Roleplay Party Finder Account Suspensions

[Lily_Skye]

good

about time SE

[LittleImp]

It tends to come down to whether or not said content is a static element of the game itself, or something that players are dynamically creating.

Encountering violence in the story isn't going to phase most people, but if someone was graphically fantasizing about violence in my FC or Linkshell I would probably feel uncomfortable.

In essence, the game itself isn't really capable of aggression, but other players are, whether violent or sexual. The game won't stalk me and relentlessly send me DMs about my Lalafells feet (true story).

"But those people will always exist on games" you might say, which is true, however; When you foster a climate on your game that is welcoming to people who are principally motivated by sexual gratification, you will attract a higher proportion of predators to your game than usual. This has been seen time and time again on other titles that have experienced the unmitigated growth of similar communities.

[milkhorn]

Once again this has divulged more into people's personal opinions. The mobs of people so repulsed and outright rude from adults wanting to interact with other adults, in general and without ERP being the main reason for it. People are always quick to assume that's all RPers want as adults. If we're advertising to cater to other adults, it's not always going to be about ERP.. If you come in with the assumption that adult RPers would only be looking for this then your opinions are going to be skewed. It's easy to condemn us and other venue owners without knowing the entire story of it. We continue to await some sort of interaction from GMs to know if the reason was in fact linking the carrd with suggestive contents in it. If that's the case, then it needs to be known by ANYONE who has a carrd and not just us or the affected venues. We can continue to argue about '18+' being the source of the profanity action, but it continues to be based on assumptions(regardless if you have viewed our carrd or not, it doesn't explain the fact that people who have no such tag in their advertisement or information in their carrd). There is no need to be needlessly nasty about it to other players on either side no matter your view point.

In the same vein, I am appreciative to those who are actually attempting to figure out what the issue is and to avoid it in the future. It is still concerning that it happened all at once to multiple people when we've gone again, a whole year of advertising the same way and had faced nothing so we were assuming we were doing nothing wrong.. That's why it's such an issue that the severe punishment was the first punishment.. and the lack of communication is rather frustrating on the GM standpoint, but the experiences of other people in unrelated types of reports shows that it's not just this issue but any consequence that players receive.

[Floortank]

Once again this has divulged more into people's personal opinions. The mobs of people so repulsed and outright rude from adults wanting to interact with other adults, in general and without ERP being the main reason for it. People are always quick to assume that's all RPers want as adults. If we're advertising to cater to other adults, it's not always going to be about ERP.. If you come in with the assumption that adult RPers would only be looking for this then your opinions are going to be skewed. It's easy to condemn us and other venue owners without knowing the entire story of it. We continue to await some sort of interaction from GMs to know if the reason was in fact linking the carrd with suggestive contents in it. If that's the case, then it needs to be known by ANYONE who has a carrd and not just us or the affected venues. We can continue to argue about '18+' being the source of the profanity action, but it continues to be based on assumptions(regardless if you have viewed our carrd or not, it doesn't explain the fact that people who have no such tag in their advertisement or information in their carrd). There is no need to be needlessly nasty about it to other players on either side no matter your view point.

In the same vein, I am appreciative to those who are actually attempting to figure out what the issue is and to avoid it in the future. It is still concerning that it happened all at once to multiple people when we've gone again, a whole year of advertising the same way and had faced nothing so we were assuming we were doing nothing wrong.. That's why it's such an issue that the severe punishment was the first punishment.. and the lack of communication is rather frustrating on the GM standpoint, but the experiences of other people in unrelated types of reports shows that it's not just this issue but any consequence that players receive.

1) Stop including all the people you claim were banned for no reason in your story. They aren't here. Stop sorting your problem in with the problems of people who may or may not even exist who are clearly innocent according to you.
2) Less than a year ago Square-Enix clarified its prohibited activities document, and it explicitly includes a definition of ERP that puts your venue far in excess of what the prohibition allows. Furthermore, SE reserves the right to take action against people based on the content of their website.

Harassment, Obscene/Indecent Expression, section 3, paragraph 4 states:

"Please note that Square Enix may issue a penalty at its discretion even if a report has not been filed but the act was found being conducted in public areas such as Say and Shout, search comments, Party Finder, on online video/streaming services, if the behavior is found to violate real world laws, or if it may be considered a problem based on the game's entertainment board ratings."

3) People are not expressing conjecture over an unclear policy that we have no information about. We are discussing the exact reason your compeers got banned based on the rules as written here.
4) People disagreeing with you are not nasty and abusive.

It sucks that your very creative venue got busted, but it's featuring content that is too risqué for the game environment allowed by Square-Enix. You may feel that a first time offense should not warrant an account suspension, and I think you have an argument there. As for the rest, it's plain as day why your friends got an account strike.

[milkhorn]

1) Stop including all the people you claim were banned for no reason in your story. They aren't here. Stop sorting your problem in with the problems of people who may or may not even exist who are clearly innocent according to you.
2) Less than a year ago Square-Enix clarified its prohibited activities document, and it explicitly includes a definition of ERP that puts your venue far in excess of what the prohibition allows. Furthermore, SE reserves the right to take action against people based on the content of their website.

Harassment, Obscene/Indecent Expression, section 3, paragraph 4 states:

"Please note that Square Enix may issue a penalty at its discretion even if a report has not been filed but the act was found being conducted in public areas such as Say and Shout, search comments, Party Finder, on online video/streaming services, if the behavior is found to violate real world laws, or if it may be considered a problem based on the game's entertainment board ratings."

3) People are not expressing conjecture over an unclear policy that we have no information about. We are discussing the exact reason your compeers got banned based on the rules as written here.
4) People disagreeing with you are not nasty and abusive.

It sucks that your very creative venue got busted, but it's featuring content that is too risqué for the game environment allowed by Square-Enix. You may feel that a first time offense should not warrant an account suspension, and I think you have an argument there. As for the rest, it's plain as day why your friends got an account strike.

There are two other people that were posting their issues here as well that were the ones seemingly banned for no reason, which is why I continue to include them. You are missing the point where I said that there are people on both sides being nasty, if it was just the people disagreeing with me I wouldn't have given the thought to post it. I'm not favoring one side over the other, it's not a farfetched request to ask people to tone it down if they're typing before they think. In this case there are plenty of people who aren't even giving weight to the conversation and rather just spewing their first thought. This -is not- everyone by any means, but still present regardless.

If the link to the carrd is the issue then yes, I understand it. To me the issue lies in it not being clear to more than just us given the state party finders have been for the past year and are now one of the unlucky ones to be the example made for it's repercussions. People are not out to actively break rules put in place by Square.. I think it is valid to want it to be crystal clear that even the smallest suggestive content (not for us, obviously) on a third party website is going to be warrant for the same punishment. Which yes, is severe for a first time offense and I'll continue to argue that. We also don't know if the punishment in it's severity comes from something like a mass report, or if it's because of a GM.. I just want the information.

[Floortank]

To me the issue lies in it not being clear to more than just us given the state party finders have been for the past year and are now one of the unlucky ones to be the example made for it's repercussions.

Again you say "the past year" but the prohibited activities file was updated ~2 months and 3 weeks ago. That is when you should have paid very close attention to the rule section I indicated.

That said, this is really not something that is mysterious to any long time resident of Balmung. Anyone who has a search comment for a particularly x-rated RP website whose name I won't mention simply has a "c" in their search info, because putting the full URL can get them banned. It has been this way for years. It is common knowledge on Balmung, and the RPers here who have a page on that website do it out of self defense. It is openly known that doing otherwise can get you banned.

If everyone on Balmung using that site knows how to protect themselves, then it behooves you as the operator of a serious RP venue to follow suit, or to at least be able to jump over the same bar as your average illicit RPer.

The rules apply to you. They updated the rules, and then applied them. You have the rules right in front of you, crystal clear. I copy/pasted the section and pointed to it, with helpful underlines.

They dinged you because of that. They're not gonna waste even a minute trying to explain it to you, or argue with you, because it is not in a corporation's interest at all to enter into a debate with a user. They simply set a GM on you to enforce the clearly written rules. The end.

Seriously, read the P.A. file's definition of ERP. A person running a venue such as yours should take SE's definition as a huge red flag.

[Kakure]

Less than a year ago Square-Enix clarified its prohibited activities document, and it explicitly includes a definition of ERP that puts your venue far in excess of what the prohibition allows. Furthermore, SE reserves the right to take action against people based on the content of their website.

Harassment, Obscene/Indecent Expression, section 3, paragraph 4 states:

"Please note that Square Enix may issue a penalty at its discretion even if a report has not been filed but the act was found being conducted in public areas such as Say and Shout, search comments, Party Finder, on online video/streaming services, if the behavior is found to violate real world laws, or if it may be considered a problem based on the game's entertainment board ratings."

That does not say you can be sanctioned for the content of your website.

Sharing an in-game link to your website is probably a different story, and perhaps that is what you meant. Either way, this snippet from the Prohibited Activities webpage doesn’t really have anything to say about the matter.

Let’s break this down, starting with the rules governing “obscene/indecent expression” broadly. This is from the top of the same section:

In general, all expressions of an obscene/indecent nature are prohibited. If a report has been filed and the prohibited activity is confirmed, a penalty will be issued…

Note that obscene/indecent expressions can range from relatively mild to severe, and some of the relatively mild expressions may be tolerated among friends. Therefore, in a private environment where only friends are present, whether it is tolerated or not, a case will be judged on whether or not a report was made…

So the general rule is that “obscene/indecent expressions” are kind of a “don’t ask, don’t tell” thing. They aren’t formally allowed, but the GMs won’t get involved so long as they take place in private, everyone present is okay with it, and no one files a report.

The sentence about a case being judged “on whether a report was made” “whether [the behavior in question] is tolerated or not” covers second-hand reports – if your FC is making crude and hurtful jokes about an absent member and it gets back to them, they can report the incident even if no one present had a problem with it.

Now let’s look to the part of the Prohibited Activities page in question. This comes from the very bottom of the same section:

Please note that Square Enix may issue a penalty at its discretion even if a report has not been filed but the act was found being conducted in public areas such as Say and Shout, search comments, Party Finder, o[r] online video/streaming services, if the behavior is found to violate real world laws, or if it may be considered a problem based on the game's entertainment board ratings.

This whole paragraph is a caveat to the general rule established above. It is the exception to the exception. “Obscene and indecent expressions” are broadly prohibited, BUT the prohibition will not be enforced if everyone present tolerates it and no one files a report (the exception) EXCEPT for the cases outlined here (the exception to the exception).

It is not intended to clarify what counts as “obscene or indecent expression” or why. It simply lays out the cases in which a GM might investigate and sanction behavior without a report being filed. There is similar boilerplate at the bottom of some of the other sections.

(Continued…)

[Rinhi]

"yadda yadda it's you guys who are wrong, you just don't get it etc etc it definitely can't be about the obvious ERP stuff on our carrd that we directly linked in the PF, nope"

take the ERP stuff out of the carrd and I can guarantee you, you won't get banned, plus, painting a 3 day as 'severe punishment' is pretty weird, considering it's on the very low end of days banned for a first offence in every game with a multiple strike system

[Reinha]

We continue to await some sort of interaction from GMs to know if the reason was in fact linking the carrd with suggestive contents in it. If that's the case, then it needs to be known by ANYONE who has a carrd and not just us or the affected venues. We can continue to argue about '18+' being the source of the profanity action, but it continues to be based on assumptions

You can wait all you want but a confirmation is not coming your way. I'm not personally interested in whether or not your community thrives or gets banned, but if you care about it, it would be wise to heed the advice given by several people in the thread. Maybe you could even spread awareness yourself.

Lose the 18+ disclaimer. Lose the mentions of ERP and suggestive photos in the venue's website. Make sure that anything you advertise is suitable to be viewed by minors. If your customers/employees are inclined to only roleplay with adults, they should confirm the age and consent of whoever they are role-playing with and not simply trust an age limit. And just like it is with pve carry services, let the interested customer ask around if the service is available and don't advertise it where everyone can see it.

[Kuroka]

You can wait all you want but a confirmation is not coming your way. I'm not personally interested in whether or not your community thrives or gets banned, but if you care about it, it would be wise to heed the advice given by several people in the thread. Maybe you could even spread awareness yourself.

Lose the 18+ disclaimer. Lose the mentions of ERP and suggestive photos in the venue's website. Make sure that anything you advertise is suitable to be viewed by minors. If your customers/employees are inclined to only roleplay with adults, they should confirm the age and consent of whoever they are role-playing with and not simply trust an age limit. And just like it is with pve carry services, let the interested customer ask around if the service is available and don't advertise it where everyone can see it.

Best statement in this whole thread lol
Im a totally perv jet even im annoyed by it (not that id report it but still) expecially as i saw plenty ppl with "friendly xyz... open for erp, sent a /tell for services" lol