Harrasment & Malicious Intent

[Sarah_Jane]

Hi,
I'm an FFXIV creator on Twitch & Twitch Partner, a player has maliciously intended to steal my characters name after seeing that I didn't do the name change correctly, after transferring my main character 'Sarah Jane' from Siren to Sephirot (hence the ' in my name now).

After deleting my first alt on Sephirot that was called 'Sarah Jane', I deleted it just before the transfer of my main from Siren to Sephirot, to try and reserve my name.
But it still requested that my main character's name had to be changed.

So when the name was available again my friend reserved the name for me, so I could get it when it became available again, I was streaming and didn't want to do the name change on stream. But as soon as my friend deleted the character 'Sarah Jane' for me to rename, the name was taken IMMEDIATELY.

The character that now goes by "Sarah Jane" seems to be acting like a 'bot' and is not "understanding" us when we tried to talk to them about the situation.
They have chosen ALL default settings (appearance, class, and all) for their character, there was NO effort into creating the character because they just wanted the name.

They have now contacted my Twitch mod threatening us... see image


Please let me know if there is anything that can be done about this, this person's account needs action taken on it. The only reason they have created this character is to threaten me.

Thank you for your time

[Garet]

I suggest to just ignore him. The more he/she feel you are after the name the more he will feel empowered. Accept having a different name and he will have nothing to bargain with.

It is annoying what that player has done though so hopefully karma reaches him.

[Sarah_Jane]

Yeh, that's what I will do once I have tried to reach support, I just don't think these people should be allowed to get away with this.

[Garet]

Yeh, that's what I will do once I have tried to reach support, I just don't think these people should be allowed to get away with this.

Hope you succeed. Good luck and God speed

[Zomkei]

impersonation is against TOS. if you haven’t done it yet, file a report

[Sarah_Jane]

Exactly, I have reported the character and I have contacted a GM and they told me to post on the forum to hope it reaches the right people?

[Greyhawk]

Exactly, I have reported the character and I have contacted a GM and they told me to post on the forum to hope it reaches the right people?

I don't see why they would tell you that. These forums for General Discussion and other subforums here are just to talk about gameplay and the like, not to take action against someone for violations. FFXIV moderation has taken action before outside of the game directly related to FFXIV, I don't see this as any different. If they are telling you to post on a forum that is rumored to be moderated, it sounds to me that they just wanted you handed off to not be their problem.

You said they threatened you in the post image above, but I don't see anything that would constitute a threat against you. It looks like someone is more or less challenging you to do some type of savage content?

[Zomkei]

Exactly, I have reported the character and I have contacted a GM and they told me to post on the forum to hope it reaches the right people?

yeah, you won't reach anyone besides other players using the forums. i'd suggest going into the TOS and copy / pasting the part about harassment and impersonation. you'll have to keep pressing it in order for the GMs to do anything sometimes.

[Shibi]

Exactly, I have reported the character and I have contacted a GM and they told me to post on the forum to hope it reaches the right people?

That is, sadly, a brush off response by the GM. It's their way of saying "i really don't want to do anything if you lost control of your name"

Keep at it, as it's clearly not allowed in the TOS

◆Impersonation
"Impersonation" means impersonating or fraudulently claiming to be another player, Square Enix employees, or any other third party. This could involve using a character name, Free Company name, etc., that resembles one that is used by another person, or using a name that is the same as, or similar to, the name of a Square Enix employee.

https://support.na.square-enix.com/f...5382&kid=68216

Also, make sure you re-register your name using an alt on your old server after the transfer.

[Packetdancer]

impersonation is against TOS. if you haven’t done it yet, file a report

Much as I sympathize with OP, putting on my "god help me I used to be on the other side of the player/developer divide for an MMO at a past job" hat for a moment, "impersonation" in the context of a TOS document usually means that someone is deliberately misrepresenting themselves as a different person with intent to either defraud (such as by pretending to be a Square-Enix GM and trying to scare someone into giving up their password) or defame (such as pretending to be a prominent streamer with a very distinctive name and then deliberately acting in a way to ruin their reputation).

From what I see in the original post, the person's being a blackmailing jackass -- and there might well be something in that behavior that you can pin a TOS violation on, don't get me wrong -- but it sounds like they're just inconveniencing you, not impersonating you, so I strongly suspect you're not going to manage to make "impersonation" stick.

Especially since "Sarah Jane" is not a distinctive enough name that I think you can argue meaningfully that someone looking at the name will immediately think of you specifically. I mean, I had a character briefly (on a different MMO, not here) named Sarah Jane, as a reference to Sarah Jane Smith from Doctor Who. My friend had managed to make a character who looked like David Tennant, and we decided to make a joke out of it and a bunch of friends and I put together more or less an entire TARDIS crew drawing from both NuWho and Classic Who; there was an AussieTeagan and a SarahJane and a RoseTyler and a DoctorMartha... and one friend even made Adric (as "MathBoy") before he reconsidered the wisdom of that choice. It was a whole Thing.

(In my defense, we were really, really bored that weekend.)

Don't get me wrong, I think this person's being a jerk. I just don't think "impersonation" as it's likely meant in the TOS is going to work to try to nail them to the wall.

But you have my sympathy, nonetheless.