Regarding the Revision of the Prohibited Activities and Account Penalty Policy

[Fyce]

That won't happen. You and many others posting here are running to the worst possible places with this. Contrary to what you guys think, no one cares about you or what you say. The vast majority of players are only concerned with whatever it is they're doing.

If you never had a problem before, you won't have one now.

This is simply not true. SE clearly told us that they want to take things in their own hands from now, because their previous stance on the matter -ie: "let the community regulate itself"- isn't working anymore. SE will regulate cases that they wouldn't review before. It's a full on 180° turn from what they have done until now. Brushing that off as easily as you do is simply being either ignorant or careless.
So far, you don't have a single proof or even clue as to what SE clearly defines as "abusive behavior". We are talking about a japanese company with their own views on that definition. And that's what they now want to enforce with this "major change to [their] fundamental policy".

In short, things that were previously handled by the community itself are now going to see SE get involved and ultimatly have the last word regarding what they think is offensive or not.

I sincerely wish I was able to have your optimism and willingness to think that "nothing will change", or that it's as simple a "don't be a jerk" even if you actually have no idea what SE think being a jerk is... But the thing is, people have legitimate reasons to think about the worst case scenario. The official forums are the best example of SE's possible harsh policy. Thinking "that won't happen" where there are obvious precedents is not everyone's default stance when their account is at risk of getting striked and -because of SE's Account Penalty system- eventually banned.

It does affect everyone. Everyone's behavior will be under SE's jugement and possibly banhammer, which wasn't the case before. At least not so strictly. Heck, that's the point, we don't actually know how strict they want to be.

[Lium]

I sincerely wish I was able to have your optimism and willingness to think that "nothing will change", or that it's as simple a "don't be a jerk" even if you actually have no idea what SE think being a jerk is...

It's not optimism, it's realism. I can bet you my next month's sub fee that your account will be fine. I can promise you my account will be completely okay going forward. I (sort of) understand where many of you are coming from with the concerns about the vagueness of the new rules, but I really think this is just hyperbole. People just freaking out for no reason.

Just look at the posts in this thread. "Welp. Guess I can't talk to anyone anymore." "If I tell a healer to DPS a little I can get banned now!" Just no. No you are not. Posters have already tried to tell me that some of the things I've said in this thread are violations under the new rules. One guy/gal even said they were going to report me.

Guess what? I'm fine. You will be, too. I cannot stress enough how little people care about you. And I'm not saying that in a bad way. People are just more concerned about what they're doing. (Myself included.) And for the odd person that does report you for something that seems like a non-issue, the GMs can look at chat logs. They can see what's going on. I can promise you they won't take action on a scenario like what I described above. And by the way, I'm basing my opinions on many other MP games I've played that have had similar rules changes.

People freaked out in those games, too. Nothing happened.

[Melichoir]

Ive seen teh opposite where broad ToS were implemented. Overtime, the toxicity and abuse ramped up, not down, as the player base turned into a "gotta pull the trigger first lest I be banned" or people were less likely to associate with people they didnt know. Rules like these tend to push for the race to the bottom, not clear up the issues.

[Thatusernameistaken]

It's not optimism, it's realism. I can bet you my next month's sub fee that your account will be fine. I can promise you my account will be completely okay going forward. I (sort of) understand where many of you are coming from with the concerns about the vagueness of the new rules, but I really think this is just hyperbole. People just freaking out for no reason.

Just look at the posts in this thread. "Welp. Guess I can't talk to anyone anymore." "If I tell a healer to DPS a little I can get banned now!" Just no. No you are not. Posters have already tried to tell me that some of the things I've said in this thread are violations under the new rules. One guy/gal even said they were going to report me.

Guess what? I'm fine. You will be, too. I cannot stress enough how little people care about you. And I'm not saying that in a bad way. People are just more concerned about what they're doing. (Myself included.) And for the odd person that does report you for something that seems like a non-issue, the GMs can look at chat logs. They can see what's going on. I can promise you they won't take action on a scenario like what I described above. And by the way, I'm basing my opinions on many other MP games I've played that have had similar rules changes.

People freaked out in those games, too. Nothing happened.

Anyone who has played Heroes of the Storm will be very worried about these changes. Blizzard implemented an automated report system where you could report someone just for picking a Hero you didn't like...AND THEY WOULD ACTUALLY GET SUSPENDED. The forums were flooded with people who got banned with absolutely no reason given as to why, and most of them were legitimate players legitimately playing the game the way they thought was best for the team. But someone disagreed with them and reported them...and they were actually suspended. I played for a while after they made this policy, and the voice chat in my games was absolutely silent after this because we were all scared of getting banned. This, combined with a few other major problems with the game, eventually led to it being so unpopular Blizzard pulled the plug on it.

People have every right to be worried about this.

[Nedkel]

This is simply not true. SE clearly told us that they want to take things in their own hands from now, because their previous stance on the matter -ie: "let the community regulate itself"- isn't working anymore. SE will regulate cases that they wouldn't review before. It's a full on 180° turn from what they have done until now. Brushing that off as easily as you do is simply being either ignorant or careless.

What does "isnt working anymore" exactly means, because as far as i know FFXIV has the most kind community in the entire mmo genre.