Guild Wars 2

Hey, so I have many friends who play guild wars 2 who have been negatively impacted by the language used in the new halloween dyes that are in the API right now. While I assure you that the old content/names probably shouldn’t be changed for continuity’s sake, the colors our characters wear are a bit more personal and I for one would like to see less ableist language used in the halloween dyes.

Personally, I think the dyes should be named after Halloween-themed things, rather than slurs targeted at mental conditions.

Suggestions:

Lunatic Yellow -> Moonbeam Yellow
Psychotic Orange -> Dried Blood Orange
Delirious Purple -> Batwing Blush
Maniac Brown -> Candy Corn
Crushed Bone is fine as is
Insanity Red -> Thorn Royalty Red

Please, if you have more ideas for names, submit them here.

Never.8147:

Hey, so I have many friends who play guild wars 2 who have been negatively impacted by the language used in the new halloween dyes that are in the API right now. .

Nice trolling

The thing is that they are tied into the Mad King, and all these things tie into that. It is not a matter of slurs. It is a matter of having names that fit the story so to say.

lordkrall.7241:

The thing is that they are tied into the Mad King, and all these things tie into that. It is not a matter of slurs. It is a matter of having names that fit the story so to say.

This guy gets it.

(People need to stop taking things so personally.)

I haven’t ever heard anybody with a mental condition referred to by any of those adjectives.
If you truly have friends that are bothered by those words, perhaps they should stop associating themselves with such language.

Let’s keep Tumblr on Tumblr please.

i don’t agree with your post, but batwing blush is an awesome name for a color

2015, the year where people kitten about the name of colors in a video game and call colors ableist.
Oh how far have we sunken.

paintpixie.7398:

I haven’t ever heard anybody with a mental condition referred to by any of those adjectives.
If you truly have friends that are bothered by those words, perhaps they should stop associating themselves with such language.

Let’s keep Tumblr on Tumblr please.

You’ve obviously never been friends with someone with schizophrenia then…

Never.8147:

You’ve obviously never been friends with someone with schizophrenia then…

Schizophrenic people usually aren’t aware that they are schizophrenic.

NovaanVerdiano.6174:

2015, the year where people kitten about the name of colors in a video game and call colors ableist.
Oh how far have we sunken.

It’s not the colors themselves. It’s the fact that their names contain slurs against neuroatypical people.

lordkrall.7241:

Never.8147:

You’ve obviously never been friends with someone with schizophrenia then…

Schizophrenic people usually aren’t aware that they are schizophrenic.

Not sure if serious or trolling.

Never.8147:

lordkrall.7241:

Never.8147:

You’ve obviously never been friends with someone with schizophrenia then…

Schizophrenic people usually aren’t aware that they are schizophrenic.

Not sure if serious or trolling.

Trust me, the feeling is mutual.

Never.8147:

Not sure if serious or trolling.

I am rather serious. Mentally ill people are usually not aware that they are mentally ill.

paintpixie.7398:

Never.8147:

lordkrall.7241:

Never.8147:

You’ve obviously never been friends with someone with schizophrenia then…

Schizophrenic people usually aren’t aware that they are schizophrenic.

Not sure if serious or trolling.

Trust me, the feeling is mutual.

I’m serious. I have a friend with Schizophrenia who is currently on medication and still receives massive prejudice against them. (Using Gender neutral pronouns to avoid outing them.)

On the other hand, the Lunatic Courtiers are actually insane, so their names should be kept. But dye colors seem a bit excessive.

If your friend really have this disease and even the harmless name of colour is too much for him ! then he shouldnt play a mmo with all the conflicting views inside the game!

but i am still sure you are such trolling and this my friend isnt funny!!!!

lordkrall.7241:

Never.8147:

Not sure if serious or trolling.

I am rather serious. Mentally ill people are usually not aware that they are mentally ill.

Honestly that is a very close-minded way of looking at things. One may argue this for very unstable people, but more mild cases are very aware of their situation.

For instance, I have High-functioning Autism. I know this and acknowledge it. Does this make me not mentally ill, for merely acknowledging my disability?

Never.8147:

Crushed Bone is fine as is

This is ableist against people who have been run over by cars.

Why do social justice warriors want to turn the whole world in to Tumblr?

While I’m surprised by the suggestion that these names might be considered offensive, I think it is inappropriate to approach the issue flippantly. Mental health is an area that is notoriously poorly handled by the public, and it is entirely possible that people in a vulnerable position could be affected by seeing yet another instance of casual negative language.

Of course people are welcome to think “This seems overly sensitive and I’m not convinced we need to tread quite so lightly”, but an outright dismissal of the issue doesn’t seem like a good response.

Zaron.1987:

If your friend really have this disease he shouldnt play a mmo

but i am still sure you are such trolling and this my friend isnt funny!!!!

On an MMO, no one knows about your history. No one stares at you weirdly. You never have to tell anyone you’re having an episode, you can just say you need to go afk.

It’s supposed to be a comforting place—being like everyone else, for once. But when people incorporate nasty slurs into their game itself, it can cause massive breaks in harmony and community.

How would you feel if someone started calling dye colors in their games things like “Redskin Red”? Not very funny if you’re a native american, as it turns out.

This thread is on the same level as the in game tyria racism threads

CrashTestAuto.9108:

While I’m surprised by the suggestion that these names might be considered offensive, I think it is inappropriate to approach the issue flippantly. Mental health is an area that is notoriously poorly handled by the public, and it is entirely possible that people in a vulnerable position could be affected by seeing yet another instance of casual negative language.

Of course people are welcome to think “This seems overly sensitive and I’m not convinced we need to tread quite so lightly”, but an outright dismissal of the issue doesn’t seem like a good response.

Thank you. I have no ideas left on how to convince these people how harmful slurs feel to the mentally ill, other than maybe the chinese water torture metaphor, and I rarely bring that one out due to people actually having had to go through that.

It must be getting close to winter time as it seems all the special snowflakes have come out to play.

To the OP it fits the theme get over it.

My condolences to your friends who have to live with their mental conditions, but in all honesty this is rather ridiculous.

The names clearly aren’t meant to be attacks on anyone, in fact their usage is completely benign in that it’s just being used as a prefix for a dye. The way they’re being used neither promotes violence against people with mental conditions nor does it belittle them in any way, so what possible reason is there to change it? You don’t go writing to Merriam-Webster or Cambridge asking them to strike to words off the thesaurus simply because they exist in print form, do you?

What is it about using these words to describe colors that is so harmful, but having a mentally disturbed character as a villain seemingly accepted? Shouldn’t you be asking for the Mad King to be rewritten as The Completely Bland Democratically-Elected Leader Of Undefined Gender And Ethnicity so that it’s as non-offensive across all groups as possible?

I really don´t want to sound insensitive since some people in my personal milieu are suffering from severe mental health issues themselves (and it sucks, nothing you should be making fun of), but I hope this is just a troll post.

Do you think people in a wheelchair are offended because one of the movement impairing conditions in this game is called cripple, which can be used as a pejorative term as well?

It´s ridiculous, you are taking things out of context big time OP.

This thread made my partner laugh…

seriously though, it’s part of the theme and you have an issue with it due to names… You remind me of the guy in this pic.

Skoigoth.9238:

I really don´t want to sound insensitive since some people in my personal milieu are suffering from severe mental health issues themselves (and it sucks, nothing you should be making fun of), but I hope this is just a troll post.

Do you think people in a wheelchair are offended because one of the movement impairing conditions in this game is called cripple, which can be used as a pejorative term as well?

It´s ridiculous, you are taking things out of context big time OP.

Honestly I hope I won’t have to resort to the chinese water torture metaphor. Please don’t make me resort to the metaphor.

Delirious is not a mental illness, it is a condition anyone can suffer from given the pertinent circumstances. I think you may have taken your crusade too far.

As a mother of 3 special needs children, and someone that suffers myself, I have no problem with the Dye color names; they are part and parcel with Tyria’s Halloween.

If you are going to protest these color names, you must protest all of Halloween, not to mention Season One and Two of the Living Story. Maybe boycott the whole game.

This is silly.

Never.8147:

lordkrall.7241:

Never.8147:

Not sure if serious or trolling.

I am rather serious. Mentally ill people are usually not aware that they are mentally ill.

Honestly that is a very close-minded way of looking at things. One may argue this for very unstable people, but more mild cases are very aware of their situation.

For instance, I have High-functioning Autism. I know this and acknowledge it. Does this make me not mentally ill, for merely acknowledging my disability?

High functioning Autism may be a disability, but it’s not a mental illness of the type that people mean when they use that term. If you use the strict definition of mental illness to include autism, then very shy people are also mentally ill (as it affects how they relate with others and function on a daily basis).

Speaking as someone who actually has diagnosed and medicated mental health issues I have no issues with any of these color names. At all.

As someone mentioned: it supposed to fit with the Mad King theme.

While it is true that there are still a lot of areas where mental health issues are handled in a bad way I really don’t think this is one of them.
You are, however, completely in your right to have your opinion.

While I do sympathize with people who suffer from various disabilities, including psychological ones, I cannot get behind this. It’s ridiculous, in my opinion. The names are fine as they are. They tie in with the lore based around MAD King Thorne (a guy who was a complete psychopath in life).

Never.8147:

Skoigoth.9238:

I really don´t want to sound insensitive since some people in my personal milieu are suffering from severe mental health issues themselves (and it sucks, nothing you should be making fun of), but I hope this is just a troll post.

Do you think people in a wheelchair are offended because one of the movement impairing conditions in this game is called cripple, which can be used as a pejorative term as well?

It´s ridiculous, you are taking things out of context big time OP.

Honestly I hope I won’t have to resort to the chinese water torture metaphor. Please don’t make me resort to the metaphor.

I cannot/do not intend to make you do anything.

All I´m saying is that it seems ridiculous to me to take the names of a halloween-themed set of dyes in a video game and somehow relate those to real world mental health issues, even though it is absolutely clear that these names are just a reference to the general flavor/lore surrounding GW2´s Halloween festivities.

Never.8147:

Skoigoth.9238:

I really don´t want to sound insensitive since some people in my personal milieu are suffering from severe mental health issues themselves (and it sucks, nothing you should be making fun of), but I hope this is just a troll post.

Do you think people in a wheelchair are offended because one of the movement impairing conditions in this game is called cripple, which can be used as a pejorative term as well?

It´s ridiculous, you are taking things out of context big time OP.

Honestly I hope I won’t have to resort to the chinese water torture metaphor. Please don’t make me resort to the metaphor.

I’m actually quite curious how the metaphor would relate to your argument, because you really haven’t said anything that could be described with such a metaphor.

And do you actually mean waterboarding? Because I don’t believe Chinese water torture has been a thing in the past century, so nobody who’s actually experienced that form of torture would be, y’know, alive.

And we should rename Mad King in Sunshine Daisy while we’re at it.

Those aren’t mental conditions. Those are mental afflictions.

A psychotic individual cannot function in public

A maniac is never used as anything other than extremely negative

It all has to do with mad king thorn, who…was….quite insane. Mad, you could say.

Personally, I don’t think this is a problem. I absolutely support mental health, equality and the rights that go along with it. But I don’t see how the use of these words are detrimental.

They adjectives are referring to a selection of colours. It’s not like they’re being used in conjunction with something monstrous or horrible.

I feel that the matter is more sensitive because mental illnesses are more “controversial” than physical ones. (A lot of prejudice hangs around mental illnesses because people don’t understand them).

I think most people see the adjective used (lunatic, maniac, delirious, psychotic, insanity) equal to similar terms used for people with physical illnesses, such as “sick”, “ill”, “diseased”, “afflicted”, “septic” etc. These could be seen as equally descriptive/generalised.