DDoS two hours after the patch goes live is ridiculous

[TwiceDamned]

If this was one specific group, who are they targeting then?

My _theory_, and it's only a theory, is that they got an RMT group, but didn't kill it all.

And, at that point, the group decided to try to kill FFXIV.

[Luca_]

I woke up at 5:30am and put on a WFR stream before getting ready for work, and in about 20 minutes I watched that group DC 4 or 5 times.

I don't know what else to say at this point. This is beyond embarrassing.

My _theory_, and it's only a theory, is that they got an RMT group, but didn't kill it all.

And, at that point, the group decided to try to kill FFXIV.

This theory never makes sense to me, tbh. The serious RMT bot admins make a living off this game, they wouldn't want it to die. Much more sensible for them to just create more bots and go until they get banned again.

[TwiceDamned]

I hope today basically finally puts it to bed -- someone is trying to kill FFXIV.

I don't care if they're targeting the upward Internet or whether they are going after the SE servers.

Someone -- who damn well knows what they are doing -- is trying to end the game.

And the only way I think someone could get that serious (because I certainly have had my anger with Square-Enix' MMO division for years (the character name is not just a nom de plume)) is that it's a former RMT outfit that SE was able to penetrate, but not finish off.

[TwiceDamned]

This theory never makes sense to me, tbh. The serious RMT bot admins make a living off this game, they wouldn't want it to die. Much more sensible for them to just create more bots and go until they get banned again.

That's if Square-Enix didn't make it impossible for that particular outfit to continue.

My theory, if it is correct, is that Square-Enix got a group finally, but didn't finish it off. But they crippled it enough that your postulate was no longer possible. However, at that point, they did make a living off the game and it was taken from them, so they're going to try to take everyone's ball and go home.

[Amarande]

NA specific, OCE when people leave NA.

This has all the earmarks of a vendetta against specific player communities, not even the game of itself.

I'm actually again wondering if my theory that it's bigots going after any bastions of inclusion on the net that they can is spot on. Especially when American players are being selectively targeted as well ...

Lessee.

WoW (which has inclusive GUILDS, but isn't especially known for the greatest community)? It gets OCCASIONAL attacks, but not often. Moreover quite a few people left the game during the big Blizzard scandal but I don't recall there being any DDOS ...

BDO, which is well known for being a bigoted hive of scum and villainy? Basically never gets attacked at all.

What else does get noticeably targeted? Minecraft, for one. To the point that a company that provided DDOS protection services for Minecraft servers recently got kicked offline by their ISP because it was causing an entire node to crumple under the weight of attacks.

And I know Minecraft tends to be particularly attractive among the sort of player types I fear they are targeting with the attacks on FFXIV ...

[RedLolly]

What's sad to me is both an RMT team or a group of no-life bigots going at FFXIV both make perfect sense as theories as to a malicious actor behind this.

The fact that the attacks got WORSE on savage release and even chased a team to OCE doesn't surprise me at all, but I was partly expecting them to keep as usual for the savage rekease just to make it seem like SE or NTT was the reason and not a malicious actor.

This is wild and really bad.

[Ath192]

I'm actually again wondering if my theory that it's bigots going after any bastions of inclusion on the net that they can is spot on.

I'm sorry but I heavily disagree with this insinuation. All the most racist and transphobe people I've met are the least computer literate, and even if they were, they tend to avoid contact with such people, not stalk them in their little video game.

If anything it's more likely players who have grown to hate the game because of its slow content cadence, neutering of jobs and toxic experiences in a raid setting that have triggered a deep resentment with SE for the way they ruined "their" game. The game they're obsessed with and has become their one source of identity. That I can believe much more easily than a bunch of nerdy, technologically expert bigots....

The RMT theory above is also more believable imo.

[Jeeqbit]

Given the reported attacks on WoW as well it does seem like maybe they don't like MMOs generally.

[TwiceDamned]

NA specific, OCE when people leave NA.

This has all the earmarks of a vendetta against specific player communities, not even the game of itself.

I'm actually again wondering if my theory that it's bigots going after any bastions of inclusion on the net that they can is spot on. Especially when American players are being selectively targeted as well ...

I believe there's too much of that within the FFXIV playerbase to be specifically that. I do believe firmly that much of the Dawntrail MSQ criticism never happens if the main voice actress wasn't transgender.

I do understand the thought process, but you would think, after a certain period of time, that if it was specifically this, there would be a limit as to that they only would be attacked, not the game at large. And, at some point, I would have to think a "ransom note" would be processed.

I get the concept of what you are stating, but why would this not have started the day it became known that the main DT character's VA was transgender?

What's sad to me is both an RMT team or a group of no-life bigots going at FFXIV both make perfect sense as theories as to a malicious actor behind this.

The fact that the attacks got WORSE on savage release and even chased a team to OCE doesn't surprise me at all, but I was partly expecting them to keep as usual for the savage rekease just to make it seem like SE or NTT was the reason and not a malicious actor.

This is wild and really bad.

"Bad" is not the way to put it. This is an existential attack on the future of the game.

[Luca_]

"Bad" is not the way to put it. This is an existential attack on the future of the game.

You might get called dramatic for that but you're entirely right. Even if it's not a direct attack and FFXIV is just getting caught in the crossfire as others have speculated, this is really harmful for the game's future no matter how you look at it. I don't think a lot of the people defending SE are really processing how horrifying it is that they still don't have it under control.