Friday, September 11, 2009

8th GM call this week

Strange week... Previous to this, I had only 1 GM call for... I think I was stuck somewhere xD

This week I've started receiving the infamous /tells from random /anon characters saying that I've been accused of a) hacking a character, b) illegal GOLD selling, c) illegal gil selling. I guess there are still stupid people out there who fall for this sort of thing.

Normally I don't bother with the GM function. I haven't bothered with the selling gil, or buying gil tells out there... They're kinda fun to watch the market fluctuate, but impersonating GMs went a little too far so I've been reporting every single one of them. I'm kinda amused that there's a stock message that they send to you if it's a character that they've already investigated.

Then last night I started getting harassing /tells and emotes from a level 1 galka in Bastok Mines. Lots of tells asking for gil while I was selling stuff on the AH. Then he started overlapping my character with his, and followed me around doing /wave emotes at me -.-. I didn't reply at all, and put in a GM call for harassment just before I OP'ed out to Qufim for more exp.

Sad part is that I'm not sure if this galka was a RMT or not. He didn't have a keyboard-smash name, but he definitely wasn't a new player if he knew how to overlap characters, send tells and use emotes. Are old players using these stupid harassment tactics now? Who actually gives gil to newbies they don't know? ~.~ This time I actually got a response from a GM about 5 minutes after I put in the call, so I guess this galka wasn't spamming the whole server. I /blisted the Galka, and the GM said that he would investigate. I also asked the GM about other obviously RMT tells.

So... turns out that the GMs seem to be handling RMT /tells manually? The GM told me to report any RMT /tell I received with the GM function ASAP so that they can put a stop to the character. So... given how easy it is to do a report, and the automated message that they give you doesn't take too much time to read, I'll probably be reporting lots more RMT as they send /tells. It's ALMOST as easy as WoW's "report spam" function. There are a few more clicks, and you actually have to type, compared to WoW's simple "right-click->report spam".

Dragoon 24
So... leveling a little faster then I thought I would... went 1-12 on Wed night thanks to a short limbus, 12-14 Thurs morning during a boring phone conference, and 14-24 Thurs night in a maze->Qufim PL'ed session. Mostly in my Christmas outfit xD I was really gimp and only had a level-appropriate spear and my leaping boots. Well, I'm properly equipped for a level 24 DRG now, so maybe I'll outdamage my Wyvern now ^^;

What I've learnt from DRG so far:
- Wyverns are really weak All it takes is a couple of AoEs, or worse, a few /pokes from the mob to kill Lumiere ; ; I don't know how DRGs survived before they made Call Wyvern a 20 minute job ability
- The "Status Parameters have increased" is actually a "level up" for Lumiere as she always gets her HP reset to 100% whenever this happens. I guess that does help keep her alive a little longer
- DDing is boring~ And simple... at least at this level... Jump, Double Thrust... Jump... maybe a Provoke here or there. Then again, I also found PLD boring at this level... and SAM... THF was slightly less boring since I went out to pull. Hopefully things will pick up somewhat in a few more levels
- Spirit Surge is a really good "oh crap" 2-hour. I really didn't know much about what Spirit Surge did... except that the DRG eats their Wyvern and they're supposed to do damage more xD Well, since leveling DRG, I've used it 3 times so far to get out of sticky situations. The HP restoration, additional TP and resetting of Jump was more than enough to keep me alive and deal out enough damage to kill what should have been killing me!

Still need to try out some DRG/mage, probably DRG/BLU soloing to see what that is like. I've been DRG/WAR so far and it's... well, just a straight DD job really. I hope the later job abilities will make things a little more interesting.

SE RMT Activity
This is kinda amusing... SE's latest RMT activity is... a "Silver Dog Tag". For... $106.99 -.- Choose whichever nation you are most loyal to for the design, and they'll also engrave your character name and server on the back.

I guess it will be useful for when FFXI players take on WoW players in some LARPing? However, being outnumbered 22:1 does not make for good odds, so chances are you'll need these dog tags to identify all the dead FFXI bodies!

Mmm... well, for over $100, most people are complaining that it's overpriced. However, this is actually about right for Japanese trinkets ~.~ SE sells their "nation rings" for $116.99 per ring, and apparently they are popular enough that they've actually sold out of them in the past. If you go down to Akihabara in Tokyo, you can see tons of expensive anime/game trinkets for sale at around that price point. When I was there, I spent waaaaaaay too much on my Marimite Rosary just cos it was identical to the one in the anime ^^;

I'm not too surprised that this customized dog tag costs that much. In fact, if I were to market it, I would have sold it later, maybe just before FFXIV came out and marketed it as a "buy a keepsake of your former character before you quit" xD Assuming even a 10% attach rate, 50,000 people spending $100 = $5M. Even a low 40% profit that's a nice addition to FFXI's contribution margin.

Soo... I don't see any issues with this new "collectors item" piece... might get one myself if I feel like it when they release it... What would cause me to have an issue with it is if they tie an in-game item to it again like the Tidal Talisman.

Now THAT would be blatant RMT ~.~

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