Guild Wars 2

Just posting this message to kittening fix the kittening forum kittening bug.

With OP reporting seeing things in chat that no one else is, it makes me wonder if he’s not misreading it. I remember a thread a while ago asking for examples of what you did when you were a noob. People posted saying, when I was a noob I did this or I thought that. One person was very offended by the word noob and people using it even though they were describing themselves. He posted in the thread saying how terrible it was to use the word noob, reported the thread and complained about it in at least one other thread as an example of how toxic the forum was.

Just because someone is seeing belligerence/vulgar chat doesn’t mean it’s there for the everyone else.

JustTrogdor.7892:

Just posting this message to kittening fix the kittening forum kittening bug.

REPORTED! (Well, I was offended by such language. I had to look all those kittens up to be sure of how bad they were). :P

As has probably been said – report them, mute them and move on. Then again, I’ve never had this problem before.

JustTrogdor.7892:

Just posting this message to kittening fix the kittening forum kittening bug.

Stop this. I’m allergic to cats. :I

there are always people that are bit more sensitive, but A.net can also not completely protect them. I think the community is already pretty awesome, so when the person feels offended, they should just report and that’s it.
The mods can decide afterwards if the report was justified.

I brought this game two weeks ago thinking how great it was going to be playing an mmo with other people all sharing the same experience. Since then I have hardly said a word to anyone. The trolling, the ridicule a lot of players do from behind their screens has put me off engaging others. I will grant that some people are nice and it seems in their nature to be so towards others, thank you to those that help a flailing new player.

What I do wonder is, how many new people simply do not log back in due to this? People new to MMOs are little prepared for the bad behaviour, let alone to defend ourselves. I myself have almost given up due to the things I have read people saying in the in the PvP lobby.

I did not know there was a profanity filter and I will be sure to use it however, it does not cover the intent people put behind their words.

Jahroots.6791:

Conncept.7638:

Teen means as young as thirteen. If you wouldn’t walk up to a middle school class on a field trip at the mall and say what you are about to say, you shouldn’t be saying it in map chat, and you are responsible in game for the repercussions that come with that inappropriate behavior just as you would be in public in real life.

IRL, 13yr olds are usually among the worst offenders when it comes to vulgar language.

I can appreciate that some people don’t like this, but I’ll take free, offensive speech over heavy moderation any day.

And that is pertinent how? You are responsible for whatyou do and what you encourage others to do. And they learn it from somewhere, who more likely, the people who excuse their misconduct because ’they’re going to learn it anyway’ or those who control themselves and act appropriately in front of them?

Just a flesh wound.3589:

With OP reporting seeing things in chat that no one else is, it makes me wonder if he’s not misreading it.

Obviously it depends on what your “offence threshold” is, but I can somewhat believe what the OP has said.

Like I’ve already mentioned, I’ve seen negativity/swearing/hate speech/abuse thrown around a lot more in the morning (on the EU servers between 5 and 7) than at any other time in game. Perhaps it’s the same group of people antagonising each other every day, or at least provoking other players.

I also see a lot more “goofing” around on Friday and Saturday evenings- usually the messing around is generally immature rubbish (not particularly offensive) but occassionally it will escalate. I’m sure there’s a correlation between drunkedness and the quality of map chat, but that’s a different story

DR and LA seem to be the worst places for this kind of thing, but it’s probably more about map population than anything else. (WvW, HotM, SW and the World Boss Train can be bad at times).

Tl;dr: If you’re unfortunate enough to have specific play-time which coincides with peak-time for drunken adults/adolescents and join in with the most popular task of the evening, you’re more likely to come across stuff like this.

When I was growing up (many years ago), something I got told several times by various adults and other figures of responsibility was, “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me”. I learned that to be true, and I still believe it now. Most people I grew up with held to some variation of it, to everyone’s benefit, as a general philosophy for interacting with others.

I agree wholeheartedly with the above poster(s) that essentially said that the act of being offended lies squarely with the recipient. I realize that’s not a popular opinion, indeed one that seems not to be shared by ArenaNet (and their privately-owned game servers), but I think it’s a sad commentary on where we’ve gotten to as a society that we think it’s okay to dictate what words other people can and can’t use so as not to offend anyone’s delicate sensibilities. (insert gratuitous eye-rolling here if you like)

They’re just words. Relax. You’ll feel better, I promise.

It seems pretty simple to me. If you would not say it in a real world public place or in mixed company you should probably not say it in game. If you went to a crowded butcher shop would you walk up to the butcher and say, “Please give me a kittening steak?” If you were at a crowded restaurant and didn’t like your food would you say loud enough for the entire restaurant to hear you, “My food tastes like kitten?” If you were invited to a dinner party with many people you didn’t know would you engage in conversation with others by dropping F bombs? Doubtful.

So it comes down to common sense. As Gaile said there is a big difference between letting a curse word fly in the heat of the moment, “Kitten that mob killed me again,” and “Kitten this kitten this kitten is kittening kitten. It can kitten my kitten. Kitten this.” The later example is just someone abusing chat and mostly likely unwelcome by many.

I’m not easily offended. I haven’t reported anyone for foul language. TBH i haven’t seen much in game anyway. That being said though, words are a very powerful tool. They have the ability to do many things including coercing, shaming, inciting, misleading, etc. To say that the speaker/writer bears no responsibility is just false. I can’t go around saying whatever i want without consequences.

This goes mainly for attacks on people or groups. Random vulgarity i couldn’t really care less about.

Honestly i don’t agree with this. A word in itself cannot be offensive, it is merely a sound. How you take that sound is up to you “offence cannot be given, it can only be taken”. If someone is using a word as an adjective towards someone or a group of people in a negative connotation that sure enough feel free to report them for it, but if its just being used in the middle of a sentence or a sentence filler ignore it. Be an adult, grow up. No way, no how can you argue in the slightest that what they’re doing is wrong, because its simply how you’re taking the word as it exists, so blame is on you.

Bekkr.6192:

When I was growing up (many years ago), something I got told several times by various adults and other figures of responsibility was, “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me”. I learned that to be true, and I still believe it now.

I personally think that expression is only true to an extent. Words can do a lot of harm, and you don’t have to be a delicate flower to have harsh words affect you in a negative way. True verbal abuse can do a lot of damage.

Jahroots.6791:

As a side note…does the in-game swear filter turn cusses into ‘kitten’ like on the forums? Because that would be awesome.

This idea is brilliant.

RoseofGilead.8907:

Bekkr.6192:

When I was growing up (many years ago), something I got told several times by various adults and other figures of responsibility was, “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me”. I learned that to be true, and I still believe it now.

I personally think that expression is only true to an extent. Words can do a lot of harm, and you don’t have to be a delicate flower to have harsh words affect you in a negative way. True verbal abuse can do a lot of damage.

This. I was taught the same thing, and you know what? That saying is true to an extent. until you get bullied verbally(And physically, mostly verbal) to the point of trying to kill yourself, you really have no idea(Which i was.), and i have really thick skin. And obviously words can hurt, why is that we cant say the “n****r”? I mean, words cant hurt right? (Sarcasm, words hurt, thats why verbal abuse is a thing).

But in A GAME, report, block move on. If its really bad they will be dealt with.

Hang around at some Tequatls. I think I’ve got about 10 people blocked (out of maybe 6 months of going to Taco) for overusing certain words that are abusive for giggles, and generally just being jerks towards others around them. That’s the one place I’ve seen the biggest problem, though I tend to not watch map chat (I have it in its own tab on the chat menu)

Gaile Gray.6029:

I strongly recommend that everyone use the in-game report system to help make the game a better place to be. We take reports seriously and we appreciate the assistance of our community members!

I find this a bit humorous, i’ve personally reported people for going off on racist rampages in map chat and not a single thing was done to them. They continued to stream on twitch and still do to this day. I dont report people for many things but that one I felt was deserved.

globe.7238:

Gaile Gray.6029:

I strongly recommend that everyone use the in-game report system to help make the game a better place to be. We take reports seriously and we appreciate the assistance of our community members!

I find this a bit humorous, i’ve personally reported people for going off on racist rampages in map chat and not a single thing was done to them. They continued to stream on twitch and still do to this day. I dont report people for many things but that one I felt was deserved.

The first punishment typically is a 72 hour suspension. Just because you see them playing later doesn’t mean they didn’t serve their suspension time.

If you want to see the depravity of the human mind, take a stroll over to Tarnished Coast server and don’t fly your A.net tags. Just sit back and watch and your mind will be changed.

Edit – As soon as people see the Anet tag they shut up and get right. But without it, chat is deplorable.

This sounds to be something that is prevalent on the NA servers. The European servers are typically pretty polite, bar the occasional “f’n noob!” “noob ranger!” sort of comment. That in part says, to me, this is a cultural thing. With the wide variety of languages spoken by Europeans it’s hard to tell where a particular player is from and for some reason that breeds a certain amount of etiquette. On the NA servers, virtually everyone will be from a native english speaking background so the pool of nastiness is basically the same whether the players are from NA, OCX or SEA.

This shouldn’t be tolerated and those responsible should be blocked and reported as par for the course

Shivan.9438:

If you want to see the depravity of the human mind, take a stroll over to Tarnished Coast server and don’t fly your A.net tags. Just sit back and watch and your mind will be changed.

Edit – As soon as people see the Anet tag they shut up and get right. But without it, chat is deplorable.

Umm … I’ve been on TC since Beta and I haven’t seen a ton of cussing, depravity, or wrong speaking. There’s some goofiness near the DR bank, that’s about it.

It’s pretty hard to say TC is doing the cussing that you’re seeing, anyway, given the megaserver. I’d lay the blame more at those who want to hurt RPers for being creative and imaginative.

Not a fan of PC policing. Sometimes it feels like being human is a crime.

That being said it’s ANets game, they can police it how they choose.

I have noticed quite a lot of offensive conversation going on before world boss fights, and I often (daily) see people calling things that they think are lame “gay”, which most people wouldn’t care about, but as a gay person it’s quite annoying. I’m not sure if that’s even something Anet would care about though since they’d have to ban half the community lol

Just a flesh wound.3589:

globe.7238:

Gaile Gray.6029:

I strongly recommend that everyone use the in-game report system to help make the game a better place to be. We take reports seriously and we appreciate the assistance of our community members!

I find this a bit humorous, i’ve personally reported people for going off on racist rampages in map chat and not a single thing was done to them. They continued to stream on twitch and still do to this day. I dont report people for many things but that one I felt was deserved.

The first punishment typically is a 72 hour suspension. Just because you see them playing later doesn’t mean they didn’t serve their suspension time.

Streaming every day since myself and others reported, highly doubtful they received a suspension. Not to mention checking the blocked list and seeing them on everyday just to see if by some chance action had been taken.

Heres my whine about people whining over little things like chat and other peoples opinions.

Say chat an map chat generally off nothing except a chat room. I don’t see how you are getting so offended with text language. You can turn it off, mute people etc but in the end of the day it is an MMO, not just your game.

If you cannot get passed a few meaningless words that in no way affect your day to day life, i think you should stay away from people. End of whine.

For people who wonder why bad language can get you an action when there is a language filter option, consider this (classically internet) analogy:

Imagine that the game was Seattle, or Kansas City, or some other place where the weather tends to be very wet and/or unpredictable, and the weatherperson has predicted a chance of light rain. A language filter is like… an umbrella, something people bring with them on a dark cloudy day to minimize the chance of getting wet. Now, some people don’t mind getting a little wet, might even enjoy a little bit of drizzly or misty weather on them, and they don’t bring an umbrella.

Now, imagine that the weather guy/gal was dead wrong, and instead of light rain it’s a heavy downpour, or a thunderstorm. Now, that umbrella-less guy, he’s probably going to be pretty ticked, because he was expecting a light shower, not an actual shower, and there is weather so severe that an umbrella won’t save you from the elements. And who are they probably going to focus their ire on? The person who got the weather wrong.

Now, who is the weatherperson in this confusing analogy? Well, it’s either the offending player or Anet. If it’s the former, weatherman who get it that wrong too many times get fired… and if it’s Anet, they have a distinct advantage over real life weatherpersons because they can actually change the weather, by suspending the people who are raining on everyone’s parade and then saying it’s their fault for not bringing an umbrella.

^Only problem is your cant turn off and on the weather, but if you believe the weather man is always right then that’s your own personal problem. If weather is unpredictable then you should expect it to be unpredictable, Right? Its a great analogy, but it doesn’t quite work.

One thing, well two really, that is always missing from typed chat in game is context and emotion, unless you choose to add expressive words to what you’re saying, and I only see that 99% of the time in RP. The other 1% is in regular chat, also, a lot of people seem to miss sarcasm quite often as well.

A better analogy is that people are suggesting that it’s alright to swing your arms wildly in a crowded room (vulgar language in chat) and those that get hit, it’s their fault for not getting out of the way (turning off chat). That’s bass ackwards. They, those who are seeing the offensive language in chat, aren’t the ones violating the rules of conduct.

If you violate the rules, you should be punished. Period. What that punishment is is entirely in ANet’s purview based on the offender’s history as well as the chat log but it’s certainly not the player(s) who report its fault.

Revolutionen.5693:

I have noticed quite a lot of offensive conversation going on before world boss fights, and I often (daily) see people calling things that they think are lame “gay”, which most people wouldn’t care about, but as a gay person it’s quite annoying. I’m not sure if that’s even something Anet would care about though since they’d have to ban half the community lol

Let me relate something that used to be common in GW1 along these similar lines. If you recall, it used to be common to use the word ‘kitten ’ when ever you had utterly destroyed an opponent in either GvG, the HoH or PvP. Well, it just so happened that ended up knowing 7 different females that had been kitten d in RL previously or during the time I was playing GW. I’d politely let everyone know, sometimes in a whisper, sometimes in say/map chat that using the word in game, even though I understood the context, wasn’t appreciated by me. I would usually explain why, leaving out names of course(as a couple of the ladies were well known GW1 players, but they didn’t trust many people so only a select few new). I believe that I only had a couple of people try and tell me to SFTU, I just remained firm and kept on repeating the same message. Usually I only had to say it once and players would respect me enough to not say it when I was around, I didn’t try and control what they said otherwise. It was just polite requests.

I’m with you OP, just earlier to day, i was at mega destroyer. and the chat turned into a sexual Item use. and just yesterday, they started talking about ferguson..you already know how bad the chat turned after that.

I’m on a Euro server and in PvE the community has been pretty good (compared to other MMO’s I’ve played). I don’t live in either Europe or the US but given a choice I do tend to steer clear from US servers because the behaviour tends to be worse there. I’m not a prude but I do agree that overly sexual conversations should be kept out of zone chat. No doubt it is instigated by frustrated teens or creepy old basement dwellers but it can go too far. I think that people do forget that while it is an online environment and they have anonymity that doesn’t give them the right to behave in an unacceptable manner. If the behaviour is in breach of the Code of Conduct/TOS then report them.

I spend a lot of time online (not just in game) and honestly there are times I have to either switch chat off in game or avoid comments sections in various forums because some people seem to forget basic civility when they log on. There are however, also a lot of nice people doing the right thing so hang in there

This is what happens to the community when certain decisions cause the majority of players to leave the game, you’re left with the so called elite 1% that love to do these kinds of things while they are playing. Harassment is in their twisted psyche and no you’re not alone about it being troublesome.

We tried to warn folks that it would degenerate into this but no one listened. You can see posts about it that I participated in years ago describing this very thing would happen to the community in the end. It started however with kicking certain classes from dungeons and degenerated from there.

Sadly nothing can be done about it at this point without causing more damage I suspect.

steve.2945:

I’m with you OP, just earlier to day, i was at mega destroyer. and the chat turned into a sexual Item use. and just yesterday, they started talking about ferguson..you already know how bad the chat turned after that.

That’s you disliking what was being talked about. Big difference between that and verbal abuse. That’s what the mute button is for.

tigirius.9014:

This is what happens to the community when certain decisions cause the majority of players to leave the game, you’re left with the so called elite 1% that love to do these kinds of things while they are playing. Harassment is in their twisted psyche and no you’re not alone about it being troublesome.

We tried to warn folks that it would degenerate into this but no one listened. You can see posts about it that I participated in years ago describing this very thing would happen to the community in the end. It started however with kicking certain classes from dungeons and degenerated from there.

Sadly nothing can be done about it at this point without causing more damage I suspect.

That’s funny, I seem to recall that the rest of the gw2 community is not the 1% elite. This has nothing to do with the game as much as it does its players. No one game can control all of its players. That’s what block/report/mute functions are for. If someone’s truly doing something that’s report/ban worthy, action will be taken upon.

If its something else like, a disagreement about the topic, you don’t like what you’re hearing, etc, that’s a personal preference.

As for majority of players leaving? I’m curious where you get that info from, as i doubt that’s the case by far

Why are so many people a bunch of sensitive cry babies? If you are not being harassed or verbally abused then who cares. Ignore it and enjoy the game. To get upset over something you see in chat is ridiculous.

Cazamar.7148:

Why are so many people a bunch of sensitive cry babies? If you are not being harassed or verbally abused then who cares. Ignore it and enjoy the game. To get upset over something you see in chat is ridiculous.

You are amazing. Perfectly said.

Thanks. My point is that if it is not directed at you than it is easily ignored.

Harassment and Verbal Abuse is completely different to using foul/adult language.
Seems this thread is mixing both things together.

Of course no one in their right mind would think it’s ok to verbally attack an individual in chat. But you’re just being an kitten if you want everyone to talk as if they’re British nobles.

tigirius.9014:

Sadly nothing can be done about it at this point without causing more damage I suspect.

Make it so chests only spawn in the down-time between a successful attack on the Vinewrath and the next iteration. Suddenly, chest farmers are interested in getting the events done.

Emiko.3217:

GW2 is my FAVORITE game – it’s top notch above any other MMO on the planet, but I’m sick and tired of all the nasty, sexual comments, all of the constant cussing and belittling other players on every map. I shouldn’t have to mute my Say and Map chat. Why should these people who do such things rule chat? There’s no end of the constant vulger language, cruel and hateful speech, and constantly, openly talking about sex.

Just where/when/how do you play this game? Are you playing the same game? Map chat being full of nasty, sexual comments and constant cussing? What?

With regards to obscene guild names, is reporting individual players the best way to address the issue?

Ben K.6238:

With regards to obscene guild names, is reporting individual players the best way to address the issue?

A ticket is better. The report options have nothing to do with the guild name so they won’t know that’s what you are trying to report. Get the Display name and character name as well as the guild name and tag and report it on a ticket.

Gaile Gray.6029:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Ben K.6238:

With regards to obscene guild names, is reporting individual players the best way to address the issue?

A ticket is better. The report options have nothing to do with the guild name so they won’t know that’s what you are trying to report. Get the Display name and character name as well as the guild name and tag and report it on a ticket.

Correct. Please submit a ticket. The in-game report is expressly for character names.

Are there plans to add in-game report options for guild or pet names? I’ve occasionally seen ones that are clearly inappropriate, but couldn’t be bothered to go to the effort of pausing my gaming session, and going and submitting a ticket to report them.

OH NO someones saying something I dont like? Silence them!!!!

Very mature attitude to have.

TheDraco.3965:

OH NO someones saying something I dont like? Silence them!!!!

Very mature attitude to have.

So is yours. /sarcasm

Gaile Gray.6029:

Having reread the thread, I see a few different things:

• Some players, like me, only rarely see extreme instances of offensive behavior.
• Some players don’t see issues at all.
• Some feel they see them daily and have modified their game experiences to avoid such instances.
• Some say “Buck up and ignore it.”
• Others say, “I have a god-given right to offend you, and you have no right to complain.”

End of the day, why don’t we let the professionals decide? Why don’t each of you who see offensive chat report it and let the moderation team make a decision about the overall offensiveness of a word or phrase in the context of the game. The team is not draconian, they understand the difference between a word spoken in the heat of the moment and a pattern of abusive language. Report and forget and trust that things will be taken care of in the best and more fair manner possible.

Your non-draconian team of professionals decided me calling a person ignorant once was penalty worthy.

Gaile Gray.6029:

End of the day, why don’t we let the professionals decide? Why don’t each of you who see offensive chat report it and let the moderation team make a decision about the overall offensiveness of a word or phrase in the context of the game. The team is not draconian, they understand the difference between a word spoken in the heat of the moment and a pattern of abusive language. Report and forget and trust that things will be taken care of in the best and more fair manner possible.

Because i happen to know someone who was forced to change their character names when there is absolutely nothing offensive about them. So if there is an actual professional moderation team at work, why are they not professional enough to spot the difference between offensive/insulting/inappropriate and normal?

And no, the names in question are not – in any way – inappropriate.

Welcome to the internet.

While I agree, people are too quick to personally attack others and ready to call people out on a whim where they would be too afraid of the retaliation from that person IRL, that would be the internet. Ive left guilds for the same problem.

Just block them and move on.

Donari.5237:

My memory’s hazy on this, but I could swear at the game’s start there were more than asterisks replacing swears. Maybe strings of symbols like old comic strips used to indicate cussing. I turned off the filter very early on when it overly enthusiastically changed the word “reputation” in an RP comment to something unrecognizable, due to the bad Spanish word imbedded therein.

If it’s still that draconian, those with the filter on may be assuming there’s a lot more cussing going on than there really is due to the overzealous filter.

I just discovered the other day that the filter still replaces ‘reputation’ in-game.

During a conversation a friend stopped me and had to ask what I was saying as she had no clue. I have swear filters off and my friend had them on. At least this issue led to my informing her of the chat options gear and how she could disable the swear filter that had annoyed her from the beginning. We then got into a funny discussion about forum users and our adventures with the kitten filter.