On Stalking, Harassment, and Character Assassination

[Seyoun]

Hello Zalera! It's Veena!

When I arrived home after another long week of work, I had no idea that I would be spending my time writing a post of this nature. This is going to be long.

As many of you know, I am a career crafter. Though I have been around since about a half year or so since 1.0 was closed, it was not until Heavensward that I became a serious crafter and marketeer.

A critical aspect of living your life on the marketboard is a garnering and maintenance of trust between yourself, customers, and supplies. Players who cheating customers or involve themselves in shady deals will find eventually find themselves unable to conduct business with anyone. Hence, it is of utmost importance anyone conducting business, and especially those who choose this facet of the game as their main activity, to be above board and honest at all times - as I have done.

Several weeks ago, I was involved in a marketboard war that started in the airship repair material market. The war raged for a two or three days with the mats reaching a low of about 700g per item. It stretched into Smithsonite ore, bringing the price down to 200g, continued into Astral Moarine, ravaging that price to 500g per. The flames spread into another market that I will not mention since it would identify the subject of this post.

My adversary in this struggle took the battle out of the context of the marketboard, where it should have stayed, and expanded into personal attacks: Verbal abuse in /yell and /shout, hunting me down in the housing district to spam me with /slap and /laugh as I was minding my own business, putting up PFs with disparaging comments, and creating retainers with personally abusive names and deployed them in my markets.

Despite this persistent campaign of abuse and harassment, I have not returned any of it to him. I have, however, placed him on my blacklist and lodged several harassment complaints.

The reason I am posting here today is he's decided to up the ante and attempt to destroy my credibility and reputation as a trustworthy provider of goods. Let me explain. I have a presence on a very popular site which I cannot name in the post since it would identify this person. On Friday night when I checked it, I found this comment on one of my content items: "He lies and cheats ppl avoid him at all cost."

I responded with this challenge: Take the accusation to the official forums. Defrauding other players is a game Square Enix customer support does not play and will deliver the ban hammer harder than a tombstone piledriver. Once he'd posted the accusation, I would respond and offer my account for immediate and permanent closure should customer support find those claims to be true, partially or in whole. People do not like being cheated or defrauded. When you do so, they tend to report you - and those reports go into you account history. Any such activity on my part would almost certainly reside there.

On the other hand, should it be found that his claims are complete fabrications, I would only ask that action in alignment with Square's policies regarding harassment be applied - and nothing beyond that.

Not surprisingly, no such post has yet appeared here or in the General Discussion forum. Though he continues to repeat his claims of underhanded activity on my part - so I bring this to you, the community - and my challenge to him still stands.

If I have cheated you in a business transaction in any way, please post about it here - then report me. On the other hand, if you have had positive experiences doing business with me, a comment from you would be very much appreciated!

Please understand that though this matter may seem trivial, I am a career crafter. Everything I have built and worked for depends on my reputation. Accordingly, I am obligated to hold myself to the highest standards in business conduct to build that reputation, and defend it against the attacks of those who do not need to worry about being held personally accountable for their actions.

I have taken much of your time. If you've read this far, you have my sincere thanks.

PS: If you find the content that I am referring to, please do not refer it on these forums as that would be against the TOS.

[Clethoria]

First, I'd like to know if this is an ERP thing. Cause if it is, disregard this entire post and I'll gladly delete it.

This is a lot of tl;dr for me but after skimming, how about you do what I do. Not respond to negative emotes or block them from the chat altogether. As for assassinations, lol wat. Unless they're threatening to kill you irl there isn't any PK.

Also, it's just the market board. If someone undercuts, ignore it. I sold high value items for a super cheap price before knowing their worth but I was the only one who did it. It's not permanent, they're losing profit and I highly doubt the price will shift if no one acknowledges it. Lastly, crafting is crafting. It's not like ERP prostitution where your goods are entirely individualized. If I hit the same level as you, the only difference would be the dye and/or quality provided I bothered with crafting it that way.

Again, this is too long for me to care to read so feel free to correct me if I missed your point.

[Genaxx]

First, I'd like to know if this is an ERP thing. Cause if it is, disregard this entire post and I'll gladly delete it.

This is a lot of tl;dr for me but after skimming, how about you do what I do. Not respond to negative emotes or block them from the chat altogether. As for assassinations, lol wat. Unless they're threatening to kill you irl there isn't any PK.

Also, it's just the market board. If someone undercuts, ignore it. I sold high value items for a super cheap price before knowing their worth but I was the only one who did it. It's not permanent, they're losing profit and I highly doubt the price will shift if no one acknowledges it. Lastly, crafting is crafting. It's not like ERP prostitution where your goods are entirely individualized. If I hit the same level as you, the only difference would be the dye and/or quality provided I bothered with crafting it that way.

Again, this is too long for me to care to read so feel free to correct me if I missed your point.

Why even bother posting a lengthy reply if you didnt read it?

Its got nothing to do with ERP, its someone getting their panties in a twist over the marketboard so they went out of their way to harass, slander and abuse someone else.

Too long for you to care to read, but you'll make a lengthly off topic post

[Seyoun]

Its got nothing to do with ERP, its someone getting their panties in a twist over the marketboard so they went out of their way to harass, slander and abuse someone else.

Thank you, Ganaxx, for that and for giving me your time to read the post.

Clethoria - Please do not take what I'm about to say as snark. I truly do not mean it that way: Look up the definition of "character assassination". It has a specific, limited meaning that has nothing to do with the taking of someone's life.

[Azirah]

All I know is Veena is a good guy and has gone out of his way to help lots of us on the server over time. Does he get heavily involved in the marketboard at times? Yes. Does that mean he should be attacked? I for one am surprised that Square allows the attacks via party finder etc.

[ifrit616]

This guy sounds a particularly nasty person, i've had friends who've had trouble with stalkers and abusive people but unfortunately SE have been very slow or not even done anything about them, yours however sounds even worse, if you're on a pc it's easier to report such activity being able to copy messages, if you're a ps4 user, well i don't know.
I hope your situation gets resolved and the offender banned, welp fingers crossed anyway

[Seyoun]

I hope your situation gets resolved and the offender banned, welp fingers crossed anyway

Yo, Ifrit. Dude, I used to be a main healer back in the day. I'm still not to happy with you about Infernal Howl. Just wanted you to know.

Anyway, much rather than being banned. I think it would be more beneficial to everyone if he comes to realize what he is doing is unacceptable, understands it is wrong, takes personal responsibility for it, and makes a commitment to never do it again - to me or anyone.

If he did, I would consider the matter done and closed so far as I'm concerned. However, that requires humility and an admission of guilt on his part. It is much easier to continue being hostile than face the lion of a giving a humble apology. Judging from the things he has said thus far, I do not expect he will reform, though I hope to be proven wrong.

[ifrit616]

Yo, Ifrit. Dude, I used to be a main healer back in the day. I'm still not to happy with you about Infernal Howl. Just wanted you to know.

Anyway, much rather than being banned. I think it would be more beneficial to everyone if he comes to realize what he is doing is unacceptable, understands it is wrong, takes personal responsibility for it, and makes a commitment to never do it again - to me or anyone.

If he did, I would consider the matter done and closed so far as I'm concerned. However, that requires humility and an admission of guilt on his part. It is much easier to continue being hostile than face the lion of a giving a humble apology. Judging from the things he has said thus far, I do not expect he will reform, though I hope to be proven wrong.

If you see a pig flying around it's probably the guy trying to repent, so the next best thing would be a ban, also sorry for the Infernal Howl, had a bad cold that day

[Clethoria]

Why even bother posting a lengthy reply if you didnt read it?

Because I can and want to give my input.

[Seyoun]

In the context of being further harassed, I have invited the player in question to come to this thread and weigh in. I hope to see him here soon so that both sides can be given, light shed on facts, and truth separated from fiction.