Square Enix has announced a new group customer harassment policy to protect its employees from online and real-world harassment. It announced this via a blog post in Japanese and English, which you can read here.
In the article, it acknowledges that while player feedback is important, some people's behavior goes far beyond that line and risks hostile action. The company said these actions “not only prevent our employees and partners from participating in their work with a sense of security, but also cause disruption to other customers” and that it will not tolerate such behavior.
iGamesNews
To combat such behavior, Square Enix said it reserves the right to stop providing services to individuals who violate these guidelines and, in “egregious” cases, reserves the right to take legal action against those who commit such behavior.
Examples of harassment provided by Square Enix in this policy include acts of violence or violence, defamation, intrusion, unlawful restrictions (including via phone calls and online inquiries), discriminatory conduct, and more. Square Enix also cited examples of improper conduct, including unreasonable changes or exchanges of products or requests for monetary compensation, unreasonable requests for responses or apologies, excessive demands for products and services, and unreasonable and excessive demands for punishment of employees.
This policy, originally written and published in Japanese, applies to Square Enix employees around the world. This type of behavior seems to be particularly common, especially on social media. Square Enix staff have been in this situation before, and last year FF14 director Naoki Yoshida asked fans to stop attacking voice actor Uk Ramat and the localization team.
This is an important stance taken by Square Enix and should be reassuring to those working at the company who are concerned that they are subject to this type of harassment. Please tell us below what you think of this and what you think of the policy – does it go far enough?
