Guild Wars 2

Saw someone today with a name that was a direct reference to smoking marijuana. The general policy states names with references to “illegal drugs” are banned. However, it made me curious to know how this detail is dealt with seeing as how in some states its use is legal recreationally, in some only medicinally, and in most not all all.

ANet is based in Washington state where use is legal, which makes their stance on this a little more interesting as it may have to do with the state hosting the servers.

I thought it was a quirky issue that begged the question. I think I can guess the answer, but….

Considering that GW2 is an international game and pot is 100% legal in countries like Amsterdam, I highly doubt it matters at all. Be a good bloke and smoke a toke, just don’t go broke or have a stroke. Mkay?

Imo it will be banned. There is a paragraph that gives them the “wiggle room” to ban names that reference a drug that is legal in one place and illegal in another.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/legal/guild-wars-2-naming-policy/
“This policy may not cover all inappropriate or disallowed names. ArenaNet reserves the right to reject any name it concludes, in its sole and absolute discretion, is indecent, obscene, offensive, or that otherwise violates our naming policy or the Guild Wars 2 User Agreement. ArenaNet reserves the right to examine names on a case-by-case basis and take whatever action we deem necessary in our sole and absolute discretion. We reserve the right, in our sole and absolute discretion, to change, modify, add, or remove portions of this Guild Wars 2 Naming Policy at any time.”

Siphaed.9235:

Considering that GW2 is an international game and pot is 100% legal in countries like Amsterdam, I highly doubt it matters at all. Be a good bloke and smoke a toke, just don’t go broke or have a stroke. Mkay?

Where might this country Amsterdam be? I only know of a city of Amsterdam…

And yes, GW2 is an international game, so you must try to appease everyone. If one group finds a certain name offensive, should you allow it because an other group doesn’t mind it at all?

The policy is for the players benefit, they can and did ban any name they want for any reason though. If someone reports it they are likely to make them change.

Siphaed.9235:

Considering that GW2 is an international game and pot is 100% legal in countries like Amsterdam, I highly doubt it matters at all. Be a good bloke and smoke a toke, just don’t go broke or have a stroke. Mkay?

This is the best post, but probably not for the intended reasons.

Naming Policy:

We do not permit names that:
Have offensive racial, ethnic, national, or cultural connotations
Include hate speech or bigoted slurs
Reference sexual acts or real life violence
Are pornographic
Make inappropriate references to human anatomy or bodily functions
Reference illegal drugs or activities
Reference religious or historical figures
Reference real-life people
Reference names of copyrighted or trademarked characters, materials, or products
Use misspellings or alternative spellings of names that violate any of the above rules

And considering it is 100% illegal in countries like London, Berlin and Washington ( ), I’m sure action will be taken if someone Right Clicks > Reports for Inappropriate Character Name.

TIL London, Berlin and Washington are their own nations.

Siphaed.9235:

Considering that GW2 is an international game and pot is 100% legal in countries like Amsterdam, I highly doubt it matters at all. Be a good bloke and smoke a toke, just don’t go broke or have a stroke. Mkay?

Amsterdam is not a country son.
You smoke too much.

EDIT: Holy cabbage, just saw a guy saying Berlin, London and Washington are countries. Not sure if it’s just a bad english.
I refuse to believe that there such illiterate people out there. I mean cmon, wtf, you can’t be that dumb :P

Tomerant.2701:

Siphaed.9235:

Considering that GW2 is an international game and pot is 100% legal in countries like Amsterdam, I highly doubt it matters at all. Be a good bloke and smoke a toke, just don’t go broke or have a stroke. Mkay?

Amsterdam is not a country son.
You smoke too much.

EDIT: Holy cabbage, just saw a guy saying Berlin, London and Washington are countries. Not sure if it’s just a bad english.
I refuse to believe that there such illiterate people out there. I mean cmon, wtf, you can’t be that dumb :P

“I refuse to believe that there are such illiterate people out there.”

Anyway, I’ve edited the post slightly, adding a winking smiley, so you can judge for yourself whether you believe I really think my home country is called London.

penelopehannibal.8947:

Naming Policy:

We do not permit names that:
Have offensive racial, ethnic, national, or cultural connotations
Include hate speech or bigoted slurs
Reference sexual acts or real life violence
Are pornographic
Make inappropriate references to human anatomy or bodily functions
Reference illegal drugs or activities
Reference religious or historical figures
Reference real-life people
Reference names of copyrighted or trademarked characters, materials, or products
Use misspellings or alternative spellings of names that violate any of the above rules

And considering it is 100% illegal in countries like London, Berlin and Washington, I’m sure action will be taken if someone Right Clicks > Reports for Inappropriate Character Name.

Berlin: not 100% illegal. Possession is allowed (overlooked) as long as it’s 15 grams or less.
Washington DC: possession and use: legalized.
Washington state: purchase must be from a state licensed retailer. (restrictions on use still apply) http://www.liq.wa.gov/marijuana/faqs_i-502

I think we’re going off topic now. Whether it’s illegal or legal in Germany, the USA, The United Kingdom isn’t the issue. The issue is a Guild Wars 2 issue and I’m certain the use of the drug in a Guild Wars 2 character name is not allowed.

Don’t forget though, while some states have legalized it for recreational use and other have legalized it for medical use…

It is still illegal on the federal level across all 50 states.

Magic toker should be banned am i rite?

If any name is even slightly or indirectly offensive all someone has to do is report you and you’ll get banned had a character for 2 years and recently got issued a name change

Reference real-life people, that’s funny because one player in game has several alts named after real life high profile people and their names where never change as I’ve reported them several times.

Character names about the icky sticky are a video game tradition. How else would we know that these people are the epitome of cool?

RoRo.8270:

If any name is even slightly or indirectly offensive all someone has to do is report you and you’ll get banned had a character for 2 years and recently got issued a name change

Banned and a forced name change are not the same thing.

I really hope those people in this thread who believe that some cities are actually countries are joking.

I think it would still be banned. I live in the Netherlands and weed is legal here, but then again, Anet is an american company.

I remembered when they removed the guild name “Hard Core Pwn” for being against the EULA naming policy even though it’s reference is 100% legal.

I think ethics and morality play a larger part than the actual name itself and in this case the casual reference to the use of cannabis would not be something they would want exposed to the under 18 demographic.

ANet’s game, ANet’s rules. They say it’s bad, it’s bad.

And in cases of international objection to it, it’s normally the most restrictive sets the guideline.

You know their naming policies covers just about everything you could name a character, they do this purposefully so that if a name gets reported they don’t have people arguing that they didn’t break TOS. Name your char whatever you want, but if you make it really offensive don’t be surprised if your asked to change.

Or, oooor… Orr…

People could quit trying to be dank meme funny (hint: your not) and just come up with some random name that isn’t a drug reference, sexual innuendo, or a title describing an act of the former or variants of lewd, illegal, or explicit.

They asked for a name. It’s really not that difficult to not be an offensive kittenhat about it. You don’t even have to be creative.

There are websites that will generate a random normal name for you. Bob Firesplash. Joe Danger. John Tider. Kirito The Blahblahblah.

People that name their characters that way obviously don’t give a kitten about it anyway, so why not be safe and unoriginal rather than juvenile and banned?

Eh. I might as well be speaking common sense to the wind.

Muusic.2967:

I remembered when they removed the guild name “Hard Core Pwn” for being against the EULA naming policy even though it’s reference is 100% legal.

I think ethics and morality play a larger part than the actual name itself and in this case the casual reference to the use of cannabis would not be something they would want exposed to the under 18 demographic.

They also removed a name called “black afro”. Even though the character (asura) was black and had an afro. Apparantly the mere mention of the word “black” is considered racist..