SE's inability to protect players from stalking/harassment

[AiUsagi]

It should be fixable, and it's a huge problem. Yoshi has said about it last year:

Q: When I delete a person from my friends list, I want my character to disappear from theirs, as well!
Yoshida: That would lead to the problem of “Why did he delete me?” and might cause trouble, so we didn’t do that on purpose.

Personally I feel that if you delete a "friend", they should be removed on both lists. It's not in issue that way in other games.

I think it is a cultural difference. It is not uncommon for the Japanese to avoid confrontation. Its also frowned upon for someone in Japan to be stalked and helped after they've acknowledged the stalker. For example, a man has been following a woman, trying to talk to her, bringing her gifts; The police are more likely to help the woman if she did not respond or interact with him because they believe it to be a form of invitation if she does respond. By acknowledging this person existence, you allow them into your life.

[Theodric]

Not sure if I understood you correctly, still, I will say that a victim of this kind of behavior should not be the one leaving. At the same time, an improved ignore will go a long way.

In an ideal world? Sure - though as someone who had to leave my hometown to avoid a stalker after the authorities refused to intervene...there comes a point where the victim has to take action to protect themselves.

[AiUsagi]

In an ideal world? Sure - though as someone who had to leave my hometown to avoid a stalker after the authorities refused to intervene...there comes a point where the victim has to take action to protect themselves.

Yikes! Im sorry you had to endure that, its definitely not right by any means. Stalking and harassment should be taken as a serious offense and investigated properly. Its a shame that people cannot rely on those with "authority" to keep them safe. It sounds like leaving may have been the better option for you & I hope you're doing better now. ^_^

[pastperfect]

I think you will have better luck finding a friend to translate this into Japanese and posting it on the Japanese section of these forums. Even bad Google Translate Japanese might have better luck getting the dev's attention because the NA forums look to be a giant mess (mass trolling for example).

[Theodric]

Yikes! Im sorry you had to endure that, its definitely not right by any means. Stalking and harassment should be taken as a serious offense and investigated properly. Its a shame that people cannot rely on those with "authority" to keep them safe. It sounds like leaving may have been the better option for you & I hope you're doing better now. ^_^

Thanks. Yeah, I'm doing better these days - it turned out to be a blessing in disguise since I was given many opportunities I would not otherwise have had if I had not made the decision to pack up and move from England to Scotland.

When it comes to FFXIV, though...unfortunately I don't see the situation improving. Square Enix, like any big business, like to word the terms of service in a way to cover their backs on a legal front but that doesn't equal actual enforcement of the rules. They never really account for harassment being done in a way that is persistent and/or toeing the line of acceptability.

They've also been fairly dismissive when the subject has come up before. I'm inclined to think it's less a matter of spite on their part and more to do with the game systems being rather archaic. I have used a name change and fantasia on a number of occasions because I don't do alt characters and generally like to shift between playing as a Midlander and playing as a Raen. If I put any of my previous character names into Google, though, it'll come up with my current character name.

[Driavna]

In an ideal world? Sure - though as someone who had to leave my hometown to avoid a stalker after the authorities refused to intervene...there comes a point where the victim has to take action to protect themselves.

That I get. Yet once again, a better ignore system will be a long way. Like a full account block for example.

I'm more about giving players tools to deal with this stuff than relaying on GMs.

[Alleo]

Edit: Since the answer was already given.

It should be fixable, and it's a huge problem. Yoshi has said about it last year:

Q: When I delete a person from my friends list, I want my character to disappear from theirs, as well!
Yoshida: That would lead to the problem of “Why did he delete me?” and might cause trouble, so we didn’t do that on purpose.

Personally I feel that if you delete a "friend", they should be removed on both lists. It's not in issue that way in other games.

So for Yoshida its better to not hurt the feeling of the one being kicked from the friendlist? Why? I really dont understand that viewpoint. "Please still be friend with the one that hurt you, otherwise it might hurt their feelings.."

[Wyakin]

Bumping this thread to keep it alive. Some QoL things in here far over due. Sorry to hear about your plight OP, good luck getting it sorted

[AiUsagi]

Bumping this thread to keep it alive. Some QoL things in here far over due. Sorry to hear about your plight OP, good luck getting it sorted

Thanks for that! Lets definitely keep this thread alive! Once Ive finished with school finals ill be more active here and start posting in other forums too. Lets see if we cant make a difference.

[SturmChurro]

Thanks for that! Lets definitely keep this thread alive! Once Ive finished with school finals ill be more active here and start posting in other forums too. Lets see if we cant make a difference.

It won't. Honestly, as others have pointed out, I doubt the devs even pay attention to the forums. It's unfortunate, really. Almost any other official game forum has some presence. We have some big threads with suggestions on these forums with pretty much no interaction at all.. but deleted posts.