An Official Notice is NEEDED - why did SE suspend those with high ammounts of Gil.

[scarebearz]

Yeah, this is nothing new, and completely consistent with the lack-of-action taken on freemium games that I played.

Of all the F2P games that I have played, none have had RMT issues as bad as ARR.

Most were anything but "lack-of-action", they usually have actual in game GM's to check on reported botters / RMT spam etc.

In an ideal world I'd much rather play a P2P game, but with all the cheaters etc in recent P2P games, you may as well be playing a F2P (Pay2Win) game, in my opinion.

That said, at the moment I'd rather continue playing ARR, it looks nice and plays fairly well, despite the seeming lack of endgame content (PvP).

Just a shame about the CS if something does go wrong...

[KisaiTenshi]

It makes no financial sense for SE to be attempting to sink the ship purposefully. They redeveloped the game after it's expensive and abysmal launch.

Have you not seen SE's foray into Social gaming? You will need to google search "Square Enix “Will Focus On Social Gaming” ", as I'm not linking that site due to it's adult focus.

Of all the F2P games that I have played, none have had RMT issues as bad as ARR.

Most were anything but "lack-of-action", they usually have actual in game GM's to check on reported botters / RMT spam etc.

In an ideal world I'd much rather play a P2P game, but with all the cheaters etc in recent P2P games, you may as well be playing a F2P (Pay2Win) game, in my opinion.

That said, at the moment I'd rather continue playing ARR, it looks nice and plays fairly well, despite the seeming lack of endgame content (PvP).

Just a shame about the CS if something does go wrong...

My opinion is that they didn't anticipate the launch issues, just like they completely ignored beta tester feedback, again.

The hacks IMO I'm going to chalk up mostly to user-responsibility/foolishness. Mayhaps there is something in the game client the hackers are reading (notice how you get RMT spam even if you just login and are in an INN?) and are using as leverage to hack people. It seems doubtful, but then again when I run a process monitoring application, there -IS- a weak point between the launcher and the game itself, and this weak point persists in all game launchers that use the web browser as an authentication point. But to exploit this you'd have to have a Proxy or a LSP that is specifically designed to MITM the login. Antivirus programs tend to be installed as LSP's so people with "launcher" issues should look there as well. It wouldn't surprise me much if such a rootkit exists. But again, to get such a thing on your system you'd have to share the system with irresponsible people.

But I digress, I've seem to have worked for companies that are more generally hated for their poor customer service, and I can tell you from experience that most of the time you people have no idea what it's like on the receiving end. To take an example from the ecommerce site, people report fake/counterfeit goods all the time, and we took listings down, all the time, but despite that the community was convinced we do no nothing, so much so that brands like LVMH and T&co felt it necessary to sue the company, repeatedly. The actual fact is that stuff remains on the site because these companies do not wish to tell the ecommerce company how to identify their counterfeits, and in turn we can't tell the customers what criteria we are using to take down their listings. We're just reacting to trends of communities reporting things. Much like how we're noticing bots and spam in FFXIV. If you see something, report it, don't whine about it on the forum. It's the easiest link to find in the lodestone
http://support.na.square-enix.com/co...382&la=1&fty=2

So yes, SE may have the appearance of poor customer support right now, but we simply don't know what the volume of phone, webchat, email is. We're just looking at the forum and using it as a gauge to how much or little SE cares. This is not how they work, I can pretty much guarantee it.

Would you like to know another secret of the email-customer-support queue?

Fraud cases get the highest priority, but the lowest number of staff working on it. Often the people who have responsibility to resolve such cases have access to things like Lexisnexis, and can pretty much see your entire life's history. This is to keep that data from leaking. So if you don't fill out the ATO form completely, you are causing delays yourself. This is why I've said in other emails NOT to phone them. They can not verify anything by you calling them by phone. They will call you if they need to.

[Freyar]

Have you not seen SE's foray into Social gaming? You will need to google search "Square Enix “Will Focus On Social Gaming” ", as I'm not linking that site due to it's adult focus.

Stupidity doesn't equal malicious intent or (financial) suicidal intent.

But I digress, I've seem to have worked for companies that are more generally hated for their poor customer service, and I can tell you from experience that most of the time you people have no idea what it's like on the receiving end. To take an example from the ecommerce site, people report fake/counterfeit goods all the time, and we took listings down, all the time, but despite that the community was convinced we do no nothing

Been there as a support guy and it's certainly changed my perspective on CSRs. That said, the belief that nothing has been done stems from the fact that companies refuse to present validation for reports. When you say "We got your report, but we can't tell you what happened" (which is what happens in XIV), there isn't a feedback loop to encourage users to keep reporting unwelcome behavior.

This is what has pushed Xbox Live to be as horrible as it is. The dude-bro mentality grew in and took over because those with some level of responsibility felt like the issues they reported were never addressed due to a privacy policy that just alienated people who were impacted by improper behavior.

It's time that companies look to giving proper feedback to reports. While it can have some side effects (such as groups conspiring to abuse someone else), the lack of that feedback makes people just give up on trying to do what is essentially the administrator's job in-game.

[Bizzybeast]

It wasnt a specific gil amount that got anyone banned, I assure you of this, more then likely it means you came in contact with gil sellers in some way.

I had business trips that had me gone sunday-wed and thurs-sat. When i got home saturday I had dozens of people 'happy' to see I wasnt banned. Savvy businessman I am, I spun it by throwing all my greedy competitors under the bus for getting their just dues for stiffing the player base with prices that encourage gil buying.

Most of my gil was made in personal deals, as on the market I cut first and deepest because the 40 items I list I NEED to sell. Regardless of all that, some told me a few different 'magic numbers' of gil that got people banned.

I checked my gil and my retainers, an can for sure say these numbers are not accurate. As im fairly casual, im certain others have had more time to make gil then me.. Even if I was the first 50 ARM and BSM on my server, ive made more money selling 2 stars recently, then all my "first and only dude selling it" gil build up.

I guess being fair and not being overly greedy has paid off for me, ive avoided forcing ONLY gil buyers to afford my items. Those not wise enough to not have ALL their fortune in gil, and those whove been too greedy, I can only laugh at your misfortune.

The good news is now I am selling those high end items, without the need to hire neighborhood kids to lower my prices (lol, yes I did that, im that nerdy to counter your more available time commitment nerdiness).

So in a nutshell, that sucks for those legit players, but im glad to see my rivals gone and the economy is actually stablizing for the first time in.. Well.. Ever.

Be proud of the service you did for your servers, by being suspended.

[scarebearz]

Those not wise enough to not have ALL their fortune in gil, and those whove been too greedy, I can only laugh at your misfortune.

...

The good news is now I am selling those high end items, without the need to hire neighborhood kids to lower my prices (lol, yes I did that, im that nerdy to counter your more available time commitment nerdiness)

Your showing off that now we are banned, you no longer need to account-share to make gil?

Account sharing is just as bad as botting/RMT and is equally cheating.

[KisaiTenshi]

Been there as a support guy and it's certainly changed my perspective on CSRs. That said, the belief that nothing has been done stems from the fact that companies refuse to present validation for reports. When you say "We got your report, but we can't tell you what happened" (which is what happens in XIV), there isn't a feedback loop to encourage users to keep reporting unwelcome behavior.

This is what has pushed Xbox Live to be as horrible as it is. The dude-bro mentality grew in and took over because those with some level of responsibility felt like the issues they reported were never addressed due to a privacy policy that just alienated people who were impacted by improper behavior.

It's time that companies look to giving proper feedback to reports. While it can have some side effects (such as groups conspiring to abuse someone else), the lack of that feedback makes people just give up on trying to do what is essentially the administrator's job in-game.

Believe me, every time I tried to steer someone down the right path, someone in QA/Management would come tell me that we're not allowed to be honest. This was largely because the very second someone told something and a Chinese fraudster got wind of it... ALL of them did, and we were then with one less tool to legitimately take down things.

So if SE said they were banning everyone with 8 million in gil or higher, then everyone will just make sure they never have 8 million. That's why you won't see SE say anything about this. It's this problem that can't be solved legally. Taxpayer ID's and Credit Card numbers only prove you have that information, not that you're the owner of said information. Even games in Korea and Japan can no longer require their national id numbers to play. It's just a game, and the companies can't legally have the numbers so long as people aren't making real money from it...

[KraggyKor]

http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodest...095a614312461a

they did it there, and they probably will again

That is totally NOT what you claimed it was:

They already announced anyone with 8MIL GIL or higher would be banned for 72 hours until proven otherwise that they are NOT a Gil seller.

It was announced 2 weeks ago and at PAX

I've never seen this announcement, could you provide a link please?

[Sphinxy]

Because you cheated, bought gold, scammed, or sold gil. I know plenty of people that have not got banned but have over 3 m gil. I call bullshit.

[scarebearz]

If my account is cleared of all charges against it, what kind of reparations can I expect for all this lost time? Also, if a 72 hour suspension of play time doesn't include weekends, I'd like to formally request that my subscription time not include weekends.

Agreed!

Because you cheated, bought gold, scammed, or sold gil. I know plenty of people that have not got banned but have over 3 m gil. I call bullshit.

If your going to "troll" please at least read the posts first, 3mil is not a lot competitively and I'm not surprised they were not "blanket banned".

[ntall1]

I'm sorry but if you are putting crafted items on the market board for 1 mil+ who do you think is going to buy it? The gil sellers/buyers. More than likely you had set the prices so high in hopes a gil buyer will purchase. I think this is what SE was looking at. The game has been barely out a month. People should not have 10 mil+ gil already. If you do more than likely you RMTed or sold items to someone who did. Stop cheating and stop catering to people who cheat and you won't get suspended/banned, simple as that.

This does not excuse SE from banning legit players accidentally. While it is unlikely.. it is very possible to have a crap ton of money without cheating. I am broke.. never had more than 250k at one time. But if I wanted to make money I know how I can do it. Mats sell for a crap ton, tomb mats sell for a crap ton, crafted good sell for a crap ton. Any gear used by gathers or crafters mid level sells for a crap ton. It would be very easy to make a crap ton of money if that was someones goal.

While I think it is important to get rid of cheaters... A company should never penalize legitimate players in an effort to accomplish that.

The other thing to think about in this situation is that 95% off all ppl banned for botting/rmt/cheating claim they didn't do it when they did really do it. But they usually don't line up in any official forum and make 11 pages of complaints about it when that is the case.