SE's robot banhammer - theoryFollow

But the only criteria I would possibly meet in this is having 2 accounts on one card, me and my friend's. My main has 3 level 75 jobs, a 64, 63, and everything else pretty much 30-40+. One mule is 40+, another is 15, and then one mule is 1. All they do is hold my gear, I don't even transfer money in between them. Occasionally I'll sell some things on the mule that is level 40+, but that is only because that mule is in Jeuno and with only being able to sell 7 items at a time, some times I have to send stuff to that mule to sell. My room mate only has 1 character and 0 mules. She is not banned but I am. Neither of us garden or fish, or send gil between our characters. I don't actively farm, I just do BCNMs or KSNMs and sell drops from Dynamis and other end game. So if it were the case, I don't know how it would have caught me for irregular activities because I do none of that. Also, we haven't changed our payment info in 7 months, and before that it was 4 months and then a year and a half before that, so they can't say I'm changing too often.

I'm not downing your theory, but in my experience there are a lot of people in the same boat I am. Don't farm, don't garden, don't fish, don't transfer gil between characters, etc. The rep did tell me it was irregular credit card activities, but the last time I even changed my payment info was 7 months ago so I don't know how that's suspicious enough to ban me for it 7 months later. I really am at a loss as to why they are banning.

Edited, Jul 31st 2009 7:13pm by Phallucy

If it was irregular credit card activities, perhaps you had the chargeback issue?

You're seriously giving them too much credit

What they need to do is throw some disqualifying conditions in there that the RMT arent involved in. When these flags are thrown it requires a real life STF person to review the account (before its banned).

Regardless of how the tools they are using to sweep up accounts for review work, I think we can be pretty certain that the person responsible for reviewing them just runs though the accounts clicking the banned button and then looks at **** for the rest of the day.



Edited, Aug 1st 2009 12:14am by Lobivopis

I'm pretty sure S-E is aware that we're pissed, they just either don't care or aren't going to acknowledge it (I'd vote for both actually). When S-E responded to the protest over the enfeebling magic glitch they did so with an account here on allakhazam. They said that they were reading the premier site boards and watching what we posted, and taking notes with their superiors. Or something like that.... Basically they were reading our thoughts and that even if they couldn't comment on it they knew about it. Behind closed doors of course... Now either they lied about that, they didn't have any meaning in it, or this time they're in too deep and they know it and they're turning a blind eye. It's been ONE MONTH since the unrest started, a full &^%#$# MONTH. 30 DAYS of silence, they refuse to even acknowledge our plight!

I used to look forward to logging into ffxi, I used to enjoy playing with my friends. Now many of them are gone, and the player morale is shattered. Every time I visit alla it's just a crap storm of contempt towards s-e, not that it's unjustified mind you. I haven't dealt with s-e's customer support more than a few times, but that was enough. They never got that right, but I just can't believe they would let THIS happen. People have said many times that S-E is trying to kill off FFXI so they can shut down the servers without qualm. It started as a joke, nothing meant behind it. But given their recent actions (and lack of actions) it's SCARY to think of just how true that might really be. They said they would support FFXI so long as the players wanted to play, but the fiscal report of 2009 that we got in March indicated the profits of the games revenue via sales were way down, indicating a lack of new blood. But THIS is NOT the way I wanted FFXI to end. I can accept not being able to play ffxi anymore, it IS just a game after all. But to have the ship go down in a manner like this is just unbefitting and completely ruins the memories I've created over the past 6 years.

So many people I used to have fun with no longer play, the ones that do have lost their will and vigor. The fun is much harder to find, and people are afraid they're going to be banned by some script with no repraisal or salvation. S-E's customer (dis)service reputation speaks for itself, they know. It sucks but with the player morale THIS low I can't help but wonder how much longer the game will last. The new mini expansions are garbage, there hasn't been any new content in ages, it's taken them over two YEARS to complete WoTG and they still haven't done so. I remember when RoZ and CoP and etc were done in just one... I wish it wasn't the case, but NOW I believe that FFXI finally and truly IS dying. The playerbase has been violated so badly that too many of them will never be able to show forgiveness, and with all of the people either banned or outcast or quit, our friends who keep us going are no longer there for us. Without our friends ffxi is just an empty shell.

It's Ironic really. Wasn't S-E's original first ever commercial's motto WHY PLAY ALONE?..... indeed. Why? Why play alone? But that's exactly what's happening with every new ban and every person who quits. Vanadiel is losing its population, and we'll be left.... alone. And when that happens, it's really gonna be the end. It really was NOT the way I wanted it to happen, but if it comes to that I will put away my dagger for good. Without my friends, why play alone ; ;.

Edited, Aug 1st 2009 12:51am by Melphina

I'm starting to think that sowing fear may in fact be their goal.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimation_(Roman_army)

Players make money the same way RMT do. This allows RMT to hide among actual players.

The solution? Terrorize the players so that they stop making money using those methods.

They don't ban everyone who gardens or everyone who farms silk threads for hours on end. Just every 100'th player or whatever as an example to the rest.

Edited, Aug 1st 2009 3:15am by Lobivopis

That was my other theory. That these bannings are the result of a rogue employee in the STF that doesn't actually investigate the accounts and is looking at **** when he's supposed to be working. If JP accounts aren't having these problems then an alternative explanation might be that this person (if he exists) just doesn't like western players, or simply doesn't care enough to review western accounts for whatever reason. (overworked and cutting corners, is just indifferent to non JP accounts, or trying to make extra time so he can look at ****)


Edited, Aug 1st 2009 3:37am by Lobivopis

But dude... they'd have to hire a real life STF person to do that!

STF is not special task force, it is an automated system, It is Software To Fuck over the customer.

What other saying can we come up with for STF?

By the way has anyone tried sending a message to the account the SE rep had on this forum? or do you think an admin will ban ya here?

Edited, Aug 1st 2009 7:28am by shibaaa

edit here is a prev post by the SE community person:

http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=10&mid=1240594290289172929&num=191&page=1

just click there name and go to send message, try to keep it clean.

Edited, Aug 1st 2009 8:31am by shibaaa

edit: apparently you are not able to send a message to the user, the acct is flagged in a way that it will not relieve a message, at least not from regular forum user.

Edited, Aug 1st 2009 9:24am by shibaaa

This!! If not ****, loli cause they're in Japan.

Idk, man. I still have 10 gardening mules who have sold to NPC's for years and I'm still not banned. *Knocks on Ash Lumber*

It's not child **** it's loli. Oh yeah, Prishie is considered as in loli ****.

I have another theory, SE is preparing experiments to combat RMT before releasing FF14 so they won't have to deal with it in FF14. Let's face it, if the CC thingie combine with the heavy handed tactics on RMT was around when FFXI 1st started to get RMT floods; perhaps there would be less RMT cries.

Of course, this could just be another 'broken ban hammer that randomly bans people' and other than the guy making the Auto-Ban-Hammer-of-Doom, nobody really knows how it works.