If no expense is to be spared on the game, that should include moderation.

[Amnesty]

Before anyone takes me in bad faith: I am not trying to imply that the current game moderators aren't doing their best with what they have. I am arguing that they need more resources and that the game's moderation system itself should be updated.

I can only speak to my experience as an English-speaking NA player, but we have a big problem with bots, scams, and RMT. It's blatant, and it's everywhere. I have gotten the same phishing link sent to me through tells three times in the past two days. Whenever you enter any of the three starting cities (especially Limsa Lominsa), you will see bots advertising RMT sites (though this has been reduced since the context command to report RMT activity was introduced; this was a nice improvement). There are savage and ultimate raid clear selling ads clogging up party finder urging those interested to communicate via Discord all the time, and it's common knowledge that those clears are being sold for real money. It's common to see hordes of bots teleporting through main story quests, and this is especially frustrating when we're experiencing such intense congestion with Endwalker around the corner.

In addition, I've seen a lot of frustration with the lack of transparency in moderation decisions. The story of the person who got a strike on their account for spamming Holy in Limsa Lominsa that made the rounds in the community a while back contrasts harshly with players who have made multiple reports about in-game stalking/harassment and never saw any changes in their situation. A friend of mine was suspended once and she has absolutely no idea what it was for; she tends to be crass, but what did she say that crossed an invisible line that she should avoid in the future? She will probably never know.

[Amnesty]

More resources should be invested into improving moderation in NA (and in EU as well, from what I understand, but I can't speak to that with any level of authority or experience). It seems strange to me that very obvious phishing links aren't blocked (if the link contains "forum.square-enix.com" but has something else tacked onto the end because it's not actually a .com domain, for example). Whether or not you see getting phished as the player's fault for not paying attention, it should not be this easy to spread phishing links in the game itself.

There also needs to be more tools for the moderation team to detect botting. Having crowds of bots logged in while subscribers complain about long queues is insulting, and I get annoyed when people blame players who go AFK before they blame bots. It's excellent that the development team was able to optimize existing server infrastructure to ease the congestion, but it's only going to get worse come November, and the bots are still here contributing to the problem.

Finally, the reporting and penalty system needs an overhaul. I understand the necessity of being vague enough to allow reporters to remain anonymous, but it is impossible to avoid repeating a mistake when you don't even know what the mistake was to begin with. The point of moderation is to enforce the rules so players follow them, not just punish them when they break them on accident. The inconsistent application of vague rules does not help players know where boundaries are, either. And on the side of being the reporter, it's frustrating to never even know whether your ticket got looked at, or if it did, when. I'd feel a lot better knowing that the accounts I reported as victims of phishing had action taken to lock the phisher out and return them to their owner, and people who are victims of targeted in-game harassment would likely benefit from knowing a moderator had seen their ticket.

To reiterate: I am not blaming individual moderators. I am blaming the systems in place that make it difficult for moderators to do their job consistently and effectively. If there truly will be no expense spared in making sure the game is everything that it can be, I think that should apply to giving moderation teams more people, better resources, and better guidance.

[VelKallor]

Finally, the reporting and penalty system needs an overhaul. I understand the necessity of being vague enough to allow reporters to remain anonymous, but it is impossible to avoid repeating a mistake when you don't even know what the mistake was to begin with. The point of moderation is to enforce the rules so players follow them, not just punish them when they break them on accident.

The other side of that issue is that GMs dont want to have to deal with "rules lawyers". The rules are clear cut and very simple, in all truth.

Dont be a jerk to others, how hard is that?

If what you want to say will be over the top, or abusive, then dont say it. Bite your tongue and exercise a little self restraint. I gaurantee and agree there are times when others may push you or provoke you, we all have that, but the key here is to exercise more restraint than the other person is.

I can be crass, and sharp, and acerbic, I have been known to use language that would melt paint at 1000 yards..I just dont use it ingame.

[Jijifli]

The other side of that issue is that GMs dont want to have to deal with "rules lawyers". The rules are clear cut and very simple, in all truth.

Dont be a jerk to others, how hard is that?

If what you want to say will be over the top, or abusive, then dont say it. Bite your tongue and exercise a little self restraint. I gaurantee and agree there are times when others may push you or provoke you, we all have that, but the key here is to exercise more restraint than the other person is.

I can be crass, and sharp, and acerbic, I have been known to use language that would melt paint at 1000 yards..I just dont use it ingame.

Recently, I suffered a 10 day suspension under the statement of "grief tactics" 3.2 violation. I was told, as the only amount of information, that I was griefing players in game, and it is an obvious nono. Which I agree, you shouldn't grief people.

However, here's the problem. And why what OP is saying I think really shouldn't be so easily dismissed. For the past few months, I had no desire to do any group related content at all. I find roulette's unfun and frustrating, I didn't raid, even lost my wish to do maps as more and more map bots spiked up in existence with no punishment coming from Square enix anywhere in sight. I had played to do crafting, gathering, and assist players with question in the (Now not in anymore) Novice Network. The absolute worst, WORST, I had even said in Novice Network, is I told a mentor if he didn't move the topic from what it currently was (For context: Whether calling people the R word in NN was socially acceptable or not, this Mentor was forcing the topic and promoting doing that), that he was going to be kicked. To which, to note, because I told a mentor that, I was instantly kicked, because that's how mafia works.

I wouldn't call that a grief tactic though, simply a warning of, "Hey you seriously are going off the deep end here" kind of message. I didn't prevent them from playing the game, or ruin game experience. And I know crafting and gathering isn't against the rules itself either, so I still wish to understand what I did. I have absolutely no idea, whatsoever, and now my account is a single step away from permanently going away.

Have I already been slapped with punishments before? Obviously, you don't just start at 10 days for anything, even blatant horrible behavior bad enough to get someone in legal issues. I make sure I don't spam the chat, I make sure I don't swear, because those were things I was hit for that I understood what caused. My problem here is I have no idea what caused my recent one. I'd honestly been so careful, and it makes it hard to invest in anything. Wanting even a little bit more of information, to at least understand what I did that truly caused this punishment, isn't a crime. It's me wanting to know what I did, because as far as I'm aware, I wasn't being a jerk to others, because how hard is that?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZP3LiAik_-Q

21:19

Oh, so they actually hired a 4th, after so long, and probably still JP sided.

Just putting an image for it, for those who don't wanna see shb credits (spoilers)

[Awha]

More resources should be invested into improving moderation in NA (and in EU as well, from what I understand, but I can't speak to that with any level of authority or experience). It seems strange to me that very obvious phishing links aren't blocked (if the link contains "forum.square-enix.com" but has something else tacked onto the end because it's not actually a .com domain, for example). Whether or not you see getting phished as the player's fault for not paying attention, it should not be this easy to spread phishing links in the game itself.

There also needs to be more tools for the moderation team to detect botting. Having crowds of bots logged in while subscribers complain about long queues is insulting, and I get annoyed when people blame players who go AFK before they blame bots. It's excellent that the development team was able to optimize existing server infrastructure to ease the congestion, but it's only going to get worse come November, and the bots are still here contributing to the problem.

Finally, the reporting and penalty system needs an overhaul. I understand the necessity of being vague enough to allow reporters to remain anonymous, but it is impossible to avoid repeating a mistake when you don't even know what the mistake was to begin with. The point of moderation is to enforce the rules so players follow them, not just punish them when they break them on accident. The inconsistent application of vague rules does not help players know where boundaries are, either. And on the side of being the reporter, it's frustrating to never even know whether your ticket got looked at, or if it did, when. I'd feel a lot better knowing that the accounts I reported as victims of phishing had action taken to lock the phisher out and return them to their owner, and people who are victims of targeted in-game harassment would likely benefit from knowing a moderator had seen their ticket.

To reiterate: I am not blaming individual moderators. I am blaming the systems in place that make it difficult for moderators to do their job consistently and effectively. If there truly will be no expense spared in making sure the game is everything that it can be, I think that should apply to giving moderation teams more people, better resources, and better guidance.

As someone who has a few accounts and have been reported many times i agree overall but it is not impossible to know what rule was broken that is just an excuse people use to avoid personal accountability.

[Jeeqbit]

They are going to change the user agreement so that there is a rule to use against the party finder adverts before something is done about them.

RMT gets handled https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...b96e9db2cd2a71

I don't know what the plan is about the phishing tells.

[Bsrking5]

I don't know what the plan is about the phishing tells.

Its a bot so the STF handles it. And probably not going to see any change in that

[ICountFrom0]

Its a bot so the STF handles it. And probably not going to see any change in that

No expense.... 3 person team in charge of all bot like things.

[Kes13a]

No expense.... 3 person team in charge of all bot like things.

which I think is ridiculous for a population base this size.

3 people are hardly enough to do one region, let alone all of them...

[DeaconMoore]

No expense.... 3 person team in charge of all bot like things.

Your source being?