Re: Regarding the Use of Third-Party Programs and Player Safety

[KairiElise]

I'm just gonna put down some thoughts I have regarding this whole situation with the stalking/harassment third party program via the marketboard and SE's downright failure with the blacklisting system. Personally I believe something as malicious as this (player scope) was only going to happen in a matter of time. I've seen so many threads made on here and reddit from players who have voiced their terrible experiences with stalking and targeted harassment by other crazy players who go to extreme lengths to make their gaming life miserable. I've also seen some of these people downplayed by some in the community, ignored, made a mockery of or silenced in general. It's a shame that it took something as awful as this for others to realize the dangers of what these bad actors are capable of. Not only to current victims, but potentially yourself. The person who made this plugin clearly only has malicious goals and anyone that downloads it certainly does too. FFXIV is no longer a safe place when it comes to privacy. Any alts you made to escape, retainers you didn't want known, your location, everything is compromised because of it. So how can anyone have a peace of mind playing your game SE when our privacy is undermined? Why did it take so long for you to fix the blacklist only for you to completely bomb it by putting it on the client side not the server side? There are so many ways this whole thing could of been handled better.

And with that said, I'd like to add some ways I think would combat this. I played a bit of XI back in the day. I liked how the Auction House worked. Essentially, it was the marketboard for XI. Instead of retainers, you sold everything you picked up or made in game through that. You'd set your price and wait for a sale. Once the sale was made you'd go back and check in with the Auction House to see what sold or go to your Mog Home to check your Mail to obtain your gil. Players wouldn't know who they were buying from or who they were selling to until the end of the transaction in the selling history. And it didn't matter where you sold it from, Sandoria, Windurst, Bastok etc because everything was done via the Auction House not by retainer. Your location did not matter. I think SE should follow this outline now that this has happened. Retainers can still function as storage units, but they no longer can sell your items nor do they have your crafted signatures. (1/2)

[KairiElise]

XI also had an anonymous feature and those that played can correct me if I am wrong but putting in /anon privated your info from searches while in game. It made you appear as a ??? when people examined you. I think this feature could help alleviate stalking. If updated and applied to this game, the blacklisted players could no longer search you through player search in game, tomestone, fflogs or whatever other websites that stalkers use as tools to find you. You would be completely invisible to the account holder and any of their alts. You would have control over your privacy and be free of those that have bad intent and essentially making this plugin useless. (2/2)

[Collin_Sky]

XI also had an anonymous feature and those that played can correct me if I am wrong but putting in /anon privated your info from searches while in game. It made you appear as a ??? when people examined you. I think this feature could help alleviate stalking. If updated and applied to this game, the blacklisted players could no longer search you through player search in game, tomestone, fflogs or whatever other websites that stalkers use as tools to find you. You would be completely invisible to the account holder and any of their alts. You would have control over your privacy and be free of those that have bad intent and essentially making this plugin useless. (2/2)

All that did was hide your current job/subjob and level. It did nothing to prevent stalking.

[KairiElise]

All that did was hide your current job/subjob and level. It did nothing to prevent stalking.

More incentive then for them to update it to here and make changes accordingly so it does help prevent stalking. It can hide everything. Job, Name, Location, FC.