Abritrary Name Filter

its fun to sometimes see whats banned and whats not..........

Here's a funny incident that took place a month or 2 ago:

Why do people actually leave the filter on, anyway?

Ok, maybe if you had teeny kids playing, but even then: you're far more likely to encounter idiots selling "elementalist lapdances" (not filtered) than you are rampant obscenity.

I feel sorry for the guy who was named G John Smith and cant use his name because the G has been seen as a bad letter---comeon...is Gm also a bad word?? (no slots left to try it out).
soon they wont let us use letters at all---we will be given numbers and told to just use them.....:
299990: lfg
9222287: selling xyz 40k!
1000111: noob!

I'm quite sure that many of them numbers are evil, too - ANet agrees with me and banned all of them

Hehe I didn't know one could turn these on/off (None/Normal/Maximum) until recently

Only saw it in the F11 menu quite recently, never noticed it before...

After a TON of testing I think I have found the exact reason for blocking the letter "G".
It comes from a certain limitation of the blocking system or it's database:

A given string can be detected and blocked at one of 4 levels of security:

Level 0. Block name containing just the exact word - example "Dev"
Level 1. Block name containing the word also if it includes more letters added at the end - example "Gm" -> "Gmxxzxyx"
Level 2. Block name containing any whole word that contains the given string - example "Admin" -> "Xzadminxz" blocked!
Level 3. Block name containing the string, ignoring any spaces - example "Arenan" -> "Mare Nancy" is blocked!

So the database is made of fields consisting of a string and a number (0-3 / just 2 bits)
It seems that the disallowed strings in the database cannot contain spaces! Spaces are only ignored at the highest detection level 3!

This is the reason why blocking strings that include a space, like "G M", or "Guild Wars" can be done in only 2 ways:

(A): block the whole string (no spaces) at level 3 detection

(B): block the first word of the 2 word string at level 0

For longer ones they used option (A), but for some shorter and all very short ones they had to use (B), simply because the power of level4 detection would disallow a massive number of legitimate names (like any names containing a letter 'm' appearing after a 'g' in them).
_____

Now the uberannoying issue with the letter "G" is not the only reason the system could use a rework. There are loads of naming possibilities for scammers still wide open, for example:

"Ga",
"Gwgm",
"A Net", ('Anet' is blocked @level 0)
"N C", ('Nc' is blocked @level 1)
"Adm",
"A D M I N", ('Admin' is blocked @level 2)
...
and many more I won't list here are still allowed...

It's sad but the whole system would probably need a rework in order to allow that letter "G" I'd love to use.

lol... I just started testing this out also... and boy are there a lot of loop holes here...

I followed that completely, which was cool. They must be using a SQL connector that does a query against disallowed strings. hmm...

ah good to know about what is going on with the filters.



this forum thread brought to you today by the letter G!

Nice breakdown, Yawgmoth.

In my eyes it breaks a fly on the wheel.

I mean why wasen't there a way for staffmembers to reveal themself to players in an unambiguous form and give newbys in the tutorial an example of how they look like. So even a dimwitted person is able to understand and doesn't fall for scam that easy.

Lol...

We know what we are doing, we have experience with customer support.

I'm curious, how long did it take them to come up with the idea to block the letter G? Did you guys have meetings over it, take votes, do surveys, and contact the President? Did ya get the top psychologists to analyze the problem with the letter G?

I see it going like this....

It's funny, because I agree with what she wrote and found nothing bad about it. They are a company that supports a game you play. They blocked something for a reason. They explain part of the reason to you and let you know that they wouldn't do this arbitrarily and they generally know a thing or two about business. You, being the average gamer, complain about it, belittle their efforts to curtail and issue they are having ig, and show off your wit and humor. What exactly are your credentials... please post relevant game industry experience... ahh... that is right... you play an online game... yes... I trust everything you say as being unbiased and educated.

Fanboy?

Yes...I have no video game production experience...so that proves that banning the letter G makes sense. They said it does so it must be true! God wills it!

I'm guessing no time at all. If they've been involved with any other game, they'd have an idea of common ways to scam, grief or just plain offend people that can be removed with a simple filter.

It's probably amusing visualizing an A-Net meeting going on for 4 hours trying to come up with naming conventions to ban, but I doubt that it was really that difficult or amusing in real life.

I don't get why people are fired up about it. If anything, I'm surprised they let a lot of the other names slide.

ohai Gaile.

I'll give you all my worthless greens if you, oh so pretty please, let me make
T R Y A N G L E

This offer includes a Kanaxai's axe

Yeah, I just feel that there's so many loopholes around the filter. I'd try to make the name : A D M I N for kicks, but I remember that's a big no-no with ANet.

- Duh? If people are using names "G M ..." then why don't you ban names where singular G is followed by space is followed by M, not just the letter G?

Because they are experts.

As a german i can tell, that nothing good comes out of the outright belief in authority.

That is also the reason why i better live with the risk of a scam than staying in a golden cage of restrictions.

As much as you are