It's almost like SE encourages stalking in this game...

[LioJen]

I'm not really clear on what this "stalking" is. Are they like flooding your chat window with whispers or something? Are they interfering with your ability to queue for duties, or preventing you from interacting with NPCs? Are they somehow getting into instances with you and griefing / PKing you? Is there some way they can find your real life info through the game?

I've had people "follow" my character around in online games, shouting (typing) insanity at me, but they always got bored when I ignored them and buzzed off.

[LittleImp]

I'm not really clear on what this "stalking" is. Are they like flooding your chat window with whispers or something? Are they interfering with your ability to queue for duties, or preventing you from interacting with NPCs? Are they somehow getting into instances with you and griefing / PKing you? Is there some way they can find your real life info through the game?

I've had people "follow" my character around in online games, shouting (typing) insanity at me, but they always got bored when I ignored them and buzzed off.

It's usually a result of someone with severe mental illness becoming emotionally attached to you in some way, rather than a spur-of-the-moment bit of harassment because their temper flared. Accidentally invite unstable person to your community, they become emotionally attached/reliant on you or someone else, they ultimately get rejected for whatever reason (usually because they do something creepy), and they can't let it go due to extreme obsessive tendencies caused by their mental illness.

If someone is twisted enough, this kind of stuff can go on for months or even years. Someone I knew once had an MMO stalker physically show up outside their IRL home and they had to involve the police. It's seriously no joke, and people end up dead because of this stuff.

[LisSquid]

Someone I knew once had an MMO stalker physically show up outside their IRL home and they had to involve the police.

Oh, hey! Throwback to when my online stalker mailed me a dead bird. Still have no idea how that passed inspections.

I agree with some of the posters here where just blocking and not giving attention to a person is more than enough. The ONLY thing SE needs to do is make it so that your friends list actually break ties with the person you unfriended. They can still mail you things in-game, know where you are and when you're online at all times. That, and let you blacklist people from entering homes. If you block someone, they should also not be able to enter your house, and you shouldn't have to lock all the doors to stop them from coming in.

Other than that? Really, really just pay these people no mind. The only thing they can get from you online is a reaction, and that's the goal. Keep your irl information private, picture sharing to a minimal, and really do not go around passing your socials to whoever. My experience made me rethink every online interaction, and I have had nothing but pleasant encounters since covering my bases.

[Breakbeat]

It's seriously no joke, and people end up dead because of this stuff.

Sure, but there's absolutely, positively no need to obsess about it, worry about it, have anxiety over it, etc.

How can I say that with confidence? Well... do you obsess, worry, have anxiety and fear driving to work daily? Driving to work, you have about a 1 in 10,000 chance of being killed in an auto accident, if you live in the United States.

If you live in the United States, you have about a 1 in 15,000 chance of being murdered at all during a calendar year. I cite 'all murder' figures just to make a point. Actual murders performed by stalkers ranges from (depending on which data you believe) 20% to 80% of all murders. We can split the difference on that data and call it 50%. That's 11,000 murders for 330 million people, or about 1 in 30,000.

1 in 10,000 you die from an auto accident: "No worries. I do 75 in the 65 all the time."
1 in 30,000 you die from murder: "ZOMG this is terrrible!"

What gives? Where are all the threads on being a better driver? Instead we worry about virtual stalkers?

Actually, screw threads on better driving, even. Where the hell are threads on home safety? 173,000 people died in 2020 of accidents at home. That's a whopping 1 in 2000 chance, per year, per person. In other words, you are fifteen times more likely to die from a fall in the shower as you are from a stalker.

Don't even get me started on eating healthy (heart disease, the #1 killer of humans), quitting smoking, avoiding / controlling diabetes and getting regular cancer screenings. Shoot, even murder doesn't get a spot in the top ten ways to die. Suicide does, though. Show me all the mental health threads, now?

/Mindblown at priorities so far out of whack. Seriously, folks.

[SturmChurro]

People who have pattern of stalking and other obsessive behavior are often adept at toeing the line of the rules, all the while inflicting long-term psychological damage on their prey. It's really common for someone who is he victim of this kind of behavior to finally crack under the abuse and have an outburst, which the stalker then reports in order to further harm their target. I've actually heard of a few cases of something like this happening on FFXIV, usually involving someone saying something like [...] to their stalker.

My God. People need to think of the children, before typing in that kind of language in-game!

[Nekaru_Infitima]

Sure, but there's absolutely, positively no need to obsess about it, worry about it, have anxiety over it, etc.

How can I say that with confidence? Well... do you obsess, worry, have anxiety and fear driving to work daily? Driving to work, you have about a 1 in 10,000 chance of being killed in an auto accident, if you live in the United States.

If you live in the United States, you have about a 1 in 15,000 chance of being murdered at all during a calendar year. I cite 'all murder' figures just to make a point. Actual murders performed by stalkers ranges from (depending on which data you believe) 20% to 80% of all murders. We can split the difference on that data and call it 50%. That's 11,000 murders for 330 million people, or about 1 in 30,000.

1 in 10,000 you die from an auto accident: "No worries."
1 in 30,000 you die from murder: "ZOMG this is terrrible!"

What gives? Where are all the threads on being a better driver? Instead we worry about virtual stalkers?

Actually, screw threads on better driving, even. Where the hell are threads on home safety? 173,000 people died in 2020 of accidents at home. That's a whopping 1 in 2000 chance, per year, per person. In other words, you are fifteen times more likely to die from a fall in the shower as you are from a stalker.

/Mindblown at priorities so far out of whack.

Let's not forget that if one knows your real name, these days it's so easy to simply look someone up. Pay $4 to Whitepages.com and boom, all current and past addresses and phone numbers unless the person has removed themselves (most have not.) Or Any other people search.

How about we discuss your social media, and how very much OSINT you are putting out.

Cyber security major here. If you only knew the easiness of stalking outside of a game, you wouldn't care about what's going on in the game. The world is a scary place.

[Lunalepsy]

If someone is twisted enough, this kind of stuff can go on for months or even years. Someone I knew once had an MMO stalker physically show up outside their IRL home and they had to involve the police. It's seriously no joke, and people end up dead because of this stuff.

I had a stalker who found me on Facebook, and he tried to make me feel guilty because my "privacy settings" weren't strict. He dropped my name out of nowhere without my consent and made it look like it could happen to anyone/it was my fault in the first place. He tried to play this game, but this particular person does not like P2P games. Also, the moderation in this game is strict, so I am sure he wasn't going to last long with his tactics.

[Breakbeat]

Let's not forget that if one knows your real name, these days it's so easy to simply look someone up. Pay $4 to Whitepages.com and boom, all current and past addresses and phone numbers unless the person has removed themselves (most have not.) Or Any other people search.

How about we discuss your social media, and how very much OSINT you are putting out.

Cyber security major here. If you only knew the easiness of stalking outside of a game, you wouldn't care about what's going on in the game. The world is a scary place.

It's not, though? I just said why.

Sorry, I came before the generation that gets bent outta shape over privacy. Everyone can know my name, I don't care, I've never done anything wrong, so I have nothing to hide. My name's Matt and I live in Northeast LA. You can get my whole date of birth off my profile. Go do the White Pages thing if you want, I don't care. I don't do social media so that is of no concern to me at all.

If I did, I wouldn't have privacy concerns over things I willingly made public. Go figure.

See, back in the day we had this thing called a phone book. Everyone's name, address and phone number were listed in it, and they dropped it for free on everyone's front door. I don't recall there being a higher incidence of stalking and murder in those days, and my name was in there too. So was my address. So was my phone number. You didn't even need to pay four bucks. How the hell did we ever make it out of those ages, with everyone knowing our personal info?

Clue: it's because much of the fear over "privacy" is misplaced, unfounded, and flat out silly.

As I've already said, a smart, logical human should be more worried about slipping in the shower or being a better driver. Because a smart, logical human worries about things that are actually most likely to affect them.

And isn't that the sane way to do it? Why would you start at number 124 on the list of "ways I might die," and then worry about it? Start at number 1, yeah? Like you do everywhere else.

[Arillyn]

It's not, though? I just said why.

Sorry, I came before the generation that gets bent outta shape over privacy. Everyone can know my name, I don't care, I've never done anything wrong, so I have nothing to hide. My name's Matt and I live in Northeast LA. You can get my whole date of birth off my profile. Go do the White Pages thing if you want, I don't care.

See, back in the day we had this thing called a phone book. Everyone's name, address and phone number were listed in it, and they dropped it for free on everyone's front door. I don't recall there being a higher incidence of stalking and murder in those days, and my name was in there too. So was my address. So was my phone number. You didn't even need to pay four bucks.

I'm more worried about slipping in the shower or being a better driver. Because I worry about things that are actually most likely to affect me.

Isn't that the sane way to do it? Why would you start at number 124 on the list of "ways I might die," and then worry about it?

You've never actually been stalked before have you...

[Breakbeat]

You've never actually been stalked before have you...

No, and I am not likely to. I'm far more likely to die at home or due to health issues, so I worry about that stuff.

Worrying about being stalked is nonsense, unless you're also worried about everything more likely than 'death by stalker' that might happen to you.

Compare time spent worrying about heart disease to time spent worrying about stalkers.

It's outta whack if you worry about the latter more than the former. I stand by that. It's illogical and nonsensical.