Roleplay/Partyfinder Discrepancies & Policy Enforcement by GM's

[RickmanUK]

But where will I get my HQ feet pics now? :P

Was a real advert I saw in PF.

Seen Similar before.. also advertising for a "Big Mammary Goth GF, Preferably Roegaedyn" from a Lala... and other strangeness. Can say they don't belong if you want... but neither do "Selling E12S Runs, pm for Details" belong either. atleast not in the "Party Finder". Like I said.. make that for the "Need a group for this ASAP" and add a "Social Finder" one for Adverts, Sales, FC's, RP etc.

[trdl23]

Roleplay and other such ads dont belong in party finder, simple as that. I'm glad they are enforcing the rules here. Annoying seeing nsfw rp ads in party finder and other such things. The GM has said other avenues you can take, if anything you should be campaigning for improvements to the fellowships because they suck as is atm.

The problem is that we cannot find any such rule aside from "the GM said so." ToS 3.3, which was cited per the first page, reads as follows:

"3.3 Profanity and Offensive Language. You may not use profanity or any language that a reasonable person would find offensive. The Game is for players aged 13 and older. You agree to behave accordingly."

This could, in theory, apply to brothels or selling ERP in PF since it specifically lists "13 years or older." It has zero grounding for any other instance. This also directly conflicts with previous input from another GM from earlier on, which should take precedence barring some kind of ToS change not listed on the web page I pulled up minutes ago.

The only other possible ToS issue could come from ToS 3.2:

"3.2 Disruption. You may not in any way disrupt or interfere with the Game experience of other players, including the disruption of Square Enix's computers and servers."

This is pretty broad by design, but it's a stretch to say that "scrolling to the very bottom of PF" is disruptive.

To quote the official Game Manual from Square Enix's website:

"The Party Finder allows players to recruit adventurers on the same World or data center who share common goals. It is also possible to recruit specific players to a party using a private party password."

That's it. That's all the official policy we can see. There is no mention of prohibiting PF from only using content. All it says is "share common goals," which RP advertisements fulfill.

It would be wonderful to get some official clarification on this, as nothing I can find makes this justified aside from heavy-handed (and poorly targeted) punishment with poor justification. If there is some rule I have missed according to the information publicly available to players, let me know. I know this change will hamstring the RP community and drive out many people to whom the RP community is their preferred content and why they keep their subscription up.

If there is no explicit rules justification for these punishments, I think disciplinary action on the GM and forgiveness of the unauthorized warnings is warranted.

[Aslae]

I'm inclined to agree with everything, I just find the enabling factor of PF is too great. Far too great.



Arguably...

3.3 Profanity and Offensive Language. You may not use profanity or any language that a reasonable person would find offensive. The Game is for players aged 13 and older. You agree to behave accordingly.

3.6 Any Illegal Activities. You may not conduct any illegal activities whatsoever in connection with the Game. This includes every illegal activity not specifically highlighted above, including without limitation gambling, defamation, harassment, and fraud.

To ERP in private is 1 thing. To publicly announce such activities, one could argue violates both 3.3, and 3.6

Very few of the venues that were taken down "Publicly" announced such activities. I hardly think having a message that says [E/RP 18+] is publicly ERP'ing. And that's the extent of what most venues advertise with.

[wolfp2]

This is outrageous! As someone who mostly RPs I can not tell you the number of late night I have just opened party finder, scrolled to the other tab to look for things to do. PF is the lifeblood of finding content and RPing IS content. This game has so much social life and not just RP venues, but art parties, server wide event giveaways, tournaments, open houses. Do you expect those to go down as well? If so, you are killing a huge community in this game. I get that maybe having 5 PFs for the same venue is a little much but this is a spam issue. What is the "other" tab supposed to be used for then.

Finally, is this happening on all data centers? Or is this one GM with a misunderstanding. Years of this happening and it was never a problem before, why the change?

[Nakarumi]

Arguably...

3.3 Profanity and Offensive Language. You may not use profanity or any language that a reasonable person would find offensive. The Game is for players aged 13 and older. You agree to behave accordingly.

3.6 Any Illegal Activities. You may not conduct any illegal activities whatsoever in connection with the Game. This includes every illegal activity not specifically highlighted above, including without limitation gambling, defamation, harassment, and fraud.

To ERP in private is 1 thing. To publicly announce such activities, one could argue violates both 3.3, and 3.6

And this is why we need a definitive answer from SE. This is far too open for both sides to argue on equal terms.

[TheRedChameleon]

Can a single person claiming it's justified for the reason given by the GM give me an explanation as to what the "Other" tab is for if it it isn't for things other than running content? What form of sanctioned, structured content is there in the game currently that doesn't fall under one of the other tabs?

[Teppie]

I'm inclined to agree with everything, I just find the enabling factor of PF is too great. Far too great.



Arguably...

3.3 Profanity and Offensive Language. You may not use profanity or any language that a reasonable person would find offensive. The Game is for players aged 13 and older. You agree to behave accordingly.

3.6 Any Illegal Activities. You may not conduct any illegal activities whatsoever in connection with the Game. This includes every illegal activity not specifically highlighted above, including without limitation gambling, defamation, harassment, and fraud.

To ERP in private is 1 thing. To publicly announce such activities, one could argue violates both 3.3, and 3.6

I mean there's nothing illegal with erotica in the real world. Also I might be biased but I consider myself a reasonable person that never really considered the RP/ERP advertisements offensive? Most of them are pretty on the nose. "Come visit us, here is our theme!" About sums it up.

This just seems rather puritan to me, at a certain point we can say short skirts are offensive or wearing no armor in Limsa.

[Kaurhz]

Very few of the venues that were taken down "Publicly" announced such activities. I hardly think having a message that says [E/RP 18+] is publicly ERP'ing. And that's the extent of what most venues advertise with.

It is publicly disclosing the possibility of it, which makes it open to those who are considered vulnerable/minors. So I am inclined to say that it could be interpreted as violating 3.3 (Agree to act accordingly. - I hope you don't plan on arguing against this point). Since I didn't make it clear and worded it poorly. Let's say it creates an easily accessible situation whereby a minor would have access to something they otherwise quite arguably shouldn't, which arguably violates clause 3.6. Whether or not it specifies 18+ doesn't matter. There's nothing actually enforcing it.

I mean there's nothing illegal with erotica in the real world. Also I might be biased but I consider myself a reasonable person that never really considered the RP/ERP advertisements offensive? Most of them are pretty on the nose. "Come visit us, here is our theme!" About sums it up.

This just seems rather puritan to me, at a certain point we can say short skirts are offensive or wearing no armor in Limsa.

Sure there's nothing against erotica in the real world, or online if you completely ignore the factor of potentially doing it with a minor. There's a reason I emboldened the Ages 13 and up section.

I don't consider them offensive, personally. But there are situations where making it openly and easily accessible is dangerous.

[Sathona]

Indeed

/10char

[Arillyn]

Can a single person claiming it's justified for the reason given by the GM give me an explanation as to what the "Other" tab is for if it it isn't for things other than running content? What form of sanctioned, structured content is there in the game currently that doesn't fall under one of the other tabs?

I'm trying to figure this out too frankly. All other content is covered in the other tabs as far as I can tell.