The ban is for people useing the flee tool and job change tool not the windower. SE seems to not really care about that.

i always wanted to play FF11, but i never did, i got WoW instead. I heard WoW is much better than FF11, but i dont like WoW that much, so iguess i'd hate FF11. thats depressing

WOW and FF11 are totally different MMO's panda. FF is more party based and takes a bit more time. WOW is more of a single player game with the option of communicating with others. Both are fun, it just falls to user preference. I however never experienced bad servers playing FF then WOW.

Users have posted on forums that Square is targeting any mod that interacts with or is detected by their servers, or something like that. Some Windower users have been banned, unfortunately. Too bad. If you have a PC, you should be able to play it in a window.

I got my Main account banned for being lazy when doing my THF AF quest, I don't see why SE has to make us run back and foruth through a damn zone over and over and over and over again. Thats what I did, and got a temp ban for it, I won't be using it again now since they can catch you on one time now. Guess I will have to just live with walking all over the place again. Also Screw the RMTs, and Cheaters, but if they would make there game easyer to get around it would help for the honest people from getting banned.

I just canceled my accout by a different reason, but I liked using Windower, it sucks having the window running in fullscreen when you're doing boring stuff... like mining >.

This sort of thing rarely happens with WoW. In fact Blizzard encourages users to use UI mods, they implemented a patch awhile ago that made every UI mod play nice. Anyway I don't see why they even care at this point. The game is many years old and most of it's users have moved on. Why ban that many people if your community is so small already?

The thing about it is that the community is the largest it has ever been. These bannings effected over 1/2 a million people.

as an ex-ffxi player of 3 years, i'm sorry to say that this is too little too late. however, i presume this is a welcoming gesture for the existing player base toward countering RMTs that have been plauged the game for the better of the past 3 years and grown more severely over the last 16months.

If they were targetting all Windower users, there'd have been a heck of a lot more than 3330 people banned. I think there's generally a truce between Square-Enix and Windower developer, as patches to the Windower have become far less frequent of late. I've heard that US Square-Enix people are generally in favor of FFXI being windowable, but that the Japanese developers resist it for some reason like "purity of experience", not as an anti-hacking measure as some have previously claimed. (Cheating is trivial for those who wish to do it, windowability or no.)

Yes, technically the terms of service prohibit the Windower, as they do any third-party software that modifies how FFXI works or scans its memory or network traffic, but this is not the main focus of Square-Enix's wrath, nor do they appear to have a program like Blizzard's "Warden" for automatically detecting loaded applications and DLLs on your computer. They seem to rely largely on customer complaints and server-side detection of suspicious movement.

Some feel any non-cheating enhancement to gameplay should be permitted, with each person having a different view of what constitutes cheating. Is it cheating to be able to instantly see certain battle stats of others in your party, that normally requires communication to determine? Is it cheating to have a map always up when people normally have to open it manually? Is it cheating to run a bot that would do exactly what you would do, as long as you're still near the computer? Is it cheating to modify your character to run faster as long as you don't use it in direct competition against other people? For each question, you'll get divided opinions.

When considering the slippery slope of what addons that enhance gameplay are acceptable, it's important to remember that a significant number of people are on the PS2 or Xbox 360. For them, there is no opportunity to do any of these things. (Or at least nobody has found a way.)

Unfortunately, the creator of the Windower has made use of the program less defensible by going beyond mere windowing, adding a plug-in architecture that permits other features which can give players a more tangible advantage over people not using them.

Personally, I feel that in fairness to console users, people should steer clear of anything but a vanilla windower. The windower gives PC users what console users have already: The ability to play FFXI without tying up their computer, permitting them to respond to IMs, read e-mail, or surf the web. In a game where people can often be stuck waiting for hours to get a party, forcing 100% dedication to the game just isn't practical.

As far as I'm concerned, WoW is unplayable without mods, especially during higher end content. While it is potentially lazy for Blizzard to not focus on interface tidbits that make the overall game playing experience better, it's a sigh of relief that they so willingly accept externally modified content.

Having played WoW on and off since it's debut, I strongly believe that if Blizzard banned all forms of modding to WoW, they could very possibly lose at least 25-40% of their customer base and even that figure may be too lenient.

I can say that FFXI's economy has been the best I've seen since around PS2 launch. Go Square Enix! I may fear using Windower, but atleast I can feel decent about the fact I don't have to buy money to be able to play.

Check the mmorpg charts. Where does FFXI rank in number of users?

1: WOW
2: Lineage
3: Lineage II
4: Runescape
5: FFXI

#2,3 and 4 are primarily played in asian cyber cafe's, so in North America FFXI is basically the number 2 MMORPG.

500,000 accounts. Small Community? Me thinks not.

http://www.mmogchart.com/Chart1.html

@ bouchert: Fantastic comment. This really is the core of the issue. I've been playing FFXI for 2 years now. Why SE never implemented a windowed mode on FFXI-PC is beyond me. Sure, it allows PC users to do other things while playing, like looking up mission guides, IMing, etc., but PS2 and 360 players do that while they play too! Just on a different machine. Having FFXI run windowed does not give any sort of unfair advantage, which has been the argument by SE to justify not allowing it. The plugin architecture for Archbell's windower is more of a grey area, but still I don't think seeing your party members' or pet's TP unbalances the game in any way.

I cancelled my account a while back now, but when I was playing it I never used any third party tools. What's the point? If you're bored, just use xfire or something in game...

And dont forget about ppl who want to sell from their bazaar. Lets say I wanna surf the web, get some music on or whatever while I have FFXI on the background with my bazaar. Thats sucks doesn't it.

FFXI has great concept, but I dont know if I can agree with that for SE. RMTs yes they should be banned along with third party tools that wont stick with ToS (dont forget u agreed when u first register and even everytime u logon, lets not fool our selves guys).

But yes, Windower is not in any kind malicious in both practical and theoritical software, altho it might collide with ToS ("Tools not authorized by SE will result to account penalties"). On the other hand I really dont think SE has the right to lock ur computer Just-Like-That. Windows is supposed to be a multi-task platform doesn't it?

It is time for SE to reconsider, maybe someone can open e-petition about this.

I completely agree about the Windower topic.

I've just recently transitioned from playing on a PS2 to playing on PC. I was part of the Beta team for the PS2 version. It was a great experience, but too bad I didn't have access to a worthy PC back then. Maybe I could've attempted to raise the argument. o,O;

While I was playing on PS2, I guess I got a little spoiled by the fact that I could go online and check quests and maps and the like. It's a convenience that playing on PC takes away.

I don't understand how such a simple concept can go unwarranted. Console users have abilities that we as PC users are being deprived of, simply because of people who "cheat", be it however small or large of one.

I would be completely happy with a totally generic Windower app, but getting banned for attempting to be equal to console players... >,