I would like to ask a question regarding the guideline as to what would be considered an offensive or hate chat lines when it comes to interactions with other players in game. I think I have a pretty clear view as to what would be against the rules without question. Like calling people bad names, using offensive language, some sort of clear hate notions etc. But what about “soft” versions of smack talking?
For instance, I could clearly guess that typing something like “You kitten noob, learn to play or get the kitten out”. Would be a clear violation. Not to mention some hard slur usage like sugestions about people’s moms and such. But what if I play PvP and I I see my team is… underperforming. And I type some lines as in example: “What on earth are you doing guys? Stop farming kills in the middle! Go cap something for the love of God!” I must say I am typing things like that from time to time when I play tPvP but always before I press enter I make sure there are no offensive words in there or I dont call some people directly to avoid naming and shaming (generally I always speak about the “team”). So I do keep things “clean” however to be fair, what I type is not a “friendly chat”. When you read it you can clearly see that I am upset and that I have issues with how someone is playing. But then again, I do keep it civil. Sometimes I use sarcasm as in “Great job guys, keep farming that spot next to a tree!” or “I’m glad you went all 4 to cap that close point at match start, gg!” but thats it.
Today someone suggested me that I might get reported for that and I reacted in a manner of “Reported for what? I dont use a single offensive word in there nor do I harass anyone in particular!”. But a friend of mine on Teamspeak told me that “You can get suspended for such things”. So I decided to double-check the code of conduct and here is what I found.
While playing Guild Wars 2, you must respect the rights of others and their rights to play and enjoy the Game. To this end, you may not defraud, harass, threaten, embarrass or cause distress and/or unwanted attention to other players. This includes posting insulting, offensive, or abusive comments about players, repeatedly sending unwanted messages, reporting players maliciously, attacking a player based on race, sexual orientation, religion, heritage, etc. Hate speech is not tolerated.
So my question is. Are examples I described come close to what would be considered as hate speech? IMO they dont but I am not the one running GW2, Arena.net does so no matter if I like it or not, they are the ones making the rules. I would rather know beforehand if blocking myself from posting any offensive language or using any silly lines like “Your mom is fat” (not that I ever had an urge to do that) is enough. Or is that true that you may get reported and sanctioned just for the mere fact that sometimes your in-game messages are not, well, totally friendly?