the rest of my computer while using my game too.
Window crashing during game play
# Aug 31 2006 at 7:00 AM Rating: Decent
I agree with Arbau, every game should allow windowed mode, and it is poor programming to crash when alt + tab is pressed. In every programming class I have every been in, we where always taught to gracefully handle errors, and to realize that people want to use there computer for more than just your program. The user may want to IM someone, queue up some music, etc, when waiting for hours for a pt, or 3-11 min for the airship, ppl will want to do something in the downtime.

The fact is SE is charging for a service and rellys on users acceptance and happines with their product, the approach of put up with my product and the way it works or get lost, is not a sensible approach. In every product I have every developed, the user is the one who controls how it will ultimatly turn out, and if users are saying this is bad programming, or this feature should be added, it makes sense to add that feature (within reason).

In the past SE has made several improvments to the game, for example, enemies disapearing at the zone, and respawing in their original location, and this is another improvment they need to make to the game.

Finally, whether or not SE ever allows this game to be ran in a window, there will always be ways to run bots, hacks, and 3rd party tools. The game being ran in a window does not make it any more insecure than it already is. The fact is, people who want to cheat will, and the information on how to do this will be shared, and bottles into an easy to use program that may or may not require user interaction.
Window crashing during game play
# Aug 31 2006 at 6:10 PM Rating: Decent
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1,181 posts
RATE UP!
Window crashing during game play
# Aug 31 2006 at 3:33 AM Rating: Decent
I would like to take the time to say thanks again to anyone who posts comments after my two cents. It's nice to talk with others and get their view points. I can't say that I agree with a good majority of the first person's remarks after mine but hey it's that person's opinion. At a bear minimum it would be nice to see Alt + Tab and Alt + Escape disabled when playing the game. I find it annoying that the game simply looses full screen mode when play. If SE doesn't want to allow the functionality of switching to other programs while using FFXI, then they could simply turn it off. The second post below my original posting stated what i feel when the game loose full screen mode when hitting alt + tab: "It's just bad programming." However i must say the game over all has been most impressive, it would just be really nice if they fixed this issue.

Dakra

Edited, Aug 31st 2006 at 7:23am EDT by JCDakra
Thanks!
# Aug 30 2006 at 5:13 PM Rating: Decent
Quote:
So, your telling me it is perfectly acceptable to have to logout, and back in, multiple times to get quest information while in a group doing a mission or quest, or to see where I am on a map (like the ones you need to do a coffer for). For game play and enjoyment, it doesn't make sense to have to do that.


short answer, Yes.

not so short answer, Yes. OR if you need to check for quest information do what everyone else does and get that informatin before you log on. including printing out maps and such if you need to. Or if thats not up to your speed you can ask your LS if they have a way to look up information for you on a Laptop or somthing.

I have never used a Windower and never will. I have been playing this game for over three years now. and have had no problems with getting quest info, maps coffer spawn points and such.
Thanks!
# Aug 30 2006 at 5:03 PM Rating: Decent
Listen to yourself, you don't even make the slightest bit of sense. You need to plan things out ahead of time. Take it from me, when I was doing the Teleport-Vahzl quest in Fei'Yin I knew I didn't have a map for any of the areas except W.Ronfaure to get there. I also didn't have the slightest bit of info about the quest. Know what I did? I looked it up before I actually got involved in the quest.

Got on here, went to Quests & Missions, looked up By Realm, N.San d'Oria look there it is! ^_^ Now, lets see what areas will be involved? Wow Three whole areas that I have to traverse through. Never got the maps in game, let me print these off. Tada! insta maps. Now let me see what drops the Chest Key...you get the idea. Learn to plan things ahead, that way you at least have some knowledge of what to do. Besides logging out and back in ain't a big deal.

I hate it when people whine about having something that gives them an "edge" so to speak when it comes to getting info that you can look up in a strategy guide, a website, or friends. Stop being such a baby about it. This will help lower the amount of corrupt players in the game, and I'm glad they are cracking down on windowers and people who used warp and speed hacks. I've played the game for 2 years, almost three now as it fastly approaches FFXI's 3rd Anniversery. Honestly you need to put others before yourself. If you use a windower then you are gonna be banned too eventually, and look you just wasted money after you paid. Besides if they crack down on windowers look you'll see more chances to camp the NM's that gil sellers sit on constantly.

Thanks SE for cracking down on those who cheat at MMO's and cause the rest of us to have a harder time and less enjoyable experience.
fggsdfg
# Aug 30 2006 at 2:58 PM Rating: Decent
Got posted on wrong update. o_O

Edited, Aug 30th 2006 at 3:59pm EDT by LoveAndLust
Hah.
# Aug 30 2006 at 2:55 PM Rating: Decent
*****
12,975 posts
In other words, they didn't really do anything, they're just posting announcements so that people will stop sending them e-mails about gilsellers!

Huzzah!
lol
# Aug 30 2006 at 2:15 PM Rating: Default
Quote:
Please note that some of these third-party tools may cause character information to be altered,


and that would most likly be the affect that these tool user are hoping for lol

to bad nothing we can do can alter "Character data" or eles there would be a gil hack out by now and we would all be using it
Propoganda
# Aug 30 2006 at 2:01 PM Rating: Decent
45 posts
[ 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 trading) activities. ]

This seems familiar... oh, wait!

[ Buying marajuana supports terroism. ]

...huh? So being able to have a browser window open so I can look up quest info on Alla makes it easier for gilsellers to sell gil? That makes so much sense, I think I'll have a brain ******. RIGHT NOW.
Windower
# Aug 30 2006 at 12:45 PM Rating: Decent
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903 posts
Woke up; took a look at Alla and saw this message. And as a religious user of the Windower it made me more than slightly uneasy.

But, nope. I'm fine. *shrug*
Wonder if Windower Users got it to?
# Aug 30 2006 at 12:43 PM Rating: Default
I wonder if users of the windower got terminated as well. If so, I still cannot understand why SE won't make it so you can run this game in a window that can be minimized, considering that almost every other MMORPG I've every played has this functionality or at least allows you to alt + tab out of it. After all, SE hasn't published an up to date guide in a long time, so every time I need info for a quest, I have to logout.



What kind of tools?
# Aug 30 2006 at 12:26 PM Rating: Decent
What kind of tools are we talking about here? Are we talking about botting and perhaps hacking tools of some kind, or does this include things like windowers?
heh
# Aug 30 2006 at 12:19 PM Rating: Default
well at least they did it before "pay sqaurenix day" this time.
fish botters
# Aug 30 2006 at 11:52 AM Rating: Decent
**
735 posts
i hope this eliminated some fish botters.
____________________________
Who do I have to talk to so I can have a ugly baby picture in my avatar ?
SpinShark wrote:
Yes, what you've heard is true. FFXI's endgame is just a giant E-peen swinging contest, with the majority of time spent standing around, and watching Moon-faced nerds "compare" video game "accomplishments" with each other via flame-wars on forums/in-game.
^^^^^^^^^^^^ So True.
fish botters
# Aug 30 2006 at 8:53 PM Rating: Good
Thief's Knife
*****
15,054 posts
Pavelbure wrote:
i hope this eliminated some fish botters.



A funny thing happened last night.

Somone was fishing in kuftal and they always seemed to know when they had the manta and when they had an NQ mob. Over the past month I had never seen that guy pull up anything but a manta even once.

Last night he pulled up a manta and then stood there trying to fish for 5 minutes while it almost killed him. I made a GM call and reported what I had seen and the GM told me "I am already investigating this player for the use of third party tools"



Edited, Aug 31st 2006 at 5:38am EDT by Lobivopis
____________________________
Final Fantasy XI 12-14-11 Update wrote:
Adjust the resolution of menus.
The main screen resolution for "FINAL FANTASY XI" is dependent on the "Overlay Graphics Resolution" setting.
If the Overlay Graphics Resolution is set higher than the Menu Resolution, menus will be automatically resized.


I thought of it first:

http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=10&mid=130073657654872218#20
oh tools
# Aug 30 2006 at 11:20 AM Rating: Default
hmm man
hmm
# Aug 30 2006 at 11:17 AM Rating: Default
oh wow
ugh
# Aug 30 2006 at 11:19 AM Rating: Default
damn you am infected
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