I don't much care if you think roleplaying is stupid or you just don't get it. There is a sizable group of roleplayers in ESO and ZOS has repeatedly stated that they support this. I've seen GMs in the past show up to remove players who were trolling an RP event. And when I myself am getting trolled for roleplaying I will ask people once, politely, to stop. And sometimes what they are doing IS pretty funny and we all get a laugh out of it and then they move on and everything is fine. So it's not that I'm all that thin skinned. Yet despite warnings that player harassment of other players WOULD get worse with the switch to B2P ZOS seems not to have felt that greater GM presence is warranted. Nor have they taken any other steps to reduce harassment.

Last night members of my guild held an in-character funeral for another player character. Were we truly sad or upset? Not at all. It was just part of a story arc that has been going on in our guild for some time. So no, I'm not about to cry about some mean disrespectful person daring to dishonor our pixel dead. LOL The context of the roleplay isn't all that import, what is, is that we instantly had a guy dancing in his perma-underwear in our faces throughout the event and bragging about how he "loves to do this to roleplayers" who are, of course, "ridiculous" and "stupid." So while he was providing me with ample fodder I was reporting him with screenshots. But unlike past events, and believe me, this went on for quite awhile, no GM showed up to deal with the problem. Indeed at one point we thought he had finally gotten bored and gone away but nope, he had just gone to get some friends to join his little party. Further shenanigans ensured and were also reported with screenshots. FINALLY they did get bored and wander off. Probably because the entire event was held in group chat rather than spatial /emote or /say exactly so as to give less food to the trolls.

About an hour later a GM did contact me, apologized for not being able to do anything about the incident while it was happening, and was very professional and polite. I have absolutely NO beef with this GM. He or she was great. I also believed them when they said they'd go over the logs. And while they, of course, cannot tell me what, if any, action they will take against that player I am nevertheless fairly certain he'll receive some form of censure. Sadly, none of that changes the fact that this jerk was allowed to pretty much ruin what would otherwise have been a cool event.

THIS is why we need more GMs, player and guild housing, and empty instances of places you can take groups into. Any ONE of those things would come close to eliminating the problem of the continual player harassment that goes on in this game and that is made possible by the fact that any bratty twelve year old can now play this game by just badgering mom and dad once rather than on a monthly basis. We told you this would happen ZOS. I'd kind of like to know what your plans are for dealing with it.

Addendum: I've also been informed that there ARE games where placing a character on ignore will not only remove their chat, it will remove the character themselves from your view and it will be, to you, as if they no longer exist. This would be AMAZING. Please ZOS, I am begging you, figure out how to do this and implement it ASAP.

Further Addendum: ... There is nothing "fictional" about players harassing and cyber-bullying other players. Nor are the players engaging in that kind of disruptive and oftentimes outright hateful behavior in any way engaging in roleplaying. Further, while roleplayers are OFTEN victims of such player harassment, the fact remains that these "bad actors" do not "just" confine themselves to hunting down RP events to grief but often engage in harassment of other players in many other contexts as well. This post is NOT about roleplaying. It IS about player harassment and the request for ZOS to provide ALL players with the tools to deal with this on their own rather than relying on GMs who are being rendered ineffectual due to being stretched too thin.

[Moderator Note: Edited per our rules on Discussing Moderation Actions]