Sexual harassment

[KaivaC]

When it pertains to strictly interactions in an MMO environment, it is sound advice to protect yourself, and if harassment does happen, blocking, reporting, and moving on can be sound advice. I don't think anyone is knocking that. The issue at the core of this thread, though, is that this has gone beyond the game. I don't think it's fair for some of these folks to be judged when their decisions occurred during emotionally vulnerable periods in their lives. People tend to act irrationally or outside of their norms. It's part of the reason why abuse is still very prevalent today. Not all victims have the wherewithal to be able to say no. Not all of them know how to say no. It's more than just a two letter word.

That's not to say that the victims are free from any faults, but some people aren't equipped to respond to certain situations in the way some of you might. If we all took a trip to a combat zone and we suddenly came under attack, can you say for certain that you'd be able to keep a leveled head? Be able to return fire and call in the direction of gunfire? Not everyone can to certain things in the same way.

And on that note, whomever said that online abuse is not that serious, there is something morally wrong with that statement. It's not the serious? A friend of mine committed suicide not too long ago because of cyber bullying (yes, this is online abuse too). But it's not that serious? Perhaps not to you, but don't say it's not that serious when have been national awareness movements about this.

[QT_Melon]

This is a MMORPG.

Yeah, okay. So apparently places like Fanfest is just full of Avatars, not people. The fact is people do form relationships for better or for worse outside the game. Unless this is supposed to be a myopic mindset?

[jameseoakes]

And on that note, whomever said that online abuse is not that serious, there is something morally wrong with that statement. It's not the serious? A friend of mine committed suicide not too long ago because of cyber bullying (yes, this is online abuse too). But it's not that serious? Perhaps not to you, but don't say it's not that serious when have been national awareness movements about this.

I want second the wrongness of saying the online abuse isn't serious, games like this should be a place of safety and fun for people.
Also Kaiva I am really sorry to hear about your friend.

[NessaWyvern]

Recently in my country's news, is a story about how a guy flew to america to try to attack a 14 year old girl he met on the internet.

It's sadly one of the many risks of the internet, and it's up to parents and role models to teach kids how to be ultra-careful on the internet. And also up to role models and parents to, of course, teach their kids not to do the harassment in the first place. There would be no harassment if nobody harassed people after all.
Also, the entire world could use more funding for mental health, as many of the harassers and harassed experience mental health issues. When human's brains are their most important thing, you'd think that keeping them healthy would be the most important thing in our society.

Also screenshots. Take screenshots of terrible stuff said, so you can use it to get them banned, and send it to those people who accuse you of lying.

[RaquelleAvarosa]

Wow... the amount of drama in EU/NA servers are so freakin' high.
-waves from Tonberry-
The only shit we get in JP servers for the English community is probably blaming of gaijins for everything that goes wrong.
I think I rather the gaijin bullcrap over what you guys have to deal with any day.

[QT_Melon]

I have a question for SE since there are activities outside the game like Fanfest going on. If the situation comes to light that members/users of the game in this community harass members, sexually or otherwise, what steps does your team make an event like Fanfest something that be seen as a safe place for other people to meet up and join. I get that they can't investigate every matter. I'm just curious onto your general stance on things. I mean, it was apparent that one such predator did use the convention to continue the abuse towards female members of the community, so it is a bit of a concern on what stance would be taken.

[Corfish]

How to deal with sexual harassment in an MMO:

Ok, maybe I need to shout this for people who apparently can't read.

MOST ABUSE CASES ARE NOT ABOUT RANDOS. MOST ABUSERS ARE TRUSTED INDIVIDUALS WHO CAN TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE PERSON BEING ABUSED. BLOCKING, IGNORING, CHANGING SERVERS ETC. WORK WHEN THE PERSON IS JUST SOME RANDO WHO HARASSES ANYONE WHO PASSES BY. BUT IF THE RANDO GETS A PARTICULAR BUG UP THEIR BUTT YOU MIGHT HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO DELETE EVERYTHING TO ESCAPE THEM.

AND CHANCES ARE, THE WORST ABUSERS ARE NOT GOING TO BE SOME RANDO, IT WILL BE SOMEONE YOU THOUGHT GENUINELY CARED ABOUT YOU. THIS IS WHY ABUSE IS SUCH A TRICKY PROBLEM, BECAUSE THEY EARNED THE TRUST OF THE ABUSED PERSON.

[QT_Melon]

Ok, maybe I need to shout this for people who apparently can't read.

MOST ABUSE CASES ARE NOT ABOUT RANDOS. MOST ABUSERS ARE TRUSTED INDIVIDUALS WHO CAN TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE PERSON BEING ABUSED.

What's great about the people that are ignoring what you're writing is that in the case of the what prompted this topic to begin with, people are belittling the issue to "Guy finds crazy hard up women that send him nude pics".

The thing is, it's not even that. The stories are people who created a friends network in game, and this guy comes into their lives. He's involved with everyone. So he harassed them right? Okay block and move on. Except that people were friends with each other in the FC, he found a way to interfere with activities that surrounded the game, like the magazine.

He wasn't just blackmailing a ton of females that sent him nude pics.
He bullied women when they didn't go for his sexual advances.
He constantly made sexual advances even when the topic wasn't welcome.
He made threats to some people's jobs (even if they were unpaid ones).
He used his influence and clout to make sure these women were ostracized from their network of friends or community.
He also did the same to male members if he felt they were too close to a female he was interested in for what ever reason.


So yeah, the not all the women he harassed sent him nude pics he could later blackmail (and even then that's besides the point).

He was treating women and men pretty poorly in order to control or manipulate things to his outcome.

[Baingoleth]

I'm not sure what some of the posters in this thread want or expect Square-Enix to do. Square-Enix has some wording in the terms of service to give them the right to take appropriate action if people violate the terms. I'd expect them usually to only resort suspensions or bans if people violate the terms consistently. They might notify the authorities in clear cases where a player breaks some laws. If any sexual abuse case goes to court and the courts issue a warrant for Square-Enix to release chat logs, I'd expect Square-Enix to comply. If you are continually harassed and filing GM reports doesn't stop the harassment, escalate. Ask if a manager is available or try going through contact options on the website.

I'm also not sure what some of the posters want the player base to do. Most people just want to play the game and not get involved in conflicts between strangers or people they barely know. I think most people would agree that sexual harassment can start on the internet and that players of Final Fantasy XIV should be aware and manage their online risk in the game. Some people will get into bad situations anyway because they make risky decisions. Are those people victims? Yes. Are the manipulative people who harass others in the wrong? Absolutely. When people give advice to be more careful online after someone is harassed, most of them are not trying to legitimize the harassment. They are trying to educate people about online risks as a preventative measure so that victims are not victimized again and so that naive people don't end up in a similar situation.

I'm always troubled when stories like the one in PC Gamer come out. It would be better if people didn't have to deal with manipulative creeps but there will always be more of them. It's a sad reality and trying raise awareness is a good thing.

Once someone has already become a victim, the right thing to do is to let the authorities deal with the abuser. If you know the victim, the kind thing is to do is to come alongside and be there when the victim needs support. Be a friend and help the victim heal from the abuse. If it comes to it and you were a witness, testify on the victim's behalf. Even if you feel that the authorities aren't acting fast enough or aren't doing what you think they should do, trying to take the law into your own hands to circumvent due process is a bad plan. It is better to work with the authorities and present any information that will help expedite their investigation.

[EdwinLi]

I have always been against sexual harassment in video game community more so due to how bad it can get more towards female video gamers. Due to this I think the only solution is to take a picture of the event and report it so they can take action with solid proof so that the person cannot make a "excuse" to avoid what really happened. If the abuse is constant long after all attempts of block and reports then I say let the community know about it so they know what type of person he or she really is.

As a Male gamer myself, I find the things done to female gamers only contribute to the bad reputation people who do not understand video games have about people who play video games.

While certain amount of the male video gamer community will just say "just ignore them" and "this does not happen often", the reality is that it does but more on the Female Gamer side.

I actually had a college class lesson about this with a short research assignment and the stories you hear are rather disturbing just because the female video gamer openly admits she is female in real life to male video gamers.

One of the most disturbing stories I saw was probably the one when a female gamer was playing with her friends in FPS game for multiplayer and they finally heard the things other male gamers only say to her just because she admited she was female. One of the opponents got so mad for losing to her and her friends in a match appearantly the guy found her home address and posted it up on the internet with a picture of the house after saying in voice chat a few days ago he hopes she gets well.... sexually assulted and her family murdered.

She and her friends did call the police and the guy was arrested but his sorry excuse of defense was that he was not being serious, it was a joke, and he say these things a lot with his other male friends and they all brush it off because they know they are not being serious with each other. Well guess what.... he never posted the address information nor picture of their home on the internet with his "male" friends that he plays with nor was his insults ever death threats.