GM Responses, Roleplay Advertising, and Party Finder - Megathread

[SturmChurro]

So is it regular RP venues still getting hit? Or is it the only ones that are adult or ERP?

I am still questioning if it was ever regular RP venues getting hit.

[Shibi]

So is it regular RP venues still getting hit? Or is it the only ones that are adult or ERP?

Honestly, we don't know. The last case was a GM issuing a warning for some unknown reason. The community assumes it's RP, but it could have been anything.

The GM team is not making anything easy with this weird action, first the rogue GM warning people aboUT RP, then that being undone as overstepping the mark.
And now this one refusing to even say, in the broadest terms, what the problem was. Person could have said a naughty word in a dungeon for all we know.

[Reinha]

You can roleplay with 18+ people all you want, just drop the 18+ tags on the venues and allow them to be for 13+ access. That's literally it. No one is forcing anyone to rp with teenagers if they don't want to, you can literally ignore them in the venues if you want.

I just find it kind of backwards that in order to comply with the rules whilst advertising your venue, you have to invite children as well. Isn't that the opposite of protecting them? Children would have a far easier time avoiding crude interactions if they weren't blindsided by them. Even as an adult I like to be aware if an establishment is going to include half naked and/or drunken people so I know not to go there.

[rance-sama]

Square-Enix really needs to look into this big time. Not for the sake of RPers or ERPers, but because it will bite them in the rear later on.

Allow me to explain: Consider that you are someone who recently joined FFXIV, you don't RP at all but are having fun with the game, so you decide to pay the next month of your sub and perhaps buying a couple of items from the Mogstation. All good. Then one day you decide to visit the forums, or maybe you read Shout Chat, and see that someone got banned with no explanation whatsoever. That's where things start to get dark and demoralizing.

You, as a player, hope that everything you do in-game doesn't break the rules of the ToS, yet whenever you take a look at incidents like this when people get strikes in their account for no reason given, then you start wondering: "Is it really worth my time, and money, to keep playing this game if the moderation is so fickle and there's no explanation of what I did wrong? I don't want to invest my time or money in a game that might boot me without explanation!".

So, it might not look like much at first when Square-Enix loses the money of someone they banned with little explanation, but when others see this happen they might start reconsidering paying their sub.

[Anhra]

I fail to understand why advertising for RP is such a big deal here. Partyfinder shouldnt be used for any kind of advertisement at all, hence the name.

If you wish to grow your RP Community, then please do so using Fellowships and advertise for those using your characters profile message and make people aware of its existence by shouting in all the large towns just like any FC has to do. If you get a overwhelming amount of joining requests, you can even create a Linkshell for Announcements and such.

Just because Partyfinder is quite frequently visited by alot of Players and The RP Community being too lazy to do the stuff mentioned above, should'nt mean that anyone gets a free pass for the sake of convenience. You will have to pull the weight of your desired community just like any FC has to do their part (with advertisement).

[KageTokage]

I really don't understand why the content selling advertisements are totally ignored yet stuff like this is being subject to so much scrutiny from the GMs.

The former aren't even in the right section of PF which makes it further baffling as to why they just let it slide.

[Saefinn]

I am still questioning if it was ever regular RP venues getting hit.

From my understanding of the original cases from what this all kicked off there were regular RP venues who got hit and had the actions against them reversed. So I think that was a genuine error on a GM's part that they corrected.

It does make me curious as it hasn't been explicitly stated this time.

If it's just adult & ERP ones then we can deduce why they're being moderated.

But I can empathise with the lack of clarity because if they come out with say something like, "RP Advertisements are permitted in PF as long as they follow the ToS. However, if we find they are adult in nature then we may take action" I feel like it'd solve a lot of arguments without really giving people anything to lawyer against. Because "may" remains vague, "adult" remains vague and "ToS" remains vague but it offers clarity in-so-far as whether RP in its broadest terms is allowed on the PF and clarity on whether that includes "adult" content in its broadest terms.

snip

This is true. It's difficult one in that explaining what somebody did wrong could also oust the person who reported them and they have to have strict privacy policies in place (especially as some countries, including my own, are extremely strict on it), yet at the same time if you don't what you did wrong you're left make guesses at what behaviour it was.

I fail to understand why advertising for RP is such a big deal here. Partyfinder shouldnt be used for any kind of advertisement at all, hence the name.

If you wish to grow your RP Community, then please do so using Fellowships and advertise for those using your characters profile message and make people aware of its existence by shouting in all the large towns just like any FC has to do. If you get a overwhelming amount of joining requests, you can even create a Linkshell for Announcements and such.

Just because Partyfinder is quite frequently visited by alot of Players and The RP Community being too lazy to do the stuff mentioned above, should'nt mean that anyone gets a free pass for the sake of convenience. You will have to pull the weight of your desired community just like any FC has to do their part (with advertisement).

If it's just a community advertisement to recruit more people into that community (like an FC would), I agree, that's what fellowships are for and other methods people use to recruit for their advertisements. Heck, I would never use it for that purpose (and never have).

But there is a use that Party Finder is best for and that's advertising RP that is happening right now or is about to start and using it to attract people to join in. People looking for RP might go to the PF to see what RP might be going on right now. Just as people who're wanting to do other content might do. Fellowships aren't good for this.

The feedback last time was that what you put in the PF is fine as long as the content doesn't violate ToS and nothing in the ToS suggests this is a misuse.

[RavenEbonclaw]

Now, obviously other games do not have our party finder issues, but look at others such as WoW on servers such as moon guard and wyrmrest accord. There are literally multiple add ins to create discreet profiles of any nature in order to “hide or advertise” any level of RP content. I think you know what I mean by this, and it’s never become any issue with terms of service, harassment, etc. Whats the big fuss with it happening in any other game in comparison. Generally, if I don’t like something, I don’t participate. If being given a party finder that says 18+ or a carrd link that shows 18+ guidelines is what shows me, I don’t want to be part of it, heck I’m gonna appreciate the heads up on it, to be fair.

[Saefinn]

Now, obviously other games do not have our party finder issues, but look at others such as WoW on servers such as moon guard and wyrmrest accord. There are literally multiple add ins to create discreet profiles of any nature in order to “hide or advertise” any level of RP content. I think you know what I mean by this, and it’s never become any issue with terms of service, harassment, etc. Whats the big fuss with it happening in any other game in comparison. Generally, if I don’t like something, I don’t participate. If being given a party finder that says 18+ or a carrd link that shows 18+ guidelines is what shows me, I don’t want to be part of it, heck I’m gonna appreciate the heads up on it, to be fair.

And I'm inclined to agree up until the one argument people keep making and that is when it comes to minors (and by extension, the law). Whatever moral argument people can make to where the responsibility lies on that one, in some countries like the UK and US the law will hold the adult in the situation to be responsible.

If somebody unknowingly engages in sexual virtual activity with a minor (which could be seen as cybersex) because that minor ignored that 18+ warning then that could be a sexual offense. I don't know how 'big' of a concern or issue that is in this game.

But this is at the core of why people feel there is an issue especially as this is a teen rated game regardless of how online interactions are rated, it means it still attracts teens.

For me, I wouldn't want to see an RPer with good intentions get caught in that situation. When asked about brothel advertisements (it was specifically brothel that was referenced, but I am aware adult refers to a wider range of things) YoshiP pointed straight to the part of the ToS that refers to breaking the law and urged players to report this activity. So I expect they are very conscious about the legality here, especially given how many countries the player base covers.

I don't think it should mean ERP or any adult RP should go away from the game, because I don't think there's anything wrong with it and I think it's a legitimate thing for consenting adults and heck, not all forms of ERP are cybersex (some of it is just RPing erotica) and I don't think it deserves the stigmatism is gets.

But I'd understand if they decided that open advertising of such things was too risky or created too many problems. There are other avenues people can use at least.

[RavenEbonclaw]

I support the statement fully, and if you look up WoW’s rating and esrb it is also T for teen. Yet why is it not a problem there? The same multi-country legality extends to them as well. Sure, we can debate different devs, different ideals, different personal morality all day long, but if we’re going to hold someone to a guideline that earns strikes against them culminating in a ban....We need something other than “you are expected to behave yourself”. “Behaving yourself” is opinion based and can vary widely based on perspective.