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http://gisolsucks.com/

http://www.webhostingreviews.com/gisol.shtml

http://www.comeacross.info/2006/06/04/caveat-empto r-global-internet-solutions-gisol/

http://www.labbb.org/BBBWeb/Forms/Business/Company ReportPage_Expository.aspx?CompanyID=13133176

Direct link to Blizzard BBB listing:

(click: [file complaint] down right corner)

Now, you wouldn't happen to be an affiliate with Dreamhost, would you?

Dreamhost gets an F from the BBB which is the worst possible score a business can get...
(BBB Rating scale)

Now, you wouldn't happen to be an affiliate with Dreamhost, would you?

Dreamhost gets an F from the BBB which is the worst possible score a business can get...
(BBB Rating scale)

For what it's worth, Blizzard has an F from the BBB as well. According to that page, that rating was acquired largely due to complaints by people who had their accounts banned but denied any wrongdoing. I suspect that all MMORPGs garner a lot of complaints of this sort.

Or, maybe, World of Warcraft is thousands upon thousands of times better than Final Fantasy XI. It would be hard to be worse than FFXI, though.

Let's start with Square-Penix:

* Kills your account after three months if you stop playing, requiring you to buy a new copy.

* FFXI costs more than World of Warcraft. What's that you say? FFXI is $12.95/month, WoW is $14.99/month? Well, FFXI dings you a $1 per character past the first. I have 8 chars in WoW right now (playing with various classes), that would cost me $19.95/month in FFXI. Almost everyone has a "mule" in FFXI, so that means that most people pay $13.95/month for FFXI. I'm paying on the six month plan for WoW, so I actually pay LESS monthly than your average FFXI player.

* "F" rating from the BBB due to outsanding complaints against them.

* Poor communication. Remember when the servers went out for a week to the Eastern US? Too bad Square-Penix never bothered telling anyone what they were doing about it. Afterwards they blamed it on some telco. Apparently the real reason was that they were using port 21 (the email port) as a data port, which was blocked from listening to prevent spam.

* Evidently as of this February this year, they FINALLY banned some small percentage of users for violating the terms of service. On a related note, FFXI is nearly 3 years old.

Now the game itself:

* Bad graphics. But don't take my word for it, try the benchmark! My computer scores as "Very Tough" which means it should run the game with no problem. It was running at 12FPS (I actually clocked it with FRAPS, since it doesn't bother listing the FPS) when I got that score. Apparently that's "running excellently".

* Bad music. Most players will agree.

* Bad graphics variety. Apparently no one at Square-Penix has discovered the magic of skinning and scaling. Which isn't even true, they do skin/scale certain monsters, which makes the fact that every crab you'll ever meet looks identical, from the level 1 crab in the newb zones to the level 70 crabs you level off of at level 65, unforgivable. They could have fixed this. They didn't.

* Bad monster variety. Partially covered above, but every monster has the same abilities, too. The level 1 crab is identical to the level 70 crab, just with fewer HP.

* Forced grouping. Bigger rewards by grouping is OK. Forcing people to group isn't. This means most of the game is spent sitting around, looking for a group. It's basically impossible to do anything and search for a group at the same time.

* Bad quests. Quests are poorly described, and rewards are either totally worthless or totally essential.

* Dumb guild system. Belonging to a guild ("linkshell") takes up an inventory slot, and you can switch between them at will. This means most guild members randomly jump between multiple guilds, so there's no loyalty. Plus they have an annoying tendency to break up since the guild leader can't pass ownership.

* Dumb crafting system. Crafting requires ingredients, which can be lost on a fail, and a "crystal catalyst", which is ALWAYS lost. A very good system if you want to force people to waste time, though. Ultimately you'll always run out of the ability to attempt crafting because you'll run out of the catalyst, regardless of success/fail.

* Dumb death penalty. If you die, you lose XP. If you get resurrected, you get some of it back, AND you get res sickness. Wha? Choose one, please. Or you can homepoint, which wastes time and XP. One penalty at a time.

* Crappy combat system. Without extremely rare items past level 30, your character will never be able to hit mobs you XP on with groups. Hope you like camping.

There's more, but suffice it to say FFXI is definitively worse than EQ2 and WoW and probably any other MMORPG on the list.

Keep it up as long as possible. Once you finish FFVII, it's all downhill from there.

Seriously, FFVII was the last good Square game I played. All of the stuff since then has ranged from average to awful. They even managed to goof up the rereleases of FFI and FFII on the GBA.

I no longer care about FFXII. I might play it if it gets spectacular reviews, but after being burned badly on their stupid MMORPG, I don't think I'm ever going to play another Square game again.

I think the crap they forced players through with their MMORPG is what earned them their F rating with the BBB, although the report really doesn't elaborate. Suffice to say they deserve it. (Duh, you can't connect due to your graphics card. Um, no.)

From what I understand, the majority of those BBB complaints are from disgruntled players who had their Diablo II, Warcraft III, and StarCraft II keys blocked from online play due to user violations.

The report suggests that you're half right. From the BBB report:

Recent complainants allege the company closed accounts on 130,000 users without providing notice, and accused them of using "hack" techniques to cheat on gaming. Most of these complainants deny any illegal usage, and in some cases, they challange[sic] the company to provide them some proof of the alleged violation.

So, it appears that many of the complaints are from players blocked due to accusations of cheating, but the accusations are disputed. The complainants apparently received no evidence they were cheating:

The company addressed a few complaints regarding account terminations by issuing the same letter in each instance of complaint, accusing the complainant of cheating, lying or using hack programs.

Of course, just because it's in a BBB report doesn't make it true. But I wouldn't assume that the banned players were all justifiably banned and even if so, surely the player should be given some evidence justifying the termination of his account, don't you think?

(To be fair to Vivendi: they might be concerned that if they showed their evidence, newer hacks wouldn't produce the evidence.)

Did you notice that their primary contact's name is Kevin Crook? That should tell you something.

you can take a look at the bbb report for vivendi

summary: rating = F

A rating of F means that we strongly question the company's reliability for reasons such as that they have failed to respond to complaints, their advertising is grossly misleading, they are not in compliance with the law's licensing or registration requirements, their complaints contain especially serious allegations, or the company's industry is known to us for its fraudulent business practices.

I think this is the same place:

Michael's Computers

Judge for yourself....

I was going to tell you to file for mediation with the Better Business Bureau, but they already have a poor record with the BBB so it might not do any good.

We rate this company as having an unsatisfactory business performance record, based on a pattern of complaints that cause us concern.

Complainants allege they experience delays in receiving ordered products, or that items are delivered damaged or defective. Some customers complain they experience delays or fail to receive rebates offered as buyer incentives.

The company responds in some delivery complaints by providing refunds, issuing credits or shipping orders. Some rebate complaints are addressed by advising rebate checks would be issued, or that the customer failed to comply with conditions of the offer. A few complaints are closed as disputed, meaning the customer was not satisfied with the company's response. Many other complaints are unanswered.

The Better Business Bureau does not endorse, recommend or disapprove of any product, service or company.

You can report them to the FTC but that won't help your specific case.