Guild Wars 2

Just wondering if this actually happens.
Well known Gandara Guild was apparently disbanded yesterday by ANET.
Players in chat discussing today.. simply overnight apparently ANET disbanded it for a naming violation… I find this hard to believe, especially as I have known of this guild for a least a year now.

I am more inclined to believe a more zealous officer/leader may have disbanded it and pocketed the guild bank cos really, would ANET take all that and the influence accrued from the guild members without at least a warning and a notice to rename???

Answers on a post card please

Anet has the right to disband a guild if the name violates their naming policy.
That being said, they usually offer to change the guild name violations to something that is within their policy before disbanding.
The only way I could see that this happened is if the guild leader/officer ignored requests to change the name, or the name was SO offensive that Anet had no choice but to disband.

From what I know, ANet will just make you change the name. However I am not sure if that goes along with how Character Name Changes by ANet work where when you log in you simply have to change it in order to use it.

It is possible that ANet disbanded the guild for a name violation. But It’s also likely and possible that the leadership disbanded their guild.

If you were a part of the guild and concerned about what really happened, I’d put in a support ticket just to ask. I ‘think’ a contributing member of the disbanded guild has a right to know if it was officially disbanded due to a naming violation, or not.
I don’t know if that would get the members anywhere but it’s worth a try.

I was a high ranking officer for the afforementioned guild. It was named Brain Fart [FART]. Yes, we got disbanded by Anet action. It happened without any warning for our leaders, and the guild was simply removed from existence.

The basis of the forced disband was apparently the “Unacceptable guild name”. While i question the basis of that alone, i’d love to know why this has happened after ONE AND A HALF YEAR, and not immediately when the guild was founded in early 2013.

We’ve lost a roster of about 400 people which we’re scrambling to rebuild now. Full guild upgrades and about half a million influence went down the drain. If you know any better definition for heavy-handedness, i’d like to hear it because i’m at a loss of words.

wow i have seen dozens of worse guild names who still are around i believe…

and your guild name isnt even that offensive…
only kids who are unhappy with their own life would report this out of evilness and for Schadenfreude… seriously…

Hey, I was one of the leaders of said guild (it was called Brain Fart). It’s been around for almost as year and a half, with a bit less than 400 members and last night, out of the blue it suddenly just disappeared with no warning or any notice. I wrote a ticket to support asking what happened to our guild and the reply was:
We note that you have written to ask why your guild is missing. After reviewing the details, we determined that your guild was disbanded because the guild name and/or its acronym (“handle” or “tag”) was found to be in breach of the Guild Wars 2 Naming Policy.

This would’ve been completely fine, had it occurred in the first few weeks of the guild’s existence, but now after 1.5 years and 400ish members it leaves a bad taste. We lost all upgrades, 500k influence and everything in the guild bank, not to mention tracking down all the members to ’’reinvite’’ into our newly formed guild will be an almost impossible task.

Oh my ….

As a fellow Gandarian, I am truly sorry to read this .
Whenever I saw your guildies in game, the guild tag always gave me a smile …

I imagine the reason it was now and not when the guild was first made would be due to Anet probably not proactively policing guild or character names. Anet more likely (due to sheer volume of guild’s being registered ad characters named etc) react to reports. Basically, it seems more likely that someone reported the guild name, and the action was a result of a following investigation.

It may be heavy handed, and if there are numerous examples of renames instead of disbanding it seems it could be harsh. It may be that they’ve gone to that length as a way of being as even handed as possible and just disbanding infringing guilds. That may be a newer stance than previous.

Pizer.5160:

Hey, I was one of the leaders of said guild (it was called Brain Fart). It’s been around for almost as year and a half, with a bit less than 400 members and last night, out of the blue it suddenly just disappeared with no warning or any notice. I wrote a ticket to support asking what happened to our guild and the reply was:
We note that you have written to ask why your guild is missing. After reviewing the details, we determined that your guild was disbanded because the guild name and/or its acronym (“handle” or “tag”) was found to be in breach of the Guild Wars 2 Naming Policy.
This would’ve been completely fine, had it occurred in the first few weeks of the guild’s existence, but now after 1.5 years and 400ish members it leaves a bad taste. We lost all upgrades, 500k influence and everything in the guild bank, not to mention tracking down all the members to ’’reinvite’’ into our newly formed guild will be an almost impossible task.

This is to both leaders: Submit a support ticket asking if there was not a better way to resolve the naming violation. Is there anyway to allow the leaders to change the guild name, at this juncture, and still maintain upgrades etc.
I know the damage is done with the members but just maybe you can make a comeback if Anet is willing to work with you.
I have seen complaints of guild names in the past and the resolution was Anet giving them a set time to change the name of the guild before disbanding. At least that is what I recollect and without a supporting link, well take it for what it’s worth.
Support can be surprisingly helpful in certain situations and I would at least try and see if anyone there can help.

That sucks ,but also seems… fishy. I am sorry this happened to you but as far as I know if you break the ToS you break it. It takes someone reporting you (generally) for them to look into it however.

The leader of one of my old guilds said that ANet disbanded us, but we later learned they just did it to take all the gold from the banks. I am not saying you did this at all, it just a cautionary tale to not take all things at face value.

I do wish you luck on rebuilding though.

I don’t get this at all. One of my guildies created a guild to mess with me, and it was far more offensive in name than that. He got a letter from Anet asking him to disband or change it.

I’ve not before heard of Anet just disbanding a guild…and I don’t believe they should.

Good afternoon!

I was as well one of the leaders of Brain Fart[FART] (Rena Drayen/Enej The Protector/….) and the news of our guild being disbanned devastated me. There were absolutely no warnings or notifications from Anet regarding the action they took yesterday. Also as Lenor and Pizer already stated, the guild has been up and running for over a year and a half and had never any problems. We’ve posted on this forum about Brain Fart year ago so the guild name was public and never incognito so there is no way they spotted us only just now.

Can we get some reply or further explanation from dev’s on this topic as plenty of ex Brain Fart members lost the will to play, since the guild was a tight community of over 200-300 daily active logins.

For any other members lurking the forums if you see this message please whisper anyone from Brain Fart to keep in touch!

Good day!

To infernia.9847:

This was also their response to my ticket:

The development team recognizes that players would like to see a feature added to the game that allows a guild to be renamed instead of disbanded. That option may become available in the future, but at the present time we must disband the guild to remove the unacceptable name and/or tag.

So, nothing. I also requested a list of all the folks in the guild pre-disband and a transfer of influence/guild upgrades to our new one, but this request cannot be fulfilled, as expected.

Also, if anyone has dug himself out of the nuclear debris that our guild currently is, please contact me, Pizer or Pranker ingame, so we can hook you up with our new deal, thanks.

Orangensaft.7139:

wow i have seen dozens of worse guild names who still are around i believe…

^this.

How is Brain Fart even offensive? I find it comical, this is absurd! More proof Anet is doing everything they can to ruin the fun in this game.

If eating a banana and switching channels via remote control and then suddenly you put remote in your mouth and switch channels with your banana is offensive (that’s basically what guild name is aiming at) then I’ve lost all faith.

I was coming to ask the same question.

Who the hell gets offended by text string “FART”!?

For me, the meaning of brain fart is not rude, or offensive. But let’s say according to anet the guild name contains words that are not acceptable. I can understand that.

The guild exists 1.5 year and so far there were no warnings received? Okay some claim that they could not properly monitor or something, and that anet might have seen after complaint from a fellow player. I can understand that.

What I can not understand is: A guild has ~ 400 members + so much merits and influences. it is difficult to create a guild that consists of about 400 players. Just a warning would have been enough, or change the guild name and allow the leader (s) to adjust the guild name/tag .

I’d point out a certain Gandarran guild that has very serious issues with swearing people, but i guess i’d be pushing my luck here.

Seems a bit fishy

I’d like to hear from Anet on this one. I don’t believe any “well meaning” guild should ever be disbanded against their will. People put time and effort into building a guild up…they’ve spent hours of their time creating something. Anet has the legal right to take it down, but I don’t see how that’s in the game’s best interest.

We’ve only heard one side of the story. I’d like to hear the other side.

While allowing a change would have been the best way, certainly, the quoted response from Anet seems to indicate that it is a difficult process given the current mechanics of the game. That argument falls down if there has been earlier cases of names simply being changed (as there have been, but not sure how substantiated they are).

Wolfheart.1879:

While allowing a change would have been the best way, certainly, the quoted response from Anet seems to indicate that it is a difficult process given the current mechanics of the game. That argument falls down if there has been earlier cases of names simply being changed (as there have been, but not sure how substantiated they are).

It’s possible that recent changes to the way guilds are handled made the older methods of renaming obsolete, in which case they’d need to be reprogrammed. Remember, they changed guilds to being “account bound” instead of server bound and that might have screwed something up.

That said, I just don’t see why the name is offensive.

Vayne.8563:

Wolfheart.1879:

While allowing a change would have been the best way, certainly, the quoted response from Anet seems to indicate that it is a difficult process given the current mechanics of the game. That argument falls down if there has been earlier cases of names simply being changed (as there have been, but not sure how substantiated they are).

It’s possible that recent changes to the way guilds are handled made the older methods of renaming obsolete, in which case they’d need to be reprogrammed. Remember, they changed guilds to being “account bound” instead of server bound and that might have screwed something up.

That said, I just don’t see why the name is offensive.

I don’t see why is is offensive either, but Anet have made their decision, and while it is something that many would probably disagree with, that’s not going to change what has happened.

The change in how guilds function, to being game-wide rather than seperate chapters on each world could be indeed be reason for Anet’s not being able to change names as before (if indeed they did before).

It is a shame, certainly that a seemingly successful guild has been wiped off the face of Tyria for having a word in it that, to my knowledge at least, was last censored in the song Hakuna Matata, and even there purely for comic effect.

Something tells me there is more to this story than were being led to believe

Warcry.1596:

Something tells me there is more to this story than were being led to believe

Illuminati.

If “fart” was considered offensive, I’d expect it to change to “kitten” on the forums. Which it doesn’t.

Pizer.5160:

To infernia.9847:

This was also their response to my ticket:

The development team recognizes that players would like to see a feature added to the game that allows a guild to be renamed instead of disbanded. That option may become available in the future, but at the present time we must disband the guild to remove the unacceptable name and/or tag.

So, nothing. I also requested a list of all the folks in the guild pre-disband and a transfer of influence/guild upgrades to our new one, but this request cannot be fulfilled, as expected.

I am sorry this happened and that they didn’t have an acceptable resolution. I know I have read/heard of Anet allowing the guild to change their name in the past. I agree with Vayne in that I believe the changes to guilds no longer being server-bound has caused issues with renaming.
All that said…. WHO finds the name Brain Fart[FART] offensive? I mean seriously what has society come to when the word FART is taboo. If there is a guild named BURP watch out you’re next! /jk
I get it, some names have double meaning, stand for something truly offensive etc. But this name is so innocent of any of this and as it was said, you’ve been around for a long time and there were no warnings when there was a system in place where you could rename the guild.
I wish all members of the guild the best on rebuilding if that is possible.

PatrioT logged on his favorite game today , but little did he know that his guild was disbanded. and in MoTD it said: hey, our old guild brain [fart] was deleted by Anet.
he is emo now cutting himself in corner and listening to Tokio hotel.
For real now :
our guild was disbanded because of our name : brain fart -.- guild was active 300ppl + and running for a 1.5 years now and after all maxed upgrades ,full bank and GMs we have to start over
and if you look for offensive guild names you don’t have to go far : [kitten] [MILF][kitten][KISS]
have a nice day…

Here are the best I could come up with without doing real homework:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/bugs/Guild-Name-changed-without-Notice

And then this part of the TOS:
“For issues related to display, guild, or pet names, the Support Team will change the name or will designate the appropriate action to be taken on the part of the player to amend the unacceptable name.

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. "

I really think that they have issues changing a Guild’s name at this juncture as compared to before. I didn’t have time to search out other examples but I have read on the forums about Guild Name changes occurring.
Um is it okay to post part of the TOS? I sure hope so.

Well what I can read from this discussion is that Anet has double standards. A large community got deleted without any notice, warning or at least a chance to friend list all the members, while other troll guilds get the chance to rename. Or am I wrong? It would mean a great deal to all Fartians if we could get the list of people who were involved with us, to stay in contact (at this time we’ve managed to connect with about 50-60 members). Also fully upgraded guild, tons of influence and buffs went down the drain. Not to mention a year and a half of hard work from lots of people to see this guild grow.

Hope we get a reply soon!

In 2014 the name “Brain Fart” is offensive in a game rated PEGI: 12+ and ESRB: Teen ?

A game where you can belch from drinking and vomit from eating too much candy?

To the point where the game-efforts of hundreds of people equating to thousands of hours should be deleted without recourse?

Anet has no way of renaming a guild, so disbanding is the only option. They’re actually pretty lenient on this though, I know several guilds that break the naming rules, but aren’t disbanded because it’s not an extreme enough case, and is worth waiting for the renaming tech.

I can’t believe mentioning flatulence warranted disbandment though, there’s been a guild on my server since launch named kittens that hasn’t been actioned against.

EDIT: Lol, apparently the guild name allowed in game is not allowed on the forums.

wow, how is such a name as brain fart offensive? Can’t believe people are stepped on their toes so fast…

Feel sorry for you guys, not cool Anet, not cool… :-/

The only reason I can find that your guild name would have been inappropriate is that maybe it means something quite offensive in another language? I have not been able to find what country it would be if it was…. so there is something about this story that is still… off to me.

People get offended over the most stupid things these days. And instead of those in charge telling them to ‘Knock it off and grow up’ they appease them and thus everyone get’s knocked down to the lowest possible denominator in the name of political correctness.

It’s a sad sign of our times…

All that being said, I hope the people in this guild gets things straightened out. Sucks having everything taken from a group like that.
I am somewhat curious on the details.
Are you guys a North American guild? Did everyone log off and then wake up to find it gone?
Complete guild deletion with no warning or anything?
Could be a case of an over-zealous game Mod or… we haven’t heard the full story yet.

Vayne.8563:

I don’t get this at all. One of my guildies created a guild to mess with me, and it was far more offensive in name than that. He got a letter from Anet asking him to disband or change it.

I’ve not before heard of Anet just disbanding a guild…and I don’t believe they should.

I highly doubt this because the feature of renaming guilds hasnt been implemented.

Well our part of the story is all covered with posts from Pizer, Lenor, me, aegan and the rest. Only explanation we got was offensive name.

and +1 on what daze.8019 said, not to mention a game where mass murder is basically it’s point

From the naming policy:

If an unacceptable guild name or guild acronym (“tag”) is noted or reported, a mark will be placed on the guild creator’s account. The guild will be reset to “0? on the Guild Ladder and will be unable to issue challenges; the only option will be to dissolve the guild. There is no option for renaming a guild at this time.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/legal/guild-wars-2-conduct-breaches-outcomes/

ShinjoNaomi.1896:

People get offended over the most stupid things these days. And instead of those in charge telling them to ‘Knock it off and grow up’ they appease them and thus everyone get’s knocked down to the lowest possible denominator in the name of political correctness.

It’s a sad sign of our times…

All that being said, I hope the people in this guild gets things straightened out. Sucks having everything taken from a group like that.
I am somewhat curious on the details.
Are you guys a North American guild? Did everyone log off and then wake up to find it gone?
Complete guild deletion with no warning or anything?
Could be a case of an over-zealous game Mod or… we haven’t heard the full story yet.

Well after my daily practice at approximately 22:00 I received a call from my girlfriend (she is a Fartian aswell) saying our guild got deleted by anet. Spoke to the only online ‘’man in charge’’ and he said it simply got deleted. I haven’t a clue how usually this is done but apparently people got asked to rename or at least were renamed by mod’s w/o speaking to the ’’holder’’ of the name, not anywhere close to our case where insta delete.