Man arrested for stalking Final Fantasy XIV player and following her in-game

Police in Japan have arrested a 38-year-old man for allegedly stalking a Final Fantasy XIV he met in-game and following her around the MMORPG.

Online games can be a great way to make friends that last a lifetime, but one Final Fantasy XIV player has shown that the opposite can be true after disturbing allegations surfaced.

According to a report from AnimeNewsNetwork, police in Tokyo arrested a man on Tuesday after a series of stalking incidents occurred earlier this year, both in and out of FFXIV.

Tarumi station police say that the 38-year-old met the 28-year-old victim in the popular Square Enix MMO back in 2019, but things soon took a drastic turn when the two began sending messages to each other on social media.

Man accused of stalking female Final Fantasy XIV player

Sometime after the two had met in-game and exchanged messages, the woman cut off communication. Although the man had now been blocked on social media platforms such as X, formerly known as Twitter, that didn’t stop him from finding new ways to harass the victim.

The Japanese police say the man then began following the woman’s character around in-game with his own character without permission and sending her multiple threatening messages.

From March 20 to May 16 of 2023, the man is accused of sending a whopping 22 DMs asking her to speak with him. He even went as far as to blackmail her, saying that if she didn’t comply, he would reveal their past private conversations to her family.

Investigators say the man denies having any “romantic feelings” toward the 28-year-old. While he denies some of the allegations made against him, the authorities believe his actions are in violation of Japan’s Anti-Stalking Control Law.

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