On-going rp name blocking harassment.

Since roughly January my rp partner and I have been subject to persistent name blocking of our characters rp child out of spite, across our entire data centre.
This still on-going issue has continued AFTER in game admission that the character name in question is being blocked solely with malicious intent. Along with a vast swath of tickets submitted in game, and via lodestone, about the issue by both myself and my rp partner.

So far, there has no little or no accountability from Square Enix in regards to enforcing their own EULA and ToS being breached in this way. And the vast majority of responses to the issue have come off as uncaring. More so given the extent, duration, and persistence of the issue. My rp partner has even made the character on a different data centre out of fear the issue will get worse once cross data centre play opens up.

I still doubt this issue will be resolved even posting about it here, I continue to hope I will be proven wrong. Though I doubt it given the responses to the issue to date. And quite honestly it feels like my rp partner and I have basically been blacklisted by game masters in regards to the issue.

For GM's please see ticket numbers 15691174 (May ticket), 16882753 (June ticket), and, 17162716 (July ticket), 17610208 (August ticket), 17941855 (September), 18194395 (October). 6 months of tickets including that which contains first admission of intent to harm.

Finally I also believe this thread will be deleted as it technically breaks a forum rule by criticising SE and or it's employee's. Despite being told multiple times to also submit it here, via the general gm auto response to submit questions or feedback here.

... what? What do you mean by RP name blocking?

The name my rp partner and myself intended to use for our roleplay child being taken, deliberately, by another person solely with intent to deny us access to creating the character. Including my rp partners less than common last name. Literally the only characters with that last name across all data centres, other than the character in question being blocked, are tied to their service account.

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Originally Posted by RFiend

This still on-going issue has continued AFTER in game admission that the character name in question is being blocked solely with malicious intent.

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Can you elaborate on this too please?

A player (potentially one of multiple from a specific FC, could literally be group harassment) openly in-game said to me in regards to the issue. "Me, (Name omitted). I am the one who made ALL the (Alt name omitted)'s. All of them are mine and belong to me. I made them because (RP partner's name omitted) threatened to report (Name omitted's friend) to the GM's over the name. That pissed me off so I made the (Alt name omitted)'s." The issue should have been over and done with in January when their friend changed the characters name to something else. Which was something that was agreed upon by my rp partner and that person, sadly, outside game. That the character in question was our creation, not theirs, and due to a falling out neither I nor my rp partner wanted to rp with them nor relinquish control of our rp child's story to them. Ironically this has happened to the tune of gm intervention seemingly having done nothing to date about it.

Pick a new name. This isn't something against the rules.

EULA
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.
Disruption of another's game play experience.

Prohibited Activities
■Harassment
・Other actions that are generally regarded as actions that inflict deep emotional distress on another person
With regard to character names, if a phrase equating to harassment is formed within the full name, this is also regarded as harassment.
■Nuisance behaviour
"Nuisance behaviour" means speech or behaviour that hurts others or obstructs game play, but which is not classified as harassment. Even if it was not the intention, a penalty may be imposed if the end result was that another person was hurt or obstructed.
◆Offensive expression
・Expressions that significantly lack consideration for another person
・Expressions that any reasonable person would find offensive
・Expressions that attempt to unilaterally exclude someone from the game or content/community, etc.
◆Obstruction of play
・Other obstruction of play
This means all other behaviour that deliberately obstructs another person's game play by some means.
◆Impersonation
■Ignoring the Game Master (GM)'s instructions (Possibly)

There's plenty of rules being broken given the in game conversation and the actions the other party has taken.

Report it through the in-game report function. If they said that to you in-game, they can be tracked down over it.

I'm not sure why you've posted this in the Localisation forum.

Stated in my opening post this issue has been brought to GM attention multiple times via the in-game report function along with the lodestone report function. What I quoted the other party in question saying from the in-game conversation has also been time stamped (date, time, timezone) on each ticket submitted since their having said it. An that quote is likely the most polite portion of it that has them admitting to making these alts and continuing to keep them for the sole purpose to breach the ToS in a vendetta against myself and rp partner.

As for this being posted in Localisation forum, it's due to the experience and interactions with the GM's of the NA servers so far in regards to the issue along with other similar posts in this forum. If a GM/Forum mod deems it better suited or moved to a different forum section I'll leave that to them.

Another month, another lodestone search, another ticket. Issue still continues to persist with little, or nothing, being done by GM's to resolve the blatant ToS violation in regards to prohibited activities despite it having continued for several months.

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Originally Posted by RFiend

Issue still continues to persist with little, or nothing, being done by GM's

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You're still on the localization forum. This forum is for errors in the game's text and script. Your issue is not in the scope of this forum and GMs are probably not even reading this thread.

If it's this important to you, change the spelling a bit and blacklist the offending party. Add an e, change and f to ph, use a special character, etc...

Do this before YOU are cited for harassment of a player whose only crime is being annoying.

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Originally Posted by Rongway

You're still on the localization forum. This forum is for errors in the game's text and script. Your issue is not in the scope of this forum and GMs are probably not even reading this thread.

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While I appreciate being informed this is the wrong forum to post, you've not informed me of the proper one to post in regards to the issue. So less than constructive in-site and more simply criticising. As mentioned if a forum moderator deems it appropriate to move this to the appropriate forum then they may do so. I seen multiple other posts of harassment and stuff about gm assistance here, so I posted here.

These forums are not the correct place to bring up the issue, you need to take it up with the in game GMs or through customer support. The forums can't help you.

If you've reported it to the GMs then leave it there, blacklist the person and move on. The GMs will not inform you of any action they take on the issue and they won't strip a name from a player unless its in violation of the naming rules. So even if they do ban the person you won't be able to use the name, so I'm not sure what you're expecting to get out of this. Repeated tickets aren't going to get you more of a response than the first one and may even slow down the resolution.

Your only real option is to have all characters renamed without informing anyone else until its done, that way the names can't be taken by someone else.

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Originally Posted by Alien_Gamer

These forums are not the correct place to bring up the issue, you need to take it up with the in game GMs or through customer support. The forums can't help you.

If you've reported it to the GMs then leave it there, blacklist the person and move on. The GMs will not inform you of any action they take on the issue and they won't strip a name from a player unless its in violation of the naming rules. So even if they do ban the person you won't be able to use the name, so I'm not sure what you're expecting to get out of this. Repeated tickets aren't going to get you more of a response than the first one and may even slow down the resolution.

Your only real option is to have all characters renamed without informing anyone else until its done, that way the names can't be taken by someone else.

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I have brought the issue up with GM's in game, and out.

GM's have access to the chat log and "With regard to character names, if a phrase equating to harassment is formed within the full name, this is also regarded as harassment."

As for why I am posting in the forums. GM suggestion, the copy paste they provide on every ticket response, I am providing feedback. "We are constantly striving to improve the game and our services to our customers, and are open to any feedback you might have. To submit feedback, please visit the forums at https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv and make a post with any suggestions you may have for our teams."

I again appreciate being told over and over pick a new name as a viable option. However that means no accountability takes place for the perpetrator of this. It might be a stupid hill to die on, but I do hold people accountable for their actions or lack their of as I fully expect to be held accountable for my own.

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Originally Posted by RFiend

As for why I am posting in the forums. GM suggestion, the copy paste they provide on every ticket response, I am providing feedback. "We are constantly striving to improve the game and our services to our customers, and are open to any feedback you might have. To submit feedback, please visit the forums at https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv and make a post with any suggestions you may have for our teams."

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Yes, you can leave feedback for an interaction with a GM but you haven't done that. Your OP is a request for additional action and more communication, not feedback on the situation.

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Originally Posted by RFiend

I again appreciate being told over and over pick a new name as a viable option. However that means no accountability takes place for the perpetrator of this. It might be a stupid hill to die on, but I do hold people accountable for their actions or lack their of as I fully expect to be held accountable for my own.

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This is where you're going to run into issues. If you've reported them on the grounds of harassment, the GMs will look into it. However, the GMs will not inform you of the results of their investigation so you will never know if there was any accountability or not. All the GMs will tell you is to blacklist them and report any additional harassment.

If you've reported them for having a bad name then the GMs will remove it and force the character to have a name change. If they do that the name won't be freed up for you to use, it will be locked out permanently. If its not violating any rules regarding names then the GMs won't remove it; SE only removes names if they're violating the TOS for what an allowable name is.

So in either case, you don't get the name and you don't get to know what happened to the other person. It doesn't matter how many posts you make or how many tickets you make about it, you will never be told what actions were taken against another person. SE considers that private information and won't share it. Your choices are either accept that you'll never know what happens to the person and move on or let it keep eating at you.

That must be really frustrating submitting so many tickets and not getting a resolution to your problem. If it were me, I would have created three (3) new character names with a brand new last name -- one for yourself, one for your RP partner, and one for your RP child. That way you can at least enjoy the game while SE takes a look at your tickets and reprimands the person that was being malicious. It does seem like a long time to wait for closure, but I'm sure they are looking at all of the evidence thoroughly before making their decision to reprimand the person.

If they got the name first, it's theirs. Regardless of thier intent.

Firstly, you can't copyright a name. Even if someone takes a name that you wanted, if the name is not against ToS, it won't get changed. And if it is against ToS, you won't be able to use it. The name is gone, and will continue to be gone unless that person decided to delete the character(s), which the GMs can't force them to do.

And if you report with enough detail, a GM doesn't need to talk to you, 'cause they have what they think they need to investigate. And you should be writing reports with the intention of not being talked to after. Give enough detail that they can just dive straight into it. GMs don't have time to personally speak with every person about every little thing. And no matter how many times you report it, they're not going to suddenly talk to you. What GMs do with reports are private. They're not going to tell you the result.

But personally, I don't even feel like this is reportable. It's a name. Someone took it. Spite or not, it's a name.

As for the rule you quoted. 3.2 Disruption. That's about actual gameplay. Dungeons, trials, fates, and the completion of.

RP is not inherently part of the game. Therefore it does not qualify as "gameplay". This rule does not apply.

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Originally Posted by EyreJane

That must be really frustrating submitting so many tickets and not getting a resolution to your problem. If it were me, I would have created three (3) new character names with a brand new last name -- one for yourself, one for your RP partner, and one for your RP child. That way you can at least enjoy the game while SE takes a look at your tickets and reprimands the person that was being malicious. It does seem like a long time to wait for closure, but I'm sure they are looking at all of the evidence thoroughly before making their decision to reprimand the person.

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Don’t enable people’s delusions. It really is t helpful

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Originally Posted by Kolaina

Don’t enable people’s delusions. It really is t helpful

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I don't see the harm in validating their frustration and offering a workaround solution while they wait for a response from SE.

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Originally Posted by EyreJane

I don't see the harm in validating their frustration and offering a workaround solution while they wait for a response from SE.

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Definitely a lot of frustration on my and rp partners end. But it happens everyone has their own opinions and views.

At this point and 6 tickets including that which included the admission of intent to harm nothings going to be done about it. So will be giving my final thoughts on the matter, and likely end up getting this post locked due to them.

I've come to deeply appreciate the transparency in how many criminal justice systems around the world function. They are there to protect people.

Learning from this incident, as I expected first going into this, GM service aren't there to protect the customer. GM services exist to make the customer feel better and protect the investor's as all companies do. Which is what I expected. Anything that hurts the bottom line gets nailed down hard and fast. Such as that which affects a majority of players. Things like bots, malicious software, controversial modding, etc. Anything that doesn't gets likely a stern talking to, or temporary suspension of services at best, less it's possibly a high profile case. I doubt a person like Ross O'Donovan, who plays on my server periodically oddly enough, would have struggled as roughly should something similar have happened.

So effectively speaking, at the end of the day, the abuser and or those breaching the ToS succeed in what they've intended to do in this case. Deny access to a legitimate use of a service by parties who don't intend to breach the EULA with it's use.

Should a case like this arise in the future that is higher profile. I can only point to how this case has been handled overall, which is to say, it effectively wasn't. And there should probably be better guidelines or clarity in how niche cases are handled. I recall, relatively recently past year or two, how party finder's were being banned for advertising rp events in it under other. An that resulted in a good chunk of the community crying out about to the point Yoshi P even had to say something about it. And that is a pretty niche case, but still a valid one.

Advice for those if something similar happens. Try to discuss it with the other party if able - I was effectively told no when they first admitted to doing this to cause harm - you may not always be able to, but, I tried. Contact GM services, they may not have effectively solved the issue in this case future issues similar to this may be handled differently. People will do things you don't expect, family, friends, friends of friends, etc., sometimes for little reason. Be very cautious when sharing rp details of someone tied to your character with other players, more so if they're rp family members. Try and have least a couple fall back names - even if part of the name is so unique it was tied solely to a single account prior - because evidently stuff like this does happen.

Sadly though. It worked. 6 tickets in and even if it was addressed in some way shape or form the one who broke the EULA succeeded in what they set out to do breaking the EULA. Deny use and access to service and game play (albeit a niche one RP is still part of the game else the RP tag would not exist, and Yoshi P wouldn't have had to speak out about the party finder RP ban stuff) for malicious reasons.

Thank you again to everyone has viewed, commented, or responded. Whether questioning, criticism, or suggestions made, I've appreciated it all since it shows other players how GM's and the general player base responds and views these kinds of issues.

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Originally Posted by RFiend

Deny access
EULA
the one who broke the EULA
breaking the EULA
Deny use and access to service and game play

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They didn't deny or interfere with your service, not by a long shot. They did not interfere with your connection to the game servers. They didn't cause you to disconnect from the game servers. They didn't prevent you from playing the game. Was their intent malicious? I'm sure you would know more about that than I. But was it interfering with your access to the game?

Unequivocally: no. It was no more an interruption of your service than someone naming their character Naruto Uzumaki before you could take it for yourself, and in that case it's not an interruption of service. You cannot ride the interruption of service clause because it just simply doesn't apply. You can still play the game. You still do play the game.

It's probably harassment, yeah, but that's a different clause. And if you don't have enough evidence to satisfy the GMs that harassment has occurred--namely, in-game messages from the other person explicitly saying they're going to bogart your character name and in-game messages from that person as that character name taunting you--you probably don't have a case.

PS - you're still in the Localization forum. This should be in General Discussion if at all.

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Originally Posted by Rongway

They didn't deny or interfere with your service, not by a long shot. They did not interfere with your connection to the game servers. They didn't cause you to disconnect from the game servers. They didn't prevent you from playing the game. Was their intent malicious? I'm sure you would know more about that than I. But was it interfering with your access to the game?

Unequivocally: no. It was no more an interruption of your service than someone naming their character Naruto Uzumaki before you could take it for yourself, and in that case it's not an interruption of service. You cannot ride the interruption of service clause because it just simply doesn't apply. You can still play the game. You still do play the game.

It's probably harassment, yeah, but that's a different clause. And if you don't have enough evidence to satisfy the GMs that harassment has occurred--namely, in-game messages from the other person explicitly saying they're going to bogart your character name and in-game messages from that person as that character name taunting you--you probably don't have a case.

PS - you're still in the Localization forum. This should be in General Discussion if at all.

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Thank you for being the first to actually say where this should be posted, again a forum moderator may move it at their leisure, I posted here a while ago because I'd seen similar feedback posts posted here.

If that is what they mean by disruption, being solely linked to ability to log in or in general access the game, then you're correct. Some of the EULA and ToS is again vague by what that means.
However, it can fall under prohibited activities.

・Other obstruction of play

This is due to the following also falling under obstruction of play. I am not arguing that is disrupts game balance or server access, as it doesn't.

・Spamming

The EULA version. It mentions including the disruption of SE computers and servers, not exclusively the disruption of them.

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.

It's ironic you mention someone naming their character Naruto Uzumaki, as that is by definition against the EULA too.

EULA 3.5 Naming Right. You may not use any name or other intellectual property belonging to Square Enix or any other third party in your use of the Game (for example, naming a character after a celebrity, company, product, or superhero).
I believe that would apply in this case, much to the dismay of some players. But it'd likely not be enforced, less there was a high profile case, as mentioned. Services and EULA to protect investors not players.

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Originally Posted by RFiend

Some of the EULA and ToS is again vague by what that means.

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And being vague doesn't mean "anything you can wrangle into that definition is automatically against the rules". It means that you may be overreaching by assuming that it applies to your situation.

I'm with the others saying that you've potentially got a case for harassment if you have the evidence of it happening, but not that they are obstructing your ability to play the game. All they have done is prevent you from selecting a specific character name – and as much as you may not find it ideal, you are entirely free to assign your character a slightly different name and continue on. From the sound of things, that may be your only option even if a harassment claim was upheld and the offending account banned, because your desired name would be taken down with it.

I just don't understand what you are saying? You are trying for a specific name, but the name is taken? If yes, that happens to all of us, all the time. Especially this late in the game for FFXIV. On the other hand perhaps I just don't understand.

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Originally Posted by Iscah

And being vague doesn't mean "anything you can wrangle into that definition is automatically against the rules". It means that you may be overreaching by assuming that it applies to your situation.

I'm with the others saying that you've potentially got a case for harassment if you have the evidence of it happening, but not that they are obstructing your ability to play the game. All they have done is prevent you from selecting a specific character name – and as much as you may not find it ideal, you are entirely free to assign your character a slightly different name and continue on. From the sound of things, that may be your only option even if a harassment claim was upheld and the offending account banned, because your desired name would be taken down with it.

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Based on recent changes in wording to EULA and Prohibited activities, I may not have been the only one misconstruing or misinterpreting categories stuff fell under. For disruption in this case, I was using first dictionary definition, "Disturbance or problems which interrupt an event, activity, or process." In this case the activity pertains to roleplaying certain things out.
At the end of the day though it's harassment that succeeded in what it went out to do, regardless what category or multiple it fell under. There is evidence, there's the conversation of them flat out admitting their intent behind what they did is to cause harm and emotional distress. It's rather frustrating being forced to in the case of my rp partner, potentially if the route is taken, pay to change a last name of multiple characters that until this incident had a name unique across all data centre. I'd link the lodestone page, but that'd breach privacy despite the lodestone being publicly accessible information.

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Originally Posted by AlwaysConfused

I just don't understand what you are saying? You are trying for a specific name, but the name is taken? If yes, that happens to all of us, all the time. Especially this late in the game for FFXIV. On the other hand perhaps I just don't understand.

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To summarise the issue, while maintaining some detail, based on event order and the in-game conversation containing evidence of harassment.

Had let someone use a character name of a rp family member. Had a falling out with that person asked them to change name because no longer comfortable with them playing that character in relation to us, they did so and I had offered to front the costs even but was declined or ignored. RP partner and myself ended up deciding we'd just play our twins together instead, and move forward. Within the week of the name change taking place, back in January of 2021, while me and rp partner will still trying to process everything and decide what to do moving forward the name intended to be used was blocked across the data centre. Had been fighting the issue since. In May a conversation took place in-game - outside game stuff doesn't count according to GM's which I comprehend, third party issues and all that - were I got open admission of the intent behind the name being blocked across the data centre being to cause harm, emotional duress, and block access to our use of it.