So reading the new TOS i can see it is very contradictory and also easy to be abused.

[Dreklore]

Well the fact that something so subjective as offence could result in a ban outcome its easily abused because of the subjective nature for instance i misspelled a word today and someone had the audacity to correct it even though i knew it was wrong. Merely to put me to shame for the rest of the group you know a jab but i would never report someone for something like that as that feels somewhat petty sure it hurt my feelings but that is just the thing there words nothing more.

Unfortunately i responded in kind and due to his hypocrisy he said "reported".

Now the thing is if this will result in me being banned would that also result in him being banned too for using the same notion of abuse?

This is why i said the TOS is contradictory due to saying you reporting someone is an offence in its own right due to no one wants to be reported so ironically reporting someone can result in your own ban.

Would the square enix team have to act on banning both party's or play favourites in this case?

Now i would say go back to the old TOS sure they was not as strict but we had tools in place to prevent ill behaviour like for instance blacklisting a person.

Also this new TOS is not going to stop the ill behaviour but rather resort in people just not speaking and thus you might as well just rid the game of a chat box as anything can be conveyed as offensive.

There is an old saying "you simply don't rid a problem if you bury it" the best way to deal with a problem is let people hear it and come to there own decisions to blacklist the person. The community is already great but these TOS merely makes our community look bad in the fact it would look as if we need square enix to act as the nanny because were all children without the means to make our own choices and must be shielded from the bad.

Who ever thought subjective terms should result in a ban clearly did not have the community in mind but rather to control the community in there design to virtue signal...

[Iscah]

There was an extremely long (and rather hyperbolic) discussion in the General forum when the changes were first announced via an official post from the dev team. We didn't get an official response but it's possible they are taking community feedback into account - if they're able to sift through the arguments to find it.

I'm firmly on the side that, while the rules-as-stated could be abused, I don't think that's the intention behind them. There will be additional guidelines and processes for the GMs to follow, and (I trust) some kind of review process so on the small chance that some vindictive GM wanted to ban people for minor offences, they would be disciplined for misuse of power. It is, ultimately, not in Square Enix's interest to ban paying customers from the game unless they are actually making it a negative environment for others.



People seem particularly concerned about the statement that (paraphrasing) they "may be penalised for nuisance behaviour, even if it wasn't intended" - but I think it is intended to give GMs more power to act when someone claims their actions were unintentional when they clearly were. "May" is the key word there, and there's no requirement for a GM to take action against a genuinely innocent person who didn't mean to offend someone.

(Consider the issues with people deliberately disconnecting in MSQ roulette to skip cutscenes. Apparently they couldn't actually be moderated for that unless they declared their intent to do so, because they could claim they knew nothing and just had a bad connection. Under the new rules, the GM could say "I don't believe that - you're clearly doing it intentionally. I'm giving you a warning, and next time it'll be a ban.")

There was also a... I think it was someone relaying a quote from a query they'd sent to a GM in-game, confirming that they could still give gameplay advice to other people, just not rudely.

Overall, I feel like the ToS might be more open to players thinking they can report other players for petty things, and that all they'll need to do is claim they're offended and the other person will automatically get in trouble. But actually the GMs have no requirement to accept those reports and punish the unfairly-reported person.



It's also important to point out that you do not get "banned" for minor offences. There is a moderation process with cautions and warnings, and no requirement to apply a more severe penalty the second time unless you've already receieved temporary bans in the past. It's outlined in a separate document to the main ToS.



Generally, I don't see a reason to be concerned unless we do get a massive increase in people being moderated for minor issues. I certainly wouldn't worry about trying to avoid giving advice or talking to other people for fear of getting moderated.

Just keep acting like you normally act (unless hypothetical-general-you are actually acting in a way that deserves to be moderated, of course), because even if you do get moderated for something unfair ONCE, there are still several levels of temporary suspensions before you're actually banned from the game.

And in the meantime, those people who have said "I'm not going to talk to anyone ever in case I get reported for it" are miserable and isolated over avoiding something they want to do that may never have gotten them reported at all.

[Dreklore]

The concern is the double negative that a majority of these new impose rules imply that very double negative brakes the fundamental of stability of a ruling being that if a rule contradicts another established rule then how can the rule be enforced as that would effectively brake another rule. It would effectively put the rule enforcer in a position where he would have to brake his own rules to merely enforce rules that contradict another rule on the bases of subjectivity this is why rules on the grounds of someones feeling never work i will use an example of what i meen.

Offence is merely mental frustration of uncomfortably of a situation presented now because someone reports someone on this ground would that not imply the same frustration on the offender thus putting the rule enforcer in a position that brakes his own rule or subject them to similar punishment merely to uphold is own code thus presents the next problem subjecting people who do commit bad behaviour merely to use the excuse there offended by the ban to have the person who reported be taken down with him thus not removing bad behaviour but merely sanctioning it wile giving them the opportunity for revenge as the rule enforcer risks braking his own code to treat everyone as equal.

This is why i am 100% against political correctness ruling that use subjectivity as a plausible effect of punishing another person they are by nature subjectively and easily abused to invoke a sort of power fantasy where the person who claims victim hood can use that to black mail those they personally on a subjective level dislike.

In the end it is impossible to enforce rules where subjective context is the reason for infraction as that would force the rule enforcer to take sides thus resulting not in a rule enforcer but rather thought policing on a scale known only to 1984 i beg of square enix do not go down this path you are merely making the current story line in the game become a reality where you wish to open the gates wide take advice from the very story line in ffxiv that too much light can blind everyone there must be balance between the light and darkness.

[Lucerna]

Do you understand that the GMs are under NO obligation to ban, warn, or take any account action based on any given report? This only gives them the ability to act against people who try to ruin the game for others while still skirting under the "technical" rules of the old ToS.