Roleplay Party Finder Account Suspensions

[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

[rance-sama]

And here we go again.

[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.

[milkhorn]

-

Thank you for the perspective. I didn't really consider it the same vein as having said infamous site being vague linked in search info when there is such a stark difference between that and using carrds to relay RP venue information. There's a reason WHY people feel like they can have carrd linked in full and what not, and I can understand where the confusion would come from. I'll see what we can change to protect ourselves in the future. I can only hope there are plenty of other folks in the RP scene and those that run venues see this and other player's experiences with being punished and see what it is that they have to change as well. I know I have already seen people not posting '18+' in their PFs this past weekend. It's unfortunate to be told the solution comes down to being vague, as that feels like it can charter into something harmful when that's what's been what everyone is trying to avoid by giving forewarnings and being clear about intentions. It seems there's hardly anything we can do about that, however, and just have to continue to be extremely cautious on a personal level, instead of wanting to mediate a whole. As I said, it's not anyone's intentions to purposefully break the rules, and no one is maliciously looking to cause harm.

[kaynide]

Pretty much. I feel the devs need to pay more attention to this and release an official statement about it once and for all to avoid any misunderstandings and gray areas.

There is no need for any statement. They have been clear about what is and is not acceptable (read the ToS). The only reason you perceive a "gray area" is because the devs have been fairly hands off, allowing people to have their fun if they can do it reasonably and without causing problems for others.

To use a real world argument, this is like going 10-20 over the speed limit or street racing. You shouldn't be doing those things, but basically cops won't care that you do until there's a problem. At the same time, you shouldn't be going out of your way to tell or show everyone you're doing those things. (eg revving your engine and/or trying to street race in a place other people are driving)

Same deal here. Nobody cares if you ERP, even for money, as long as you keep it quiet and don't wave a red flag for drawing the attention of GMs. But if you get caught doing it because someone reported you/you did something inappropriate without consent, it's on you.

[LianaThorne]

To sum up, again:

- The issue is not the act of ERP itself, but the public advertisement of paid brothel services. Yoshi has stated before that if anyone is involved in that in a public sense, to report them. There's proof of that in this thread already.

- If you're going to have these venues even with this knowledge in mind, it is entirely on you now to be responsible for those consequences should something happen.

- There are people out there who have massive issues with RP & ERP in general and do report for the purpose of having RP slowly removed from the game. Yes, they are "disrupting your gameplay" but at the same time, to them you're disrupting theirs.

- Solution: Move the brothel service information to a platform like Discord and invite your community/customer base to join and handle that side of your business through there. Keep the public PF clean. Otherwise, if you choose not to, the risk of getting kicked to gaol is on you.

[Eriane_Elis]

Nobody cares if you ERP, even for money, as long as you keep it quiet and don't wave a red flag for drawing the attention of GMs. But if you get caught doing it because someone reported you/you did something inappropriate without consent, it's on you.

I'm not into eRP and honestly don't care that it exists. With that said, I have seen people acting like karens in this game. If it's remotely offensive, or might possibly be leaning towards gray area rules -- they will report. It doesn't matter, they feel like it's their obligation to report every little tiny thing like they're a college campus cop feeling superior about their position in society. I'd advise like others here to keep your recruitment on discord. Never talk about fight club outside of fight club or something like that.

[LariaKirin]

This has be quoted in this thread before:

Press: What is your official stance on player-run “brothels,” wherein two consenting players have cybersex in exchange for in-game currency? [This was a contentious question, and one that Yoshida seemed blindsided by. -Ed]

Yoshida: First of all, there is a user agreement that all players have to agree to before they can even start playing Final Fantasy XIV. Within that user agreement is a clause that prohibits any unacceptable conduct to this end, including behavior that infringes upon laws. Any players who violate those rules will be punished by banning or other penalties. This applies no matter which end of the exchange a player is on. Everyone who plays Final Fantasy XIV is subject to investigation for violating the terms of service, period. Because Final Fantasy XIV is a worldwide game, there is the potential for players from many different regions to interact with one another, and we have legal support available to assist us in investigations to this end in many countries. If you see someone engaging in this type of behavior, we ask you to report it.

Yoshida is not asking to report if you feel offended. He's asking to report, period.

When something illegal happens at one of these venues, the problem needs be the venue's problem and only the venue's problem. There needs be no doubt that Square is doing everything they can to stop any potentially illegal activity. When the real police starts investigating predators, they should be investigating your Discord server, not Square.

The venue breaking the rules is at fault, no matter how much mental gymnastics you employ to convince yourself that Square or the person reporting the venue are somehow a problem.

[Zsolen]

I'm not into eRP and honestly don't care that it exists. With that said, I have seen people acting like karens in this game. If it's remotely offensive, or might possibly be leaning towards gray area rules -- they will report. It doesn't matter, they feel like it's their obligation to report every little tiny thing like they're a college campus cop feeling superior about their position in society. I'd advise like others here to keep your recruitment on discord. Never talk about fight club outside of fight club or something like that.

Venues are only offensive to Karens, if the venues got their order at the cafe/bar wrong or if they feel like complaining over a product, service, or a price.

People reporting others for clear and overt breaches of ToS are not being Karens. They are doing what SE asked them to do, so the game doesn't face repercussions over people being unable to conduct themselves properly.

SE: Hey, we expect people to behave themselves. Can you report the people that violate these very clear rules?
Player A: Okay.
Player B: Karen! <Insert made up assertions about and perhaps second label for Player A here> <Insert something about the rules being gray or that the rules violators are the real victims>

[Lunalepsy]

This thread keeps on giving!