How is this allowed?

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Originally Posted by Mawlzy

Players are exposed to what appears to be sex trafficking as early as Sastasha if they go hors-piste; they are invited to escort a courtesan in one of the early levequests. FF14 is a 13+ game riddled with adult themes from ARR onwards.

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not even counting some snippets of people like thancred basically nude and storm blood girl who flat out tells you she was sold by her own family to a guy

So wait, are we actually arguing here that just because there *might* be minors around, adults shouldn't be allowed to do adult things? I find the ERP/club/whatever advertisements as annoying as the next cat, but as long as they're not being explicit or lewd in public spaces (meaning places like shout/yell/say chat in a city or novice network, or instances with a lot of people like frontlines), where people just walking by might have to perceive what they're doing, they're not doing anything wrong.

Just advertising that adult stuff is going to be happening at a certain place/time is not in and of itself lewd or explicit, and if someone who is too young wanders into a private party that was explicitly stated to be 'adults only' then that's their own fault and poor judgement and rudeness for going where they're not supposed to be.

I am curious how common players younger than 18 even are, though, considering the game requires a subscription to play; I guess kids could be buying gametime cards somewhere irl but it feels like it would be a bit of a barrier to entry for anyone too young to have a credit card...

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Originally Posted by Lukha

So wait, are we actually arguing here that just because there *might* be minors around, adults shouldn't be allowed to do adult things? I find the ERP/club/whatever advertisements as annoying as the next cat, but as long as they're not being explicit or lewd in public spaces (meaning places like shout/yell/say chat in a city or novice network, or instances with a lot of people like frontlines), where people just walking by might have to perceive what they're doing, they're not doing anything wrong.

Just advertising that adult stuff is going to be happening at a certain place/time is not in and of itself lewd or explicit, and if someone who is too young wanders into a private party that was explicitly stated to be 'adults only' then that's their own fault and poor judgement and rudeness for going where they're not supposed to be.

I am curious how common players younger than 18 even are, though, considering the game requires a subscription to play; I guess kids could be buying gametime cards somewhere irl but it feels like it would be a bit of a barrier to entry for anyone too young to have a credit card...

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There's probably a lot more than you might think
I'm fairly certain you can buy physical time cards, and if not then I'm sure it wouldn't be difficult to either stick to free trial to do things or get the parents to pay for it if not buy it themselves

Whenever I was younger and didn't have a card of my own, I'd ask my parents to buy something for me online with theirs and I'd pay them back with physical cash from birthday cards or w/e else

I don't find it disturbing. The announcement is explicit enough so that a minor doesn't end up in it by chance, while avoiding the unwanted spam that can be found in Limsa (which is what bothers me, personally, about this rather unusual rp).

The fact that children frequent a place is no excuse for censoring absolutely everything - in fact, I'd be inclined to say that it would be nice if there were less censorship in general, and I'm not talking about the ERP but about the maturity of the writing.

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Originally Posted by Merrigan

I don't find it disturbing. The announcement is explicit enough so that a minor doesn't end up in it by chance, while avoiding the unwanted spam that can be found in Limsa (which is what bothers me, personally, about this rather unusual rp).

The fact that children frequent a place is no excuse for censoring absolutely everything - in fact, I'd be inclined to say that it would be nice if there were less censorship in general, and I'm not talking about the ERP but about the maturity of the writing.

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Given one of the central criticisms of the DT story is that it is childish, this strikes me as very much on point.

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Originally Posted by CCheshire

I don't RP so I do find the ads to be creepy and I'm not a fan of what happened to PF since 2020 but realistically RP is allowed in FFXIV and GMs can't ban every single poster who does 18+ club ads without being super controversial as seen in the past. They did it once, and many people came to complain here for pages.

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They kinda have to. I don't know how it works with the american rating organism, but the Pegi (european one) has one clause that mention that while they can't control user content, they have to act so 18+ user content is not easily available, basically that someone has to search for it to find it, and plain as day. They risk some fine or the game might even switch Pegi categories.

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Originally Posted by PEGI Code of Conduct

9.2 Community Standards: Signatories shall ensure that their terms of service with players in Online Gameplay Environments incorporate certain provisions in easily understandable language that are usually included under the heading of so-called ‘Community Standards’. These provisions shall:

9.2.1 prohibit players from introducing content or indulging in online behaviour which is illegal and/or harmful. Such provisions shall describe the consequences of any breach of their terms.
Examples of such content or behaviour can be: abusive, bullying, corrupting, defamatory, degrading, fraudulent, harassing, insulting, obscene, offensive, racist, sexist, threatening content, or content that incites violence, terrorism, hatred or self-harm, or that might impair the physical, mental or moral development of players.
9.2.2 ensure that all reasonably practicable precautions are taken to ensure that Online Gameplay Environments that allow text, voice, video chat, or image sharing protect children from access to age-inappropriate content introduced by other players.

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Now, I'm no lawyer, but it feels like 18+ ads pf fall under 9.2.2 and should be monitored without even someone reporting them.

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Originally Posted by CNitsah

They kinda have to. I don't know how it works with the american rating organism, but the Pegi (european one) has one clause that mention that while they can't control user content, they have to act so 18+ user content is not easily available, basically that someone has to search for it to find it, and plain as day. They risk some fine or the game might even switch Pegi categories.


So yeah, 18+ ads pf totally fall under 9.2.2 and should be monitored without even someone reporting them.

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Isn't it the case that the clause "protect children from access to age-inappropriate content introduced by other players" is legally covered by the ToS prohibition of third party tools.

I can't think of any player-driven content that would be age-inappropriate if it is viewed vanilla.

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Originally Posted by Mawlzy

Isn't it the case that the clause "protect children from access to age-inappropriate content introduced by other players" is legally covered by the ToS prohibition of third party tools.

I can't think of any player-driven content that would be age-inappropriate if it is viewed vanilla.

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That's a good point, but questionnable when you see how unwilling SE is about doing anything about that. I guess there is no telling without an actual trial.

That said, text only can be innapropriate enough. When you advertise your PF as 18+ you know people will use the chat for unsafe things. Sexting is a thing, it's only words, would you say it's safe for childrent because there is no visual support?

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Originally Posted by CNitsah

That's a good point, but questionnable when you see how unwilling SE is about doing anything about that. I guess there is no telling without an actual trial.

That said, text only can be innapropriate enough. When you advertise your PF as 18+ you know people will use the chat for unsafe things. I know it's not PF, but I remember a post from someone on the forum really pissed because someone DM'ed their 13 y.o. daughter (IIRC) to be a courtesan in a 18+ club, and they were pissed because their kid came ask them what a courtesan was. You might say it's not much, but it's still enough to fall under that article, and clearly enough to show that text only can still be inappriate.

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I recall that thread and am obviously uncomfortable with minors receiving such an invitation.

Equally, unless incredibly sheltered, I imagine any 13 year-old on receiving an explanation of what a "courtesan" is would reply "oh, a prostitute!" and get back to playing the game. Alternatively they would simply Google it. As noted previously, they are just as likely to come across the term in (leve)quests.

You can basically guarantee that you have under 18 people ERP in FFXIV, sex animations make it easier for people who have poor skill in writing as "They just want to watch FF porn" so probably easier for them to partake in it now, not that being under 18 makes you illiterate but its a safer bet to be able to categorise that way.
I don't quite understand why clubs advertise in the way they do now, anyone in the social side of FF will know that this is available anyways, good luck finding a club that DOESNT do something ERP related either directly by staff or indirectly by just the patrons.

At the end of the day your "age gateway" is payment, Second Life could be pointed to as free but you have to have a payment record on file to be able to enter Adult rated zones and its pretty easy to just bring up the marketplace for Second Life and see just what kind of thing is involved there.

I just don't like seeing the filth level advertisements in the game, it reminds me of what FF has become.