What to do about harrassment

[Gemina]

Problem is SE is notoriously BAD at dealing with harrasment, because it's not really a crime over there. It has to actually reach violence before it's thought of as a crime there.

On the other hand the US datacenter is on US soil, so the incidents online in the USA might be in the US jurisdiction.

Knocking on the real life door, yha, that's right to the cops, who will then supena SE for the info... if your white and rich, otherwise they'll do nothing.


I recommend self defense courses and a primer on the uses of the second amendment. I recommend the pink pistols.

That's law. Legislation is a fickle beast, and if it weren't and so easily defined what constitutes a violation, there would be no need for attorneys, and middle and lower class could easily defend themselves in a court of law, or pursue charges of their own.

I am definitely not saying that illegal forms of harassment are always pursued. However, SE is without question subject to US laws and regulations in regards to the ToS. I am not wrong that if a matter comes to their attention that places them in harms way, they will without question be forced to diffuse the situation. If for example someone in Limsa said in /shout "Gemina Lunarian's real name is __________, and she lives at 12345 avenue, city, state, zip, country. Do pay her a visit, will ya?" Do you really think they will just let that go? They can't. If something happened to me after the fact, it would get very ugly for them whether I or my family pressed charges or not.

In terms of harassment, it is tougher. That is why I warned the OP, as he is far more likely to get punished for false reporting than the actual culprit facing any kind of indictment or disciplinary action. Players get in squabbles all the time, and there would be a process if any action was taken at all. It's not just being a wealthy white person. Things in the states are all kinds of messed up right now, and it far more about how high you rank on the victim totem that is a determining factor. It doesn't change what's irrefutable though, much like in my example. If there is a true case of harassment going on that they have to address, it will be done. Anything pointed here on the forums is all hearsay, and isn't valid in court.

Another thing before I close, and this really sucks to think about, is that there are laws that also protect the harasser, which adds another element of difficulty cracking things down on these kind of people. If things got out of hand, the more likely scenario is SE would halt character creation, and even shut servers down in question of a legal pursuit involving harassment. It's a difficult ordeal, and SE can't ban everyone giving another player a bad day.

[ICountFrom0]

I am definitely not saying that illegal forms of harassment are always pursued. However, SE is without question subject to US laws and regulations in regards to the ToS. I am not wrong that if a matter comes to their attention that places them in harms way, they will without question be forced to diffuse the situation. If for example someone in Limsa said in /shout "Gemina Lunarian's real name is __________, and she lives at 12345 avenue, city, state, zip, country. Do pay her a visit, will ya?" Do you really think they will just let that go? They can't. If something happened to me after the fact, it would get very ugly for them whether I or my family pressed charges or not.

Thing is.
That HAS been done.
They do not take action.
They do not think of that as illegal.

It isn't until something violent actually happens that there is punishment.
Check through the forums, you'll see even worse things happening without them taking action.

No amount of you saying, "they should" or "they are required to" will actually make them do it. You don't have the billion dollar legal team to force them to either, nor the trillion dollar lobist group it would take to get the law changed to include a punishment for them for not helping. Bottom line, they can get away with doing nothing, so they will.

[Bunnycake]

Assuming your words are true, this form of harassment is illegal (in the US it is a felony). If SE has records of it, and they have done nothing about it, they can put themselves in serious trouble. It wouldn't even take a lawsuit. The game being available in multiple countries places them in that country's jurisdiction, and the respective federal government can come crashing down on them hard. They don't take this lightly, believe me.

I know people just love to think that reports go unanswered for, but SE cannot just let illegal activity like that slide. It doesn't even matter that the person is using alts. All the matters is it keeps happening to the same player. Use your words carefully, as even this post can be considered false reporting if this activity is not true.

Hunt drama in Primal was so awful this group notorious to harass others for not giving credit when due actually doxxed one of my friends. This occurred when world visit was out. Said person who doxxed my friend despite us reporting it is still playing.

[ValkyrieL]

I would report to irl authorities if outside game.

Having said, I still find it hard to comprehend how people can let a video game character pixel get to them. If someone follow/trace me, whisper spam me. I Ignored you, completely denied your very existence, you are nothing to me, your very presence goes in to the void. We are humans the desires that someone acknowledged your existence. The worst thing/feeling is someone not acknowledging your very existence/you don't matter, you are nothing.

Everyone is built differently/tolerance for kind if things. Take screenahot/logs and submit.

[Bobby66]

I would report to irl authorities if outside game.

Having said, I still find it hard to comprehend how people can let a video game character pixel get to them. If someone follow/trace me, whisper spam me. I Ignored you, completely denied your very existence, you are nothing to me, your very presence goes in to the void. We are humans the desires that someone acknowledged your existence. The worst thing/feeling is someone not acknowledging your very existence/you don't matter, you are nothing.

Everyone is built differently/tolerance for kind if things. Take screenahot/logs and submit.

Sure report it to IRL authorities it will most likely take a back seat to "real" issues. Reality is our laws are mostly reactive not proactive. It is up the OP's friend to protect herself, and if that means moving so be it. Those with power often do not step in until it is far too late. You second line is why most people will brush it off.

[Final-Fantasy]

What can you do about harassment when in-game tickets and reports do nothing?

I know someone who has been dealing with someone who has been trying to smear their name for nearly a year. They have been making alts with the same name on different servers and coming to their home server to try and slander them in /shout with cruel and perverse words.

They have followed them around in-game, worked around the block list, deleting and recreating alts, and have caused so much grief for this person. The harassment has extended out of game; following them on twitter, steam, accessing IRL information. While I know nothing can be done about the latter, nothing has been done about everything in game. Numerous people have reported this person, but they are still around, still harassing friends of mine.

They do not want to post here out of fear of this person seeing this.

Is there some other way to report this kind of harassment to SquareEnix and actually get results?

They wont do anything unfortunately.

What we need in a situation like this is, a way to make our Lodestone character ID private so if someone tries to view the URL, it is denied.
Remove the unique ID that shows for the Character Name altogether, only show the Character Name, this way you can Name Change without anyone knowing.

Of course, this would only work if they make it so when you delete a Friend, it removes you from their list too.
The fact SE is against doing this because it might upset someone else-while being fine with it upsetting you, is Illogical.

At least with those two features I mentioned above, you could leave an FC/LS and become Anonymous, it would be possible to move on, in the game.

[WP1990]

as someone who has just gone through this, and had the individual show up to my front door irl, i am with you. i hope everything gets resolved, it is truly terrifying.

Holy **** man! That is crazy!

[Bobby66]

When it comes to these stories, I wonder if GM's simply just have a different view of harassment. Maybe in the land of SE GM's this largely boils down to a "you" problem and not something they need to get involved in cause based off their investigation no rule has been broken.