PSO2 (JP) - SEGA Suspended 188,683 Accounts for RMT & Cheating During December

		PSO-World.com
PSO2 (JP) - SEGA Suspended 188,683 Accounts for RMT & Cheating During December

Site Navigation
PSOW Home Message Boards Submit News News Archive Website Staff

Search PSOW

Phantasy Star Zero

Databases

Guides

Media

Merchandise

Screenshots

Wallpaper

Phantasy Star Universe

Items

Guides

Downloads

Interviews

PSO: Episode 1,2, & 4

Items

Guides

Calculators

Episode 3

Cards

Guides

Calculators

Site

Forum

Fan Works

Features

PSO2 (JP) - SEGA Suspended 188,683 Accounts for RMT & Cheating During December

PSO2

By Tomeeboy at 01/07/2013 - 4:42pm

SEGA's latest update on its war against cheating indicates that a whopping 188,683 accounts were suspended during the month of December for malicious activity. In related news, somebody, somewhere, has got to be getting ridiculously tired of making new accounts for Phantasy Star Online 2.

We're assuming that the vast majority of these accounts are a result of bots or other automated nuisances, but the number does also include players trying to purchase or sell in-game currency through RMT, as well as those attempting to use cheat programs or commit fraud. While the number does still appear quite large when considering the recent milestone of one-million registered users, SEGA's waves of mass suspensions likely have cheaters and RMTers in a continuous cycle of creating new accounts (it is a free game, after all).

Nonetheless, it's good to see that SEGA continues to bloody its ban hammer in an effort to keep PSO2's servers clean. We'll be hoping to see the same efforts once the game inevitably releases in the West this year!

by Arika on Mon, 01/07/2013 - 8:06pm

So from 1 million accounts = around 20-30% = bot ? (since they just ban around 100k last month too, and 200k this month)

by Dana on Tue, 01/08/2013 - 1:45am

On some ships it looks like 30% are those Rangers names "otfrvbnkuytfgnmb" :P I think it's a good thing.

by subluminus on Tue, 01/08/2013 - 3:54am

Is the new year, are we going there about a release date before March? Seriously? As for account banning, RMT are a big problem on any game. Pay or Free to Play. I have a hard time believing that 300K of PSO 2 Players are RMT. However, I'd imagine the sorts of violations relate to a larger number of Sega's "Terms of Service". There are people out there who get their jollies out of trying to hack/cheat games because they think they are cute and can get away with it. I'd argue "idiots" make up the vast majority of those 300K, rather than RMT accounts. However, RMT is a big business, so they do have the resources to make crap-loads of accounts and have them running non-stop. Personally though, I think the incidences with other versions of Phantasy Star online titles, this seems to be a little over zealous. Unless of course the 1 million subscribers is aside from the 300K worth of RMT, Hacker, Scum bans. I do hope they do protect this game east or west. It would be a crying shame to see such an amazing game go down the tubes.

by Tomeeboy on Tue, 01/08/2013 - 8:55am

Keep in mind, they have not really given an up-to-date count of user IDs since the one-million mark. In addition, if they were to ban an RMT / bot account, that account will likely be recreated many times throughout the course of a month. It's much like with spammers on a forum and they will come back every day on a new account. So, I'm sure this number is heavily inflated, due to the fact that they are likely suspending the same offender many times (even hundreds of times) during a month.

by subluminus on Tue, 01/08/2013 - 6:18pm

That sounds quite plausible that the number is inflated by account spamming.

by HyperShot-X- on Tue, 01/08/2013 - 9:23am

what a joke.. at this rate, over half of accounts will get suspended at some point and what's kinda annoying is the fact that those accounts were taking up 30% of server bandwidth at all times, and this is only for JP server yet. I've suspected F2P model was a bad joke to begin with but not to this extent, this after that wtf graphix glitch farce, it's like getting more and more ridiculous even before game getting launched in the West and release on mobile platform.

by FacelessRed on Tue, 01/08/2013 - 10:20am

People who create illegal accounts run 10-20 machines each person that also run several instances of the game automatically. They get banned, they create new accounts. there's thousands of these people. just because you ban 200,000 of em, doesn't mean they don't come right back. It's to slow them down and keep them from being a huge impact. Keep your knickers on.

by BWS-1 on Tue, 01/08/2013 - 8:57pm

Call me crazy but... wouldn't a ''1$ yearly charge'' for the game with a valid credit card fix a good chunk of the issue? Wouldn't make it FREE to play anymore, but it would sure as hell help narrow down whoever would try to hack it up using mere bots. And they could spend more energy elsewhere on the game. And come on... 1 dollar. A year. You might say ''any hacker could pay that too duh!'' ... Well ''any hacker'' would need to pay that ''mere 1 dollar'' with a VALID credit card, or at least now have to go through the trouble of finding fake ones to pull the crap they are pulling without any trouble at all in the current setup which, if they don't use the fake credit card option, would just make them easy-to-track targets by SEGA! Bam. There you have it. Problem solved. (or at least, reduced greatly)

by Arika on Tue, 01/08/2013 - 9:24pm

most of the players I know seem to not have credit card that work with the current sega jp system though. their system is very jp-ish, and many kind of credit card not working on it. (even though it has verified by visa already) which is why many still rely only choice with Webmoney

by BWS-1 on Tue, 01/08/2013 - 9:35pm

but then I must ask... do you even NEED a credit card in the first place to play this F2P game, Japanese citizen or not? If so then, my suggestion is already proved to be quite ineffective or, perhaps, that is the extent of its effectiveness. Rather depressing, if you ask me.

by Fontes on Fri, 01/11/2013 - 3:14pm

On one hand, since botters use multiple accounts, that $1 fee would rack up pretty badly. Plus, they'd need a formidable amount of fake cards to make their accounts, making it too impratical to even bother.

On the other hand, this game needs at least a trial period (every MMO does), which would still be exploitable. 20 bot accounts for 15 days can still generate some decent lootage. And keep in mind, those "gold sellers" are perfectly able to pay that $1 fee. Normally each idiot who gives 'em money would already pay the yearly fee of 30 bot accounts.

Also, as it's been pointed out, not everyone has a credit card (For instance, I've been buying stuff from ebay long before I had my credit card.). Game cards would be a safer option, and they can be bought in stores (either physical or online) by people who have no credit cards.

by Alucadra on Tue, 01/08/2013 - 9:08pm

Do we have anymore information on the intended release target for West? I'd assume it would have to be sometime soon like April being the latest.

by Tomeeboy on Tue, 01/08/2013 - 9:41pm

No new info yet, but we'll post it here as soon as we hear something (and make it very visible on the site, so it doesn't get buried by PSO2 JP news).

by Alucadra on Tue, 01/08/2013 - 11:28pm

Thank you very much for the reply. As always, I appreciate all the updates for JP as well and am very excited to join the rest of the pso-world community when PSO2 launches in the west!

by Fontes on Fri, 01/11/2013 - 3:17pm

I know this means "OMG CRAPPY SECURITY, I'M GONNA BE HACKED FOR SURE!!!" to some of you, but think about it:

Most of these are bots that farm in-game currency for those "gold sellers" we see in many MMOs. You may find them in the lobby, but you'll hardly have one of them in a party.

Also, most cases of hacking is due to idiocity from users who give away their passwords to strangers. Use your head and you'll be just fine!

Advertisement

Related News
PSO2 (JP) January 9th Content Update - The Clones Have Arrived! PSO2 (JP) - Playstation Vita Beta Test Details and Schedule PSO2 (JP) - New Information on Arkz Clones Content for January 9th, Plus New Video Phantasy Star Online 2 (JP) - Holiday News Wrap-up - December 26th, 2012 PSO2 (JP) - SEGA Apologizes for Bugs, Gives 50 Grinders to Everyone Affected

All PSO and PSU images and official illustrations are (C) SONICTEAM / SEGA, 2000-2011. All logos and trademarks in this site are property of their respective owners. The comments are property of their posters. All the rest � 2000-2012 PSO-World.com.