"Everyone's so open and friendly" is a lie

[Theodric]

It isn't just noise. I've had multiple, unaffiliated people threaten to kill me, my friends and my family over choosing to role-play a Garlean. They've done as much in-game, on this very forum and on places such as Twitter and Reddit.

I know multiple people in the same situation. They're actively stalked, frequently harassed and all for something as simple as claiming to like the antagonists in a fictional fantasy setting.

[Artemiz]

It isn't just noise. I've had multiple, unaffiliated people threaten to kill me, my friends and my family over choosing to role-play a Garlean. They've done as much in-game, on this very forum and on places such as Twitter and Reddit.

I know multiple people in the same situation. They're actively stalked, frequently harassed and all for something as simple as claiming to like the antagonists in a fictional fantasy setting.

Stalking is something that should absolutely be taken more seriously online, I wont argue with that. A death threat really depends on the situation. Do they know your real name, your address, your place of work, the country you live in, what you look like? If the answer is yes then call the police. If it's no then noise is exaclty what it is, more than likely from someone with the mental age of a 12 year old. I'm not saying it's acceptable because it's clearly despicble but it's not something that shoud be taken seriously.

I've not experienced it in this game but in CoD all you need to do is win a game, use a certain gun or play a certain way and the threats and abuse start. I've had it there plenty of times and nothing actually happened, because it's just noise.

Both of those are very extreme however, the OP is all about petty squabbles. There are millions of players in this game and I think judging the whole community because of such extreme behaviour is harsh.

[Oscura]

It isn't just noise. I've had multiple, unaffiliated people threaten to kill me, my friends and my family over choosing to role-play a Garlean. They've done as much in-game, on this very forum and on places such as Twitter and Reddit.

I know multiple people in the same situation. They're actively stalked, frequently harassed and all for something as simple as claiming to like the antagonists in a fictional fantasy setting.

I've also seen people on social media, the main reddit and the official forums have some pretty alarming opinions about Garlean RPers or people who like the characters.
I've seen them get called racists, fascists, dictator-apologists, etc.

I genuinely dislike when people are attacked for liking a specific faction because the faction is evil in a fictional setting. It is a fictional setting. There needs to be villains written into a story. I don't know why people think it's wrong for people to write their own villains or morally-gray characters.