RP shout ads are obstructive to chat and gameplay

[Gordita]

First I'd like to start by saying that I have nothing against those who rp or venues, or anything that goes along with it. I want everyone to be able to enjoy what they like, in a way that doesn't interfere with the reasonable enjoyment of the game for others.

That being said, the endless walls of text in shout chat 24/7 for these venues is getting way out of hand. Many of these shouts are advertising courtesans. I just had my 14 year old daughter come ask me what a courtesan is, because someone told her her character would be good for the job. This person also told her that they could get her a job as a court at a venue. They didn't bother to say anything besides that, didn't bother to ask her age or even say hello first. She simply ignored the person and went about her business before logging out and coming to ask me about it. Needless to say this didn't sit well with me. Nor does it sit well with me seeing these ads constantly when people are supposed to behave in a way that is appropriate for people 13 years old and older, as per the user agreement.

And so my suggestion and requests are as follows:
Add an RP/advertisement chat channel for people to advertise in, with a one hour cooldown. Have it behave like system messages, so it can be seen by all online players without having to sit in town waiting for a spam ad. Unable to post in it on free trial, but able to view it. This will make it easier on shout runners as well, reducing the amount of running around and spamming they do, while reaching a wider audience of people who actually WANT to see this stuff. I would also like to see fellowship finder improved, with a higher character limit (300) and the ability to link fellowships into the new chat channel, the same way party finder can be linked in chat. Adding a venue tag to be separated from the RP tag as well, would help people searching for venues when browsing the fellowship finder.

Shout ads are already proven to be more harm than good, as my FC venue is often at max capacity just by utilizing party finder to advertise. Most players just blacklist shout runners, til their list is full, and/or turn off shout. A method of advertising that annoys more people than it attracts is certainly not one that should be considered helpful or "the norm".

And please stop advertising courtesans in your shout ads, in the meantime, as it's pretty disgusting to advertise this kind of stuff to an audience with children in it. Doesn't matter if "it's just in a game". Follow the user agreement. You wouldn't be happy if this happened to your kid, nephew, niece, little brother or sister of the same age as my daughter.

Courtesan, in modern usage, is a euphemism for a kept mistress or prostitute, particularly one with wealthy, powerful, or influential clients.

I'm not sure how this has been allowed to plague shout chat so frequently, and how a blind eye has been turned. It's cringe. The spam creates a negative experience for players, but I don't think handing out suspensions to service accounts is by any means a valid solution. Just like turning off shout chat , or constantly toggling chat tabs while going in and out of town are not valid solutions. The solution is to give the venue scene a more effective and less intrusive way to advertise, since they are a huge part of our playerbase. I feel this implementation will be beneficial to all players, and create a better atmosphere for the community as a whole.

People like to use shout chat for actually talking, relaying hunts, party finders, FC recruitment, asking for help/advice, achievement fates, sightseeing logs, and much more, but have been less and less able to be heard because of these obnoxious ads flooding the chat every single day and burying anything said by anyone. The shout spam gets so crazy that even people attempting to read the shout spam can't keep up with it at times. So let's make this happen, get the devs to implement the feature to make it better for all of us, because most of us are getting pretty annoyed by it.

Keep the discussion polite and on topic please. If anybody would like to offer more suggestions as to help this situation that haven't been covered already, and/or build on the suggestions already made, please do contribute them. Together we can come up with the best solution possible.

[Bonoki]

So there are a couple of things I want to say and all of this comes from good intentions. First, I do agree that the venue ads are a nuisance. Something should be done but the truth is nothing is going to be done, nothing can be done about it. Even if SE did take action, people ignore the threats. Just look at all the cheating and gil buying that happens despite SE taking action against that. These "Pests" are here to stay and unfortunately make up a great vast deal of the player base, especially while the game is feeling stale. Even though the game's age rating is "T" people are going to tell you that online interactions are not rated. And I can speak from experience that virtually nobody on here asks for age. In fact, most people just auto-assume that minors do not play this game whatsoever. If you want my honest opinion, you probably don't want your daughter playing this game at all. It's the internet, expect her to bump into all the things a parent doesn't want their teenager seeing online. Server visit to Ul Dah on Balmung, read shout chat for about an hour and ask yourself if you want your daughter to be able to see that so easily. The longer she remains on here, the longer she will be influenced by this game's rabbit hole. It's inevitable. There are a lot of thirsty people on here. Sooner or later, someone will breach the veil, so why wait for that? Take action now. This game has a notorious groomer problem at that. The last thing you want is for your daughter to get involved with is this game's extremely large NSFW side of the community. Which is quite easy to do once you discover mods. Simply put, you just can't have good faith in the internet over stuff like this. You should strongly consider your position because this won't be the last time your daughter will run into this. It's sick but it's reality.

[CidHeiral]

Sorry to hear that happened, that part of the community is very embarrassing and not representative of the whole. Unfortunately, separate channels wouldn't solve anything because those people would just spam both. There's not much you can do about the general shout spam short of just turning off shout chat, but you absolutely can report any shouts, tells, or PF listings that contain adult content. The ToS is very clear about all of that and GMs do take action.

[Gordita]

Unfortunately, separate channels wouldn't solve anything because those people would just spam both.

My thinking on it is that it wouldn't be just a simple rp channel that functions like a global chat, but something that could be posted in like say ... Once or twice per day, per service account. Obviously if it was a free for all channel to post ads in without limitations it would just be a huge mess of spam and drama, used as a global chat. That was clearly avoided here, with good reason. Alternative would be something similar to fellowships but expanded on, and promoted more for people to browse the different venues that update their boards.

[Tsurayu]

I don't think it's that big of a deal.

Maybe it's because I'm not really a fan of talking in global chat as opposed with friends in Party, Free Company chat, etc.. but I don't really care about what is being discussed in general chat. RP advertisements in Shout chat isn't any more annoying than the plethora of Free Company advertisements the game is riddled with, which is probably the justification that many venues use.

As long as the advertisements for +18 venues aren't explicit in their descriptions then I have no issue. Let adults be adults and have fun in whatever way they see fit. As long as it is acceptable to advertise in-game activities in chat, then advertisements for RP will be, too.

[Gordita]

I honestly think yoshi needs to publicly address this issue like he once did before , with the party finder listings. Told people to stop using duty roulette of for rp (because it appears at the top) and to use the "other" tab. And that action would be taken. People listened to that, I'm sure the same could be done for this.

[Gordita]

Advertising rp versions of things that are illegal irl shouldn't be happening. If it was a trend to advertise rp drug dens that wouldn't go over well, might lead to little kids getting curious about drug use and then they go down a rabbit hole etc. That's a pretty bad influence for young and impressionable minds. Just like courtesan advertising, some little girl could think that it's ok to ... Y'know. That can't fly here. Adults need to be more responsible and considerate about their activities in public places.

[Troxbark]

Advertising rp versions of things that are illegal irl shouldn't be happening. If it was a trend to advertise rp drug dens that wouldn't go over well, might lead to little kids getting curious about drug use and then they go down a rabbit hole etc. That's a pretty bad influence for young and impressionable minds. Just like courtesan advertising, some little girl could think that it's ok to ... Y'know. That can't fly here. Adults need to be more responsible and considerate about their activities in public places.

Ah yes, the classic "games will cause people to...".

Did gta create an entire generation of drug users and violent criminals?

[LianaThorne]

Advertising rp versions of things that are illegal irl shouldn't be happening. If it was a trend to advertise rp drug dens that wouldn't go over well, might lead to little kids getting curious about drug use and then they go down a rabbit hole etc. That's a pretty bad influence for young and impressionable minds. Just like courtesan advertising, some little girl could think that it's ok to ... Y'know. That can't fly here. Adults need to be more responsible and considerate about their activities in public places.

If we're really going to go down this rabbit hole:

1. Prostitution is legal in several countries and also in the state of Nevada (just heavily regulated).
2. If you think it's bad then fair enough but it's considered a job and many many many people make money off selling their bodies (*looks at OnlyFans and the pron industry).
3. This is the environment the game has and Square does not care enough to change it. The RP community and venue crowd carry this game during the content droughts and Yoshi knows it. If this whole situation truly happened, it's on you to parent your teenager to not speak to random people online without your permission/knowing them from irl (school, hobbies, etc.)

It isn't the internet's job to babysit your teen, it's on you to teach them proper internet safety and what to avoid and what to do in situations that may or may not occur like this.

[Gordita]

Ah yes, the classic "games will cause people to...".

Did gta create an entire generation of drug users and violent criminals?

Literally irrelevant. All of it. Nobody said games make people do anything. GTA has nothing to do with how people violate the user agreement in FFXIV and how those people could have a negative influence on certain people.