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Prohibited Activities in Final Fantasy XIV

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Sekkerhund
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Posted On: 10/08/2013 at 03:05 AM
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I got this in reply to a Support query I'd made regarding what the ACQ.dat file (character configuration file) does or if we should back it up, etc.  Apparently, I'm not supposed to know...??  >_>  So I figured I'd re-post it here, just for FYI and reference reasons:

(turns out there is a URL for it too: http://support.na.square-enix.com/faqarticle.php?kid=68216&id=5382&la=1 )


Prohibited Activities
Disruptive behavior that negatively affects the experience of others or the service itself is strictly forbidden within FINAL FANTASY XIV.  Such activities violate the FINAL FANTASY XIV User Agreement as well as the SQUARE ENIX Account Terms of Use.  Players found to be committing prohibited activities within FINAL FANTASY XIV will be penalized by SQUARE ENIX in its sole discretion.  The different types of account penalties that can be issued against a service account are further explained in the “Account Penalties” section.

The list of policies below is meant to give the player an understanding of the types of activities that are prohibited within FINAL FANTASY XIV. This list has been provided to our players as a general guideline for the various prohibited activities and is not intended to be an all-inclusive outline of every prohibited activity within FINAL FANTASY XIV. When in doubt, we urge that our players err on the side of caution before engaging.

Harassment

Our Definition of Harassment 
The use of inappropriate and offensive language in general, or against another player is considered harassment in FINAL FANTASY XIV and is strictly prohibited. Using offensive language for character and retainer name, or spreading the inappropriate words in the character’s first and last names is also considered harassment. All claims of harassment are evaluated on a case by case basis and the action taken can be varied based upon the situation at that time. If harassment is found, the account penalty will be issued to all players who involve in the harassment.

 

•The use of language that is generally considered unacceptable in a public venue 
•Any language that is purposely meant to harm or harass a third party
•Any language that promotes the discrimination of any race, nationality, religion, sexual orientation or gender

There may be inappropriate conduct that does not fit into any of the above categories that may be considered harassment and as such would constitute an actionable offense.

In accordance with our privacy and confidentiality policies, the GM will not inform the victim of any disciplinary action that was issued.


Inappropriate Behavior

Our Definition of Inappropriate Behavior
Disturbances that do not fall under the harassment category but are intended to prevent or hinder game play for others are considered inappropriate. Examples of inappropriate behavior are spam, gridlocking, and scam. FINAL FANTASY XIV respect individual player’s unique play style. However, GM may take action to players whose play style prevents other player’s game play.  

 

Spam
Spamming (or spimming) is the act of using open chat channels to excessively repeat the same phrase or action.  Spamming prevents other players from chatting or otherwise reading their chat logs effectively.

Gridlocking
Gridlocking refers to a player or group of players that gather in a passage in an attempt to prevent others from entering. 

Scam
In-game scams are defined as any inappropriate actions meant to defraud a fellow player with the intent to take in-game items or other possessions from them. 


Activities that destroy game balance

Activities that destroy game balance
Using third party programs or tools in FINAL FANTASY XIV is strictly prohibited since they allow users to gain an unfair advantage over other players. The use of programs or tools within FINAL FANTASY XIV that allow certain continuous actions to be performed automatically are often referred to as absentee play, which is also prohibited in FINAL FANTASY XIV. Additionally, during the course of an absentee play investigation, players may be requested to respond to or comply with a GMs instruction. Failure to  do so is consider a violation and may result in  disciplinary action being taken against the account. 

The following activities are also prohibited in FINAL FANTASY XIV. 
•Modifying, analyzing, integrating and reverse engineering game data
•Utility creation and distribution
•Exploiting SQUARE ENIX programming that does not run as intended to gain profit or damage other players


Real Money Trade (RMT)

Our Definition of RMT
RMT is defined as the selling and buying of virtual assets for real-world money. Virtual assets can include, but is not limited to:
•Accounts
•Characters
•In-game Currency (Gil) 
•In-game Service
•In-game item



Items and GIL obtained illegally through 3rd party tools or RMT activities can affect the game’s economic stability, and can disrupt the game play balance.  Some 3rd party programs contain viruses and spyware, which can be harmful to other players unbeknownst to the 3rd party program user.  This can lead to a leak of a user’s personal data, character deletion, or other unfortunate circumstances.  We have a zero tolerance policy for RMT.


Sharing Account Information

Our Definition of Sharing Account Information
The sharing or lending of account or login information (such as your Square Enix ID and password) to another player is strictly prohibited by the FINAL FANTASY XIV User Agreement.  Sharing or lending your account may cause you to unexpectedly lose access to your account to a third party. 


Impersonation

Our Definition of Impersonation
Impersonation is defined as, creating and using a character with a name similar or identical to SQUARE ENIX employees, or fraudulently claiming to be a SQUARE ENIX employee. 

Accounts that are found to be compromised may have their access restricted until such a time as the registered owner can be identified.

 

 

Last Edited on: 10/14/2013 at 03:01 AM
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Response:

Laoch de na Iolair Buí
Sekkerhund
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Replied On: 10/14/2013 at 03:00 AM PDT
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I want to direct folk's attention to the bold and red text that I've highlighted above.  

As most modern games do allow the use of 3rd party programs to automate gameplay, some of our guildmates may not be aware that use of those same programs is prohibited in FFXIV.  The SE GMs will take action against any accounts that are reported and found to be performing automated tasks, especially if while the player is AFK.

This also includes AFK avoidance, for which there is no need of anymore.

I'd hate to see guildies lose their accounts due to something so trivial and unnecessary, so just don't use them in FFXIV and spread the word to others who may not see this post or know about the restrictions.



» Edited on: 2013-10-14 03:01:59

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Jayvenpup
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Replied On: 10/14/2013 at 04:38 PM PDT
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/signed and understood

I've always wished for a special keyboard or something that would let me organise or manage my macros better but I know with how my head works, I'd get into the habit of "Well, if I have to do some chores now, I could just set this up and check now and then..". I haven't done it and I'm glad I won't be.

Marrra, Sin, Praehard and I lost a friend in our WoW guild who we raided with because of how he fished in that game (used macros on a G25 I believe, don't remember how often he did it). No temporary ban, a full on banhammer'ing out of the ballpark and never to return. Do not pass go, do not collect $200.

The main dilemna I have is I think on doing it once or twice but what if the company sees you those two times? That may well be grounds for being KO'd out of FF and to me, I have terrible luck!



» Edited on: 2013-10-14 16:48:11

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Sekkerhund
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Replied On: 11/01/2013 at 05:13 AM PDT
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Here is an example of a report that I just filed against a bot team that's farming duty instances, and I suspect they're using a popular bot program called ISBoxer (which is allowed in several other games, including RIFT, but it is an illegal program in FFXIV:ARR):

?World Name

Excalibur

?Zone

New Gridania, location 11,13 in the Roost Inn

?Date when the violation was observed

11/1/2013 at 5:00am PDT

?Character Name

Fff Ggg

Hhh Iii

Ggg Bbb

Ppp Ttt

?Detail

I noticed this team of level 30 archers, 4 of them, all dressed exactly the same with very peculiar names. They move in unison, so I believe the owner might be using a "bot control" program such as InnerSpace (ISBoxer) to level them. I observed these characters all queue for a duty finder instance at once (the little blue cube icon appeared on their name plates at the same time), then they all disappeared a second later (I assume they all entered the duty finder instance as soon as they queued for the Duty Finder). This was in New Gridania, at the Inn near Erkenbaud, the Independent Arms Mender.

I do not know which duty finder instance they are in, as the Search function does not work for characters who are in Duty Finder instances. However, since they are all level 30, one can assume its at least a level 30 instance. I've also noticed that they seem to be having some problems, as a character will re-appear, then disappear again and they all just exited, then immediately re-queued and entered another duty finder instance. (as I am writing this, I can see them appear again, queue then disappear several times, I have no idea why...) This is one of those bot teams that need to be looked into and aggressively.

I can guarantee that its not an "innocent player", I've been bot hunting for the last decade, as well as have used those programs in other games, so I know what I'm seeing when I see it. Feel welcome to contact me if there are any questions.

 

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Briseadh
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Replied On: 11/03/2013 at 05:23 PM PST
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Seen these guys too but they were never moving. Doing NOTHING for over an a hour I crafted near them so I did not report them at the time.  Most I figured they might doing is part of a gil spammer deal or something though I did not wind up with whispers from them and they weren't in shout.  Never saw them disappear for being idle which in the end was the odd thing since you get kicked after 15 minutes now for being idle.  So not sure what was going on.

Now undfortunately they can't be going as a group into a duty because they are all archers and you can only have 2 dps in any of the four man things a L30 archer can go into.  So not sure how the guy was dealing with that issue when getting the archers in a duty.  

I also know one of the three wasn't there at one point yesterday when I came back later.  I haven't been on today yet to see what's going on.  Actually spent all afternoon until recently acquainting myself with a half done novel and doing some writing.

 

Don't mess with Mama Bear, I might hug you too tight. =D
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Sekkerhund
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Replied On: 11/05/2013 at 01:30 AM PST
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I thought that you were not restricted to "roles" with a pre-made group, is healer/tank/DPS still required if its a pre-made?  Been my understanding, but I've never tested it out.

When I saw them, they were queueing and entering, but having some problems, so if roles are restricted even with pre-mades, that might be why I noticed them having problems.  Regardless, I know what ISBoxer looks like when in operation and they're using it.  What they're up to, I don't know.  If he can't figure out how to get his archer team into dungeons, he'll probably just go back to boxing a FATE grinding team, as I suspect that's how those archers got leveled to begin with.

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Lakshmi
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Replied On: 11/05/2013 at 06:47 AM PST
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Premades can take any makeup in a dungeon -- although it's limited to battle classes (DoM/DoW).  Minimum level restrictions also still apply.

My thoughts about why someone would bot a team of archers:

  • It's a player who likes to box
  • It's an RMT service leveling accounts to sell
  • It's an RMT service, leveling spam bots to get around some anti-RMT spamming or gold holding/trading tripwire.


» Edited on: 2013-11-05 06:49:21

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Aalwein
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Replied On: 11/06/2013 at 08:46 AM PST
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Running all the same class aside, you don't have to use ISBoxer or any program other than the FFXIV client to run multiple characters at the same time. Just use a gamepad. The gamepad operates the characters in game without the game even being in focus. Thus if I was playing four characters on my computer, they would all move, jump, and cast simultaneously, without any help from scripts, programs, or anything else. I imagine this is why SE is being very careful about who they swing the ban bat at - there's a good number of legitimate people out there running multiple characters at once with this gamepad technique.

Granted, four archers is kind of dumb. I could see a tank and three archers though - or better yet, a tank and three black mages! That would be a FATE runner powerhouse.

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Sekkerhund
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Replied On: 11/07/2013 at 04:40 AM PST
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Interesting, thanks Aalwein, I was not aware of that being possible.  

That actually gives a bit of complexity to the issue.  This is similar to a problem that SOE (aka Sony Online) ran into when they tried to prevent 'multi-boxing using 3rd party macro programs' in a couple of their games, a few years back.  (SOE had always had a policy of "absolutely no automation via any means", since Everquest was released and had banned many accounts for using things like coins in keyboards, etc.)  

Technology advanced over the years and SOE found themselves running into the issue of "hardware macro methods" and eventually decided that they would not ban any 3rd party macro users, unless the program directly interacted with the game client or data stream, or their activities interfered with another player's game-play.  

I'm paraphrasing of course, but that's more or less their stance on the issue.  I'd had a long discussion with a SOE Senior GM about the "now-permitted use" of ISBoxer and was shocked to learn about SOE's reversal on their 3rd party program policy.

I imagine that Squeenix will run into the same issue.  How can they legally ban accounts for using macro programs like AutoIt or ISBoxer, when players can go buy hardware that allows them to accomplish the same thing.  Just because something is written into a TOS or EULA, doesn't mean that legal precedence is ignored in a court of law.  >_>



» Edited on: 2013-11-07 04:44:16

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Aalwein
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Replied On: 11/07/2013 at 08:05 AM PST
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An interesting point to using a gamepad: it doesn't necessarily work for gathering - it most likely won't work at all. This is because the positioning of gathering nodes varies, if you've noticed. In a gathering cluster, there will always be four nodes up (prior to starting your harvesting). These nodes spawn in relatively random places out of a selection of maybe 8-10 different spawn points. This means that the nodes are quite often in different places within that gathering cluster for different people. So you can't use a gamepad to run around, select, and harvest for multiple characters. Just wanted to point this out for people who were thinking of multi-box harvesting. It just doesn't work so well.

Of note with all this multi-box stuff, SE will not swing the ban bat blindly. If you are using any sort of automation scripts (IXBoxer, AutoHotkey, Logitech hardware, etc.) that in and of itself will not get you banned. GMs will attempt to contact you and if you respond, they will move right along. Remember, it's the unattended automation, or "absentee play" as SE describes it, that will get you busted.



» Edited on: 2013-11-07 08:06:33

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Sekkerhund
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Replied On: 11/08/2013 at 03:16 PM PST
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Aalwein, do you have an "official" post/notice that narrows it down to what you said above?  What I'm posting is based on what I have highlighted in red in the original post.  That's exactly what a GM responded to me with, as well as what they post on their Support website.

If they are deciding otherwise and have officially stated specifics for which they will ban, other than what I posted above, I would like a link.  If not, then do not assume that they are not banning for using automation scripts if "attended", as that contradicts their official policy on use of 3rd party programs.

Re-read what I have highlighted in red in the OP.  The first sentence is the most important part and you'll catch their wordplay in the second line that describes how they define "absentee play".

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Aalwein
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Replied On: 11/08/2013 at 05:35 PM PST
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I used the word absentee directly from your post, which the GM posted almost word for word from the TOS. If you don't respond, they know you are using automated scripting which makes it pretty obvious. I simply stated that using the tools is not necessarily going to get you. If you DO use automated scripting but are sitting at your computer to respond, there's no way for them to know you are using a script or hardware macro, pressing the buttons, or even using a drinking bird.

Anyway, take it as you will, I'm just stating my experience over the last 20 years of MMOGs as a player and GM.

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