GM Responses, Roleplay Advertising, and Party Finder - Megathread

The thing with the in-game quotes is, they're in the game. They're scripted. They're rated. They're the extreme end of what is allowed within the game rating with no possibility of it going further.

It's not evidence that they should also be okay with a similar situation acted out in more detail, by players who have the ability to type any text into the game.

This isn't to say that they're handling the current situation well, but neither is it a sign that they're contradicting themselves. Those game quotes have been rated 13+, not 18+.

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Originally Posted by ReynTime

I guess ERP bans are more important to be up in arms about than how trivial it is to punish a player just because they tried to teach you a mechanic.

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In essence, same thing. *snickers*

i think? the question of official RP server designation has been asked for in the past, but they've wanted to avoid labelling anything as such, because then they would have to put resources into policing it as such probably. and that's something they most likely don't want to bother with.

So imo anyone expecting an official stance on anything probably isn't going to get it.

I'm not debating that, for that, you would need to take up raunchy innuendo with Square. There is plenty of very clear and pretty raunchy innuendo within the game itself. That is what I was speaking of. Have you talked to a 13-year-old? I have twin 12-year-olds in my house that can tell dirtier jokes than I can, understand far more from school alone than what they see in this game.

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Originally Posted by DrWho2010

i think? the question of official RP server designation has been asked for in the past, but they've wanted to avoid labelling anything as such, because then they would have to put resources into policing it as such probably. and that's something they most likely don't want to bother with.

So imo anyone expecting an official stance on anything probably isn't going to get it.

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They generally want to avoid it, but with how they've been acting it's starting to become an issue that we can raise here. We need a stance or a statement in this regard from the development team because it's been this 'gray' area for years; but hasn't been defined by the ToS or End User Agreement - especially with the controversy about how the Party Finder is used from the two incidents that connect to that in-game tool. People mostly see it usable for Game Content, but others see it as a place to advertise their RP Venue in the Other Tab.

Regardless if people don't like RP, RP is in-game content, it is a tag we may use /roleplay. It is on our housing designation RP is otherwise known as Immersive experience, eateries, taverns, florists, etc. It is in the very story of you the Warrior of Light Hero and Savior of the Star. When you step in and play as an NPC your buff literally reads 'roleplaying'. That RP is considered content within the game itself cannot be disputed. As for those that want it gone from the party finder well the other tab can be filtered out with ease and cease to exist if the PF for those people. You can filter out everything and effectively even shut it off completely. The PF itself is highly customizable, The place RP venues often advertise is in the other tab, which again with unchecking the box, it disappears completely.
There is not even a need to /blacklist. Simply filter it out completely in the PF.
I am sure many of us see this often: Of the 84 parties currently recruiting, all match your search conditions. Those are what you have filtered.

While filtering it out isn't disruptive to your gameplay or RP'ers even advertising their venues, or events. Forcing RP'ers out of the PF IS disruptive to theirs as it is discriminatory and uses a false narrative. Which is against the ToS.
3.2 Disruption. You may not in any way disrupt or interfere with the Game experience of other players, including the disruption of Square Enix's computers and servers.

PF ads for RP have already been cleared as acceptable by GM's, there is definitive proof of that. Yet this is about a crusade on RP this is about people weaponizing the GMs against other players.

According to SE's own website within Game manuals: The Party Finder allows players to recruit adventurers on the same World or data center who share common goals. - https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/game_manual/pp/ - There is nothing here that specifies the goal nor anything about 'content'. People can gather in a place, such as instanced dungeons, open world, or instanced housing.


A good call to attention are other T rated MMORPG's such as WoW, which has mild swearing throughout as this game does (don't attempt it, not worth it.) and not only seen alcohol consumption but player consumption and sale therein, even a drunk effect, (don't fly drunk in WoW, its terrifying). Guild Wars 2 another MMORPG not only has in-game drinking but players can partake in drinking contests. Just to name two.

Now that said, we are simply attempting to figure out what is and isn't against the ToS, because the same rhetoric run around and vague dance around answers are troubling. So then that leaves it up to us, the players to do our due diligence and figure out what is and isn't acceptable with clear cut lines in the sand that we aren't getting from official sources. All without getting banned.

Offical stance would shoehorn them into that position. It is far easier to keep the tos vague and fuild. Does it suck for the general player base? Tbh yes but I am not sure the general player base will back such a change cause the general player probably thinks they will never get in trouble and for the most part they probably are right that majority of the general player base will never go past two warnings let alone one.

I honestly think going forward people that want more adult oriented content will have to use platforms like discord to organize and vet the patrons. Cause leaving it open even without the 18+ marker still leaves you open to witchhunts.

I don't get involved with this community, but anyone who knows me on this forum also knows I'm in favor of SE just generally improving their banning conduct. The ToS could absolutely use an update with their stance on RPing and the limits therein.

Also, this is to Van Arn specifically: We get it. You really hate ERP. You don't have to keep posting it in every thread even remotely related to the topic. It'd be nice if you could actually contribute to the discussions instead of taking any and all opportunities you can take to plant down your flag and shout "ERP BAD! ERP BAD! ERP BAD!" for the people in the back. I don't even care about what happens to ERPers(given more clear regulations) and even I think you're overdoing it.

I think transparency is more of a boon than a con, if people skirt things because they aren't covered then they can be added as addendums. Having everything extremely vague, with enforcement not uniform, makes it feel like you're walking on eggshells no matter how innocuous an activity you're doing (ie: using abilities in a town, using emotes too much, advertising Roleplaying Events in PF under the appropriate "Other" tab, I mean even using foul language in a SFW RP context is reportable)

Sanctimonious arguments aren't even worth talking about. If someone is blatantly trying to get ERP via the PF system and forcing you to read a list of desires, then that's just... reportable in general. In any MMO. But if it's just "RP Event - 18+; Nightclub" there's a 50/50 there's ERP involved, but it's not explicitly mentioned (thus you don't have to read any NSFW parts of it) and there's the 18+ tag, which is about the most anyone can do in any online anything to create a space for adults somewhere.

Will people try to skirt around that "18+" designation because at the end of the day, it's easy to do? Yeah, just like everyone does with any website or anything that asks for your age before entering it.

That's why like, there's parents, who should be supervising or somewhat aware of what their kids are up to in online public spaces and decide whether or not their kid is lying their way into those events/situations and presumably then stop paying for the service.

If it's purely based on the game's rating, game ratings aren't generally a simple and uniform process free of bias and there's a lot of variation present since the ESRB system is more or less a joke. But it's only there for what the game officially provides: online interactions aren't rated by the ESRB (and it's stated as such).

That said, most event listings in PF are SFW events. I don't RP much, but I've been around to a handful and it's usually just what it says -- a venue for RP.

I mean, there's a XIV Content Creator who often has what basically amounts to a nightclub venue that's streamed on Twitch sometimes, and there's nothing untoward there, and that's basically... what most of the events are. Punishing the many for the few is a stupid take.

So is it regular RP venues still getting hit? Or is it the only ones that are adult or ERP?