Scared Straight Program with the in-game Jails.

After my experiences today with a Tank holding my party in a dungeon hostage for 30 minutes because the healer didn't want to kick him just yet so he could re-quene instantly without penalty, and a Crafter ripping me off for several hundred thousand Gil, I think the user-base needs to get to know the Jail systems again.



Back in XI, the Jails were a dark, small, isolated, and creepy place that a user could be thrown into if they were guilty of anything as deduced by a GM. They could rip you out of wherever you were, plant you in the Jail, and even leave themselves while you were locked inside of it. My actual knowledge of them beyond that is pretty much non-existent, but I have heard that you could not log out or get out of the game while in a Jail, and your subscription time could still be counting down while you were imprisoned in it.

As for it's applications for XIV, I think the player-base needs to become more reacquainted with them to reduce the chance they exhibit overly negative behavior to other players. Being in the game, but stuck in a drab dreary place is the definition of "This is wasting so much time right now" to most people. You haven't been suspended or banned yet, but you're contained to one area and can do nothing about it, it's like a suspension but it serves a near same warning without doing damage to the account.

Warnings themselves like "Hello player, we have been told that you did something you shouldn't have to other users and we are aware of it, if you do not wish to suffer any harsher penalties, cease and desist from your actions against other users and maintain XIV as a friendly and polite area" aren't that effective.
(I'm also completely unaware of what an actual warning from a GM is like, so feel free to let me know the actual message that someone else might have seen.)

Experiencing what the Jails are actually like could help to offer a sort of scared straight program, and could even affect the lore of the game if done right. At the end of the day, every single player is a Warrior of Light, and this makes it feel like we can run around and do whatever we like. I've heard that in some games, there's a sort of Judge enemy that can actively find and grab players and punish them for what they've done. These characters usually only appear when going after someone, and they are impossible to harm or kill, which means certain doom is a given for who they are after. They could grab players, toss them in the Jails, and just leave them there. We have GMs for that though.

A good example of what they would be like is the example that is talked about briefly in the show Log Horizon, which is an Anime based on the story of an MMO. If we had something like that that utilized the Jails, it could make for some interesting lore if you felt like you were always being watched by something that at any moment could rip you from what you're doing and imprison you.

But that's all just my thoughts, I'm curious to see what anyone else thinks about this.

I like it. Do it Square.

Unable to logout - impossible - just pull the plug... Unable to leave until penalty expires(in in-game time) sure. I'd make it more than a 2x2 cell and more like a huge mostly empty place/maze with mobs(with ??? as their levels) roaming as well and inventory and gear lockout - you'd get your gender/race starting gear. And to experience it atleast once there would be a quest that would get you falsely thrown in there for 5 minutes(after which whatever class you were when you got thrown in guild leader would come and fetch you as this was a mistake and they were horrified to hear about this) - then an exit would popup - but you could explore it further. Maybe make it a special instance like the scions stuff where multiple players are in the same instance but don't see each other - other than maybe ghostly silhuetes.

No. If you do something bad enough to get "jail" time you should be suspended or banned. This is simpler and saves on coding time as there is no need for redundant areas, because make no mistake a "jailed" individual is no different than a suspended individual.

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Originally Posted by ruskie

Unable to logout - impossible - just pull the plug... Unable to leave until penalty expires(in in-game time) sure. I'd make it more than a 2x2 cell and more like a huge mostly empty place/maze with mobs(with ??? as their levels) roaming as well and inventory and gear lockout - you'd get your gender/race starting gear. And to experience it atleast once there would be a quest that would get you falsely thrown in there for 5 minutes(after which whatever class you were when you got thrown in guild leader would come and fetch you as this was a mistake and they were horrified to hear about this) - then an exit would popup - but you could explore it further. Maybe make it a special instance like the scions stuff where multiple players are in the same instance but don't see each other - other than maybe ghostly silhouettes.

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I like all this a lot for it.