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Square-Enix Bans Over 800 FFXI Accounts
wpoitras writes "It appears that Square-Enix is striking back at Gil Sellers in Final Fantasy Online. After what appeared to be an unscheduled server outtage, many players were kicked from the game. It doesn't actually mention gil sellers, but its pretty well accepted that monopolizing NM spawns is mostly done by gil sellers."
In the game, there are unique monsters that drop rare and expensive items, called Notrious Monsters (NM's). In FFXI, only the party that initiated the attack against the monster can engage it in combat, so there will literally be 50 people surrounding the area where it appears, and as soon as it does it becomes a race to see who can claim it first.
The problem then becomes that the drop goes from being kind of rare to EXTREMELY RARE, and the price goes through the roof.
Honestly though, unless the items are being used to sell Gil (in game money) I can't say I frown on it. If people are that organized and they want to affect the economy to make a better position for themselves in the game, I say go for it. As a player, I know that there are plenty of ways to sidestep the problem, and it only becomes important to people who are transfixed by the items that they cant get.
It's a big game. Do something else!
Attention deficit disorder is a complicated issue, spanning several major... HEY LET'S GO RIDE BIKES!
gil = Money in the game
NM = rare monsters that appear every so often (anywhere from 1 to 24 real life hours, a couple may take even a few real life days to appear) that drops rare items worth a lot of gil
Why don't they remove the static spawning from the game, or make it random, or make these monsters tougher, or stop handing out rewards for camping?
When it comes to NM(Notorious Monster) spawns in FFXI, there are two type of spawns. Timed spawns and lottery pops.
With timed spawns, once the NM is defeated, it cannot appear again until a set amount of time (Such as real life 1 hour for most of them).
The other type of spawn, lottery pops, are tied into the spawning rate of regular monsters. For every monster of a specific type that spawns in the zone, there is a very slim chance that it will be a NM.
Here's an example. In one of the areas of the game, there are a bunch of windmills with giant sheep roaming around them. This area is also home to a NM called "Stray Mary", which happens to be a lottery pop. Now if I wanted to hunt down Mary (which is an actual quest in the game, btw), I would have to go there and hunt down every sheep I can find until one of the respawned sheep spawns as Stray Mary.
As for drops, it's also kind of random as well. With Stray Mary above, she normaly drops some high quality milk that sells pretty good. If you're really lucky, she'll also drop a highly desired bard horn as well (which is the kind of item the Gil farmers/sellers are looking to monopolize as well).
Why don't they just play City of Heroes?
Ignore all the pettiness and boring parts of all those fantasy RPGs and just have fun. No uber items to collect, no spawns worth camping... Anyone can have a good character and all they have to do is play normally and advance their character.
"Gil" is the currency of Vana'diel, the world of Final Fantasy XI. A gil-seller is a person who sells gil for dollars.
The problem is that they monopolize some monsters and zones that give good items. They sell the items to obtain gil to obtain dollars. So the "normal" players like me, are forced to buy the items at the ingame "ebay" instead of getting them the normal way... killing those monsters. It's possible to wait for the monster to appear and fight it before a gilseller, but unlikley.
Worst of all, some gilsellers bring highlevel monsters near the spawn spot of the monster with the good item... so, the new foe kills you and they are alone to get the item. That is the kind of player SQUARE-ENIX is banning.
Excuse my poor english (Spain here) and I hope this comment helped
Translastion:
It doesn't actually mention [people who horde game money and then sell it for real money, on ebay, etc], but it's pretty well accepted that [people who, in the game, monopolize a perticular spot (not allowing anyone else there) to kill monsters that drop a lot of gil (game money) are gil sellers (people who sell game money for real money)].
Does that make any more sense now?
gil = game money
gil sellers = people who sell game money for real money
NM spawns = monsters that drop a lot of gil
"What is Internet Explorer 7? Are you saying we can't access the normal internet?" - I love tech support. Really.
Close! It stands for Notorious Monster. These guys drop highly sought after items that can be sold for a lot of gil in the Auction House. Don't think any drop large sums of gil!
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