Unsubbing/boycotting/protesting is NOT blackmail.

[Anesteria]

Some people believe that these two are one and the same and are conflating the terms in order to discredit those who want to protest against Square Enix's current decisions.

A lot of those who think this is the case, then don't seem to know how economics work.

Boycotting is one of the only tools at the disposal of the CONSUMER to protest against a company's decisions.
The protest is made by also pointing out the reason WHY someone would be boycotting X product.

We are under no obligation to be SE's customers, as such we are not obligated to buy Shadowbringers or to sub. It is our own choice to make, whether we support SE or not.

Since boycotting is a form of protest, and protest means that it is meant to have an effect on the party that is targeted. It is at its very core meant to "hurt" the party in question, because of a variety of reasons on the customers' part by not buying the product.

In terms of legality, what people are doing is in no way "blackmail" and those who entertain such a notion, entertain a fantasy.

I'm sure some may be bluffing when it comes to unsubbing, but for me it's by no means the case. (Although it's mainly for BLU)

[dotsforlife]

I'm sure some may be bluffing when it comes to unsubbing, but for me it's by no means the case. (Although it's mainly for BLU)

More like 99%. SE will be fine. 5.0 will be fine.

[ChocolateBiscotti]

I'm going to keep my sub for now, but I've never dropped my sub since I started playing in 2.0, even when gameplay was slow. I might decide to drop it during those times. I've (like many others) literally poured thousands of dollars into the game- subs, merch, fanfest, etc and thousands of hours. I'm going to voice my concerns, and if people don't like that, too bad. It's my money, and my right to do so. I really don't get why the people who are happy with everything can't let those who aren't happy be. It literally does not hurt anyone to ask for the devs to consider/reconsider these things.

[Alestorm]

It's just people throwing a temper tantrum right now, I'm a bit peeved over no new healer but whatever. I'll play BLM or something through the story whatever.

[RitsukoSonoda]

This whole #unsub thing is just a new form of childish tantrum that maybe 1% of the people saying they'll do it will follow through with. At most its a few hundred people on this forum and I feel I'm being overly generous with that number as a lot of the posts are from the same people just done repeatedly. Feel free to actually unsub. Aside from your FC and immediate friends in game its not likely anyone will notice. A lot of this noise is probably due to people realizing that.

[Rhus]

I'm not giving you my money unless you succumb to my desires and implement that thing I want you to do. If you don't then you won't be getting the money I have that you want....

Seems like blackmail to me.

[Fredco191]

It feels more like a weird version of ransom to me.
It’s like: “You want to see this player again? Make male Viera/a new healer/female Hrothgar”

[purgatori]

I don't think anyone is claiming that people threatening to boycott or unsub from the game are actually guilty of violating the law in some way. 'Blackmail' is not the word I would choose, but using it in a colloquial way to mean "threatening some action unless x demands are met" is not equivalent to actually conflating boycotting with blackmailing in the legal sense: hence why I don't think you'll find a single example of someone saying that the "xy bunnies or unsub" crowd should cut it out lest they fall afoul of SE's legal teams.

[AcornFox]

Canceling is just what consumers do when something is not up to a personal standard. Well run company will take it as part of feedback, when its provided.
People who think its some form of blackmail are strange to say the least. Unless you literally never plan to Cancel a sub for any reason and plan to never complain, its very hollow way to discredit people without putting in the effort to reply to them in any meaningful way.
It does a lot of harm to a company in the long term if you push feedback into more polarizing ways

[Elyssia]

No one ever told you to not voice your opinion or anything. You can stop your sub if you want to, no one force you to continue play a game if you dont want to.

I'm more against people crying about no male Viera ( weird i mostly dont see people crying about no female Ronso ) and call the devs " homophobic " for it. Who ever said a male Viera would be " feminine " ? like i have seen in some others topic. People blaming SE for something they never talked about, never announced. You hype yourself about something that was never announced, dont blame SE then when the thing that come isnt what you expected.

And be sure 5.0 will be very fine, most of people crying here will still play even if they say they will unsub, and be sure there will be a lot of new players, same for older players that enjoyed everything they seen.