Anets naming policy

Offhand I can't find our copies of Prophecies but I did find the ones of Factions. One is labeled "Rating Pending" (pre-order copy), one is marked "T- Use of Alcohol, Violence" and the last is marked "T - Suggestive Themes, Use of Alcohol, violence". We (obviously) have multiple copies of all the campaigns (and thus they are scattered over three desks and rooms).

The terms of use, as referenced above, clearly state Anet knows people will be people, unfortunately, and use bad language on occasion. You signed the agreement, so unless you did not read it fully, you acknowledged that immature language would likely be used. Of course, the better solution would have been to go to guildwars.com or research *exactly* what a T rating meant, but hind sight is always 20-20.

You may not post or link to any sexually explicit, harmful, threatening, abusive, defamatory, obscene, hateful, or racially or ethnically offensive imagery or content.


That's enforced, I am happy.

This, to a point, is true. The rating context: The problem is, the user agreement we all sign (because if we don't, we don't get to play!), specifically says: Effectively, this allows them to enforce anything they so choose as long as it falls within the EULA and the original ERSB rating. If the content of the game does not violate the rating, there is nothing the ERSB enforcement board can do - it is the players bringing in vulgarity and immaturity, not the game content itself, and the enforcement of policy then falls on Anet.

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

Some language is inappropriate (Anet does screen or have the right to screen), Anet does not prescreen text displayed... you may get it displayed on your screen. Does not equate that you are to take extremely bad language as just an occupational hazard. It also does not prove I made a wrong decision based on box ratings either.

I have no problem with people cursing.. if they do it right, my maxed chat filter gets it. No problem. But discussions on eating fecal matter just goes beyond what a person should have to endure. Spell your curse words correctly, and F away all day and I could care less. But some things are like screaming Fire in a movie theater, nobody should be forced to listen to it in a social setting of any decorum.

EDIT... will have to respond later, tornado sirens going off and gotta get kids to basement.

Then why do you insist that the ESRB rating sets what content shall or shall not be in a product? It doesn't. A game that is rated Mature for sexual content does not necessarily have nor is required to have intense violence or strong language. Arenanet could very well have Rurik making poop jokes as it's within the Teen rating, but they don't have to.

But aside from that, in the link you provided:
Online user-generated content isn't covered by the ESRB. That would include character names.

"Congress shall make no law...abridging the freedom of speech." Arenanet isn't the U.S. Congress last I checked.

I agree that the characters should be renamed or deleted, but booting people from the game over something so insignificant is pathetic. Like I said, it would help if they focused some more of that banning energy on bots and scammers, rather then trying to be international peace holders.

It's an mmorpg. People will be offended by the grass been too green.

Most kids 13 years and older will know a bit about cursing, however juvenile it is. If you are offended by what they write, put your language filter on. It's there for a reason.

Those of you attempting to use the ESRB rating system as justification for more regulation are consistently failing to recognize the glaring "Online Interactions Not Rated" segment of their policy, which means they can't (and rightfully so) control what will be said.

The ESRB has no business in what is said in ArenaNet's game between players. They can't regulate it legally. They're there simply to label the content of ArenaNet's contribution to their own game.

If you can't take mature language used by immature people, you yourself should grow up. The amount of morality-wielding here is pathetic. A mature person would realize that those using the crass language are themselves immature.

If your kids are below 13, they shouldn't be playing this game. Finally, anything your kids see/hear in this game is going to be comparable to what their friends and bullies throw around by the handball court, if you get my drift.

Regina:

Where is this the escalating suspension system actually posted? It is referenced but not outlined anywhere that I can find. It would be nice if the community could be informed about what system they are being held to. When I put escalating suspension system in the search on the GW website this is all I get:

If a character name is reported to us and is in violation of the Naming Policy, the account will be blocked and receive a mark, and therefore will be inaccessible for whatever period of time is called for within the escalating suspension system. This means that the character and all the inventory items and attainments associated with it will be inaccessible during this time and until the character has been renamed. For the first offense, you will be required to rename your character upon your next login. For the second offense, we will assign you a new name and your account will again be marked. We may also take further action at our discretion.

While it touches on some items, it really not very informative on others:

A period of time is referenced but not given for offenses.
Marking of the account is also mentioned are these forever or do they expire over time? (found where they expire but not timeframe is given)

Can people report themselves if they have characters in violation and receive little to no suspension time since they are attempting to bring their accounts within the naming policy? There really is no incentive to clean up once account/s under the current policy without adversly affecting your own account. Instead of fixing the character people may not play the character/hide it for fear of being suspended.

It would be useful to have the option to clean up your own house instead of waiting for someone to report you.

I realize there may be some who would attempt to use this just to have the ability to rename a character whose name they do not like, and to prevent this from occuring perhaps a policy can be in place if the submitted name does not violate the naming policy then they would be suspended for abuse of the reporting system. Another option would be to allow this self reporting for a limited period of time. 1 month for example to limit any hit on the support staff. Considering some of the information that has been expanded upon recently concerning the policy an amnesty period for cleaning up one's own house and not waiting to be reported by someone who is offended could help alot.

That is just it. What they are enforcing does not follow the advertised rating. What they are enforcing is contrary to what they do. The Damned Cleric is more of a violation than say Bad-ass. This term is normal in society, and used regularly to mean a capable and assertive person. But lets say someone named themselves Assertive Assassasin; how many asses in that? And if the person wants to be offended, as these people do Want to be offended, they are going to complain about the name having too many asses in it. Then there is Frostbite, obvioulsy GW named him to mean Chilled-member-of-the-male anatomy, because bite appears in the name and in French bite means a member of the male anatomy or something. So, based on their naming policy they have violated their own rules. They have named the primary enemy in Nightfall after an old world power. Their lack of knowledge on the derivation is unimportant. They have set themselves up to decide whose religion has value and whose does not since they are the determiners of whether or not a religous figure is major or important enough to protect or not. (It is nice to know the World Council of Churches has such an august body to check with for this information. Perhaps, Native Americans can get their religions and nationalities recognized by the UN if they pay ANet enough.)

LowOil and those in that camp have a chat filter. It is so picky that it takes letters out of the middle of words for no reason. The other day, PU was removed from a regular everyday word in a normal message. I have no idea what language has PU as a derogatory word and don't care. It is not our language and our spelling is bad enough in chat without GW making normal everyday typing worse. Further, They themselves are Hypocrites by banning name elements they themselves use, by violating their own policy. They punish players for things they violate themselves. Why? Because ANY person on the planet can look at the screen and say, "Well, letters 14839 look like they mean a bad word if transliterated a certain way into the alphabet I use. That player must be punished/banned/terminated!"

And if you read, it is not about getting them to enforce ESRB rating against players, it is exactly the opposite. The rating states Crude Humor and Strong Language may occur in the game. What they are doing is advertising a rating they only follow elements they want out of and then catering to the intolerant using it as a means of attacking others.

Once they start requiring us to learn the bad words in every language in the world where they might have a player just so we won't step on anyone's toes there is a problem. What are there now, 193 nations in the UN and how many languages in them. I already pointed out there are more than 20 languages spoken buy groups of 200,000 or more just in the US. I have already pointed out that the Hispanic male name Chachi is a reference to a part of male anatomy in Korean. So, no Hispanics are permitted to use the name Chachi because Koreans are allowed to be intolerant of Spanish heritage and culture.

When the ESRB states there can be Crude Humor or Strong Language in the game, then the moderators should accept that. They may indeed ask someone not to be a jerk, assault people, etc. There is a profound difference between condemning a person and condemning a situation. The diference between saying D@##-you and D@##-it. One is a personal assault and the other is not. But for ANet, Anklebiter is an immoral name for a pet warthog because obviously everyone knows that Bite is a slang word, in a foreign language they don't speak or interact with Ever.

So, no they are not to observe the ESRB to increase censorship, but to back down from this "Everyone should talk nice for the 5 year olds" syndrome they have suddenly caught.

Because they advertise this by placing the label on their game. No it does not require them to place violence in a game simulating gambling. If there is violence depicted in a game about gambling then they may not punish the players for depicting the same violence. This is what they are doing. Worse, they are holding players accountable for languages all over the world in the entire free market of humanity. If someone speaking Haisla decide that wart is a pejorative reference in their langauge, then a player may not have the name Warthog as part of their name. This language is spoken by about 200 people total in North America, but if they play and are offended by some element of someones name who does not speak that language then the offender must be punished and their name changed. This is in violation of the ESRB which permits offensive or crude language at the Teen level. It is also unfair because it punishes players for things they cannot be expected to know. The word bite, whether in Frostbite or in Anklebiter, does not meet the standard of being prurient by itself. There is no prurient value in Byte. These are banned for name content.

Correct. ANet violates their own rules with the content they present, while at the same time punishing players for using the same expressions. Further, ANet has a right to prevent hostile assaults upon persons. Persons and ANet do not have a right to attack people for using everyday terms and normal language because some dipwad wants to be offended or finds being offended is a good weapon to take out an opponent. If the call tag for Kaon had been "SukaDys" then there would be call for causing them to rename, and maybe take a couple days off. Since the offense was taken in a language they did not speak by someone who found it "offensive" for personal benefit, ANet was dead wrong in banning the guild for the call tag "SuKa" - which was out of a different American language, Ebonics. When ANet banned a person for the name Mr. White, a film character in a cult classic movie (Reservoir Dogs) which was the name of the Guild, they were dead wrong. There was nothing offensive in that name. There was something offensive in the person who took offense being ignorant and using their ignorance as a weapon to be intolerant.

I repeat, this should be the cornerstone of their policy:
They should only apply the standards used in the nation where in the player resides. Everyone else should Deal With It. If someone of Vietnamese descent wants to use their family name of Phuoc, even in the old transliteration of Fuk, then they should be allowed to and not treated as something dirty and socially unacceptable merely because they have a different ethnic background.

You have to scroll all the way down to the bottom of the Terms page, then follow the link to the Naming Policy page then click on the Conducts Breaches link within a paragraph. I'll make it a bit easier for you .

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

No where did I read how long each ban is set for, but the commonly held perception is first offense, 3 days, 2nd offense 2 weeks and third strike you're out.

So, if someone reports you, even maliciously (and gets away with it, because we all know it happens more often than not), your account then has a mark against it regardless of merit - by Anet's policy. That is wrong.

The ERSB does not dictate what content is in the game, they assign a consumer rank according to the content present at submission by the game's owner/maker/promoter, in this case Anet. There is a vast difference.

Anet made a game, Guild Wars. They submitted the content to ERSB for rating before marketing as required by law. ERSB ranked the content according to the level of several factors - language, violence, adult themes, etc. A rating was then assigned based upon that content. Legally there is nothing the ERSB enforcement people can do about violations of the rating unless Anet significantly changes the content to reflect an entirely different rating from the original. The content that players bring into game such as vulgar language is outside the rating and does not fall within the ERSB's bailiwick.

And since they (Anet) wrote in their own little clause stating they can enforce or change just about any policy they want to at any time with no warning whatsoever - and we all 'signed it - there's not a lot anyone can do except complain and hope they listen.

For a teen rated game, i have to say, that the language is far worse in GW compare to Requiem-Bloodymare, practically no one uses foul language in that game in the few months that i've been playing it, and no one ever try to say anything religious or political or racist in that game ever. lol, but GW seems to have a lot of people wanting to voice their political and religious and race issue.


lol, if you want a game wihtout cussing and "creative names" choose one that cater to Mature players rofl. teen needs babysitters! rofl. when will they grow up.

The rating of the game is the content of the game itself, not the content people bring into it such as language. I.e. the actual storyline and narration of GW does not contain overt vulgarity - the players bring it. The rating pertains to the violence level (hey, killing monsters is still killing), use of alcohol (self-explanatory), etc.

There are jerks around the globe who like nothing more than to act like arses. It's what they do, how they define themselves. In most instances, it's throwing our cultural slurs, political bombs or downright vulgar language. There's nothing wrong with discussions on religion or politics or culture, and I've been glad to see several in outposts that were very mature, open and informative without denigrating into schoolyard bully tactics or rudeness. But let's face it, not all people are very mature (and I'm not thinking in chronology, either!).

Isn't that the paragraph I already have in italics in my post?

Have to agree with you that this is wrong especially when it was malicious. I found where it is stated that marks expire after a period of time but once again that time period is not given.

Is a 72 hour period a "RELATIVELY BRIEF" suspension when used in conjunction with the following statement that if you slip up once in a great while you will not suffer dire consequences. That 72 hours could wipe out a whole weekend event if you get reported at the wrong time.

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.

You are kinda funny. Most Americans I know are not multilingual. But aside from that, I am not advocating that all Americans need to choose English as their gaming language. I've always been surprised that there are no Spanish speaking servers in the US districts because there are pretty much more Spanish speakers than English speakers in most of the US as far as I know.I am not even talking about server languages anyway because we can travel freely between language servers. I am simply talking about an account language. With that you can go to any server with that.

In the end, you still don't address the point I made which is that I feel it's unfair that my character and pet names now have to be judged for political correctness in more and more languages. That to me is wrong when it comes to an indiscriminate blacklist as there seems to be now. See, people always shout about their language needing to be respected but by imposing too many rules now it's my culture that's being disrespected.

I find it disrespectful to myself that I cannot use the word "bite" which is a perfectly fine word in English and as far as I know is not considered profanity in any English dictionary nor has it been removed from any of those dictionaries but Anet puts it on the blacklist because of the French language?...If that's doesn't seem bizarre to you or Anet then I am sorry but that's just way out there.

Anet wants a naming policy? Fair enough, but as an English speaking gamer I want my English language to be respected just the same. I full well understand I cannot use words like d*ck, c*nt or the likes but don't tell me as an Enlish user that I cannot use a perfectly normal word because some other language has it as a "bad word". Sorry that doesn't jive.

Now, if someone abuses any loophole in the rules and makes an English sounding name specifically to annoy the French or whoever then there may be grounds for censorship but not as indiscriminately as a blacklist, which to me is simply a matter of laziness or cost saving from Anet.

I'll live without the use of the word bite...Apparently Biatch was not a problem...go figure.

All in all the blacklist is too long and the methods Anet use for temp bans and such (if I understand it correctly you can get a temp ban when 2 or more people report your name WITHOUT there being an investigation first, which is sick if you think about it) are rather crude and I think the whole "feeling offended" thing is being abused at least as much as people finding loopholes for character names.

My guess is that Anet don't have the funds (or the will to invest them) to make the blacklist shorter which may mean more work for customer support and perhaps that's a reality we have to accept if that's true. But in principle I think it's wrong to sell out your own culture because you are overreacting to the needs of others who perhaps shout louder about it. As we say in my country "the loudmouths own half the world" and I believe Anet has let the pendulum swing too far in the other direction now, perhaps because they are trying to be too considerate.

This is exactly what most of us are trying to say! WHY should we have to be judged by every other language spoken when naming our characters, considering acronyms for our guilds and chatting? And that question is the same whether you speak English, French, Swahili or whatever.

If the word "bite" means something naughty in French, then I'll do my darnedest not to have my pet out when questing with a Frenchman who might possibly be offended at some unknown point in time. And immature people use the phrase "bite me" to mean something different than "please take a nibble". Does that mean the word itself if to be banned because it is sometimes used as childish slang?

The entire policy seems a bit arbitrary. No one has yet to say why the word "butt" is accepted by GW but "ass" is banned. They both refer to the same piece of anatomy. Further, one can even be a type of animal!

"Being or feeling offended" is highly subjective. Many things that offend one person do not even register on another's list. Why, then, does it follow that a game try to cater to the possible rather than the probable in the naming policy? Yes, overt vulgarity and obscenity should be banned, I think we all agree. Overt attempts at denigration of others (racial slurs, etc) should be disallowed, I think we all agree. "Cutsey" (which aren't really that cute) attempts at getting around the policy should be changed - biatch is clearly an example yet it is allowed. Not that there's anything really wrong with the word, but if you don't allow b*tch, then don't allow biatch which is clearly meant as the same darned thing!

The sentence in the policy that no name can be the name of a real person is *ludicrous* since that is nigh impossible to achieve! If I wish to use my real name as my character, will Anet ban me? What if someone's favorite (or hated) great uncle's maiden aunt had the same name I just used for my character, and that someone had an unpleasant flashback and reported me for violation of policy? Should I be banned?

Again, if the naming policy is implemented in character creation, it would eliminate much of this problem. If he!! is inappropriate, then it should not be allowed from the outset, yet I see many names with it incorporated. If "lord" refers to a major religious figure (and it does), then it should not be allowed at character creation - although that is just assinine since "lord" is an honorary title of landed gentry or nobleman. If "bite" is so highly offensive - and apparently it is to Anet since it's not allowed - then they'd best get changing Frostbite and several other similarly "offensive" names in their own game.

Language is very fluid by nature. Why Anet has suddenly decided that it needs to try and solidify and codify it is beyond comprehension.

Not a problem to me and I'd wager the majority of players, just must be a problem for you and those that would abuse the system or cry foul everytime someone spanks them.

You say "Pu" is filtered, I saw no such filter when I typed "punk".

Also as I pointed out, The ESRB rating did NOT say Crude Humor and Strong Language whatsoever. ESRB ratings give "Content Descriptors" which list items that resulted in their rating. The front of the box gives the rating and the back of the box gives the descriptors. As I pointed out and posted, it did NOT include strong language or Crude Humor in the descriptor, it ONLY listed Violence - Scenes involving aggressive conflict. May contain bloodless dismemberment.

Just because it was rated Teen did not mean the game included every descriptor which gave a Teen rating, far from it, it put in descriptors to exactly say what content the purchaser was to expect in the game.

Here is a list of possible descriptors that the ESRB uses.

ESRB Content Descriptors

* Alcohol Reference - Reference to and/or images of alcoholic beverages
* Animated Blood - Discolored and/or unrealistic depictions of blood
* Blood - Depictions of blood
* Blood and Gore - Depictions of blood or the mutilation of body parts
* Cartoon Violence - Violent actions involving cartoon-like situations and characters. May include violence where a character is unharmed after the action has been inflicted
* Comic Mischief - Depictions or dialogue involving slapstick or suggestive humor
* Crude Humor - Depictions or dialogue involving vulgar antics, including “bathroom” humor
* Drug Reference - Reference to and/or images of illegal drugs
* Fantasy Violence - Violent actions of a fantasy nature, involving human or non-human characters in situations easily distinguishable from real life
* Intense Violence - Graphic and realistic-looking depictions of physical conflict. May involve extreme and/or realistic blood, gore, weapons and depictions of human injury and death
* Language - Mild to moderate use of profanity
* Lyrics - Mild references to profanity, sexuality, violence, alcohol or drug use in music
* Mature Humor - Depictions or dialogue involving "adult" humor, including sexual references
* Nudity - Graphic or prolonged depictions of nudity
* Partial Nudity - Brief and/or mild depictions of nudity
* Real Gambling - Player can gamble, including betting or wagering real cash or currency
* Sexual Content - Non-explicit depictions of sexual behavior, possibly including partial nudity
* Sexual Themes - References to sex or sexuality
* Sexual Violence - Depictions of rape or other violent sexual acts
* Simulated Gambling - Player can gamble without betting or wagering real cash or currency
* Strong Language - Explicit and/or frequent use of profanity
* Strong Lyrics - Explicit and/or frequent references to profanity, sex, violence, alcohol or drug use in music
* Strong Sexual Content - Explicit and/or frequent depictions of sexual behavior, possibly including nudity
* Suggestive Themes - Mild provocative references or materials
* Tobacco Reference - Reference to and/or images of tobacco products
* Use of Drugs - The consumption or use of illegal drugs
* Use of Alcohol - The consumption of alcoholic beverages
* Use of Tobacco - The consumption of tobacco products
* Violence - Scenes involving aggressive conflict. May contain bloodless dismemberment
* Violent References - References to violent acts

Please refrain from saying I or anybody else was warned about the language when purchasing the game. It is a bald face lie and I tire of you perpetuating it endlessly.

Here once again for the umpteen time I post my game USRB rating descriptor located on the back of the box.



You can try to photoshop in the words Crude Humor and Strong Language to try prove your point I guess, but so far nobody has produced a box with said ratings. The rating descriptor only says "Violence" .... nothing more, nothing less.

Here is the Rating and descriptor that was on the back of my Factions box..



Notice this time Anet added a few descriptions, but again you will NOT find Crude Humor and Strong Language as pertaining to game play whatsoever. It just doesn't exist. Period.

I do not have a Nightfall box, I purchased electronically, so I can not offer a photo of it, but it would be interesting to see what it was rated on the back of the box with the descriptors for discussion sake.

One can say I signed those rights away with the terms of use when I started playing, but Here is the terms of use I took when I started playing.... Using the way back machine...

http://us.ncsoft.com/en/legal/user-a...f-conduct.html

I will quote...

"You may not use sexually explicit, harmful, threatening, abusive, defamatory, obscene, hateful, racially or ethnically offensive language."

/end quote

This was rule number 3.

Yes, I know ANET changes things constantly... they even added a filter, but nowhere was it stated on the box about the language problem and the rules of conduct at the time were in compliance with what the box stated.

Welcome to a world of hipocrisy.

As I said before Anet reserves the right to be judge and jury and nothing you can say can stop them Fitz. All you are doing is beating your head against a brick wall and showing your "I" while doing so. But, let him rant folks it's his opinion and nothing else and we all know about opinions. Everyone has one and nobody else cares about it. lol

I do not remember the word, but I remember Falcondance and I discussing the weirdness of it. I do have a witness that it happened.

Where you Chose to stop looking on the box met your limited interest so you put forth no additional effort.

Because it was rated Teen you should expect all applicable descriptors to be possible.

You assume that the industry is responsible to babysit you. I see you don't want to accept that you are too lazy to research product information before you purchase it. Now you want to hold everyone else accountable for your unwillingness to function and lack of tolerance.

I will not be held accountable for meanings I did not intend when I created my characters, nor will I accept it. I and Cthulhu are in 1,000% agreement. If I name a character or pet Skidwallerwopwop it is suddenly supposed to be somekind of insult because the letters w o p appear in it. That it has a neat sonic resonance, and only that, is unimportant. As long as someone like you Wants to be offended then I have to change the name and take days off. What you are really teaching your children is that intolerance is a tool for use and abuse to advance the self over and against others. I can only assume from this you are a fellow American, but exactly the kind my parents raised me not to be.

Odd how the post above Red's is not trolling to you? Yet Red's quoting policy to make a point is.

What was the difference... perhaps sides taken.

Interpretation... you can't find a box with the what you said was on it at all.

That defeats the purpose of descriptors doesn't it. There would be absolutely no reason to have descriptors if that was the case. Try again.

No I said exactly what I meant. Here is my exact words... "Please refrain from saying I or anybody else was warned about the language when purchasing the game. It is a bald face lie and I tire of you perpetuating it endlessly"

Falcondance happens to be a moderator at a forum with over 300,000 members. Her observation here is rather accurate. Red Sonya and I have butted heads before, and Red Sonya would decry the sky as orange if I took the stance that it was blue. She has nothing of value to consider.


You are correct in that Strong Lyrics does not appear as a descriptor. But Strong language does appear as the definition. Attention to detail is lacking and the reason you failed in your research skills to begin with. I did not claim content descriptors applied that were not in the definition of the Teen rating. I only claimed those that are its definition.

You had as much opportunity to be warned as anyone else willing to put in the effort to look up the material. Like most people you did not. Just as most people merely click accept rather than read the entire EULA. You feel rooked because you did not make the effort and are now mad because I have pointed it out.

Actually, LowOil, Sonya was quoting something from a post of mine - taken out of context (so it made little sense by itself). And the post above hers was one in which I was responding to something/someone else, so I'm not sure what point you're trying to make unless you are yourself hiding under a bridge....

By the way, were the sirens a false alarm yesterday? Everyone ok your way?

Ok, the post above Red's made little sense to me, but if in reference to something you said, then I fully apologize. Half the comments I can't tell if they are directed towards me or not since they tend to take a generic open statement policy which is hard to follow. I usually frequent forums where you pinged the person you were responding to, this style is just hard for me to follow the exact current ebb and flow.

We went to the basement, rotation in sky was reported but nothing came about with it. But to be honest, I am scared to death of tornadoes and have even built a special reinforced area to weather storms in the basement. Last week we had tornadoes 3 miles west of us that did a lot of damage, one of my workmates lost everything. I am a big ugly fellow, but them twisters scare the Anet censored words out of me.

Hey red this should keep you busy for awhile, don't get too excited about it...

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...php?t=10355750

enjoy sucking the fun from these people...

Yes, I am correct that the descriptors I posted the screenshots of from the guildwars box did not include strong language. Yes you are correct that the rating system uses a disclaimer that it does not have to list all a game's content in the descriptors. One would think it would, but it has the lawyer talk that prevails society now of disclaimers for about everything.

More importantly on your behalf is this tidbit...

Online Rating Notice

Online games that include user-generated content (e.g., chat, maps, skins) carry the notice Online Interactions Not Rated by the ESRB (formerly Game experience may change during online play) to warn consumers that content created by players of the game has not been rated by the ESRB. This is used to describe the fact that players online may speak in an inappropriate manner, or use profanity (which cannot be effectively rated by ESRB), as well as to warn about possible mods which may not be given a rating by the ESRB.[5]

No I don't feel ashamed that lawyer talk and lack of lawyer research twarped my ability to know a rating posted on the package was absolutely useless.

No I will not stop using my small voice to try to influence Anet to try to keep the game from molting into a cesspool repository.

I'm pretty sure we can all agree that this game does need some form of censoring. Blatantly obvious insulting names should be banned, simply to prevent the game from turning into a "try-to-beat-the-word-filter"-thing.

However, the problem arises when you consider all your supported languages (which are, for Guild Wars, quite a lot) and slang from those languages. While doing so, you pretty much create a situation where there is a real chance that people pick an offensive name without even knowing they did.

You need to draw the line somewhere, and imo, right now, they've drawn that line waaay too far into the "puritain side".

This needs very strong emphasis.

I was serious when I said everyone who plays and reads these forums should do two things:

1. report 1-2 violators per day, according to the "clarification" of the new and "improved" EULA

2. encourage everyone you know to do the same.

We all know exactly what constitutes inappropriate, now...act on it! I hardly think 1-2 /reports per day constitute abuse, especially if the names fall into the new rules. Remember kiddies, no religious figures so no god or gods (big or little "g"), no one with monk in the name...never mind it's a class...they are religious figures and must pay for their blasphemy..."real life violence"...ooooh, all those names with smash, hit, kill etc...obviously not fit for viewing and should not be hard to find. Now if even 1/1000th of us were to do this we would generate around 6,ooo-12,000 reports per day! Just think of all the naughty people we will force ANet to review and ban...My only fear is that they won't be able to keep up. It would be a shame if they had to abandon the whole process...I for one will do my part.

If you want to make an appropriate name, take a lesson from me...I just made a monk named Naughty Euphemism...can you get banned for a name referring to a bannable name? Now, all I need to know is: Do I report someone with a name like Bumpity Bump Bump for violence,sex or copyright infringement...? (see Frosty the Snowman lyrics and tell me the chorus doesn't sound a little pervy).

Does the "no RL violence" apply to non-english names too?

As a teen rated game, i think, in my humble opinion, offensive names often is just an offensive names, unlike some people who called themselves bear would more likely turns out to be a pedo.

Not only a pedo, but a cheap and lazy bastard too.

...playing that MMO we won't name

ArenaNet, you have to rename Brawling Headbutt or remove it from the game. It references real-life violence, you even banned a character for having that name.

Well, I received word back from Regina regarding my husband's sudden banning and forced renaming of characters (some nearly 4 years old). According to Support, his names had always violated the policy (by "intent", they "feel", regardless of spelling or reality) and, thanks to a couple "offended" players reporting (his perma sin whom he mistakenly left AFK at Umbral), they finally "caught" him. Ok, I will agree - and he has all along - that the 'sin's name likely violated the policy but his others did NOT. Support cannot differentiate between prepositions and nouns. The latter was my conclusion, not, of course, theirs.

Oh, and Anet has not, according to Regina, stepped up enforcement in any way. Banning incidents have not increased in number or exactitude. That is perception, apparently, not reality. We're just imagining it all. (The last, again, my conclusion.)

Which goes to argue two points already brought up in this thread but which Anet seems to be completely missing:

Anet has become TOO zealous in babysitting, umm, 'protecting' individuals who may possibly become offended at some point in time at which they could encounter a person not sharing their tender sensibilities or their native language. Oh wait, Support says they haven't begun enforcing any more frequently or zealously. Apparently they're just four years behind the game.

The Naming Policy should be implemented and enforced strictly at character creation, not at some unknown point in the future when Support gets around to it after a person has invested time and effort into a character (by a certain identity).

(Although I do stand by my words, I do thank Regina for her looking into the matter.)

Falcon, did he incur a suspension for each infraction or were they all lumped into one. If so how long? Also did they inform him what kind of "marks" were applied to his account? I am very curious since this goes back to a previous post I have about "dire consequences"

This naming policy 'witch hunt' is not only against freedom of speech of some sort but also against common sense. I think it's about time Anet decided what's more important - right of the individual or right of the society as a whole. Personally I favour right of the individual.

Ok, the BIG THING here is that the Naming Policy HAS NOT CHANGED, they are just reminding us of it and reinforcing the fact they are now policing it properly!

He was banned for three days (72 hrs). No warning; his game err=07 at some point and I closed it down not realizing there was a problem. Later when he tried to log, he found out he'd been banned. As far as we knew, it was for the one name which, as I've said all along, we thought likely violated the policy (yes, it was childish of him but sometimes even the most mature person gets fed up with stupidity and lashes out inappropriately).

But when he tried to log into his others, who do NOT share the name but rather a previously accepted alternative, he had to rename those as well. Seems everything was tarred with the same brush because Support could not be bothered to employ common sense and the benefit of a doubt.

We are left to assume he has one mark against his account as per the vague terms outlined under the Conduct Breaches form. But we really don't know since Support is incredibly unwilling or unable to provide definitive terms, time constraints, etc. when speaking of assignation of disciplinary action(s).