Roleplay/Partyfinder Discrepancies & Policy Enforcement by GM's

[Aniya_Estlihn]

A GM like the one this entire thread is about playing fast and loose with the rules with absolutely no system in place for an appeals process should literally frighten everyone. It doesnt matter if you raid, craft, RP, whatever. The fact that you can be held to account eternally for anything a GM thinks youve done wrong is a hilarious situation that should be addressed immediately.

Exactly. This is the biggest issue with the whole situation.
GM policy is hidden from players, we have no idea what the actual criteria they make their judgements upon is, that's wrong.

This leads to uncertainty and anxiety to build up in the community and seeing a GM act out in a way like this on supposed ToS violations which may or may not be part of the "proprietary moderation policy" is really alarming. The whole system needs to be re-evaluated from top to bottom to be fair towards players and the moderation staff in equal measure, as the current form the system takes is draconian and absolute—which isn't the way to run a service like this.

[Reinard]

Good.

I don't know if SE still follows the 3-strikes and you're out rule (I assume they do) but people have permanent marks on their accounts now because of this.

It is my understanding that they do, which is one of the greatest issues with this. Permanent markings over a GM's poorly judgement.

[Ivtrix]

Exactly. This is the biggest issue with the whole situation.
GM policy is hidden from players, we have no idea what the actual criteria they make their judgements upon is, that's wrong.

This leads to uncertainty and anxiety to build up in the community and seeing a GM act out in a way like this on supposed ToS violations which may or may not be part of the "proprietary moderation policy" is really alarming. The whole system needs to be re-evaluated from top to bottom to be fair towards players and the moderation staff in equal measure, as the current form the system takes is draconian and absolute—which isn't the way to run a service like this.

When you have players outright afraid to interact with others due to fear of potential retribution due to an increasing reliance on abusing the report system, in a MMORPG, you have absolutely failed cataclysmically.

[IkaraGreydancer]

As if a tab for non-game content (sometimes with lurid details attached) doesn’t already alienate people from a T-rated game and put SE in a bad light.

This is simply Square cleaning up the seedy part of town.

Why does Square even need to say “don’t post adult content publicly in the 13+ game?” They smack people with bans for merely using naughty words elsewhere, so why is this a surprise?

Eulmore has a strip club. Thats all im going to say

[Taytay]

Exactly. This is the biggest issue with the whole situation.
GM policy is hidden from players, we have no idea what the actual criteria they make their judgements upon is, that's wrong.

Honestly, if SE just wrote a cut and dry ToS that couldn't be interpreted in 20 different ways, we wouldn't even need to see the GM policy.

[van_arn]

Eulmore has a strip club. Thats all im going to say

Se can also make npcs say things players would get banned for.

[Arielen]

We can nuke the brothels in the T rated game though.

This isn't about brothels. By all means, ban adult venues from being advertised the way that they are banned from being advertised through the event calendars the RP community uses (that way little Jimmy who is 14 and wants to play his warrior of light doesn't wind up going to some shady smut event by accident) but that isn't the problem: the problem is RP venues such as cafes, restaurants, adventuring hub among other types of totally SFW RP hubs are blanket banned and can no longer advertise for fear of getting permanent black strikes on their accounts. I'm a member of the RP community on Crystal and I'm just as annoyed about brothels being advertised on PF as I am people having occasionally super nasty search infos (I'm talking some straight gross, fetishy stuff RIGHT in the search info).

The party finder requires a 'market' and a 'roleplay' flag IMO.

[Decoy_Wolff]

It's much easier to avoid a pf advertisement than all of us RP'ers shouting in city chat.

For real!! Like even then THAT can be seen as a "Nuisance behavior" and goes contradictory to what this GM is implying that people do! It is much more annoying to be spammed in shout chat with many an advertisement for a club or something than going into a PF. People go into PF to look for one specific piece of content. They know they will find that content in a specific tab. RP venue ads in "Other" is totally fine. SE needs to get their management in shape and come to an agreement on what certain things can and cannot be done.

[Ivtrix]

Honestly, if SE just wrote a cut and dry ToS that couldn't be interpreted in 20 different ways, we wouldn't even need to see the GM policy.

Instead, we got the opposite, as just before they launched Shadowbringers, they rewrote the entire ToS and now we get extremely vague guidelines like below:

・Expressions that compel a playing style
・Expressions that attempt to unilaterally exclude someone from the game or content/community, etc.
(Except when in accordance with rules set by an administrator such as a Free Company Master)
・Expressions that contravene public order and morals
・Other expressions that are offensive to another person


???

[Taytay]

Se can also make npcs say things players would get banned for.

And that sets your "but think of the children" argument on fire and tosses it out the window.