Feedback on harassment

[MrPresident]

Was advised in game to post any feedback I had about this on the forums, so am doing so.

The vast majority of the players in this game are regular nice people. Most barely talk honestly, and those that do usually don't say much. However I have had the unfortunate chance of running into a few of the lesser members of the community in my time here.

The vile abuse they throw at you is quite astounding. This isn't CoD "I f*cked your mum!" nonsense. I'm talking encouraging suicide, death threats and sexually assaulting family members kinda stuff, among other sickeningly creative jabs. But never mind, there is a report function. So I just thought I'd report abuse when I got some of the particularly disgusting things said to me and the GMs would take action, right? Wrong.

Of all the people I've ever reported, no visible action has ever been taken. Of course the GM's shield they hide behind is "how do you know, we got our privacy policy!" Well, yes. But if the same people are continually logging in every day, no change in their behaviour, that is a pretty clear sign no action has been taken. Now I'm obviously not expecting a perma ban for every single person I report, but no action against any of them? That seems odd. It is possible they could have gotten a warning, yes. But the warning would surely be a deterrent? If you got a warning for telling one person to kill themselves, would you really do it again to another? Seems unlikely.

But maybe its just me, maybe I'm the only one reporting so its not enough. Wrong again. I got speaking to another player awhile back after her and I were both given a keyboard lashing from another player, to find out said individual always acts that way. Foul language, name calling and telling people to kill themselves are all part of his regular repertoire. Yet nothing is done about it. The player in question has been around since the Beta phase and I am told has been acting this way almost as long. Yet despite numerous reports over multiple incidents from many different players, he is continually spared. He continues to log on every day, his name permanently affixed on the Party Finder as a giant beacon of no action being taken.

As to why I've decided to make this post today. Having been incident free for a decent period (like I said, the majority on here are good people) I ran into an unsavoury character in Weeping City today. Having worked their way through the alliance with insults he/she finally turned to me during the end boss fight. To be fair, it was tame stuff. Back and forth, no extreme insults or foul language, nothing worth reporting as abuse, just a typical display seen in a 24 man run. However what was worthy of reporting was what came next. Following the end of the run the same player logged onto a level 1 alt on my server to ramp up the abuse with clearly pre typed lengthy insults ultimately ending with a death threat, logging out instantly before I could even retort. Quite an effort to go to just harass someone.

I began to fill out a report...but then I stopped. Because honestly, why bother anymore? Whether the GMs have a lack of power, lack of resources, or just have a laid back view towards harassment. No action will be taken, which is disappointing. I honestly find the insults thrown at me rather droll. But not everyone will. There will be children and people much more fragile mentally playing this game. Imagine some random person threatening you at 12 years old?

Ultimately the business side of the game won't suffer from this, as nasty people are still paying subs. But the community will suffer. I now see why people tend to more or less just stay within FC and LS groups for content now. Interacting with random players 9/10 will be fine, but if you're a particularly fragile person that 1/10 could be quite traumatic.

Thanks to anyone who stuck through reading this. Didn't realise quite how long it was.

[Celef]

Nothing more to say, some ppl in this community are so toxic...they should create a server only for them, after a number of reports, you are send there, with the others "animals" and forsaken by GM.
(I think WoW was the one doing this, but not sure of the game)

[Cakekizyy]

Nothing more to say, some ppl in this community are so toxic...they should create a server only for them, after a number of reports, you are send there, with the others "animals" and forsaken by GM.
(I think WoW was the one doing this, but not sure of the game)

I think EQ2 has a jail server.

[Greydor]

You know, I may get some crap for this:

Just ignore it. It's a video game; an MMO.

A video game with cat people and small doll-like creatures with potato qualities.

Try not to take anything seriously. Now, on the other hand, if someone makes a legitimate threat on you, your family, your friends, etc., ignore report and contact the authorities.

[Selsix]

You have a word filter and blacklist for a reason. These should be utilized, that is why you are not seeing people banned. One rude comment doesn't really constitute harassment.

[Bebekurenai]

You have a word filter and blacklist for a reason. These should be utilized, that is why you are not seeing people banned. One rude comment doesn't really constitute harassment.

Did you even read the OP?

[MugenMugetsu]

This is just another example indicating that we really need the GMs to be more proactive and to actually take reports seriously. /blacklist is fine and dandy but people like the ones the OP described need to be removed from Eorzea. If they find enjoyment in saying negative, mean, and hateful things to people, to the point of telling people to off themselves, Eorzea would be better off without them.

[Titor]

They are busy doing more productive things, like tempbanning people over trying to sell a virtual house for virtual money

[MaeIsMean]

You have a word filter and blacklist for a reason. These should be utilized, that is why you are not seeing people banned. One rude comment doesn't really constitute harassment.

What word filter?

[Reinha]

I have never seen ongoing harassment or noticed anyone being rude on a daily basis. You have my sympathies though, it does not sound like the GMs on your server are doing their job. It's weird because we have the same data center too.

As to why I've decided to make this post today. Having been incident free for a decent period (like I said, the majority on here are good people) I ran into an unsavoury character in Weeping City today. Having worked their way through the alliance with insults plip plop he popped right into the blacklist and might still be rambling to his echo, I wouldn't know

While bans should go out much faster, this really helps on a personal level. Especially for the fragile people. See an "unsavory" person? Blacklist. Someone spoiling GoT? Blacklist. See insults out of nowhere towards a party member? Blacklist. Someone refusing to participate in a dungeon or trolling with the use or lack of use of certain abilities? Blacklist. Someone being nasty about someone's performance? Blacklist. Don't go "back and forth" with them. Bickering is for children. Even though the garbage truck is late for picking up trash, you can still move the trash building up in your house out next to the drive way. Your game experience will be cleaner if you react fast.

And by the way, bypassing blacklist by making alts is mentioned as forbidden in the game rules so if anyone tries that report it. I think it will be taken more seriously because they bothered to specifically mention that kind of behavior.