Banned for Gardening?

[kanican]

My Condolences

I normally would not make a post in reaction to FFXI news, but I felt that this was a good exception.

Banned for Gardening?
(Thread 1)
(Thread 2)
(Thread 3)
(Thread 4)

Recently, there was another wave of RMT bannings that focused on characters using a gardening NPC method of making gil.  In SE's attempt to ban RMT using this method (note:

Comments

[taperkat]

I suspect there was more than this going on behind the scenes; I've always kept my gardening money on my mules though, and only sent when it hit ~100k or so, or when I needed to get something. It seems fishy, but we know SE.

[kanican]

Seems rather random but I have a hard time believing there are that many gardeners abusing some cheat. There have been actual gardening exploits used in the past and even then they just get ninja patched and people don't get banned.

Plus if we factor in the timing of the ban with the STF report of RMT bans, it makes sense. Overall I feel like it's a pretty open and shut case they SE just confused real players with RMT. I would try to give SE the benefit of the doubt, but some of the SE customer service responses (the ones actually helpful) elude to the fact that this is RMT related.

Of course you never actually know what the person behind the computer is doing, but I think when so many do it the evidence is pretty overwhelming. It's also interesting that this is fueled on Allakhazam, not BG, as a good portion of the gardening community is situated there.

[taperkat]

That's true. TBH I don't read forums much at all anymore (enjoying the game a hell of a lot more too), so i hadn't seen that. It still makes me glad I sit and sell stuff on every mule randomly once a month or so, esp when I hit it decently large on a good harvest.

Bans

[maiev_fenrir]

As hard as it may be, don't take this game or your characters too seriously. I promise you - the guys that really own your account don't. <-- WORD

Re: Bans

[kanican]

I think we should all be allowed to make mistakes, including SE, but the real issue is when SE makes one, you typically have no recourse. From what I've read, the customer service is extremely hard to deal with and rarely ends up in you even getting to explain yourself to someone with knowledge of the game. If you were banned on accident and could remedy it with a phone call saying "ok guys just take 10 seconds and look at my account, I clearly am not a chinese gil farmer", this wouldn't be an issue. Like you said, there are any number of ways to quickly determine if someone is likely a legit player. How many RMTs still have Limbus access

[richie73]

For full disclosure, my char got permabanned for Salvage duping as well

[kanican]

A lot of this sounds very similar to my "reflections of an LM17" post. The points are well taken.

I find the best way to enjoy FFXI now is just not to take it that seriously. It's admittedly a whole lot easier when they pretty much have nothing left they can take from you.

I try not to be so bitter about these things, though it is still difficult at times. As the common saying in sports goes "it is what it is". We can either choose to agree to be pawns in the game or choose not to play it. Either way, just know what you're getting into and don't expect anything from SE other than the bill. FFXI can still be an enjoyable game - just don't expect the service to come with it.

[taperkat]

I try not to be so bitter about these things, though it is still difficult at times. As the common saying in sports goes "it is what it is". We can either choose to agree to be pawns in the game or choose not to play it. Either way, just know what you're getting into and don't expect anything from SE other than the bill. FFXI can still be an enjoyable game - just don't expect the service to come with it.

that part pretty much hit the nail on the head. I enjoy the game - a long time ago i decided to forego going out to bars etc, and spend the money on XI instead - still not a bad thing, as I'm sure it's kept me out of a lot of trouble - but it is, in essence, just a game, a service, that i pay for (and have fun with).

rah

[anonymous]

As a person that went through the whole Salvage Banning thing and transitioning to WoW, all I can really say is I definitely agree with the whole "don't take the game or your characters too seriously." It's hard but you can blame SE for that, though you could easily blame yourself for letting it happen in the first place. What I mean by that is the game pretty much requires you to spend so much time to get all the awesome items that improve your character so much. It eventually doesn't even become a matter of you killing faster or you being able to withstand more damage but rather a matter of what is on your character and how people view you

Mistakes were made.

[volkai]

While the 1/22 bannings were an issue where the general outcry was that it was a generally unfair and overly harsh punishment, it seems that everyone who got suspended or banned for having something to do with duping, and the main controversy was the number of people who didn't know about or didn't profit from the exploit yet still got banned

Re: Mistakes were made.

[kanican]

If they were willing to go through all the trouble to retroactively find 1000+ players they felt worthy of a temp ban or worse by searching a year's worth of data logs...

Then they should be willing to search back a couple months (the time the RMT were mass abusing this) and do some research on the people that got mistake for RMT.

It seems like SE only went so far as to retroactively ban Salvage dupers because of the massive uproar it caused. I assume that if these gardeners can produce the same sort of media effect they could get their accounts back as well. Unfortunately, I'm not sure if they can pull that off. Duping and banning "top tier" players is a lot sexier topic than accidentally banning gardeners for RMT being RMT.

Re: Mistakes were made.

[volkai]

I think it will cause enough of an uproar because it's players clearly not violating TOS that are getting banned, and when that happens it crosses a very concerning line.