FFXI cheaters hit with ban stick

Cheaters beware! If you think taking advantage of others is the way to go, take this latest bit of news as a mild warning. More than 2,000 players within the Final Fantasy XI MMORPG universe have had their accounts either suspended or terminated recently because of the use of some "third-party software tools."

The FFXI group released this notice to potential bad boys and girls:

• We would like to take this time to remind our players that the use of any third-party tools will not only destroy the in-game balance, but will also encourage RMT (Real Money Trade) activities. We will continue to take strict actions against those individuals that we have confirmed to have used such tools.

We always have a real sense of satisfaction when cheaters get caught. Some of us have even gone so far as to not play PC games at all online because of rampant exploits being used -- we're looking at you CounterStrike. Listen folks, stop this already. You are ruining everyone's gaming experience and we hate you.