SE's COVID-19 Message (Mass LM-17 Coming Soon?)

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SE's COVID-19 Message (Mass LM-17 coming soon?)
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By billnes 2020-03-24 16:51:58
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When you log into the game there is a COVID-19 message. In part, it says there will be no GMs on the game worlds. No employees in the building at 999 N Pacific Coast Hwy, El Segundo, CA. I feel this implies several things:

1. The proprietary GM-Only client is only installed on machines inside the office building located at the above address.

2. The company doesn't want to issue installation media and activation instructions to its employees so they can be GM's from home. I admit that this actually seems like a bad idea. If an employee leaves the company after the COVID-19 goes away, you have a former employee with the company's proprietary, intellectual property installed on a machine that's the former employee's private property. This seems like it would create a real rat's nest of legal issues.

3. The company didn't or will not issue laptops with the GM-Only client preinstalled and preconfigured to it's employees so they can be GMs from home. Why not trust your own employees with cheap laptop that they'll return when the office reopens?? Is SE afraid that the employees have the technical chops to copy the GM-Only client from a company-issued laptop over to an unauthorized unit??

4. The company wouldn't give any of it's employees a micro-small desktop with the GM-Only client preinstalled and preconfigured? Something like an Optiplex 990 or a 9020... Something tiny that an employee can put on a desk easily and hook it up to their own monitor with a video cable and wall socket cable provided by SE.

In defense of SE, I see two possible arguments about why they would not provide anything to their employees so they can be GMs from home.

1. The machines inside the office that the GM's use are dual-monitor. One monitor is for the GM-Only client and the other is for Zonewatch. That's the GM's auditing tool that described in the 2006 leaked manual. Regardless if the machine given to the employee is a tiny desktop or a laptop, it would be too much of a pain-in-the-*** to create a unit that have both the game world and Zonewatch on a single monitor.

2. The actual computer hardware in the SE office and the GM-Only client software would be expecting a connection that is both fixed IP and on a corporate network. To the best of my understanding, the bulk of residential high speed internet uses Dynamic IP and the SE corporate network would not be there... Perhaps the "higher ups" within SE understand that a potential conflict between the Static IP and network inside the office building and the Dynamic IP inside a private residence is not something they want to deal with. I'm not in IT, so if somebody know more about accessing a corporate network from the outside, it would be greatly appreciated if they'd chime in.

If SE isn't going to give its employees the what they need to at least see the Zonewatch tool, the employees will be subjected to playing catch up when they're permitted back to El Segundo.

For the sake of argument, let's say the staff can get back into the office by Monday, May 4th. How long will it take them to review the weeks of data logs and decide who needs to be banhammered for misbehavior while nobody was monitoring the Zonewatch tool? Monday, June 1st sound like enough time. My prediction: The forums here, on Alakazam and BG to be flooded with "I got banned" posts sometime within the month of June. I'd put money on it...
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 Asura.Eiryl
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By Asura.Eiryl 2020-03-24 16:56:59
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Gms don't do a god damn thing anyway, had they not said there would be none, you'd never even notice.

Bans will still go out, it has nothing to do with American GMs
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By 2020-03-24 16:57:18
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 Sylph.Funkworkz
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By Sylph.Funkworkz 2020-03-24 17:07:53
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Why do you have such a hard on for all things regarding GMs?
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By Felgarr 2020-03-24 17:08:33
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It is truly rare to see mental illness hide in such plain sight.

See a therapist, Go to a support group, but whatever you do, please get help.
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By NynJa 2020-03-24 17:14:36
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https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/56634-Square-Enix-European-Support-Centre-%E2%80%93-COVID-19-Update-%28Mar.-23%29

Euro support are still in their offices

And theres no mention on the JP side of support being down.

They just closed up shop in their California office because California is getting ravaged by COVID and they had to comply with any lockdown mandated by their govt.
 Bahamut.Celebrindal
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By Bahamut.Celebrindal 2020-03-24 17:16:30
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Sylph.Funkworkz said: »
Why do you have such a hard on for all things regarding GMs?

was wondering the same thing. My money's in my bank, but part of the contract I have with my bank through account fees,etc is that they handle the security for the banking experience I expect. I pay SE sub fees to play a game and ensure integrity of the data (what I accomplish is remembered and accurately stored) along with a fair gaming experience (the GM presence, essentially). I really don't care HOW they do such things- if I ever feel that their end of the bargain isn't being met to the point where I no longer am getting what I pay for, I'll stop paying. Until then, they do their ***, I enjoy my gaming experience, and they get their money.

What's the big *** deal in knowing every little nuance of their GM manual, methods, and practices? Planning on building your own server and want it more accurate than existing private servers? Planning on storming the SE facility like some bad early 2000s action thriller? If this is just some thought experiment because you are fascinated with MMOs and the frameworks/skeleton, fine, I can understand intellectual inquiry, just say it. Because its starting to come across as beyond shady.
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By 2020-03-24 17:17:41
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By Aquatiq 2020-03-24 17:58:35
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Will someone shipping you a laptop with "gM FFxI cLIENT TOP SECRET" scribbled in sharpie on duct tape cure your autistic fixation with this bc I'm ready to drop the $150 for the greater good
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By billnes 2020-03-24 18:33:13
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Aquatiq said: »
Will someone shipping you a laptop with "gM FFxI cLIENT TOP SECRET" scribbled in sharpie on duct tape cure your autistic fixation with this bc I'm ready to drop the $150 for the greater good

Don't spend any money... If you have an extra laptop laying round that's at least i3, and 4Gb of RAM, I'll be glad to take it off your hands. I'd put an SSD, W10 Pro, LibreOffice and the FFXI Client on it. I'm not too proud to take functional, second hand equipment.

Conservative-minded, non-flamboyant, frugal computing that uses everything and wastes nothing. Green computing... It doesn't have to be any more complicated than that.
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By 2020-03-24 18:35:06
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By billnes 2020-03-24 19:25:36
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Caerda said: »
What?

Conservative-minded, non-flamboyant, frugal computing that uses everything and wastes nothing.

Don't throw away spare parts that you know are functional. Green computing. Be your own refurbisher...

If you have the space wherever you live, try to keep a little bit of inventory on hand. You'll never know if that one spare 4Gb DDR3 module you have hidden away in a drawer can be used to bring an entire laptop or desktop back to life.

I not too proud to admit that I keep a little bit neatly organized spare inventory... If there was ever some kind of emergency, I have two fully function laptops I can have in-hand in less than ten minutes. In storage, I currently have one extra Dell Latitude E5400. If it's ever needed, I can stop by my local MicroCenter, pick up a cheap 240Gb SSD and some RAM. The machine would be ready to run with Win10 Pro and LibreOffice by the end of the day. The less eWaste there is, the happier I am...

This is not hoarding. I don't work for this company, but I known the owner for over a decade. I have purchased several machines from him at very nice prices. He makes an extremely nice living doing this. These people are blessed my Microsoft. The exact title granted to them is "Microsoft Registered Refurbisher"...

This is from Google Maps. Copy and paste this:

https://www.google.com/maps/uv?hl=en&pb=!1s0x89c2811b93e1c17d%3A0xc888eade61106be3!3m1!7e115!4s%2Fmaps%2Fplace%2Fdan%2Bpc%2Bhicksville%2F%4040.7437779%2C-73.5026475%2C3a%2C75y%2C0.42h%2C90t%2Fdata%3D*213m4*211e1*213m2*211sGqoaQxKP21nmfkHsIDi_mw*212e0*214m2*213m1*211s0x89c2811b93e1c17d%3A0xc888eade61106be3%3Fsa%3DX!5sdan%20pc%20hicksville%20-%20Google%20Search!15sCAQ&imagekey=!1e10!2sAF1QipOTmx-oPI0-pq4Nvqg_uRXuGG65yhflDFTri36B&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwibodCHq7ToAhXDmnIEHXd3AxQQpx8wC3oECA4QCw&cshid=1585095253475346
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By 2020-03-24 19:26:37
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By hestermofet 2020-03-24 19:44:38
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"10 reasons why there will be a mass LM-17 ban wave coming soon (#7 will SHOCK you!)"
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By billnes 2020-03-24 19:46:22
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Felgarr said: »
It is truly rare to see mental illness hide in such plain sight.

See a therapist, Go to a support group, but whatever you do, please get help.

You use third party tools so people will talk about you with accolades that you truly have not earned.

You and your little circle of candy-*** use elite and high-tier player to describe yourself.. If Ashita and Windower got shut down tomorrow, the productivity of you and your little circle of candy-*** would drop by more than 3/4.

It really is just that simple. It doesn't have to be any more complicated than that.
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By hestermofet 2020-03-24 19:49:53
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billnes said: »
You and your little circle of candy-*** use elite and high-tier player to describe yourself.. If Ashita and Windower got shut down tomorrow, the productivity of you and your little circle of candy-*** would drop by more than 3/4.

It really is just that simple. It doesn't have to be any more complicated than that.

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 Lakshmi.Buukki
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By Lakshmi.Buukki 2020-03-24 19:54:47
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Jokes is jokes. I enjoy a good laugh every once in a while at Vize and Bill's expense, but it's just shiggles.

But what Bill stated just now is very accurate. That was a fairly precise roast there Bill. Well done, sir. Though, it had zero to do with this thread or any comment prior, so you lose points for not using that retort appropriately.
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By billnes 2020-03-24 20:10:51
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hestermofet said: »
billnes said: »
You and your little circle of candy-*** use elite and high-tier player to describe yourself.. If Ashita and Windower got shut down tomorrow, the productivity of you and your little circle of candy-*** would drop by more than 3/4.

It really is just that simple. It doesn't have to be any more complicated than that.


No. Not at all. Life's too short to be mad over a video game. That's way too much hate. That much hate will drive a person to the grave way too soon. I'd rather turn the video game off than get mad over it. Everybody that plays FFXI knows that the game is a grind. When you start getting mad, it's time to log out and chill instead of turning to Ashita and Windower.

What does piss me off is the waste of good materials. Don't be a hoarder, but do your best to keep some inventory on hand. I hate seeing usable desktops and laptops go to oblivion just because somebody didn't care or didn't know how to give a unit the TLC it needs to have an extension on its useable service life.

Learn about RAM modules. Understand what kind of RAM is for what kind of system. Learn about video cards and what card is appropriate for a given system. Learn about the benefits of replacing mechanical HDDs with solid state drives. I feel confident telling you that you will not be wasting your time.
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 Bahamut.Negan
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By Bahamut.Negan 2020-03-24 20:20:16
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DirectX said: »
bilnes is advanced AI from 2032 that is posting back in time to see if we can detect him.
<33333333
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By billnes 2020-03-24 21:12:33
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Remote Login, Perhaps??

I've seen the light. I blew it. I did goof... I hope this is going to sound much less shady...

Instead of Square-Enix issuing an employee a laptop or SFF desktop with the GM-Only client and tools on it, the company issues each employee the name of a website, a username and a password. Using only a web browser, the employees of SE uses their assigned credentials from their computer at home.

Instead of re-creating miniaturized versions of the in-office, GM-only terminal, the employee gets into the same system via remote login. Some kind of Citrix Metaframe or gotomypc.com-like setup, but with higher security...

The visuals of the game world may not be as good as the should be. But at the very least, the GM could interact with player, monitor the Zonewatch tool and review data logs on an as-needed basis... This should also help to protect the integrity of the game by keeping the GM-Only client and tools behind a corporate firewall and off of the employee's private, at-home machines.

Celebrindal, said it eloquently and quite correctly. I apologize to Celebrindal for not coming to this realization before I wrote my original post: A portion of your subscription fees pays for data security. Square-Enix should not, can not and will not compromise the integrity of your data by permitting the GM-Only client and tools to go out into the wild on laptops and desktops that they can not control...

I apologize to all for this lack of insight.
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By ashcrow 2020-03-24 21:43:51
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NynJa said: »
https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/56634-Square-Enix-European-Support-Centre-%E2%80%93-COVID-19-Update-%28Mar.-23%29

Euro support are still in their offices

And theres no mention on the JP side of support being down.

They just closed up shop in their California office because California is getting ravaged by COVID and they had to comply with any lockdown mandated by their govt.
if its in london they dont care i heard lol
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By hestermofet 2020-03-24 22:47:03
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I've seen chatroom bots that make more sense than billnes.
 Shiva.Thorny
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By Shiva.Thorny 2020-03-24 22:58:41
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The 'GM client' probably doesn't do anything that clipper can't accomplish without having a valid auth session. So, not really that big a deal even if it was out in the world.
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By Jetackuu 2020-03-24 23:17:06
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what in the actual ***?
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 Asura.Biglovin
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By Asura.Biglovin 2020-03-24 23:21:22
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Shiva.Thorny said: »
The 'GM client' probably doesn't do anything

Fixed
 Asura.Stormieday
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By Asura.Stormieday 2020-03-24 23:53:23
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You bring me joy Billnes everytime you post. God bless you.you cray cray mother ***.
Please tell me another bed time story.
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By gistofanything 2020-03-25 01:25:07
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uh oh, he's using text formatting, he's getting ANGRY
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By geigei 2020-03-25 02:05:14
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Bilnes is the main reason i check this site.
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By Odinz 2020-03-25 03:16:38
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billnes said: »
Felgarr said: »
It is truly rare to see mental illness hide in such plain sight.

See a therapist, Go to a support group, but whatever you do, please get help.

You use third party tools so people will talk about you with accolades that you truly have not earned.

You and your little circle of candy-*** use elite and high-tier player to describe yourself.. If Ashita and Windower got shut down tomorrow, the productivity of you and your little circle of candy-*** would drop by more than 3/4.

It really is just that simple. It doesn't have to be any more complicated than that.

I like this guy :)
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