Abuse of the TOS. Loophole regarding griefing/trolling. Needs a solution.

[GothicDolly]

I am new to the forums and just forums in general. I hope this is the right place to post this. Do the devs even take suggestions from the forums? FFXIV is a huge game, and that makes this post a tad discouraging to even bother making.

Picture this: Two players are roleplaying at a table in the Quicksand. Then suddenly, a swarm of five or eight trolls who all know each other decide to swarm those two people. The swarm in question starts to pop fireworks, dance on top of those two people, spam their instruments/abilities, all in a effort to annoy the duo in question. No, turning off abilities and muting instruments isn't enough in this situation.

Can the two people move? Yes. Then they might be followed. Stalked. I've seen it happen. You shouldn't have to move from a spot you enjoy, in a game you enjoy, just because a couple of trolls decide to make it where you can barely see what's on your screen.

You might be saying...this all sounds like harassment. Just report them.

This is where the issue comes in.

If the trolls do not type, the mods have nothing to go off of. Why? Because FFXIV mods do not accept photographic evidence of harassment, or even video evidence I believe. This means a form of harassment or griefing can go unpunished due to being unreportable. Which isn't right.

Either the TOS needs to be revised, or a feature where causing a player's character to vanish locally on your end--once you blacklist them--needs to be implemented.

You might say it's just a game, and I agree.

But another user should not be able to lessen the enjoyment of said game for another user out of spite.

[MomomiMomi]

They'd be able to see that they were spamming emotes and fireworks.

If it's enough of an issue and it keeps happening, it'll be dealt with.

[AxlStream]

XIV is a game not an RP simulator. No game violation, no issues. Also you know you can turn other players effects off right? Right? Please tell me I'm right...

[Enla]

They'd be able to see that they were spamming emotes and fireworks.

If it's enough of an issue and it keeps happening, it'll be dealt with.

This. Even if they have their emotes unable to be displayed in chat the GM's can take a look at the logs and see what they were doing. If this happens I absolutely recommend reporting the offenders.

XIV is a game not an RP simulator. No game violation, no issues. Also you know you can turn other players effects off right? Right? Please tell me I'm right...

You do realize they gave us an RP tag because they acknowledge the huge amount of roleplayers in this game right? This also still qualifies under harassment if it happens multiple times. No differently than if people sought out a crafter or other player and spammed at them any chance they got.

[GothicDolly]

In response to Momomi, since I'm not sure how to do the white quotation thing yet...that's if the trolls in question don't turn off their emotes prior to engaging in them.

Edit: If the mods can still see emotes despite them being disabled, that's one good thing. But still not enough in a situation I'm talking about.

Another thing is, I'm afraid this issue isn't going to affect enough people to the point it makes a big of a stir for Enix to even turn their heads. It's just annoying because I feel like a lot of people might not fully understand until it happens to them or if they're not in the RP scene.

When you're trying to have a writing session with someone but can't even see the person because a literal mob of trolls have gathered together to obscure your screen, then insist on following you until you leave the area, making sure not to utter -anything- in chat that can be used against them to prove they're harassing someone--it's just not right to me.

[AxlStream]

You do realize they gave us an RP tag because they acknowledge the huge amount of roleplayers in this game right? This also still qualifies under harassment if it happens multiple times. No differently than if people sought out a crafter or other player and spammed at them any chance they got.

The fact you got an RP tag simple acknowledges your existance. It doesn't go further than that. People spam flashy skills all the time in all sorts of busy spots. HW were DRGs pole dancing all over Idylshire that was the hot thing.

[Nyxn607]

I am not sure how efficient it would be, but you could move certain filters to a different chat window. If you are just doing /say conversations, move everything else to a different window. It would cut down on all of the emotes at the very least. Otherwise, you could start these conversations in /tell and move all /say and other filters to a new window. Once you blacklist the people harassing you, they should not be able /tell you.

Again it is not the most convenient way for you, but it possible to avoid a large chunk of what you described OP.

[Kaethra]

I remember at one point in time, Blizzard used to elevate the severity of a harassment offense by a step if it targeted Roleplayers for RPing. That meant a warning became a 3 day suspension, and a week suspension became a permament ban. It did work at cutting down the harassment towards RPers during the first few years.

I wonder if SE could do that here. It would be in their best interest as RPers tend to spend far more (in some cases hundreds of dollars more) than your average player on cosmetics and anything to do with housing.

Also.. its 2019.. leave the RPers alone. They're not weird anymore, RP is far more mainstream than it was 20 and 40 years ago.

[Enla]

The fact you got an RP tag simple acknowledges your existance. It doesn't go further than that. People spam flashy skills all the time in all sorts of busy spots. HW were DRGs pole dancing all over Idylshire that was the hot thing.

Following the person out of the zone though? At that point if it truly happened it's not just 'happening to be in the same place'.

[kamenkuro]

Folks find public roleplay just as obnoxious. They're being annoying, not malicious. Don't act like a bunch of goofs spamming emotes and effects are somehow threatening