RMT's gone wild: Hacked edition!

Not only have the world gone crazy with young women that seriously considering selling their bodies for fake money. Real Money Traders have gone crazy too.

Real Money Traders, or as we say RMT's. They make gil in game and the sell the gil for real money, thats kind of the whole point, the "Real Money Traders" kinda hints of that.

Sometimes they do honest(?) work in game to earn their gil that they sell, sometimes players sell their gil to them for real money, which they turn around and sell for double the price they paid for it.

Sometimes they hack accounts.

Now I'm not blaming RMT's for every hacked account out there, I honestly believe that most accounts that have been "hacked" is pure stupidity. People who gave their log in info to someone else, like an in game girlfriend or boyfriend.

What vitrual boyfriend/girlfriend would ever betray someone they have never met and will never meet anyway?

All that always happen to other people, I read about it every day, I read it and I smile, thinking to myself "You probably got what you deserved".

Today was different though, today it happen to me.

Well, not exactly me, but it happen to my wife.

I know that there's only me and her that have her account info, and obviously I wouldn't have to hack her account. So, her account got hacked.

This is what you usually read when you read someones account have been hacked.

"OMG my account got hacked, they stole everything and moved my character to another server"

Or something like that.

Now, this is what happen to my wife.

She logs in on Playonline.

Isa>> Zan, I cant log on to my character.
Zan>> Why? You get any error message?
Isa>> No...It's just not there anymore.
Isa>> Have you...deleted my characters?
Zan>> Wha...ofcourse not.

Well, you get my point, im not gonna go deeper in to that conversation. It had yelling in it, and more yelling.

The point is, whoever decided to hack her account, did not change the password, they did not steal all her stuff, they did not move her to another server.

What they did do was delete her main character, and her mule.

Now who would do that? Seriously...

Who the hell would go through all the trouble, (I assume hacking is troublesome, it involves codes and stuff) just to delete 2 characters?

RMT's?

I dont know!

Does it make sense to you?

RMT1>> Yeah, you know I hacked this account earlier. I'm like really good at that.
RMT2>> Oh nice, any good stuff to sell? Lots of gil and stuff on it?
RMT1>> I dunno, I never checked. I just deleted the characters.
RMT2>>.....
RMT1>> Man, I'd like to see the face of the owner of that account when they try to log on.
RMT2>>....
RMT1>> See, they try to log in, but their character isn't there. It's hillarius!
RMT2>> I'm gonna tell our boss about you....

So anyway, my wife used another account and made a GM call. She explained the situation that her characters had been deleted by someone who wasnt her. She explained that she was not happy, she may or may not have threaten to hunt him down in real life.

15 minutes later she gets an email with a new password for playonline, she use it to log on to her account, and there they are.

Her characters! Right there, as if nothing ever happen. Nothing missing or anything, the characters where exactly where she left them.

It confuses the crap out of me.

Why...WHY!?

Maybe ordering that secyrity token isn't such a bad idea after all....

Wait...

Maybe it was Square Enix deleting her characters because she had'nt ordered a security token?

SEemployee>> Haha, now let me show you how much you need a security token.

The world has gone crazy.....again!

So, I'm reading on one of the FFXI forums again today. I've missed out on a few days, but you know, what can happen in a few days on a forum anyway? Not much.


Wrong!

I see a topic that I just have to investigate more, here's the name of that topic.


Sex for Gil. Viable business model?

What the.... For real?

So I open up the thread thinking this must be some kind of sick joke or something. Below is an actual quote from the post itself.

"I'm trying to develop a profitable business model that allows me to have sex for gil (or possibly Alexandrite). I've ran this by my girl and she's fine with it as long as I ain't a skank about it.

Does anyone have any experience in any form of prostitution on a national scale? I was thinking craigslist but I don't think I'll reach my target audience and I have absolutely no interest in getting *real* money and then buying gil. RMT is just bad, and I don't support it.

Also, does anyone think there may be any negative issues with the community for doing something like this? One of my fears is it will be viewed as RMT when there's actually no real money ever involved.

Any ideas regarding pricing, travel expenses, etiquette and protocol for conducting the transaction itself would be much appreciated. I'd also like to get some tips on minimizing costs, such as transferring my earnings to my own server. Though, I think I'll have to change to a less populated server because Odin's closed.

Thanks."

Ok, so far this can still be a joke, almost. If the OP later on says "Ha! Got you guys! Just kidding, I just wanted to hear the reaction you all got", maybe if it was posted on april 1st it could have passed as some sick april fools joke or something.

But...

The OP keeps defending this, and for your information she makes it very clear that she doesnt mean some sort of cyber sex.

Another quote:

"I was thinking of something around 5-20 million for actual sex. Depending on the extent of the service. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't do too much for less than 5 million.

The 20 million or more price tag would be if my girl was involved. I can be a pretty jealous person, but enough gil could make me forget about all of that.

I wonder if I could work out a gil per minute thing on the webcam."

Whats wrong with this person? For real? Isn't it bad enough that people do this for REAL money?

Whats next?

"Want to sell: Kidney.

I'm a bit low on gil atm, and there's a few things I really need in game. Especially now after the new gobbiebags have been released. So, I'm looking to sell my kidney, I'm thinking that 50 million gil is a reasonable price. I'm no drinker or anything so the kidney is just fine, my blood type is type O positive, I'm only 21 years old so its as good as new.

P.S I accept dynamis currency as payment. PM me for more info"

or...

"Want to sell: Baby.

So its time for me to finally get my relic sword. Because I'm lazy and wont farm or start my own dyna ls I am now selling my baby. She's 8 months old, white. Call now and I'll throw in the baby clothes and a cradle."

Good god! I think I'm getting sick....

This thread went on for 12 pages.

Twelve pages!

Before some smart admin decided to close it.

Makes you think twice about having a baby? 20 years from now your daughter will be selling her REAL body for FICTIONARY money...

Whats wrong with people?

Now a couple of times on one of my favourite FFXI forums I've seen posts about people that got hurt or died in real life.

I don't get it.

Who gave you the right to put this persons personal life out there on the internet? Someones personal medical state. This or that guy is in a coma because of this or that.

Seriously.

"Send PM to me about how you feel about this"

Why?

Is it just me?

about 99.99% of the people that reads this forum does not know this guy in real life, why share the personal stuff about him/her with them?

Maybe I'm weird, but if I got really ill and ended up in the hospital, I'd like my loved ones next to me, I would not want me personal medical condition to be discussed on a public forum. If I wanted to tell anyone in game about it, I would do so myself. Infact, I'd be rather pissed off if someone shared my personal stuff with a bunch of people I dont know and dont wanna know in real life.

Oh, you have no one close to you, no one to come visit you? It's ok, because a bunch of people on the internet is talking about you. Feel better now?

Didn't think so.

Got hit by an STD last saturday?

No worries, everyone in game knows about it.

Atleast now they know who not to have virtual sex with in game.

Is there something wrong with keeping the real life and the game separated? Or atleast leave it up the the person it concerns and their family to decide if it's something they wanna share with the whole world.

Ok I get it

So, incase that anyone didn't noticed I have been leveling Black Mage for awhile. To be more specific to level 66. During these 66 levels, I have had maybe 3 parties, the rest I have been soloing.

Pets, as I have said before.

Many times during my killings of bunnies I have asked myself, why dont Black Mages get invites to parties?

Now, I may not have the answer for that. What I did find out the hard way is why there is so few Black Mage parties.

The other day I got an invite to a Black Mage party, and now it seems like a good idea to solo. Now I dont ask alot of people, I dont ask that they have the very best, or the very most expensive gear. I dont have that myself.

What I do expect of people is that they have the very basix gear for their job, and now the basics about how to play their job.

I dont expect to get an invite to a Black Mage party, and be the only one who knows what I'm doing.

3 of 4 did not have elemental staffs, not even the non high qualtiy ones. Can you guess who the 4th was?

Yeah, me.

Another thing I dont expect is to get invited to a Black Mage party with a bunch of Black Mage's that have no clue about how timed nuking works.

If you are a Black Mage over level 50, you do have elemental staffs, and you do know what time nuking is. If not, change job.

For those of you that havent lv Black Mage, time nuking is when 1 party member decide a certain time when all the Black Mage's are supposed to start casting their spell. This is so that all the spells hit the monster at the same time and die before it gets the chance of killing someone.

You dont have a time carre that acts like this.

Guy>> 53
Guy>> i mean 13
Guy>>I meant 03 haha!
Guy>> Oh no cancel..
Guy>> Nevermind, dont cancel.
Guy>> Why the hell did you guys cancel!?

You dont have to be a Black Mage to see whats wrong with that. After awhile with this guy calling times like that, some people decided it was better to just cast whenever. Oh, and the time calling guy refused to let anyone else call the time as well.

Ok so I got it! Solo....

I'd rather get killed by a bunny because I did something stupid than get killed by an overgrown worm beause 5 other people are stupid. Atleast when the bunny kill me I have no one to blame but myself....

...And maybe the goblin who owns the bunny.

Leave me alone

Some people have made the misstake to think I'm a good guy, a nice guy. They got it all wrong.

Yesterday when I logged on to the game I was already in a bad mood because issues that has nothing to do with the game.

I do have a life out of the game, really I do.

Just because I don't share my private life with everyone in a game doesnt mean I dont have one.

So, yesterday.

I had been logged in for a whole 10 seconds when I get a tell from this guy, granted I kind of know this guy. Not like we're best friends or anything, but I know who he is, in game.

Guy>> I need your help in 40 min.
Zan>>...what do you need?
Guy>> I need your help to kill King Vinegarroon.
Zan>> Oh, so you want us to duo him then?
Guy>> Umm, no...It takes 18 people to kill him....
Zan>> My point exactly, what do you need me for?
Guy>> Well, come as Bard.
Zan>> ...
Zan>> You are in a HNMLS, those guys do that kinda stuff every day...
Guy>> Last time we killed him I was the only Bard.
Guy>> Come Bard, see you in 40 minutes. AFK til then.

Now maybe I missed something somewhere, but I'm pretty sure the conversation above did not include me saying "Sure I'll be there, there is nothing I'd rather do than spend hours and hours camping an NM from which I gain nothing from killing!"

The people who are in a HNMLS either enjoy one or both of these things.

1. Staring at their screen for several hours waiting on an NM to spawn out of nowhere.

2. Getting whatever gear the forementioned NM drops.

This usually means that even if they dont really enjoy the first option, they still think its worth it because of the second option.

I however would not mind getting whatever gear that might drop from HNM's, however I dont think the gear is worth the time and effort put into it. If I did, I'd join a HNMLS.

Makes sense?

So, if I'm not prepared to spend countless of hours to get that gear for myself, why would I spend countless hours in getting it for someone else?

Besides, this guy is a part of a HNMLS, if I somehow forgot to mention that before. If they can't come up with enough people on the right type of jobs to kill HNM's, then maybe they should reconsider killing those type of monsters, and NOT trying to have people outside their linkshell to come and help them (i.e me).

The very first day I feel the urge to waste my time staring at the screen for hours, waiting on an NM to spawn along with 5-7 other linkshells that are all trying to claim it before you do, I'll let you know. seriously, you'd be the first one to know. I promise.

Until that day, please leave me out of your HNM stuff.

Player warning!

One of the FFXI forums I follow daily has gone mad lately. Every second post people makes starts with: Player warning !

Ok, some of the warnings is about this or that guy stealing this or that item, but to be fair, most of the people that got their stuff stolen have no one else but themselves to blame.

Oh, you traded this guy 5 million gil and he promised you to get you this or that weapon but never showed up? Player warning!

If you're stupid enough to give someone gil for something they have yet to give you, guess who's fault that is?

Yours.

Although it seems like alot of the player warnings are about people that dont play the game the way others expect them to, or dont have the gear others expect of them.

Some quotes:

"This guy is the biggest crybaby on Quetz! By far one of the biggest cry babies I've ever seen on a game. This guy can't have a personal conversation with somebody, he has to go as far as saying everything in /say. He's an attention and thrives on drama! He'll pay outrageous amounts for cheap crafting items, yet cry's when you try to bazaar something he wants that's 10k over the AH price.

When you see this guy just give him a good /slap."

You all got warned by this guy now? He must be a terrible person. OMG He's talking in /say! How dare he! Warning!

"Player is 75 thf.
Camping V.Bow he comes talking crap to me.
I have 2 friends with me, we comment back, he then thinks he sees fit to /shout noob repeatedly for 5min.

No one was in the zone but us, but still, thats un called for."

What a scum! I hope someone called a GM on him and that he got perma banned. Shouting noob in an empty zone? Atleast shout somewhere where lots of people can hear it, like Whitegate. Warning!

"Vanna, he/she will take a SS of your SS if you use Windower or anything else "third party". She is mailing them to SE Special task force. So beware even though I don't think you will get banned for Windower since it does nothing bad like "Speed hacks" or stuff that."

Wow, here is someone trying to report you for doing something that is agains ToS, bad person! Very very bad person! Warning!

"Majjick, Fatalis, and Kennn overcamp parties and convince others to join them saying 'we were here first'. I was first invited to one of Fatalis's overcamp parties and Fatalis said 'the other party is about to leave', I asked the party and they said no, they had no intention to leave. Then Fatalis said his group was there first and the other party was overcamping him. I didn't want to be a part of the drama, so I left Fatalis' party. A week later I am at the pudding camp with a full party for 4 hours, then Fatalis, Majjick, and Kennn (all same LS) arrived and began overcamping us on purpose. These are sad sad souls that make the world a more stressful and conflict-filled place, please avoid them and don't support their disrespect."

He took my toy! I had it first! mommy tell him!

I could go on posting these quotes all day, but I think you get the point by now. What do these people expect other people to do about these warnings? So, you had a bad experience with this person? Well maybe you are the only one who had bad experience with him/her. All these warnings seems like nothing more than childish whining to me. Guess what? Use /blacklist add name. Stay away from whoever annoys you, the world dont care if someone called you noob in an empty zone.

Player warning: Zan

"He is making fun of my player warnings on his blog" Warning!!!!

More missions

Some weeks ago I made a post about missions. This is a quote from that post, about the Chains Of Promathia missions.

"I know I need it, and that I should do them. But seriously. I've been trying to get them going for a long time now. For some reason the groups I get together is always totally useless."

Now this quote is very true, but the past few days I've learned something new.

I know hard to believe huh? Me learning, I bet you thought I already knew everything.

I learned that missions that are impossible to do with most people, actually is really simple if you just join up with people that actually know what they are doing, and know the very basics in playing the game.

A couple of days ago I joined this group of people that had "lost" their main characters.

Dont ask about that, it's really non of my business what people do with their chars.

So these people had already done these missions on another sets of characters way back when. this means.

1. I didn't have to hold their hands and walk them through everything.

2. The knew what they were supposed to do and how to do it.

3. There were no 3 hour drama before each mission and waiting another 3 hours for some guy that didn't pay enough attention to get this or that cutscene or this or that item.

It was more like this.

1. Let's do this mission.

2. Do the mission.

3. Mission done.

See? See how simple it can be if people just put a little efford in to things? Granted that I did missions for 15 hours yesterday, but during those 15 hours I got done what I havent been able to get done in over 4 years with 20+ different groups. So 15 hours straight with 1 great group, or 4+ years with lots a bad groups. Guess which wins from my point of view?

If the people in my previous 20+ groups had just listened to me when I told them that they should come prepared, read up on the missions, and all that this would have been done long ago.

But it seems that 95% of the people in this game just cant listen, and/or expect you to do just about everything for them. Wouldn't surprise me if someone would actually give me their account info if I told them I'd get the missions done for them.

Oh, people do that? Thats why they get their accounts stolen?

I never knew that. To actually pay x $ per month to play a game, then give out the account info to someone because they are too lazy to do things themselves, then get their accounts stolen and finally post on every FFXI forum on the internet that their account got "hacked".

Yeah that makes sense to me.

Guess what.

Using the valid log in info that were given to you by the owner of the account is not hacking. If it was, I'd be hacking my own account every day.