Question regarding salvage bans

[Nynja]

the amount of stupid in this thread by one poster can not be measured in levels of stupid. We need a higher unit of measurement. Kilostupids? Megastupids, sounds good there, but terrastupids makes more sense.

[Tamoa]

This thread is guaranteed to be locked/deleted, I'm sure of it. What I'm not sure of though, is why the OP would ask a question like this on this forum of all places. Do you expect a reply from a SE rep? Because I really don't think you'll get one.

[Spiritreaver]

Wow, came back to see if the OP ever gave a reason for this thread and find some dude carrying a torch for his long-lost banned homies.....

[Kiba]

I think really the main consensus came to the following facts:
1) The players who committed act in the salvage exploiting the bug were wrong - no matter what factors, circumstances,
even accounting in SE's responsibility for not fixing the bug for more than a year. There is no point in arguing as the players broke the terms of service. No one forced them to do so. So wrong is wrong.
2) A lot agree however that SE could of handled the salvage issue a lot better considering the inconsistency in who they decided to suspend, ban, and warn. Yes, I do recall at the time there was a very well-known player among the community who confessed he had actively engaged in the salvage item duplications yet was only issued a warning. This questions up to date the fairness of the bannings.

So my inquiry about the salvage bans for our wonderful community representatives Camate, Rukkirii, Bayohne, Mochi to address to the appropriate department would be as follows:
The salvage bans that took place in January 2009 was an event memorable to date for being the first instance of Square Enix taking serious action on legitimate players breaking the terms of service involving abuse of exploits. Many players agree to date that the decision to punish was proper as it was an expected consequence for breaking the terms of service. In other words if you don't follow the rules, you don't get to play. Simple as is. However many also feel the punishments for the salvage exploits could of been handled a lot better in terms of fairness in issuing temp bans, permanent bans, and warnings. At the same time the event made it more visible that Playonline Center representatives are not very helpful nor professional towards answering calls, which make Square Enix as a company look very bad in terms of customer service. Two years have passed. While the salvage bans are nothing more than history now it would be very nice to hear from SE with an official response to concerns many players have about the incident. Like a fellow poster had mentioned the banned have been punished for 2 years, etc. Life is short. Are they really be willing to be punished another 2 years? Chances are even by that time interest in the game would not be the same. The fortunate case at this time is that most likely they are still interested in the game which means possibly more re-subscribers more revenue for the company. Many other MMO's have more lenient policies in place for breaking terms of service by utilizing penalties as ways to punish but maintain good customer service and subscribers. Only if the offending player commits act detrimental to the whole player base that a permanent ban to be enforced. Can Square-Enix review this as a possibility to implement in the future? And can something be done about the notorious negative customer service at the service center(call/chat)? The way of business practiced in Japan has a lot of honor and is respectful, however on an international global scale customer service is very important. Just like how SE responded by handling misconduct, it would be appreciating to have a response like this as an example to alleviate current concerns regarding stuff like job adjustments, relic/mythic/emp 99 implementations : that SE really is listening and is thoughtful on what the player base really thinks. Perhaps implementing a customer support area with support tickets in forums like most developer companies would be very great here. Thank you for forwarding my inquiry. /bow

To all fellow players. I have friends who were banned but also I have friends who strongly engage in arguments over who was right and wrong during the incident. Which is why I try to speak from both perspectives. I hope my inquiry does get to the proper channel at SE so we can have a response that they really care about players and how they as a company intend to improve on their customer service. To the players who were banned, if out of the slightest luck you are given return please consider carefully what you have done wrong and not do it again as it really is not worth it to lose so much work over greed and lose integrity. Thanks for reading.

[Rohelius]

Cheaters should stay banned and they should track their payment methods more aggressively so that they don't come back ever again to FFXI. ( or get tossed to FF14)

Fact is those type of people will always be looking for a way to cheat the system and there is no lesson learned from a temporary ban even if its 5 years they will do it again if the Gil is high enough because being in a elite LS or being a Elite geared player is more important then anything or anyone and is their #1 goal in the game.

[SNK]

In a nutshell they cheated and got banned.

For those of you needing some laughs...

http://www.bluegartr.com/threads/688...read?highlight=

[Alerith]

http://www.bluegartr.com/threads/688...read?highlight=

I forgot how amazing that thread was.

[Arcari]

In a nutshell they cheated and got banned.

For those of you needing some laughs...

http://www.bluegartr.com/threads/688...read?highlight=

Wow, I totally forgot about this thread. Good times, thanks SNK!

[SNK]

Wow, I totally forgot about this thread. Good times, thanks SNK!

Niki was probably the most famous for falling harder then anyone who ever got banned. Hasn't shown his face anywhere on the internet since then or has long since made it a point to never let anyone know who he is now.

*Edit took some searching but I found this...

In November 2008, we discovered an issue that allowed players to create multiple items for certain treasures and rewards in areas such as Salvage and Assault by exploiting the game system.

The issue was fixed during emergency maintenance on November 26, 2008. However, we discovered that some players had already exploited the issue and used it to gain additional items before it was addressed. We then investigated more than a year's worth of logs throughout all areas.

As a result of the investigation, approximately 400 players were temporarily suspended based on the evidence gathered. Approximately 550 players who committed more serious misconduct had their accounts banned.

We are working hard to ensure that these kinds of issues do not occur again in FINAL FANTASY XI. However, if you discover any problems with the game system, please submit a GM call or fill out the feedback e-mail form to report the problems to us, instead of exploiting or spreading the issue.

We thank you for your cooperation in this matter.

The original LM-17 Thread...

http://www.bluegartr.com/threads/68831-LM-17

The mass amount of QQing and predictions that FFXI was done after this is awesome.

[Alhanelem]

If a player was banned during the salvage bannings and they then went on to create a new account, would this account be libel to be banned ?

I have a reason for asking and i will share that later.

Why would getting banned on one account automatically predispose you to being banned on another?

And why are you specifically naming Salvage bans? Wouldnt the answer be applicable to any and all bans?

Why the hell is this topic coming up again anyway? Make another account if you want to play that badly, and suck up the fact you got banned and you deserved it.

1) The players who committed act in the salvage exploiting the bug were wrong - no matter what factors, circumstances,
even accounting in SE's responsibility for not fixing the bug for more than a year. There is no point in arguing as the players broke the terms of service. No one forced them to do so. So wrong is wrong.
2) A lot agree however that SE could of handled the salvage issue a lot better considering the inconsistency in who they decided to suspend, ban, and warn. Yes, I do recall at the time there was a very well-known player among the community who confessed he had actively engaged in the salvage item duplications yet was only issued a warning. This questions up to date the fairness of the bannings.

This is pretty much accurate. I don't think anyone disagrees that it could have been handled better, but the fact is, the people who were banned did violate the ToS/user agreement/license agreement/whatever.