Feedback on Two Recent GM Interactions

[EveK]

My last two GM interactions were pretty much the opposite of each other.

Both were responses to very obvious verbal harrassment from players.

One was GM Elrindonar. The response was prompt, directly in /tell, and left me feeling reassured that it would be dealt with properly and quickly.

The other was an anonymous GM that, with all due respect, still doesn't seem to understand English:

1. Ticket 5981497 filed.
2. Received erroneous response about contacting them on behalf of another customer.
3. Requested they escalate the issue for correct handling.
4. Received erroneous response telling me I should share my "feedback" on the forums.
5. I replied that it wasn't so much "feedback" as trying to get the original ticket handled properly, but in the process decided it certainly needs to be feedback as well, so here we are.

[EveK]

So Game Master Dorxenore followed up on the second issue (no idea if he was the one that copy/pasted the first two responses or not). While I'm glad that I at least had someone speak to me about it, I admit I still feel the situation merits some additional review. Mind you, I don't know any of the parties involved. It's just weird that something like this is being mishandled; I find myself wondering how many very similar incidents elsewhere are similarly mishandled and think that perhaps this presents a significant training opportunity when it comes to GM policies/procedures.

The two completely separate issues that happened to happen on the same day for comparison were basically identical. Different people, different channels. But the crux of the matter was the same: a troll was being inexcusably verbally abusive. In both cases, there was a specific person the troll was speaking to at that moment but the hate speech that followed in each case was in a public channel with a large audience.

I feel like Elrindonar correctly identifies the situation as language inexcusable in a public channel, regardless of who specifically they theoretically intend to speak to or which particular giant portion of the world's population they direct their bigotry/hatred towards.

Dorxenore, on the other hand - again, with all due respect - rather fervently interpreted the activity as unactionable solely because the report was coming from someone in the channel other than the one most directly attacked. This would only make sense to me if the harrassment exclusively insulted that one person. In both of these cases, though, the hate speech had the added bonus of also being derogatory towards an entire race (in one case) and gender (in the other). Not to mention blatantly violating any remotely reasonable standard on obscenity (and most definitely one for a game rated for ages 13 and up).

I mean, if a hateful statement is made against a specific religion, for instance, do I need to specifically round up a member of that religion and say "You, sir! You must personally report this because YOU are the one they're talking about." Of course not. Likewise if a gender, race, lifestyle, whatever is being attacked. The entire fundamental point of this policy is that we are one species of humans and that it is fundamentally wrong to be hateful towards humans, no matter what crazy criteria a bigot decides stratifies us.

[Kaze3434]

snip
Not to mention blatantly violating any remotely reasonable standard on obscenity (and most definitely one for a game rated for ages 13 and up).

while i agree with pretty much everything you are saying, this point has no bearing on anything, as the game itself is rated teen, but the interactions with other people are not rated at all. just about all games that have online interactions with other people have somewhere in game, or on box that says online interactions are not rated by ESRB.

[Rakiria]

A situation where there's a hate speech in a public channel is good for no-one, it doesn't matter who's adressed, stuff like that is really disturbing the experience of the game, so I agree that GMs should handle it no matter who reported it.

[Warlyx]

im confused why the 2nd GM cares about who wrote the ticket? the player that reports doesnt change the actual problem .....

so if i see "Jhon" getting harrassed , and report , is not a problem because "isnt Jhon the one reporting it"?

btw SE has nothing to do with GM staff afaik is a 3rd party the one managing it...

[LadyVal]

im confused why the 2nd GM cares about who wrote the ticket? the player that reports doesnt change the actual problem .....

so if i see "Jhon" getting harrassed , and report , is not a problem because "isnt Jhon the one reporting it"?

btw SE has nothing to do with GM staff afaik is a 3rd party the one managing it...

Yes, some of them have this policy. I remember there was someone in an LS once who kept trolling with hateful/racist/prejudice remarks, and then someone would invite them back, and when we filed reports we were told "Well you weren't the one being harassed, the comments weren't directed at you."

I essentially just spammed report tickets until another GM realized what was going on and took care of the issue. It seems ridiculous that any company would have the rule that unless you are individually targeted by hate speech, then you cannot report it.

[randysquirrel]

I don't know if you have to be the person at whom the unacceptable language is directed at, as the only time I've ever reported something like this, I was that recipient. Would point out, I realise it is the internet, and you have to have a certain amount of skin thickness, but this one time I really felt the person in question went too far, with hate speech. I reported them, gave all the details, and they were promptly perma-banned.

I was contacted a few days later by someone saying that the person I reported is his gf, only a young girl of 17, she didn't really realise what those words meant that she said, and begging me to try and contact the GM and withdraw my report. I didn't.

So in my limited experience of this sort of thing, SE acted very responsibly, and if I'm honest, I didn't expect them to do anything, just sweep it under the carpet, so they went far beyond what I thought they would

[Tatsuo]

In the internal GM policies it states clearly that if Player A reports Player B for harassing player C, nothing should be done unless Player C reports Player B himself. Otherwise it is considered as a "3rd party report" and getd dismissed.

And no, GM services are not outsourced, SQEX is much too paranoid for that. Only the so called "Info Center Agents" are handled by a 3rd party (E4E IIRC)

Source: Worked at SEE

[Solarra]

Here's a quote from the Lodestone on prohibited activites:

Our Definition of Harassment
The use of inappropriate and offensive language in general, or against another player is considered harassment in FINAL FANTASY XIV and is strictly prohibited...

•The use of language that is generally considered unacceptable in a public venue
•Any language that is purposely meant to harm or harass a third party
•Any language that promotes the discrimination of any race, nationality, religion, sexual orientation or gender

Obviously, if the harassment is done via tells then the person being harassed has to make a complaint as their logs would be necessary to assess the situation. However, if someone is broadcasting hate-speech in a public channel then surely anyone should be able to report it regardless of whether it is personally directed at them. It's clearly against the rules.
I admit I'm confused by the GM response in this case.

[Enkrateia]

EveK,

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. I will be making sure that these interactions with our GMs are reviewed to better determine what may have occurred and work to improve the service that we provide. Letting us know a bit more context for the ticket is appreciated, and will help us look into this and do better in the future.

LGM Enkrateia