What to do about harrassment

[RitsukoSonoda]

I keep hearing that phrase a lot. What is classified as a boomer nowadays? I always thought it was for the baby boomers born in the 40's and 50's..Wait.... if I have to ask... oh boy. I must be a boomer lol XD

boomer has become a word similar to empathy where people think throwing it out there somehow makes them seem more credible or smart even though they're not even using it properly and most likely don't even know what the word actually means.

As for the word boomer it's basically slang for "baby Boomer" which is a term used for the age range of people born between 1946 - 1964 because after WWII people started popping out babies like rabbits. Though alot of these people would later fall into other slang categories later as they grew up.

[Gemina]

Problem is SE is notoriously BAD at dealing with harrasment, because it's not really a crime over there. It has to actually reach violence before it's thought of as a crime there.

On the other hand the US datacenter is on US soil, so the incidents online in the USA might be in the US jurisdiction.

Knocking on the real life door, yha, that's right to the cops, who will then supena SE for the info... if your white and rich, otherwise they'll do nothing.


I recommend self defense courses and a primer on the uses of the second amendment. I recommend the pink pistols.

That's law. Legislation is a fickle beast, and if it weren't and so easily defined what constitutes a violation, there would be no need for attorneys, and middle and lower class could easily defend themselves in a court of law, or pursue charges of their own.

I am definitely not saying that illegal forms of harassment are always pursued. However, SE is without question subject to US laws and regulations in regards to the ToS. I am not wrong that if a matter comes to their attention that places them in harms way, they will without question be forced to diffuse the situation. If for example someone in Limsa said in /shout "Gemina Lunarian's real name is __________, and she lives at 12345 avenue, city, state, zip, country. Do pay her a visit, will ya?" Do you really think they will just let that go? They can't. If something happened to me after the fact, it would get very ugly for them whether I or my family pressed charges or not.

In terms of harassment, it is tougher. That is why I warned the OP, as he is far more likely to get punished for false reporting than the actual culprit facing any kind of indictment or disciplinary action. Players get in squabbles all the time, and there would be a process if any action was taken at all. It's not just being a wealthy white person. Things in the states are all kinds of messed up right now, and it far more about how high you rank on the victim totem that is a determining factor. It doesn't change what's irrefutable though, much like in my example. If there is a true case of harassment going on that they have to address, it will be done. Anything pointed here on the forums is all hearsay, and isn't valid in court.

Another thing before I close, and this really sucks to think about, is that there are laws that also protect the harasser, which adds another element of difficulty cracking things down on these kind of people. If things got out of hand, the more likely scenario is SE would halt character creation, and even shut servers down in question of a legal pursuit involving harassment. It's a difficult ordeal, and SE can't ban everyone giving another player a bad day.

[ICountFrom0]

I am definitely not saying that illegal forms of harassment are always pursued. However, SE is without question subject to US laws and regulations in regards to the ToS. I am not wrong that if a matter comes to their attention that places them in harms way, they will without question be forced to diffuse the situation. If for example someone in Limsa said in /shout "Gemina Lunarian's real name is __________, and she lives at 12345 avenue, city, state, zip, country. Do pay her a visit, will ya?" Do you really think they will just let that go? They can't. If something happened to me after the fact, it would get very ugly for them whether I or my family pressed charges or not.

Thing is.
That HAS been done.
They do not take action.
They do not think of that as illegal.

It isn't until something violent actually happens that there is punishment.
Check through the forums, you'll see even worse things happening without them taking action.

No amount of you saying, "they should" or "they are required to" will actually make them do it. You don't have the billion dollar legal team to force them to either, nor the trillion dollar lobist group it would take to get the law changed to include a punishment for them for not helping. Bottom line, they can get away with doing nothing, so they will.

[ValkyrieL]

I would report to irl authorities if outside game.

Having said, I still find it hard to comprehend how people can let a video game character pixel get to them. If someone follow/trace me, whisper spam me. I Ignored you, completely denied your very existence, you are nothing to me, your very presence goes in to the void. We are humans the desires that someone acknowledged your existence. The worst thing/feeling is someone not acknowledging your very existence/you don't matter, you are nothing.

Everyone is built differently/tolerance for kind if things. Take screenahot/logs and submit.

[Bobby66]

I would report to irl authorities if outside game.

Having said, I still find it hard to comprehend how people can let a video game character pixel get to them. If someone follow/trace me, whisper spam me. I Ignored you, completely denied your very existence, you are nothing to me, your very presence goes in to the void. We are humans the desires that someone acknowledged your existence. The worst thing/feeling is someone not acknowledging your very existence/you don't matter, you are nothing.

Everyone is built differently/tolerance for kind if things. Take screenahot/logs and submit.

Sure report it to IRL authorities it will most likely take a back seat to "real" issues. Reality is our laws are mostly reactive not proactive. It is up the OP's friend to protect herself, and if that means moving so be it. Those with power often do not step in until it is far too late. You second line is why most people will brush it off.

[Final-Fantasy]

What can you do about harassment when in-game tickets and reports do nothing?

I know someone who has been dealing with someone who has been trying to smear their name for nearly a year. They have been making alts with the same name on different servers and coming to their home server to try and slander them in /shout with cruel and perverse words.

They have followed them around in-game, worked around the block list, deleting and recreating alts, and have caused so much grief for this person. The harassment has extended out of game; following them on twitter, steam, accessing IRL information. While I know nothing can be done about the latter, nothing has been done about everything in game. Numerous people have reported this person, but they are still around, still harassing friends of mine.

They do not want to post here out of fear of this person seeing this.

Is there some other way to report this kind of harassment to SquareEnix and actually get results?

They wont do anything unfortunately.

What we need in a situation like this is, a way to make our Lodestone character ID private so if someone tries to view the URL, it is denied.
Remove the unique ID that shows for the Character Name altogether, only show the Character Name, this way you can Name Change without anyone knowing.

Of course, this would only work if they make it so when you delete a Friend, it removes you from their list too.
The fact SE is against doing this because it might upset someone else-while being fine with it upsetting you, is Illogical.

At least with those two features I mentioned above, you could leave an FC/LS and become Anonymous, it would be possible to move on, in the game.

[WP1990]

as someone who has just gone through this, and had the individual show up to my front door irl, i am with you. i hope everything gets resolved, it is truly terrifying.

Holy **** man! That is crazy!

[Axxion]

Doxxing is a serious thing tho not a pixel thing

want to hear something funny, just found this out today. A streamer did one of those sleep streams. Someone in there chat paid 10 bucks for tts an said Alexa tell me my location. Alexa could not tell the difference and you already know how that worked

[Renalt]

They are not sure how to handle this with the authorities. My friend is in the US while this other person, they are pretty sure, is in the UK.

It is frustrating.

Any update on this? Your friend should screenshot everything this person does. Tell them to not engage in any sort of conversation with the person. Just screenshot and block. The more stuff this person does, the more evidence they will have.

[Dingledorf]

Any update on this? Your friend should screenshot everything this person does. Tell them to not engage in any sort of conversation with the person. Just screenshot and block. The more stuff this person does, the more evidence they will have.

Nothing has come of it. I have told them to ignore and report, save screenshots, etc. This is the sort of person who feeds off the attention. As far as we know, nothing has been done to the suspect though.