Request to speak to the Senior Game Master

[Rawrrior]

You have to look at it from their view too. They are not monitoring his out of game activity, they do not know what he did with the information beyond providing it to them. All they know is after he used the glitch, he reported it to them. He was still in direct violation of the ToS by doing so, even if he did not use it to further his progress in the game. You would also be surprised after Patch 2.1 how quick it is to level everything. Battle classes with effort can be brought to 50 in under 60 hours of play. To your point about being appreciative, yes the GM would appreciate the information, unfortunately they are still bound to uphold the ToS for the game. It doesn't matter how noble the intentions are. No matter how the issue is viewed, you friend knowingly and willingly broke the ToS that they agreed to when signing up for the game.

Understand that.

Though, he isn't as mad about being banned, as he is mad at how it's being handled. We all know he wasn't banned for RMT activities. They never contacted him back when he asked multiple times days/ weeks after Jhanaka confronting him in game what he should do with the retainer filled with the spawned gil. Official forms of support aren't really helping him must but giving him an answer they gave everyone else who got sweeped up. They aren't informing him much at all as to the real reason he was banned. why he will stay banned, such and so on.

He knew that reporting the exploit would of gotten him banned on the spot, but he didn't. We kept playing, he kept trying to get back in contact to ask if he can delete the retainer, they never got back to him. So we kept playing month or so afterwords, with the retainer still there, untouched, thinking he won't be banned for what he did. I kept telling him to delete that retainer, they are pushing out blanket bans, you will probably get caught, well he didn't because Jhanaka told him not to delete it that it's for investigation.

he'd be less upset about this if they would contact him and converse with him everything they found and why the decision for the banning/ unbanning is :/ It's frustrating when the "reason" you are banned for is the same as everyone else who got caught in the blanket ban. It's just not the real reason on his case. We are very grateful Jhanaka is putting forth the time to investigate it, and we really really really hope they contact Mister to go over his case in detail. I will not under any circumstances disclose anything that goes between him and Jhanaka if they do contact him, whether it's an unban or not.

I hope i'm not being confusing here >.< He's just not as upset about being banned as he is being banned for the wrong reason, and not getting nearly much help on his case but cut and pasted replies and things such as "there are no superiors here you can talk to". I apologize if i'm being rude or something in any way, just.. I'm not going to drop this and let his case die till he's happy with the way they help him, good or bad.

[Noahlimits]

I think their main concern would be; if he hacked once, what's to stop him from doing it again?

I personally wouldn't want a hacker to be on my server, but that's just me.

[Lurkios]

I'm somewhat in agreement with Noahlimits here...

He did break the rules, and you stated very clearly that it's in his nature to do so, meaning he's likely to do it again. Seems to me the ban is justified.

It's nice that he reported the issue, but if someone broke into my house and then left me a signed note explaining how they did it instead of taking anything I'd call still the cops.

[Cegiana]

This is like that old south park episode where they people couldn't decide if they should change the town flag cause it was racist yet historical. He should not be banned, but he did mess with the game which is unacceptable... He should be allowed to play again, but I don't want someone who can hack the game easily to be allowed to play since he has already shown that he would exploit the game just to see if he could, so he will probably do it again.

[Rawrrior]

What's stopping him from doing it again? Me, and yes i know, that's not very assuring to those who don't personally know us but meh. He didn't hack again during that month afterwords, he didn't mess with anything. :/

There's many of you that say keep him banned, but what will that serve if he can just make another account and play? Keeping his account banned doesn't get rid of the problem. He could of made a new account same day he got sweeped, and hacked away, but he didn't, and i'm sure SE is investigating all this to prove he did nothing else than what he reported. Keeping him banned just means another frustrated player, who after all this still wants to throw his money at Square Enix. He refuses to start a new account cause of the time we spent together on Mister and Mrs, and the fact the account had the preorder and collector's edition bonuses. D: That moogle hat!

He's not going to do it again, and i know my word here means nothing, but i'm still going to keep trying and trying and trying till we are satisfied, either it's a good or bad outcome. >.< If they wanted him banned they should of done it on the spot, not a month later on an automated sweep, that just makes it look like he wasn't suppose to be banned to begin with I appreciate everyone's opinions and views on this matter, and i was already expecting a lot of these kinds of replies, but i guess i'm the type who has that kind of hope, like some child. Won't stop till he gets more official, more detailed response to his case instead of just "rmt activities". Won't give up till he's privately talked to and all, once they tell him their decision, i will say my goodbyes on this thread without letting you know what they decided, and thank everyone for their opinions and support..

2 1/2 weeks since i made this thread, and 2 weeks since Jhanaka's reply.

I will not give up. >.<!

[Lurkios]

Not sure the new account bit is valid. From what I hear, though I've not personally tested it, an account ban applies to name/address that the account belonged to as well.

Of course, he could always get his name changed, move and get a new credit card.

[Rawrrior]

Not sure the new account bit is valid. From what I hear, though I've not personally tested it, an account ban applies to name/address that the account belonged to as well.

Of course, he could always get his name changed, move and get a new credit card.

I saw someone make a post on the forum that they had 3 accounts and asked if their 2nd account could get unbanned from the forums or something i don't know.

I have never really seen a company that bans all that information to prevent the making of a new account. I highly doubt SE does that .-.

And if it was true, even more of a reason to not give up on trying to get his account back D:!

[kingatlas]

why doesn't he just make a new account?, I meant if it's an IP ban you could just proxy right?
So what's the big problem? Use crysta to pay, buy prepaid credit cards.
problem solved.

If they let RMT's run around like they own the place, why stop this guy.

[Kyousha]

It's been 9 days since you posted anything. Have you heard any news, yet? H the way, I've logged in your server a few times in the last few days but you never seem to be on when I try... anyone I can try to message?

[Demonocracy]

To all the people who are saying "I don't want someone that can do that to be on my server"; chances are there's already at least a few dozen people with the knowledge to do so on your server. Stop being so bigoted about the whole thing, posting here that you think he deserved to be banned because he tinkered with some code isn't helping anyone. There's a saying: If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all.

Rawrrior, I really hope this ends well for you both. Just read through the entire thread and I wish I could help in some way; it's horrible to feel trapped in such a position where you can't even get in touch with anyone to get the issue resolved. It's very clear from everything you've said AND the screenshots provided that he never intended to benefit or to harm the game or it's players in any way. Companies actually HIRE ethical hackers to breach their systems so that they can improve upon their security. This is essentially what your friend did, for free, and the GM was clearly very grateful.

TL;DR: Ignore all the naysayers, and best of luck to you. I'll continue to watch this thread with interest.