Roleplay/Partyfinder Discrepancies & Policy Enforcement by GM's

[Taytay]

Yes... Worked. As in past tense. I never sold or participated in ERP, but did enjoy many aspects of the clubs at which I worked. I left the [E]RP club community and do not regret it in the slightest bit. I'm still very much part of the RP community.

Past, present, future - It doesn't matter.

You're asking for players to engage in a behavior that you yourself couldn't be bothered to do when you were in that position. Because when you say "I can guarantee without a doubt that age verification does NOT happen," you are saying that not even you could be bothered to verify peoples' ages when you ran YOUR venues.

There's a word for that. It's called hypocrisy.

[erroch]

Seconded. I'm no longer part of any FFXIV RP Discord servers because I've found them to be largely ineffectual at helping me find RP *and* most are poorly moderated. And as someone before me pointed out, small venue ads are easily pushed out by the larger events.

PF advertising has a valuable use. It just needs to be improved, both by SE and the community.

Sorry you've hit that wall with the RP discords. If you're still having issues finding the sort of RP stuff you're looking for, please feel free to hit me up in game. I'm on most nights and we can see if we can find somewhere doing stuff that you're looking for.

[Excaliburnina]

To be frank--and this goes beyond this specific issue--the GMs of this game (at least in the context of NA) are often completely independent in their rulings on issues, and their opinions of said issues. I wouldn't be surprised of the NA GM team only communicated to each other occasionally, and just left each other to their own devices outside of meetings or something. The grey areas of the ToS are often made use of by the GM team in whatever way suits their biases the best if they're a GM inclined towards that sort of thing rather than a GM interested in using their authority justly. There's plenty of fair ones, but the issue of RMT advertisements (yes, it's RMT, go join one of those PFs right now and they'll ask you to add them on Discord and discuss prices in dollars, it's not hard to get proof of for your own use) in PF is an unsolved issue, and the responsibility for that lies on the shoulders of the entire GM team whether they've been fair or not in their careers. The context of the problem being discussed in this thread is simply another example of the GM team's inconsistencies, and in wake of a preexisting and significant problem like the RMT advertisements, it's just more rancid icing on a very poorly baked cake of problems.

[rance-sama]

Please have a sense of logic and common sense.
It is true no one will have a clear definition on PF usage, but in an age of "Wake Up" movement on the rise, you need to start use your brain before you decide to put word "Brothel" in PF.
You are just make yourself vulnerable to be report and if reporter can present the case logically to GM, you are banned.
I wouldn't risk my account just for ERP if i am you.
Do as what GM told you, use fellowship and no one will report you from there.
Stop wasting time arguing for a case you cant win.

I agree with this completely, but the problem is that many reports were for advertisements in PF that had no hints of "ERP" or "Adult Content", while also there's RMT ads and Run-Sellers using PF with GM batting an eye.
What are we supposed to do in that case?

[Sparky_Mage]

Like has been said time and time again here, the user agreement and terms of service to my knowledge does not have a provision which restricts which content is allowed and disallowed from the party finder and I frankly find it somewhat disappointing that anti-Balmung and Anti-Rpers have taken this opportunity to try to shame all roleplayers out of the community. Sure you can have your thoughts on brothel-guilds and ERP, (as childish and silly I feel it is to get worked up over that, just ignore it if it bothers you that much), but the broader issue here is that this apparently new policy which hasn't been communicated through a ToS policy-change announcement. For as long as I have played the game since the early Heavensward days the Other tab has long been used for a variety of non-content oriented things from selling levekits (which I myself do from time to time) to advertising get-togethers as well as RP venues.

Yet as silly as a rule preventing the use of pf for anything except explicit se-endorsed content such as duty-finders and fates, if such a new rule is indeed now being enforced I am furious it is being enforced sporadically to seemingly snuff out the RP community in the public eye. Like has been stated countless times in this thread what about people advertising their sell-teams, gil or otherwise they aren't forming parties in the moment like WoW content sellers, they are advertising people to join their discord where they can discuss the likely RMT offers and piloting which is against ToS so if this new rule is to be applied fairly, these non-party pfs which take up prominent space in the PF should start getting slapped even harder right? Except they aren't, nor are crafters like myself who advertise selling levekits across datacenters using the PF, nor are people who set parties with literally impossible ilvl requirements like 999 while using Duty Roulette PFs to advertise their ultimate clear-selling, a feature SE could easily stop but don't, meaning they allow unjoinable parties in the first place. And even still do the GMs have nothing better to do with their time? The number of bots and hackers I see going to any ARR leveling zone during the day is staggering, blatantly warp-hacking and teleporting through the floor. They can't spend 20 minutes standing at an MSQ NPC and banning the hundreds of hacking alphabet-soup players that will teleport infront of them wearing MSQ gear or shooting mobs through the floor as a thaumaturge? That is more a pressing blight on this game I would feel than the audacity that people want to get together, listen to some music, and roleplay and write stories together in a Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game.

[Infindox]

When did I say the PF needed to be policed and made for "content only"?

I even said I endorsed an RP section for the PF; Someone asked what the logic behind potentially banning RP PFs was and I provided a summary of what the GM was implying without endorsing it. I explained the reasoning, I never said I supported it. The most I've said is that I think that ERP shouldn't be advertised publicly on the game.

The artwork and photo stuff is kinda questionable tho, I've seen quite a few cases of what could qualify as RMT in respect to that.

I may have read you incorrectly and I apologise if I did so.
The artwork and photos weren't rmt. The people in question put up a pf and either do it for free (while you watch a stream) or you give them gil. In the case of the photographer it was done almost in an rp like fashion (it was their character's job).

[rance-sama]

Why are they targeting RPers? Like what about the people who really clog up the PF's by selling content clears? which is also against TOS I believe?

I suspect other players are the one reporting to the GMs because they get upset at the idea of people Roleplaying in FFXIV.

[SavishSalacious]

I suspect other players are the one reporting to the GMs because they get upset at the idea of people Roleplaying in FFXIV.

Those people are called: wait for it, say it with me: Trolls.

[MeiraStarborne]

Past, present, future - It doesn't matter.

Yes, it actually DOES matter. You can learn from your past and do better in the present and future.

You're asking for players to engage in a behavior that you yourself couldn't be bothered to do when you were in that position. Because when you say "I can guarantee without a doubt that age verification does NOT happen," you are saying that not even you could be bothered to verify peoples' ages when you ran YOUR venues. There's a word for that. It's called hypocrisy.

They weren't MY venues, and I left them because of the way they were run and the toxicity in them. Quite the opposite of hypocrisy.

Again, I don't care if people ERP. I don't think it should be done in game. If you want to ERP, do age verification and take it off SE's servers. Because even a conversation held in /tell or /party is logged on SE's servers.

[technole]

PF run sellers you can't prove as RMT, some of them specially say gil for the service. It's completely legal to pay people for content just like you trade for goods. Pay gil to get 7 people to clear the content for you and you get all the loot. There is no reason for them to cheat on you because they'd get reported and never advertise again.