Guild Wars Bot Policy

Then where, EXACTLY, is the line?

This is directed at both sides. I am on wavering towards the freedom of expression side, but I agree some of the names I have seen do not belong in the Guild Wars setting.

So where, exactly, is the line?

I would submit that any name that tends to be made to be insulting towards those that read it, I.E. Deez Nutz, should be removed. While names that could be taken wrong, but are really designed to be funny, or make fun of their creator, should be left, I.E. Chevs Trophy Wench (and she is my trophy BiP master BTW).

So where's that line again?

That's a hard line to define.

Chev, you and I are both in the same boat of where can it stop and still give people their freedom. However, people are also very determined to be offensive whenever they can, and so finding people with Nig o' Bigger instead of an easily thought of alternative will continue, they'll just try to be smarter about it.

At the end of the day, it is Anet's baby, and they can do with it what they want. If they wanted to go in and call us all George W Bush they could do it. But I still think they're listening, and hopefully this will have an effect....

Personally, I think if it is a name that wouldn't fly on your paycheck, it shouldn't fly at all.

I do realise some players have never actually earned a paycheck, but that is beside the point.

Well, I did my part and reported a bot creator today.

Normally I only read the threads on a daily basis, but I coudn't help but respond to this one in particular. I tried to read every reply, but it was just getting old. The question i have is can't it be possible to build a "/bot" reporting function right into the game, just like there is the /bug function? I realize going to the website is not that difficult, but if setting up some type of in game /bot reporting function was possible, I'd guess we would see more people reporting such problems instead of just unchecking the local chat window and ignoring it.
As for putting in some sort of restricting guidline for what names are allowed, and what names are not, people really just need to relax. It's not a perfect world. Let the devs decide what is acceptable and what isn't. They're good people with good morals (i'm assuming of course.) This may not be perfect, but nobody can deny that it isn't better then no type of regulation at all. If you do see a name you don't like, change districts. It's just really not that big of a deal, it's just a game.
so relax!

yeah who cares about names
nobody is forcing you to have to talk to them

you people getting all riled up over names is laughable

The devs should at least allow people to rename their character to something more appropriate or not offensive instead of outright deleting their account. People pay $50 for this game. Their account shouldn't be deleted because of their names. I agree the inappropriate names has no place in Guild Wars but deleting their accounts is ridiculous. ANet should ask the individual to rename his character and ANet will implement it within 24-48 hrs. During this time, the individual cannot access Guild Wars until his character(s) name has been changed to something non-offensive. I think this is a good policy.

Well, this went OT fast :P

The only names i really have gripes with are those "leet" ones, and the ones that have horrible sexual references in them. (Sexual, anatomical, you get the idea)

I certainly don't think botting should be allowed. That's cheating, simple. However it occurs because people think they must grind to achieve success. This can easily be corrected (hint hint).

CtrlAltDel - That works in real life, not in something where you are in a town for roughly 50-60% of your time, and that person is spamming idiotic "OMG WTS: SEX" or "WTS 1337 UBOER DR4G3n SorD"

Seems that the more innappropriate the name is, the less mature the player who uses him is.

Token Black Warrior is a great name, it does speak to American culture.
(Had to watch a certain cartoon from the 70s or so in my government course for economics, it was called "Big Daddy and the Kingdom of Mocha" or something like that. Because of the racial issues at that period in American history, some producers decided to include a "token" black person. Sure enough, there was a black man in dreds with a jamaican accent serving as the king's messanger.)

I just told that because the movie was hilarious.

Oi, the narrow-minded, egomaniacal attitudes of others...

LOL those were some funny names. The question is: Would you GROUP with them?

I made a text bot that tells people using WTS, Selling, For sale, Sale in public chat, to whisper them to "try the trade tab..." or "Please use trade tab for selling..." I used it for one hour and pissed off a bunch of sellers that would not stop spamming the public chat window. I stopped using it after the initial testing. I'm not going to make it a public release, but I have given it to a developer friend to evaluate.

The people spamming the public channel didn't like having a reply whisper every time they posted a sale message in public and soon left the district and went to dist 1, OR started using the trade tab, which is what it is for...

Hehe, fun stuff. I find that I'm not the only one replying to:
OMGBBQ!!!! LEET Dragun Sord!!! 13-21

or

UBER GOLD BOW, 12-25 PM

in the public chats

There is usually 3 people (me included) chastising, making fun of, berating, and verbally assaulting the poor fellow who insists on doing that. (Not the ones that accidentally do so.)

I have one question though:
I've pm'd several people after reading their offers only to have numerous messages not replied to. Now, either they don't want money, or they are a bot, or they are stupid. How many of those apply?

The answers can only be honestly answered by *adults with either a moral up bringing, or have children. The rest of the people here will argue , its not fair, I demand freedom of speech etc etc, with very little though for others.
Next time you name your character think, Would I want my little brother / little sister asking my parents what that name ment, or would I want my children quoting that name in shool / public / at home.
As somebody else stated the game has a 12 + rating, NOT 18+.

And to be honest players with 'not a healer' or 'Hung Well' as there names does not inspire or promote any kind of fantasy or imersion within the game world.

Alas for the anything to function there must always be rules.

*Adults are people aged 12-99 with a sence of self responsibility and take into accout the feelings of others, Dont do unto others what you wouldn't have done to yourself.

I relate with how names can be offensive.... and chances are most of us agree that it's a difficult line to draw (to be fair, to be practical etc.)

Let me ask this though... if, say, all players had the tools to design their own emotes, and then one person came up with the male warrior dance (or female elementalist dance)....

...

Now tell me it wouldn't be banned!!

People play to role-play... and when they see their ripped toon pelvic-thrusting like a gay sailor hunk... of course they'll have some fun role-playing... hahaha

It's inevitable.

/hmmmm ... this game was modeled/keyframed with what software???

That's awesome. It'd help cut down on spamming assuming it won't get exploited to do other things.

Oh but they do.

People love to snag me, invite me, no matter how many times I reject. I have to map warp to make it stop

They could add a feature to next patch which automatically gives an error message when you are trying to use words "buying", "selling", "WTB", "WTS", etc. in local chat. It would be that easy.

BTW: You could improve the ignore function with couple things:

you could ignore people just clicking their name in chat window just like when you are whispering. You could choose ignore status from couple levels like "ignore whisper only", "ignore all text", "ignore all text, trading, invite" or something like that.

yes unfortunately that is a problem with bots. and why they are being banned outright. because people are using them for commerce, and other things, which arena does not want happening... so to be safe ALL bots are banned even ones like the one I mentioned, which I was happy to comply and not use. since it was just an experiment anyway, and it only was used for 1 hr, I didn't have cause to use it again... But forwarded it on to the developers to see and find ways to lock out that method, which they now have...