a full lengthy discussion about reporting and actions taken against accounts.

[Ghostwk]

Hello, I would like to talk about the reporting system and how actions against people are taken, and why and how this system should be changed and what they can do to implement better policy and etiquette to deal with those being punished.

I would ask that you go into this post and see me as a FFXI player who loves FFXIV and has played both games for many many years and cares about the game and community, and not as a salty person who just got suspended for 20 days, because I am very respectful and can admit wrongdoing and accept my punishments for it. This game does a great job of allowing you to express yourself. It embraces LGBTQ, lets and even recreates items made for females be worn by male characters, and even allows for same sex marriage. But also turns around and can punish you for doing the very same things. This is not a very good policy to have, as this just causes fear and makes players want to do the opposite of expressing themselves, as well as just simply not interact with others because they may upset someone accidentally and be reported a single time for someone else having a bad day or rubbing them the wrong way.

In my recent case, I feel like my repeal should be overturned. My FC tag is why I was suspended, it was "ERP", short for the name Elite Roleplayers. This has been my FC name and tag for 6 years. Obviously its a silly play on words, but even taken as "Erotic" instead, this is now a term within the EULA and sanctioned by SE as something acceptable to do within the game, so long as it is not public.

My friend also pointed out that people were talking about my suspension and that of others because people currently are deliberately reporting others for any and everything they possibly can in an attempt to lessen the amount of participants in upcoming lotteries for housing. So I would suggest everyone be very careful, or SE please look very carefully at why people are being reported in the upcoming weeks, and all the more reason i request that my person suspension be looked into, because seemingly, this is why i was reported, and if it holds, you are allowing players to get away with exactly what they are planning on doing.

3.3 of the EULA was cited as the reason for my ban, which is Profanity or Innappropriate language, neither of which I feel my FC tag or the Slogan they added to the reasoning fall under.

This is my 2nd offense, the first being a similar one. I had a CWLS named "Lewd & Newd" in which someone who clearly was participating and joined reported me and the name, because the ONLY possible way to even see that name is if you join it or are invited. This CWLS had also existed for around 2-3 years prior to me being suspended for my first offence, also for 20 days.

[Ghostwk]

I ate it the first time and accepted my fate, even though I knew it was targeted and someone did it with the purpose of getting me suspended simply because they were having a bad day or had an issue with me in some form or fashion. My problem with this system is the severity of punishment over something so trivial, especially after a SINGLE report.

If I was advertising in chat or blatantly trying to force upon people things they dont want to see or what not, I could understand a 20 day suspension. But I often keep to myself and avoid all of these type of things purposely even after my first offense, because I know that it only gets worse. I am now on my third offense and am more than likely going to have to tiptoe on eggshells and pray that I dont make someone shed a single speck of salt for the remainder of my time playing this game or i will risk losing 8-10 years of work and money spent on my character i dearly love so much.

[Ghostwk]

I bring all of this up because I am sure this is only going to be an even hotter topic with the addition of a better PVP and the adventure plates already being used to make suggestive content and resulting in suspensions.

I have to ask SE to please, reconsider how you handle bans and suspensions. Most games and services i have used over the years have a system implemented that auto bans after x amt of reports, or requires a certain amt of reports before your account is questioned and gets reviewed. I think the severity of punishment is absurdly too harsh for things like Inappropriate language and the adventure plates. I feel like suspending for a day and requesting them change the plate and or name/FC name or whatever is acceptable, but i also feel like it shouldnt take just ONE person for that either. If multiple reports are made within x amt of time and you review the account then sure, suspend for 1-3 days and warn them not to do it again. if they repeat afterwards, 10-20 or a month ban feels much more appropriate then.

[Ghostwk]

I also would like to bring up the recent suspension of a player that was either over an adventurer plate, or maybe the fact that they had an OnlyFans link within their bio. This is a bit more of a touchy subject, but I want to point out a few things here.

1. If you have hyperlinks and can just click the link and visit the site instantly, you are already in the wrong yourself, because within the vanilla cliet and base game, there exists no such hyperlinking, so you are using a 3rd party program to do that.

2. If you visit the link on your own accord, and type out every letter to get there, that is on you by that point, because you know exactly what you are doing and what you are getting into.

I think we can all agree that yes, the link is within the game, however, visiting it is NOT. SE even tells you not to visit links yourself, and if you click one from an RMT and lose your account over it, yes, they may help you recover it, but they will also tell you it is kind of your own fault, so I feel like that same thing should apply here. I know that they try to ban RMT that do that, but i really dont think it is SE's job to police that realm. If you put yourself at risk by visiting a link, youve done it at your own accord and have no one to blame but yourself, imo.

[Ghostwk]

TLDR; I would like to ask that SE reconsider their policies and revamp how they handle bans and suspensions, especially currently when people are reporting a lot for PVP and adventure plate and things that honestly should not be handled in such an extreme way as someone who harasses other players or uses actual harmful language aimed directly at other players. I apologize for the lengthy post but I really want this to be taken seriously and want to be as transparent and as open as I can to show that I actually care about the game and other players as well as myself. Thank you for your time if you read through the entire post and I hope that others can share experiences or provide additional suggestions on how to improve and make this system better going forward with the new things they have implemented into the game. Take care and Good luck in Ultimate and housing Ultimate if you are participating in either.

[Feayn]

Let me put it this way... I know some players who give their character an erotic name, e.g. Cream Pie. This should be reported much earlier...

[SeiyaSoiya]

here's the reality, there's A LOT of ToS bootlickers for some reason.
90% of the XIV playerbase use the report function as a weapon to try to take revenge on people they don't like, which is a misuse of the report function.
This would not be a problem if actions disallowed by the ToS were investigated and punished independently from reports, but as far as I see it, if you don't get reported, nothing happens.
So what ends up happening is that the game turns into twitter or reddit where people seem to go on moral crusades against others trying to have fun.

[Ghostwk]

agreed and a big reason why i hope people read this post and agree with me on the fact that SE needs to rework how they handle all of this.

[Ghostwk]

yes, have seen vulgar names mysef. I also see a roe speed hacking for the past 3 years and have personally reported them myself and they have yet to be banned or suspended a single day for it.

PVP is hot and seems to have went over very well, and cheating has been rampant in it and still is, so again, another reason this system very much needs to be looked at and reworked sooner rather than later at this point.

I can see instant portrait use being a heavier suspension, youre forcing 9 other players to look at it. but adventure plates shouldnt be as harsh because it is sometihng you have to go out and look at yourself, and you can kind of tell what youll be getting into by just looking at the character or reading the bio.

[Denji]

at one point they were hunting down NSFW modders by their IGNs on their twitter profiles.
it won't get any better i'm afraid. it's not even just a square thing. app stores like the ios one will remove apps that don't make an effort to curtail nsfw content unless the developer at least makes a reasonable effort to remove it (see: the tumblr nsfw ban).

since the companion app is a thing that exists it means they'll do what they can about amusing but otherwise nsfw names/linkshells/retainers, etc.