Square Enix Does not care about Stalking/Harassment In Game

[AithneDorcha]

After reporting the same player for the 8th time for entering our FC house after asking them to leave and that they are not welcome because of predatory behavior and receiving the obligatory message:

"Hello, Aithne Dorcha, and thank you for your GM call. We have received your report regarding grief tactics and we apologize for any disruption that this has caused. Thank you for providing enough information for us to begin an investigation in accordance with our policies. Although we cannot share the outcome with you for privacy reasons, rest assured that we take disruptive behavior very seriously and we will ensure the appropriate action is taken."

It is all but apparent Square Enix does not take Stalking/Harassment "very seriously" at all. If anything they blatantly ignore it because at the end of the day who would want to burn a cash source? My question is at what point should they be held liable for not enforcing the ToS that they in turn hold us, players, to. We enter into a contract with Square to play this game and in turn, they are supposed to provide some form of a safe experience. As an FC leader, I shouldn't have to lock my FC house down because of one person making it impossible for other members of the community to visit us if they are looking for an FC, coming by for crafting, or simply just visiting some of our members who they are their friends.

The GM's give the same response time, after time after time. Lock the house, blacklist the person... That tells me that they don't want to deal with the problem. When a player has been reported numerous times over a span of months for predatory behavior then the GMs should now be complicit in said behavior. Throwing your hands up and saying NOPE NOT MY PROBLEM is a great way to make a problem erupt and ruin a community, great job.

[Kes13a]

not sure what their issue is personally. they do seem strangely reluctant to enforce anything like that.

but thats not just them, that seems industry wide. stalkers/harassers are notoriously difficult to action against apparently. mind you there are several entities they same to take this approach with, and it does point to holes in their "support" guidelines.

those ones they really need to define, since it is harmful to the game and the players.

[DPZ2]

The GM hands may be tied if you are unwilling to follow the advice given first (lock the FC house so that non-FC members can't get in, put the offending person on personal blacklist).

Hopefully you've provided them with the name, location and times of offenses. 'Predatory behavior' is a useless quantifier if there aren't solid reasons (chat records, mostly) to back them up. Complaints from multiple sources (including name, locations, times and offensive behavior) are more compelling, so if you have witnesses, have them put in similar reports.

Be cautious, because multiple people reporting a player can be interpreted as harassment if the reports don't pan out.

Sorry to hear of your problems. Hope it can be resolved.

[SenorPatty]

This is SE once again behind the times as usual. If this was any other game, just blacklisting would've prevented that person from entering and in some games, make them completely invisible to the eye.

It's things like that, that make wonder is this really the game that's trying to be relevant for another 10 years when the way they deal with stalking seems 10 years late.

[AithneDorcha]

some predatory behavior as reported to the Gms as stalking my members (proved through our chat logs) leaving messages in our books like, "I'm somewhere in your house RN" Refusing to leave the property when asked to do so. A FC should not be made to become Private because of an Individual. We interact with a lot of players from different FC's and worlds, so now we have to lock the world off because of that person? This seems a little one sided.

[DPZ2]

If this was any other game, just blacklisting would've prevented that person from entering and in some games, make them completely invisible to the eye.

Just wondering what multiplayer games provide the quoted things above simply by blacklisting as I haven't encountered them in the multiplayer games I've played over the last two decades.

[Misplaced_Marbles]

those ones they really need to define, since it is harmful to the game and the players.

But they won't do that for any rule to avoid getting called out for their inaction. Although i'm sure you know this, the rules are vague and up for interpretation by design.

[ryouma17]

After reporting the same player for the 8th time for entering our FC house after asking them to leave and that they are not welcome

have you tried locking your FC house?

[LittleImp]

We have a player on our server that joins the Novice Network every single day, using macros to spam hundreds of lines of schizophrenic nonsense into chat, and then stalks and harasses anyone who kicks him. He also uses alts to evade NN kicks sometimes.

He's been doing this for months nonstop. He's been reported many times by many players, but never seems to receive any punishment or suspension, and continues to run a large FC unimpeded.

The GMs in this game are pretty useless. They're too busy banning people for fixing their awful UI, advertising RP venues, or saying the word "shit" into chat when they get knocked off a platform.

[LianaThorne]

some predatory behavior as reported to the Gms as stalking my members (proved through our chat logs) leaving messages in our books like, "I'm somewhere in your house RN" Refusing to leave the property when asked to do so. A FC should not be made to become Private because of an Individual. We interact with a lot of players from different FC's and worlds, so now we have to lock the world off because of that person? This seems a little one sided.

Speaking as someone who was legitimately stalked in game, the GMs do take action against actually harmful acts. I had one contact me personally to resolve my situation and it was finished quickly. The person leaving messages in your FC isn't doing anything harmful, they're just being annoying. That's not enough for GMs to get involved, they aren't babysitters. If the person was cursing you out and impersonating you by fantasiaing into a previous character appearance & name of yours, that would be harmful (as was the case with me).

Just have everyone in your FC blacklist the person and pretend like they don't exist. If they take it to extremes and start threatening or cursing people out, you'll probably have better luck with GMs.