In Game Racism and Anti-Semetic Discrimination

After submitting the report, this is the response I received:

Response (GM Jessica) 07/22/2007 11:21 PM
Hello,

Thanks for getting in touch with the Guild Wars Support Team regarding a potential rules violation.

We will use the information you have provided to investigate whether a violation of the rules has occurred. Please note, however, that we are unable to reimburse you for any items or gold lost as the result of a transaction with another player. Also, all information related to the discovery and disciplining of an account will only be discussed between the violator and customer support. If we do find that a rule or rules were broken, you will not hear of any rulings related to the incident and the account(s) involved.

We appreciate your support of Guild Wars and your interest in keeping the game world pleasant for all players.

Regards,
The Guild Wars Support Team


Nice generic response have nothing to do with the subject. Now we know who those army of monks are in Bergen Hot Springs... they're the GW support team!

I never had a problem with africans or african-americans, however i hate jews,still i dont go and insult them at every coner.I also hate those ppl who follow religion,too narrow minded in my opinion.

A person who uses racist terms that insult his own "identity" is just like very dumb.

...what can i say, that one floored me.
You say you hate Jews and people who are narrow-minded in the same statement. You sir are that which you hate.

Close the thread please, this is getting uglier by the minute.

This thread is probably the most amusing I've seen on these forums. And with MirageMaster's post...I'll need to Ctrl + S this thread.

But if anyone is insulted by what people say over the internet, that person has very thin skin.

Yep, that's the generic, automated response. I've seen it many times. You should recieve another one in the next day or so (I've gotten the second one in only a few hours) saying that they looked into it and took whatever action was neccessary. They go on to explain that they won't reveal what action they took.

Hope you can post it here for all to see before the mods close this thread because of the flaming that's going on here.

Glad to see your view of the world doesn't extend beyond your own four walls Zinger.

Are you suggesting this should be tolerated?!? But i guess we've come to expect little else from the champion of the trolls. Now when was it your were leaving us for the welcome embrace of WoW again?

People suck, that can't be changed. It's easier for everyone to just realize that nothing can be done in the grand scheme of things to stop people from saying racial slurs and such.

Otherwise, the rap and comedy industries would be dead.

But then why have law and order if it doesn't prevent crime....same rationale.

Boundaries of acceptable behaviour need to be established and enforced for the good of all.

Racism is bad.

Crime isn't protected under the First Amendment.

The first amendment doesn't always apply beyond your borders

apparently you'd be surprised to know how often people talk like this irl. the only difference is the anonymity of the game. people say all kinds of redneck crap in an all "whitey wasp" environment.

especially people from ohio for some reason. that is one backwards-ass white trash state. i got $5 says that guy is in ohio.

It doesn't have anything to do with taking it personally. I'm neither black nor jewish. It's more just sheer baffledness at how ignorant and disrespectful people can be.

It's nothing new, you can't do anything about it other than report or block and be on your way. But you can't expect me to sit idly while people freaking defend the use of the word n*gger in a 12+ game.

Bleh so you post it on a forum that's read by quite a lot of people. Your views are of no interest to me. Anyone that uses something as a video game or fansite to vent political/racial views is a shit munching moron that's missing the point of playing a game with people from all over the world imho.

Yeah, immature 12 year olds play this game and say bad stuff here because if they said it in real life their mommies will spank them. What else is new?

I would agree there totally. (:

well, the point is that there's really nothing you can do to help that guy in that situation. i can't speak for the whole world but having grown up in the united states i can speak for this country. most americans are dumber than dirt. that's just something you'll have to learn to live with and if you're worked up enough to do something about it, then work on a larger scale. we're all racist to some extent, it comes from the same part of our brains that tells us a chair is a chair. keep reporting the jerk-offs if it makes you feel better but you'll find it to be a game of whack-a-mole. that game sucks.

Speech isn't protected on the servers of a private company.

QFT


...and that, they say, is that.

That I understand I suppose, although you shouldn't go provoking them just to get them to get angry... I'm gonna be honest, I don't like homosexuality one bit. I wouldn't insult you or anything though, so I guess I fall into that category of people who you make effort to not provoke.

See, a belief is a belief no matter how extreme. Educating what is acceptable... the world isn't black and white. There are many borderline things, controversial things, and things that may seem wrong today but be perfect for the future.

I don't see how your last point has any relevance to the rest of your post, but okay...

Um, no I don't? I copied your entire post. If there is something I feel is irrelevant, off-topic, or already been discussed, I will not dwell on things that have already been talked to death. My posts are asking to be deleted? I was pretty sure spelling and grammar- at least a SMALL grasp on it- is a requirement for posting here. Sorry that my posts aren't full of hate and insulting like yours are, but well, that's hardly cause to delete them. Yes, if your post is irrelevant (IE: responding to a post I replaced), I will ask you to delete it. But I do not care if you do or don't to be honest, it would simply be nice for the discussion. You have been dwelling on that for several posts as some way to... discredit me? I didn't like how what I said sounded so I rewrote it and instead of going back on topic there, you make a ton of posts mocking that I wanted to get rid of some clutter on the forum. And no, my perfect world is not "no education", I never once suggested it was, and judging by your spelling and grammar in that last post, I think we need education more than ever.

The OP did do something wrong. This forum is, if I recall correctly, NOT a place to go posting everybody you plan on reporting. E-mail support. If everyone made a thread for every person they reported, that's all this forum would be.

Penny Arcade pretty much nailed this.
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19

Is it bad yes, Did people make it worse by reacting to it and giving them what they wanted? attention... Yep.

Simply ignore them and thats the end of it... Rage of whatever will be cause lets face it the number of mature players are small. There may be a small influx of 30+ yr olds... but even them get nasty at time. the teenyboppers are by far the most filthy mouthed little bastards there are... But the point is if you react to them in any way at all... they will do it more and more and more... Just add them to ignore as everyone should and then bingo they got no one to talk to anymore... pitty...

Yes go ahead and report them, and they will likely get some ban time for it. but the point is if you add them to ignore list then you need not wait to avoid the little idiot for the rest of your life.

The only bad thing is the ignore list takes up space from your friends list ;( this was a thing that needed addressed a long time ago, but never has been.

Maybe it will eventually... Lets hope so...

So... it's 100% unnacceptable to insult someone using a racist term, but it's apparently 100% okay to insult someone by using terms to insult their intelligence, simply because you're in disagreement with them.

I'm sorry, I just don't get the hypocrisy. It's funny that I could start a thread similar to the OP's and maybe interject a word like "rape" and I would have a plethora of people all over me telling me I just needed to grow a thicker skin. People have had their lives destroyed by rape, yet I see and hear the word being thrown around like it's a vowel and I never, ever see anybody saying "Hey, don't say that! That's not cool!"

If you're against using the n-word as an insult, don't then turn around and use other insults. Just because "idiot" or "retard" aren't The Most Offensive Word in the English Language does not mean it's okay for you to be insulting. Try as much as you want, but you cannot justify it. Less bad than The Worst Bad does not suddenly equal a-okay.

All tolerance really is is what people pick and choose to be tolerant of, as so many of you have demonstrated so well.

Oh but they will try to justify it time and time again, thinking they are right the whole time.

I definitely like your point on tolerance. You are tolerant to things... as long as they are what you like to hear.

Also, to add to this, I hate how tolerance is changed to "love" or "accept". Like I said in my above post, I don't like homosexuality. This makes me "intolerant" to some people, but wait... I never said I don't tolerate them. I respect their right to be homosexual (also known as TOLERANCE) and I expect my right to dislike homosexuality to be respected as well. It will not be though, as tolerance only applies when you want it to. South Park actually did a good episode on this issue... of course I doubt the politically correct police here watch south park :-D

Bullshit. Just because its the internet doesnt mean you need to accept it.

Report the jackass, I've seen more then one instance where racial remarks got banned by Anet and rightly so.

To the poster who suggested ignoring such a person, its even easier to ignore someone who is banned and perhaps it might teach them a lesson about how they express themselves.

you should report him They have a 0 tolerance on these matter

A while I reported a perosn

He was forming a guild and advertising

Only boys 7 to 12 ..

he wanted them to join him alone on some boat for some private guild war party and celebration

me and other reported him Got a mail from support that the issue was taken care of

Racism carries with it a history of very heinous hate crimes and hurtful segregation. There are generally accepted levels of the effect of racism, but only because there are/were levels of hatred and violence attached to it. Blacks and Jews are seen as worst end of this because of the more well-known historical violence and hatred directed toward them - so those wanting shock value usually attack those two races/cultures.

Calling someone an idiot or moron is seen as not as bad, because most of the time what people really mean is what you said or what you did was not intelligent, to them. They skip the step of saying "What you did was stupid" and going directly to "You're stupid". Effectively, an insult is an insult is an insult, and should have no "levels" on acceptance, but truth is, the words themselves have connotations that have levels all their own in modern society. Call it dumb, call it illogical, call it what you will, but those are the rules on which our society is based in order for everyone to get along as best they can.

If that were to be true, which I think you're right, those people who would say that are likely juveniles, or live in their own little world. Many people on this forum fall into those categories, sad to say. I am a white male, and I find neither racism or rape funny, nor something to joke about. But that's me. Someone else may enjoy the shock value either of those subjects bring, tapping into the little brat in all of us. Regardless, neither of those things belong in a game (or forum for a game) marketed toward ages 13 and up.

You're absolutely right, it's not okay. However, the social acceptance of certain insults means they can be used in an online game targeted at ages 13 and up. Personally, I don't like to insult people. Others do. That's fine, but certain subjects should not be touched upon in a family game. It's Anet's job, though bans, to make sure the worst scum is cleaned out.

After all, when you brush your teeth, you're not getting all the plaque and food particles out, just the biggest and worst bits. While in Anet's teeth, rest assured that if you're a big chunk of plaque, you will be cleaned out.


EDIT: Just want to add about the severity of things. If you don't think there are acceptable insults and unacceptable insults, lumping them all into one category, then consider this: Are there different acceptable levels of taking a life? I'm not talking abortion here, nothing heavily controversial. Just killing a living thing. Say someone kills your dog. That's pretty heinous, right? Say they kill a relative of yours. Would you say that's much worse? Now say they kill a mosquito that landed on their arm. You follow?

Just about every crime with severe punishment has levels of severity attached. It is a concept that says things are not black and white. So yes, a racist insult is greater in magnitude than an insult that targets intelligence. Why? Because of the severity placed onto it by society.

Series - are you having a dig about my slang? (Slang is a normal occurance from where I come from) Are you saying you have something against my nationality/race?

As for hate - if you read ANY of my posts you would have got the impression that I do not believe in spreading hatred in-game. I love Ninja's by the way.

hypercrits FTW


Personally i don't think and form of racial abuse should be tolerated
As for the guy on first page that said something about "you should be allowed the rite to decide wether the people in your group are black/white/jewish or whatever"
What difference does it make? I'm not the most tolerent person in the world but i don't care who's on the other end of an MMORPG connection, and i doubt that if your this color and this religeon your by default a better player than this race or this religeon

I would point out that the modern world has mostly adopted the zero tolerance policy to discrimination for a reason: while initially a fringe concern, these problems are self feeding and can easily escalate out of control. Especially the traditional Jew hatred which has had atrocities committed in its name far earlier than 1940's...



Also, I would note that there is such a thing as being overzealous. It can backfire on one.

I still remember something that happened to me in Diablo II. I found myself in a game with a character named "killajew". When I noticed the name, read it as "kill a jew", I immediatly said "Kill a jew, eh? Well, there are some people I just don't play with." and left.

Only a few hours later, while still reflecting on the guy, I realized I may have wronged him. "killajew" may not have been "kill a jew", but rather "killa jew", as in "killer jew". My comment itself may have come out as hate message!

On the internet, nobody knows your race or religion.

I often find the language used in public places in GW quite disgraceful. Clearly the parents of those players have botched their upbringing. And it's clearly the language of little kids who are trying to show how cool they are by talking about stuff they know nothing about.

The racism stuff falls into the same bucket as the sexual crap.

I don't have the time to go through here and clean out all the disgraceful posts I find in an effort to make this thread even remotely on topic, but know that I will be marking every forum account involved in offensive posting to any degree.

Closed.