MUCH needed Blacklist rework

[EDITED]

I've made a more messy thread before, but I decided to do one a bit more professionally now.
This issue has dire need to be adressed and worked on:
The blacklist system is useless, and does not protect players.

I want to start with pointing out the complicity of blacklisting someone.
You can't blacklist from the search menu.
You can't blacklist from the friendslist menu.
You can't blacklist from the linkshell menu.
You can't blacklist from the free company menu.
You can't blacklist someone in a duty, only after.
You can't blacklist STANDING NEXT TO a player and right-click targeting them. (The only way is to use "/blist add <t>" and not alot of people know.)
EDIT: Yes, really, the normal "/blist add Player Name" does not work. It will give an error message saying the player character doesn't exist.

The only way to add them to your blacklist is:
By sending them a tell message.
If you shared a duty together over the social tab, wich might not always be the case.
Searching their name up constantly (aka you are now becoming the stalker) catching them online and finding them in the ingame world and having to target them ... amazing.

And incase the issue was more personal, not just a random unpleasant player encounter, you might have an even bigger problem:
Removing someone from your friendslist, and then blacklisting them, does NOT remove you from theirs.
They can still see whenever you are online. They can see if you are in a queue, in an instance, on what map you are, what your free company is ... and even if you name changed.
I have paid real money for a name change and a race change, a desperate try to escape my harasser, but it's of no use since the system is so inherently flawed.
As long as they have me on their friendslist, I will forever be trackable by the person I want to escape from.

There is more to harassment than chats, and people making an MMO should know that (I have already been virtually chased around Limsa Lominsa).
I have never encountered any platform in a game or on a social media, where a delete/blacklist would be so completely useless.
And yes, I did write 2 support tickets and even mailed the support directly, they are unable to do anything.

If I go as far as to blacklist someone, I expect complete cut off from both sides, and I dare to say it can't be that hard to fix this.

You shouldn't be forced to spend money on something like a server transfer to get rid of stalkers.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by EnigmaticDodo

Agreed! Are you on console or pc? if the latter, you can probably do something.

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Why would the platform matter in any way for anything regarding this topic?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gotaname1

Why would the platform matter in any way for anything regarding this topic?

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IIRC there is a mod that lets you completely hide a person. OP's stalker would have no way of interacting with them.

I'd love to hear every possible way a muted player can now harass you.
Because there's a solution to everything.

The game has "fading", if the devs just wanted to, they could implement a way to "erase" players on your blacklist. If they spam mounts and ride donuts around you, you could just delete them visually, like a quest npc when they walk away and fade off.

If someone is stealing your quest mob kills, players should be allowed to create temporary custom leves. Again, the mechanical platform exists. Players create their own "someone stealing my kills/harassing me" leve with a 10-20 min duration, during which nobody else but their party members can attack/tag monsters.

So now he can't talk to you.
His emotes are blocked.
His bard music turned off.
His mount and char model turned invisible if you so please.
He can't even kill monsters around you.
The list is smarter and won't let you in the same dungeon/roulette.

Anything else I missed?
So this is basically everything the devs need to do.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Elemenz

I'd love to hear every possible way a muted player can now harass you.
Because there's a solution to everything.

The game has "fading", if the devs just wanted to, they could implement a way to "erase" players on your blacklist. If they spam mounts and ride donuts around you, you could just delete them visually, like a quest npc when they walk away and fade off.

If someone is stealing your quest mob kills, players should be allowed to create temporary custom leves. Again, the mechanical platform exists. Players create their own "someone stealing my kills/harassing me" leve with a 10-20 min duration, during which nobody else but their party members can attack/tag monsters.

So now he can't talk to you.
His emotes are blocked.
His bard music turned off.
His mount and char model turned invisible if you so please.
He can't even kill monsters around you.
The list is smarter and won't let you in the same dungeon/roulette.

Anything else I missed?
So this is basically everything the devs need to do.

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Dont let them enter your house even if it is open and hide the comments you can write in the book of houses of other people or FCs.
Edit: actually make the erasing work both ways so the stalker has less knowledge.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Elemenz

I'd love to hear every possible way a muted player can now harass you.
Because there's a solution to everything.

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Stalking and staying in the same map and area as me, walking up to me and emoting (laughs can still be heard), following around, asking their friends to message me, all those kind of things. Sure i tried to ignore it, but its bothersome nonetheless. And this harasser has already done mental damage to me, thus the block.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Saraide

IIRC there is a mod that lets you completely hide a person. OP's stalker would have no way of interacting with them.

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You mean a mod that hides me from them? Unsure how that could possibly work, but im interested nonetheless...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ZeepZoop

You mean a mod that hides me from them? Unsure how that could possibly work, but im interested nonetheless...

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The other way around, the mod hides them entirely from your view.

Report for harassment? It will be insta ban. If he indeed harassed you, that is. Ffxiv gms are really ban trigger happy.

Agreed. Blacklist is useless as it is now.

Server transfers aren't even going to be an option to get away from stalkers anymore: They are planning to allow for cross-data center visits, aren't they?

Blacklist needs to be overhauled.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ZeepZoop

Hey fellow players,

after continuous personal struggles i had to create a forum thread aswell.
I dont even know where to start, but i will try to keep it short and simple:
The blacklist feature is useless!!!

Just like any other game, platform or even social media, a block/blacklist should stop that person from tracking you completely. Messages are one thing, but to see literally ALL the information, location, free-company... that is beyond shocking.
The blacklist feature is made to stop harassment, but there is more to harassment than just chats.
Me and my partner had to go the lenght to pay real money for namechange AND racechange, to finally become anonymous to our stalker/harasser.
It turned out to be a waste... since that person still has one of us on their friendslist (YES, blacklisting doesnt even remove you from their friendslist. that means your name will still be bright orange for them...).
Im beyond lost, left for words, helpless.
Not being put in an instance with them is one issue, that might require more difficult changes, but a simple REMOVE FROM THEIR FRIENDSLIST........why do i even have to ask for this. Being removed as a contact and being unaviable in the searchbar should be the minimum!!! And dont even get me started on the lodestone links that also never change, another way to forever track you.
This needs to be reworked on asap. I feel so unsafe playing FFXIV because i know im permantly trackable, no matter what.
In addition: It has already happened that i got virtually chased through limsa by that person. 2 support tickets did nothing. Mailing the support did nothing.

Here is also a reddit thread with almost 400 upvotes on this topic:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...o_be_reworked/

And i will dare to say this, but im pretty sure its not that complicated to fix a blocklist system.

Square Enix... stop enabling harassers and stalkers.

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agree

the lodestone numbers that never change is one of the worst thing i've ever seen

Your main option is to take screenshots and report.

Every time you are bothered, ask him to leave you alone, then report when he does something after that.

Keep reporting every single time. Call the GM, every time.

Regarding the suggestions, I agree black listing should work both ways, and should remove them from your view, however anyone can search lodestone even with a dummy account.

Blocked people shouldn't be allowed to see your character and they shouldn't be rendered in your screen either.

That would be so amazing, specially for people that have slow computers.

reporting them won't do crap if the harasser and their friends can just make an infinite number of characters to follow their 'prey'

would be nice once we block a player we can't see their characters!!!!

Agreed.

The blacklist in this game is the most functionally useless garbage I've ever seen in an MMO - and their reasoning for why it works the way it does (or rather, doesn't work the way it should) is incredibly weak.

"We don't want the person's feelings hurt if they find someone had removed them as a friend/blacklisted them" <-- WHY?

Why do the feelings of stalkers or simply people we don't want to be around or have our information available to any longer matter more than our own? Ignoring bots and the like, most people blacklist for a good reason. If someone is blacklisted, or even removed from our friends list in general, why should they be allowed to keep all our information readily at hand on their own lists despite theirs not being on ours anymore? It's such backwards thinking even for a society as steeped in 'politeness' as Japan is. Like... I'm very aware they have just as bad of stalking problems as elsewhere in the world. Sometimes even worse ones.