Microsoft has allegedly been banning Final Fantasy 14 players who use the phrase “free company”. In the game, a free company is a player-operated organisation, similar to a guild in other online titles. Players can only be a member of one free company at a time, with each limited to 512 members. As well as the community aspect of being part of a free company, members get access to shared rewards, group buffs and company housing. To help the system, Square Enix has created an official community finder tool, which helps players find and join the free company of their choosing via Final Fantasy 14’s messenger service.
Several Xbox players have also utilised the Looking For Group section of the official message boards to find a free company since the game came to the platform last month. However, this has resulted in month-long bans. Taking to Reddit, one user wrote, “I am an Xbox player here and I have just gotten banned by Xbox because they believe that ‘Free Company’ is solicitation. I filed an appeal and that got denied. I have no idea what else to do.” Another player reportedly got banned for a similar post, while others have pointed out that Microsoft’s “aggressive” word filter is even blocking phrases like “harvest dance” due to the letters s,t and d appearing consecutively.
Earlier this year, Baldur’s Gate 3 players were also caught out by Microsoft’s auto-moderation tools. Several Xbox players were banned after captured NSFW clips were automatically uploaded to public servers, with Larian Studios’ director of publishing Michael Douse calling the whole affair “annoying and uncool”. Microsoft eventually started rolling back the bans after facing pressure from Larian.
Meanwhile, Pokémon has won April Fools’ day 2024 by announcing a Champion Tournament for Sleep
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