The 3-Strikes Policy - Is it really a good thing?

[Ralph2449]

Honestly throughout my years in online games many people kept saying "You simply cant stop a popular online game community from becoming a cesspool" and I was inclined to believe it since most mmorpgs I played, especially big ones like WoW have global chats that are filled with trolling, bigotry, slurs, personal attacks and sometimes even worse types of talk, many said this was an inevitable effect of the anonymity of the internet in such games, yet SE has proves it is absolutely possible to stop a big game community from turning into a cesspool and that is done by:

Taking your ToS seriously unlike most western companies who dont pay GMs or simply dont bother enforcing their ToS ingame unless something gets out of control
Paying GMs to actually enforce ToS and even talk to the rule breaker which makes it a far more memorable punishment than some silly email "you are banned for 12 hours cuz of X"

By actually doing that you teach people that if they break the rules, they will get punished, unlike in WoW where because most people know reporting wont do anything they dont even bother reporting resulting trade being filled with random vile comments every hour.


Honestly how hard is it for people to not be toxic, to not get mad and start attacking others in chat or to not throw slurs no matter how much you and your buddies like doing that in private because you are told its cool and fun to do that.

And there's 3 strikes for a reason, you can do something by mistake once, but if you keep repeating that mistake a month or two later then you clearly didnt learn.

[Krotoan]

And there's 3 strikes for a reason, you can do something by mistake once, but if you keep repeating that mistake a month or two later then you clearly didnt learn.

A month or two later sure.. you should probably be judged on that fact. But the game has been around for 10+ years and right now you can still be 3rd striking on something you did 10 years ago. If it was for like.. swearing once or seemingly disconnecting when a dungeon was hard do you still feel that should count?

You seem reasonable. You probably have control over your temper and think before typing and talking. Some people don't though and just like we make accommodations for those who don't handle blinding speed dungeon runs we should probably make accommodations for those who run a little more hot blooded sometimes.

[Shalan]

A month or two later sure.. you should probably be judged on that fact. But the game has been around for 10+ years and right now you can still be 3rd striking on something you did 10 years ago. If it was for like.. swearing once or seemingly disconnecting when a dungeon was hard do you still feel that should count?

You seem reasonable. You probably have control over your temper and think before typing and talking. Some people don't though and just like we make accommodations for those who don't handle blinding speed dungeon runs we should probably make accommodations for those who run a little more hot blooded sometimes.

Not just hot blooded
Growing up in a family with a long line of manual labor, and spending my entire working life in such labor as well has led me to having a more... colorful vocabulary than some other folks. While I've managed to temper that tongue in my interactions over the years, especially online, some things still slip through. It's not malicious or anything, it's just a different and rougher style of talking than what a lot of people are used to I guess.
Getting a strike on my account because I accidently let a four letter word that starts with "s" for excrement slip through was a bit of a shock when it happened a few years ago. Especially since it wasn't used in anger or an insulting manner ("Nah man, I don't like that ****").


We're in an online game where people of various cultures come together. Some of those cultures have different manners of speaking and acting. While some behavior or language is clearly unacceptable, others are so benign that a permanent strike against your account is wildly out of proportion. Especially given how much someone can change over a year, much less over the near decade this game has been in service.


I've largely managed to adapt to the policy here, but it does pain me when I see other people start to get nervous about talking in case some busy-body is nearby and ready to report. I see more and more discussions being moved off game and into programs like discord that the game itself feels silent.

[KenXSSS]

Not just hot blooded
Growing up in a family with a long line of manual labor, and spending my entire working life in such labor as well has led me to having a more... colorful vocabulary than some other folks. While I've managed to temper that tongue in my interactions over the years, especially online, some things still slip through. It's not malicious or anything, it's just a different and rougher style of talking than what a lot of people are used to I guess.
Getting a strike on my account because I accidently let a four letter word that starts with "s" for excrement slip through was a bit of a shock when it happened a few years ago. Especially since it wasn't used in anger or an insulting manner ("Nah man, I don't like that ****").


We're in an online game where people of various cultures come together. Some of those cultures have different manners of speaking and acting. While some behavior or language is clearly unacceptable, others are so benign that a permanent strike against your account is wildly out of proportion. Especially given how much someone can change over a year, much less over the near decade this game has been in service.


I've largely managed to adapt to the policy here, but it does pain me when I see other people start to get nervous about talking in case some busy-body is nearby and ready to report. I see more and more discussions being moved off game and into programs like discord that the game itself feels silent.

Yeah, I feel this, I spend 50% of my time chatting in Disc, 30% in NN and 10% in FC chat, and 10% in Forums/Reddit, in other MMOs I'm just able to chat whenever I want in-game, but here, there are long lulls of silent chat no matter which server I move to.

[Keramory]

I dont think an expiration is a bad idea by itself.

That said... I cant imagine this being an issue for 99.9% of the community. Been playing since alpha 1.0 and can't say I've been given a warning or strike... and I'm hardly a Saint in the game.

[SecretIsland]

So, for those who want a premise, read this reddit thread. No, it's not a link to something dumb - but it heavily ties into the big fiasco regarding Party Finder usage and the unreasonable account suspensions.

The thread itself already gives a few points as to why Final Fantasy XIV's policies need some reform, as the current system is built in a way that pushes many people who have made mistakes and gotten account strikes in the past into reclusion.

We're talking like ALLLLLL the way back in 2.X, or even 3.X, when FFXIV was on the rise as an MMO giant. Why can't these strikes be forgiven? As stated from the reddit thread, it has to do with their policies in regards to Account Strikes. Considering you are unable to remove an account strike regardless of your own reasoning, it's basically a zero-tolerance system that is unforgiving.

Humans make mistakes - everyone here knows this to some extent. Yet, why can they not forgive after a set amount of time? Does it have to do with their culture on the developers' side of the world? Does it have to do with how they want to stand out? I don't know the reason, but with how SE is heavy handed in their policy, it forces the thought that if they screw up again for some benign reason or another they basically can't play the game anymore.

I'm looking to open this thread for discussion about this topic because aside from reddit, I want to see what people on the Forums think in regards to how things are.

Perhaps the reason why SE is so heavy-handed is because the extreme punishment causes a deterrent effect? Since players know that getting caught for even a tiny amount of harassment and rudeness will result in a ban, they might behave cautiously. I've had pretty nice interactions here compared to another pvp game I came from, and maybe this is why.

[ICountFrom0]

Given that it's 3 strikes, EVER, no.
Lets face it, it's possible that some of these folks have and will have an account for more then 10 years.
You want people to make less then 3 mistakes in TEN YEARS?

[Asari5]

i dont get the problem. yeah people make mistakes, thats why there are three strikes. you can even make two mistakes. and if you change and become a better person... it wont be a probleme anymore, since your not doing this kind of mistakes again, right?
maybe people should just learn to think before they yell things out. its not even just talking. you have to put it in the chat first.... its your decision what you do so take responsibility for it.

[KageTokage]

It seems a bit unreasonable that there isn't any kind of decay on offenses and that you can end up permabanned for three minor offenses that were spread over the course of multiple years.

It's only human nature for some people slip up and perhaps get a bit more aggressive then they needed to in a conversation for any of a number of different reasons, whether it be someone deliberately testing them without crossing the line, or just having a really bad day. Nobody deserves to be permanently condemned for either of those reasons.

It also bears mentioning that the same system protects habitual cheaters because they know that they won't get immediately permabanned in the odd event they actually get caught botting or hacking. Those offenses need to be an instant permaban to discourage people from abusing the system and to create a sense of fear, because it's more then clear at this point that SE will not ban someone for cheating unless they're really, REALLY certain of it.

[Lium]

From what I read on Reddit, this sounds like an NA/EU issue, not a JP issue. There's likely a reason for that. Especially for NA. I first started playing this game in 2013, but it didn't become my main game until 2018. I don't have a single warning.

I know SE is strict but how are people wracking up warnings? I know we tend to think that trolling is harmless in the US but our behavior is often atrocious, let's just be real. The moment SE relaxes a bit then we'll start seeing "Scrub BLM needs to l2p." Now, we might think that's just "gamer behavior" or whatever, and I personally would just ignore it, but that isn't gonna fly here.

And that's a good thing.