Yet another thread about explicit pf's

[ZavosEsperian]

You're also somewhat prudish if you think a 13 year old is somehow being exploited/corrupted just by seeing a non-explicit ad for 18+ NSFW content.

This isn't an argument and is just plain old ad hominem.

They see far more explicit content on TV, TikTok, the internet, etc. all the time.

What is the point of saying this? None of these things have anything to do with the argument at hand and are a false equivalence used out of convenience.

If the 13 year old goes to that Discord, that's on the parent for not teaching their child better or monitoring their online activity.

I am going to have to break this down since there are multiple parts:

...not teaching their child better...

The only thing "teaching their child better" can do is lessen the odds of the prefaced event from happening, it cannot prevent it. For example, you can teach someone about the dangers of using tobacco products until you are blue in the face, but this by itself does not guarantee whoever it is that you taught will completely listen to you and not use tobacco products.

...monitoring their online activity.

This one I may need some more clarification. "Monitoring their online activity" is extremely broad overall and can be done in a multitude of ways. For example, software can be used to block all sorts of content, take periodic screen captures, block the execution of programs, as well as all other sorts of ways to see just what the child is up to. Placing the computer in a public location can also be done as well, and the parent can also watch and observe what their child is doing. All methods listed above that are software-based can be defeated by a more tech-savvy child and, as such, are not sufficient with making your statement true in all cases should software be used. Moving a computer to a public location makes it less likely for someone to want to access something they shouldn't, but that does not mean it will work 100% of the time. The only surefire way to monitor a child's internet in a way where it is impossible for them to access content they shouldn't would be for the parent to hover over them at all times, which is unrealistic in many cases, especially if there are multiple children in the household or if the parent is a single parent who may not have the time to use the guaranteed method.

Within a game that is rated T, there is an expected responsibility of all players to assume the age of a random player can be as low as 13 years old, regardless of what the average age of the player base is. It is extremely irresponsible to advertise for age 18+ RP inside of a game rated T in PF, which is something players have direct access to extremely early in the game.

The responsibility of knowing who you are RPing with is on you and no one else. Should someone send something that is ERP to someone who is less than 18 years old, regardless of whether the minor told the truth about their age, the person who is an adult can be held accountable in court for sending sexual messages to a minor, as a minor lying about their age is not a defense against something like that.

[caffe_macchiato]

You're also somewhat prudish if you think a 13 year old is somehow being exploited/corrupted just by seeing a non-explicit ad for 18+ NSFW content. They see far more explicit content on TV, TikTok, the internet, etc. all the time.

If the 13 year old goes to that Discord, that's on the parent for not teaching their child better or monitoring their online activity.

No need to be embarrassed to tell people you play the game when this is common in any online activity. You probably should be more embarrassed that you're going out of your way to look at these PF listings in detail instead of just immediately skimming past them when you see they're not what you're looking for.

So true. If you ignore shout chat, Party Finder, tells, the RP community, the m*dding community, Crystal datacenter, and FFXIV players on every social media network, then this game is actually quite tame.

*opens brain*
*swaps microchip*

Just kidding, FFXIV is actually explicit...BUT, that's a good thing! If a dog humping someone's leg is considered acceptable, then why not people humping each other? It's educational, teaches children about the "birds and the bees", and gets adults in the mood to repopulate the planet! It's perfectly normal to have a game filled with that stuff so much that it becomes synonymous with it. Besides, what else is there to do in this game anyway?

[Nav_Fae]

Raising the game's rating to M wouldn't change anything. Look at how many kids play games like Call of Duty.
But assuming it did work, it would cause SE to lose sales because parents wouldn't be buying it as a distraction for their kids.
I think it was also an issue for their shareholders or something. I recall one live letter where Yoshi P was talking about mods and where they were on the brink of having to raise the game's rating because of user-made content, and if that were to happen, that's when SE would start exploring putting a stop to those mods. SE doesn't want to increase the age rating because it would hurt their marketing.

[LioJen]

What happened to "online interactions not rated"

[Nav_Fae]

What happened to "online interactions not rated"

Online interactions are not rated because they physically can't be rated. 'Online interactions not rated' isn't a substitute for "Rated A for adults" or anything else in-between. It more or less is the video game equivalent of "Viewer discretion is advised."

Also this:

[Xeronia]

What happened to "online interactions not rated"

You mean the warning that got changed to Users Interact which is on Mario Kart, Pokemon, Animal Crossing, and several other E and E10+ rated games? Please show me where there is an Endwalker listing where "Online interactions not rated" is in the warnings.

Here is the Steam version with ESRB listing as funny enough the SE store doesn't even have the two Interactive Elements listed:



Oh hey look Users Interact, a warning that is on literally anything with an internet connection.

As for Sexual Themes bear in mind the ESRB lists that warning as "References to sex or sexuality" while they have a Strong Sexual Themes warning which is "Explicit and/or frequent depictions of sexual behavior, possibly including nudity" so there is clear divide.

[TaleraRistain]

If I saw one that egregious I'd report it, but imma be honest, looking at "All" on Aether is like turning a firehose on your face so I almost never see these. I imagine that's true for a lot of others who don't frequent venues.

[Astrus]

That Community Influence clause is interesting and makes me wonder how a lot of games manage to keep their rating below M once they're popular enough to get picked up by certain - what's the word here, influencers, personalities? and their followers and/or certain communities while keeping really lax moderation standards.
If that's a valid criteria for ratings I certainly wonder how XIV keeps a T.

I still fail to see how the PF listing in the OP is in any way explicit on its own but the things a noticeable (as in visible/present, not neccessarily size) part of the community gets up to in the game could warrant an M rating as SE is quietly tolerating it by not doing anything to dissuade people. Is covering it with the ToS enough to protect the rating if the relevant parts of the ToS don't seem to get enforced?

I don't really follow ESRB ratings as it's not the system my country uses, have there been cases in the past where a game's rating (or maybe the rating for a new expansion for that game) was bumped up because of the game's community interactions?

[Asari5]

i've seen more of these topics than 'explicit pf's'

and no thats not an exaggeration.

[Ritsuka-55]

Ah yes, party finder for FFXIV, more like Tinder, Tik Tok, than a bloody game to play.

Such a sad state.