Abuse of the TOS. Loophole regarding griefing/trolling. Needs a solution.

[BunnyChain]

Every time a thread like this is made, people come out of the woodwork, who really need a talking to in basic human decency.

Getting a lot of milage out of my sig.

[Saidosha]

Boston tea party 1773, MLKJ 1963, Women's rights 1913, Monday demonstrations 1982-1989, Gandhi salt march 1930, LGBT rights 1993, protestant reformation 1517-1685, triangle shirtwaist fire protest 1911, abolishment of slavery in the US 1830-1865, anti war movement in US 1967-1972, the storming of bastille 1789

EDIT:

Also, even if I don't agree with the protest itself, if you want some examples against large companies: Ford/Toyata, 7-11, chick-fil-a, Hobby Lobby, Bank of Omaha, Apple, Dominos pizza, NCAA, Ben&Jerry ice cream, CVS all took big hits due to protests that hit their wallets and backed away from what they publicly supported. So yeah, while the effects may not be as immediate as what we want to see, protesting definitely works.

Was talking more about video games. Or heck, people being upset with Twitter's new layout.

Though, I certainly do wish there were certain RL issues where protests were more effective, but such is the times and this isn't really the place.

[Machi_Machiavelli]

Apparently role players in a role playing game aren't real people.

The roleplaying in a mmorpg emphasizes character advancement more than collaborative storytelling, like say your traditional tabletop rpg. It's like larping at a cosplay convention.

[Alleo]

How tho? I mean, I have people I get along with in game, but frankly I couldnt care less what somewhat says or thinks about me. This is some serious soap opera shit. I'm not there to make friends for life, I have those outside of the game. If everyone on my friendslist decided to ignore me it'd be fine, I'll find other folks to play with.

Making yourself vulnerable for random bs of strangers on the web is a stupid thing to do. it's the internet. Don't get invested in people too much, don't trust people too much, don#t let people too close and don't disclose any personal information. Pretty simple.

In a time where people find lovers in games should it really be surprising that the bad stuff can happen too? Its fine if you dont make friends ingame, I am also now in a duo FC with a real life friend because I was getting sick of the dramas and wanted my peace but I also have met a couple of players and do consider one of them a good friend which I even from time to time play stuff outside of FF14 or talk with him in voicechat. But because of my bad experiences (and being more careful about it anyway) I dont met him in real life but I still would count him as a friend.

MMOs are a place for people that might have problems in real life and those can easily become a victim to some really messed up people. And even "normal" players can become a victim too. And its really sad that there is no great way to block such people effectively ingame and if you dont have great evidence you cant even ban them. (But the person I mentioned in my posts before did get at least one ban so maybe thats the reason he later also changed DC)

Again Cyberbullying and Cyberstalking even exists as real terms. This is not some made up kindergarten drama. This can turn serious. And even if it might not be that bad with the OP (and hopefully never will) there still should be something in the game that stops that..but seemingly the devs thinks that its even fine that if you delete someone from your FL, that the person will still keep you on his..just change things like that and rework blacklists and the cases could at least be less.

I'm not trying to be mean or anything, and I like to use gifs to show my emotion at certain statements, I don't think the emoticons portray it well enough.

Wait, he would follow people around and.... emote to them? The horror! We should call 911 on them right now! Lock them up, and throw away the key! He would go into other people's houses and..... stand next to them? Oh no! Holy guacamole!

I'm sorry, I just find this to be absolutely ridiculous to actually equate this with real life stalking, and label this person as a "predator". You realize how serious those crimes actually are in real life?

And yet you dont take it serious at all. Yes its a horrible crime in real life and seeminlgy there is now even Cyberstalking on the internet too. People play games for very different reasons. Some play it to get away from life. They find a nice FC, make friends and suddenly one person turns out to be messed up. Bad things happens and they are kicked from the FC and then they start to harrass you. Follow you, emote to you, whisper to you. Constantly. And it does not stop with using their main but they are trying to put an alt character into the fc again to stir trouble up again. And then also use that alt to stalk, to emote, to whisper. Do you not see how these acts can harm someone emotional? And not only that, but stalking someone ingame, doing all that stuff to someone you dont even know yourself just for your own amusement shows imo a dangerous person. What if that online stalking turns to real life stalking?

Again those are only examples but in this day and age online and real life are not that easily seperated than one things. And it does not even have to be oneself that tells the person private information and suddenly this can turn ugly quite fast.

The OP thankfully is not at that part but they too feel like their fun is sucked out of the game thanks to this behavior, when they seemingly did nothing wrong. And all they want is a way to deal with this. Be it through ingame means like better blacklists or by being able to report them more easily for that. (And yes we already know that spamming emotes can be reported.)

It's. a. game.

With real people behind the characters. The ToS exists for a reason.

I mean what problem is there to be a decent human being? Why is it hard not to troll others or try to hurt them for someone own amusement? Honestly I feel more sad for people that do that, because I then wonder what happened in their lifes to make them that way.

Look, if someone is repeatedly harassing another to some actual degree to where the game experience is lessened I agree that a GM should step in if it is actually severe enough (the actually harassed). However, I think it is ridiculous and completely laughable that people are trying to equate these examples to real life stalking and labeling these people as "predators". Ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous. Being emoted at in a video game is nothing compared to the real life harm that an actual stalker, or predator can do. It trivializes real victims.

If being emoted at in a video game effects someone this severely emotionally, maybe they should turn off the game, or better yet get off the internet.

I was one of those (and maybe the only one) that wrote the word predator. And you know why? Because the example that I brought was not just using emotes or followed people out of "fun" once or twice. It was a horrible person that did many things that are messed up imo. He went so far to make someone stop playing the game, made someone change servers. He did that to many people, especially females..trying to play nice, then flirt with them and if they did not accept that or want that, he would turn nasty. And its not even that he would stop after some time. No even months later he would start to communicate with some again. Try to slander these people and I do know one of them more and she was emotionally down. I am sorry this is dangerous and this is the actions of someone that does it again and again. He does it on purpose and with a tactic in mind so yes he is a predator to me.

[Mezzoforte]

I am new to the forums and just forums in general. I hope this is the right place to post this. Do the devs even take suggestions from the forums? FFXIV is a huge game, and that makes this post a tad discouraging to even bother making.

Picture this: Two players are roleplaying at a table in the Quicksand. Then suddenly, a swarm of five or eight trolls who all know each other decide to swarm those two people. The swarm in question starts to pop fireworks, dance on top of those two people, spam their instruments/abilities, all in a effort to annoy the duo in question. No, turning off abilities and muting instruments isn't enough in this situation.

Can the two people move? Yes. Then they might be followed. Stalked. I've seen it happen. You shouldn't have to move from a spot you enjoy, in a game you enjoy, just because a couple of trolls decide to make it where you can barely see what's on your screen.

You might be saying...this all sounds like harassment. Just report them.

This is where the issue comes in.

If the trolls do not type, the mods have nothing to go off of. Why? Because FFXIV mods do not accept photographic evidence of harassment, or even video evidence I believe. This means a form of harassment or griefing can go unpunished due to being unreportable. Which isn't right.

Either the TOS needs to be revised, or a feature where causing a player's character to vanish locally on your end--once you blacklist them--needs to be implemented.

You might say it's just a game, and I agree.

But another user should not be able to lessen the enjoyment of said game for another user out of spite.

That sucks but it would set a bad precedent. Imagine two people standing around anywhere and saying since they were there first anyone else around them doing anything is harassment. This likely why there isn't anything being done. That nobody has exclusive rights to anywhere in public areas.

[CazzT]

This type of behavior is common in another MMO. And yet when people point this out, and the fact that the exodus from that MMO to FFXIV is causing an increase in problems here, they get dogpiled and told they're overreacting or being paranoid or "sho me evidunz!!!" While I don't want fewer players in FFXIV, I don't want a flood of players if it means the quality of the community is going to take a nose dive.

[Nuna]

This type of behavior is common in another MMO. And yet when people point this out, and the fact that the exodus from that MMO to FFXIV is causing an increase in problems here, they get dogpiled and told they're overreacting or being paranoid or "sho me evidunz!!!" While I don't want fewer players in FFXIV, I don't want a flood of players if it means the quality of the community is going to take a nose dive.

There's always that one person in every thread "wow ppl bad, ffxiv ppl good!". People have been trolling in this game before the mass exodus from wow. In fact a large chunk of the player base were playing ffxiv and wow at the same time before that as well. Literally stop.

[Camiie]

It's just interesting that some seem to find some moral equivalence between a possibly unintentionally annoying act like public RP versus jumping in someone's face to intentionally annoy them.

[Gula]

The roleplaying in a mmorpg emphasizes character advancement more than collaborative storytelling, like say your traditional tabletop rpg. It's like larping at a cosplay convention.

I know how RP works. It's simply a take on people's aversion to it. Just as Kingdom Hearts is an RPG, you don't RP as Sora. And I wouldn't compare it to larping- I get it, but co-op writing is as simple as one can define it, I'd say.

Also all the deleted posts ITT mods really went to town on this one.

[Ramesses]

...If the trolls do not type, the mods have nothing to go off of. Why? Because FFXIV mods do not accept photographic evidence of harassment, or even video evidence I believe. This means a form of harassment or griefing can go unpunished due to being unreportable. Which isn't right.

Rest easy... the GMs have certain tools they use to review all the happenstances in these types of cases... they won't need photographic or video evidence from the aggrieved party.