Roleplay/Partyfinder Discrepancies & Policy Enforcement by GM's

[Ivtrix]

Honestly the bigger issue over weather or not fellowships should be expanded or if these types of advertisements should be allowed in party finder is if any of these players in the screenshots received black marks for this nonsense.

In an abysmally draconian system of "3 strikes and youre out with no questions", you get a black mark over this?!?!

This sets a extremely dangerous precedent as a symptom of years of inconsistent rule enforcement with the added fact that GMs in this game have a reputation moreso in any other game for being uncontrolled, whimsical, and contradictory is such a massive problem because these players are now stuck with a black mark FOREVER.

A GM like the one this entire thread is about playing fast and loose with the rules with absolutely no system in place for an appeals process should literally frighten everyone. It doesnt matter if you raid, craft, RP, whatever. The fact that you can be held to account eternally for anything a GM thinks youve done wrong is a hilarious situation that should be addressed immediately.

[Aniya_Estlihn]

A GM like the one this entire thread is about playing fast and loose with the rules with absolutely no system in place for an appeals process should literally frighten everyone. It doesnt matter if you raid, craft, RP, whatever. The fact that you can be held to account eternally for anything a GM thinks youve done wrong is a hilarious situation that should be addressed immediately.

Exactly. This is the biggest issue with the whole situation.
GM policy is hidden from players, we have no idea what the actual criteria they make their judgements upon is, that's wrong.

This leads to uncertainty and anxiety to build up in the community and seeing a GM act out in a way like this on supposed ToS violations which may or may not be part of the "proprietary moderation policy" is really alarming. The whole system needs to be re-evaluated from top to bottom to be fair towards players and the moderation staff in equal measure, as the current form the system takes is draconian and absolute—which isn't the way to run a service like this.

[Ivtrix]

Exactly. This is the biggest issue with the whole situation.
GM policy is hidden from players, we have no idea what the actual criteria they make their judgements upon is, that's wrong.

This leads to uncertainty and anxiety to build up in the community and seeing a GM act out in a way like this on supposed ToS violations which may or may not be part of the "proprietary moderation policy" is really alarming. The whole system needs to be re-evaluated from top to bottom to be fair towards players and the moderation staff in equal measure, as the current form the system takes is draconian and absolute—which isn't the way to run a service like this.

When you have players outright afraid to interact with others due to fear of potential retribution due to an increasing reliance on abusing the report system, in a MMORPG, you have absolutely failed cataclysmically.

[Titor]

I knew a player who would only talk in discord and never chatted/emoted in game since they had a few strikes and were terrified to lose their account.

[Taytay]

Exactly. This is the biggest issue with the whole situation.
GM policy is hidden from players, we have no idea what the actual criteria they make their judgements upon is, that's wrong.

Honestly, if SE just wrote a cut and dry ToS that couldn't be interpreted in 20 different ways, we wouldn't even need to see the GM policy.

[Ivtrix]

Honestly, if SE just wrote a cut and dry ToS that couldn't be interpreted in 20 different ways, we wouldn't even need to see the GM policy.

Instead, we got the opposite, as just before they launched Shadowbringers, they rewrote the entire ToS and now we get extremely vague guidelines like below:

・Expressions that compel a playing style
・Expressions that attempt to unilaterally exclude someone from the game or content/community, etc.
(Except when in accordance with rules set by an administrator such as a Free Company Master)
・Expressions that contravene public order and morals
・Other expressions that are offensive to another person


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