GM Warning for 'Offensive Language', No actual reason given

[White_Wolf_X]

As a counter, they do email you your comment with reports on the forums. When I received mine, I knew the exact thread it came from, and the exact poster I had said it to. I could have easily have made an alt on his world and harassed him if I felt like it (I wouldn't, but just saying I could have).

Making an alt to harass someone again only shows that the person ( the one doing the harassment ) is not that clever .. cause all you would be doing is giving the GM's more reasons to ban your account.

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I would say it's not the brightest idea to take a grievance to that level, but emotions can make people do some pretty stupid things. Point was though, when I was reported I was provided the offending comment. I could have tracked down the person that reported me (or at least who I thought did..) based on that. Seems with in-game warnings, at least in this case, they don't give any specifics. Why is there a difference?

Wish i knew.

[Jojoya]

i'm getting penalized for someone turning off their profanity filter??? HOW IS THAT MY FAULT THAT THE MORON TURNED IT OFF?

The profanity filter is not there so you can freely use profanity. It's there so others don't have to see it on those occasions when you can't control yourself.

so if they can't take someone randomly cussing.. playing online is not for them...

We can reverse that as well. If you can't communicate with others without resorting to use of random profanity, then perhaps online gaming is not for you.

The gaming company sets the rules for what is allowed within their chat channels, not you. Most gaming companies have provisions within their ToS expressly prohibiting use of profanity in public chat channels.

It's not up to the rest of us to conform to what you want. It's up to you to conform to the rules set by those running the game. If you don't want to conform then don't play the game, or take your chances with getting banned if you want to push your luck.

[Penthea]

So yeah, curious to see what other peoples opinions on these are

My opinion is that over the years of playing this game, I have seen this particular issue brought up with proof enough times to make me very wary of new people.

I'm not the type to say racist jokes or anything like that, but I do use the f-word in an emphatic manner "I'm so f-ing happy" for example. There are people out there who would find this offensive even if the context is obviously not offensive at all. And some people would report you for it just because they know you would get into trouble over it.

I'm already very guarded around new people for various personal reasons, but in FFXIV I am even more so because I know GMs are frequently unclear as to what verbal offence was committed and that they often don't look at the context to make a judgement.

This is one of the few things I miss about WoW. Blizzard's GM service makes it clear to the player what the offence is and they do look at the context. They don't blindly ban you for saying an offensive word because they understand that sometimes such words are provoked by the poor behaviour of another person, and that saying "I'm so f-ing happy" is rarely intended to offend someone else.

[Wyvernheart]

Yeah this is way out of hand. The same thing happened to me twice. The least that can do is quote what you said. Its crap that you lose out on days you paid for without a exact reason for it. I for one already spoke with a lawyer on this very subject. If you operate doing business in the states you most follow our laws! Speach is protected. It sickens me that they get away with it but trust, you can get every cent back and then some from loss of liberty. They stupid for this.

[Ceridwenae]

OP, you said it yourself to the GM: "dark jokes". If you know you've said something that could be considered dark, then you also know it has every opportunity to be unpalatable to others. Don't make such jokes in open channels where they can be read by anyone. Keep them for your friends only - they'll likely appreciate it more anyway, being that they're your friends and presumably like you for, you know, you. You may not know explicitly what you've said (and I suspect that privacy stuff is to protect the people who reported you and likely SE themselves, depending on just how dark you were) but the fact you know you've made such potentially unpleasant jokes in a public forum should be enough. Chin up, learn from this, and move onwards and upwards.

The general advice (this is a reminder for all of us and remains so hereafter), is to think before you speak - or type, in this case. The fact that you have to type things in a channel in-game should additionally lend itself to giving pause and not just spamming out everything that comes into your head - if you're typing, there's no real excuse of blurting something out. So, this is fairly simple. A person might balk at this, think it's oppressing freedom of speech, but everyone should remember that freedom of speech is a great power, and "with great power, there must also come - great responsibility!" Can't trust yourself to be responsible? Shup and don't type anything. Think that not swearing and saying dark jokes in open channels is preventing you from your ability to communicate? No worries! If you're swearing and making off-colour "jokes", you're weren't communicating anything worthwhile in the first place, so think of this as a mercy. Adapt your words for what you wish to communicate, and who you wish to communicate to. Have any unknowns in that? Keep it simple, no risque jokes or swear words.

Being British, I have a penchant for bad language, specifically affectionate insults, but with said penchant comes more of that great responsibility. You need to know your audience and hit the mark at the right time, or it just makes you out as someone who either a) can't string their thoughts together, b)has poor communicative skills, or c) is grabbing attention like a petulant toddler - or worse, all three. Using swear words anywhere and everywhere lessens their impact for when they are most needed - and a skillfully deployed profanity can be a wonderful thing.

On top of that, it can be hard to read tone in text, which can and will lead to even further misunderstandings. We may have emotes and emojis to help out - but even those can be misunderstood. Couple this with swear words traditionally being aggressive speech, used to verbally abuse others, and it should be obvious as to how a situation online can easily go belly up. Best to keep that stuff out of your basic communications as a standard because you're only hurting yourself in the long run.

[Skivvy]

Yeah this is way out of hand. The same thing happened to me twice. The least that can do is quote what you said. Its crap that you lose out on days you paid for without a exact reason for it. I for one already spoke with a lawyer on this very subject. If you operate doing business in the states you most follow our laws! Speach is protected. It sickens me that they get away with it but trust, you can get every cent back and then some from loss of liberty. They stupid for this.

Freedom of Speech does not mean that you get to say whatever you want, whenever and wherever you want with absolutely no repercussions.

In the context of the game, we all signed up to play a game in SE's world, and we signed off on their rules. If you can't abide by the rules, prepare yourself for more reports, or perhaps find a game with more relaxed rules to enjoy your time in.

[Anselmet]

The profanity filter is not there so you can freely use profanity. It's there so others don't have to see it on those occasions when you can't control yourself.

Yes, but that profanity filter is on by default. By clicking it off you are saying you are mature enough to handle profanity. If you can't handle profanity, then why are you turning it off? And if profanity is against ToS automatically then why the hell isn't it just being filtered at all times? It's almost as if its not against ToS until someone feels that its against ToS so then it is now against ToS and you have done a boo boo by dropping the f bomb in chat bc our ToS kinda sucks and is vague by nature.

[Skivvy]

Yes, but that profanity filter is on by default. By clicking it off you are saying you are mature enough to handle profanity. If you can't handle profanity, then why are you turning it off? And if profanity is against ToS automatically then why the hell isn't it just being filtered at all times? It's almost as if its not against ToS until someone feels that its against ToS so then it is now against ToS and you have done a boo boo by dropping the f bomb in chat bc our ToS kinda sucks and is vague by nature.

It's annoying to have words bleeped when you're chatting in a private conversation with friends.

[Kolsykol]

I wonder if someone reported me for '' offensive language '' because I expressed my love for pineapple Pizza earlier today.

It's annoying to have words bleeped when you're chatting in a private conversation with friends.

Well, not to mention that it messes things up if you're typing in your native language to someone.
It's probably worse for some other languages, but in Swedish there are common words and phrases that will be '' bleeped ''.
It drives me insane, it's the same on Steam...

[Hash_Browns]

I wonder if someone reported me for '' offensive language '' because I expressed my love for pineapple Pizza earlier today.

I find it offensive that people don't like pineapple on pizza.