SE Allowing Harassment

I am going to put this here and idc what the peanut gallery thinks,at this point i am completely fed up and frustrated beyond simple words can ever express about the stance and inability of SE Game Master to do their job regarding harassment it is beyond f####g belief.And idc if this is allowed or not bc frankly i am getting ready to leave this game.

An Overview:
Around 4/5 months ago I was sitting with my friend in limsa when someone by the name (redacted) started harassing me.I was simply just sitting with my friend when this (redacted) person who I do not know started trying get my friends attn then in say chat they "Hey, do you know (me) is a guy?" then everytime they see me they keep do laugh emote at me and run away.For some reason I am unable to blacklist this person.What i am or where I am from is private info to me, idk how they know but my guess it bc they are in an fc I used to be in the Leader is still salty that I left about a year ago and perhaps decided to get people after me (just an assumption).I put in a ticket on this person and spoke to a GM.I was told they would investigate it.
According to SE's Prohibited Behaviour in Final Fantasy XIV
link: (redacted)

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Harassment
"Harassment" means speech and/or behaviour that inflicts deep emotional distress on another person. It is an extremely serious violation. Where Square Enix determines that harassment has occurred, a penalty equal to or higher than "Temporary Service Account Suspension" may be imposed.

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Then within the list in that section

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・Disclosing or indicating another person's real world personal information without permission

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So based on what I said above this person would dealt with accordingly? Nope wrong, in fact a week this person was still around and started to harass me more.I then put in another ticket and this time got 2 GM's to msg me.Again I explained everything to them and all they can say is to blacklist this person.. well gee, if only i could?! and even if i can it does not stop them to bother me or go around in say chat and say things about me only if i was able to blacklist them I would not be able to see that.Finally after a while I msg this persons fc leader and she said they would take care of it
https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...7348481516943/

3 days later, this person continues to harass me again.This time I tell them to leave me alone and get away from me bc at this point i am really fed the f up.I lost all confidence and hope SE will do anything, If my privacy and safety does not seem to matter to them at all.So i msg their fc leader again this time no so nice msg, told her wonder if she would like if the same happened to her that someones will harass her, in return she got angry with me then couple days later I seen this person no longer in their FC so they continued to bother me and said "now you can no longer msg (redacted) (their fc leader) anymore now i'm no in the fc".
After a while things were quiet for about a month? Then i was in Eulmore trying to help a friend augment gear I made for them, when again (redacted) shows up (this time back in that fc) and started bother me again.I said again leave me alone! then I wrote another ticket. (at this point i wrote about 5 tickets).
Again things seemed quiet and was hoping this time SE finally did their job and did something and this person finally got the idea to finally leave me alone.At this time I accrued another harasser who is going around with an alt saying stuff about me but this a diff case diff person.
About over a week ago I was sitting in front of my house looking over the beach and just relaxing then I saw someone running into my yard, at 1st I was not sure who it was then I saw .. guess who?!?! (redacted) again this time instead of bothering me in limsa/eulmore or any other pubic area they decided it was not enough so they tracked me estate down and came into my lot and bother me there also and leaving msg in my book.So I filed anotherrrr ticket.( 6 by now)
Now today my old fc leader msg me on discord asking me who (redacted) is and I told them who it was, and asked him why? He then told me (redacted) was msging them and asking about me and why I am no longer there.

So I am very frustrated about SE inaction to follow on their rules and apply proper action.Seems my safety and privacy means nothing to allow this person to continue doing what they are doing and all they can say is "we will investigate this and rest assured if they are found in violation they will be dealt with"And they tell me "we recommend you blacklist this person" Which I am unable to do for some reason.And even so it does not stop them from harassing me so SE here a better idea,Do your damn F### JOB!!!!! I am tired you guys saying you gonna do this and that, there is no way to hold SE accountable to make sure they are actually doing what they said they would I feel they tell us they are doing xyz to shut us up and instead their masking tape solution to everything is to blacklist which in itself does not fully work.There is no way to see or tell if they are actually investigating or outcome of it bc they cite privacy .. ironically when it comes to my privacy SE you do not give a flying s##t and I am fed up.I do not spend 30+ $ every month to be subject to this (sub + retainers+ companion app).If you cannot take my tickets serious and deal with such things properly then I feel my money is no longer good to you so at this point this is gonna be my last moth in this game.Change needs to happen in how things are handled, more and better channels of support need to be added that deal with things.It is bulls##t that when you call their support they do not wanna help with anything other than account issues, and when you wanna talk to a GM all they tell you is use ingame option.Basically they can send GM to you and talk to you but reality is that is it, SE will drop it like a hat bc it convenient to do so or they feel it not serious enough to deal with.
I have even asked a GM to give a simple solution they were not even willing to give, i asked if they can give me a courtesy xfer and give me price of my home so I can move right away and they would not even do that, instead I have to pay a fee and get nothing for my house and I am the victim? what kind of crap is that?

So I hope 1 day SE takes harassment serious, in an age of cyber bullying you would think a big company like SE would take a proper stance and seems they do not give a damn and I am so fed up on their inaction.

I will repost this here if I have to untill I get an official response from SE and how they plan to handle harassment properly and finally do something about this jerk.I will take a screenshot and send it to every point of contact in SE if I have to and if they continue to ignore will send it any outlet that will gaslight this issue untill SE is forced to finally deal with it.I totally had it with SE!!!!

As frustrating as the situation is, you shouldn't be naming the person here, because it's against the forum rules and is likely to get you punished if a moderator sees it - and you're clearly posting because you want a moderator to see it. So.

Same for rude language. It's against the forum rules, so using it in a post targeted at the moderators is not a good approach to get your message heard.

Time I wrote it I was .. well still frustrated, But I understand it may come off negativity to everyone when I am serious about get this issue known, and hope to get some kind of traction so i redacted the name and censored some words.Although idc of penalties because I plan to leave.I hope nobody else has to do with this so my hopes SE takes things like this serious.If SE more concerned about penalties to me bc my message rather than the reason then they have their priorities all wrong.

Point number one - swearing at the people who want to help you is not the way to go.
Point number two - there is no reason at all that shouldn't be able to black list this person. Next time you try, make a note of everything you try. Have you made the Devs aware that you are unable to blacklist? If not, do so immediately. They will expect you to protect yourself by blacklisting the harasser so the fact that you can't for some reason will be very important. Perhaps there is a bug, perhaps you're doing something wrong.
They are very adamant about not tolerating harassment but if they aren't aware that you can't blacklist this person, there isn't much they can do without a ban. Have you provided chat log evidence? If there is enough chat log evidence, then they will look at a ban

You do realize they are just constantly doing it because they are getting a rise out of you. Just literally ignore them, sooner or later they will get bored and leave you alone. I had this happen to me with someone I kicked from and old guild and acting like they didn't exist, worked like a charm. You can still report to GMs, esp if they start trashing you openly. But make no direct response and let them make an idiot out of themselves.

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Originally Posted by AnimaAnimus

You do realize they are just constantly doing it because they are getting a rise out of you. Just literally ignore them, sooner or later they will get bored and leave you alone. I had this happen to me with someone I kicked from and old guild and acting like they didn't exist, worked like a charm. You can still report to GMs, esp if they start trashing you openly. But make no direct response and let them make an idiot out of themselves.

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As much i can agree to most you say, i have to defend the OP, it is always easier said then done ot just ignore such things especially if you try to chat with your guild or friends in between, turning privat messages of will also turn friend ones off, leaving the game is not the way also as example and the GMs need ot do anytihng in my eyes to prevent such, harrassment is a big problem in our society overall, telling soemone to ignore it is basically saying "i not care and you need to take care of it yourself".

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Originally Posted by Elladie

Point number one - swearing at the people who want to help you is not the way to go.
Point number two - there is no reason at all that shouldn't be able to black list this person. Next time you try, make a note of everything you try. Have you made the Devs aware that you are unable to blacklist? If not, do so immediately. They will expect you to protect yourself by blacklisting the harasser so the fact that you can't for some reason will be very important. Perhaps there is a bug, perhaps you're doing something wrong.
They are very adamant about not tolerating harassment but if they aren't aware that you can't blacklist this person, there isn't much they can do without a ban. Have you provided chat log evidence? If there is enough chat log evidence, then they will look at a ban

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GM staff hold the logs, as long I give a time and date and location they can look it up.GM told me once before they are able to to look up this stuff, and it would make sense considering the nature of the game.

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Originally Posted by AnimaAnimus

You do realize they are just constantly doing it because they are getting a rise out of you. Just literally ignore them, sooner or later they will get bored and leave you alone. I had this happen to me with someone I kicked from and old guild and acting like they didn't exist, worked like a charm. You can still report to GMs, esp if they start trashing you openly. But make no direct response and let them make an idiot out of themselves.

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Ignore them? you mean like how I was on my private estate minding my business then this person came to my estate to bother me? Perhaps the SE staff should do their job and actually give the proper punishment as their rules state would be the easier thing because it the proper thing.Why they haven't? that what i wanna know.. and the reason for this threat.Players being subject to this behavior should never be accepted as a norm.Every player in this game has the right to play this game peacefully.

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Originally Posted by Chrisnetika

Ignore them? you mean like how I was on my private estate minding my business then this person came to my estate to bother me? Perhaps the SE staff should do their job and actually give the proper punishment as their rules state would be the easier thing because it the proper thing.Why they haven't? that what i wanna know.. and the reason for this threat.Players being subject to this behavior should never be accepted as a norm.Every player in this game has the right to play this game peacefully.

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I mean, its an option. Unless they are trade cancelling you if which would effect gameplay directly, if you ignore them they will eventually go away.

I do agree that the GMs should do more and have more power, but the GMs for FFXI and FFXIV are dreadfully underpowered and not allowed to do what GMs need to be able to do. SE is so scared of offending someone or of accidently handing out a wrongful ban that they let a lot slide. Believe me I have been playing XI/XIV since 2004, they are horrible at customer service and I am not defending SE by any means, but you are definitely making your aggressor laugh and giving him a thrill by responding. I have had my share of issues as well with nutty players, even ones that came into my estate too just to bother me, but I found over the past couple decades of playing mmos, that if you do nothing back, they get bored super quick and leave you alone. Or take it to a point that they just make themselves out to be really bothersome publicly, which causes more reports from random ppl and more likely of a chance at bans.

But I guarantee you, the fact that this dude knows how bad he is irritating you, is giving him an ever increasing cheap thrill and its only going to get worse if you just keep getting more openly mad and the fact you sent other ppl tells complaining is making his day. You need to take the high road on this one and it will either putter out or escalate to the point that others will notice and send reports too or he will screw up and the GMs hand will be forced. Maybe leave yourself logged in when you afk with the afk timer off, standing in town and let him dig his own hole.

Now if you do not respond and he does try to mess with you on another level like trade cancelling your crafts or teleports or something of that sort, that would be direct gameplay interruption that GMs can actually do something about and almost always do.

What confuses me about this story is "for some reason I cannot blacklist him". Has OP filled their blacklist so that they literally cannot blacklist this one last person? I blacklist spammers too, but I also clean my blacklist too, from time to time.
Private houses can be locked, so visitors cannot come around. Just a hint.

I have to agree with the OP. What’s happening to him is the very textbook definition of harassment and given how, especially lately, SE has put their TOS on a pedestal, needs to be addressed by the GM staff with something a little more than ah just blacklist the person. If I was the OP I would definitely be taking screenshots of the harassment to send in to SE because from my viewpoint by not doing anything about it SE is failing to provide a service that is part of the subscription

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Originally Posted by Burmecia

What confuses me about this story is "for some reason I cannot blacklist him". Has OP filled their blacklist so that they literally cannot blacklist this one last person? I blacklist spammers too, but I also clean my blacklist too, from time to time.
Private houses can be locked, so visitors cannot come around. Just a hint.

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If I had to guess, I think the issue is that the harasser has no said anything and has just used emotes with chat log option off so there is chat log to blacklist from?

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Originally Posted by Chrisnetika

Around 4/5 months ago I was sitting with my friend in limsa when someone by the name..

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If the above is true as to why you can't blacklist, what you can do is /tell them a 1 character message and then use that message in the message log to blacklist them. You can blacklist someone using a message you sent to them, no need to wait to recieve a response.

As much as it sucks, probably best thing you can do is just not respond, react, or acknowledge the harasser. If they are using emotes to make a bunch of noise around you, you can use the sound settings and mute that one sound option responsible for emote sounds. You can even make a macro for it to mute and unmute. I can't check now but I think I think "/soundeffectsother". "/soundeffectsother" or whichever command it was will toggle on and off if you don't put a number after. Report where you can. I've heard of people getting suspended for spamming emotes. Look for sound chat command about 4/5 down the page or CTRL+F "sound" at https://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/Text_commands

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Originally Posted by SweetestLily

I swear every person who has that FC signature that you use just comes to these forums to spew misery. You people have issues.

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Same person, multiple accounts. This person thrives off attention I guess. Just blacklist this person. I'm guessing most regulars on this forum have already done so. I've never seen anything of worth posted by this person anyway. All his posts either stroke his own ego, belittle the person he is replying to, or saying no to anything that might help with the housing situation.

So a few things that might help:

1) Create a cross-world linkshell so you and you can invite your friends into it
2) Create a separate chat for that linkshell
3) Once linkshell is created, edit the chat setting for the channel so the only thing that pops up in chat are the linkshell (and anything else you want) but disable emote messages, DMs, shouts, yells, tells, ect.

This shouuullldddd fix the problem of this person blowing you up in the chat box (if you cant outright blacklist). The only remaining issue would be if he is physically emoting on top of you repeatedly. If this is the case, I believe you can report him for emote spamming (as you mentioned, the GMs have the logs so they can confirm).

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Originally Posted by Chrisnetika

GM staff hold the logs, as long I give a time and date and location they can look it up.GM told me once before they are able to to look up this stuff, and it would make sense considering the nature of the game.

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Yes they can look it up but if it is happening as often as you say and under the circumstances you report, why wouldn't you include chat logs? I was harassed (very minorly in comparison to your experiences) and I posted the chatlog in my report (as I believe it does ask you to do). The player in question disappeared from the area shortly after I spoke directly with the GM and I have never seen them since.

Also you didn't reply to my question about whether you told the GMs you couldn't blacklist. This clearly leaves you vulnerable to further harassment, so it's really important information

Greetings,

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. I have made sure that it was brought to the attention of the SGMs, so the reports you have made could be reviewed again to ensure they were handled correctly. Should any additional details be needed, we'll make sure that someone reaches out to you in the game to get those details to guarantee the investigations are handled correctly. Since we cannot discuss any investigations in public, we'll be closing this thread and having someone reach out to you in game, if necessary.

LGM Enkrateia