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Do Japanese Players Cheat?

Forums & Blogs, JP/EN Discussion / 和英討議 by: Elmer the Pointy

nihonseigi A rhetorical question, of course, but one that highlights an issue I felt was worth examining further. Do Japanese players really avoid cheating in Final Fantasy XI? Why is there the impression that only foreign players look to exploit the game system?

It’s well known that Japanese players have always expressed a strong distaste for third-party programs, no matter how benign they may be. When Pandemonium was finally defeated, there was the claim that Japanese players don’t use tricks and tools, and therefore are beaten to the punch by those who are willing to do so. Most recently, 950 players were punished by Square Enix for exploiting a bug to copy equipment drops, and it seemed like Japanese victims were hard to find.

Obvious reasons include the reluctance of posters to pipe up amongst a mass of people condemning them for their actions. Anonymity prevents any sort of list from being produced. Do cultural factors also play a part here?

I decided to gather some opinions from Japanese players as to why there is such a marked difference between the two communities when it come to bending the rules.

I presented the questions simply enough, “Do you think that very few Japanese players exploited this bug? Why is there such an aversion to not just cheating, but any sort of adjustment or program used in conjunction with the game?” While the definition of cheating is quite wide amongst English-speaking players, there appears to be yet another gap between us and the Japanese.

For example, Windower is often the subject of much debate. Is it “allowable cheating?” Is it even technically “cheating” to begin with? It is against the TOS, but it’s not hurting anybody, right? These questions seem to fall on deaf ears when posed to Japanese; at least the ones who are willing to discuss the subject and aren’t busy on Japanese Windower Wiki. Still, its obvious there’s a difference in opinion, so what do they claim to be the source of this discrepancy?

Your questions can be answered with simply, “because it’s against the rules.”
You agree to these rules upon playing the game, that’s a given. If you use an exploit, even once, you’re out.
If you don’t like the rules, then you shouldn’t be playing in the first place.

Still, I do think there are Japanese that are guilty in this as well.
They won’t come out and say it though, so that’s why you don’t see them.

For Japanese, if something is against the rules, then you just don’t do it.
There are Japanese who used [the bug] too, but they are pretty much scorned.
That’s why so many Japanese are celebrating, saying ざまあw and めしうま！… they’re making fun of those who got caught.

Among the Japanese, there are people who were banned, and there are people who have done bad things. We are by no means innocent.

If someone in Japan is banned (temp/perm), they won’t just come out and say “I got banned.” If they get outed like that, they would be labeled like a criminal and be unable to play. They will probably lie to people and say “Work’s busy, so I can’t login for a bit,” or “Due to such and such, I’m retiring my character.”

Also, people are celebrating with ざまああw and メシウマ！ because they are envious of people with better equipment, and are glad they got removed from the game.

So right off the bat, I was interested to see they admit that Japanese players aren’t guilt-free. Even a (dare I say it) elitist type comment snuck in there, chastising those who survived the ban and picked on the fallen. But there’s still something missing. Fortunately, some other responses went a little deeper into the issue.

Whether a cheat is good or bad (of course it’s bad), there’s always the fact that Square Enix has said they would ban the accounts of those who break their rules.
Now, if you have a Relic, Mythic or other precious items, or perhaps have spent lots of time and money raising your character, there is no reason to risk losing all that if you happen to be caught and banned.
I’ve been playing for 6 years now, (1500yen x 72) and have Byakko Haidate, Ridill, Joyeuse, etc.
I would never, ever risk losing it all, no matter how much I think about it.

I asked my Salvage HNMLS leader why he didn’t use the bug.
He said, “I can get what I need without having to resort to that.”
He thought people who couldn’t get by through their own effort were weak.

I don’t think that there were 0 Japanese players punished.
But, looking at the amount of people who use tools and/or were banned, I think the amount is much smaller for Japanese when compared to foreigners.

There are Japanese who do use tools.
But almost no one uses Auto-Provoke, and few use Windower, while others hide the fact they do.
Tools like Auto-Provoke and Windower are seen as equally illegal in-game.
Nobody really forgives Windower-usage just because it isn’t “as bad.”
It’s rare to see screenshots like foreign players take, where TP and Alliance MP can be seen.
However, there is the issue of what’s a tool, and what isn’t, and some say Windower isn’t one.
If something alters graphics and it affects one’s playing skill, giving them an advantage, it’s a tool. (Windower gives this advantage, so ×)

So there were a variety of reasons why people are against cheating, even in the form of an in-game exploit. What was interesting were the universal themes that popped up across a number of posts. Several posters cited various proverbs in Japanese culture in order to shed light on a more cultural aversion to dishonest activity.

Here are some ことわざ kotowaza, or Japanese sayings, that were explained to me:

「お天道様が見ている」

天道様 ten-tou sama, refers to the Sun as a god. 見ている miteiru is “to see” in the progressive form. “The Sun is always watching.” It means that even without the watchful eyes of another person physically present, there is always some third-party who sees your actions.

「天網恢恢疎にして漏らさず」

天網 ten-mou means “heaven’s net,” as in a net cast down to catch the wicked. It is often translated as “Heaven’s Judgement.” 恢恢 refers to the wideness of the net, while 疎にして so ni shite means that despite its massive breadth, it will be precise, and 漏らさず morasazu, you won’t slip through.

These phrases, or at least the morals they represent, were said to hold deep meaning. People must be wary of their actions, because some power is always watching over everyone in order to punish the wicked. In Japanese society, how others see you is of great importance, and I’m sure everyone has heard the classic, “the nail that sticks up, gets hammered down.” There is a prevailing sense that going against the flow and sticking your head out can have real consequences, no matter how easily you think you may be able to get away with it.

The next two themes from the discussion are known as 四字熟語 yo ji juku go, or 4-character idioms. Basically, they are the combination of four kanji characters to create an idiomatic phrase.

自業自得 – ji gou ji toku & 因果応報 – in ga ou hou

In Japan, we have this phrase:
自業自得
If you do bad things, you’ll get your just desserts,
is basically what it means. (not exact though)

Also, we have this phrase:
因果応報
which has a similar meaning.
This one means that whatever you do, will be returned to you in kind.

There are others, such as The Buddha is watching, or Enma will remove the tongues of liars and such, so in Japan it is believed that if you do bad things, you will be found out and punished. That’s the background behind why Japanese are so adverse to cheats. 自業自得 – You reap what you sow.

Whether or not you believe there is any weight behind these words, it was interesting to see them as a common thread tying together claims of Japanese players’ dedication to honesty.

In the end, this is just a small sample of what some players thought. It won’t prove or disprove anything, but it provides another perspective on the issue we as a community are facing currently. The most surprising thing for me was the admission of guilt among their own player base, and the lack of scapegoating foreign players for the bug’s discovery and subsequent punishment. It speaks to how seriously they consider the issue of cheating, and that it isn’t simply an NA bad / JP good type of issue.

I hope you found this to be an interesting read, and perhaps learned a little something new about Japanese players and their way of thinking.

※この記事はElmer the Pointyの提供でお送りしました。

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Comments

Comment from Kaeko
Time January 26, 2009 at 4:11 am

I appreciate the amount of digging you’ve done on this issue. Coming from a mix language shell, I completely agree with your post. I often joke to my JP friends in LS, especially my leaders that they are boyscouts as they will follow the ToS to the letter. Even things that are considered benign in the NA community like Windower they hate, seemingly with no less severity.

Over the years, I have learned to understand that I break ToS and am not a ‘clean’ player. The ‘clean’ players in LS, pretty much all the JP as the NAs use Windower, have learned to accept this about me – I’d like to think I’m a nice and helpful person. Though, if SE ever decides to lay the law down like they have, I have no complaints. I risk my account every moment I’m online and this risk is acceptable to me.

Do Japanese Players Cheat?

「お天道様が見ている」

「天網恢恢疎にして漏らさず」

自業自得 – ji gou ji toku & 因果応報 – in ga ou hou

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