What Constitutes an "Inappropriate" Name?

i dont think its right to ban someone for making a name ".... has A I DS" and i do feel sorry for you and the ban. if the reason anet banned you was cause you, or a "char name" is publizing you have aids, then i want magic johnson and every other douchebag banned from the media for going public with their aids problem.

the only time i ever care if you have aids if i am going to get into bed with you, could care less otherwise.

Well actually it is, in this context.

Also I was referring to the posters "Grow up".

Hahaha I can just imagine the cognitive effort you made to think up that retard name and then getting worked up enough over the ban to make an indignant post here. Too funny and the irony is layered so thick it's unreal. LOL

Enjoy your ban! Here's an idea to spend your time: Maybe you could go stand on the street corner and tell random people "Hey I'm Snype and I have AIDS!". Should be a laugh.
[skill]Skull Crack[/skill]

You cant take that the fact that most people who are defending the OP or following the reasoning of that people who are offended are just trying to take the moral high ground? Because thats what its coming too. Good work, on trying to be the superior one, of being "mature", because the OP has got a good point, if you fail to see it, then I feel sorry for you.

I have a character named Odg Si Eadd, an anagram for 'god is dead'. Does that offend you?

Being mature is knowing that some words can be hurtful to others and having the maturity not to use them.

The G letter on its own is banned :/

I wanted to name my character Roy G Biv but ANet were having none of it. I don't even see how G-String could in any way be construed to be offensive.

The word 'is', very offensive. Don't use it.

Some people have a taboo on speaking the name of recently dead or any word which sounds like their name. Should we stop saying these words becasue we're breaking a taboo?

I'm sure lots of peoples names spell something else if you swap all the letters round

And no it doesn't offend me but i can see your an ass now if this was deliberate as names that you have to ask "Does this offend you?" are clearly designed to offend as many people as you can manage

If I named my character "A I D S Is Fun", I wouldn't be posting here. The use of the word was in no way offensive, hurtful, or racially targeted at any group or minority. The ban was unjustified in the context of THEIR OWN User Agreement.

First of all ANET can decide what they consider offensive, period, case closed.
If people don't have the common sense or the cognitive ability to realize what is acceptable I feel sorry for their handicap.

Wow what a totally bizzare thread.

It seems obvious to me that while some do not get offended or otherwise by the name and others do the terms set out in the Rules of Conduct have been violated.

rule 1 states that "you may not... cause distress... to other players"

The use of the name obviously causes distress to some others.

rule 3 states "You may not use... harmful... language."

the term used in this manner can be said to cause mental harm by being distressing, therefore it also breaks this rule


Now in the Terms of agreement it quite specifically says what the consequences of this are in

Rule 14 "NC Interactive reserves the right to suspend or terminate this Agreement... immediately and without notice if you... upon game play, chat or any player activity whatsoever which is, in our sole discretion, inappropriate and/or in violation of the spirit of the Game(s) as described in the Rules of Conduct.

Should NC Interactive decide to suspend or terminate this Agreement with a User under any circumstances, the User will lose access to your Account."



With these in mind when you look at the disciplinary process in the guild Wars conduct breaches and outcomes the specific measures taken by anet are outlined in detail
the basic details state

"We do not issue warnings; the first mark, with its temporary account suspension, is considered a form of warning, and should be accepted as such by the player."

and

"The suspension periods are designed to be effective and fair. The first mark results in a relatively brief suspension; players who slip up once in a great while will not suffer dire consequences. The suspension periods do scale up, though, in order to better handle those players who are in regular breach of the Rules of Conduct. For them, the account marks can add up to weeks of suspension."

With regard to naming infractions it simply states that

"For unacceptable character names, a mark will be placed against the account and the character will be blocked. This means that the character and all the inventory items and attainments associated with it will be inaccessible until the character has been renamed. The account will also receive a mark, and therefore will be inaccessible for whatever period of time is called for within the escalating suspension system."


With all this in mind it is therefore not unreasonable what happened to Snype, the rules state that he got what he deserved. A temporary ban, a requirment to change the name, all for the breaking of Anets rules.


Whether or not some of us feel the name is unoffensive or not is irrelevant to the original post, all it takes is for one member to bring a name they find offensive to Anets attention and they will then determin if they think it is breaking the rules, this name is obviously goign to upset some people, Anet agrres with that and have done the required action with the rules everyone agreed to.

We must keep in mind that the intention of the OP here is irrelevant too, whetehr it was a joke, whether he intended to upset people, or if he was even ignorant of any offense that could be caused by the term.

This is a multicultural game and what is offensive in one country may not be in another, or even realised, some terms will be brought to light by people reporting it and Anet will have to act upon it. I may name a charact somethign that is inoffensive here in Scotland, but in Japan it may cause extreme offense, if this is reported as unintentional as it may have been the action is for anet to temp ban my account and enforce a name change, I may not like it, but I agreed to it when i bought the game and started playing it.

Oh and unfortunatley after looking at the rules i noted that copyright infringement is not allowed so the use of the name Bagpuss would not be allowed under that, probably someone reported it, so maybe it is not offensive or vulgar just breach of copyright that caused it to be removed.

On that note i may be looking at some suspension myself as some of my characters are based on characters from books lol, and i have no idea if they are copyrighted

Perhaps whoever reported him had the perception that he was mocking someone who actually did have HIV/AIDS, and therefor had the morale decency to report them.

Tbh, I think this is the only way you can actually deem the OP's name offensive, and really in itself I don't see how he can be banned when his name is pertaining to himself. But there is no way Anet could have known that.

P.S.: For all those people saying cry less, how exactly are you contributing to the thread other than trolling around?

Just what constitutes distress? If I had a name that was an elaborate insult in a foreign language that no-one who plays GW speaks is that insulting? If I told someone to diaf when they didn't know what it stood for is that causing distress?

EDIT: Cass-your character names are insulting to me. Cassandra was a victim of rape. I demand you change them.

bold 1! IN OUR SOLE DISCRETION aka they looked at your name said nah no good BAN HAMMER sucks for you but honestly... The names offensive... duh? you knew that when you made it...

bold 2! ANet decided you were breaking the rules... so lets see ANEt has final say, ANet says you broke the rules.

How come you made a thread again? looks pretty black and white to me =/

^_~ books are copyright to their authors as are all characters and that character's likeness the name "Lord Voldemort" would now be copyright infringement

It might not at the time, but if they were to Google it and find the meaning maybe it would. There are enough names available that are not offensive, why try and push the envelope? I think some people just try to see what they can get away with.

This logic fails.

The previous post was the only one i made in this thread, previous to this one obviously

This is not right actually, I could for example name a character Captain Nemo as twenty thousand Leagues under the sea is not covered by copyright law, amongst many other books too.

"works granted such right by law on or after January 1, 1978, are protected for the lifetime of the author or creator and for a period of 50 years after his or her death." quoted from Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) but further "in the UK, since 1996, the period is 70 years after the creator's death (previously, 50); in the USA, since 1978, the period is 50 years for most works (previously 28, once renewable)" quoted from Crystal Reference Encyclopedia

most contries have adhered to an international copyright law similar to these, though china dosnt appear to. Once this runs out the material is publicaly owned, many of the books I have are not covered by copyright

Ick I worded badly was using you post cause you made valid point but was posting to OP

naturally I assumed since you mentioned you might be violation copyright laws that your char names came from books that would be copyrighted atm

If we spent our time worrying what other people might get offended over, nothing would ever be accomplished. There are some people bound and determined to get upset over anything they possibly can.

That said, this is Anet's game, not yours. It's their call as to what they allow or don't allow.

^ It was written in a recent update that GMs would give players a chance to rename offensive characters before banning.

I couldn't care less dude lol. Maybe you didn't pick up on it but I am not bothered with Snype's name at all. I think it's pretty retarded to try hard and make a name like that, but it doesn't offend me. Try again.

!!in before the lock!!

I think I found the reason for your ban:

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/defamatory

Defamatory: "tending to disgrace or lower public opinion of a person or to harm a person's reputation"

As far as I can see, the name "Snype has A I D S" is using defamatory language towards the person called Snype.

What I said.

Isn't his name Snype? If so , then my assumption was right.

Thats like saying he is responsible for a car accident because he was a witness. This whole thing stinks of hypocrisy. Either broaden whats unacceptable including all diseases ever, all pejorative racist terms against all people everywhere, or honestly give it a rest. There is nothing even remotely offensive about the usage of AIDS in the OP's name and if, IF, your name happens to be Snype and you happen to play Guildwars and you happen to have AIDS and you find that offensive, maybe you need to be doing something else with your time.

I have seen people with Yersinia half the binomial nomenclature for the black plague. Viruses can be classified taxonomically believe it or not. Call yourself "Retroviridae HIV" and I promise you the crying will stop. It would require either an education or effort to look it up on wikipedia.

Look, as was pointed out by Bale Shadowscar

ANet and NCSoft don't give a rats ass what your forum name is. Your name, the one that got you a suspension, is defamatory. If I made a character called "Snype has his head up his butt" and then went to a forum and made an account with the name Snype I could claim I wasn't being a jerk and defaming you, I WOULD BE FULL OF IT. Anet and NCSoft cannot assume that you're making fun of yourself because that would just potentially open them up to a world of lawsuits from all the people named Snype, whether or not they have a character in Guildwars named Snype. Face it, it was a dumb move to name a character like that and in your moment of utter brilliance you earned yourself a temp ban. Learn from the mistake and move on, don't come on here acting like you are morally superior. ANet / NCSoft could just as easily say, we don't like you and permablock your account, it is their right as per the EULA that you agreed to (whether or not EULA's hold water, you did agree to follow and accept certain rules)

What it boils down to is this... it's not whether the name you choose is offensive to you, it's whether the name you choose could reasonably be considered offensive to a realistic segment of the population. Including AIDS in your name realistically can and will offend a significant number of people. Including Toast in your name (for example) will not offend a significant number of people.

If you think there's any significant group of people that will be offended, don't do it! It doesn't matter whether or not you personally are not offended.

LMAO. you have officially won this thread!

can`t believe the ammount of stupidity on this thread, guys stop arguing if AIDS is offensive, is a defamatory name, as plain as that, they don't know if snype is your son, brother, teacher etc. telling to everyone X has AIDS is offensive thta's the reason of his ban.

Well all I know is I'm glad this game sucks too much too enjoy so I can go around being all offensive and causing you people distress and not give a damn when I get banned.

I can understand why AIDS would be banned though, everyone is a big prude and that's the way it goes. It's Anet's world though and you gotta follow the rules.

Oh and this is a game, no matter how many real people play it, it's not the real world. Don't relate the two.

If you equate "stupidity" with a dissenting view to your own, then yes the thread is stupid. You better never go to court and lose though.

Lets take a look at what defamation actually means shall we?

Defamation

Noun

1. Act of injuring another's reputation by any slanderous communication, written or oral; the wrong of maliciously injuring the good name of another; slander; detraction; calumny; aspersion.

Unless someone on Guildwars is:

1. actually named Snype in real life
2. happens to have AIDS
3. takes offense to that name

Your point doesn't hold up. Instead of calling people "stupid" why not just try saying "I don't agree", if that is what you actually mean.

still is defamatory and that's the viewpoint of anet get in on your brain

How exactly do I go about getting something "on my brain"?

I have met or heard about exactly 0 people named "Snype" up until this thread. In order to be defamatory by definition it would have to maliciously target someone named "Snype" with the intent of slander. Had he named himself "John has A I D S" or "Bob has A I D S" you would have a point. He didn't so you don't.

Censor everything provocative or censor nothing, otherwise its politically correct hypocrisy.

you just don't get it right?

You know what, you are right I don't get it.

I don't get why cracker, whitey, ofay etc. are acceptable and negro is not.
I don't get why other far deadlier pandemics/diseases are acceptable and AIDS is not.
I don't get why names like:
Kunt Puncher
Gaping Va Gi Na
Incest Is The Best
My Sistr The Fistr
The Red Ragger
Muffdiver Survivor
Fist Full Of Crisco
Kum Swap Queen

and yet this is not:
Snype has A I D S

Unless of course its BS politically correct hypocrisy.

So, If I put my name as "I think, therefore I am" But mix it up, or any common famous quotes by philosophers over the past centuries. And ask if it offends anyone. I must be a jerk or someone you like to call, an ass.

Hmmm. I wonder.

I find it funny that african americans call white people stuff but when we call them stuff, they get all mad.

Anyways, I've never had a character banned, i think of funny names that aren't crude or anything.

well that's just how the world spins

Who said those names were acceptable? The mods can't go around checking everyone, can they? Chances are, a few people reported the topic creator because they were offended by his name, if the names you posted were reported as well, I guarantee they would be removed.

I'm not saying I disagree with you, but I don't see what the big fuss is about here, even if you don't want to view it as offensive, it's certainly inapropriate. Common sense should have told you not to use a name poking fun about AIDS, it was bound to offend someone.

Common sense also tells me names that use cracker, whitey, or any other racially derogatory terms should receive fair, equal, and balanced treatment. Along with any other particularly painful or deadly diseases or pathogens.

Trying to create a character with "negro" is flat out not allowed. The same should apply for any other provocative or racially charged words regardless of whether or not they have a common usage. Its a double standard, period.

How about you step off of your politically correct high horse and realize that well, you are wrong. The fact of the matter is, his name did NOT violate any part of the license agreement and therefore does not deserve a ban. People do not have a right to not be offended, they do have a right to grow some skin and stop getting offended over idiotic things in an online GAME. I guarantee you I can go to every major city in the game and find at least one name that I can find offensive.

But will I let it bother me?

No.

Should they be banned because I personally find their name offensive?

No.