Exactly how harsh are the chat rules?

The rules are really not anywhere near the issue that some people make them out to be. I haven't noticed any difference at all in the usual hangout places with the amount of chat or the type/tone of chat. I also haven't really noticed any difference in dungeon runs or other group content. Some times you get groups that chat a lot but most times you don't. It always been that way as, for the most part, people are just there to do the content. They aren't there to hangout and see the sights.

As someone who does offer advice whenever I see someone noticeably struggling, I've never received any blow back. In fact, most of the time I've given advice it has actually been taken and acted upon.

It's never been about what you say. It's always been about how you say it. (And the devs themselves confirmed that the rules haven't changed beyond adding some examples).
If you're ever wondering to yourself "Huh, maybe I shouldn't say that" or "I bet if I say that I'm gonna get reported" then maybe just don't say it that way (or don't say it at all). Just be a mature, respectful adult and you shouldn't have any issues.

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Originally Posted by Vav2021

This is actually kinda upsetting. Not because people do that, as every multiplayer game I've played in has had folks like that (usually it's easily shrugged off), but because this kinda shuts out my desires of open world Roleplaying now. Although I prefer to roleplay as friendly and inquisitive, there's folks that like to roleplay as a dark and/or brooding character with little-to-no tolerance of others (Think of Squall from ff8 or Cloud when he started in ff7) who develop their characters personality later down the road.

What if the broody character is in character and shrugs off "Do what you want, just don't be a damn burden to the team." Or what if there's an argument in the group/fellowship for the sake of advancing a story? Or god forbid, what if someone with a sailor background with a goofy temper pops off a quote like "I'mma peg you between t'eyes like my whole crew did between the legs o'er mother, ye landlubber!"

my mind instantly jumps to Silvairre in the archers guild that blew off the cat girl and everyone else. What does someone do if they want to match his tone and personality type, including how he changed later?

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Don't do it to other players who aren't aware you're roleplaying. Is that hard?

I wish Balmung Shout chat had more moderation than it does. That unfiltered cesspool is cringe to read 90% of the time.

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Originally Posted by Vav2021

This is actually kinda upsetting. Not because people do that, as every multiplayer game I've played in has had folks like that (usually it's easily shrugged off), but because this kinda shuts out my desires of open world Roleplaying now. Although I prefer to roleplay as friendly and inquisitive, there's folks that like to roleplay as a dark and/or brooding character with little-to-no tolerance of others (Think of Squall from ff8 or Cloud when he started in ff7) who develop their characters personality later down the road.

What if the broody character is in character and shrugs off "Do what you want, just don't be a damn burden to the team." Or what if there's an argument in the group/fellowship for the sake of advancing a story? Or god forbid, what if someone with a sailor background with a goofy temper pops off a quote like "I'mma peg you between t'eyes like my whole crew did between the legs o'er mother, ye landlubber!"

my mind instantly jumps to Silvairre in the archers guild that blew off the cat girl and everyone else. What does someone do if they want to match his tone and personality type, including how he changed later?

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Roleplay is meant to be done behind closed doors. Open world RP can be disruptive to others who are not interested in role playing or could be put off by the type of character your role playing as. Others may not be able to tell you're role playing at all. Roleplay is about consent. Invite everyone involved to a party chat or a linkshell and keep it out of the public channels. What you do in RP is not everyone's business.

Just don't be a jerk. And activity can depend on server/DC. Limsa and Sharlayan shout chat on Jenova is chatty af

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Originally Posted by Nav_Fae

Roleplay is meant to be done behind closed doors. Open world RP can be disruptive to others who are not interested in role playing or could be put off by the type of character your role playing as. Others may not be able to tell you're role playing at all. Roleplay is about consent. Invite everyone involved to a party chat or a linkshell and keep it out of the public channels. What you do in RP is not everyone's business.

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I'll have to disagree. The open world is vastly underutilized, outside of a new MSQ drop which baring the start of an expansion dries up pretty quickly. Most just sit in a city or house/apartment and queue for whatever instance they are running. Theme park game yada yada...

I do agree people need to be considerate with their RP. You (generic you) don't want to break into it while running content to prevent the kind of situations mentioned above. As for more congested area like major cities, I'd say we are now talking about a server cultural issue.

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What if the broody character is in character and shrugs off "Do what you want, just don't be a damn burden to the team." Or what if there's an argument in the group/fellowship for the sake of advancing a story? Or god forbid, what if someone with a sailor background with a goofy temper pops off a quote like "I'mma peg you between t'eyes like my whole crew did between the legs o'er mother, ye landlubber!"

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Like I doubt this kinda thing would raise an eyebrow on Balmung even in a major city.

Finally, even if you do somehow manage to offend someone, get reported, and a GM decides its a violation unless you are being EXTRA then you are probably just getting a warning for a first offense. As some have already said, just be reasonable/sane in your interactions and you are likely to never encounter a problem.

Calling somebody a child is enough to warrant a ban.

never, ever, EVER! direct anything towards anybody in the game or they will report you for it like the snowflakes they are.

Been banned twice for what i would consider normal language in Australia.

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Originally Posted by DixieBellOCE

Calling somebody a child is enough to warrant a ban.

never, ever, EVER! direct anything towards anybody in the game or they will report you for it like the snowflakes they are.

Been banned twice for what i would consider normal language in Australia.

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I'm upset to say that I've seen some folks in the thread that rather alarm me, because they seem to fit that criteria. I'll quote one of their message, but I won't put them in the spotlight, where they said

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people were teabagging others in PvP or spam laugh I wouldn't concider that as harmless it's pretty insulting and infuriating in an already frustrating situation.

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I am going to assume that they don't represent the majority of the community, but that someone would consider emotes "not harmless" because it causes frustration, and worthy of punishment is disturbing.

Edit 1: Specification to avoid blanket statement.
Edit 2: To make this message.

While the Chat rules aren't overly harsh.

What people will label as, "Toxic.", "Abusive.", "Threatening/Aggressive." has no limit, and if enough of these people were to report someone, regardless of it actually being one of those things, that person will get into heaps of trouble.

That's why you won't see loads of chat going on, because the fragility of peoples emotions, when it pertains to being made to feel uncomfortable by someone's chat, which results in the spam of reports that land the reported into range of ye ol' banhammer.

All I have to say is, I find it strange the lengths people will go, to silence people who don't feel/think/behave as they do.

*Shrug*

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Originally Posted by Vav2021

I'm upset to say that I've seen some folks in the thread that rather alarm me, because they seem to fit that criteria. I'll quote one of their message, but I won't put them in the spotlight, where they said

I am going to assume that they don't represent the majority of the community, but that someone would consider emotes "not harmless" because it causes frustration, and worthy of punishment is disturbing.

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bottom line is, if you cannot refrain from insulting others, or affording another human being basic respect that everyone deserves... then say nothing.

its not rocket science. the community is what it is, quite a lot of different people all on the same server. you are going to get all types. if you have played online games before, then I am positive you are aware of this. but they do enforce some rules, so always best to at least attempt to follow them. this isnt the wild west.

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Originally Posted by Kes13a

bottom line is, if you cannot refrain from insulting others, or affording another human being basic respect that everyone deserves... then say nothing.

its not rocket science. the community is what it is, quite a lot of different people all on the same server. you are going to get all types. if you have played online games before, then I am positive you are aware of this. but they do enforce some rules, so always best to at least attempt to follow them. this isnt the wild west.

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I'm not one to treat people like crap. There's certain things I do and don't agree with, but I tend to be respectable about it, and seldom ever discuss them.... because, well, there's no point to do so. With that being said, I'm respectable and I don't cause trouble.

Still and yet, there's some things that just raise my eyebrows is all.

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Originally Posted by Kes13a

bottom line is, if you cannot refrain from insulting others, or affording another human being basic respect that everyone deserves... then say nothing.

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I would also like to add know your audience.

I'm in an FC with a bunch of current and ex military members and military brats. We have a very colorful FC chat. We don't invite people to it unless someone can vouch for them because if we would invite just about anyone and they saw what our chat contained, we'd all be long gone.

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Originally Posted by Thaciscokidd

I would also like to add know your audience.

I'm in an FC with a bunch of current and ex military members and military brats. We have a very colorful FC chat. We don't invite people to it unless someone can vouch for them because if we would invite just about anyone and they saw what our chat contained, we'd all be long gone.

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I come from a military family. Tell them I said "thank you for your service." It's always good to have friends you can safely shoot the shinola with.

I'd take the better safe than sorry route. What is said in-game is ultimately logged in-game, and a GM can pull all of those records. I'd like to be more direct at times, even on the forums, but it's not worth the potential risk. No curse words either - not that they are really necessary to hold a conversation.

PvP enforcement seems to be overharsh to me. I don't really, personally, see an issue with using certain emotes to taunt a player, it's part of the nature of a PvP environment. However, the chat spamming can be a little obnoxious, not that I necessarily think someone deserves a strike over it. I wish the game was less drastic with much of it's punishments.

Chat rules are simple.

If you swear in public, and someone reports you, then you are getting a warning or suspension.
Do it again, the first time counts against you, you'll get a longer suspension.

And so on.

People don't realize that EVERYTHING IS LOGGED.

I can't tell you how many times people have acted shocked that, yes the GMs have records of all the perverted stuff that is said in /tells, /party, and even /say or /em in private apartments/homes/rooms.

Not to say people don't talk a lot. Usually a lot of nonsense, especially in areas like Balmung Ul'dah, or the primary hub areas.

But use common sense. Profanity in public is always an inherent risk. I don't care how many times you get away with it. All it takes is one report for the GMs to come down on you.

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Originally Posted by SturmChurro

PvP enforcement seems to be overharsh to me. I don't really, personally, see an issue with using certain emotes to taunt a player, it's part of the nature of a PvP environment. However, the chat spamming can be a little obnoxious, not that I necessarily think someone deserves a strike over it. I wish the game was less drastic with much of it's punishments.

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Just because its common nature to be a toxic butt in a PvP environment in other games doesnt mean it should be tolerated here IMO

There is and never will be anything harsh about keeping chat clean if folks can't communicate without constant swearing or in general being a jerk social games aren't meant for them.

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Originally Posted by Broken_Wind

Just because its common nature to be a toxic butt in a PvP environment in other games doesnt mean it should be tolerated here IMO

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I agree with Sturm on this, at least for the most part, but there is a line. I just think that SE decided to use the scorched earth approach, which was...excessive. No emoting. No using quick chat options too much. No disconnecting from the game even if you can't help it. The list goes on, as just about anything could be considered griefing via their rules. There's not even a gray area. Everything is bad and SE left 0 wiggle room. I get what they were going for, but how they went about it was overkill.

When the rules are vague and the deciding factor is the emotions of some random person in the area to interpret what you mean, even if its mild and aimed at no one, makes it better to play it safe than be sorry. Highly easy to catch a sudden ban and have 0 say in the matter.

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Originally Posted by Atreides

Thanks for your concern but mind your own business, I've been around for long enough and do fine with my "mindset".

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Hit a nerve? I rest my case.

It depends your choice IMO.

Random funny joke might be offensive for some one.. better to play it safe, polite talk with no jokes best route IMO unless they are your friends.
If you are not interested with talking random people "Hello" / "GG, Thank you." macro sufficient :3

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Originally Posted by Valfreyja

Chat rules are simple.

If you swear in public, and someone reports you, then you are getting a warning or suspension.
Do it again, the first time counts against you, you'll get a longer suspension.

And so on.

People don't realize that EVERYTHING IS LOGGED.

I can't tell you how many times people have acted shocked that, yes the GMs have records of all the perverted stuff that is said in /tells, /party, and even /say or /em in private apartments/homes/rooms.

Not to say people don't talk a lot. Usually a lot of nonsense, especially in areas like Balmung Ul'dah, or the primary hub areas.

But use common sense. Profanity in public is always an inherent risk. I don't care how many times you get away with it. All it takes is one report for the GMs to come down on you.

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#1 reason people don't seem to understand how they get caught. Everything you type in that box is saved on the servers, doesn't go away when you logout.

Also I don't tell anyone I'm reporting them for profanity, I just do it when it's pointed and rude. Only takes a few seconds to paste their name/server, write a sentence and time they did it. It's not a big effort.

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Originally Posted by Insertusernamehere

It depends your choice IMO.

Random funny joke might be offensive for some one.. better to play it safe, polite talk with no jokes best route IMO unless they are your friends.
If you are not interested with talking random people "Hello" / "GG, Thank you." macro sufficient :3

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Do people actually believe this nonsense? because that's what this is, pure nonsense

I mean yeah, don't tell lewd jokes in general channels just like you wouldn't in an office around people you didn't know.
But I mean FFXIV is FULL of people making Lalafell jokes and not getting banned over it (and yes, Ive seen ruffled popotos on rare occasions)

The ones that get a suspension are the ones that escalate situations if asked to chill out.

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Originally Posted by Vav2021

I'm upset to say that I've seen some folks in the thread that rather alarm me, because they seem to fit that criteria. I'll quote one of their message, but I won't put them in the spotlight, where they said

I am going to assume that they don't represent the majority of the community, but that someone would consider emotes "not harmless" because it causes frustration, and worthy of punishment is disturbing.

Edit 1: Specification to avoid blanket statement.
Edit 2: To make this message.

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Wait what? Where did I even remotely say that emotes warrant a report and ban? All I did was explain the reasoning for people to do that. You're putting words in my mouth here. Teabagging an opponent isn't exactly a civil behavior and frustrates people even more which increases the likehood of them to report you for that. It's easy as that.

In fact I have never in all my years of FFXIV reported anyone for foul language or emoting, outside of RMT I only reported one person so far and believe me that was a good reason. Just to make that clear.

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Originally Posted by Darthgummibear

Hit a nerve? I rest my case.

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Cope more love. <3

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Originally Posted by Nav_Fae

Roleplay is meant to be done behind closed doors. Open world RP can be disruptive to others who are not interested in role playing or could be put off by the type of character your role playing as. Others may not be able to tell you're role playing at all. Roleplay is about consent. Invite everyone involved to a party chat or a linkshell and keep it out of the public channels. What you do in RP is not everyone's business.

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That is an incredibly weird take.
People can do whatever they want unless they don't harm others. You can even have a RP tag next to your name. lol Don't be such a wet blanket just because you don't like it. What's next? Certain glams are only allowed indoors?

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Originally Posted by Payadopa

That is an incredibly weird take.
People can do whatever they want unless they don't harm others. You can even have a RP tag next to your name. lol Don't be such a wet blanket just because you don't like it. What's next? Certain glams are only allowed indoors?

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https://youtu.be/NUkibfzeQ7g

I rly dunno if this is a NA thing or other data centers, but on Light EU people talk all the time...
It's one of these other '' anti-FFXIV memes '' I see tossed around about how bad the community '' really is '' because people just aren't toxic due to being scared of talking so no one talks...
It's a bunch of bs in my experience and I've played since ARR and nothing has really changed.

Today in my weekly P1-4S clears alone I rain into people getting into a giant argument about uptime vs no uptime towers with half the group joking around and trying to lighten the mood and two people having a huge aggressive argument with each other.
In the P1-3S group I was in we went through quite a lot of people and everyone was friendly and talked with each other.
In the first P1S group I was told to relax for cancelling the countdown and pointing out that no one except me had picked positions ( I just said it normally, I wasn't being mad rofl ), the same person then ragequit and ranted in chat after two wipes.
The third melee in the group too was very rude when he tried to take m2 which I had already taken before him and did the whole non-chalant '' idc bro '' routine.

Toxicity isn't really common even in PF in my experience, my point wasn't that PF is toxic because it actually isn't most of the time.
Point was just that people aren't scared of talking and even being shitty and having arguments.
The toxic tends to not be as bad but I've still seen some pretty openly toxic bs from people with ego problems in particular.

Unless you spam slurs and you're targeting people in a really toxic way you have no reason to be worried.
Maybe some people have some extremely weird case but no system is ever going to be perfect and most of the time it probably didn't happen the way they said it did and they actually were being toxic.

they used to have a jail for people who were "bad" in chat, not sure if they still do. there are a few videos made by miscreants who got popped into a jail cell and visited by a GM who politely explained why they were there and what would happen if they continued their evil ways...don't know if it's still a thing but:

https://kotaku.com/did-you-know-that...ers-1786679403

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Originally Posted by Broken_Wind

Do people actually believe this nonsense? because that's what this is, pure nonsense

I mean yeah, don't tell lewd jokes in general channels just like you wouldn't in an office around people you didn't know.
But I mean FFXIV is FULL of people making Lalafell jokes and not getting banned over it (and yes, Ive seen ruffled popotos on rare occasions)

The ones that get a suspension are the ones that escalate situations if asked to chill out.

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Yeah I believe this nonsense. don't do lewd jokes, political jokes including famous politician memes, don't do jokes about religion or any form of faith, don't do jokes about races.
Be polite and don't use street language including "debatable" words like "dog".
SE does not take those things lightly even if your intention different.

Inflection is rarely found in reading chat so be very careful whom you speak very leisurely with kupo <3

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Originally Posted by Vav2021

Here's the scenario I've got going on. I'm another one of those wow refugees that came here sometime last year after Blizzard showed their true colors. I like to roleplay on my fantasy characters. Nothing extreme, no ERP, but light stuff, like character development. When I came over, I found myself amazed with all the people and the gameplay itself. But, chat was eerily silent for all the people around me. I haven't payed it much attention, but earlier today I saw people talking in /say, and I half jokingly made a remark. Well, this is what went down.

https://i.imgur.com/Wel0JF3.png


Are the rules really this extreme where people are afraid to make the social game... well... social? and if so, what in particular is causing this?

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I'm usually ↕chewing the fat↕ with 30-40 people in linkshells or limsa.

You're either not in the right area or on a dead server.

Also, unlike wow we have said linkshells where people spend most of their time chatting. We don't need to blatantly ignore trade chat because of the off-topic racist, sexist, homophobic spam in Ogrimmar that the GMs refuse to address. I unsubbed from WoW when I reported someone for suggesting that America should just "kill all the gays and get it over with" in trade chat and a GM told me that they saw nothing wrong with that and gave me a week's vacation for "abusing the report system."

Sincerely,

Someone who at one point was subbed to both games.

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Originally Posted by Denji

I'm usually ↕chewing the fat↕ with 30-40 people in linkshells or limsa.

You're either not in the right area or on a dead server.

Also, unlike wow we have said linkshells where people spend most of their time chatting. We don't need to blatantly ignore trade chat because of the off-topic racist, sexist, homophobic spam in Ogrimmar that the GMs refuse to address. I unsubbed from WoW when I reported someone for suggesting that America should just "kill all the gays and get it over with" in trade chat and a GM told me that they saw nothing wrong with that and gave me a week's vacation for "abusing the report system."

Sincerely,

Someone who at one point was subbed to both games.

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As someone that loved world PVP in WoW, I got some colorful stuff said to me on the regular lol.

https://i.imgur.com/PiD8Xsb.jpg

I i did manage to get a few death threats too, but I forgot to add them to the "Wall of love" as I call it lol. I didn't report anyone, it was easy to shrug off people being jerks.

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Originally Posted by Insertusernamehere

Yeah I believe this nonsense. don't do lewd jokes, political jokes including famous politician memes, don't do jokes about religion or any form of faith, don't do jokes about races.
Be polite and don't use street language including "debatable" words like "dog".
SE does not take those things lightly even if your intention different.

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Your first sentence is common sense. Of course you don't do that stuff in a public channel. Why would you even want to? Unless it Eorzean politicians or races
The street talk one seems absurd, I've never heard of any suspension for that.

Again, the key is not to escalate it. Its sadly common for people to do something they know is wrong, get called out on it, and act the victim. Those are the people that get their well deserved suspensions

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Originally Posted by Vav2021

Here's the scenario I've got going on. I'm another one of those wow refugees that came here sometime last year after Blizzard showed their true colors. I like to roleplay on my fantasy characters. Nothing extreme, no ERP, but light stuff, like character development. When I came over, I found myself amazed with all the people and the gameplay itself. But, chat was eerily silent for all the people around me. I haven't payed it much attention, but earlier today I saw people talking in /say, and I half jokingly made a remark. Well, this is what went down.

https://i.imgur.com/Wel0JF3.png


Are the rules really this extreme where people are afraid to make the social game... well... social? and if so, what in particular is causing this?

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We live in an era of censorship. People know this deep down and just avoid chatting altogether.

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Originally Posted by Lunalepsy

We live in an era of censorship. People know this deep down and just avoid chatting altogether.

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I just logged out of an alt where everyone in Limsa was shouting "piss chat" on /yell.

I get the feeling by censorship you mean "I can't shout slurs anymore".

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Originally Posted by Lunalepsy

We live in an era of censorship. People know this deep down and just avoid chatting altogether.

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Sorry, but this is BS. You have the right to say your opinion. But nobody is obliged to give you a plattform to spread your opinion into the world.


Cheers

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Originally Posted by Lunalepsy

We live in an era of censorship.

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I already know this, but-

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People know this deep down and just avoid chatting altogether.

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How can i enjoy any existing social aspects of the game if angry players or someone with a bone to pick can misinterpret dialogue for the sake of punishing folks? I left a game where folks would bait others into voicing a "wrong opinion" and have guilds report them in unison specifically for power trips. I don't want to deal with that crap a second time around.

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Originally Posted by Vav2021

How can i enjoy any existing social aspects of the game if angry players or someone with a bone to pick can misinterpret dialogue for the sake of punishing folks? I left a game where folks would bait others into voicing a "wrong opinion" and have guilds report them in unison specifically for power trips. I don't want to deal with that crap a second time around.

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THAT is going to be a problem in ANY game you play with other people. any. game.

period.

you ALWAYS have the unknowing ability to offend SOMEONE somewhere, because... they arent you.

it really and completely is all about, if you arent a jerk typically nothing will happen. many people chat every day in say and yell and do not get banned. you are making a mountain out of a molehill I think.

but if you are not confident in your ability to be social without offending someone, then you may have a point. but, as I said, many people, myself included, manage to chat socially in game, not in tells or fc chats, and still not be banned.

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Originally Posted by Kes13a

THAT is going to be a problem in ANY game you play with other people. any. game.

period.

you ALWAYS have the unknowing ability to offend SOMEONE somewhere, because... they arent you.

it really and completely is all about, if you arent a jerk typically nothing will happen. many people chat every day in say and yell and do not get banned. you are making a mountain out of a molehill I think.

but if you are not confident in your ability to be social without offending someone, then you may have a point. but, as I said, many people, myself included, manage to chat socially in game, not in tells or fc chats, and still not be banned.

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Well, i'm certainly no jerk, and I don't pick fights. I've kinda come to keep cool ass well, maintaining my personal code where I don't report someone unless it's spam, in game advertising, or real world threats. I guess I might not get in trouble with my demeanor, but the concern is there.

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Originally Posted by Vav2021

Well, i'm certainly no jerk, and I don't pick fights. I've kinda come to keep cool ass well, maintaining my personal code where I don't report someone unless it's spam, in game advertising, or real world threats. I guess I might not get in trouble with my demeanor, but the concern is there.

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as you stated previously... so I am unsure as to why you are so worked up over it. COULD it happen? sure could, people are people. and many of those people are jerks... but its the same as someone harassing you everywhere else even in real life. you can either sit petrified in your house that something MIGHT happen, or you can actually live life.