Then I guess they have to shut the game down, because it's a technical limit.
More seriously, it is a feature request. The Blacklist is working as intended. Feel free to make a lawsuit but good luck getting anything to come out of it. Your local laws don't make it not a feature request, because it isn't a malfunction. Bad design, possibly, but not a malfunction.
You still have the ability to do something about it, i.e. report the infringing users. But at least in the US, and probably Japan, what people say and do within a private service is up to the operator of that service. People often cite "FREE SPEECH!" on forums like this, and in games, but since its a private service, they can suspend/ban you for breaking chat rules. And by the way, that's what you should do. If you don't like what someone's saying, ask them to stop. You would have more of a case if they were actually harassing you vs just saying stuff that doesn't interest you. Given that I don't know anyone else in the game who has hit this limit, I think you should consider asking yourself why you've blacklisted so many people.
Computer systems, data structres, etc. do not have infinite capacity. That black list has to be retrieved and loaded every time you zone since it's stored on the server. Since it's stored on the server, the size of the blacklist affects the amount of data that has to be sent, and the packets for the game are limited in size. Increasing this limit, even if it's possible, would increase server stress. This is a big reason a lot of features have various limits in MMOs.There is a lot of give and take with the data structure of a packet, and since this game was built for dial-up, the packet size is small compared to games today and this is why limits like these exist. It's not because they don't want you to have more, its because it's a limitation of the system. You cite database knowledge, but this in fact isn't a database issue. This game is also very old so you can't make assumptions about its design that you would make with games made today.
Keep in mind: SE would sooner stop doing business in your country than deal with the legal ramifications of whatever law you're talking about, so if you sued them, the end result would most likely be you're not allowed to play the game anymore. Is that really preferable to just managing your list? Frankly, and this is just my opinion, but if you can fill that blacklist with 100 people that are all still actively playing the game, then it seems to me like it's possible that you might not be making the best decisions in game causing you to get into scuffles more than most people do.
For RMT specifically though: There is no value in using blacklist space on this. Those characters are deleted and recreated on a regular basis. Even if you blacklist them, they will just be born again on a new name. It is impossible for SE to suppress RMT completely, and you just have to accept that. Delete old names from your blacklist. If they reappear and bother you again, then put them back on, but if you have a full blacklist, I guarantee you can delete about half of it without seeing measurably more chat reappear. The blacklist is not your only tool for controlling what chat you see.
My blacklist has 4 names on it. Pretty sure 3 of them haven't been on the game in at least a decade. Maybe stop being so sensitive to all the chat going on around you instead of demanding that SE and your government shelter you from everything?
As a game developer of sorts myself, I'm just going to tell you straight up, I'm not going to release my game in a country that demands that I be a nanny to fully grown adults (Children are a different matter entirely of course). I just mentally ignore people who irritate me. If they're in a linkshell, I just turn the linkshell off for a while. You have other options. SE has no legal obligation to increase the blacklist limit for you.
SE doesn't knowingly allow people under the age of 13 to create accounts, in part because of the US Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which requires parents to take responsibility for these people and create accounts on their behalf.This is a 12 rated game at the end of the day... (PEGI).
Finally: SE actually already no longer officially supports Europe in the game. While you can still create accounts, they aren't officially operating the game in your region.
This has been fun but really, you do not have a case, because while there is a blacklist limit, everyone has the same limit. Everyone has the same tools for controlling chat.


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