It's the end of Vana'diel as we know it.~ and I feel fine

Yes, ladies and gentlemen; tragedy has stuck Vana'diel--gamers were banned. 500 accounts perma banned because of exploiting a glitch. 400 or so accounts temp banned, because a review of a years worth of logs showed that they were there when the glitch was exploited but they no longer have the hard evidence on them. LS have been taken down, the high ranking players of servers have are now gone forever (some have already switched to WoW, according to the gossip).

Some people would say karma, others merely tough shit, and still others cry foul. Why? Yes, a lot of players don't like MMOs because they are grind heavy; and a lot of complaints about FFXI are about how you have to have a party for almost everything (my favorite response to this being: go play WoW crybaby!) There are jobs you can solo to 75 by yourself people, and then just like WoW you will be forced to group up for endgame events. But I digress...

I'm not sure how to feel about the bannings. I had an acquaintance that was perma banned, and quite frankly it was shocking. Now, a domino effect is happening. You see some communities in FFXI are tightly knit--even if you aren't aware of it. Now, when a thread is removed, the fabric of the community weakens. Because of this, communties are easier to rip apart. B got perma banned, since B was banned M doesn't want to go on. Since M is "taking a break" (which usually means quitting) R is going to take a break too. Now, what's three players in an MMO? Not much really...but then multiply the domino effect because these are just reactions to one players banning (there is their main character, and then most have 1-3 mules, if not more. That's one account but 4 characters). An MMO can be fun and addicting; but it can also take a lot out of you. There is the time commited to your online character--basically for those that were perma banned; their characters life was executed for disobeying ToS. On a game based around communities, ripping out random threads of characters here and there weaken everything overall. But the question remains, whose fault was it? SE for having the glitch and making drops so hard to get that gamers felt they had to exploit? The gamers for being human and being greedy and impatient? For not following the rules laid out for them?

Who actually reads the ToS? I think something gets forgotten: your character really isn't yours. Yes, I feel that the character I play is mine. She has been in existing for five years. Five years of grinding, of meeting and losing friends. Yet, ultimately, SE does not see her as mine. I pay to play and have her in existence; but she is considered SE property. It's in the ToS. This is the same reason why you can't sell your character on eBay--SE owns them. You're paying for a privilege; this is something that's easily forgotten. Yes, your character's life and friends become your own, Vana'diel is another world in which a part of you exists. But the deities of the game are not the only ones for your character--there are also the creator of the game. Deities/creators can be loving, but they can also be cruel.