Policy Updates

My characters name is X Athena Nike X which is a major religious figure in Classical Greece, is this ban worthy?

Its the rule of allowance coming into effect if they start doing that. They will allow certain names, but not others. Over time the names allowed increase and eventually you get back to where we are now. Anyway I still like the idea of implementing a : This character name could be offensive to someone whenever you create a character.

To Athena Nike: I dont think your name is offensive to anyone.
However it is a Greek Goddess, but in no way would it offend anyone.
Something like Phuck Athena or Athenas Boobs or something would be.
I could be wrong, but I do not see anything wrong with your name..(Personally Ive dated a chick with grey eyes and they are hot)

Im thinking it will mostly depend on context. If you think its risky though dont name yourr character that

It's a religious figure :P

I would tend to assume that the intent of the guidelines is to mind the sensibilities of actual people, not those of the prominent religious figures themselves, and hence obsolete belief systems are exempt from the prohibition.

Yes!!! Be gone with the "I Kill U Noob", "U R Gonna Die", "Stab U To Death" and other intensely annoying *cough*Sin*cough* names. Obviously they need this one to be more specific... I mean if someone has "I Chew Bubblegum" does that mean they are banned because it's illegal in some countries? How about skills like "Arcane Thievery"?

How about guilds like SHAT and as stated before the [Gwen] ones? I always wondered how they managed to not be forced to change.

Just thought I'd quote that in case they forget.

I think it is ban worthy for the "X name X" part, but not for the Athena part.

Are you saying there aren't Jewish people that drive german cars?

Does this mean that leeching is now a bannable offense? Or do they still get away with nothing but their measly 10 min cooldown.

yeah thanks for telling us that 4 years after people's characters names got through the character naming process.
Combine that with my not-so-great faith in anet's ability to actually review all offensive name reports critically, and you have here one scared Dutch player. Not because any of my names are offensive, they aren't, but they're DUTCH, and worse yet: in a DIALECT! Who knows what they might mean in one of the gazillion other dialects across the world. Heck, "Sjeng" might mean "penis" somewhere on the globe.
I'll post here what I posted over at GWO as well:
Oh great, so if all of a sudden some dude from some country other than your own decides that your name (which is in your native language) means something marginally offensive in their language, and decides to report it, you're forced to change your 4 year old character's name because of that.

I can't start to say how much I dislike that idea.

And who decides what is offensive anyway? I'm not talking about racism or insulting names, or politically provocative names, but names that are meant to be funny, or names that mean nothing offensive at all in one native language, that get interpreted completely differently because some people are squeemish (sp?) or lightly offended, or happen to speak a different language...

My characters almost all have names in a Dutch dialect, that's only spoken where I live. I absolutely NEVER want to change my names, as they were carefully chosen, and have a historical or humorous meaning in my dialect. PLus they got past Anet's own character creation filter. So I'm good. Or so I thought after almost 4 years... But what if all of a sudden someone from "I-don't-care-what-country" sees one of my characters and thinks: "Hey! that guy's name mean *insert something offensive here* in my native tongue!" and decides to report me, I can tell you, I will NOT be a happy camper. I'd be furious. I can tell you that right now.

As far as I'm concerned, if a name gets past your character creation process, the name is valid, and should not be able to be reported by some player! I've tried names in my dialect that had no offensive meaning whatsoever, but for some obscure reason didn't get past your character creation process. And my English is good enough to know that these names had no offensive meaning in english at all, yet they got rejected. But I can live with that, I just think of some other name. But if some unknown person happens to stumble upon any of my characters and decides my name might be offensive in whatever language after 4 tears, I'd be pissed.
Have you ever considered that a player might simply have something against you for whatever reason, and decides to report you, perhaps even with some made up sh*t about your name having a really offensive meaning in some language that Americans never heard about? I can tell you that's really easy! I could argue that any common American name means something extremely offensive in my foreign language. How would you know? You're not from here!

So, I ask again: who decides whether a name is offensive or not? Are there set criteria for names being offensive? If so, I'd like, nay DEMAND to know what they are! Kinda lame that you take on such policies after FOUR YEARS of play, putting 4 year old characters at risk all of a sudden. You already have a name filter, so either upgrade that, or leave people alone.

I'm sorry for the rant, but this feels like being put at risk of losing a name you've played with for almost 4 years! And the criteria of what's offensive or not are VERY unclear to me at the moment to say the least. I need to know more!
Stupid comparison tbh. In this situation the rules against "jaywalking" were just introduced today, while this person was allowed to "jaywalk" when he first started working, and now all of a sudden, there are additional rules. Rules that might not be against any law in a different country. You don't get fined for "jaywalking" in Holland FYI.

Oh noes! Anet have updated their policies, the botters, leechers, name abusers, scammers and match manipulaters will quake in their boots now and stop exploiting the system. Not.

Seriously, actions speaks louder than words, when i see the same bots that have been in the game for months on end now and have been reported to death, till i can't even be bothered to anymore, how will a simple update of rules solve anything?

Action anet action, less words, more action. This comes across as harsh, i know, but seriously, botting for months and getting away with it? Its because they get away with it, that they keep on doing it. Just what exactly does anet do, Regina, when they recieve a report of a botter, especially in pvp?

Another thought just occured to me: this could further increase paranoia.
Example: If I were to have a name that I think might offend someone, or even have some possibly offensive meaning in another language, I'd never ever PUG again with that character. I'd group up with my friends in my GH, zone to wherever we're going in some empty language district, and get out of the outpost/town ASAP. Or worse yet: play with H/H only.
If the rules remain unclear as they are now, and Anet simply bans you without notice or the option to defend your name(s), people will not risk being reported and stay clear from people. 7 hero's please!

--Have offensive racial, ethnic, or national connotations.
* I totally agree. But I thought the character creation filter nabbed those?
--Reference sexual acts or real life violence.
* If they're against the law, sure (rape, molestation etc), but what if some Assassin is called "Stabbin Steve" or "Killing Kitty"? You shouldn't stab/kill someone, yet assassin's do nothing else!
--Are pornographic.
* defnine pornographic.
--Make inappropriate references to human anatomy or bodily functions.
* And we all know how squeemish (sp?) and prude Americans are. Did you know that in China it's okay to fart/burp in public? When is something considered inappropriate in a world-wide online game with so many different cultures???
--Reference illegal drugs or activities.
* lol. what's illegal in one country is totally legal in another. I live in Holland yo. "Weed Smoker" is totally fine here, but I guess that name will get me banned won't it? *facepalms*
--Reference major religious figures.
* As mentioned here: there are plenty of "Gods", "Jesus"s, "Mary"s, "Holy"s, "Buddha"s etc out there. Gonna ban them all? I'm an atheist, and I believe that God doesn't exist. So if I start an atheist guild named "God does not exist [lies]" it would get banned right? Load of hypocrism if you ask me.
--Reference certain real-life people that may cause distress (e.g. Hitler).
* Hitler I can understand. But again: make a list for crying out loud. Put it in the name filter upon creaction!
--Impersonating an ArenaNet or NCsoft employee.
* Make a list of names please, kthx. character name filter!
--Names restricted by this policy will generally be subject to these restrictions, no matter whether the names are inappropriate in English or any other language.
* I'm sure there are hundreds of completely harmless names in one language that might be any of the above named offenses in another language. This is all one big farce.

There's so much wrong with this... And they create this policy 4 years after the game launches. GG!

The whole 3-day ban for a name violation is totally lame. Now they're going to make it *WORSE*?!? These retards need to get their SH!* together, and come up with a better way to deal with this issue.

Being locked out of your account where your character is over 2 years old because some cry-baby whined to the GM's is rediculous. There should be no lockout - sure, the character should be unplayable until a new name is created/given, but 3 days on top of that is pure HORSESH!*.

Not really a MAJOR religious figure and barely religious considering its from Greek MYTHOLOGY.

BTW to the guy above me... Deal with it. You're immature attitude already shows through your post, which was probably all represented by your name.

Reference certain real-life people that may cause distress (e.g. Hitler).
O_O will my rit get banned now
imbalanced was izzy
i guess izzy coused some distress XD

anyway i think it are nice rules, only 3 day ban is a bit to long XD
1 day would be better

I suggest trip to greece of 2500 years ago and discuss this "mythology" stuff with local population. They should be just as glad for enlightenment as current time Muslim or Cristian if tell em it is just mythology and that whatever they worship is barely religious and not major figure at all.

Only reason it is okay to use names of gods from obsolete religions is that there in no-one left to complain about them nowadays.

And that is what this is about, squeamish people complaining. No complaints, you are safe. Complaint, your name is inappropriate pretty much without regard for rules (it was, till now, option for easy renames; anyone could make up shit how some name is inappropriate and action would be taken.).

Rules could as well state "If someone does not like your character name, it will be deemed inapropriate"

you just nailed it.

Since the game became so boring reporting peoples names has become my new past time after this update. And you can't tell me when people make up these abusive toity mouth names that they don't know when they make them that they are what they are. But, I love all the innocent defensive responses here I read when someone gets caught or banned. lol Everybody is innocent, nobody ever does anything wrong. lol And I hope they get this Sjeng guy real quick. He obviously is one who breaks the law at HIS will and then claims innocense any time he's confronted with the issues.

You couldn't be any more wrong. But hey, I'm in the same guild as he is, so what do I know.

I'm just hoping nobody takes offense at my Celtic Deity named characters.

Yes, Greek mythology here. Would be a joke if I had to change "Ate" after 3,5 years.