Guild Wars 2

Today, while playing in WvW, I read this exact line in /team chat: “they took god”.

Now, neither my real-life religious beliefs, nor anyone else’s for that matter, are anyone’s business. And being offended by the politically incorrect, wrong, or “in-vain” use of the word “God” definitely does not compare with the wrong use of any other random word like “apple” or whatever.

The lowercasing of the word “God” to focus on it being a “noun” like any noun—rather than also a “name” in the real word—is not appreciated to begin with; and I’ve been there and done that and had long etymological debates about this already. However, the pivotal point of such debates is always the practical, actual use of the word “God” in the real world, regardless to how you want to etymologically trace it or linguistically debate it. No matter what you say or argue with, the fact of the matter is: three major real-life religions use the word “God” as the name of the deity they worship; and nothing is going to change that, especially not any Hebrew, Aramaic, or Arabic names you flash to try and claim that that’s the name of the deity worshipped in the real world. For billions of English-speaking religious people, they just know “God”, and they don’t know Him by any other “name”; I hope that makes enough sense.

Now imagine how it feels for some of the more religious among them to read you writing or saying “a god” or “god this and god that”, in other words, using the name in vain. I assure you it isn’t a pleasant feeling.

You can call someone like me oversensitive or crazy or whatever as much as you want; I’m not writing all this from an emotional perspective so you can rightfully flash those subjective opinions about my person, or for any insults or mockery of my supposed feelings to be relevant for that matter.

With all that preparation for any hateful counter-arguments, to hopefully save the time for would-be responding people, I can simply make my important points:

1. The game is already following a cultural trend of disrespecting the real-life use of “God”, and lowercasing the word and misusing it, by disregarding the existence of the perfectly valid and much better alternative word “deity” when you want to refer to “a deity” or to “deities”. Some religious people are silent and giving a blind eye to this, as it is not just an issue with the writers in ArenaNet, but a cultural and media issue being pushed by many other companies, developers, and publishers. Please realize that some religious people are already being tolerant and patient, although it would’ve been much better to avoid any lowercase “god” and use “deity” instead.

2. The least you can do is to please avoid a name for a PvP spot, like “Godsword”, because we all know that with time, people tend to shorten such names, and it is extremely jarring, detrimental to immersion and fun, and offensive, when I am trying to have fun and play a game with religious folks and atheists alike, to be interrupted by a comment in public chat like “they took god”. And you can imagine the kinds of much worse comments that some immature atheists would love to come up with, just to purposefully hurt the feelings of religious players, then smirk with a sense of self-admiration and victory for practicing sociopathy against religious people, and hiding behind a farce of talking about “Godsword” camp.

3. If any developer or decision maker is reading, I’d like to let you know that using “deity” instead of the lowercased “God” would be very much appreciated. I love this game very much already, and love the sense of cooperation and team spirit and caring community that you are promoting with the very game mechanics; now I hope that you can extend all those lovely decisions to accommodate religious people who believe in God and love Him, and also love this game and are happy to play it with anyone regardless to religious beliefs. If you can show some respect, or at least politeness and consideration for our real-life beliefs, and change the way you write and name things in the game, I would have no complaints or problems at all with this lovely game.

Thank you.

Not sure if serious, unfortunately due to the length its either a very dedicated troll or it is actually serious.

I find it more offensive that you would think the use of a word needs to be censored so as not to cause immaginary offense. As a rational person I find your post nigh on unbelieveable.

“God” is a description, and its a name for an entity (a fictional one at that), you could name it “toothfairysword” and it would be equally “offensive” to people who believe in that fictional character….where does it stop.

No, stop looking for reasons to be offended, its a word in common usage in teh language its not like its actually using a name of any particular god, though I doubt you’d have posted if it was “thorsword” or similar. think about that for a min.

The word “God” also describes one of hundreds of deities; suck it up buttercup.

Just because you’re offended doesn’t mean they’re going to change anything.

Also calling it “Deity Sword” just doesn’t have the same ring to it.

This isn’t something that needs to be censored. It’s not even offensive unless people choose to be offended by it. Not to mention, there’s countless settings that have fictional religions and references to gods and goddesses. Some of us enjoy that sort of thing without having it shoved down our throats by people who read far too deeply into it.

Funnily enough, pretty much every religion out there promotes tolerance rather than censorship. A shame that that aspect is ignored in favour of forcing particular views on other people.

The real issue here is:

Gods Word or God Sword?

I apologize that you are offended, but c’mon bro… if you believe its sacreligious(sp?), then so be it, but thats between that individual, and the big man upstairs. not you, or A-net.

this is a just a video game… one that you exposed yourself to, and agree’d with A-nets terms and conditions. Please don’t try to censor an entire community, for your own personal beliefs; because like i said, you exposed yourself to this game…

please understand that i am not trying to troll, i simply disagree with your suggestion, and again i apologize that you are slightly offended with the use of the word

So you’re suggesting/pleading they change the game for the few who are overly-sensitive, including yourself? You seemed to be educated enough to not make such a big deal out of something so minuscule in a game judging from your post. All walks of life play this game, and you don’t see other religions posting about the ability to kill cows, or telling ArenaNet to change the fact that NPC’s say things like, “Gods be with you”. It’s the same thing as those that protest to have the phrase “under god” removed from the pledge of allegiance. Fantasy games are not about accommodating your religion. It’s fantasy.

You should save the underhanded insults and self-righteous arrogance of comparing your “beliefs” with my or anyone else’s beliefs. You need to get down from your high & mighty chair of “you believe in fairy tales and I believe in science”, because at the end of the day, you should realize that we are both believers. It’s just that I believe in a deity, and you believe in a process that happened billions of years ago and is supposedly happening now, but we can’t see it!

If you don’t understand what I’m talking about, before asking me to show you God, please do show me your deity, Evolution. Or more precisely, your “answer to God”…evolution. Can you actually show me evolution, right in front of me in a lab or a video recorded it a lab? No, you can’t. And I can’t show you God either. But it doesn’t make you any smarter than me, or in a better position, to call God a “fictional character”, because until you can actually show my evolution in an indisputable way right in front of me, just like anyone can show you vaporization, electricity, or gravity in a lab, until you can do that, your supposed “scientific fact” is actually a “fictional scenario” for all I know.

You are a “believer” too, until you can SHOW me.

And no, I don’t want to look at fossils, on which you base your imagined conclusions; I don’t want to look at anything other than the actual so-called scientific process happening in front of me in a lab, just like any real scientist can show you some physics or chemistry in the lab.

Until then, please get down from your high and mighty chair of superiority, and the line I heard about 1001 times before, “you are a troll”. Why am I? Because you say so! Yeah, great counter-arguing there.

Not.

Now if you cared to read my OP properly, it already has all the counter-arguments to your old arguments, which I heard from the likes of you several times before. And don’t tell me to stop being offended or not; mind your own business when it comes to other people’s feelings and real-life religions. Really…try to make an effort of avoiding being the real troll.

And “censorship” is COMPLETELY irrelevant to this whole issue. Please educate yourself, learn to read, and avoid being a superficial person who parrots (or screams or exclaims) the most typical and easiest counter-arguments that others say right and left.

I never asked for “censorship”; I asked for more politically correct language and terminology: use “deity” instead of the lowercased “God”, and choose good fictional names for the things in your fictional world. Simple. And has nothing to do with censorship.

Please at least make an effort to appear educated when you comment on an educated person’s argument.

Thank you.

“Also calling it “Deity Sword” just doesn’t have the same ring to it.”

Exactly. Even the atheists know the emotional power of the very word “God”. That comment made me smile. Even when you don’t believe; you can still feel the power of what you say or write if you use “God” instead of “deity”. Irresistible, isn’t it? To make an impact, instead of being polite and politically correct. =)

Rok.2963:

You should save the underhanded insults and self-righteous arrogance of comparing your “beliefs” with my or anyone else’s beliefs…

…and you believe in a process that happened billions of years ago and is supposedly happening now, but we can’t see it!

Religious AND hypocritical. Who would’ve thought?

Rok.2963:
You should save the underhanded insults and self-righteous arrogance of comparing your “beliefs” with my or anyone else’s beliefs…
…and you believe in a process that happened billions of years ago and is supposedly happening now, but we can’t see it!
Religious AND hypocritical. Who would’ve thought?

Just trying to compete with you in your game, buddy. You practically invented it. =)

Wow… your pretty full of yourself.

lets just agree to disagree…

ill be fine, your the one getting all heated.

THE DUDE ABIDES!

sorry, but this is ridiculous. also, just so you know, there is evidence that “you can see”. you were taught this in high school, but you purposely ignored it, just as you purposely try to get offended.

if you don’t believe me, wiki “peppered moth evolution”.

lol. but really, by bringing up the subject of evolution into your discussion, you have condemned this thread to be locked up.

I believe in many gods(lowercase “g”). Anubis, Bastet, Ra, Osiris, Nu, Set, Sekhmet, etc.

You don’t see me getting offended by the use of the word.

Rok.2963:

Rok.2963:
You should save the underhanded insults and self-righteous arrogance of comparing your “beliefs” with my or anyone else’s beliefs…
…and you believe in a process that happened billions of years ago and is supposedly happening now, but we can’t see it!
Religious AND hypocritical. Who would’ve thought?

Just trying to compete with you in your game, buddy. You practically invented it. =)

Where did I claim any game? Having reading comprehension issues?

Hey! lets leave Rok alone, he’ll be fine by Sunday, i guarantee it =p

heh, sorry that was a little offensive. but only a little!

Its just a game guys!! anyone taking Anything too seriously through a video game, is… ignorant.

I disagree, personally i couldn’t finish reading the whole thing. God and Goddess are general words. To say Godsword applies only to the Christian God or any other is pretty rediculous.

The name and the meaning of the sword could belong to a fictional ‘God’ only in the game. Personally i find someone or something with a name such as this more childish than offensive… it’s not very original.

Rok – no. You are comming off as a bit of a nutter to be honest, probably not intended, but thats the way it seams.

Its a word, its not offensive to use it the way its used. Also, I dont have to look hard to show you evidence of my beliefs, take a trip to your local univerity and read some papers in their library, its all scientifically tested and verified. I dont care what you believe, but dont force your beliefs on me, I’ll use the word God in whatever context I like and quite frankly dont care that you get offended by it, I wont go out of my way to offend people, but I’ll not be overly cautious about it either.

your beliefs do not grant you ownership of a word. There were gods before the one you believe in, there are other gods now, and there will be new gods after. Thats the nature of belief. To me none are real. But even if they were, I dont see how using a decsriptive term can possibly cause offence to any rational person.

and as for:
“And no, I don’t want to look at fossils, on which you base your imagined conclusions; I don’t want to look at anything other than the actual so-called scientific process happening in front of me in a lab, just like any real scientist can show you some physics or chemistry in the lab.”

Words escape me. Other than the statment “there are none so blind, as those who will not see” seams apt for this occasion.

i thin kwe’re all done here, this has turned into a religious debate. Go take it to some other forum, a religious one….

its just a game, one with Gods.

Don’t be a Bookah man ! In this case god is being used in the generic form and its not even referring to a real one to begin with nor is Balthazar referring to the wiseman that visited Jesus when he was born . Its like "IN GOD WE TRUST " on U.S currency it can mean any god one happens to believe in .

If someone wants to be offensive they’re going to be regardless thats what the block button is for . In my opinion you’re making a big deal out of nothing . Oh and before you jump on me for being atheist or something like that im Lutheran thank you very much