I've gotten into heated arguments before and called people idiots and I've never gotten a warning and have played since ARR.
So I dunno wtf people are doing to get in trouble really.
The forums is a different matter, but ingame isn't the same.
Something tells me too that most of the time people are leaving a lot of stuff out and are making their offense sound less bad than it actually was.
Not saying there literally will never be GM's who miss the mark, but I also think people often get warned/ banned when they actually did something wrong and then they hop online and minimize what they did or said for sympathy and to push this narrative of evil GM's.
If you're not being a legit asshole I really think it's quite difficult to get into trouble ingame.
It's not impossible because GM's are human beings and fallible they're going to make mistakes.
But this whole notion that they're like sitting around wildly banning or warning people for minor things I think is wrong and people are being kinda silly when they act like they're not allowed to speak ingame and like it's a massive risk to do so.
I don't shy away from pushing back and getting into heated arguments with people when I think they're being unfair or decide to blame me for shit I didn't do and I know people have reported me before for it because they've told me.
Never had any contact at all with GM's because of that tho.
Edit: Btw, anyone who has worked in customer support probably knows how this is too.
You constantly deal with asshole customers who always think they're right and use you to vent their frustrations on.
No, the customer isn't always right.
And quite often the customer is a real jerk and dehumanize the hell out of you just so they can have a target to vent at.
I think it's a similar thing with GM's too, I think a lot of people are legit asshole towards them and use them as a punching bag.
This doesn't even make sense, how is it easy to give out a warning for something minor because no context is necessary?
Why would they need context then if they don't care about that if someone is threatening to '' hunt down and attempt to murder someone ''?
What context could possibly justify that?
Like in one second you say that they're not doing anything, then in the next second you're saying that they're doing too much too easily.
Do you actually think that GM's just sit around banning or warning people for like calling someone a poop face but then just look the other way when someone is threatening violence?
They may not have been banned but they may have been warned and it may have been their first time.
I think it's fair to receive a warning first before a ban even if it's quite bad ( unless it's especially bad and actually escalates into irl stuff for real ).
Obviously it's not okay but I think people deserve a second chance, there's too much bullshit already online with people being '' cancelled '' or whatever for things they did or said 10 years ago.
If you do something wrong you should be given a chance to better yourself unless it's especially horrible and dangerous and a more legit threat.