Updates to the Prohibited Activities in FINAL FANTASY XIV and Account Penalty Policy

[lezard21]

The whole "what counts as a ToS breaking D/C?" is one of them. There's a bit of grey area there, but the ToS is vague on purpose most of the time.

I live right next to a hospital that during the peak cases of Covid last summer hired a sanitization water truck to use high pressure water to clean the street infront of it every night. This caused multiple outages due to the water leaking down into a major power supply unit.

On one of said occassions I was queued in Leveling Roulette and ended grouped up with a pair of brand new level skip Tank and Healer friends in Holminster Switch. We wiped multiple times to every boss and had to do small pulls. Both the other DPS and I offered advise the best we could and we eventually made it to the last boss. We wiped 2 times to it. 12 minutes left on dungeon timer. I start explaining the rotation mechanic to the healer since that's what got him both times... aaaaand my power goes out and doesn't come back till early in the morning next day. When I next log in I DMed the Tank since I remembered his name and both him and the healer were both actually pretty cooll dudes and explain them that I didn't bail out on them since I didn't want them to have a bad first impression of the game.

If that had happen now I guess I would have woken up to a banned account due to "disconnecting when the duty is not going well"

[Roda]

I live right next to a hospital that during the peak cases of Covid last summer hired a sanitization water truck to use high pressure water to clean the street infront of it every night. This caused multiple outages due to the water leaking down into a major power supply unit.

On one of said occassions I was queued in Leveling Roulette and ended grouped up with a pair of brand new level skip Tank and Healer friends in Holminster Switch. We wiped multiple times to every boss and had to do small pulls. Both the other DPS and I offered advise the best we could and we eventually made it to the last boss. We wiped 2 times to it. 12 minutes left on dungeon timer. I start explaining the rotation mechanic to the healer since that's what got him both times... aaaaand my power goes out and doesn't come back till early in the morning next day. When I next log in I DMed the Tank since I remembered his name and both him and the healer were both actually pretty cooll dudes and explain them that I didn't bail out on them since I didn't want them to have a bad first impression of the game.

If that had happen now I guess I would have woken up to a banned account due to "disconnecting when the duty is not going well"

Eh, pretty sure this one would get chalked up to gm understanding that you stuck out the whole way and didn't say anything inflamatory, not to mention I don't think anyone in that group would've reported you.

That being said, the ToS kind of shames people for participating in the game when they have spotty internet. :T

[lezard21]

Eh, pretty sure this one would get chalked up to gm understanding that you stuck out the whole way and didn't say anything inflamatory, not to mention I don't think anyone in that group would've reported you.

That being said, the ToS kind of shames people for participating in the game when they have spotty internet. :T

The other DPS might have suspected I bailed due to dungeon time limit. Regardless, we are assuming that the GMs will conduct a thorough investigation on foul DC reports which:
a) I don't think they will or
b) if they do it will be a huge waste of manpower and time for something that can be solved by removing the mentor roulette

[Xirean]

The other DPS might have suspected I bailed due to dungeon time limit. Regardless, we are assuming that the GMs will conduct a thorough investigation on foul DC reports which:
a) I don't think they will or
b) if they do it will be a huge waste of manpower and time for something that can be solved by removing the mentor roulette

The action taken for leaving specifically says that action will only be taken if the behavior is consistent. One incident, reported or not, does not meet that criteria.

[Karen_Cerfrumos]

While explicitly disallowing misuse of Party Finder and RMT sales is a good thing, the overly strict chat moderation rules are extremely concerning and in my opinion highlight the stark difference between societal norms in Japan and in the West. These rules basically make not talking in chat ever to be the safest conduct because the way it's formulated almost anything except for the most careful tiptoeing can be taken by GMs are prohibited statements.

Not to mention how contradictory it is when the game sets certain performance checks and expectations but then sets out to punish people whenever you try to compel other players to meet them just so you can win at all. You simply can't have your cake and eat it too. If a fight requires certain gear to beat and a guy joins with an i30 weapon and is actively hindering progress how is it not just as much of a burden on the group as pointing out that he's doing the wrong thing? If there is one solution to the one mechanic why should I be afraid to point out people need to observe it to succeed? This is unjustified and unnecessarily strict. Tensions arise between people in a social setting. This is natural. But there is dangers in overcorrecting and overpolicing.

[Roda]

The other DPS might have suspected I bailed due to dungeon time limit. Regardless, we are assuming that the GMs will conduct a thorough investigation on foul DC reports which:
a) I don't think they will or
b) if they do it will be a huge waste of manpower and time for something that can be solved by removing the mentor roulette

I mean it's probably as easy as
*checks the time spend in dungeon* (sees 12 minutes left, probably assumes it would be silly to maliciously bail after committing that much time)
*checks how far the group got* (sees you got to the last boss, probably assumes you wouldn't bail right at the end)
*checks the chat log* (sees you and the other dps helping out the tank and healer, and sees the tank and healer taking it well. Probably assumes you weren't leaving out of malice.)

I have less fear that the gms will abuse these rules, and more fear that trolls and griefers will be emboldened by their wording and lack of acknowledgement of bad faith actors.

[Iscah]

Examples of absolutely true things the game asks of you:

"Use Vril when she casts X to prevent being knocked off the platform."

"Interrupting Ultros when he casts X will stop Y from happening."


Meanwhile it occurs to me that a lot of the auto-translate phrases are fairly direct orders – I get a lot of use out of [Take them down at the same time!] in that one guildhest. I find it hard to believe that you could be faulted for using the same degree of "do this thing" in your own language as long as you aren't critical of anyone as you do it.

If that had happen now I guess I would have woken up to a banned account due to "disconnecting when the duty is not going well"

Only if the "actually pretty cool dudes" had some reason to take offence to you dropping out at that late stage of the run and the GM thought they had a valid point and if it made any sense at all for someone to pull the dropping out trick* at such a late stage in the dungeon.

* funnily enough my autocorrect attempted to rephrase this into "dripping out truck", which apparently is actually what happened in this case...

[Nishira]

Player A: B, you're doing this part wrong.
Player B: I understand, I'll try harder.
Player A: You understand the mechanics? Want me to teach you?
Player B: I do understand, I'm OK. Thank you.
Player A: You sure you understand? You keep on screwing up. You should do [something] on [something].
Player B: I understand, I'm sorry.
Player A: You sure? If you don't know let me know, ok? B, you're screwing up so many times, you're really dragging this out for us.
Player B: I'm sorry.

This is apparently a reportable offense by Player A.

If people find Player A’s behaviour normal and completely acceptable, I suddenly understand a great deal better why some other people might say: “Stop criticising/bullying them” in a party. I’d tell Player A to cut it out too. And not because things can’t be pointed out, but because it’s an appalling way of delivering criticism, and a relentless pursuing of it while someone is so clearly feeling uncomfortable and ashamed. Truly, it should be obvious why you don’t speak to someone else like that. I wouldn’t communicate that way with a dog, let alone with another human being.

Anyway, there have been plenty of great suggestions on how you can communicate, how you can give feedback and how you can interact with your fellow players without risking a ban and still getting the point across. If that means the Player A’s in this game need to reconsider how to phrase things, I’d see that as a cause for celebration.

[Sicno]

"Use Vril when she casts X to prevent being knocked off the platform."

"Interrupting Ultros when he casts X will stop Y from happening."

"No, I'm pretty sure there must be another way and I mean to find it".

Or:

"I'm here to have fun, stop your elitism."

[Sicno]

If people find Player A’s behaviour normal and completely acceptable, I suddenly understand a great deal better why some other people might say: “Stop criticising/bullying them” in a party. I’d tell Player A to cut it out too.

It depends on the timeframe. If all of that exchange happened in one go, without interruptions, yeah it could be considered as being rude and pesky. But if each time player A asked was separated by multiple wipes and player B keeps insisting that they know, despite having made the same mistake 3 times since the last time they were asked, can you say asking again was rude? I think it's the logical thing to do, not just for player A but also for the rest of the party.