Summary
In Japan, a man was incarcerated for stalking a woman through multiple means, withFinal Fantasy 14being one of them. Stalking is a horrendous crimethat sadly multiple gamers have had to deal within the past.
After a critically and financially poor debut in 2010,Final Fantasy 14was heavily revised and relaunched in 2013 with the subtitleA Realm Rebornto a much more positive reception. Even ten years and two mainline games later, this entry is still heavily supported by Square Enix, with four (soon to be five) expansion campaigns and countless smaller updates coming out to this day. An MMORPG, this title places a heavy emphasis on playing online with countless other players and utilizing teamwork. It wasn’t until a very recent update whenFinal Fantasy 14’s story became beatable as a single-player experience, although it still requires an internet connection at all times.
Being a game of this genre means there are plenty of opportunities for players to approach and talk to each other from all over the world, which means, unfortunately, there’s ample room for stalking. Kobe News reports (as translated by Siliconera and verified by IGN) a 38-year-old man in Tokyo, Japan was arrested on October 17 for stalking a woman ten years his junior through multiple outlets, includingFinal Fantasy 14. Reportedly, his character followed hers around and incessantly messaged her, despite her repeatedly telling him not to and blocking him. The messages were threatening and abusive in nature, involving him demanding the woman’s attention lest he tell her family about their past interactions.
It is not clear how much of the stalking took place withinthe everlastingFinal Fantasy 14, as similar behavior reportedly also took place across various social media outlets such as Line and Twitter, via direct messaging. Upon arrest, the man denied some of the charges leveled against him, claiming that his actions were not carried out with romantic intent, but that doesn’t change the fact that what he did goes against Japan’s Anti-Stalking Control Law. His identity was not disclosed by sources, nor was the victim’s.
It’s fortunate for everyone that the situation did not escalate any further, and that the woman is now safe from her harasser. Harassment is prohibited onFinal Fantasy 14’s servers, but the story does not suggest that any in-game penalties were handed out. Withother online-heavy games having been accused of not protecting players enough, perhaps it’s time for a discussion regarding stricter online video game server moderation.
Final Fantasy 14is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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