Thread: SE's inability to protect players from stalking/harassment

Lets talk about Square Enix's inability to keep players safe in-game. First, I'd like to bring up the blacklist system- WHAT A JOKE. The only thing this feature does is block direct messages from the other player; This does NOT however remove them from the Player Search. Should you type in the name of the blacklisted player into the player search, you'll notice that you can A.Still see their location, B.See which FC they are connected to and it's location. Additionally, players can still view each other via the lodestone. Name changes do not prevent further stalking, as this player can simply type in your old name into the lodestone and recent changes can still be observed via the previous alias. Though not on my list, but still worth mentioning- even if players have been blacklisted, they can still stalk you in character and communicate to you through message books. The blacklist feature is literally useless.
Now, let's talk about the friend list. In-game, when a player removes another player from their friend list, the player removing said person will still be on THEIR friends list. Even if you blacklist a player after deleting them, they will STILL be able to see you on their list and use your name as a means of teleporting directly to your location (should you be at your personal home, apartment, or free company.)
Furthermore on this matter, let's look at what happens when we EB (Eternal Bond) to another player and things go sour. Even if one player deletes their ring, if their previous partner still has their ring, they can use this to teleport directly to you every 30mins. Their ring is not destroyed and they will still have full use of it.
Now, SE claims to take stalking and harassment seriously, but based on these observations and my own experiences with having a stalker for the past YEAR, SE has done absolutely nothing to prevent this despite REPORT after REPORT after REPORT for: stalking me zone to zone, stalking me at my personal apartment and FC- Creating alts with similar names as my own character or my own alts. Messaging in my personal estate books, emoting, and just general harassment. I have reported this user nearly 100 times over this past year and I'm disgusted by SE's automated GM responses that have done absolutely no justice for this players deeds. This originally started with another player. She was stalking them which resulted in them quitting the game. Since then, she has been stalking me.
When googling online about harassment in FFXIV, it's sad to see that many other players who are also experiencing similar problems are not finding relief from reporting in-game to GM's. Many of these players either quit the game or had to move data centers.

PROOF of the harassment/stalking & that the person, who has now revealed themself as my stalker, is a liar and a manipulator:

https://imgur.com/a/1x7SzeY

https://imgur.com/a/UKbln71

Originally Posted by Edax

I'm afraid the forums are kaput. I doubt any kind of reform can happen here.

No worries, I have posted on other sites as well and will continue to advocate for this cause until SE takes notice of their flaws in their privacy system. I'll write to game articles and journals for as long as it takes SE to get their Shxt together. I've been stalked for an entire year and after ignoring this player, I've had enough. It is my hope that slowly, if not rapidly, other players will join me and share their experiences with problems they've had with stalking and privacy in FFXIV- whether its on this site or another. Cash me outside.

I never did understand why after you delete people from your friends list, you are still on theirs. That should be fixed. The same thing with the eternal bond issue as I just recently found this out myself. Players can also type your old names into Google and your new name will appear with your lodestone page data. Not sure if SE can do anything about this or if the issue is on Google's end but I did have someone find me after I switched worlds and names using this method. I guess this could be solved by giving people the ability to have their lodestone page private.I have also been put into duties via roullete with people that I have blacklisted specifically a healer that was purposely rescueing people into Aoes to get a kick out of it. I understand your frustrations as someone who was harrassed myself by an individual in say and shout chat. They even created macros to say they were spitting, farting, vomiting, bitch slapping,doxing me etc. It was extremely childish and sad. I blacklisted them so I could no longer see it, but they just use the above method to create an alt , search you up and do it again. Also report after report didn't work at all apparently as they still continued on everyday. I want to add that nothing they did bothered me in the least, but the fact that it was able to continue unchecked is disturbing.

Originally Posted by SweetestLily

I never did understand why after you delete people from your friends list, you are still on theirs. That should be fixed. The same thing with the eternal bond issue as I just recently found this out myself. Players can also type your old names into Google and your new name will appear with your lodestone page data. Not sure if SE can do anything about this or if the issue is on Google's end but I did have someone find me after I switched worlds and names using this method. I guess this could be solved by giving people the ability to have their lodestone page private.I have also been put into duties via roullete with people that I have blacklisted specifically a healer that was purposely rescueing people into Aoes to get a kick out of it. I understand your frustrations as someone who was harrassed myself by an individual in say and shout chat. They even created macros to say they were spitting, farting, vomiting, bitch slapping,doxing me etc. It was extremely childish and sad. I blacklisted them so I could no longer see it, but they just use the above method to create an alt , search you up and do it again. Also report after report didn't work at all apparently as they still continued on everyday. I want to add that nothing they did bothered me in the least, but the fact that it was able to continue unchecked is disturbing.

Thanks for your response, that being said, I'm very sorry that you had to put up with that. I am also very disturb for how long my stalker has gone unchecked, but this is me checking them and checking SE. I hope that they will see your response and many others and finally do something to end all that. I would LOVE if the lodestone could become private by choice! I think it'd also be great if they would remove blacklisted players (or yourself when you've blacklisted someone) from the player search. Thank you for sharing your response.

This kind of stuff was happening to an FC member. That player got a temp ban and now a permanent ban.

Just being in the same zone or near you. Will not reward a ban, They have to be doing something. Chating spamming emotes.
But all SE has to go on are the logs. and being in the same zone doesn't mean they are interacting with you.
SE does care and does take action.