Guild Wars 2

Greetings, fellow GW2 players!

Firstly, despite being a player who follows the Guild Wars 2 Naming Policy and tries to create an atmosphere with the spirit of the game in mind, I have no problem with silly names, names that promote a good laugh, serious names or names that have nothing to do with Guild Wars. I am honestly perfectly fine with that. Actually, I keep the “Show All Player Names” option unchecked but players in front of me still have their names flash up.

However, after coming across a player, for the first time ever since I have started playing GW2, I reported him for what I and several other players in my guild felt was an inappropriate religious name (although really, it was not even a name but rather a very pro-religious statement referencing a name). While I will not directly quote the name, it was along the lines of "X's Way is Truth for Life".

One thing I would like to say is that I have no problems what anyone’s religious, political, or core perspectives are. I don’t mind if you are Jewish, Christian, Atheist, Buddhist, etc. It is also not the point of this topic to start a controversial war nor is a GW2 forum the place to do it. I will not mention anyone’s religion or take sides, in support of this desired neutrality.

Yet, in my opinion, to promote these ideals in an MMO is A) Hardly the best place to promote such ideas, B ) Totally immersion breaking, C) Risks offending other people, D) Usually counterintuitive, and E) Hardly ever, ever, gets the opposition to see the point when it becomes an all out chat war. I personally don’t want to be playing a game, minding my own happy business and then BAM! X player supports X religion, Y Player supports Y political ideal, or Z Player desires whatever Z desires.

After doing some research on these very forums, I was led to creating a support ticket. I got a quick, professional response stated: ‘We could not verify any violation in our policies, since this player is not using the name in a negative or prerogative way.’

I’d like to point out here that the Legal Documentation of ArenaNets own Naming Policy states: ‘We do not permit names that: Reference religious or historical figures.’

:https://www.guildwars2.com/en/legal/guild-wars-2-naming-policy/

It allows no leniency on whether it is positive or negative. In any case, who would negatively represent their own supported faith?

Of course, inside my own reply I asked: ‘What if players were referencing Adolf Hitler? Are you saying that as long as it is not negative or prerogative, nobody would be banned? I highly doubt that.’

Receiving another reply from a different GM, it basically said, ‘We are not going to take action against this player at this time.’

This confuses me.

Now, I am not going to make silly, empty threats about leaving Guild Wars 2 or intending to spout off my own beliefs in game. That would make me quite the hypocrite. I am, however, going to question ArenaNets behavior regarding this issue.

I am not asking that this player be suspended, not for a single second. He is absolutely allowed to believe in whatever he wishes, as is anyone. What I am asking is that ArenaNet follow up on its own protocols and policies and have this person rename their character. I discovered this player is making several other players in-game uncomfortable, not just myself. And yet, ArenaNet is doing absolutely nothing which completely circumvents it own policies.

Ultimately, my questions to ArenaNet (I am asking here because obviously the support GM’s don’t care) are these:

1. Why is this person allowed to violate the Naming Policy?

2. Why is ArenaNet not doing anything to correct the issue?

3. If the Naming Policy is open to interpretation, what is to keep players from naming their characters anything they want?

4. If a religious figure is acceptable but a certain German dictator is not (Please keep in mind, I would never condone anyone promoting him), where is this supposed line drawn?

5. Finally, if you are not upholding your own Naming Policy for a name that many of us have found inappropriate, what other policies are “flexible” and therefore totally meaningless?

I thank you readers for sticking with me this long. Please keep any discussion positive, informative and, above all, respect your fellow players!

As a final note, if anyone wishes to flame me for this topic or my perspectives, without proper, reasonable and polite discussion, I can only reply with sincere pity upon you.

+1
Now this is an interesting topic. I am curious what ArenaNet has to say about their religious naming rules not being enforced.

I have seen characters with names in reference to religious figures, and historical figures.
I have seen characters with “misspellings or alternative spellings” of religious figures.

Especially because as you say it is not a specific name that person used as their characters name, but an expression, there is really no real way the Arenanet filters can pick up on that during character creation.

That is why we have a report function in game, so you can report these character names that you feel violate the Naming Policy. Right Click : Report : Inappropriate Character Name.

Someone using the name Mohammed was forced to name change.
Someone using the name Jesus still has the name.

I reported both and checked on both regularly.
The funny part is that in the first case, that’s the person’s real name. In the second case, it’s not.

I’ve seen a player with a personal guild name with a reference to a religious figure giving favor to a country they support or live in running around a couple of times this year. It’s such an obnoxious phrase to be honest but I wanted to do something else in-game rather than use up my time to report something that would likely get ‘no-actioned’ in a similar fashion to how your ticket was replied to.

I agree though that names like that can definitely be immersion-breaking.

would you have reported someone with a name along the lines " Big Bang is Correct" ? i doubt it, i believe this is just a religion hate post

Your example has more than 19 characters by some margin. I’m not sure what the alleged inappropriate character name was supposed to be.

Either way, as you seem to be familiar with some of the legal documents, you might want to peruse the Forum Rules, as well, and reconsider.

Good luck.

People should be able to name themselves whatever, and talk about whatever. If people don’t want to see it, just block or turn off the chat that person is on. It saves you time and hassle, as well as anet by not reporting things like this…

Turtle Dragon.9241:

Someone using the name Mohammed was forced to name change.
Someone using the name Jesus still has the name.

I reported both and checked on both regularly.
The funny part is that in the first case, that’s the person’s real name. In the second case, it’s not.

both can actually be real life names…

They might not take action if only one or two people report the name. I do not know how many people need to report a name (unless it is REALLY offensive ofcourse) for A-net to actually take action. If you really are “upset” about a name just report and block the person.

The number of people reporting is irrelevant. Its down to the support agent to review and decide whether it breaks the rules or not.

It’s stupid that not letting someone have a name because ‘muh fee fees’ is even a rule in the first place.

For consistency’s sake you report every political reference and everyone in the LGBT guild, right? It only becomes an issue if you feel the need to confront every opinion you disagree with.

I’ve never in my life reported someone for anything – even gold spam – because my time is too valuable to waste reporting people over stupid stuff, let alone write a term paper about how seeing ‘x’ religious figure in game scarred me for life. Give me a break.

Jesus, Moses, Allah, Muhammad, Ginesh, Shiva, Zues, Athena, Liberals, Republicans, Libertarians, Communists, Pro-Life, Pro-Choice, Pro-War, Anti-War, Pacifists, 1%, 99%, 49%, Tea Party, Occupy, Twitterati, Hash-tag Activists, Heterosexuals, Homosexuals, Gun-Nuts, Gun Grabbers, Obama-zombies, something about Trump… I’m getting bored.

Brother Dulfite.5793:

People should be able to name themselves whatever, and talk about whatever. If people don’t want to see it, just block or turn off the chat that person is on. It saves you time and hassle, as well as anet by not reporting things like this…

And if you don’t want to follow the rules that you agreed to follow to play GW2, you can not play GW2. Any game/community that doesn’t enforce its rules goes down the toilet.

I get that you don’t like some names and that is fine, just right click and report if you wish but in all honesty, why the need to make such a big drama out of this and even create a topic about it is beyond me. Just play the kitten game already.

Schurge.5194:

For consistency’s sake you report every political reference and everyone in the LGBT guild, right? It only becomes an issue if you feel the need to confront every opinion you disagree with.

I’ve never in my life reported someone for anything – even gold spam – because my time is too valuable to waste reporting people over stupid stuff, let alone write a term paper about how seeing ‘x’ religious figure in game scarred me for life. Give me a break.

Jesus, Moses, Allah, Muhammad, Ginesh, Shiva, Zues, Athena, Liberals, Republicans, Libertarians, Communists, Pro-Life, Pro-Choice, Pro-War, Anti-War, Pacifists, 1%, 99%, 49%, Tea Party, Occupy, Twitterati, Hash-tag Activists, Heterosexuals, Homosexuals, Gun-Nuts, Gun Grabbers, Obama-zombies, something about Trump… I’m getting bored.

I agree.

No historical figures! And I wanted to name my revenant Coolidge number 1 too

The naming rules are designed to prevent offensive or illegal speech, but are written to allow ArenaNet a WIDE latitude in enforcement range.

They reviewed this name and determined that it was not offensive or illegal despite it having a degree of religious affiliation.

Schurge.5194:

For consistency’s sake you report every political reference and everyone in the LGBT guild, right?

Under that logic one of my characters would have been reported several times. Not only am I in the LGBT guild but she is named after Sya, the transgendered NPC in Lion’s Arch. At least one person picked up on it.

Too add to it I write backstories for all of my characters. I am considering having her be the reincarnation of Kess (another one is Jory as an asura) hence why the NPC transitioned in the first place.

I have seen a character named after a political figure but ‘accidentally’ misspelled. In that case it is not the name, but how they acted.

Waito, who’s X? I don’t get it.

What you have to realize is there’s a line between very offensive to few, because they overreact, and truly offensive to many due to commonly offensive words used in the name. For everyone that line is in a different location, and some people really over react way too much.

As long as a name is not directly offensive, but only expresses an offensive opinion, I don’t see grounds for name ban, because everyone’s entitled to their own opinion.

When religion comes in, I find that religious people are a bit too convinced that they are right purely because they are religious. I’ve seen map chat arguments go out of proportion simply on the grounds of ‘I am christian, you are not, therefore I’m going to assume you are a bad person’.

If I were you , instead of getting offended by a name, just ignore it. You taking it too personally.

mcwurth.2081:

Turtle Dragon.9241:

Someone using the name Mohammed was forced to name change.
Someone using the name Jesus still has the name.

I reported both and checked on both regularly.
The funny part is that in the first case, that’s the person’s real name. In the second case, it’s not.

both can actually be real life names…

They might not take action if only one or two people report the name. I do not know how many people need to report a name (unless it is REALLY offensive ofcourse) for A-net to actually take action. If you really are “upset” about a name just report and block the person.

Not upset at all, we just did this to test if Arenanet shows preference towards a certain religious group and found out this is the case.

In the above case,
One of them was my guildie, the other was my friend. Sadly, both are them quit GW2 now.
You dont really get banned for names, you just get forced to change the name.

Anyway (with a free to play account), try (via whisper) insulting religion X, then insulting religion Y on a different account. Have the person(your friend/s) report you in each case.
You’ll get different results about which account gets 48 hours ban or not.