Anets naming policy

Let me see if I have this straight:

If a potentially offensive name is not reported, you do nothing. Presumably because no one has been offended enough to care.

And, if a name is reported, you act on it. Presumably because the name did offend at least one person enough to care.

But, if a name is reported, although the reporter had an ulterior motive and was not actually offended enough to care, you still act. Because why?

This is not consistent. If the threshhold for a-net to act on a name is someone actually being offended enough to report, you shouldn't act on malicious reports. If you're not actively scanning for offensive names, you should not subject particular individuals to added scrutiny because someone has a grudge against them.

Let me rephrase that. Martin, both your naming policy itself and your defense of it in the forums are "throwing fuel on the fire" for certain malicious trolls. That's not wise, and you should reconsider.

This is my opinion;

The game is rated T.
ANet have a comprehensive list of banned names/words.

THAT IS ALL THAT NEEDS TO BE DONE.

If someone makes a silly name within the limits of your blacklist, then fine. The game is rated T. For Teen. TEEN. There is NOTHING you can make as a name that would offend people assuming they were legally allowed to buy the game. All the 'bad' words are already banned. Get over it.

People need to stop ULGGing up the game, it's stupid.

I like the toughness ANET has started enforcing. I am sick of reading junk on the game screen.

Just because people are older than 17 or such age, does not at all mean people like to read vulgar names constantly on their screens. I have kids, I don't care for them to pass by when some of the stuff people spout gets spewed.

Regina, this clean up your act policy has my thumbs up. Way up. Others may be using other fingers, but believe you me, lots and lots of us are proud to see a cleaner screen.

Bravo, see I'm not the only one glad of this new JUSTICE system for the naming policy. Some people have been getting away with it for far too long they are even admitting to it. Now is the time for change and a cleanup like Elliot Ness did in Chicago The Untouchables. You can tell who they are here as they call people names like "Trolls" and "Idiot" typicial of the kind of mind who would do such acts in the game and then cry innocense or non-guilt everywhere else. Fortunately this isn't a court nor are their any jurors one can payoff for the deal. There is merely Anet (the Judge) and that is all that is required.

I think you will find that the vast majority of the names using really inappropriate language are not from adults. However, while you castigate others for not being as perfect as Jesus and yourself, maybe you can talk Him into a quicker rapture. Afterall, no one who is so in touch with the absolute perfection should risk their perfect average down here with us merely common people.

And if you didn't want to live with the content of a Teen rated game, you should have stayed with something safe like Purble Palace.

The game's rating specifies a maximum maturity level of the content contained therein as an advisory for potential customers. It is entirely acceptable for ANet/NCSoft to moderate content at to any level below that if they so wish. And language is only one facet contributing to that rating anyway. As it happens the box specifies that the rating is because Guild Wars contains violence - and says nothing about language.

It is annoying when people and particularly guilds get caught out obscure or foreign cases of inappropriate language, but it works both ways: otherwise we would end up with foreign players with names inappropriate in english (intentionally or otherwise).

It would be good if there was better handling of inappropriate guild names though, with the ability to rename them.

I think we need a new title track: Grand Inquisitor.

Witch Hunter (1): After reporting 500 names

Preacher (2): after reporting 1000 names

Exorcist (3): after reporting 2500 names

Inquisitor (4): After reporting 5000 names

Grand Inquisitor (5): After reporting 10 000 names

Just report every Anet employee you see in game, and keep reporting them for name violations. Keep harassing support about them and see if they truly follow their own rules.

YES! Want!

1. Thinskin
2. Easily Offended
3. Overly Protectionist
4. I force My Opinion Down Other People's Throat
5. I Enjoy Ruining People's Game
6. I Serve The Honor Watch
7. My Life Is The Report System
8. I'm The Word Police
9. My Life For A Ban
10. GM Banning Amongst Undeserving Players

Problem is, the naming policy is NOT being enforced equitably or consistently. It needs to be heavily enforced in the original character creation, period. That would "fix" the problem of people trying to be cutsey or vulgar. But no, it's being imposed on folks after the fact, often after a length of time has gone by and acomplishments garnered.

As for the rest of it, there is a chat filter. On "Normal", it filters out quite a bit - even from Anet's naming conventions! Several folks have already mentioned Quimang's name being bleeped out (from Shing Jea Island, Cantha). There are two other levels of filter available, Maximum and None. Maximum bleeps out most everything, even references within sentences that have no ulterior naughty meaning (much like the Normal) and None, well, you get it all in its dubious glory.

Some people get caught up in the game and don't stop and think about cursing and such that others might be offended. Some people are just plain vulgar and coarse; the worst of those folks are called attention RED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GOs. If one of the folks who suffers a very bad case of potty mouth is in your district and doesn't want to see reason (I've been in districts of outposts wherein a person was unbelievably crude - just because he could be - and no amount of other ppl telling him to stop worked), then report that person and put them on your Ignore List. Believe it or not, once on your Ignore, you will never see a word they "say" again.

And some people simply refuse to use their chat filter. If you refuse to use the filter, then why? Because you think you shouldn't have to? Maybe not, but Anet installed that little feature knowing that human nature would present itself on several levels. It is a tool, a much more easily wieldable tool than an all-out ban hammer. And a tool under each player's control. Fancy that.

All this fuss about GW not having to abide by the ERSB rating because the box says only that it was "violence" and use of alcohol is a bunch of hooey. If a company uses a rating on a product, it must legally abide by all the contents of that rating, not pick and choose which one(s) it wishes to police. Now, that doesn't necessarily mean they must include all the contextual matter listed within the rating, but they cannot and should not arbitrarily decide when convenient to their current purposes which one is enforceable or pertinent if that content is already present.

Chthon has the right of it. If no one ever reports you, you're fine. I.e. if you don't run afoul of someone who 1) gets their ingame jollies by being an ass, or 2) has become upset at you for some reason (in my husband's case, he had mistakenly left his perma 'sin "away" ingame on Easter and wasn't answering prompts to run a team), you'll be fine. BUT if you really did think you were being "cute" or "clever" by using an name in obvious violation of the policy, unless someone reports you, you'll get away with it.

No consistency. No equity. Anet can't be bothered to enforce their own policy from the outset and so has set up this whole brouhaha themselves. Unfortunately, that leaves the rest of us to either try and bring Anet to see reason or abandon the game as it becomes more and more draconic and "politically correct".

Well, there is one issue I have with this. In essence you have a point, but the bigger problem is the international nature of the game. It has occurred to me that the update on the name rule might have to do with which languages are represented in the game. We now have a French coordinator and I can no longer name my UW spider Bite Me, presumably because "bite" is a bad word in French meaning d*ck.

So then I ask the question. How fair is it to have people censored because of a language that is not their own?

I guess that if the language is not prevalent enough you can get away with about anything but as soon as there is a coordinator representing a language the rest of the world suddenly has to be "considerate". To me this is going a step too far.

I am Dutch and my gaming language is English. I do speak French and German aswell but how in the world can I be censored according to the French rules when my names are in English? That to me is ridiculous.

I think it's wrong to simply blacklist all bad words in all represented languages for everybody. Perhaps it would be better that people need to choose a language as their gaming language and only have the blacklist of that language apply and for cross language infringements it would have to be looked at on an individual basis to see if there really is an issue.

I would think a French speaker has no business being offended by my spider being named Bite Me, so I don't see why I would have to change my name because of that.

A multi-lingual blacklist that applies to everybody is a BAD thing. I understand Anet want to automate as much as possible but this is not the way to go.

Language is included in the ESRB rating. No, they may not pick and choose which parts of the ratings they wish to practice. That is the same as saying a person gets to pick and choose which parts of the law the wish to follow with impunity. And yes, this comparison fits, because the law is the standard of behavior which one may look up and expect to be followed. One does not walk into a strip club and then call the police for being offended at indecent exposure. By stating this game is Teen rated they create an expectation that all facets of the rating are expectable and acceptable in the game. They may emphasize specific areas if they wish, but they are obligated to the inferred advertisement of the rating, or they are legally liable for fraud. Certainly, they are socially liable for lying to their customer base. By creating grief for their players in setting up false expectations with a rating they do not mean the customer certainly has the right to Never trust any advertising they put out again.

I happen to know of a Vietnamese word used as surname. The word is in this phrase, "ban phước cho anh," which means "Bless you." A US of A highschool attempted to force their validictorian of Vietnamese descent to omit his family name from his graduation ceremony because of its sound and spelling. That name is from the word "Phước," it is a religious name much like Jones means "followers of the monks of Iona." In older transliterations to American there is no Ph but an F, no C but a K, and no ướ, but a U. The highschool lost. It is not acceptable to outlaw people's heritage because it differs from your own or means something inappropriate in your own. The Mexican name Chachi is a reference to a specific member of the male anatomy in Korean. Are we going to make hispanics change their name because some Koreans might choose to be intolerant of another culture and heritage than their own? It seems to me the last social group to do that on a world scale ended up being defeated by 58 allied nations and suffering punitive actions that still include their occupation by foreign powers. Then people wonder why we refer to them as Liberal Nazis.

The correct thing to do is follow the ESRB and require toleration. Not attack your players because they have personal, political, artistic, or religious expression in their own heritage.

The problem with this is my nation. There is no quarter of the earth from which we do not have refugees from political, racial, religious, or cultural oppression. I live in a backwoods farm community where the nearest metropolitan area is 75 miles (120 km) away, the nearest gas station is 10 miles (16 km) and the nearest town with a grocery store 20 miles away (32 km). If you go to our social services department you will find translation available for Vietnamese, Korean, Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, Spanish, Italian, French, German, Hindi, Arabic, Russian, and others. My nation was formed from refugees, and those who weren't when Europeans arrived were made to be shortly thereafter. To impose on all of them a requirement that they know American for legal and social purposes (such as getting news, working, etc.) is one thing. To impose upon them one language as an option for expression is to deny them their heritage. That is unacceptable in my nation and it is unacceptable in the world. While I understand your idea as an easy way to fix it, I can't accept it as a response by those who must lead with a best example.

I don't think you understand what I am saying. I am not imposing one language on all. You misread my post. I am simply saying that it's wrong from my point of view to impose the blacklist from other languages on people.

Also I am specifically speaking about the automated blacklist and not the reporting system. Everybody should be able to report a name that is offensive to them and then there needs to be an investigation to see if the name is offensive indeed...or not.

But I did not say that everybody needs to speak English or something like that. Where you came up with that I do not know, but it's not what I posted.

Political correctness and deep poetic explanations aside, who here really gives a toss? Now before the oldies and parents come barging in with "My child cannot be subject to naughty words", can we stop to ask ourselves if it's really that big a deal that anet should be allowed to ban people for it?

If someone has named a character "Vaginal Explorer" or "Altheas Giant Monster Cawk" then sure, make them delete the character. But banning people? Please. You guys are having enough trouble keeping people in the game as it is.

Put some effort elsewhere. Send all whining mothers my way.

At least here in the US, the box clearly states that "Game Experience May Change During Online Play," which leads me to conclude that foul language within an online game or in a character name does not affect the rating of said game whatsoever.

Exactly. Have you heard the language allowed in movies? Or on tv these days, for that matter. If you wish to monitor your child's activities so closely, I applaud you. Really I do because so many parents these days don't pay much attention to what their kids are doing! BUT Anet foresaw a problem with people's language and integrated the filter system for just such an instance. My suggestion is to set the thing to Normal or Maximum if graphic or quasi-adult language is truly offensive to your minors and the way you're trying to raise them.

It almost seems like Anet puts your account into time-out like a little kid who's been naughty. Three days' ban first offense and then rename the 'toon. I would think the more reasonable thing to do would be to simply lock that character when found to violate the policy until a rename occurs. If the player refuses within a certain amount of time, the character will be deleted wholesale without any way to strip inventory, etc.

Seems a much more suitable solution than an account wide smack with the ban hammer. Especially if Anet continues to refuse to enforce the naming policy in character creation.

(Can anyone tell me why the word "ass" is forbidden in a name but the word "butt" is allowed?)

Just because I don't mind seeing it doesn't mean I want to see it.

Referring to the language and offensive wordage, of course.

You really don't get what ESRB ratings are and how they function. Of course, you also insisted that the U.S. Constitution applies to Arenanet.

I just got banned for making "Altheas Giant Monster Cawk". I think I'll rename it to "Altheas Giant Monster C A W K". After that, just "Altheas Giant C A W K". And there are probably a thousand other variations I could use after that.

They don't make people delete characters, Arenanet would have much more trouble keeping players if they started deleting characters for violations.

Nope, couldn't have. That name exceeds the 19 allowed total.

Je n'ai pas dit que vous avez fait. Vous avez dit:
Noms anglais sur un serveur anglais. Nous, les américains, sommes multilingues, multiculturels et n'avons aucune langue nationale encore. Il y a 20 langues que 200,000 ou plus personnes parlent dans mon pays. Notre héritage est chaque héritage. Nous sommes les réfugiés de tout le monde. Si nous disons l'américain seulement sur les serveurs américains, donc nous nions l'héritage mondial. Nous devons dire, "Non". Nous devons dire, "Tolérez ce qui distingue de vous. Tolérez ce qui a de la valeur et le bon sens à d'autres. Tolérez leur droit d'exprimer le sacré, le politique, la personnelle, le culturel." Nous devons le dire non seulement parce qu'il y a seulement un serveur pour notre continent, mais aussi parce que la paix viendra seulement de cette tolérance. Si nous ne tolérons pas le différent dans nos jeux, nous ne tolérerons jamais de nos âmes le différent dans nos vies.


(C'est beaucoup d'années depuis que j'étudie le français. Pardonnez s'il vous plaît mes fautes.)

Umm.. been playing 3+ years (5000 hours), 12 characters on my main account.... 11 have all campaigns completed... 1 level 17 in pre....2 spare accounts for storage... Yes, I know what a chat filter is... The Block list is useless because of it's small capacity limit. You (and I) have been here long enough to know what you ask is just a joke. My guild is comprised of mostly mature family members, most of which have children that are impressionable. I don't feel I should have to treat my gaming experience like a closet porn show, but it is that bad 90% of the time in most major outposts/towns. Kids/Perverts know how to phonic their way around filters and do so with glee. Again you have been around long enough to have seen it.

Clean it up please Regina (pretty please).... My kids behave with the utmost respect to others, cause they know what happens when they don't. It is just that simple, put the ban stick out there and within days you will have jerks knowing that there is a price to pay.

I am tired of the spoiled jerks ruining the game. I am tired of having to leave the game chat off (including trade) except when I want to trade. It lowers the quality of my gaming to miss special deals because of jerks that need a knot in their tail and tongues that need to know the taste of soap.

I tire of filling my head of vulgarities when I open the chat channel, cause I feel it slowly poisons the people that have to read it day in and day out. I tire of folks telling me that a chat filter is all I need and I tire being told to turn off chat and lower my gaming experience.

Vulgar folks ruin the game for lots of people, and IMHO... it lowers the profit of companies that lose potential customers because lots of folks just don't even bother with putting up with it and never play online games again.

I guess you think people just roll over and play dead for you after that spew... Think again, I don't go down without a fair fight.

I won't get into your rant against religious folks, because for one it is totally off subject and two it doesn't belong here. Besides you can't get any more common than yours truly, but I ain't so low you can just stomp all over my views with that angle. Odd I think common folks are quite the opposite as you betray them, they abhor the trash language. It is the elite that think it is a right to just spew sewer talk like rain across the field.

/end rant

I came across this conclusion based upon discussion in another thread. Philosophically, the only way you can be aware of evil is to have evil within yourself. So all systems based upon victims reporting criminals for their behavior are flawed. Upon coming to awareness of a particular criminal act, a person weighs the proportion of good and evil within himself to decide whether he intends to commit the specific crime.

If you have what can be considered a completely innocent victim, the victim would have had no awareness of such a crime until awareness of the crime has been introduced. The act of witnessing the crime would not be understood as a crime. The act of having the crime committed against oneself would not even be enough. What this means is that when you rely on the players to self-report crimes, no one understands crime better than the criminal. So under a self-report system, criminals end up being your most accurate (sometimes most common as well) self-reporters of crimes.

What you need is a system where you do not depend on victims to report the crimes, because that is a system that will be abused by criminals to enact their personal revenge. You need people who recognize crimes as they are, which is in some cases, a system designed based on knowledge of those committing the crime. Not to mention this approach would be proactive instead of reactive. As Reverend Dr. has already said, most of the reports being done within the game are being done out of malice, as an act of retribution.

This is getting crazy, folks. You thought it was just names and acronyms? Nope. Yeah, I know we have discussed part of Quimang's name being bleeped out in filter. But I just saw "suce" bleeped out of the word "sucessfully" (yes, misspelled) in All Chat. Curious, I looked it up online and found that in French, its secondary (slang) meaning means a certain sexual act.

Maybe that person should be banned because they used an inappropriate word? Unwitting, to be sure, and in need of a dictionary. But if I'm in an American dist, why is a French word being bleeped out of an English one?

I swear, sometimes this is like playing Scrabble with my mother and her insisting that a dictionary be immediately available before the game board is even set up. Royal PitA!

What's an "English server" please? Excuse my n00b speak, I've only been on the ARPAnet (the real one I mean, not the virtual one) for about 1010 years (that's h4cksp3ach in binary bTw). Apparently speaking the "langue de Molière" does not make your point clearer.

ŲñðĘřßþøŎĐ ¿

You may be completely sincere in your devotion to a purified and rarified life where blissful and elegant language has thrashed aside all the roughage and weeds. I find such attitudes to almost always be unconsciously planted by the cultural prejudice of the Norman invasion of England in 1066. Any word of Anglo-Saxon heritage is a four letter word and Eeeeevul, while any word of French origin such as manure or intercourse is socially venerable. The animosity toward say the F word would be amusing if that stupid little legend about it being a legal acronym from the 1300s was true. The word has roots that predate the separation if Indo-European languages and runs throughout them in one form or another. Sorry, not buying into the racism merely because it has been officially practiced for a thousand years. And I find that nose in the air, "I-am-educated-above-those-vulgar-Saxon-dogs", and the average working person attitude to be offensive - especially when it is used to power a ban stick.

When I hear someone supplant a quote "bad word" with things like Heqq, Bless me, son-of-a-gun, crap, etc. I always wonder why they are lying to God. We all know what they really meant. The euphamism does not change the reality of their feelings. Or if in their hearts they are telling God what they really mean, why are they lying to the rest of us. Seems to me the greater sin is in the lie that it is not acceptable to be human than honest expression under an ESRB rating that told you what to expect when you purchased the game.

When we change from American to International to Korean to European, we refer to them as changing servers. There may very well be more precise ways of speaking about them for the technicians responsible to make them perform. That is the language we use in game to refer to them, however inaccurate that may be. Further, I did not use Cajun for you but for Cthulhu Reborn who stated that language was understood.

Yes, I do. The ESRB is a voluntary program where corporations agree to grant the consumer a set expectation of what level of maturity and kind of behavior may occur while using their product. This exists principally because they wanted to have an industry answer to provide these expectations to potential customers rather than one legislated by the Witchhounds lobbying in DC to eradicate anything that offends them. Now ANet is switching sides to support the tyranny of the Witchhounds.

Further, yes, the rules of my nation apply when you deal with me in my nation. No corporation is more important than a nation state. If you want the business of those in the US then abide by our custom and law in the US. If you do not then get out. Our national sovereignty is not subordinate to anyone else, ever, end of line.

I was actually expecting an answer of that kind, alas. The fact of the matter is: you have absolutely no idea where, geographically, the "American districts" are located. They may well be on a physical hosting servers in Canada or Brazil (I'm simply mentioning this for the example!), or even in a different part of the world (I don't want to burden this thread with such technicalities, but it seems you want to open invisible doors...).

Bien cordialement. (languages are a beautiful part of who we, human beings, are, honestly! you'd be impressed how computer science can help you realise that!)

Again, you can't resist digs at religion... whatever... but I aint' biting, take it to another thread is my best advice. I ain't interested in what your greatest sin is, I am sure it changes day by day, subject by subject... whatever fits your playdoe at the moment.

The ONLY relevant point of your whole post is the rating angle.

I read the Teen rating when I bought the game... I thought it would be fairly safe...


Age 13... I qualify (nearly 4x)... Violence... I can stand chopping up a bad guy or two... That is ALL my box had on it...Just violence, not the crude language that is sometimes coupled with teen ratings... it did say gaming experience may change.. but it never said that 13y/o boys would have to listen to things like teabagging in pre ascalon.


Other factors that come into play, this was my first purchase of an online video game, from the rating I figured this game was fairly safe. I am from a generation that perhaps is ancient to you, but this language is beyond what I believe a kid of the age of 13 should have to endure.

BTW.. I can scan the front of my game box.. there is no strong language warning.

EDIT... here is the warning on my game...

http://i43.tinypic.com/vf9q84.jpg

You mistake digs at religion. Religion is what binds a cultural frame work together and the word itself is derived from the Latin usage in the 3rd century when the Church replaced the Legion as the binding structure of the Roman world.
I have no problem with religion. I am a student of religion. What I am not is someone who will impose religious expression on others. While I may believe the path I attempt to follow may be better for many others, I do not require it of them. I am not hypocrittical enough to insist others live according to my religion, but I am defiant enough to protect those standards in place nationally for ethical issues.


The ESRB standards can be found at: http://www.esrb.org/ratings/ratings_guide.jsp

I think it would be a good idea if these were posted at the beginning of every section that sells video games. The information is available for people to make an informed decision on their purchase.

I agree that there are behaviors in game that I personally find distasteful. Venting occasionally over game challenges is not one of them. I am more irritated by the denigration of people's mothers and other playground standard behavior from our less mature members. (Maturity is not necessarily counted in years of age, but usually accompanies those less experienced with paying bills.) The use of names which are little different in content from those unit mascots underwhich military men have served, the nicknames of planes, of boats, of ships, of teams, of squads, with the human qualities they expressed (pristine or gritty) do not bother me. Nor will I let them change my game experience.

I also was born in the 60s. I am one of the younger members of my guild and alliance.

I used that rating when I bought the game.. Here it is..

http://i43.tinypic.com/vf9q84.jpg

(I don't frequent these threads enough to know if posting a picture is allowed or not), but I am pretty sure the URL is allowed.

The rating did not mention strong crude language whatsoever. For that matter, neither did my Factions... don't have a box for NF, so don't know what it says. You need to find another angle. The box rating did not allow one to know that what I was buying would be so crude language wise.

I agree with your suggestion on stores displaying ratings keys maps so parents (and adults) can make more informed decision on game purchases. I did the best I could with what information was allotted to me.

To be honest, if i had kids that weren't mature/old enough to hear a few swear words/turn off local chat then i wouldn't let them play an online game with strangers. By all means turn off local and team them up with H/h.

Banning people for swearing is just stupid because this is supposed to be a teen game - I don't know of a teenager in secondary school that hasn't heard of swear words.

Banning for excessive swearing would be more reasonable but what would be defined as excessive? I'm not going to pretend I don't swear ingame (sometimes when I screw up a mission for example or lose my survivor).

Yes, some of the conversations are stupid and inane but you can easily turn off local - I mostly speak on guild/team and whisper. I haven't seen anyone swear in trade so I wouldn't think that is a problem (although i don't sit in Kamadan all day).

Tl;dr: Your kids shouldn't be playing with strangers ingame if they can't handle a few swear words, turn off local, it's not like you ever get decent conversation there.

Who said I let my kids play? All I said was I didn't care to hide in the dark ashamed of what is displayed on the screen like a seedy /b/ forum. You and I both know we are not talking about just a "few swear words" either, no need to go into detail, but lets at least be honest about it.

People should only be banned if they cheat / hack, use racism or other kind of prejudice, or abuse other players.

Banning people and guilds over a single swear word is ridiculous.

This game was better before /report and Anets excessive policing. Sometimes, I just think that Anet staff are so bored that they just ban little things for amusement.

If you cant handle reading swear words, you shouldnt be on the internet.

Anet had a great game that they turned into such a mess themselves. The only reason I will be buying GW2 is because it will be free to play, but I can guess that Anet will completely ruin it over a few years, and then announce GW3.

Just my opinion. You dont have to feel the same way that I do.

That kind of picture is acceptable. Commercial promotion that does not benefit Guru, or blatant acts would be different. But we have posted pictures in various contests here, examples of TexMod, to show neat drops, etc.

What this means is that you did not research to find out what the rating fully meant before purchase. You are not alone. I sympathise as I too have gotten things in the past without fully realizing what I was getting into. (Including jobs.) However, I was not permitted to punish the rest of the world for my lack of knowledge and research. Nor, should I be forced to give up any part of my national heritage, a world heritage, to interact with others.
I will Never Allow my personal, religious, political, or artistic expression to be imprisoned just for permission to interact with others. Nor will I stand by and let others be subject to the same. Further, keep in mind this is about the idiocy of ANet in determining to hold people accountable for things that a person cannot have intended to express.
I will use on-line resources or my own extensive library to name my characters. My Assassin is named 獠 穸霧. I am not permitted by GW to write that, or even Liáo Xīwù, I must express it as Liao Xiwu. It means (獠) Hunt (a common surname) and (穸霧) a Gravegloom/Death-Mist. I interpret it as Hunter in the Mists. Without the marks, that I am not allowed to have, it could be interpretted as meaning "(part of male anatomy) bathing bite", or "Clearly disturbing noise filth", or "fiercely giggling hoe (garden instrument)". But we already know that a hoe (garden instrument) is a banable word. I research something carefully, and express a name perfectly fitting a Canthan character, and now must wait to be banned because someone who speaks Chinese gets mad when I won't Permasin for them on demand. But for a full list of everything those three syllables could mean see: Liao, Xi, and Wu. I may be convicted for an offense I do not mean, did not choose, actually chose and maintained a file on the Chinese characters I wanted and could not express, and used in complete context of the games theme and plot because of a ban policy that even when effected will not make you happy or eliminate the childish behavior of those whose hormones are still more powerful than their brains. (And if you don't believe me on the file thing ask Falcondance who is a neighbor and has been chiding my anal-retentiveness for years.)

Most people make decisions based on the information that they could not avoid or that is conveniently in their way enough to notice. To that extent businesses ought to put more effort into making information brief, accurate, and unavoidable when people are trying to decide for a purchase. I suspect we are SOL and need to put out the effort ourselves.

For bad/vulgar/distasteful language, FILTER - NORMAL or MAXIMUM If the filter is in place, you need not worry about others seeing/reading anything off color unless you're deliberately tabbing for names, etc.

This thread pertains to the naming policy and the banning of people who may run afoul of said policy by not knowing the acronym to their guild or their character's name means something bad/vulgar/distasteful in another language in which they may or may not be conversant. It is NOT about those individuals who think it's "cute", "kewl" or "sick" to give their characters name that refer graphically to body parts, sexual acts or denigrating to others. The latter group should be banned, period. It could be said they do not have the maturity level to play in public with others.

As to the ERSB rating and the inability of some to grasp the idea of it relating to GW simply because Anet chose the most prevalent content to advertise on the label rather than give the entire pertinent content: if the rating did not include other factors and GW did not include other factors under the rating, they would not have also included the url to the official website with the full explanation of the rating. An informed person, an educated person would then be able to make a decision based on the possible content. And, as this is a global secular game, it is to be expected that not all individuals who play will be absolutely pure of thought or speech.

The concepts of using the language filter and of educating yourself on exactly what a rating means should not be difficult. Most teens understand the idea. Why are some adults having such trouble?

Back to the topic of this thread: the naming policy and the sudden rather over zealous enforcement therein............

This game is supposed to be rated T, I can't imagine why it's rated E.
There's supposed to be a language filter, they should add that some time.
You should be able to change districts if you don't like someone's name and want to get away, they should let people do that.

OH WAIT...

giggles maniacally

Funny, I have never once had any trouble with any names or any reports... Why do some people have so much trouble? We both know the answer.

The game is not "the internet" it is personal property which you/me sign rights away to use. You may not feel the same way as ANET does about those rules, but you signed the dotted line.

What was to understand, It was rated T for violence and violence only... just as my picture showed (and your box shows). If it had additional reasons why it was rated T, it would of been listed above/below the violence, but it was NOT.

http://i43.tinypic.com/vf9q84.jpg

One does not assume "on possible content"... The trusted raters give their rating for a reason. It is "possible" the disk had Debby does Denver on it, but the raters are to do their job. If it was to have strong language on it, they were to rate it that way. I understand many game companies want lower ratings and perhaps will lobby for a lower rating so people/parents will make certain decisions on whether to buy or not. Just like some movies want an R rating and certain films don't want an R rating. But I made NO error in my reading of the ESRB rating whatsoever. None.. Nada.. Niltch...

http://i43.tinypic.com/vf9q84.jpg

The Terms of Use we all sign(ed):

http://www.guildwars.com/support/leg...-agreement.php

The "Modified Rules of Conduct" (updated 2 April 2009, btw)

http://www.guildwars.com/support/leg...sofconduct.php

The New and Improved Naming Policy (updated 2 April 2009)

http://www.guildwars.com/support/leg...ing_policy.php

When I accepted the EULA it was under the advertised nature of the game. This includes the ESRB. If they have not changed the ESRB of the game they are responsible to ensure they act within the scope of the rating. They are not doing so. They are required by the expectation of the advertised rating to accept crude humor and strong language at the level defined by the ESRB. When they begin punishing people for crude humor or strong language in accord with the ESRB they have committed fraud. When they punish clients for using the word "bite" becuase it means something in slang from a language they do not use then it is more than fraud - it is absolute lunacy, liberal fascism at its best, PC crap falling from the sky.

ESRB is supposed to enforce their ratings. It is time we call them and ensure that they do. If ANet is not willing to abide by the rating they sold the game under then they should be "banned" by ESRB, so to speak.