Justice in the Garden of Square Enix

On January 22nd, Vana'diel adventurers were delivered shocking news when a set of bans for item duplication were administered. Immediately after, the various communities exploded with heated arguments on both sides of the issue. Some cried out against the severity and inconsistency of the punishments while the rest deemed it an appropriate and fair recourse for what transpired. A week has passed, yet the still raging fire has only been fueled by the recent publishing of "Unrest in the Garden of Square Enix," inspiring the writing of this counterpiece.

The following editorial contains views that are the opinion of the author and not necessarily the views of Allakhazam.com.

Square Enix Knew

Allakhazam staff writer Pwyff posed the opinion that Square Enix knew about the exploit for at least two years before taking action against the offenders. The source of this information is mysteriously unknown, but this perspective used the logic that the community outcry was the sole reason that any punishment was handed out at all. A week after the patch fixing the exploit, Allakhazam.com inquired about punishment at Fan Festival 2008 and the development team explained that an investigation was under way. Was this investigation launched solely based upon community response to the emergency patch? Possible, yet unlikely.

As for whether Square Enix knew about the bug yet took no action for "over two years", let's look back at developer interviews over the years conducted by Allakhazam.com and other Premier Sites.

From July 2007, E3 Developer Interview:

Pikko: [...] [Players] would like to know why they should keep killing themselves over [Einherjar] just to get nothing. Is that something that's going to be fixed or will it be the battle itself you adjust?


Ogawa-san & Tanaka-san: First of all, about not having the drop rate be as good as people want it to be it's because we want people to go back and play Einherjar many times, so that they get a continuous type of challenge. And if it's too easy the world will be filled with the abjurations and everyone will have that and it won't be something that has that mystic feel to it like, "I have it, look at me." Rather, everyone is wearing it. [...]

From November 2007, Fan Festival Developer Interview:

Pikko: [...] I had asked about Einherjar [at E3] and back then it was still a new battle system and you had said you were going to watch the trends and how participation runs. How has that been going and do you see any adjustments coming to the existing system?

Square Enix: Right now, the overall difficulty we're pretty much pleased with that so we don't really have any plans on changing the overall difficulty.

From July 2008, Premier Site Summit:

The Nyzul bosses are easier than the normal versions, but after a while if you get no drop, again and again, it's getting annoying. Do you have plans to maybe add some other items and bosses? This doesn't mean "add Ridill to the Nyzul Fafnir version", but at least some crafting materials.

Matt Hilton: [...] If we were to add even more rewards than there are now, the balance of the strength of the rewards would be destroyed. Also, the values of synthesis items and materials would also be destroyed so we will probably not be adding those. [...]

Let's not forget that Square Enix is the same company that casually stated that camping Fafnir in its current state is something players "enjoy." This is the company that prior to extreme negative press, had a boss in game that could not be beaten after 18 hours. That same company has a mob still unbeaten after more than 4 years. Community members have often joked about the FFXI developer team's odd fascination with MMORPG sadism.

So with those things in mind, can someone please explain why Square Enix, a company dead set on keeping the bar raised extremely high for its playerbase, one that rarely budges on its drop rates, would let a bug in its code that enables the duplication of rare items in triplicate run rampant for two years?

An XI podcast host recently wrote an article that posed the theory that the tripling of items was intentional . G4 took this speculation and termed it "part of the plot." Nevermind that said podcast author was on the ban list.

"That means that people who knew of this were able to keep it 'on the down low' for at least a quarter of FFXI's life. That's some pretty good 'down low' keeping; almost, if one considers it, too good. Nobody, not even SE, could be that blind." - Pwyff, Unrest in the Garden of Square Enix

Having no experience as a game tester means that I can't attest to the difficulty of finding every existing bug in a game as vast as XI, but it doesn't take an experienced tester to know that occasionally some things are missed. People fall into the ocean. Monsters path the wrong way. As is the case with most MMOs, some bugs aren't found until they're live and reported by the playerbase. The fact is that this was a major flaw and it was the responsibility of Square Enix to ensure it did not exist. It slipped through, though, and players who are now playing coy and crying innocence are using this fact to say whatever they please in order to justify their actions.

It's the End of the World as We Know It

Some people would have you believe that the banished were the hope and redemption for the dying game of Final Fantasy XI; that without them endgame will cease to exist and the beloved cities we grew up in will burn to the ground as Altana sheds tears for the most cherished of her elite warriors.

Give me a break.

The last Vana'diel Census, posted in May 2008, stated that approximately 500,000 players subscribe to Final Fantasy XI. Roughly 10,000 accounts are banned by the Special Task Force every few months. Approximately 550 accounts were permanently banned last week. 440 are breathing sighs of relief, happy to be able to walk around Aht Urhgan Whitegate again and merrily going about their business. For some, their brief brush with death is likely to be forgotten as soon as they pull Nidhogg with a level 5 mule.

Those 550 accounts represent 0.11% of the Final Fantasy XI population. Claims that Square Enix is "alienating the playerbase" are more than likely those of players placing more value on their person than they have a right to. Leaders of some of the "best" endgame linkshells now find themselves with nothing to show for years of work. What constitutes "best," though? The ones with the best bots? The one with the most relics? Relics which we can now speculate to have been funded by the very exploit we are so ferverently debating now?

Back when I was the leader of an endgame guild in EverQuest, we had a motto: Greed kills. Play any MMORPG out there and you'll find this to be true. It's a natural thing for players to gauge their character's personal worth by the material goods they wear, but some players take this to another level. Square Enix's strenuous "work ethic" doesn't help this feverish drive to wear the best items. Yet the greed of a portion of the community doesn't have to represent the entire playerbase.

The general population tends to play by the rules. However, upon entering endgame, they discover a world of lust and greed that they might not have imagined existed. While on their journey to greatness they may have been surrounded by fun-loving adventurers looking for experience and a great group of friends, but then they find themselves in a world requiring them to leave behind real world relationships for the sake of their "loyalty" to the linkshell. If you want the good stuff, you have to be willing to sacrifice.

These players were presented with a choice. Do you sacrifice your ethics for that item you've wanted, but may never get legitimately? It's only illegal if you get caught, right? In the end, was it the right choice? Given the chance to go back, would these players make the same decision? Only they know the answer to that.

RMT vs. Duping

So what is it about these bannings, something what would normally be collectively received by the XI community as just desserts, that is so different? Every few months we receive word on thousands of banned RMT accounts. We laugh, we cheer, we imagine giving Square Enix high fives as we breathe a sigh of relief that at least something is being done about those damned cheaters ruining the game.

The difference is that these were high profile characters that meant a lot to their linkshells and have a voice. They have a place to be heard. But what sets them apart from the evil RMT besides access to this mode of communication and the ability to speak English? One of several reasons for combating RMT is the fact that RMT farm items to sell for profit, which they then turn around and sell to players. There isn't much of a difference. They both hide their methods in order to sustain a money-making scheme, being motivated by personal gain rather than abiding by the rules of the game. To treat them any different than RMT would be hypocritical at best.

An Unprecendented Move

One thing we can all agree on is that this move was unprecedented, which by and large was a huge problem for Vana'diel. Camp after camp, people watched their competition steal claims right from under their noses using automated bots. Square Enix themselves admit to having no way to detect this, so no retribution comes to these players, meaning that eventually the victims begin to realize that they can do the same and not get caught. So, why not? Lack of enforcement has led us to a larger pool of offenders.

These bannings sent a message to the community. Square Enix isn't afraid to topple even the mightiest of its players. But who were these mighty players and what did they really represent? Their willingness to use this exploit gave them an unfair advantage over the rest of the population. How can you say that they would only cheat this way? Why not another way? Why not in all ways? A player willing to do this will logically be willing to risk character assassination again should the reward be good enough.

These players were undoubtedly skilled at their jobs and no doubt many of them had exceptional event leadership skills. But is this efficiency, which affects at maximum 64 individuals at a time, really worth the overall effect on the game's environment? People cannot simply be excused for cheating because they're good at what they do or are a popular figure in a community. They should be held to the same standards as the RMT who ravage the game's economy for personal gain. As far as I know, the RMT aren't given warnings for their illegal activities.

People have the right to their opinions, but don't insult the people who play this game fairly by justifying the actions of the cheaters. While a lot of people feel strongly about the harshness of Square Enix, there are a whole lot more who are simply glad to see justice done.

This Tarutaru certainly is.

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Thank you
# Jan 29 2009 at 12:47 PM Rating: Excellent
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Pikko, I need to take a moment and thank you for the contribution of that counter-argument. You have proven to me yet again why you are, without a doubt, my favorite community administrator.

This provides a better representation of the population of the game as a whole, rather looking at it from the idea that endgame is the only game in FFXI. The Majority of the games population, throughout the world, are in the general consensus that this was a good move on SE's part.

Yes, people would like to know the details concerning the severity of the punishment on a case by case basis, but honestly, it's my guess that the issue was regarded more as a whole.

It's very hard to properly represent the community when the minority try their hardest to be in the spotlight. From issues to HNM camping Kings as a huge issue to as simple as "Why would anyone want less than 20k/hr?" When you realize that in spite of such propaganda, there are a great deal of people satisfied with meriting via Campaign and the majority to the players of the game don't even bother camping kings.

It boils down to playing this game for standing vrs playing this game for fun. It was an inevitable divide in the players that happens to most if not every MMO. Unfortunately, early on SE fed heavily into the 'standing' type of playstyle and a lot of the game's difficulty reflects that. Weather or not the recent turn of events may influence SE's approach to some of these powerful pieces of gear we will have to wait and see.

If Dynamis is any indication, it may still be a long time before we see an improvement in drop rates, but they may yet happen.

Edited, Jan 29th 2009 3:48pm by Hyrist
#REDACTED, Posted: Jan 29 2009 at 6:47 AM, Rating: Sub-Default, (Expand Post) Ban or no ban, most everyone here is missing the god damn @#%^ing point, & apparently, even you Pikko. The @#%^ing point is where is the consistency in the bannings??? Or even where is the god damn line drawn in the sand? Some got off with a slap on the wrist, while others who to the same degree of cheating, got what is essentially the death penalty.
If it's justice, what happened to the trial?
# Feb 03 2009 at 6:15 AM Rating: Good
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Duping in Salvage may not have a palpable and easily seen effect on other via gil but the affect on server prices of the craft items do get altered by the fact you dupped. It's basic supply/demand. The duppers got their items 3 times as fast as a normal group. The craft items for these salvage pieces stayed at the same rate of entry into the economy. The more Salvage drops you got the more demand their was for the items needed to upgrade, meaning less to go around, meaning the price for the items goes up. You getting your items made Joe-the-average player have to have more gil to upgrade their earned pieces.

You got your items faster, you feel like it had no effect on anyone else, but it does. This is not a one-player game, every thing you do has an effect on someone, be-it direct or indirect it's there. Sandworm duping it's easy to see, the shell got 3x the gil from every drop and with the rarity of both Sandworm and it's drops the prices were at an elevated level. They retained that level because everyone assumed there was only one of the sellable items entering the server per day, giving it a worth that was not backed up by the actual numbers.
If it's justice, what happened to the trial?
# Jan 29 2009 at 12:24 PM Rating: Good
It speaks much to your character that you would use such writing style. I for one will be glad to be rid of each person like you. No manners? Get out. Foul mouth? Get out. Cheater? Get out. Aggressive? Get out. Enjoy your $30/month, the economy is begging you to save that money to buy an airline ticket to any country without internet access.
If it's justice, what happened to the trial?
# Jan 29 2009 at 9:03 AM Rating: Excellent
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This is the court of SE. You're not entitled to a fair and speedy trial.

Every time a person screams "Where's the consistancy in these bannings", I want to rip a head off.

First of all, if you wish to know why some people got perma-banned, and others didn't, it's because some were far more serious offenders than others. Some people duped r/e items from salvage, while some duped those, plus drops from nyzul, and even saleable drops from doomvoid. On top of that, some of these people had been using various other forms of cheats for years as well. It's possible, and likely, that SE came across evidence of that as well when reviewing these logs. Some had been cheating for a long period of time, while others only had done it a few times. If you got permabanned, you got what you deserved. If you managed to get only suspended, count yourself lucky.

Second, in regards to past actions taken by SE, I see this the above statement, and wonder just how long you've been playing this game. SE has always taken a hard stance regarding exploits. This is not the first, and will not be the last time, players have been banned from the game for abusing an exploit.

Lastly, I don't want cheaters in my game. You wanna cheat, go play WoW, then I don't have to listen to you whine when you only get a slap on your wrist for things like this. Oh, but don't whine when that's all the RMT cheaters over there get as well.
If it's justice, what happened to the trial?
# Jan 29 2009 at 8:36 AM Rating: Excellent
KobetheTaru wrote:
Don't get me wrong, did I use the dupe? Yes.

Do I regret using the dupe, NO.

Would I do it again? Yes.


Guilty. Enjoy your ban.
If it's justice, what happened to the trial?
# Jan 29 2009 at 7:58 AM Rating: Excellent
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Is that seriously something you put in your post? "You're supposed to be cool cause you're from Hawaii"? Having aloha spirit doesn't mean I like having people like you cheat their way through the game. Maybe you didn't intend to hurt the environment of the game, but you did anyway.

The consistency argument is ********* If the police can only find evidence against half the perpetrators, does that mean they should let everyone go? You're just trying to deflect the anger that should be aimed at people like you onto Square Enix by saying, "Okay, I deserved this, but SEs the bad guy because they didn't ban every single one of my cheater friends too!"
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#REDACTED, Posted: Jan 29 2009 at 4:52 PM, Rating: Sub-Default, (Expand Post) Why don't you read what I post before you delete it, then, maybe just maybe, you could comprehend it. I never said to let everyone go. You think suspending everyone is letting them go? Get real. If the police doesn't have evidence against someone they have no choice but to let them go.
If it's justice, what happened to the trial?
# Jan 29 2009 at 4:56 PM Rating: Excellent
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If you want me to be honest, as soon as I saw you say that you'd cheat again if you could, I didn't really give a rat's *** about any of your points.

I didn't delete your post. Your settings probably filter out sub-default posts, which means I'm not the only one that thought your post was retarded.

Edited, Jan 30th 2009 1:00am by Pikko
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#REDACTED, Posted: Jan 29 2009 at 6:02 PM, Rating: Sub-Default, (Expand Post) Thank you for proving my point about your ignorance.
If it's justice, what happened to the trial?
# Jan 29 2009 at 6:04 PM Rating: Excellent
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At least we have something in common then.
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If it's justice, what happened to the trial?
# Jan 29 2009 at 2:50 PM Rating: Decent
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Pikko wrote:
Is that seriously something you put in your post? "You're supposed to be cool cause you're from Hawaii"? Having aloha spirit doesn't mean I like having people like you cheat their way through the game. Maybe you didn't intend to hurt the environment of the game, but you did anyway.

The consistency argument is bullsh*t. If the police can only find evidence against half the perpetrators, does that mean they should let everyone go? You're just trying to deflect the anger that should be aimed at people like you onto Square Enix by saying, "Okay, I deserved this, but SEs the bad guy because they didn't ban every single one of my cheater friends too!"


So not only is he a cheater he's a snitch.
If it's justice, what happened to the trial?
# Jan 29 2009 at 7:29 PM Rating: Good
You guys are missing his point entirely though. He's not justifying it or making excuses, he's annoyed that there's no consistency or transparency to the process. It seemed to be a half-*** way of doing things, with no real link to the deeds of the people besides duping. Some people who duped nyzul once get permabanned, some people who did it hardcore didn't.

SE does need to have a better relationship with the community, so the damage from things like this is mitigated. Because for such a small amount of people banned, there has been a huge split in the community over it, as the front page of alla shows.
If it's justice, what happened to the trial?
# Jan 29 2009 at 10:01 PM Rating: Excellent
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Look, I got his point. I even agree with it to a certain point. I just don't care that he feels that way or any other way, simply because he said he'd cheat again if given the chance.
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Well said!
# Jan 29 2009 at 5:39 AM Rating: Good
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I can't really explain how I feel too much on this subject without making a huge long post.

But I think Pikko has hit the nail right on the head there.

Whiney ******* who cheated their way to gear got banned, people who played honestly and worked damn hard for that gear got to continue on with their lives.

Yes SE make mistakes blah blah blah, but we're supposed to be here to help and support them, not abuse a glitch from a mistake that I guess could've easily happened. The fact that some servers had no bannings just shows it was pure chance if you discovered it, not how great or leet you are.

I think that pissed me off the most. 'You only knew about it if you were a somebody, or you were important enough to know about it' (That's not an exact quote from BG, but the basic jist of what the guy was saying).

I really hope he got banned.


p.s. [GM]Dave wrote a damn funny blog post on this subject, I would recommend reading lol
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Well said!
# Feb 04 2009 at 4:30 PM Rating: Decent
OMG! I am still LMAO. I actually took the time to read all of his posts, not just the ones about the ban. The fact that he is speaking the total truth in no way makes it less funny, but in fact makes it more hilarious.
Good show old bean
# Jan 29 2009 at 2:46 AM Rating: Good
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Pikko>> I see your two kings, and raise you three aces!

Trumped!
Good show old bean
# Jan 30 2009 at 3:31 AM Rating: Good
I am a programmer and I believe a reason SE was so heavy handed in handing out bans for this is people don't realize how potentially serious and "Breaking" duping items can be from not just a game balance point of view but from a technical point of view too.

Now I don't have access to SE codeline but it is not too difficult to make an educated guess that an Item in the game will have some sort of "Code" or unique identifier, now the impact of having 2 or 3 items suddenly with the same unique identifier can have major unforseen circumstances (The funniest and most poetically justified would be if one person turned in their 35 piece to turn it into their salvage piece - in effect deleting it from the game- 2 other peoples was deleted along with it. But I digress).

Now bearing this is mind, you could then see why SE would take this so seriously, it would be worse than using a 3rd party tool or partaking in RMT as you could actually break the game as opposed to making the environment slightly unsavoury.

Also from reports I have read people who were truly "Innnocent" or guilty by proximity were only warned or given a temp ban, I'm guessing some of the perm bans have been on SE's radar for a while.
Good show old bean
# Jan 30 2009 at 7:57 AM Rating: Good
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I formerly was a Senior GM for an MMO, and now own my own Database development firm, and i can completely concur with Kubrell on his point. Duping items could very well in fact cause the integrity of the system as a whole to malfunction and in many cases cease to function all together. if done correctly, each item created, whether duped or not, would create its own entry into the database obtaining its own Guid and refID. But what if only a limited amount were allowed by system. If only 37 keys were allowed to be assigned by the system to a set of items, meaning only 37 were allowed to exist, by creating more than intended, you, potentially, could cause system faults and access to the data could be lost entirely. I have to deal with things like this happening all the time, especially with clients that "dupe" new records.

If some cheating asshats, duped items, and cause a system fault that caused me or anyone else out there to lose any or many items they worked hard for, i would lose my mind.

beyond that, if you cheated, you cheated, you got what you deserved.
Good show old bean
# Feb 16 2009 at 2:14 AM Rating: Decent
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I've been playing this game for... (counts out the fingers...)off and on for the last 6 years now. I’ve never purchased gil, though I’ve know people who have. I’ve never used a bot, but I’ve taken down gods along side people who were. I've never overly taken advantage of an exploit tho i knew of almost all of them. From ways to crash the world server through training whole zones with high amounts of mobs. To MPK'ing Botters and gil farmers.

some of you are too young to remember MPK, some people like us in my end game LS's used them for revenge, you botted and stole our spawn of jormy... etc etc etc. others used them to grief or show off. but in all the years I’ve been playing this game the one thing that i've learned is if you dont talk about it, people never learn of it. i never knew of the dupe cheat, probably because i was to busy in doing real fights in dynamis or sky. or maybe i was to busy actually leveling my characters not getting baby sat to 60 by some rdm with a hard on.

I am old school, i remember when the ultimate challenge in this game was realated to the risk we put on the line. i remember becoming excited because i had a critical break but i still got the .1 for gold smithing. i remember seeing my first proc on an item making a +1 for a synth 100 item. i remember how proud i was putting in my bazzar for way more then most could actually pay.

I remember when ToAU was finally released, and how disgusted i was by the changes it made to the game. how easy it seemed to be making it for people to get really awesome gear for half the work we had put in.

and ultimately, i remember when i came back and discovered the joy of level sync. of mobs being... just a little easier to kill then i remembered. has the game made improvements, i would say so. is it a dying community i think not... i play eve online as well as FFXi and WoW. ive played EQ, and EQ2, as well as earth and beyond, i remember phantasy star online. I also remeber a time when half the server pops for FFXi were all rmt. yes nuking the RMT's and glichers as well as botters, takes a chunk out of the community as it stands, but better to sacrifice an arm or a leg then allow it to develop a rot that reaches the heart

i hope that these events that have transpired have taught a valuable lesson to all those affected by it. I know what it means to be bitten by the big number end game bug. there is not much left in this game that i have not done. mostly stuff from WotG. but finally, justice, what goes around comes around, and when you think making use of an exploit might seem like a whole lot of fun just ask your self one simple question. When the S&#T storm hits do you want to get caught out in it?
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