Varg, Dakana, and everyone else caught in this most fucked up (yes, the f-word. I swear too and I think I’ve only done so twice in public in FFXI so far) example of horrible customer service and not taking responsibility for bugs in your own product, my most sincere condolences.
In my opinion, this incident was badly handled and gives us an idea of how SE treats their customers. What bugs me the most about this is the fact that they essentially threw away years of people’s work, as well as adversely affected not just the people being banned, but also the people who have no relation in what is essentially a DEFECT in their own product. Instead of fixing the bug and taking reasonable actions to correct the problem, they decide to actually punish their paying customers, treating them like criminals. An example of a reasonable action to correct the situation could be to remove gains or items obtained from the exploit. They have the logs, they have the details, they can do so.
Instead, we have this situation where years of friendship and cooperation are simply tossed out the window. The people who aren’t directly affected are indirectly affected. Some friends who used to go exploring new areas, trying out new content with me are now gone. People who I could call for help are no longer there, making it harder for me to do things, and of course, just to even talk to people means that I’ll have to use other venues instead of FFXI.
To me, this means that in the future, if SE decides that a certain behavior or action is not “good player behavior”, or they find a bug in their own code that needs to be fixed, they can go through and punish people retroactively instead of fixing the situation. This means that if you used Windower at any time, or in the past, MPKed someone before the “MPK patch”, or for that matter, defeated AV using Kraken Club DRKs, you’ll be subject to banning at the whim of SE no matter if you did this years ago, or just recently. SE is sending a message that they are the ones in charge, and that they do not care for you as a customer, only that you not only obey their rules, but also be responsible for mistakes that THEY make. I think this is a huge mistake on SE’s part and has done much to shake mine, and many people’s confidence in the company. I found this post on the Pet Food Alpha website that does a very good job of explaining what SE has done to undermine our confidence. The lack of consistency is a direct attack to human emotion. Commitment & consistency are two things that all human cultures hold dear. Breaking either one of these leads to a sense of betrayal and essentially leads people to lose their trust in the other party.
With this move, they not only removed our friends, but also their most loyal customers who were pushing the limits of their game. I’m certain that every person who was banned played the game more than most of us and experimented with, and experienced more content.
Changes to the blog
Given SE’s attitude towards their customers, I no longer think that the company deserves loyalty. As such, instead of this being a FFXI blog like I had originally started, I’m changing it to be a MMO-centric blog. Instead of just “adventures through Vana’diel”, it is now “Musings about virtual universes and my adventures through MMOs”. Yes, this means I will be looking a lot more seriously at new MMOs as they come out and will be experimenting with them to see what’s interesting. For those in AP, you probably know that I was convinced by Aquelia to try out WoW a few months ago. I tried it for a while, and found that it was not for me at that time, but that does not mean that there will not be another game I jump to.
Before FFXI, I played Asheron’s Call, Anarchy Online, and beta tested Eve Online, Tabula Rasa and even World of Warcraft. Looking forward, we have quite a few MMOs coming down the line, some of which I have friends already asking me to check out and join in. High on my list are:
- Star Wars: The Old Republic – A BioWare MMORPG set in a sci-fi universe that just HAPPENS to be one of the most famous stories on the planet? I’ve been totally looking forward to this! Plus I know a certain FFXI player who is totally looking to start this as soon as it is released… she still plays Star Wars: Galaxies!
- Aion: The Tower of Eternity – An incredibly pretty Korean MMO that is rated as one of the most anticipated of 2009. I love the graphics and the concept. I’m just worried that it is a grind fest like a certain Japanese MMO that we’ve all played
- Stargate: Worlds – Ok, so I have a weakness for sci-fi settings more than fantasy. I never watched that many Stargate shows, but I’m familiar with the basic concept and this MMO does look interesting to me. Applied already for the beta, waiting to see if I get in.
I’ve also been keeping a close eye on other MMOs as they have been released to see if they can hold my attention. Age of Conan was one that I was closely monitoring until I realized that they really didn’t have any content outside of the starting areas. Warhammer Online is another, but I’m still not convinced that it’s more than a “WoW Clone”. That, and I don’t like the cartoony graphics :)
Meanwhile, I’m fairly certain that one of the above 3 new MMOs will be able to catch my attention. When that time comes, I look forward seeing those who have left us, as well as people I can drag along with me in another new life! Yes, I will be actively pulling people along with me now when I explore other universes instead of just going to check them out by myself. My loyalty to SE & FFXI has been demolished by this incident.
On a personal note…
For those who have been checking my blog on a regular basis, you may have noticed that I had locked the blog on Monday and did not unlock it until yesterday. I had been feeling down about FFXI for quite some time now and the shutting down of my blog was an expression of the feeling. If you look through my archives, you might see that since the last major FFXI update, my entries have all been about failures and frustrations with the game. Nyzul, Limbus, ZNMs and MMMs have been nothing but frustrating to me due to failures, lack of people, or simply horrible luck and bad drop rates. I ended up unlocking the blog yesterday to express my feelings, and I think with this update, this blog will be less FFXI-centric and more general.
Karou said that my little vacation out to Texas might cheer me up a little, but I don’t think it helped much. Now, I’m a little nostalgic for old days with my old friends when we used to hit anime conventions, cosplay and playing lots of games together back in the day. One of my friends was considering returning to FFXI, and I mentioned the Return to Vana’diel campaign, but I didn’t really push the issue. Part of me wanted to show my friend the new content that had been added… ToAU, WotG and actually going through CoP with her, but another part of me did not want to subject her to the frustrations of the game since she never actually did any “endgame” content before.
Going forward, I’ll still trudge along in FFXI. I still do want to experiment more with Dancer, finish the relic set and push the limits of the Dancer job. However, my enthusiasm for the game has definitely waned. Scholar is probably my last 75 job as I can’t see myself spending more effort in a game that I’m hesitant to trust will not ban me for no fault of my own. You’ll probably also see me less on my Scholar or Blue Mage job since I have the most fun on Dancer. Plus… I don’t want to give certain tarutaru the chance for more… perverted shots >.>
Meanwhile… for those of you no longer with us, see y’all in another life!
2 comments:
SE seems to be purposely driving their customers away. It's almost as if they're tired of doing MMO games and are purposely driving people away.
I've lost all interest in playing FFXI myself. I've logged in a few times but as soon as I'm ready to, say, level rng, I lose interest knowing that many of my long-time friends have been banned and several others may be considering quitting for the simple fact that their friends are gone now. SE just put a proverbial stake into the heart of their own game. All that's left is for the victim to slowly, and painfully, bleed to death.
While World of Warcraft might not be as fun as far as gameplay; at least Blizzard takes care of it's customers. Anytime they screw-up, they give their customer's and extra day or days of free gametime to make up for the frustration their customers may have experienced.
This is part of the reason FFXI has lost so many of it's customers (even before this banning) to Blizzard's MMO. SE's billing did not allow for any flexibility in billing times; and therefore restricted SE's ability to grant free gametime to it's customers. But that is no longer an excuse; we now know... SE doesn't give a fuck about anyone but themselves. As of today I have 2 accounts. One of which will almost surely be deactivated before the next billing term... the other will be deactivated when I've found another game where most of my online friends enjoy to play and hang-out together.
Many have already stated it before, but banning is the harshest thing you can do in any game. You're basically killing someone's alter ego by banning them from a game they've played for years. Most people that play MMOs play them because it allows them to interact with other people without worrying about how they look or how their voice sounds or how they walk or anything you might get picked on for in real life. Because of this, many people develop another self. It's like a person with a split personality where both personalities receive the feelings and emotions from the other, essentially boosting or lowering the other personalities feelings. You kill off one of those personalities and you kill part of someone's real life personality with it. As strange as that may sound, it's true for more people than we may think. I've found myself going around wondering who's going to betray me next.
Anyway, I'm growing tired of thinking about SE's idiocy, so instead of playing my Ranger like I would be right now, I'm going to go deactivate my second account (since it remains active until the next billing cycle) and either play some Spore or watch some old anime I haven't seen for a while.
Oh, another thing about Blizzard... They encourage 3rd-party software as long as it doesn't alter game code to give the player an unfair and unintended advantage. SE bans people for using things that help them with simple things such as windower that allows you to use other aspects of your computer while playing. Or the plugins that come with windower to assist players in keeping track or the many things there are to watch in the game without having to ask people that may not respond or be able to speak the same language. Sorry SE, but you guys are idiots when it comes to public relations.
Post a Comment