I wonder if SE would remove the Z title?

[Kolsykol]

I do think having it as a title is a bit of a thornier issue than some other contexts, since it's something that people "wear" on their character like a badge, and it runs both ways with people potentially doing it to be political and people not wanting to use a levimitately wanted title in case they come across as political in a way they don't mean. It's different to something that was already built into the narrative.

It's generally a difficult thing when a group (good or bad) takes a symbol and then it becomes strongly associated with the group while you're still trying to use it in other contexts.

It's a self-fulfilling prophecy, another issue I have with this is that people are essentially handing symbols over on a silver plate to bad people without a fight.
I don't think that the Swastika for example is inherently offensive, it's still used in the East as a religious symbol.
It's offensive when people use it in an offensive way.
And it's normally VERY obvious when someone is using it in an offensive way.

Sometimes it really feels like people go out of their way to intentionally do this too, like I've had people from NA unironically try and lecture me ( a Swede ) about how offensive and racist Mjölnir ( Thor's Hammer ) and Runes are because there were some Nazi's who used them too.
I've never in my life had anyone in Sweden or Denmark where I've spent a lot of time too ever looked at it that way or given me shit for being into that part of our history.
It's always people on the outside who come in and try to turn it into an issue.
Even then I really don't believe that most people outside of Scandinavia look at it that way either I think it's something people who spend a bit too much time online do because they always want to have an issue to talk about.
If there is none then you create it yourself.

If anything I think that instead of enabling it and basically telling people that yes if you see a Z now then that's how you should think, people should push back against it and point out how nonsensical it is.

[Jagick]

Zed's dead, baby.

==========

On topic, humans should stop letting the Internet raise their kids. No tablets when you're 2, no TikTok when you're five. No, nope and no way.

Why? Because the Internet teaches nothing about dealing with your own internal pain and disappointments. Instead of teaching people how to handle the feeling that arises when some trivial circumstance "bothers you," the Internet teaches people to post something somewhere and wait for the likes.

Problem? One can get likes for anything... even the most depraved, disgusting ideas, or fears that are nonsensical and unfounded. With 7 billion people around, you can get some people to agree with anything. ESPECIALLY wacky theories or antisocial solutions to problems.

DEAR HUMANS: Bring your issues to another human in-person. Preferably someone more mature than yourself, and let them teach you how to handle it.

Not, "Dear Reddit, ZOMG this (thing) needs to be removed from (part of life) because in this circumstance here, it has a bad connotation."

In 100 years people will look at social media the way we look at 100-year-old ads for bottles of "Bayer's Heroin (Recommended by more doctors!)" or seventy-year-old ads for Chesterfield Cigarettes ("Smoked by more physicians!").

That is, with disgust. And disbelief we ever thought these things were OK.

Social media is messing us up badly, as a people. We're losing our ability to rationally deal with nearly anything.

Agreed, and further more I'd say the advent of the Smartphone and easy instant access to the entire internet for every person no matter where they were has been our downfall in my opinion. The internet (and human culture as a whole) has just taken a nosedive in a more and more noticeable way ever since 2007.

[Novae]

It could be worse. They could use the X I V letters.

[Artemiz]

It's a self-fulfilling prophecy, another issue I have with this is that people are essentially handing symbols over on a silver plate to bad people without a fight.

I completely agree, the best example I can think of dealing with this kind of thing well is how the gay community deals with terms that are clearly meant as pejorative. Terms like queer originated as insults, but the gay community embraced them and as a result, disarmed them.

I don't think that the Swastika for example is inherently offensive, it's still used in the East as a religious symbol.
It's offensive when people use it in an offensive way.
And it's normally VERY obvious when someone is using it in an offensive way.

The Swastika argument comes up a lot, I first got into debates about this when COD Black Ops was current, people made banners which were clearly Nazi symbols but when challenged they would drop the religion defence. A black Swastika on a red background is clearly a Nazi symbol, no ifs or buts. It becomes much more nuanced when colour isn't so obvious. I get the religion argument if I saw one in a part of the world where it is relevent. If I drew one in the sand on a beach in Normandy though, that's a difference matter altogether.

[Nav_Fae]

Z is fine. And nobody will stop using it.
We have Americans called Nazi all the literal time because they have a different opinion from someone else and you don't see people protesting in the streets to ban the word from the dictionary.

[Feronar]

My two cents: Most of us on the forums are experienced FFXIV players, and would be fine with the Z title, seeing it as a perfectly innocent reference the the Zodiac Zeta weapons. We are not the group I am concerned about.

Many people play FFXIV all over the world, including in central and eastern Europe, and including in former Soviet states. Some of those players are likely to be Ukrainian refugees, and some might even be living in Ukraine itself, playing to give themselves something fun to do. Suppose a new player, who happens to be Ukrainian (Whether living there or abroad as a refugee), sees a player with the Z title, and doesn't know about its context, having never done the Zodiac weapon questline. That would not go over well. And without even taking into account the potential it has for trolling or causing emotional distress (Which would violate Prohibited Activities "Actions that inflict emotional distress by using expressions related to historical events or crimes"). Things that were completely innocent at the time of their introduction may become highly inappropriate later on. Therefore it is probably for the best if they rename the "Z" title and associated "The Letter Z" achievement.

On top of that, several countries (Czech Republic, Germany, Latvia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan) have banned use of the symbol in certain contexts, particularly to glorify the invasion. In the Czech Republic it is considered equivalent to the swastika.

[Havenchild]

snip.

If someone takes the letter Z to suddenly connect it with Russia in a video game, you're just dumb. There's no amount of feelings anyone can express that would justify a letter on a title to be banned in a video game. People need to be better and cognizant enough to know the meaning being applied. For that, we should ban LGBTQA from all titles too because apparently that has some real world connections.

Again, anyone complaining about letters having real world meanings probably don't possess the brain capacity to decipher the basic intent of the applications in game to begin with.

[Asari5]

removing Z in everything just enhances its symbolism in its remaining definitions. if we ban it everywhere it gets more and more meaning as a war symbol... we shouldnt let this happen

[Themarvin]

Well please change it... it would be the same if there was an SS title during WW2.

[MsQi]

Well please change it... it would be the same if there was an SS title during WW2.

Don't kowtow to aggressors. We had Z before they did.