[FEEDBACK] Redemption for Striked Accounts

[AshBrighter]

A couple years ago I made the mistake of using third party software that got me banned. What usually would have gotten me permanently suspended on any other game, FFXIV is generous with the approach of "punish them once and they won't do it again", the threat of a permanent suspension on the line.

I have to commend SquareEnix for this approach, it's kept me on the right path ever since and very loyal. I'm very thankful for it too, since I love my character. However, I have feedback from the perspective of a striked person.

This feedback does not apply to permanent bans.

• Account strikes are indefinite.

You could say that it's compensated by the fact that what should have been a permanent ban is instead a strike, but having made a stupid decision four years ago, I can't help but feel that there should be a way to redeem your strikes by community effort or have strikes last a certain duration like similar games.

• All strikes are the same.

Getting striked for botting weighs the same as getting striked for saying something offensive. I believe third party strikes should be permanent, but harassment strikes being permanent seems slightly off.

• Harassment strikes are anonymous.

When getting banned for saying something offensive, you aren't told what the offensive thing is that you've said. FFXIV is home to many different groups of people and, especially in these times, these groups of people tend to find things offensive that others don't and vice versa. This way it's impossible to learn from your mistakes from harassment reports considering you don't know what you said that was wrong.



To summarize, I'd like to finalize with an anecdote.

Like mentioned before, I made a stupid mistake a couple of years ago to use software that ended up with me getting suspended. It was a dumb idea, and with SquareEnix's generous temporary suspension I swore to never touch anything similar again.
A couple of years later, I was suddenly pulled into the GM jail to talk about that I was on my last strike, and I'm getting suspended again. The GM was forgiving enough that he didn't feel like this was fair to get permanently suspended over, so he managed to consult with the GM team and get me a temporary ban instead.

I was never told what it was what I said. I am part of an edgy type of people, so I have no clue what it was that was unacceptable. I am European, so we use ret-rded a lot to describe something unfair or stupid. Was it that? I do ERP and joke about it. Was it that? I could cite more examples, I have no clue and I cannot learn.

Summarizing, I'd like to see a way for people to redeem their harassment strikes by community effort or have strikes be temporary so I don't have to worry as much. I can hardly socialize or be myself now as is out of fear that I might offend someone.

[AshBrighter]

• To add to the topic:

In no way do I aim to be remorseful to toxic people or ragers and give them a way to unstrike themselves and be toxic again.

Context is key and there are, like I said, many different people that play the game. You could definitely go with the phrase "to act like a decent person", but even that varies per person. Some people are more harsh and straight to the point, while others are much more considerate with people's feelings. As much as I hate to put it this way, but FFXIV's playerbase is rather trigger-happy with reports, even misplaced ones out of spite.

i.e. to have gotten a strike on your account four years ago, then jokingly call yourself a degenerate to your friends, then have someone else completely unrelated to the conversation take offense to it and report you which results in your account permanently suspended, seems rather unfair to me, personally.

I'd hate to lose my account and I'd love to have some way to get some more certainty in that if I do accidentally offend someone, it won't be at the cost of my account.

[Kes13a]

you are right in saying context is key.

For that reason I dont think there should be a clearing or clean slate do over of your history. If you decided, 'hey, lets use a third party program to cheat again since I have a clean slate' at that point it would be another temp ban, you pretend to be good until it clears and then you do it again.

While I agree that context is important, the change would need to be on SE's side to examine each transgression and go from there. They need to have more investigation to determine if your actions warranted the report. to do otherwise is to give unfair weight to another person who may just not like you and your edge crew.

but I dont think cleaning the slate and starting you over like you are a new player with no transgressions is the right approach.

[AshBrighter]

I definitely agree that cheating with a third party program should be a permanent strike, I mentioned that in the original post. I just think it should be a different story for offensive strikes considering that's way more nuanced.

[KageTokage]

Sad thing is that bans for use of third party programs are so uncommon that the few individuals who I know got temporarily banned for certain (Due to their removal from the Ishgard Restoration rankings and long period of absence in-game) went right back to botting as soon as their ban was lifted; just in their usual lower-key manner of farming timed nodes and crafting (As opposed to making rounds in Diadem where the entire DC can observe them).

The strike system basically assures them that they can afford to get caught multiple times before they get permabanned, so they logically are choosing to abuse that. I'd be in favor of them just permabanning after two strikes when it comes to cases of cheating to prevent this.

[SturmChurro]

Here's the thing, you are better off NOT CHATTING AT ALL in-game (be careful here on the forums as well). For one, yes, you never know what will offend, and two SE seems to ignore context. Casually slip a curse word, BANNED. Doesn't have to be directed at anyone. It's likely the word tried to censor in your OP - by the way censoring doesn't work, neither here OR in-game - would probably get you banned. All it takes is someone's strongly worded report. You want to chat with your edgy friends? Move to Discord or something - keep it out of game - THAT INCLUDES private or party chat. You are better off not having a paper trail when a GM goes through your logs.

I may be more paranoid than most, sure, but I've never been banned in-game. Never once have I had a GM interaction. Not chatting, and if I do chat keeping things AT WORST PG (G is better) is the way to go.

[SnowVix]

Here's the thing, you are better off NOT CHATTING AT ALL in-game (be careful here on the forums as well). For one, yes, you never know what will offend, and two SE seems to ignore context. Casually slip a curse word, BANNED. Doesn't have to be directed at anyone. It's likely the word tried to censor in your OP - by the way censoring doesn't work, neither here OR in-game - would probably get you banned. All it takes is someone's strongly worded report. You want to chat with your edgy friends? Move to Discord or something - keep it out of game - THAT INCLUDES private or party chat. You are better off not having a paper trail when a GM goes through your logs.

I may be more paranoid than most, sure, but I've never been banned in-game. Never once have I had a GM interaction. Not chatting, and if I do chat keeping things AT WORST PG (G is better) is the way to go.

this is a bunch of bull. i cuss in game, but don't direct it at anyone, and the only GM interactions i've ever had are when i've reported people for blatant harassment (including one person very blatantly and intentionally trying to cause a normal raid roulette to fail). i guarantee that 99% of the people who were "wrongly banned for idly saying a curse word" are intentionally leaving out context to make themselves look innocent

[SturmChurro]

this is a bunch of bull. i cuss in game, but don't direct it at anyone, and the only GM interactions i've ever had are when i've reported people for blatant harassment (including one person very blatantly and intentionally trying to cause a normal raid roulette to fail). i guarantee that 99% of the people who were "wrongly banned for idly saying a curse word" are intentionally leaving out context to make themselves look innocent

Care to test that? Curse a bit in-game, then have someone report you! Make it a serious report too.

I'm being facetious. mods. Don't bother. I'm not actually advocating this person does this.

[SnowVix]

Care to test that? Curse a bit in-game, then have someone report you! Make it a serious report too.

I'm being facetious. mods, don't bother. I'm not actually advocating this person does this.

i cursed in the in-game chat in the very incident i was mentioning. this idea that if the GMs see a bad word they'll instaban is ludicrous, and is perpetuated by people who want to get away with being jerks

[SturmChurro]

i cursed in the in-game chat in the very incident i was mentioning. this idea that if the GMs see a bad word they'll instaban is ludicrous, and is perpetuated by people who want to get away with being jerks

Perpetuated by whom? If someone is warning against usage of certain words, you'd think they aren't using them themselves. Whether they want to or not changes nothing. "Jerk" is a very strong word, when it comes to this game's community. Someone you may consider "a jerk", I may not consider. Vice versa.