Re: Regarding the Use of Third-Party Programs and Player Safety

[Kaurhz]

Please this is no victim blaming, but how the hell does one get stalked and who on earth is this bored or sick to actually stalk someone..? Ive been wondering since years now..

The basic answer...? - Some people take friendships/connections online a lot more seriously than what some others do, which is where you might find stalking more prominent... For the most part players that just do content and that's all, they may never get stalked (I haven't in the 11 years I've been playing), and then some others may go to social events (or tend to have a more social nature than others), make friends, do RP (Some people also take this more seriously than others), and players like that I would say generally tend to find themselves being stalked more. I've had a few friends where this has been the case.

I also suppose the very existence of this tool/program answers your question as well, because there certainly isn't another reason for it to exist.

[ovIm]

Please this is no victim blaming, but how the hell does one get stalked and who on earth is this bored or sick to actually stalk someone..? Ive been wondering since years now..

There are different reasons why someone would become a stalker. Either it can be a power play, showing a victim that they can't just escape (usually done by bullies), or it could be something like a desperate cry for attention, the offender in their delusion thinking the victim owes them attention and going to lengths to get that. I'm sure there are more possible reasons, but those are usually the big two iirc. May also be both at the same time.

As to the how you get stalked, well... meet the wrong person, really.

[Basteala]

Please this is no victim blaming, but how the hell does one get stalked and who on earth is this bored or sick to actually stalk someone..? Ive been wondering since years now..

You would be surprised what you'd find in the RP community.

[MisterNublet]

it make it worse to provide this information at all. nothing stops a person who already have the criminal mind for stalking someone to create a new account. You dont even have to buy the game since we have such a generous free trial. So people can have multiple accounts just to do harmful activitys. Please dont pretend like people would not do that, people have multiple accounts even without criminal minds in their head. So how it make it worse ? You have a database now which shows everyones character and the alts. Here an example for this situation.

Outside of finding out a players alt characters, I have zero idea how knowing a players retainer names and previous location history is such a big deal.

"Generous" Free Trials.

Free Trial Players cannot use the "shout," "yell," or "tell" in-game chat options during the Free Trial.
Free Trial Players cannot access the in-game market board during the Free Trial.
Free Trial Players cannot trade with other players during the Free Trial.
Free Trial Players cannot send in-game letters using the moogle delivery service during the Free Trial.
Free Trial Players cannot create or join a Free Company during the Free Trial.
Free Trial Players cannot log into the official forum, or Companion application during the Free Trial.
https://support.na.square-enix.com/r...&tag=freetrial

Not really a whole lot a stalker can do with a free trial account.

Person A ( attract the stalker by whatever action undercutting market / or not have the same intrest in the person or whatever ) blocks a person
Person B ( the blocked ) is intrested enough to stalk Person A or harras Person A or whatever.
Person B realizes oh i am probably blocked
Person B decides to switch to a new account and there we go nothing will stop them
Person A switches to an alt character to escape
Person B knows this and can just continue his actions on this character.

This is the most basic case of how things can go wrong. But it can gets worse.

Person A uses situational awareness and blacklists Person B's new account.

Let’s talk about people who use online games as an escape or a safe space separate from their real life. Imagine a teacher, CEO, or business owner dentist, doctor, IT people,someone expected to maintain a certain public image. If they engage in roleplay (RP), ERP, or just act differently in-game, and someone with a grudge gets access to their in-game activities, it’s not impossible that this information could be used to harm them in real life.

Sure, this might sound extreme, but in today’s world, doxing and harassment happen all the time. It’s naive to assume this won’t be misused.

Unless I'm wrong, the plugin doesn't extract or show personal information. Not giving away personal information over the internet is basic online safety. So unless the teacher, CEO, business owner, dentist, doctor, IT people, etc are telling people in game their personal history, no one is gonna know.

Which one of this cases might or might not happen doesnt really matter since every case is bad and to say its the tools fault is just tone deaf if you and your team which gets money every month created the posibility for such tool.

Hard to understand what this sentence is even saying. It's both the Devs and the plugin authors fault. It is fine to tell CB3 to get their act together, but lets not exaggerate the issues.

It has with me, a stalker I have been dealing with has been wandering around me as my alts they shouldn't know about

Did you blacklist them?

[MisterNublet]

Please this is no victim blaming, but how the hell does one get stalked and who on earth is this bored or sick to actually stalk someone..? Ive been wondering since years now..

It's the RP community.

FFXIV's RP scene just happens to be one of the worst, childish, sensitive, and antagonistic RP communities.

Vast majority that complain about "stalking" and "harassment" are abusing the words and are not actually suffering from either.

I run a nightclub and seen first hand the drama.

"They said my RP was awful." "They said they don't want to RP with me." "They didn't like my glams."

Now they cannot be in the same area together without becoming hysterical, and have actually asked me to remove the other player from the venue.

Did they say anything to you? "No."
Are they near you? "No."
Are they even talking about you. "No."

"But the player's pixels on screen is causing me mental anguish."

[ZXN]

Please this is no victim blaming, but how the hell does one get stalked and who on earth is this bored or sick to actually stalk someone..? Ive been wondering since years now..

Any answer given would just be scratching the surface really as there are A TON of factors to be considered, so it's a bit...difficult to really answer this. But I guess to give super basic answer: you get stalked/stalk someone simply because -------. No I did not censor anything: you could replace the ------- with pretty much anything you can think of, even something minor, and it can be someone's reason to stalk someone / get stalked. For example: you bump into someone at a grocery store, they drop something because of it, you pick it up for them and hand it back and then leave. Sounds like you just being a nice person since the bump is what caused them to drop said something and you just picked it up for them, what's the deal? To them, however: that could unironically be a reason for them to start stalking you. From taking revenge, to being para-social, to having mental health issues, to wanting to be controlling, to having low self-esteem, and many, many more reasons: if you can think it, then it can be a legitimate reason to stalk someone / get stalked, both IRL and online.

I won't pretend to know the RP community for FF14 that well since I keep to myself, but I have no doubt that like other RP communities; there are absolutely a few who take it WAY too seriously, and just like all the reasons listed above, anything you can think of in-game can be a reason for them to stalk you / get stalked.

"They said I was bad at RP!"

"They didn't like my glamour outfit!"

"They undercut me on the marketboard!" <- [This one here is why this 3rd party program actually exists apparently: because the maker wanted to know who the retainers of the person undercutting them on the marketboard belonged to.]

Overall, to put as absolutely basic and blunt as possible: People stalk and get stalked simply because. Probably not a good answer as a whole since answering "How does someone get stalked / why does someone want to stalk?" is pretty difficult due to all the factors and parts that make up each specific stalking situation, but hopefully it offers a bit of insight into it.

[Rinoa_353]

Please this is no victim blaming, but how the hell does one get stalked and who on earth is this bored or sick to actually stalk someone..? Ive been wondering since years now..

My kindness is often confused with flirting for some odd reason with a large percentage of guys in this game.... Many of them treat this game as a sort of dating sim despite me friendzoning them from the start because I don't do long distance online relationships nor am I looking to date as well when I play this game to have fun and escape from the stresses irl brings around me. This particular stalker follows me around after I rejected their advances and they also tried to blackmail me (failed) in hopes of causing friction between my friends and I. They follow me around and stand near me looking like Michael Myers and emoting at me too even though I don't see them anymore but my friends who visit my homes seen them there. They have tried talking through my friends to get me to unblock them and more. I'm generally very forgiving and gave this guy many chances to be friends only but he always ends up abusing my kindness in hopes of getting me to be subservient to their twisted whims..... The terms of the blackmail (happened outside of the game) was for me to be subservient to them and also control what I said and who I can be around with.... Thankfully my friends saw through his deceit and what he tried to blackmail me with (He used 3rd party tools to have my characters naked and spread online as revenge porn of sorts but that doesn't really bother me since it's not myself irl). All of this took place outside the game, he is smart enough not to harass through tells/say chat directly to avoid the ire of GM's. Fortunately, I never gave them information about myself irl so it's only confined to the game and rarely outside through social media when he tries to contact me through friends.

Did you blacklist them?

Yes I did but he creates trial characters and my friends see him once in a while when he stalks me.

[Rein_eon_Osborne]

It’s hard to give the ‘right answer’ as to why people stalk other than “it’s crazy people”. Doesn’t matter whether it’s from RP or other subset of community. All it takes is just one person or group crazy & wanting enough to cause harm to their target that they dislike for whatever reason.

Google & take your time reading the “FFXIV Koike Incident” and “FFXIV Dingo Case”. While they’re not about stalking strictly, they’re certainly something that can happen more easily should more and more people, good or bad, becomes aware of the BL system flaw. Besides, oftentimes, ‘stalking’ doesn’t necessarily means ‘just following you around lol.’ They worsen the spaces you regularly go to and tend to affect those that normally hangs with you as well.

[dsgawwewerfw]

eureka and bosnia have player position checks

[EunJuAnna]

[I]Free Trial Players cannot use the "shout," "yell," or "tell" in-game chat options during the Free Trial.

noticeably "say" is not listed here

Person A uses situational awareness and blacklists Person B's new account.

great so we get to play a more intense version whack a mole than we already were. lovely.



I've seen people who don't participate in RP get stalked in game and it translated to irl soon after. your experience of running a venue is not the end all be all. so miss me with trying to minimize this issue.

SE has been so so hands off when it comes to the stalking problem their game has had for a long long time. this is just another example of that behavior. blatant rookie coding mistake that actively made the stalking issues in this game worse, through a function that was supposed to help the issue.