Change/Remove Lalafell "Lifter"...

[WilhelmWhite]

8-12 months of harassment we dealt with because I cared about the community instead of myself.

This... isn't ok. I'll apologize for the harsh words I used with you in earlier comments, because before I say what I'm about to say, the last thing I want is to be a part of the problem.

Final Fantasy XIV means a lot to me. I've been a Final Fantasy fan for many years, and joining the FFXIV community was actually one of the best decisions I've made. I've met some really great people, and had some really great experiences. Not to mention escaping into the world of FFXIV was sometimes a much needed distraction for a lot of the absolutely horrendous shit that was happening in my actual life.

HOWEVER;

If it is getting to the point where you are valuing the community/RP/whateverthefuck more than your actual needs, that is unhealthy. As an avid MMO player, I've seen too many people fall into a state where nothing else mattered, and the lines between problems that only existed in-game, and problems that existed in real life were extremely blurred, and people ended up getting hurt. Sometimes physically.

I'm not saying that you should put up with harassment, or that you shouldn't take a stand against it. People who are going great lengths to harass and harm (especially if it's leaking to IRL) should absolutely be held accountable. What I am saying is that your mental health and sanity should ALWAYS take precedence over anything else. Including this game. Including the community. Including the RP world. Including the venue community. With all due respect, based on some of your comments, it really feels like those lines are being blurred with you as well.

Which brings us back to the original topic, the chair. In the grand scheme of things, is it really worth all of this trouble? If people were going to be assholes to Lalafells, they were going to do it regardless of the chair's existence. The chair isn't the issue here.

[VoidsentStatus]

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Agreed. And that's part of the reason why I'm not a venue owner anymore and don't plan to be. Because while there are people that need to stand up against harassment, the amount of other people that would do so is small, and I'm big on loyalty. All the projects I'm working on now are a middle ground, do my part as a thanks for the good bit I had while here, and move on.

The chair bit, yes and no. In my opinion, I think the bigger problem than the people harassing, is that Square hasn't put a chokehold on NA to make them behave properly like other regions, and I don't see them doing so until Yoshi-P has literally no choice. From everything I have heard, JP is much more confrontational, much more community-driven in movements, and their GM's are by far stricter. I come from an abandoned pvp game and I've seen pvp abandoned here as well (feast+ranked pvp at least for NA), so I know that feeling of abandonment/neglect and what it does to people, and after years, it would seem that the part of the community that does defend lalafell is starting to slowly speak out because they don't want to engage with toxic people unless they have to. And seeing a few extra voices in the thread that did defend them at least airing their grievances, despite what may actually be done to fix the problem they have, is a step in the right direction to me and I'm happy with that.