Roleplay/Partyfinder Discrepancies & Policy Enforcement by GM's

[Aniya_Estlihn]

*stomps feet* You and your stupid FACTS getting in the way of a moral panic!!!

Finally someone says it. This thread is quickly devolving into a moral panic so I'm just gonna dip.
There's a lot of valid points but when everyone is coming at each other over unrelated nonsense, with some trying to virtue signal, it just gets to be a bit too much to follow.

These are the takeaways I've gotten from this thread:

1. There needs to be better transparency with moderation policy
2. GMs should be trained on this and all parties should know what is and isn't permissable, players included
3. If RPers are not allowed to use PF; which is doubtful, the team needs to look into a means of providing a way to advertise and recruit for things in game—fellowships and Discord are not viable.
4. GM Wyndallus' actions need to be evaluated and brought to light so that we can reach a resolution on this matter and get a clear cut answer if this is or isn't ToS breaking
5. This didn't just affect RPers, but even people just wanting someone's company while they fished and do other innocuous activities.

People getting mad about RPers or RPers getting mad about others criticizing RP does nothing to help the situation. Nor does attempting to stir a moral panic when that is literally not what's going on here.

With that said, I'm done.

[Einselar]

Everybody has a responsibility to act in a dignified and respectable manner when playing this game. If someone does not know the age of another player for certain then they should not be partaking of adult situations with that player. It doesn't matter if they lie about their age or if their parents aren't aware of what their child is doing online. What matters is...that players do not prey on such victims in the first place.

How are you "preying" on someone that you don't know is a vulnerable target?

All of which, I might add, has nothing to do with the fact that this isn't an ERP crackdown. It's a crackdown on all RP and non-content PFs

[DreadCrow]

As far as I am aware, from the screenshots in the OP, these players received a verbal warning. All the GM was doing was informing players that the PF is for running content, and not social "venues" such as this. Furthermore, they suggested using fellowships as a more proper place.

I'm not like some people who think that this GM specifically has it out for role-players for some reason... But I do think they are being sort of draconian with the rules. For one, role-playing is content.... Option for role-players are totally part of the game's budget.

Two, with the current way fellowships are designed... It's not really a good place. More importantly, they suggested advertising with shout chat... Which seems 10 times more problematic.

[Yencat]

Fishers deserve the right to look for a party of friends while fishing.. which is actual game content..

B A N N E D! Think of the children!

[Airyll]

I'm not sure what you're implying.

I'm not against role-play - especially since I'm a role-player myself. I'm against the idea of people engaging in erotic role-play in public and with people they do not know are legally adults.

We'll wait for your screenshots and proof that it's all happening in public spaces in front of every dog and his mother. I'm sure you have them since you're so happy to make the claim - and say it with such generic hand-wavey statements that it's almost like you're implying anybody who ERPs might be an actual sex offender, which is definitely not a tired and stupid trope that most actual roleplayers know isn't true.

[Jojoya]

I wonder if this would have happened if some of those advertising their clubs would have:

Had a single listing for their club in PF instead of 3-8
Refrained from the more suggestive descriptions and left things at 18+

Personally I don't have a problem with the clubs advertising in PF until I see the above two things happening. You don't need half a dozen PF listings to advertise. And you really don't need to be making suggestive comments in PF. Leave it for inside your club, where those present are consenting to that activity. People trying to browse PF to find groups for actual party-based content aren't consenting to such activity, either.

What I would like to see SE do is add a RP category to the PF, then add a better filtering system. We should be able to exclude categories from our active searches instead of being limited to choosing all or just one.

As for it being a single GM listed in those screenshots, did anyone notice the time stamps? How many GMs do you think SE has on staff at midnight Pacific? I'd be shocked if it was more than two or three. It shouldn't be surprising that a single GM is making all the contacts.

[Lauront]

We'll wait for your screenshots and proof that it's all happening in public spaces in front of every dog and his mother. I'm sure you have them since you're so happy to make the claim - and say it with such generic hand-wavey statements that it's almost like you're implying anybody who ERPs might be an actual sex offender, which is definitely not a tired and stupid trope that most actual roleplayers know isn't true.

Or just log into the Quicksand on Balmung or Mateus and wait long enough.

[Xatsh]

While I am not into RP at all RP is a staple of a mmo and 100% should be legit to advertise.

Now people advertising ERP anywhere or RP in stuff like raid/dungeon/alliance/map content channels yea that is sorta a nono. But if you advertise in Other.... THAT IS LITERALLY WHAT IT WAS MADE FOR. And this has been the case since ARR so if nothing else SE should be required to explain why this change was put into place. They also need to answer why this offense is jailable/punishable yet people streaming using 3rd tools that call out mechanics automatically, selling runs using discord for $100s of dollars of RL money, or 100s of bots running non-stop apparently is completely legit or outside the GM's ability to do anything about.

This decision needs to be reversed immediately, cause it is hurting the one thing FFXIV actually excels at. Endgame content is mediocre at most, the casual/RP content is actually where this game excels over others.

[Lauront]

Oh, you're one of those "lalafells are children, actually, in spite of the entire body of in-game and out-of-game (a la the Encyclopedia Eorzea) canonical lore" types. Makes a lot more sense.

But muh 1000 year old loli.

[Soupa]

Let me preface this by saying I don't roleplay or look for clears.

I'm a pretty negative Nancy when it comes to this kinda stuff but I think both Roleplay adverts and Clear selling should be taken out of Party Finder and have it be used for just...party finding. Free Companies exist, Fellowships exist, Linkshells exist, the Yell and Shout Chat functions exists, Recruitment finder on lodestone is a thing, advertising outside the game itself on related websites/forums is allowed and even encouraged. I feel like even with this change the roleplay community would be largely unaffected, reason being that people who're interested will end up finding their way regardless using any of the aforementioned functions. Plus as an FC leader I speak from experience when I say PF is a crummy way to advertise anyway. When I used to advert my FC in PF years ago I'd get maybe like 1 tell every couple of weeks? There are better ways, Innovate, Adapt, Overcome.

Tl;dr I'd be completely fine with less irrelevant things to me in the PF either way.