Guild Wars 2

Olvendred.3027:

JoeytheHutt.1742:

A word is never racist or homophobic or anything, its the intent that is. It is what you mean by saying it. Like if you dont want to swear in front of your kids and you start to use the word “radio”. You are still swearing, and after a while the kids will learn what you mean when saying “radio”.
As you would, if everybody started to use “radio” instead of gay. Would it still hurt?
By now everybody knows “kitten” mean emphazising something. Is it better to say “kitten you”, than something else?
It is all about context, intent and situations.
Something I had to learn as a kid, was that it was often MY choice to let someone ruin my day or not. I am me, and the only one that is me, why would I let some random idiot make me feel bad? Even more so if its just some who tries to sound cool because they think they have to? Poor them.

Incorrect. It’s not the intent behind a statement, it’s how that statement is understood. Either subjectively or from the perspective of the proverbial reasonable person.

Now, your example misses the point. It’s not saying ‘X thing is gay’ that is offensive to LGBT people. It’s the implication that gay means bad. If people started saying ‘X thing is radio’ instead, that would be offensive to… radios. Which are inanimate objects, rather than people, so we really don’t care. For a better example, see my post above about ‘Jewish.’

As for choice to let someone ruin your day: this is a game, not the real world. What that means is there is no such thing as freedom of speech/expression – Anet can moderate anything at will. That’s why we can report people, because Anet wants their game environment not to be offensive to anyone. As such, if players are routinely using offensive language, those offended by the language have a valid concern, which isn’t going to be solved by people saying “Just get over it. It’s your own fault you let it get to you.”

well, by your logic absolutely everything could be an offence, even radio, if you choosed to “understand” it kitten. No matter what is/was the intent. So it cant just be the receiver’s judgement who decides whats offencive or not. Because “reasonable” isnt always easy to agree on.
And about this not beeing the real world, that is somewhat stretched, because its real people, in real time saying real words. And Anet is very fond of peoples real money in this game. I am not saying theres no difference between real world and games, and yes Anet is the “god” on Tyria and can do/not do lots of stuff, but they are not above the real world laws and need to stay within limits. Virtual world or not.
Choosing to feel bad or not worked for me. If it dont work for others, well Im sorry.

Mirta.5029:

The word gay in itself is not a swear word. And a lot of the times people are not trying to insult homosexual people, but rather use it in a “that sucks” kind of way. Remember that word meanings change often and fast, 50 years before “gay” used to mean “joyful”. As in “I’m having a very gay day”. Some of the remarks can be seen as insults, but not all that you point are actually wrong. To some of them, I think, that you’re reacting too sensitively.

I read everything that’s written. The talk about lesbians among sylvari is just how people joke.
“kitten that is gay” is how the word is most commonly used right now and like I’ve said most homosexuals do not see anything wrong with it, because it’s not directed at them or even used as an insult.
The person using the harsh word "starting with “fa” in the say chat can be reported.
The person on the map chat being racist can be reported.
Commander saying "stay on my kitten “no kitten ” is once again joking and you’re seriously overreacting.

I agree with this. The etymology of terms plays a huge role in understanding people. In fact, most of these examples looks like OP is just QQing because he doesn’t understand how slang is used in modern culture. Does he have to agree with it? No. However, these examples show few signs of any mocking over sexual orientation.

@OP in response to the whole “learn to spell” thing, “gey” is a respectable spelling for someone with English as a second language – don’t assume that just because you are fluent in English that everyone else is expected to know the grammatical difference between [ey] and [á] (I may be wrong about the accent mark, I’m fairly certain it needs to be acute).

I’m not sure this thread should even be posted.

JoeytheHutt.1742:

Olvendred.3027:

JoeytheHutt.1742:

A word is never racist or homophobic or anything, its the intent that is. It is what you mean by saying it. Like if you dont want to swear in front of your kids and you start to use the word “radio”. You are still swearing, and after a while the kids will learn what you mean when saying “radio”.
As you would, if everybody started to use “radio” instead of gay. Would it still hurt?
By now everybody knows “kitten” mean emphazising something. Is it better to say “kitten you”, than something else?
It is all about context, intent and situations.
Something I had to learn as a kid, was that it was often MY choice to let someone ruin my day or not. I am me, and the only one that is me, why would I let some random idiot make me feel bad? Even more so if its just some who tries to sound cool because they think they have to? Poor them.

Incorrect. It’s not the intent behind a statement, it’s how that statement is understood. Either subjectively or from the perspective of the proverbial reasonable person.

Now, your example misses the point. It’s not saying ‘X thing is gay’ that is offensive to LGBT people. It’s the implication that gay means bad. If people started saying ‘X thing is radio’ instead, that would be offensive to… radios. Which are inanimate objects, rather than people, so we really don’t care. For a better example, see my post above about ‘Jewish.’

As for choice to let someone ruin your day: this is a game, not the real world. What that means is there is no such thing as freedom of speech/expression – Anet can moderate anything at will. That’s why we can report people, because Anet wants their game environment not to be offensive to anyone. As such, if players are routinely using offensive language, those offended by the language have a valid concern, which isn’t going to be solved by people saying “Just get over it. It’s your own fault you let it get to you.”

well, by your logic absolutely everything could be an offence, even radio, if you choosed to “understand” it kitten. No matter what is/was the intent. So it cant just be the receiver’s judgement who decides whats offencive or not. Because “reasonable” isnt always easy to agree on.
And about this not beeing the real world, that is somewhat stretched, because its real people, in real time saying real words. And Anet is very fond of peoples real money in this game. I am not saying theres no difference between real world and games, and yes Anet is the “god” on Tyria and can do/not do lots of stuff, but they are not above the real world laws and need to stay within limits. Virtual world or not.
Choosing to feel bad or not worked for me. If it dont work for others, well Im sorry.

You shouldn’t be playing this game if that’s what you really believe. You agreed with their terms, which clearly contradict your views. There’s no “freedom of speech” in GW2 when it’s hate/offensive speech. So no, it’s not the “real world” as you put it, and by playing, you are agreeing to these terms.

Of course one should learn to ignore jerks, but that’s far from saying that jerks should be jerks in the first place. I report them as they come, but have been lucky in that I haven’t seen that many cases of bigotry in GW2’s chat. I would have reported many of those people in the images shown on the first page.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

You can edit your message box to show only Guild messages.

Have all my +1s.

hannah mee.7925:

I agree with this. The etymology of terms plays a huge role in understanding people. In fact, most of these examples looks like OP is just QQing because he doesn’t understand how slang is used in modern culture. Does he have to agree with it? No. However, these examples show few signs of any mocking over sexual orientation.

I think he understands exactly how slang is used in modern culture: namely, that ‘gay’, a term for homosexual people, is used as a catch-all term for ‘bad.’ Associating homosexuality and badness like that is homophobic and offensive. An etymological argument would justify the N-word on the basis that ‘niger’ is the Latin for ‘black’ (literally, just black. The colour). Are you going to argue that?

JoeytheHutt.1742:

well, by your logic absolutely everything could be an offence, even radio, if you choosed to “understand” it kitten. No matter what is/was the intent. So it cant just be the receiver’s judgement who decides whats offencive or not. Because “reasonable” isnt always easy to agree on.

And by your logic nothing is offensive, as the speaker will simply choose to ‘intend’ it inoffensively. No. The interpretation is always in how the statement is understood, as only the person offended will know whether they’ve been offended. The Code of Conduct exists to protect the gaming environment, and people in the gaming environment. It’s not there to protect your ‘freedom of speech’ (in fact, it strongly infringes upon it. Quite legally, too.). ‘Reasonableness’ – an objective standard – simple means that calling someone a radio wouldn’t be offensive, because, as I stated earlier, even if it carried a perjorative meaning, it otherwise only refers to an inanimate object. If radio commonly meant ‘homosexual’ and you were using it to mean ‘bad’, then yes, that would be offensive.

Olvendred.3027:

hannah mee.7925:

I agree with this. The etymology of terms plays a huge role in understanding people. In fact, most of these examples looks like OP is just QQing because he doesn’t understand how slang is used in modern culture. Does he have to agree with it? No. However, these examples show few signs of any mocking over sexual orientation.

I think he understands exactly how slang is used in modern culture: namely, that ‘gay’, a term for homosexual people, is used as a catch-all term for ‘bad.’ Associating homosexuality and badness like that is homophobic and offensive. An etymological argument would justify the N-word on the basis that ‘niger’ is the Latin for ‘black’ (literally, just black. The colour). Are you going to argue that?

No, because etymology also doesn’t account for things like slavery, corruption and slander. It’s a bereft argument. I can call on all my kittens and hoes and etymology would justify it as evolved language – I’m not calling out for black slaves and prostitutes. Etymology only gives us insight – such as why the word was chosen. Likewise, it’s a good progressive field of study to determine a standard of words. Just because gay can mean gay (it can also still mean happy, that’s an archaic definition), doesn’t mean there’s a denotative correlation between the definition and the slang.

I think you’re reading too much into how etymology works to assume radical feelings and occurrences are an adequate placeholder of a word’s definition. In the same respects, socialism can be equated to Hitler, yet a majority of the first world practices some form of national socialism or another and nobody’s equated to Hitler. Why? Because the situation is completely different.

Understanding the origins and associative meanings of words helps us understand the progression of language better (which in this case is the disassociation of the term “gay” and “homosexual”), not give scientific or grammatical reasoning for hate and bigotry.

hannah mee.7925:

No, because etymology also doesn’t account for things like slavery, corruption and slander. It’s a bereft argument.

So your etymological argument doesn’t account for the historical and present-day discrimination against LGBT people? Good. Just so we’re clear that etymology doesn’t justify offensive language.

In any case, ‘gay’ came to mean ‘bad’ via homosexuality. Progression: “joyful (with certain sexual connotations” → “homosexual” → “bad, inferior, undesirable.” So there is a denotative correlation, as you put it.

Star Ace.5207:

You shouldn’t be playing this game if that’s what you really believe. You agreed with their terms, which clearly contradict your views. There’s no “freedom of speech” in GW2 when it’s hate/offensive speech. So no, it’s not the “real world” as you put it, and by playing, you are agreeing to these terms.

Of course one should learn to ignore jerks, but that’s far from saying that jerks should be jerks in the first place. I report them as they come, but have been lucky in that I haven’t seen that many cases of bigotry in GW2’s chat. I would have reported many of those people in the images shown on the first page.

I should not be playing.. ..?
I dont think you understand. No matter how much this game is Anet’s property and whatever we agree on, Anet can’t ignore real world laws. There are laws about how they sell gems, there are laws about what they are allowed to let us do and so on. Not spesifically about freedom of Speech (a consept a lot of people dont understand), but in a lot of things.
No moderation at all would make this game illegal in many countries, and also give Anet lots of trouble pr-vise. So they dont do that, as in real worlds mechanics decides whats in and what can be done in this virtually world the game is. The game isnt a stand alone thing of its own with its own laws.
Totally agree about jerks. But if we want to get rid of jerks, we need to stop them from beeing jerks, not give them a list of words theyre not supposed to use. But as we probably cant manage that, we need moderation and report options.

I think it was Oscar Wilde who once said:
-“The good thing about democracy is freedom of speech. The bad thing is its used so often.”
Or something along the lines of that.

This thread is better than TV

Olvendred.3027:

JoeytheHutt.1742:

well, by your logic absolutely everything could be an offence, even radio, if you choosed to “understand” it kitten. No matter what is/was the intent. So it cant just be the receiver’s judgement who decides whats offencive or not. Because “reasonable” isnt always easy to agree on.

And by your logic nothing is offensive, as the speaker will simply choose to ‘intend’ it inoffensively. No. The interpretation is always in how the statement is understood, as only the person offended will know whether they’ve been offended. The Code of Conduct exists to protect the gaming environment, and people in the gaming environment. It’s not there to protect your ‘freedom of speech’ (in fact, it strongly infringes upon it. Quite legally, too.). ‘Reasonableness’ – an objective standard – simple means that calling someone a radio wouldn’t be offensive, because, as I stated earlier, even if it carried a perjorative meaning, it otherwise only refers to an inanimate object. If radio commonly meant ‘homosexual’ and you were using it to mean ‘bad’, then yes, that would be offensive.

You proves my point, if everybody changed gay to radio, it would be offencive because its intention is offencive.
In my part of my country, there was once a guy who called a policeman a certain part of a horse. He got away with it, because the judge found that particular word to be an everyday word in that region, used in a lot of situations, expressing amasement as much as anything else, kinda like “what?”.
In the opposite end of my country, a guy got fined quite heavily for the same word, as it was very offensive to a policeman.
Intent.
Innocent until proven otherwise is there for reason. I certainly want the chance to explain I ment no harm and that I am sorry for it, rather than to be at the mercy of your feelings about a word I couldnt possibly know you had feelings about.
It is not “my” freedom of speech, I have no problems with what Im allowed to say or not ingame, freedom of speech doesnt give you the right to say whatever you like anyway. And people should think about their wording, in game as everywhere else.
The point about laws is that Anet cant ignore them, whatever you say. Anet can make restrictions, but they cant allow you to do something that is illegal. Anet would be in big trouble if ingame chat was used to sell and buy drugs, if Anet knew it and didnt do anything about it.

Olvendred.3027:

I’m always amazed at the amount of people who think “gay means bad” is somehow not homophobic. Trying using the word “Jewish” to mean greedy or tight-fisted, and see how much support you get. (Illustrative example: ‘Stop being so Jewish, lend me some money.’) It’s exactly the same thing.

However, for the purposes of the OP, I feel like Block and Report should be sufficient.

So when hipsters go “I’m such a nerd”, or that’s so nerdy do we get insulted about a changing word meaning? Gay to begin with never meant homosexual, it meant jolly. Now it’s changing again to mean bad but at the same time losing its meaning as homosexual. Language is a hard thing to explain. You can’t go around being this sensitive though.

Weindrasi.3805:

It doesn’t matter if someone is a little kid or pitiful in real life. It doesn’t matter that “words shouldn’t hurt you”. It doesn’t matter that “the interwebs are cruel”

The fact is, words DO hurt. And we’re only human. We have bad days. We feel pain—even when somebody doesn’t mean harm.
Maybe this is “the interwebs”, but behind the screen are real people. And real people can’t always choose whether or not they hurt.

Instead of teaching people “Don’t let words hurt you”, we should teach people “Don’t say words that hurt”

There has been a campaign recently to ban the word “bossy”. You can not force people to never use bad words. I don’t even think that this should be taught, because we will end up in a very two faced community, where we’re all polite, but secretly carrying knives behind our backs.

cassiekessie.9356:

I hope they do add this option; the ability of people to ‘follow’ you without your consent and the inability for you to delete them, is ridiculous. This option would deal with the issue the OP has (although frankly the half-wits in the OP’s screenie ought to be removed from GW) and ensure that you are only seen by whom you want to be seen by.

So blocking them won’t stop them from following. It will remove them from followers list tho.

But if they keep on harassing you, even after you’ve blocked them, since their chat messages won’t come through, maybe add them to your friends, see if they keep on throwing names and kitten, then propably report them for verbal abuse and block them again.

To OP, sounds very nice but I don’t think ANet would add something like that.
Propably all you can do is only block them as they appear, this should block their chat bubbles too.
The worst cases require reporting as “Selling Gold”, “Verbal Abuse” or “Spamming”.
And setting new chat tabs will also work, where you filter to show Guild and Friends channels.

Mirta.5029:

Olvendred.3027:

I’m always amazed at the amount of people who think “gay means bad” is somehow not homophobic. Trying using the word “Jewish” to mean greedy or tight-fisted, and see how much support you get. (Illustrative example: ‘Stop being so Jewish, lend me some money.’) It’s exactly the same thing.

However, for the purposes of the OP, I feel like Block and Report should be sufficient.

So when hipsters go “I’m such a nerd”, or that’s so nerdy do we get insulted about a changing word meaning?

No… because ‘nerdy’ isn’t discriminatory, even when used as an insult. If I call someone an idiot, that may be intended to offend them, but it isn’t discrimination on the basis of something like race, gender or sexuality. You didn’t reply to my example about ‘Jewish.’ Would you find that acceptable? If not, then you have no justification for supporting the use of ‘gay’ to mean ‘bad/lame.’

I’d also point out that the meaning of ‘nerdy’ hasn’t changed. It is merely used more positively.

Gay to begin with never meant homosexual, it meant jolly.

Correct.

Now it’s changing again to mean bad but at the same time losing its meaning as homosexual.

Not so correct. Gay is not losing its meaning as homosexual. If anything, it’s becoming more dominant.

Mirta.5029:

Olvendred.3027:

I’m always amazed at the amount of people who think “gay means bad” is somehow not homophobic. Trying using the word “Jewish” to mean greedy or tight-fisted, and see how much support you get. (Illustrative example: ‘Stop being so Jewish, lend me some money.’) It’s exactly the same thing.

However, for the purposes of the OP, I feel like Block and Report should be sufficient.

So when hipsters go “I’m such a nerd”, or that’s so nerdy do we get insulted about a changing word meaning? Gay to begin with never meant homosexual, it meant jolly. Now it’s changing again to mean bad but at the same time losing its meaning as homosexual. Language is a hard thing to explain. You can’t go around being this sensitive though.

Weindrasi.3805:

It doesn’t matter if someone is a little kid or pitiful in real life. It doesn’t matter that “words shouldn’t hurt you”. It doesn’t matter that “the interwebs are cruel”

The fact is, words DO hurt. And we’re only human. We have bad days. We feel pain—even when somebody doesn’t mean harm.
Maybe this is “the interwebs”, but behind the screen are real people. And real people can’t always choose whether or not they hurt.

Instead of teaching people “Don’t let words hurt you”, we should teach people “Don’t say words that hurt”

There has been a campaign recently to ban the word “bossy”. You can not force people to never use bad words. I don’t even think that this should be taught, because we will end up in a very two faced community, where we’re all polite, but secretly carrying knives behind our backs.

I think that’s not necessarily true. There are ways to express your discontent without being offensive about it and using derogatory words. Not using offensive words doesn’t mean not using words at all. What everyone should learn is how to express your opinion in a way that respects other people, and that if you can’t do that you should just say… Nothing. There’s absolutely nothing to be gained by hurting others in any way. Not saying that I advocate banning words though, not at all. People should just learn to behave and need to be aware that words can hurt. A lot. Anyone who has been rejected by his or her crush knows that!

Anyway, there’s a bunch of people in that chat that I hope were reported. “No homos” is clearly offensive (whereas “stay close to my donkey” is immature at most). I’ve never seen a chat like that on my server though (Piken), it seems that you ended up in a bad place there. My sympathies.

There is a lot of homophobia (and also misogyny and racism) floating around the online gaming community probably because of the demographic: young males. Unfortunately, certain terms and phrases have effectively become slang and are used so widely that it would be hard to ban everyone who uses them. Some comments are so obviously offensive, though, that you should probably report those people. If it’s someone you know, you could also first try politely asking them to stop.

Just throwing it out there, but this kind of misguided hatred is created by fear that comes from ignorance. Like Fenar mentioned, the gaming population consists of young males. They are pressured by a world that isn’t always exactly welcoming to homosexuality, particularly in males. This pressure is increased by their contact with each other, and lack of understanding of themselves (which in turn leads to increased fear and stronger repulsion). What you are seeing is a continuation of this pressure in this online community.

And remember, being a commander takes 100g and time dedication, which caters to people who actually have time, a younger audience in other words. However, I think you need to take a step back, and take a breath because the no kitten part at least is a reference to something if I’m not mistaken…(the lowest form of humor, referencing!)

If it really bothers you that much, make a custom chat tab with party, guild and whispers (I’m pretty sure you can, sorry if I’m mistaken).

Linnea.5146:

I think that’s not necessarily true. There are ways to express your discontent without being offensive about it and using derogatory words. Not using offensive words doesn’t mean not using words at all. What everyone should learn is how to express your opinion in a way that respects other people, and that if you can’t do that you should just say… Nothing. There’s absolutely nothing to be gained by hurting others in any way. Not saying that I advocate banning words though, not at all. People should just learn to behave and need to be aware that words can hurt. A lot. Anyone who has been rejected by his or her crush knows that!

Anyway, there’s a bunch of people in that chat that I hope were reported. “No homos” is clearly offensive (whereas “stay close to my donkey” is immature at most). I’ve never seen a chat like that on my server though (Piken), it seems that you ended up in a bad place there. My sympathies.

But you see, that’s the point. If you remove the most insulting words, later any word that carries any negative meaning becomes insulting. In Japan it’s impolite to say “no”. Whatever is the question you’re supposed to always say yes. Which gets extremely confusing because actions do not match words. “Let’s go to the store” “Okay”, you see that the lady that you’re talking to will not actually go anywhere, “So are you going?” “Yes”, says the lady without ever planning to go anywhere.

If you think that “No kitten ” is insulting then I wonder what bubble do you live in. This term is used in a lot of bro codes. For example “I love you bro! No kitten ”. This time it was used in a joking way.

Fenar.4025:

There is a lot of homophobia (and also misogyny and racism) floating around the online gaming community probably because of the demographic: young males. Unfortunately, certain terms and phrases have effectively become slang and are used so widely that it would be hard to ban everyone who uses them. Some comments are so obviously offensive, though, that you should probably report those people. If it’s someone you know, you could also first try politely asking them to stop.

As a female I actually think that misogyny is being called too many times without it actually being there. For example, revealing armours, discriminating women or not? In my opinion, they’re not discriminatory, because it’s just skin.
“Oh you’re a girl?… Dibz!” most likely a joke. Should only be taken as an attack if the person literally does not leave you alone.
“Oh, go back to the kitchen” can be both a joke and an insult. A lot of the time depends on the context.
Now this is the kind of thing where you can actually yell “sexism!”:
http://gamasutra.com/blogs/RobinArnott/20140331/214349/quotGAMEJAMquot_and_the_Power_of_Integrity.php

Snow.2048:

Just throwing it out there, but this kind of misguided hatred is created by fear that comes from ignorance. Like Fenar mentioned, the gaming population consists of young males.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_and_video_games

Your knowledge is outdated by at least 10 years.

“Entertainment Software Association’s 2013 study found that 45% of game players are female, 2% decrease from last year’s figures.³² However, women 18 years or older represent 31% of the game-playing population, one percent higher than last year, while boys 17 years and younger represent 19% of the game-playing population.³² Women over 18 are one of the fastest growing demographics in the gaming industry³³ and the percentage of females in gaming has continued to grow considering only 38% of the gaming population was female in 2006.³⁴

Not only is the general female gaming population growing, but the spread of this population is expanding over many facets of gaming.

A 2010 study by the Entertainment Software Association had found that the percentage of women playing online had risen to 42%, up several percent since 2004. The same 2010 study showed that 46% of game purchasers were female,³⁵ and this figure increased to 48% by 2012.³⁰"

http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/gateway_demographics.html

Very few of the players are actually young as well. You’re more likely to hit a 20-30 year old, then you are a hit a teenager. It’s simply because this is the genre that most of us grew up with.

I feel for you OP. Sadly, humanity’s capacity for a descent vocabulary is laughable to say the least. And as a result, “Gay” is just the jack-of-all trades negative adjective. .-.

i would not like this option added, Anet are trying to get people to play more together not isolate yourself.. i dont want to be mean but if you can’t handle people using the word “gay” in a game then maybe you should not be on the internet.. Alot of that in chat was not used as a direct insult to you, i get called all kinds of crap in game, do i take it to heart? do i heck.. i just laugh and move on.. and Yeah some of it is personal..
When i killed some dude in PvP he called me a Bi…ch.. (quite personal to a girl imo..) When i killed him for the 2nd time.. he called me it again.. when i killed him the 3rd time.. he said he reported me.. By that point he was introduced to my block list.. simple as… You can swap Chat tab and select which groups you want to view, like party/guild etc.. just move it to guild and you wont see the rest

Sorry you feel hurt by it, but its a game, its the internet, it’s not going to go away anytime soon, if it bothers you this much then you need to re-think Gaming/MMO’s

Ellie.5203:

i would not like this option added, Anet are trying to get people to play more together not isolate yourself.. i dont want to be mean but if you can’t handle people using the word “gay” in a game then maybe you should not be on the internet.. Alot of that in chat was not used as a direct insult to you, i get called all kinds of crap in game, do i take it to heart? do i heck.. i just laugh and move on.. and Yeah some of it is personal..
When i killed some dude in PvP he called me a Bi…ch.. (quite personal to a girl imo..) When i killed him for the 2nd time.. he called me it again.. when i killed him the 3rd time.. he said he reported me.. By that point he was introduced to my block list.. simple as… You can swap Chat tab and select which groups you want to view, like party/guild etc.. just move it to guild and you wont see the rest

Sorry you feel hurt by it, but its a game, its the internet, it’s not going to go away anytime soon, if it bothers you this much then you need to re-think Gaming/MMO’s

Horrible advice, you are not in the OP’s shoes. Something being common on the internet doesn’t make it right either, and it’s just wrong to blame the victim.

I dislike when people say I don’t intend to be mean, and still say mean stuff (basically, that the OP has no business playing online games because inappropriate language there is common.)

And the person who called you a b**ch is ALSO an idiot, and should be banned from the game. It’s clearly against ANet’s rules, whatever you may think the Internet’s “rules” are.

Zaoda.1653:

<snip>

I really hope you reported all those in your screenshots and they’ve been dealt with. If they were in my guild they would’ve seen the exit door

Though I do agree that todays society shouldn’t curse as much and definitly not curse with words that were never an insult to begin with. How-ever I think this is a poor idea, especially since you said “Public, Map and Team chat” You know what team-chat is for? You need to be follow teamchat, it’s very helpful if you’re able to follow say. MMO’s are about teamwork and you don’t even want to read what your team would be saying because some people need to use immature insults. You know what MMO’s are for? There’re here because of the social aspect (along with it being near-impossible to ‘finish’ an MMO) and you want people to become as anti-social as possible just because people use those words as curse words.

You also talked in your whole post about the comments being made at you, but in your example it’s just a generalized word, not even aimed at you. I won’t say you’re oversensitive, because you’re not in the wrong here, but you could be the solution by not taking everything so personal. Put those who are out of line on ignore, report those who deserve a report and make the whole community better, rather than suggest a very anti-social system into a social game.

I got even more disappointed when I noticed how little you did to find a sollution for yourself: Turning of the Profanity filter whilst you can’t stand cursing, what? Not turning of Map-chat, why? It won’t stop unwanted PM’s, but besides gold-sellers (who are a problem in their own and reportable) it will stop everything else, since all your examples are in map/say, not in a PM especially for you.

Question, in what part of the world do you live that you’ve never encountered this in real life. If real life had the same profanity filter as the forums I’d be hearing people talking about kittens all day long and no, I don’t live in some bad neighbourhood.

Esmee.1067:

I got even more disappointed when I noticed how little you did to find a sollution for yourself: Turning of the Profanity filter whilst you can’t stand cursing, what? Not turning of Map-chat, why? It won’t stop unwanted PM’s, but besides gold-sellers (who are a problem in their own and reportable) it will stop everything else, since all your examples are in map/say, not in a PM especially for you.

Question, in what part of the world do you live that you’ve never encountered this in real life. If real life had the same profanity filter as the forums I’d be hearing people talking about kittens all day long and no, I don’t live in some bad neighbourhood.

To be honest, we live in such an oversensitive world that I’m surprised there isn’t some mandatory hearing implant for censorship by now.

Words on their own shouldn’t be insulting. Attitudes and how words are used directly towards a particular demographic however are another matter.

When person A says “wow that’s gay” or “no kitten ” (homosexual shortening should NOT be censored ArenaNet, mistranslations and gaps in sentences are more detrimental to speech than having a perceived insult where there is none, now people could read anything into what I said behind the “kitten”) I don’t see anything wrong with it at all and the oversensitive carebears should probably just block public chat if THIS offends them. However if Person A were to say to Person B that he’s a “faggit who should go kitten someone up the kitten ” then I think that’s a completely different matter.

Again, it’s not the words used that are offensive in the second matter but how they were directed at making someone feel bad.

(in a lot of cases we’re seeing the “oh kitten” statements insult people more than the “kitten you” statements. I think people should really grow up in this case)