Online Bullying - A Dev request for a response and discussion

[Fyrebrand]

To be fair it's not up to the players to sort this, in fact you can't solve it.

It's up to the players to report such violation, thus making it easier/possible for a GM to become aware of problematic individuals. It's like a forum moderator -- they do what they can to be aware of what's going on, but they can't possibly be everywhere at once. When they receive reports from users, it is like a beacon saying "Hey, you might want to look into this." This can be a crucial tool for identifying and taking action against violations which might have otherwise flown under the radar.

SE makes it clear, they don't want you to behave like this. BUT they aren't doing much if not anything about it when people do this. Thus it's tolerated by SE and you have no leg to stand on. You can harass people in A realm reborn simple as that.

Um... no. Do you think that when a GM receives a harassment report from a player, they just ignore it and toss it in the trash? Do you think if a GM received a report of an incident like the OP linked to in this thread -- with massive amounts of cursing, racial slurs, antagonistic behaviour, insults, telling them to kill themselves, etc. -- the GM would just let it slide? I understand the temptation to be cynical when some cases aren't given due attention, but to say they "aren't doing much if not anything" and "you can harass people in ARR" is a pretty ridiculous assumption. Do you work at Square Enix as a GM? Your statements aren't based on anything but your own personal guesses, and directly contradict the game's official Terms of Service and the Account Penalty Policy.

There are solutions for this, some have been brought up with Yoshi. His response is 'leave or ignore'. Which means he puts the responsibility on you instead of taking it as a company. Mean while you/me and any one else can pretty much say what ever they want. Since if you don't leave or ignore it is your own fault.

Again, not really sure what you are basing your position on, but it almost doesn't matter. People can quote-mine Yoshi P and interpret his translated Japanese comments to mean just about anything they like. My guess is that "leave and ignore" was meant as something to include in how you deal with bullies/harassment, but not necessarily the only action to take. And again, I will remind you that they do have a detailed player reporting system in place. They ask for the server, time, location, player name, and a brief description of what happened. You send that off, and it goes to a GM whose job it is to deal with such incidents and act on them as per SE's policy.
It may be true that harassment, rudeness, spammers, bots, or whatever MMO problem, will never completely disappear. That does not mean that the problem can't be greatly reduced/minimized with appropriate vigilance and action. People do get suspended/banned in every MMO. I'll remind you, FFXIV is barely a week old and SE is still reeling from a higher volume of players than they expected. Give them time to get a handle on things and bolster their infrastructure. In the mean time, putting your faith in baseless generalizations like "You can harass people in A realm reborn simple as that" may lead you down a road you won't like.

I will never hesitate to tell someone they flat-out suck. I'll be mean about it, too, if it gets my point across.

I don't know what compels you to think telling people they "suck," or being mean about it, gets you "point" across. "You are playing poorly" or "I don't like what you're doing" is not a point. It's just ranting, emotional noise. If you think they should be doing something differently, tell them what they should be doing. Turning it into an opportunity to lash out and start a fight is not going to improve the situation for anyone in the party, and the more you upset/antagonize your teammates the less enthused they will be about continuing to play with you. The best response you can hope for is that they will simply leave.

"wtf u doin nub u suck use Flash ffs" is not constructive criticism. Most of it is juvenile nonsense, with the only informational content being the word "Flash." Cut out the other garbage, and maybe your team's success has a chance at heading in an upward direction. But hey, if you want to just throw a fit and vent to strangers on the internet, you can do that too.

[EmiliM]

I haven't read through every single response but I'm assuming somewhere along the 30 pages of posts it devolved into a complete mess so making another argument won't mean much now.

Instead, I'm just going to call on the devs to publish a clear guideline on what players should do when they encounter situations described in the OP's post. The forums are currently flooded with posts about "questionable" behaviors during ID runs when matched with strangers through DF. Whether the behavior in question involves immature language or players who like to dictate how others should play their game, it's prevalent enough that we need an official response and an effective tool to deal with it.

I personally couldn't care less for abusive players and whatever they say or do means nothing to me. But I would not want to wake up one day to hear on the news that yet another teenager had killed him/herself, this time because of something that happened in an online game called Final Fantasy XIV.

[Soniccus]

All the people on these forums so against this are probably the same people complained about in game.

[Datu]

SE needs to do something about this griefing and trolling in game. If they make DF server only, it is the step in the right direction. People will behave more because they will feel the repercussions of the d'baggery.

[Qeepel]

Hello everyone,

As a note, please keep in mind that images containing profanity and inappropriate language may be considered a violation of the forum guidelines. This also applies to quoting inappropriate text, even though you did not write it.

Thank you for understanding.

-SQUARE ENIX MODERATOR

[coffeepotz]

If a player is playing poorly, they should be told There is a proper, adult way of doing so. The OP's example is non of these things. It sounds to me like this person has a severe anger problem. They crossed the line of what is acceptable, and it should not be tolerated. I hope they are reported and the proper measures taken.

People saying "just leave the group. Grow a pair." etc are not helping. That player will continue to treat others in the same fashion. I agree with not taking those words to heart, but some are not as strong-minded. They will take it to heart. And I would hate to see someone leave this game and shun this community because of the ill mannered people within it. As a community we should do our best to insure that others are accepted here. We are better than this. We are all here to enjoy the beautiful world of FFXIV. We do not have to stand for the gross verbal abuse of players. Our community may never be perfect, but we can work to make it the best it can be.

[Lugosi]

All the people on these forums so against this are probably the same people complained about in game.

What's your point? A lot of us aren't, we are just decent human beings standing up for what's right. I usually play healer in mmo's and can most definitely hold my own. Anyone talks to me like this would be sitting in the que waiting for another healer.

Even if all the people complaining on the forums are the ones doing bad in dungeons it still doesn't make the person throwing around racial slurs any less of a douche-bag.

[KonaZumi]

Hello everyone,

As a note, please keep in mind that images containing profanity and inappropriate language may be considered a violation of the forum guidelines. This also applies to quoting inappropriate text, even though you did not write it.

Thank you for understanding.

-SQUARE ENIX MODERATOR

If you guys were more proactive about stopping it in game, people wouldnt feel the need to come to the forums about it....

I get that you guys are overworked, but this is a problem that needs to be nipped in the bud, before it starts to completely over take the game as a whole....

[lyse20]

saying the N word = ticket or prison in Norway
telling someone to kill them self = bad behavior on any way you look at it and should be kick able.
faggot, noob, idiot ect = bad behavior but something you should handle(to a point)
Trolls = KICK/BAN

just so sum up that picture he should have been kicked from party the dev should have done something to his account. a warning or a Time ban
its ok to be mad if the party wipe but suck it up or leav dont continue with point out who made the mistake.
i play on Japanese servers and all apologies(specially the tank). I even take the blame(healer) for the wipe but nobody gets mad for it.

i have seen many peopl getting mad in MMO but most just suck it up but others get kicked out due to behavior(or leav them self)

[Aesthphron]

Hello everyone,

I'd like to remind everyone to please refrain from making inflammatory comments towards others and off topic discussions. Such language and actions are considered a violation of the forum guidelines, and can result in the termination of your account.

Remember, everyone is entitled to their opinion. There is no need to make inflammatory comments towards other members that have opposing or different points of views or opinions. The same goes for those who feel the need to defend themselves against such comments, which is needless and futile. Such behavior is not constructive and only clutters the thread. If you have a problem with a post, please place the player on your ignore list and report the post if necessary.

Thank you.

-SQUARE ENIX MODERATOR