Exactly how harsh are the chat rules?

[Larirawiel]

Most clubs I've been to are /beesknees fiestas with no talking :P Only a rare club or two actually have /s open. But I have to say I've been the degenerate who swears in /s and usually people don't bat an eye at all, much less report it

In the EU it is mostly the opposite: /s is open but /yell and /shout are not.



Cheers

[Thorio]

Plenty of people talk in the sitcom known as the novice network.

[UkcsAlias]

all i know is if you start talking about someones dps being poor because thats how you see it on your dps meter youre probably going to be talking to a gm soon.

As that implies 3rd party software usage. And such software is usualy not allowed (some devs do allow it to some degree, but are still vague so they can always act on issues in any way they like - some information after all is too much like cheating).

Yes, within private raiding parties this can be used as an analytics tool, and on that maybe allowed for this purpose (i dont know if it is). But in public games this is definitely something you should not want. Blaming someone else is on that just toxic behaviour. Although i can imagine that if a player wants to learn from someone that uses such stats, it might actualy help them. But then again, such player is unlikely to get insulted and instead just receives feedback that he wants.

And in private raiding parties in which dps on that scale matters, they most likely already use voice chat (therefor its unlikely they get reported based on chat), and usualy already play on the hardest difficulty where random parties are a bad idea. Its unlikely to cause an issue there.

If they are using text chat, that party is already making a major mistake. I think this is the main reason why such statements are considered a problem.

I think its kept vague for a good reason, and thats simply that you only want to act on excessive cases. And in this game profanity is actualy less of a problem compared to spoilers. Spoilers can realy destroy certain aspects of a story, yet profanity can at most just be anoying (not to be confused with insulting which is something else!).

[Avatre]

Most clubs I've been to are /beesknees fiestas with no talking :P Only a rare club or two actually have /s open. But I have to say I've been the degenerate who swears in /s and usually people don't bat an eye at all, much less report it

It could also depend on the context of the swear itself. Using it directed at someone in an insulting manner when they say something about what someone else said, that could get someone to decide to report. Using it as a "I messed that up" is less likely to get reported. But that also depends on each person's mindset when it comes to profanity.

I personally couldn't care less if people use profanity, so I don't even bat an eye at it.

[Shuuli]

I'm on aether, ada - spend lot of time in gridania cause limsa is a bit too much. There are times when people dont talk much, but most of the time there are lot of chit chatters. Perhaps you are just not on a server with many talkative people, or you don't play in the busy hours.

Rules are not that strict and if you want to make sure you are not breaking them, make your friends and then join an FC or linkshell which have their own chats.

In these chats you have a bit more freedom. As you only get punished if you are reported and hopefully you can trust your FC / linkshell members to be more open minded than just any random person on the global chats.

[Vahlnir]

It could also depend on the context of the swear itself. Using it directed at someone in an insulting manner when they say something about what someone else said, that could get someone to decide to report. Using it as a "I messed that up" is less likely to get reported. But that also depends on each person's mindset when it comes to profanity.

I personally couldn't care less if people use profanity, so I don't even bat an eye at it.

Yeah, I don't care if people use it either. Within reason, of course. But profanity is profanity so I don't use it outside of my friend circle in game. All it takes is one person having a bad day to ruin mine.

[Illmaeran]

Are the rules really this extreme where people are afraid to make the social game... well... social? and if so, what in particular is causing this?

No, the rules aren't extreme. I talk to random strangers every day I play and have had zero issues the entire time. Mind your manners, speak kindly and considerately to others, and you'll be just fine. A segment of the, mostly recently joined, population come from games where the community and staff have much less, if any, regard for what people say to each other. Coming here where the staff actually enforce language restrictions causes the issue to get blown out of proportion.

If people are too afraid to talk to others out of concern for getting reported for violating harassment terms, those folks need to reassess the language they use toward others.

[EagleDynamics]

As that implies 3rd party software usage. And such software is usualy not allowed (some devs do allow it to some degree, but are still vague so they can always act on issues in any way they like - some information after all is too much like cheating).

Yes, within private raiding parties this can be used as an analytics tool, and on that maybe allowed for this purpose (i dont know if it is). But in public games this is definitely something you should not want. Blaming someone else is on that just toxic behaviour. Although i can imagine that if a player wants to learn from someone that uses such stats, it might actualy help them. But then again, such player is unlikely to get insulted and instead just receives feedback that he wants.

And in private raiding parties in which dps on that scale matters, they most likely already use voice chat (therefor its unlikely they get reported based on chat), and usualy already play on the hardest difficulty where random parties are a bad idea. Its unlikely to cause an issue there.

If they are using text chat, that party is already making a major mistake. I think this is the main reason why such statements are considered a problem.

I think its kept vague for a good reason, and thats simply that you only want to act on excessive cases. And in this game profanity is actualy less of a problem compared to spoilers. Spoilers can realy destroy certain aspects of a story, yet profanity can at most just be anoying (not to be confused with insulting which is something else!).

yes that makes sense. people in a hardcore static raiding fc who all know each other wouldn't narc on a member for using a dps meter. if it helps them out then more power to them.

[Vav2021]

Well they made it against the TOS to do something as simple as harmless emotes when people die in pvp, and the game is full of toxic passive aggressive crap since so many people seem to think the smallest comment or insult is the end of the world.

This is actually kinda upsetting. Not because people do that, as every multiplayer game I've played in has had folks like that (usually it's easily shrugged off), but because this kinda shuts out my desires of open world Roleplaying now. Although I prefer to roleplay as friendly and inquisitive, there's folks that like to roleplay as a dark and/or brooding character with little-to-no tolerance of others (Think of Squall from ff8 or Cloud when he started in ff7) who develop their characters personality later down the road.

What if the broody character is in character and shrugs off "Do what you want, just don't be a damn burden to the team." Or what if there's an argument in the group/fellowship for the sake of advancing a story? Or god forbid, what if someone with a sailor background with a goofy temper pops off a quote like "I'mma peg you between t'eyes like my whole crew did between the legs o'er mother, ye landlubber!"

my mind instantly jumps to Silvairre in the archers guild that blew off the cat girl and everyone else. What does someone do if they want to match his tone and personality type, including how he changed later?

[Alaray]

End of the day, you can chat to your heart's content. Just know that the GM's action based on the letter of the ToS and, a bit less so, the spirit of the ToS.

Most things that seem to get people in trouble is unsolicited advice (which usually has a little spat in the chat, which then someone's petty enough to report over it), or wording criticism too aggressively (idrc about aggressive criticism, though lots of people don't really realize it comes off a bit dickish sometimes, which is actually what's getting them reported for it).

But, the only things I ever report for is just... if I think there's cheating going on, or someone's intentionally griefing (ie. Standing afk in a ranked PvP game the entire time and messing with target markers), or if what someone said is just a general attack on a group of people/straight up using actual slurs in the chat (which, does happen -- rare, but I've seen my fair share of them over time).

But with how many topics Balmung Shout chat goes through, the NN, and some duties, there's a degree to which I do think the "if I say anything I'll be Banned" crowd overplays, but there's a bit of truth in "be a bit mindful/careful of what you say, since if you do technically break ToS and someone dislikes you enough to report it, you do have a higher chance of being actioned".