ME?!?! Suspended!?!?!

[Spazz]

Hey guys... other than being pretty pissed right now... Im doing good.

I was in jeuno and some guy was talking in /say and was talking about how he hated FFXI. Well a guy told him in /say that if he didnt like it to just quit and save everyone the hassle of listening to his complaining. He responded back saying that he had a lvl 50+ job and didnt want to just drop his account after all the work he put into it. Well... the guy told him "fine, sell your account or something... but stop complaining." I went up to the guy complaining and did a /poke followed by a /sh saying "LOL Anyone wanna buy my Account? 74BLM with uber gear! lol". The people around me started to /laugh and we went on our merry way.

About 10 minutes later I got a group invite and was headed out of Jeuno when all of a sudden my screen went black and the "downloading data . . . " stuff popped up in the right corner like I had zoned. In a few seconds I was in a small room that was green and looked like a room in the ruins in sarutabaruta. I was able to run around a little and then my character was thrown back to the middle of the room and a GM started to talk in /say to me. He told me that I had broken the User Agreement Policy by attempting to sell my account, and as such my account would be suspended. I told him to wait up and let me explain. I told him that I was just joking around and was not really trying to sell my account. All he said was "Sorry. Best of luck to you." and then kicked me out of game and locked my ID. I can now no longer log in at all. I cant even access my POL stuff.

I went over and got on a friends account and made a GM call via POL Service and Support. The GM there told me that he could not find my case even though I gave him my ID. He told me that since he could not find any information on my case... he could not tell me how long my suspension would be for. Here is where I started to get some answers. . . I asked him why my friends would get warnings and I got suspended for my very first "offense". He told me that there offenses were "game" based... and mine was "legal" based. My account was suspended due to Legal Risks. I proceeded to ask him, If my joking around about it is such a legal risk... what about companies like www.ige.com. Why arent they shutdown. It even states in Article 3.1(a) of the User Agreement for PlayOnline and Final Fantasy XI Services that all selling and/or buying of Gil, Items, and/or Accounts with or for real money is prohibited by SquareEnix etc. The GM told me that companies like IGE.com are based in China and are under a different set of rules. It is illegal for any and all companies in either the USA or Japan to buy/sell gil and accounts. China's country laws make this rule null'n'void. So they get to be "special" while I get to sit on my ass and continued to get pissed at SquareEnix for being retarded.

So all in all... DONT JOKE AROUND ABOUT BUYING AND OR SELLING GIL, ITEM's, OR ACCOUNT's FOR REAL MONEY AS THEY WILL RESULT IN A SUSPENSION OF YOUR ACCOUNT! You have been warned.

[Keyura]

Re: ME?!?! Suspended!?!?!

...wow, thats really retarded o_O if u call the toll-free number they should give u some more answers. i can't believe that gm wouldn't let u explain o_O sounds like he was just trying to be a vigilante. sorry that happened man, hope u get it back soon.

[kuu]

Re: ME?!?! Suspended!?!?!

People wanted S-E to be anal and start banning people for such things. So they did.

If you want to toughen up the law, you should also realized it applies to everyone.

[TheGrandMom]

Re: ME?!?! Suspended!?!?!

While I can understand them putting their foot down, they are treading a very dangerous path. Gil sellers have openly admitted that they are farming for gil for their employers to sell. We've all seen the screenshots of "chats" with the gil sellers. But when a person with no black marks on his record makes a joke and he gets banned, well the first thing people are going to think is "Why didn't they ban gil sellers when GM's were called because they openly admitted to it" This could snowball and end up biting them in the ass if they keep it up.

Everyone wants them to be tougher and I do too, but I think a great majority of us has joked around about buying gil or selling items/accounts. What are they going to do, ban all the players and leave the game for the gil sellers? LOL!! The very least that GM could have done is review the chat log and issue a firm warning with maybe an hour or two in jail.

Really sorry to hear this happened Spazz, please keep us updated on anything that develops.

[Teffie]

Re: ME?!?! Suspended!?!?!

I sympathize with you... S-E should be cracking down on the real culprits, and not people who joke about it, but in all honesty, what did you expect?

It's sort of like you going on an airplane, and joking about having a bomb. I'm fairly sure you would be asked to get off the plane and shown to secruity. ;/

[kuu]

Re: ME?!?! Suspended!?!?!

He told me that there offenses were "game" based... and mine was "legal" based. My account was suspended due to Legal Risks. I proceeded to ask him, If my joking around about it is such a legal risk... what about companies like www.ige.com. Why arent they shutdown. It even states in Article 3.1(a) of the User Agreement for PlayOnline and Final Fantasy XI Services that all selling and/or buying of Gil, Items, and/or Accounts with or for real money is prohibited by SquareEnix etc. The GM told me that companies like IGE.com are based in China and are under a different set of rules. It is illegal for any and all companies in either the USA or Japan to buy/sell gil and accounts. China's country laws make this rule null'n'void. So they get to be "special" while I get to sit on my ass and continued to get pissed at SquareEnix for being retarded.

The GM doesn't quite make sense, or was just trying to be GMish, and try to sneak away with half baked explainations so you just bite the bullet, and he covers his ass..

IGE has companies around the world, and also in US, their MAIN headquarters are in HK... not china... while it can be the same thing, the laws are not. HK has it's own laws via treaty, and it is very similar to US and Japan.

and I don't really understand the legal risk either, one day I will have to track down a GM to explain to me what it is... I don't think there is any national level law that says "Thou shall not buy/sell gil or mention it" As far as anyone can guess it's just a simple ToS rule breaking. Heck Sony offically did it with their service.

My advice is, if you have the stamina, chase these accusations down, for the sake of simply trying get hard facts, nad generally lawyer them to give you some lee-way.

You are guilty of trying to sell your account...that's a fact..joking or not, you did it(anyone can say "I was joking" when they get caught) but all those weird reasons....

Oh yea screenie's/logs if possible.. so we can pick it apart like the windower ban, where the GM "claims" windower accesses from server...which it does not. That GM must be looking stupid right now.

[Pai Pai Master]

Re: ME?!?! Suspended!?!?!

I understand that Square Enix can't take legal action against companies like IGE, but that shouldn't stop them from banning the gilseller characters that actually admit to selling gil. To expect you to comply with an account suspension on such a grounds is somewhat ridiculous when they do nothing against those who are really at fault.

If they were banning the gilsellers who talk about what they do, I'd say "Sorry Spazz, but you should know that Square Enix takes action against players who say something like that, even if you're only joking." Of course, that's not the case.

At least the GM admitted that Squenix really can't do anything legally with IGE. The last few GMs I've talked to about it had only said crap like "Don't worry, Square Enix is planning something" or "A way to deal with companies like IGE is being devised" as if they were going into a covert op to assassinate the president of IGE or something.

[Feba]

Re: ME?!?! Suspended!?!?!

"A way to deal with companies like IGE is being devised" as if they were going into a covert op to assassinate the president of IGE or something.

Well it'll go alot faster once S-E gives in and buys Sneak Oils to get their damn Tonko scrolls.

[Balfree]

Re: ME?!?! Suspended!?!?!

i feel for you

i have been very cautious about even talking about certain things, the moment that guy got banned for mentioning he used a windower... that makes me think twice about even mentioning some stuff

i just wish i could warn my pts that i can see their TP.. but that might just get me banned, so i wont, that type of thing

anyway this IS ridiculous, a quick travel into yhugot groto and youll see the ammount of botters (prolly gilsellers).. i've mpked like 10 people down there, and they never budged or whined, which makes them bots, does it not? i mean... doesnt square see this?

i think, a way to get rid of all this shit would be to pay for vigilante types of GM, they arent there to answer your issues, but to solve them, like they would actually learn from what the community says, the LS linkshell people for example, _how_ many times square? how many times... they are so out there and SE does nothing ^^, all the _OBVIOUS_ fishbots, just check often on popular fishing areas, dude their so totally out there too

and what bullshit is this about ige being left alone cus theyre in china? so i can just rob you blind aslong as im in china? wow, thats like, mindblowing. does anyone have some hacking skills? lets just hack ige and do justice by our own hands, and then hack square, but from china, so we dont get in trouble.

[lionx]

Re: ME?!?! Suspended!?!?!

MAIN headquarters are in HK... not china... while it can be the same thing, the laws are not. HK has it's own laws via treaty, and it is very similar to US and Japan.

Wasnt HK back into China back in 1997? >_>

Anyway i thought that the GM although rude, did what he had to do. Not to say he was entirely right but i felt as a GM he was obligated to take action. However the lack of action against REAL RMTs...is not justified at all especially with your case. At least we got some answers from the Help Desk.

The part about China and the Internet is that, the Internet basically has little laws to it. Its pretty free, and if you are going to make it so you CAN take legal action against them, then what are you going to do? Impose another country so they can fit your needs? If any country does not want another country to bother with their laws and how things are run, then they should have that right. As frustrated as i am with RMTs. Its the same reason why crimminals that commited the crime somewhere is tried in their own country and/or state, and not another's, because its their buisness, not really yours. I think America has enough nosey-ness as it is.

However has there been cases of action when gilselling is within laws? I like to konw that.

and what bullshit is this about ige being left alone cus theyre in china? so i can just rob you blind aslong as im in china? wow, thats like, mindblowing. does anyone have some hacking skills? lets just hack ige and do justice by our own hands, and then hack square, but from china, so we dont get in trouble.

Hacking in China against their own company will get you into trouble. However hacking from somewhere else like America probably wont...at least with my pitiful knowledge about these things. If you started an RMT say around here, and say FFXI was released for another country but not America, i am sure you CAN do RMT without getting sued.

[Jei]

Re: ME?!?! Suspended!?!?!

woa.

I know that kinda thing could happen so I try not to say anything about gilbuying or windower at all in game. No matter how much I'm tempted to throw in comments about them when others are talking about.

[neighbortaru]

Re: ME?!?! Suspended!?!?!

which GM was it? some tend to be bigger asses than others from my experience, but that is definately messed up. it's really stupid that they are getting so hardline with legit players and letting the gil sellers walk...

[Darkwarrior]

Re: ME?!?! Suspended!?!?!

Heh...I wonder who's the fag that called a GM on you...

[kuu]

Re: ME?!?! Suspended!?!?!

Wasnt HK back into China back in 1997? >_>

Read again. Even if HK is handed back to china it DOES NOT follow chinese laws. And HK has it's own government.

HK has it's own set of laws, 90% of them from pre '97 days. Most of the laws that changed from after '97 are easier traveling from and to HK from mainland. Basically like US and canada, instead of all those paperworks. (Still acts like it's own country though, bans most chinese from staying in HK for more then 7days and other stuff)

If you want to sue IGE for ToS service brakage, I think it's more or less possible in HK, they have very similar business laws as JP and US, due to their environment.

[Keyura]

Re: ME?!?! Suspended!?!?!

Some games utilize "covert" gms that play as regular characters so they know whats going on, or so i've been told. it seems like SE could save themselves a log of GM calls if they gave some of their less vigilante GMs regular chars, and had them get some info on all the gil sellers, ban them (didn't we discuss that GMs can ban anyone for any reason without reason? WHY THE HELL WONT THEY JUST BAN THE GIL-SELLERS? they don't need a reason, so they should do whats right, its just mind-blowing they are so hypocritical) and take care of the problem. then if they could only ban all the users botting NM/HNM spans, we'd be in business.