Sex talk and other offensive comments

Ok, now that one is a bit demanding.

It's a free, non-subscription fee game. They're paying for new content developement, server fees, etc. without charging you. If you wanted moderators in every district of every city of every region, well, you could imagine the extra expenses that would add up.

And even so, punishing them doesn't unsay what they've already said. No matter how hard you try, you can NOT stop people from breaking the rules, or there wouldn't be a need for them. You can only try and deter them.

Filters, for example, are attempts at prevention, and you know how successful they are; They have to be balanced to filter out things without getting rediculous (Beat me [As in, such and such beat me up], is 'cursing' in Maple Story. There're tons of phrases that get auto-censored in Maple Story that are 100% harmless. I have to pick apart them when they tell me I can't say it for cursing to figure out what I said wrong, only to find out it's hardly inappropriate), and then, they can almost always censor bypass.
Such as rearranging 2 letters, or using spaces/dashes/symbols. GR|S, ala gamefaqs, is a simple censor bypass that most filters wouldn't catch. Just replace that with your favourite obscenity, and voila.

That being said, does it really bother you that they choose to have the people offended by things submit reports, who can be in numerous places, report a wide variety of things from different cultural standpoints, and do it for free, instead of in-game moderators who would, what, wait in towns all day reading the chat?
How would they also moderate all of the arena matches filled with VERY offensive things (said generally by losers, but also by poor sportsman winners), the tombs, and guild versus guild?
How would they moderate things said in languages they don't speak?

Leaving it to the players covers far more ground and saves them money. That they even do anything at all is a blessing to count. Many MMORPG's, especially free ones, start out with policies against cursing and what-not, but then they end up being occupied with numerous hacked account cases (more often than not, the victim gave the password to a friend. Because they didn't pay for the game, they get careless, and then because of their screwup, make a big deal out of it, yell at the devs for having poor security on the game, and lie and say they got hacked.) They simply don't have the time and resources to constantly address these things.

I have to agree that you can't stop these things from happening and that you'll just have to learn to ignore it. I'm a female elementist in guild wars, so I've had people ask me to do extremely weird things. Luckily I normally have no idea what they're asking me and my friend is smart enough to know that I don't want to know. I think that people should keep these things either in pm or to themselves. There may be people who are just like me and have no idea what they're talking about and dont' want to know. Though I would complain to AN about aeromancer armour since it is a little suggestive. Can anyone tell me how to file a complaint?

There reason why there is probably a lot of sex talk, is due to the fact there is a bunch of immature virgin little boys who get all happy when they remove the armors of the female characters. Some people just don't know how to handle themselves when they see a Cartoon Character Female in underwear. Especially the idiots who run around saying "I'M NUDEY!" Should be a /shoot emote to just kill them while they are walking. But that is me. Anyhow I agree with you, but you just need to understand they are immature, and don't know how to act their age with sexual talking.

I understand that they are just being immature, but I just saw the rest of the armour sets an elementist can have. Sadly to say, I think the pyromancer set is the only one that's not really suggesting anything. I may be a little immature in saying this, but I don't enjoy running around with a bunch of strangers fighting monsters in an armour that pretty much just covers the parts that aren't supposed to be seen in public. I put up with the aeromancer armour just for the stats, until a friend made a comment that made me realize that I just couldn't put up with it anymore. I'm quite sure I'm not the only one who's unhappy about how suggestive some things in Guild Wars can be.

Does the Ignore list filter public chat too, or just private messages?

i male and i play female chars, when im with my guild we fk around all the time, its just funny gettin the chars to do random stuff, i never do it in pub chat though, i did it in pub chat by accident once, im like "woops"

just my 2 cents.

It is getting pretty bad. I do hold sex in itself as a major and even good part of life. And this is killing my whole view of it.

Think of it this way, If you knew this girl (or guy if you are a girl) that you really loved. You planned to marry her, your relationship wasn't just for messing around. This was real... Now the problem was, she was respectable, she thought the same out you, felt the same way, and she never once (or has changed since) had or had the intention to mess around with any guy, however, every person says something perverted about her. You end up in another state and there are these guys who dont even know her saying stuff about her and her "features". With this happening you find it very hard to keep her in your top most respect.

Now try to understand what I mean. The girl in this story will symbolize sex (after marriage -purity- ), the real way, the real deal, the great stuff. Now the perverts symbolize, well the perverts in Guild Wars, its hard to keep your sights on a pure life if everbody around (and in game) talks about sex as a perverted thing. Within this game I have seen horny warriors, female characters selling their bodies (prostitutes), massive sex parties, and just about anytime someone says they are 12 years old someone in your district is bound to mention that he has *ahem* small... uh, stuff.

Try to stay with me here... If everyone was talking about your girl (going back to the story) that way, well first you would want to shoot them, then make it against the law!

Basicly saying, I'd like to think of sex in a good way, not happening easy when I play Guild Wars.

For some of us the issue is how i just put it. For others it is just inappropriate(sp?).

But there are also you people who are already perverts and just dont seem to care. If it doesnt bother you, what does that say? It says its not important to you.

And that is one of the reasons why this is an issue.

Regarding the post of Mercury Angel:

Why should I be responsible for saving AN any money? You still don't get it. I PAID to play the game, NOT to enforce AN/NC Soft's EULA. I've stopped trying to help. I've reported some of the most vile names imaginable, and those clows still show up playing on my friends list. You want me to police a game I paid for, pay me for the time involved.

I don't remember about hearing of any online game rerated because of its players. Just about every recent online RPG that I looked up on the ESRB website has a Teen rating, and the same thing can happen in all of them.

In other words, there are always jerks out there ruining your experience. Just report them and move on. That's how they enforce it, from responses from players.

They are suggestive, but suggestive themes don't get more than a Teen rating in ESRB.



And Phineas, an online world is akin to the real world, like some people have already mentioned. You're not going to have any realistically reasonable way of removing every single person who violates the EULA. How can ANet police every single district, every single line of chat without charging a monthly fee or something? It's not just about cost, there would have to be hundreds of people working around the clock to maintain it.

I don't like any of this either, but I put up with it every day outside, just by ignoring it.

If you find sex interesting and non-offensive at all times, you should discuss it in OTHER places than a MMO game.

I love common sense don't you?

If my gameplay of a nice gratuitous violent game is being interrupted by sex, it better be in real life. Pixels don't do it for me.

This is a quote from TS. We were in Tombs, and one person on our team decides to unblock local:

"I just turned local back on, and, uh, what the hell?!?"

That pretty much says it all

I don't know what real world all of you live in, but I don't experience anything in my real world comparable to the in game world in GW. Not the dirty talk, swearing, or innuendo within the game. And I don't live in a small religous-driven town either. And when I have come across it in my world, I'm not the only one who asks they either shut up or leave.

There is no defense for this, no matter how hard some of you may try to rationalize it. It doesn't belong in the game, period. If I wanted to play an X rated game, I can probably buy one if I so choose. But Guild Wars is NOT my idea of fun dealing with these losers.

it's all over the place. Maybe you are ignoring it and don't realize it.

The funny thing is the words we think of as dirty was the result of the Normans hating the Anglo-Saxons. Go ahead and google it if you don't believe me.

I don't experience it all the time, but when I used to work in a mall or go around my city just about anything could happen. But there are places where it doesn't happen too.

I understand if you don't like this Phineas, most of us don't either, we DON'T want this to exist. But with the world as it is today, and that there are a bunch of immature people playing this game, somewhere between the ages of 13-18, the fact is that trying to "tone it down" won't really work.

And just wondering, but have you seen any online game that successfully regulates all this? Because I haven't.

The anonymity of the internet removes most of the consequences of being offensive. There is nothing that can be done about it.

Language filters don't work, and they never can. The only thing that has even a slightest chance of working is moderation, but that is time-consuming and opens up other problems.

If you are easily offended or upset by coarse language then you'll have to find a way to get past it. Either that or stop playing, it's not right but it's the way it is.

No I haven't seen that. In fact this is my first true online game because I will not pay for a game then pay every month to play the game.

They could regulate this problem. I have suggested before a Player Police Force. I know...I know I have heard it all on how it WILL NEVER WORK. But then again have they even tried this? It is not like the DEVs have NO idea of what players that can be trusted with this function. They have been in game, they have been here and other web forums. They have a pretty good idea from reading our posts here for example of what they can expect from a handfull of us.

The Idea of a Player Police Force should be at least considered in the future of online games. Anyone have a better idea? Can anyone build upon my idea? I know many of you can rip apart my idea, but can anyone Build on it?

They need a Sheriff to clean up this town....

First off, don't take this as an insult, I'm just using something you said to make a point.

Based on the "..ask them to shut up and leave." comment, you seem to have a mentality I see alot where I live (Bible Belt state). If 10 people are in a room watching a movie, and person 'A' walks in and is offended by the language, person 'A' feels that because they dislike it, everyone else should as well, and the movie should be turned off. That is selfish. What should happen, is person 'A' should either deal with it, or leave. Phin, this isn't just directed at you. People who are cybering and all that crap in the local chat. If they want to do that in private, ok, but they are in the minority in that public setting. Like above, most people don't want to see that. They should either stop or leave.

People need to learn to respect eachother...

Yes, the worst place to find this is in the random areana lobby.

Anet should make a behavioral policy that involves (Punishment wise) iron maidens, hooks and 38. pistols. That would clear up this mess.

I have. It was a game called "Dark Ages" that used a player police force and government system set to monator the player police force.

Alot of people say to the idea of a player police force "WELL! Then they would be able to banish people for no reason!": this is rediculous. Obviously Anet would set up a policy to suspend and ban missbehaving and power abusing guards.

I would think that anyone using that arguement just doesn't want things to be orderly. I mean, I'de just die if I went a day without drawing reproductive organs on the mini-map!!

Yeah, a big problem is that there are untrustworthy players out there that will end up as part of the police, corruption if you will. That would create another whole group of complaints against the police, sadly. I know, I'd volunteer in a heartbeat to be part of the Player Police Force, but I can't see a plausible way to implement it.

Also, I used to play Runescape before this...there was some content available for free, and $5 a month wasn't that bad. However, RS also has the same prostitute/swear/bad things problems, so I don't see how the OP thought that Guild Wars would magically solve this problem.