Final Fantasy XI bullies banned

By Tom Bramwell Published 16 February, 2005

We'd have set Ichi on them.

Square Enix has permanently banned the PlayOnline accounts of more than 800 Final Fantasy XI players after they violated the massively-multiplayer game's user agreement.

According to Square Enix, the players in question were ganging up and seizing control of hunting grounds to prevent other players collecting particular sought-after items from monsters, bullying and even killing people who defied them.

Square Enix has said that acts of harassment are "forbidden" and "cannot be overlooked", encouraging anyone being bullied by a similar gang to contact a game master.

It said: "severely disturbing the enjoyment of other users by monopolizing monsters is not acceptable. We have taken measures against players who have been clearly going against the terms of service."

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About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (27) Latest comment 7 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Hunam85 #1 7 years ago

    You know, i think they just banned them, not tore them up :S

  • Bertie Verified Senior Staff Writer, Eurogamer.net #2 7 years ago

    For a company to go all out like that and ban people, there must have been a real problem. It's a nice idea for players to band together and go out and avenge themselves, I'm sure they've tried it and failed. If those players were detremental to the health and environment of the game, I'd kick 'em out with no remorse.

  • Mox #3 7 years ago

    Ultima Online, puffed up on its own Virtue, imagined that the 'good' players would outnumber the 'evil' players, and form virtual police forces when bandits threatened the roads.

    In all the time I've been playing MMORPGs I've never seen player justice actually working :)

    The closest I've seen is in Dark Age of Camelot, in the contested dungeon of Darkness Falls. Usually when your side takes posession of the dungeon you'll find the halls are infested with invisible enemy Realm players, so the first sweep is a few full-group gank squads whizzing about flushing out the enemy. But DAoC is designed from the ground up with the idea of player conflict at the forefront, it's not surprising it has mechanisms in place everywhere to deal with 'contradictory' play.

  • rinoaMW #4 7 years ago

    I play this game and to get those really rare sought after items is really difficult. The mobs that spawn these drops only appear every couple of hours, and their drop rate for these items is like 0.01%.. Meaning that that you always get a constant flow campers. I’ve seen the same character in the same area for days, and this means that the irritability of these people is at a high. Usually resulting in profanities being exchanged. There’s no form of community here, just selfish people who want to make the most money in the game. While this is ok in itself, it means that people, who genuinely need these items, have to pay a premium in the auction houses. This in turn, promotes people to use the Internet to buy in-game currency, in order to afford the ridiculous prices, which is definatly against the rules and policies of Squaresoft.

    Let them burn in hell for all I care. Not that I’m bitter. :p

  • Mox #5 7 years ago

    One early promotional quote from a Shadowbane mouthpiece was the unforgettable line "You're not really having fun unless you're humiliating someone."

    Strangely, only a few people bothered to play his game.

  • Kami #6 7 years ago

    I like how people think this'll make FFXI "easier" and items on the FFXI Auction Houses "cheaper".

    S-E have made camping NMs painful, boring and worthless. The amount of gil earned by merely fighting enemies is negligable. Banning these people means less rarer items on AH, and therefore - until S-E lax things a little - prices will go up. Demand the same but with less produce to fulfil that demand equals higher cost for the player - economics just works that way.

    Yeah, they shouldn't have been bullies and shouldn't have monopolised. People like that are just @$$holes full stop, end of sentance, and regardless of what they were doing, should have been banned. But players in FFXI are so quick to blame the gilsellers for all the problems in the game - while they are an inarguable part of the greater problem, S-E must also shoulder some of the blame for making most NMs utterly, utterly worthless to camp - Leaping Lizzy, they widened it's spawn area, now it's a lottery to camp. And it's still hideously overcamped. Jaggedy Eared Jack, wider spawn area and it's drop rate is less than 1% - meaning getting the drop is nigh impossible to the point of just mere fluke. Stray Mary, Guardian Crawler and lots of other NMs are just so overcamped, and so hard to claim in the first place, most of us casual players who log on for some FUN, will never get any satisfaction from camping an NM. Because it's so damned difficult, and other campers can be rather bitchy.


    These nasty players should have be banned. They monopolised and took the game for granted. But it's not a "victory" by any stretch of the imagination. They'll be back, or at least, 800 players will now be able to take their place...

  • rinoaMW #7 7 years ago

    "Isn't that the point of online games, to kick the shit out of other people?"

    FF doesn't really have PvP so to actually kill another player in game is quite difficult. You could mob train them, but then the risk to yourself outweighs the joy of killing another player....

    Not that I’ve tried. Honest! XD

    I do agree with you Kami.... I’ve never gotten a NM drop, but as soon as I go near a 'camp', I’m usually abused within moments… even when I’m not there for the NM in the first place.

    I’m glad Square have taken steps, but they should seriously think about a GM monitoring these problem areas and take more drastic steps accordingly.

  • reflux #8 7 years ago

    *remembers when an irc-aquaintence killed Lord Brittish in Ultima Online and got permanently banned*

  • tengu #9 7 years ago

    lol, priceless. I can just picture them with a little cubby house sporting a "No n00bz allowed!" sign on the door.

  • ruttyboy #10 7 years ago

    Jesus, how sad do you have to be to form a 'gang' on-line? There's plenty of real life street corners to colonise aren't there?

  • ruttyboy #11 7 years ago

    Who was this Lord British guy then?

    /is confused

  • ralahinn1 #12 7 years ago

    I think it's sad that a group of people get so greedy they forget it's a game and the fair thing to do would be to let everyone have a chance to win items in the game. Some shortcuts for beginners are helpful and exceptable, but bullying and cheating shouldn't be allowed. S-E did the right thing by banning them
    Edited by 1 at 16/02/05 @ 17:37

  • Abscido #13 7 years ago

    "Who was this Lord British guy then?"

    Yikes! I'm only 24 and that comment makes me feel old.

    He is (was) integral to the majority of Ultima games - old PC RPG series, got crap in its latter days.

  • Kami #14 7 years ago

    Pretty much.

    I log on these days to find the same people, who've been on for 10+ hours straight, and you ask yourself, "Do these people have a life?" I like a couple of hours in the evening to either get something done in the game, or level a little. But heck, why take it seriously? Some people let the game dominate WAAAAAAAAAAY too much of their time and energy.

    You're right though Yagi. If these people wanted to spend so much time monopolising Notorious Monsters which spawn every 24 hours, kinda says something about them I think. The worst are the dreaded CGF (Chinese Gil Farmers) - they have a tendancy to bot, making claiming NM's 100% impossible. Many times a creature has "Spawned Purple" to me, it was claimed before it even had a chance to spawn. The bots react much faster than a normal player. It just makes it so annoying and dull.


    Nothing wrong with FFXI though, as long as you don't let it drain every waking moment of your life...

  • Genji #15 7 years ago

    This is why I pretty much refuse to play any online RPG, especially ones you have to pay subscription fees for. It'll be fun for a while, until it gets to the point where I have to devote an entire day to it in order to gain a level or obtain some meaningless trinket. I just don't think I'd get any satisfaction from it.

    It doesn't help that there are a multitude of complete assholes online. Some get banned, but many remain, completely ruining the experience for everyone else.

    I think I'll just stick to single player

  • deepmenace #16 7 years ago

    The one way to a. stop this and b. make me wanna play these games is very obvious!

    Limit play.....

    2 hours a day - less is more. People will be soooo up for it, and ure on a level playing field.

    You could even only have new players join once a month or summat. Like a new shipment of adventurers! It'd be great - you know ure all in the same boat, and the guy you just spoke to isnt going to be level 19 by tommorow, just imagine the comradery!

    I dont think this would turn the kind of people I wanna play with off.....

  • Gippal #17 7 years ago

    U know what is the worst part of FFXI?
    Ppl just can't stop bitchin and whining about hi-prices on AH,
    camping NM's 24/7 by CGS, rare drops etc.
    Just live with that or stop playing.
    The whinin bitches should be banned among with the GS.

    @Mox
    "only a few people bothered to play his game"
    I guess u dont know that almost 2 million ppl playing the game.
    U didnt bother to make a research so u thought that posting such
    an arid post would make u smart.

  • Kami #18 7 years ago

    I know. The thing is, I CAN'T complain about high prices on AH. The way I made my first million gil was that I bought my more advanced White Mage equips last year, when the prices shot up, my equips doubled - and some trebled and quadrupled - in value. I gave up White Mage, sold off all my equips and made a very comfortable million gil. Even the ninja equips I have now, to be honest, are going up in value. People moan about AH prices going up, but some of us really have been counting on that very fact alone to make some money! You buy an item when it's cheap, and wait for the price to go back up. Spirit Torques crashed to 70k a few weeks ago. Yeah, I bought one. Price went back up to 200k - even after AH taxes, I was better off.

    AH prices are stupidly high for most... but there are loads of ways to make decent gil in FFXI. The one I now readily do is BCNM40 Steamed Sprouts. Erase floats often around 600k these days, sometimes dropping but usually going back to that point again, split between six people, thats around 100k a throw. If each person has a BCNM Orb, that means you can get up to 6 Erase scrolls, each at almost 100k apiece (most people "sell and divide" the items so we all get money). Add on Utsusemi: Ni and Phalanx, and you can make SERIOUS gil, while at the same time having fun. Hard to make gil in the game? Hardly. You just have to know where to look... higher lvl BCNMs net you rarer items, some worth 3 million gil apiece. Of course they're harder and require higher-lvl jobs. But more money.


    The reason people moan about gil is because they're too damned ****ing lazy to get it, so they'll blame everything except their own laziness. Which gets my goat when I see people protesting about the prices of the AH by sitting down and clapping... all the time and energy they spend doing that, they could be out hunting crawlers and grubs, farming stacks of Silk Threads. They could be doing a BCNM. They could even be out hunting elementals, who always drop crystal clusters and I used to do that a LOT as a whm. They could be making gil, instead they sit on their @$$ and just bitch about it.

    I want to slap those people. I really, really do... protesting is one thing, but these days it's just so common that I'm utterly fed up over it and wish they'd do something more constructive with their freakin' time...

  • Mox #19 7 years ago

    Actually, to best knowledge, Shadowbane never got more than 50,000 subscribers. There are a lot of MMOGs in the sub-100k category, so it shouldn't feel bad. The most successful one of all time is Lineage, which at one point had more than 3 million people (essentially, the population of Korea) paying to play it. In North America the current top three are Final Fantasy XI (over 500,000), EverQuest (over 400,000) and World of Warcraft (350,000 and climbing), although WoW looks like it's going to overtake EQ soon.

    My reference is Sir Bruce's charts over at www.mmogchart.com. It's not perfect, certainly not gospel, but it's accurate within a reasonable bound of error.

  • rinoaMW #20 7 years ago

    i hear you kami, i only play at nights as well, but still was shrewd enough to make decent money.

    the most annoying thing is when a player comes up and asks for money.

    its like virtual begging, only without the cardboard sign saying, "will give head for gil"

    10 times in one night up at sandy, jeez.

  • Kami #21 7 years ago

    rinoaMW, that is the one thing I can't stand in the game.

    Now, when I was White Mage don't get me wrong. I took my fair share of noobs under my wing and nurtured them up to a point they could party. I'd help them get their subjob items too. I didn't mind doing that because quite a few of those I helped have developed and returned the favour in kind. I'll go back to it someday. I just need serious breathing space and time to try out other jobs.

    However, when someone comes up to you and asks for gil, you just want to slap them. One person a few days ago said to me, "Do you have any gil for me?" - no manners, no introduction or [Excuse me...], no please, no specified amount... it's annoying that people ask for gil. I've often bought equips for lvl 1 people to get them off to the best possible start. Besides, a weapon, and some body armour doesn't cost the earth to me, and as I said, you never know when you might need their help! But people asking for gil to buy something... no. I won't give gil away - seriously, I don't give gil away, if I buy someone equips I'll trade them the equips. That's it.


    I don't think supporting new players is a bad thing. Having a friendly face and words of encouragement is a good starting point. But no, I don't give gil away to beggars. They too could be out killing beastmen for gil, but nope... they choose to sit on their backside and let some other poor schmuck do the work for them.

    Urge to slap these people... rising...

  • rinoaMW #22 7 years ago

    yes - same here.

    when the game was realeased in the uk (sept last year) there was already a huge user-base. Someone was kind enough to help me through those first difficult levels, helped me equip and showed me some of the do's and don'ts.. and general community ethos...

    i now in turn, do the same for newbs when they start or look a little lost.. helping them with equipment and a little PLvling always goes along way for that first impression, and helps the community in the long run, so much. Just giving Gil away only fuels the problem sometimes, and doesn't show ppl that there are others willing to help them.

    im not a mentor...and i dont wish to be, but i don't mind taking time out to help new starters, and sometimes its a good way to make new friends :)

    it just feels sometimes that theres a greed sweeping vana'diel, and im finding that people are more abusive with my chat log often filled with "*!%$" (i keep filters on)...the world has changed so much in the 6 short months i've been playing.....and that in itself is a very sad thing.

    with world of warcraft out now, i dont know how long i'll stay for...but with things the way they are, it probably won't be very long.

    i'm on "Asura", btw...maybe your server is better than this.

    /sigh

  • ElephantMonkey #23 7 years ago

    These kind of attitude could find a nice place in a GTA MMO game.

  • Kami #24 7 years ago

    I'm on Kujata. Trust me - just as bad as your server, Rinoa.

    I don't think it's a "great greed" sweeping Vana'diel, just the fact that people can't be (bleep)ing arsed to get off their fat lazy backsides and do anything. Some noobs won't contemplate the thought of a PT without a PL, they want it easy and everything to fall into their laps. I work on the principle of, if someone helps you, you help back if and when they need it.

    Best example of this was as 50Whm, I logged on in Yhoator Jungle (aka The Place Where People Train S***loads of Goblins!), and almost immediately a PT offered me 10k to PL them a while. I did, PT lasted two hours and they were great people. Told them I was gonna do my AF2 quest, where they then all told me they had high-lvl jobs and were more than happy to come along and help me get my Yagudo Holy Water. By spending a couple of hours PL them to get them out of the jungle (tbh, no-one likes to spend too much time in that place), they saved me the stress of getting the Healers Duckbills, which would have taken probably days of waiting for someone I knew to get on and help. Oh, and I also got the 10k as well. That's how I like things to work. If you take, give it back. If you give, you'll recieve it back in kind.

    But people don't get that this approach WORKS. I've met my fair share of @$$holes on Kujata. But equally, there're some great people around too which make spending a couple of hours in the game an absolute treat.

    Edit: BTW, anyone who is new to FFXI or may be considering it... one word of advice. Don't p!$$ off the Beastmasters, especially those higher than lvl 35. [Beastmaster] [Leave] can be taken a bit TOO literally...
    Edited by 1 at 17/02/05 @ 14:46

  • Kami #25 7 years ago

    MMORPG spawn camp design is completely OUT making FF a dated and below average game.

    Err... you obviously read and write english too, so saying that makes you look silly!

    Spawning isn't OUT. All enemies "spawn" in some sense. The "Random Spawn" is annoying but it is actually makes camping mobs rather exciting. "Placeheld Spawn" is when a mob is held in place by some key monsters which need to be killed first. "Forced Spawn" is when you click on a certain area and the mob spawns.


    And to say FFXI is "dated" and "average" screams of someone who doesn't actually play the game. Obviously, graphically yes, WOW and EQII are better - but they're more recent. In terms of how the game has developed, FFXI has had more time and does actually feel more "complete", and I know of EQII and WoW players on Kujata server who still play FFXI. And soon, FFXI gets a long-awaited new job class (finally!) to spice the game up a little more, although from what I hear, it's another Mage class...

    EQII and WoW, built for PC, are of course technically and graphically superior. But FFXI (Built with PS2 in mind!) still suffices, it works on MOST PC's today (Unlike EQII which needs a pretty decent graphics card with Pixel Shading to work - fine for most of us, but still...) and is just generally a little more "complete".


    FFXI ain't going away, people may not like it or see it as "outdated", but the community base isn't dwindling, if anything it seems to be getting larger...

  • rinoaMW #26 7 years ago

    yeah.. over 1.5 million registered charas.. they can't all be wrong^^

    not bad for a 'dated and below average' game. :p

  • Gippal #27 7 years ago

    Hawk
    I Think They Should Have Banned All Bots,Gilsellers, And Peaople Who Steal King Bahemonth When His Name Go's White...

    Can we add the whiny bitches at the list {Please}?

    Last example:
    We exping on beetles at Revalation Rock (sp?) at {West Altepa Desert}
    and we are doing 5-6k exp/hour (great) at 42Lvl.
    So the little Taru Whm starts bitchin that we must go to Quicksand Caves -all the time. I mean how more exp do u want you little rat when you chain 4-5 all the time average 150-240 pair mob?
    So we go to Quicksand after all the pt biched (as lvl 42 only me 43)
    Let me tell you. First claim we got PWNED.
    After 20 mins I {Thank you} {Disbanding Party}.