Request to speak to the Senior Game Master

[Rawrrior]

I feel for you and your friend, I had a similar experience in Warhammer Online, got banned in one of their Banhammers and they never would reinstate my account. They never did say why, I have never used a bot or overlay in my life. Probably for the best, the game wasn't that good anyway. To your post though, no matter if your friend reported the bug or not, he still actively cheated in game, it doesn't matter if he used the items or gil. Your friend does not work for SE, he was not asked to test for these kinds of things, he did not have any special ToS. There is an old saying "curiosity killed the cat", and well in this case it seems appropriate. I do not see them lifting the ban anytime. I will say that no matter what, in the amount of time you have spent fighting the "good" fight he probably could have had 3 or 4 more toons to 50 and been running Coil and other EG content with you. I wish you the best of luck but you should really tell your friend to play the game as intended instead of trying to find bugs. Remember that running across one is different then actually trying to find one.

I understand that, and it's my choice to stand up for him and try. Just can't help but try regardless to see just maybe theres a slim chance they will unban him.

Yes, in this time we could of made new characters on a new account but meh.. The time we put into Mrs Mada and Mister Sirs is a lot, you know? It's hard to level up fresh when you know how long X takes and how long Y takes. A month of so of play time and we hit i think 38 on our battle class, and 50 on 1 or 2 craft classes. It was hella time consuming, and if we have the least bit of hope that the account may be unbanned, we will keep trying and even then, i don't think he still feels up for making a whole new account

Yes i know, believe me i felt like smacking him, but it's hard when you know that there's other company's out there that actually pay you for finding a hole in their system, they actually TELL you try, so guess he thought maybe SE would of been a little welcoming to help them start on the right foot with there 2nd chance at XIV. And he did help them by finding a huge exploit, which Jhanaka was very appreciative about, and SE patched it up around 3 days later.

I keep trying cause to me, if they didn't ban him that moment, and he only got banned cause he was caught in a automated sweep, then he's not to be banned to begin with. So, i'm very happy Jhanaka chimed in and replied with they will investigate his account, because i just don't know if it will be a good or bad outcome, it's really anyone's game right now. I will not stop standing up to him untill Square Enix contacts Mister Sirs and goes tells him in detail all the who, what, when, where, why and hows as to him either staying banned or getting unbanned. "RMT activites" isn't the real reason he was banned, and he wants to know the truth, whether he does or does not get unbanned. Being left in the dark isn't a good thing.

Yes, running across is different than trying to find, but if no one tried, those that do it for their gain will find it first, and never report it, then we would be wondering why there are so many more gil sellers here or there ): People will try no matter what to mess up the system. Better to have someone with good intentions find it, report it and not use it to their advantage/ spread it than one with ill intentions telling every other farmer how to use it. Not everyone plays it how it's intended, good or bad. It's like when the teleport hack got released. People were posting videos on how to use it and where to get it instead of reporting it and staying away from it. I actually reported anyone i saw, and even posted a link to the video i found in my report, and i hope it helped some how (don't see teleporters anymore). It's just hard for a big company to expect people will play your game how you want it, and 2 heads are better than one. So why not accept Mister Sirs helped SE out, and didn't use it for his gain at all and give him a 2nd chance? :/ I mean gosh, must mean something if we are trying this hard.

Believe me. If he ever does this again, he will be on his own -.-;;

[Fumamyena]

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.

[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.