Square Enix does not care for the US players. Got perma banned for reporting bots [Feedback]

[Maris]

Before I begin this post, I wish to specify as a disclaimer. This is not a troll or a joke to me. I was legitimately permanently banned after not breaking any rules for years for simply reporting bots and trying to assist the GM team as I would see the same set of names for months botting and not being removed from the game. I am a Global Mentor on 2 different accounts and I am also a player moderator on Runescape. I am very compassionate about FF14 and other Square Enix games and as a player of seven years I wanted to discuss what I have learned and hopefully this reaches Naoki Yoshida himself. I ask that you keep all negative comments to yourself and only listen as what I learned greatly shows the neglect to US Western players of Final Fantasy 14. I can assure you, I was on recording and broke no such rules. They refused to look at a YouTube video as evidence. Let that be a consideration of how serious of a matter I took this as both personal and professional as a content creator and streamer. I might not be a big name, but that shouldn't matter.


I have played Square and Square Enix games for years. I have enjoyed the original Final Fantasy first several games, Kingdom Hearts, and even Deus Ex to name a few. Streamed them off and on for years. Square Enix makes great single player story based games where I been supporting the company my whole life of almost 30 years old.


For the first time in 30 years, I will finally stop supporting Square Enix, I will not stream any of their games, purchase them, play them, or pay for any services that would fund Square Enix after playing Final Fantasy 14 for 7 years. I learned about how it's online gaming experience is handled behind the scenes of which many North American players do not know. It's an awful and backward system to the Western US playerbase and I will explain it here and why I have decided to do so.

The reason I write this article is to help Naoki Yoshida, the director of Final Fantasy 14 understand a huge error in their system; a cultural international error. I'm an American player who was permanently banned from Final Fantasy 14 for reporting bot farms. You read that correct. Banned for trying to report bots. Appeal rejected. Wrongfully banned and I have it all on film. Even the bots in question, but for name shaming I will not state of course. but that isn't just what I wanted to discuss. It was my findings afterward while I was appealing.

Their reporting system is a nightmare even to their own North America Square Enix Supervisor of Customer Support, as they expressed to me for hours how tied their hands are and absolutely zero communication or information from gamemasters besides a Yes or No and in addition they need permission to speak on recording. It's a recorded line and I find it very strange that there isn't any transparency and even the supervisors must feel their job security at risk, but I say this. Why should it be at risk? He's just answering customer questions and concerns. I was put on hold 5 times for the supervisor just to get permission to speak to me. Very odd, but I am getting ahead of my self and completely skipped my introduction. My apologies for this. Allow me to give you insight on my experience aswell.

My name is Maris. I created with my friends a +300 member Free Company and we're one of the top Free Companies in Cactuar called "Dreams of Light" and I've also been a Global Mentor for quite awhile across 2 accounts. My other account is not suspended, but I will be halting that subscription after I post this as that character has many ultimate clears. As a player, I usually don't have much to do in the game as I have done everything across many characters. Instead, I help teach others in my FC to grow the confidence to not be daunted by harder content like Extremes and Savage and teach said fights till they become confident in joining farms alone even. In my free time I'll farm random things like fates, happy bunnys, or maps.

During that time, 99% of the time I run into bots in current content Endwalker zones, In Eureka, and even Full Party Bots that do full party maps. I figured this expansion would have been different and moderated better however since Asmongolds arrival to Cactuar the server I play on in 2021 of May last year, I have never been able to contact a GM with as many tickets as I have sent regarding many different issues. Even asking to speak to a GM in a support desk ticket, My tickets are closed without a response. This has been going on for over a year before Endwalker. I now learned why that is. Allow me to explain the cultural error and huge mistake that I firmly believe Square Enix, Naokida Yoshida, and the Japanese team made.

When a player outside Japan makes a report to the support desk for possibly someone swearing or griefing in a duty. You would think that ticket is handled on the spot by a GM in your region. Believe it or not, That isn't the case. Your report filed in game aswell as issues sent to any Square Enix support gets sent to the Japanese GM team. They and they alone make the decisions and unlike a court, You have yourself and the individual reported obtaining no information and it's completely unknown to you what you did wrong or how their punishment system even works. Meaning. If your an American player and you typed the ticket in English. A Japanese GM MUST TRANSLATE YOUR TICKET and send that information back to the American GM team who just follow their orders. The American GMs have no decisional authority of account actions and neither does any Square Enix employee for that matter.

This is a huge cultural international issue for account security and general customer protection. A simple example of culture difference is for people in Japan, It's kosher to pick your nose in public, but sneezing is offensive as it means someone is gossiping. In America, It's considered disgusting to pick your nose in public and ok to sneeze with a tissue. Culture differences are as simple as everyday actions. A Japanese GM of Square Enix. A person with a different culture that could possibly mistranslate or misunderstand the western difference could take things much differently as a result. Even the long periods of time it takes to respond to tickets now shows and gives you an understanding as to why getting a response takes too long.

■Months even and you have no idea if they even understood you correctly.■

I was surprised to learn all this. Even more surprised that a North American Square Enix Customer Support Supervisor needed permission to simply speak on a recorded line and tell me these things. A system never listed or mentioned to the western community. Square Enix and Naoki Yoshida's main issue is they never adjusted to the community Asmongold and other MMO streamers brought to the game from other MMO's like WoW. WoW is generally a game with open swearing and parsing. That is typical behavior of a WoW player. When that influx of people signed up to Final Fantasy 14 in 2021 of May to follow their favorite streamers, The GM team was quite non-existent as their was no adjustments made to policies that would have protected the new influx of customers. The policies I will talk about after, but the Aether datacenter which is the most common US played server is typically neglected in full with bots running rampant at off hours between 2am to 7am Eastern GMT-4 in many areas including current content. So much so that the marketboard prices are affected on Aether.

Lets take a look together at how unsecure a customer must feel playing the game as I certainly did and many others that did aswell. The linked article below takes us to a list of prohibited activities with many drop down examples from the official site.

https://support.na.square-enix.com/faqarticle.php?id=5382&la=1&kid=68216
Some of these are quite ridiculous. Here is an example of one:
・Expressions that attempt to unilaterally exclude someone from the game or content/community, etc.
(Except when in accordance with rules set by an administrator such as a Free Company Master)
"Let's ignore them."
"Let’s leave [person] out."
"Don't join if your equipment is that bad/such a low item level."

So having a guy in a PF join, Grief the party or throw essentially. Kicking them and telling the rest of the party to ignore them if they bother the other party members from outside the PF. That is against the rules and can result in having action taken against you. Even I wasn't aware of this ruling. So Free Company Masters can "break" rules others cannot? It's absurd and preposterous to think anyone in the western community could walk on egg-shells like these risking their whole account that they pour hundreds of hours into like any other MMO.

Lets now take a look at how punishments are handled and removed via their punish point system which is not describe to the playerbase. The link down below goes to that page.

https://support.na.square-enix.com/faqarticle.php?kid=68098&id=5382&la=1&ret=rule
Reduction of Penalty Points

"If the previously issued penalty was either a Caution or Warning, accrued Penalty Points will continue to decay until it reaches 0 points in a one-to-two-year period. However, if the previously issued penalty was a Temporary Service Account Suspension, then the accrued points will not start decaying until a minimum of a three to six-year period has passed and will not reach 0 points for a minimum of seven to ten years."

I am also a player moderator for Runescape. Which is why I typically report bots in the first place since Runescape is known for MMO botting. Jagex, The creators of Runescape use a blackmark system. They show the player how long till such things "decay" and even show the evidence with the individual who reported you. The entire chatlog with one exception. Their name is censored and yours isn't. Keeping to the same No Name Shaming policy Square Enix uses. Furthermore, Jagex typically takes harsher steps toward people continued harassing if they noticed the person from the censored text and can remember their name. A much better system than this "x to x years" system that isn't specified.

Typically Square Enix will call this "Feedback". Allow me to stop you right there.


The lack of Transparency to the Customers and even Square Enix' own Support team hurts because the needed tools aren't present. Square Enix' GM Team made changes to reward players, but still choose to not reveal any information to either its players or support team to properly assist players. It's very odd and makes absolutely no sense to do so. With a system like this, You could be banned for one thing and the reason was a totally different situation and any apology for human error. They don't care for that.

What happens when your account is suspended or terminated? Well. Last time I was suspended was 2 years ago for saying "♥♥♥♥ Ya!" in Prae. The game has a profanity filter that even if your words are censored can result in a ban and I was unaware that already censored words can result in a ban. News to me as my friend did the same thing in the same place and also got suspended. His words? "So what? I guess it's just better to not talk to protect my account then huh?" Even the customers/players of FF14 are afraid to speak. Such a draconian system is an insult to the Western world that plays FF14. The Japanese GMs should have no right to judge US players. The American GM Team should have a say, but they do not.

I was told by the Customer Support Supervisor that I could appeal older account actions with a chance to be unbanned, but the new question is how? I know I can check back in emails, but if the customer support team doesn't know why or what specific instance I was punished for previously and if its been years and I can't remember. How can I possibly appeal it with no information to go on? Keep in mind the GMs will punish you for stuff you did months ago and you won't know which thing you did. You can only guess.

As a customer of seven years breaking MMO addiction is extremely hard. Getting wrongfully banned by their Japanese GM team that neglected my video appeal, refused to view it, or translate it(Which they shouldn't have to, It's more obvious to let the US team handle it as the response is faster and more accurate to native language.) was probably the best thing that happened to me. Games that I previously called lame or boring as I didn't want to buy or try them. I can now play freely with no MMO addiction. Games like Elden Ring, I tried for the first time yesterday and REALLY enjoyed the online with my FC mates.

That being said, I hope what I had to say may influence Naoki Yoshida, The director of FF14 to make major changes needed to appeal to the western playerbase as we are neglected, but not just by rules and ingame help. A few months ago they did a EU Community Stream of which the US was again neglected and yet to taunt the players. All of Aether, The main US played datacenter all got the ingame message announcing the EU stream and that message was cross datacenter. We have never gotten a US Community Stream. Further showing neglect to the US players.

My ban for reporting bots... To make sure the information I send in is valid. How exactly is a player to define and identify bot activity? The most common way its done in any game is to try and contact that player. A private message or some kind of interaction. If no response and their character is doing things in some kind of automated fashion this is the usual way to catch and report bots. Is it not? /tell, sending a party invite, trade request, triple triad request. Anything that contacts the player regardless how the command acts. Any more than 1 attempt to contact even with apology results in punishment to the reporter. In this case me.

I am ashamed that Square Enix neglected the care of its online and banned me for simply trying to help. To punish customers trying to report cheating with valid evidence is both an atrocious and disrespectful act. Customer Support can see support desk tickets made ingame as I was told on the phone, if that information is wrong. I suppose another team can look at the neglect. I reported more than just bots. Harassers, foul mouths, rescue abuse into death, and hacking. I even had people threaten me outside and inside the game and SE did not take action as those individuals harassed my entire FC for months with everyone in my FC reporting them for bothering them and not leaving them alone. That said I had great personal joy even during the pandemic playing Final Fantasy 14. My support will now end unless huge changes happen otherwise. I have proof I am in the clear and the JP GMs refuse to see it because of Square Enix' neglect on both their policies, transparency, and lack of respect to the Aether.

[Oberon]

引用自 casuality：

Calling it a cultural issue is pretty insincere and childish. You said it's considered normalcy for Japanese people to pick their nose in public but I lived there for 2 years and have not once observed such behavior.

And the superstition about sneezing is that it means someone is talking about you. It's not considered "offensive".

[Maris]

Jump on the OP hating bandwagon for stating facts.

[Oberon]

引用自 Spamton G Backroom Salesmen：

引用自 The Mayor of Murder Town：

No, they can't.



What you were doing wasn't "simple communication."

No they cant. So you know a GM's job and can factually prove they can't look at a YouTube video on their phones while at their job?

Asking a player a question or 2 is simple communication. Spin it however you like.

Asking a player a question...and then sending them a party invite, trade invite, and TT challenge when they don't respond is harassment. It's what you got banned for.

[Princess Pilfer]

My guess:

OP harassed random people (probably Roegadyn with lore accurate names) to attempt to get them to prove that they weren't bots and when they didn't pay any attention OP reported them, and now OP is mad that OP got banned for being toxic and harassing people.


Like, news flash, people don't owe you their time. They don't owe you a response. Sending multiple invites or spamming tells after having your tell ignored doesn't make you a genius bot detector it makes you a jerk.

Moral of the story: Finding bots is not your job. Report (ONE TIME,) black list, move on. That's what everyone else does.

Edit for those of you who don't get the joke: Solkwyta Swozfyrmyn (I might be spelling the last name slightly wrong) might look like a bot hodgepodge of random nonsense but it means 'Blessed Water, Daughter of Sweet Plumb' and is a lore accurate name for a fem Roe.

[Kiana]

引用自 Spamton G Backroom Salesmen：

Jump on the OP hating bandwagon for stating facts.

Call out OP for dishonesty.

Weren't you going to go play Elden Ring? Yet here you are.

[Maris]

引用自 Kiana：

引用自 Spamton G Backroom Salesmen：

Jump on the OP hating bandwagon for stating facts.

Call out OP for dishonesty.

Weren't you going to go play Elden Ring? Yet here you are.

I am playing. Your mad cause you want to win an argument.

[Maris]

引用自 Princess Pilfer：

My guess:

OP harassed random people (probably Roegadyn with lore accurate names) to attempt to get them to prove that they weren't bots and when they didn't pay any attention OP reported them, and now OP is mad that OP got banned for being toxic and harassing people.

Like, news flash, people don't owe you their time. They don't owe you a response. Sending multiple invites or spamming tells after having your tell ignored doesn't make you a genius bot detector it makes you a jerk.

Moral of the story: Finding bots is not your job. Report (ONE TIME,) black list, move on. That's what everyone else does.

Why would you assume I would talk about Roes? I'm a lalafell main.

[pacman8030]

Actual bots aren't removed right away. They're flagging and removed during the next ban wave. That's to make it more difficult for bot creators to tell what set off the detection.

[Oberon]

引用自 Spamton G Backroom Salesmen：

引用自 Princess Pilfer：

My guess:

OP harassed random people (probably Roegadyn with lore accurate names) to attempt to get them to prove that they weren't bots and when they didn't pay any attention OP reported them, and now OP is mad that OP got banned for being toxic and harassing people.

Like, news flash, people don't owe you their time. They don't owe you a response. Sending multiple invites or spamming tells after having your tell ignored doesn't make you a genius bot detector it makes you a jerk.

Moral of the story: Finding bots is not your job. Report (ONE TIME,) black list, move on. That's what everyone else does.

Why would you assume I would talk about Roes?

He said you confused accurate Roegadyn name for bot named.

引用自 Spamton G Backroom Salesmen：

I'm a lalafell main.

What does that have to do with anything?

[Maris]

引用自 pacman8030：

Actual bots aren't removed right away. They're flagging and removed during the next ban wave. That's to make it more difficult for bot creators to tell what set off the detection.

Oh I know their banned in waves.

But so many waves pass after 5 months of the same bots in Eureka. I see posts about eureka happy bunny bot farms and fate farm bots all the time not just here.

[Oberon]

引用自 Spamton G Backroom Salesmen：

引用自 Kiana：

Call out OP for dishonesty.

Weren't you going to go play Elden Ring? Yet here you are.

I am playing. Your mad cause you want to win an argument.

You're responding an awful lot for someone playing a Soulsborne game...

[Kiana]

引用自 Spamton G Backroom Salesmen：

Your mad cause you want to win an argument.

Classic projection. More evidence for the "OP is a narcissist" pile.

[Seera1024]

引用自 Spamton G Backroom Salesmen：

引用自 Seera1024：

New players coming to games should read up on the rules of the game they are joining before assuming that chat rules are the same. Especially when said game companies are owned by companies in two countries with different cultures.

I knew going into the game that this isn't the game to throw around swear words in if there are strangers in the group. It's what you do among your friends and FC mates if they are cool with that sort of language.

Yea, I occasionally swear in voice chat when I succeed at something. But that's because the rules of the voice chat I'm in are different than the ones for in game chat. I follow the appropriate rules and adjust my word choice and behavior accordingly.

So you understand the cultural differences between different MMOs. SE reserves the right to what their policies should be, but to keep a new influx of players. What I am trying to point out is their lack of adjustments and transparency.

Discord itself is considered a third party tool and by that logic using it can result in a ban and ACT including, but we've never heard of anyone getting banned lately for it. Another example of non-transparency is bard player. In Aether is common to go to limsa and heard a bard playing megalovania. Wouldn't be a normal day of FF14 without it, but bard players a third party tool.

When I unlocked bard first time and I think anyone here also got this vibe that they were concerned about using bard player because they suck at midi keyboards or any attempts at playing without it.

Their current policies seem to be working for them, though, with regards to moderation.

Apparently you don't if you claim that SE needs to adjust their policies. Different MMO. Different culture. Different rules. Just because an MMO collapsed on itself and many players came to FFXIV doesn't mean that FFXIV needs to adopt that collapsed MMO's culture or policies.

Because bans for ACT tend to be bans for bad behavior as that's easier to prove than mod usage. Any tool that doesn't directly modify or look at the game code or modify the game in any way, even visually, is a very very grey area of code and would be a very very bad PR stunt to start banning people for.

Bard songs: again comes down to can you prove it.

SE has stated multiple times that they can't put anything in the game to track that without violating laws. Remember that laws could vary depending on if the company is Japanese or international with regards to such OR games may have different official versions for countries with stricter laws. Where if they got the non-official one for their country and then complained the company could argue that the player went out of their way to find the version with that tracking on it.

[The Grimm Reefer]

Perma banned? Like, they skipped over warnings and temp bans? I think you probably got exactly what you deserved. You're probably like that random player once in residential area... I had been there for hours and clicked a skill. Omg the person went nuts, talked about I was greifing them and they were going to report me. Get me banned, had their FC buddies show up and go uber victim on me....


SO I cast another skill naturally. They went full morons talking about videos and streaming and they got me. I wonder how dumb they felt when they were most likely given instructions on how to turn off other player effects. . .

Ah, the memories.

[Sel Und Irae]

引用自 Grim Reefer：

Perma banned? Like, they skipped over warnings and temp bans? I think you probably got exactly what you deserved. You're probably like that random player once in residential area... I had been there for hours and clicked a skill. Omg the person went nuts, talked about I was greifing them and they were going to report me. Get me banned, had their FC buddies show up and go uber victim on me....


SO I cast another skill naturally. They went full morons talking about videos and streaming and they got me. I wonder how dumb they felt when they were most likely given instructions on how to turn off other player effects. . .

Ah, the memories.

Nothing better than ruining a streamers or youtubers video by spamming AoE's
Lmfao