Guild Wars 2

After a long time pondering whether to untick all the chat options in GW2 to literally become a mute and not see anyone’s comments anymore, I have finally done it – because I’ve had enough. I’ve had enough of hearing all the homophobic remarks online (And to be frank, I get enough of it in real life… I certainly don’t need it in a game as well).

Why should I have to constantly hear comments like ’that’s so gay’ and see players use the word ‘gay’ in such a demeaning, derogatory way? I remember when this word used to mean happy. But nowadays, society just accepts it as meaning ‘strange’, ‘weird’, or ‘wrong’. I don’t care if people see me as the latter, I just expect you to either 1) keep those comments to yourself or 2) at least allow me to fully block a player so I can get on with my gaming.

This brings me to my next point. A while back I tried putting a homophobic player on my ignore list (because I know that reporting him would have done absolutely nothing), however, his messages of hate still showed in the /map and /team chat channels. This was a huge dilemma for me because I WvW a lot, and I require those channels to see what the commander is telling us to do.

Now, a large part of why I play GW2 is to get away from real life. From all the hate, and from all the homophobia. It is my escape. I am so frustrated though because no one seems to care about how these hurtful comments damage people like myself. People even defend homophobes and their comments with things like ’it’s just a game, get over it’ or ’it’s just words’. Really? Have they even walked a mile in a gay man’s shoes? Have they experienced pure hatred and patronising comments for something they cannot change, on a daily basis? I highly doubt it.

Furthermore, no one from Anet seems to care about dealing with homophobia OR the ignore system (I give them a lot of credit for the rainbow themed weapons though – that’s really awesome!), especially when I pleaded for them a few months ago to change the ignore system to REALLY mean that it fully ignores a player’s comments (including map and team chat).

I know what you’re thinking, and you’re right, I can’t look into a crystal ball and predict any future homophobic remarks (but if you will step into my shoes for a moment and imagine hearing remarks on a daily basis that you’re not worthy of living, that God hates you, or that you’re weird/strange/wrong, it’s kind of hard to simply brush these comments off) – I’m not a mind reader either. What I do expect, however, is that when I do see comments that hurt me, I can put those players on my ignore list, knowing full well that they are dealt with – but even that isn’t possible, because ignoring a player doesn’t fully ignore their comments in all channels. At least, nothing has changed since that incident as far as I know.

I don’t want anyone’s sympathy, I just want change to the ignore system so that one day, perhaps I can tick all the chat boxes again, and most importantly, be able to listen to the commanders in WvW again, and know that when homophobia pops its ugly head again (because it’s not IF, it’s WHEN), I can ignore that player and their comments completely.

Till then, I refuse to have any chat boxes ticked, and I will have to remain offline/invisible until the ignore system is dealt with. Yes it hinders my game play, but it is the only way I can stay sane – it’s either that or being bombarded with homophobia everyday that I cannot ignore (not through a lack of trying either).

Yours sincerely,
frustrated player

I guess I don’t understand what you are proposing. The ignore function already prohibits you from seeing all future chat in any and all channels from the account that you ignore. What else do you want it to do exactly?

Ignore functions to make comments on map invisible. I don’t know about team, but if your experience is that blocked people still show up on map chat, there’s something buggy going on.

I do know it won’t ignore people in your guild chat channels, though.

Hmmm it may have changed since that last incident then, if that’s the case then that’s awesome. I hope it’s true. In regards to still seeing player’s comments in guild chat channels, that should change too I reckon.

When I think of the word ‘ignore’, I expect it to truly mean ‘ignore’, not ‘ignore sometimes’. Anet please change this.

Sorry if this is of no help to you but have you found a good guild yet? There seems to be quite a few guilds that are friendly and full of like-minded players.

I know your complaints are with randoms who just say asinine comments… that’s life though. I wish people weren’t ignorant and hateful.

Whenever you think of a solution, put it up in the suggestion forum and I hope things get better while you are playing GW2 because gaming should be a nice time to relax and forget about your real world stress.

Good luck to you! ignore the ignoramuses whenever possible!

I suggest reporting any player that is verbally abusing you. ArenaNet is extremely strict about that.

Just right click their name in chat or their portrait in the world.

I had a similar problem with a guy whispering me silly racist stuff but ignore function blocked every single way for him to bother me (not including /emote and /team as I didn’t test them).

If you wrote this essay without checking it…

/guild, /team and /emote are still visible, as far as I know, the last being the worst. How or why they allowed that since launch is beyond me, but it defeats the purpose of ignoring somebody.

I feel your pain though and I surely wouldn’t say they’re completely strict on things. I witness stuff all the time and report it and there’s a 50/50 chance nothing will be done. Individual mileage will vary.

I’m sorry you have to be subjected to that stuff, just do what you can to enjoy the game.

@Mahaedros, thanks, yes I’m in an LGBT-friendly guild right now, as previous guilds I planned on joining were throwing homophobic slurs in every sentence it seemed, and I couldn’t face that. I agree that gaming should be a place to relax and not have to constantly think about a small part of who you are, or degrading remarks aimed at, and intended on hurting someone or a group of people.

@Wolfheart, I’m sorry you experienced racism in GW2 :-( it shouldn’t be like this, especially in 2013. I would like to have hoped society has changed, but clearly it hasn’t.

@Teege, thanks, yeah I think the /team one still being visible despite ignoring a player is a biggie, especially in WvW.

@OP: I deeply sympathize with your position. That can’t be fun. If you’re getting derogatory comments, report and ignore is the best you can do. If they aren’t comments at a person, but rather people swearing at things in general and misusing the word, the best you can do is ignore it. It may be annoying, but that’s the genuine best course you could take. Shrug it off, laugh it off, ignore them, whatever you need.

As far as ignore not actually ignoring everything, I feel that it should. If you ignore someone, you shouldn’t anymore see anything they’ve said.

When I find a player to be offensive I block them and report.

I find far fewer instances in GW2 than other games I have played and the ignore function has served me well for all classes of immature and offensive players. It is certainly fine to bring awareness to an experienced issue and the mature answer is not deal with it.

I agree OP. In fact, I just experienced another round of it today in LA on HoD. I asked the offenders to please stop and then they go obnoxious about it and attacked me. So, I reported and blocked them. Turns out one of them ended up in WvW. That person then got into a verbal fight with some folks and began a round of griefing by destroying golems. Later on they began commanding, and since I have them blocked …. can’t see any team instructions.

I later heard that they claimed to be gay and that I shouldn’t have been offended. As far as I’m concerned they should know better. If they truly are gay, they should know that it gets old and that we are tired of being subjected to it, especially in a gaming environment where we are actively trying to escape this sort of oppressive behavior.

I play games to have fun and escape this type of verbal abuse that exists in the real world.

Blocking helps, and reporting will help thin out the offenders. But, to be honest I also feel like turning off all chat just to avoid it altogether.

I need to leave this thread. It’s starting to really annoy me.

This game is privately owned, so Anet gets to choose what you are allowed to say over chat. That is why people who get reported for being offensive in chat can get escalating account suspensions. Definitely report anyone being malevolent over chat and then /ignore them. I hope your problems with the ignore system do not persist.

slurpey.6014:

GW2’s Community at it’s best.

You know, despite everything, there is a legitimate discussion going on here. You might not agree with some of the opinions, but nobody is being rude. It’s not a simple issue, there are a lot of nuanced variables. I think it’s a good discussion, and it’s good that the OP can can talk about it with the community. Maybe even just to get it off his chest. I thought about it late last night when I went to bed at least, so this thread has made a difference for me. Not sure if that counts for anything though, hehe:)

Vintorez.1605:

Block & move on.

That’s what the OP tried, but the block is broken and doesn’t affect emotes (including /me), /map and /team. Thus it is currently impossible to actually block someone else. That, too, is a legitimate discussion.

These two things probably shouldn’t be mixed in the same thread though.

take a screen shot of what was said that is homophobic and report the person. If you are being harass, take screen shots and report. I don’t know what to tell you. You can’t change people’s attitude. I’ve never blocked anyone so I don’t know that you can still see their chats in guild, map, team chats. That should be changed.

edit: if they are in your guild. I suggest talking to them, if you don’t like what they said toward “gay”. if that doesn’t work, I suggest going to an officer or the leader to sort it out. if that still doesn’t work, and the leader/officer don’t do anything about it. well its time to find a diff guild.

I also wanted to mention, I too have blocked a few people in game as well, I do not understand why when you block someone that you still see their chat in /g or /m for example but it just blocks their whispers. If you want to be able to block someone entirely I see no reason why you shouldn’t be able to do so.

Unfortunate as it is, finding middle ground is your best course. Report people who are overly offensive in their speech and play with friends. Join a guild if you want to chat, ask the guild if their chat is mature, or at the very least kid friendly, because mature sometimes means to people that profanity is maturity, when it’s the lack thereof).

And in all honesty, there isn’t an all round good solution to this problem.

I’m glad that Anet attempts to enforce good form in-game and on the forums through moderation as it emulates good social skills within the community even when not all members possess them. A game company is free to set a standard for speech within a private community and then enforce it. That is exactly what they have done.

But back on topic, ignore should absolutely block someone from every channel. Especially emotes. Being told to suck it up is not helpful.

I agree with the second part about the ignore though. And if someone continues to try to bypass the ignore then it’s obviously harassment and should be treated like malicious by ANet.

Ignore them and report them if it bothers you. That is all you can do. Anet will take action if they feel it requires it.

Well players here keep talking about the “right” not to be offended.
Senseless argument.
Anet has the “right” to suspend your account for being offensive, and they do it on a regular basis. Spend some time in the account support forum and you will see the many players who try to argue that it’s a game and they have the “right” to say what they want after they where suspended.
I do agree with the OP that the ignore system does not work, it needs to be tweaked a bit.

About 4 Years ago I was as sensitive as you were in regards to this, but eventually you realize people will always do this wether it’s against the rules or not.

The best thing for you to do is to join a gay friendly guild. I believe crystal desert is the gay friendly server, so I’d start there.

Regina Buenaobra.6193:

Secondly, thank you for providing feedback about the in-game ignore functionality. If I understand your post correctly, what you’re looking for is to have the ignore function include map and team chat.

Before coming across this thread, I had no idea this wasn’t actually the case (I don’t personally have anyone on ignore). It doesn’t make any sense to me at all to not have ignore work on all chat channels and for all chat methods. That seems like a pretty large oversight to me.

Regina Buenaobra.6193:

[snip]

Secondly, thank you for providing feedback about the in-game ignore functionality. If I understand your post correctly, what you’re looking for is to have the ignore function include map and team chat. Is there any other functionality you feel “Ignore” should have or that you feel is not working properly?

[snip]

Ignoring/Blocking a person should prevent…

• …this person’s chat comments from being visible to you in all chat forms:
  • Guild
  • Say
  • Local
  • Map
  • Yell
  • Shout
  • Party
  • Squad
  • Team
  • Tell
  • Whisper
• …this person’s emotes from being displayed to you in the chat box.
  • Including (especially?) blocking custom emotes (/emote blahblahblah) as blocked players currently use that as means around the block feature (exploiting).
• …this person’s ability to see or join your LFG through the LFG Tool.
• …this person from being able to join your party.
  • Could even have a warning message pointing out to you that “The person attempting to join your party is currently blocked” and then offer a “Permit this person to temporarily join the party anyway” option.

Block should actually block the person and restrict all possible contact with this person until the block is removed. Or have it as an option to where you can select to only block chat related activities made by this player, or choose the full block that prevents all possible contact (LFG, etc).

Regina Buenaobra.6193:

Secondly, thank you for providing feedback about the in-game ignore functionality. If I understand your post correctly, what you’re looking for is to have the ignore function include map and team chat. Is there any other functionality you feel “Ignore” should have or that you feel is not working properly?

Everyone else: let’s please get this thread back on topic. If you’re not able to stay on topic without derailing the discussion to off-topic issues or by victim-blaming, this thread will be locked.

I just want to make it absolutely clear: we do not tolerate behavior that is abusive or derogatory towards anyone, including LGBT people. Abusing others in-game on the basis of sexual orientation is not acceptable, and there is no wiggle room here.

What I believe the original poster is looking for is to have “ignore” apply to all forms of communication in game. However, this seems to imply that it does not apply to map already, in which case my account must be bugged. When I ignore someone, I no longer see their messages on map chat. Is this not working as intended?

Also, the phrase “that’s so gay” is insulting and inappropriate.

Edit: StinVec’s post is completely on point. I am in total agreement.

I’m glad the moderators have taken notice of this thread.. I don’t expect everyone to understand, but at least the people who matter do.

I hope the devs modify the “ignore” function to a global type of ignore and you get your wish. I know I’ll have mine come true if they implement it.

Use of the word is up for debate. I’m with the op on this, and do think its pretty insensitive, immature etc. to use it in the perjorative fashion. But that really is aside the point.

The real point that some other posters are trying to get back to is why doesnt ignore work in all channels? I agree that this seems like a massive oversight. Who in their right mind makes an ignore function that can be circumvented with map and guild chat?! Lunacy.

If Anet is really serious about protecting their players this needs to be changed as a high priority.

ignore blocks all chat, i know coz i block gold sellers in L.A.

Thanks CC Danicia and Regina Buenaobra in particular, I didn’t really want to come back to the thread after being blamed by some players for whatever reason but seeing some replies by Anet has given me reassurance something might change

Yes my main problem is that the ignore system only blocks some forms of chat. I feel it needs to block all forms of communication – including /map and /team chat in particular, as in World vs World, you can still see some forms of communication despite that player being blocked. I’m not sure if there are other chat channels which allow you to still see that player’s chat, but those two are the main ones that affected me, because I needed to see our commander’s chat whilst at the same time not getting abuse.

Basically the list of what StinVec.3621 suggests blocking, +1

Edit: I like what Chobiko suggests below as well. Perhaps an option to ‘kittenize’ a list of words so that we don’t have to see them? That would be pretty handy.

I agree that the (mis)use of the term gay is a problem in society today. The OP is very right in it being offensive and if OP wants a place to go to where he will not be subjected to the same harshness he/she encounters in real life then GW2 should be just that place. The problem is that everyone else from the same real life is in GW2 as well so it becomes a game of escaping the same people you meet in real life again.

While the report button is to report personal attacks, general offensive behaviour. The ignore button is there to give one the opportunity to mute people whose behaviour one doesn’t like in general.

I believe however that the profanity filter is there to filter out general slurs… I am not familiar with what is filtered but I suggest filtering the word gay and all the derivations of that word. At least then you wouldn’t be able to tell whether someone said “That’s so gay” or “That’s so s****y” etc. I think also the profanity filter currently makes **** instead of kittenizing the words. I, for one, would think it better to kittenize it, or just remove the slur itself.

What I don’t like about that suggestion myself is that gay shouldn’t be considered a profane word. However it’s so common in today’s slang amongst the “kids” that like it or not we have to deal with it having lost its “sexual” connotation and instead become a synonym of “queer” “weird” or “funny”. Remember “queer” used to be a word for “homosexual” as well, that one too turned derogatory.

So while I agree that “gay” shouldn’t be considered a profanity, it’s so commonly used in a derogatory way in this society and you cannot shield yourself from the misuse in gw2 unless you filter it out of the chat. We cannot ban everyone misusing this word as this would ban quite a significant proportion of players. We cannot attempt to educate people through gw2 about not using the word, as this would be the wrong channel to educate people on the use of this “term”. So what we are left with is simply to give the player the choice of filtering it out of chat so that they are not exposed to the misuse of this term.

As an end note I am talking solely about the general “this-” “that-” “-is gay” or just the general “gaaaaaaaay”. And not the “you’re gay” or “you f’*** gay”, other non-acceptable profanity. The ones using such profanity deserves suspension.

Those are my 2 cent.

Chobiko.9182:

-snip-

Those are my 2 cent.

I like your 2 cent, have a dollar. I think you’re definitely hitting the right ideas in terms of the profanity filter.

FlamingFoxx.1305:

Chobiko.9182:

-snip-

Those are my 2 cent.

I like your 2 cent, have a dollar. I think you’re definitely hitting the right ideas in terms of the profanity filter.

I actually got a better idea for them. Create a chat filter just like a robots.txt where the player can add / remove words they wouldn’t like to see in the chat. That way instead of ignoring everyone you could simply add words as you saw them pop up. give an option to add wildcards and lower case/upper case optional formatting, and boom you have all the freedom in the world to filter out whatever you find it offensive. Say someone don’t like “jesus” popping up in chat or “allah” can add it to filter and you don’t need to see it again.

On a side not I was not aware that the ignore button doesn’t ignore in all chat instances. I find that a bit weird, as ignore should be the same as block or mute. I haven’t ignored many people (only gold sellers) and don’t use the profanity filter so I have little idea of how they actually work.

I do however find it sad that people cannot enjoy this game when certain things that offends them cannot be avoided.

Why is this thread still going? Anet are looking into the ignore thing and now its become just a thread talking about word origins and meanings which is different in every country. Please lock this now anet, nothing constructive going on here just pointless debate and kittening.

So back on topic (or what Anet thinks this topic should be about), the ignore feature needs work. Creating a client side blacklist would be ideal to allow players to completely block a player from everything (which the current system doesn’t do). When you block a player, it should block that player from everything you see/do. Well, except visually cause you can’t really create a system that turns a character invisible if you block them.

But players shouldn’t be seeing blocked players in emotes, say, team chat, etc. Otherwise it defeats the purpose of blocking them in the first place.

SpyderArachnid.5619:

So back on topic (or what Anet thinks this topic should be about), the ignore feature needs work. Creating a client side blacklist would be ideal to allow players to completely block a player from everything (which the current system doesn’t do). When you block a player, it should block that player from everything you see/do. Well, except visually cause you can’t really create a system that turns a character invisible if you block them.

But players shouldn’t be seeing blocked players in emotes, say, team chat, etc. Otherwise it defeats the purpose of blocking them in the first place.

Adding on to that, with the LFG tool, if you create it or are in a party already, those on blocked lists for anyone in that party shouldn’t be able to see the listing or join it either.

Talissa Chan.7208:

Why is this thread still going? Anet are looking into the ignore thing and now its become just a thread talking about word origins and meanings which is different in every country. Please lock this now anet, nothing constructive going on here just pointless debate and kittening.

Agree.

-edit- I see you added to that later Coglin, good.

I also suggest ANet close this down before this escalates more.

Maybe reopen another thread not mentioning the homophobia part and only the ideas on ignore/chat filter/LFG system.

Regina Buenaobra.6193:

The Customer Support Team absolutely relies on player reports to take action on people who are breaking the in-game Rules of Conduct by using homophobic language against other users. Please report these toxic members of the community. If the CS Team doesn’t know about them, then they cannot investigate or take action. Every single report from the game client is reviewed by a human; it’s not an automated system. The main blocker to investigating and taking action on problem users is that no one is reporting them. I cannot stress enough that we need people to report disruptive and toxic users in order for the team to take action.

I really wish that was believable, I really do. But I’ve reported people time and time again on nearly every negative comment I’ve seen (some merely 30sec apart). And yet I see these people still online an hour later, the next day, the day after that, and so on. These are vociferous people that make themselves noticeable in LA chat (even had a Comm in WvW that was known for his mouth). I understand that some time needs to be taken for a report, especially with the millions of customers, but to go nearly 1/2 a week without a response on something that is very much against the TOS is disturbing.

Yawn. This is going to go on for days. Close it Anet.

Talissa Chan.7208:

Yawn. This is going to go on for days. Close it Anet.

You do not have to keep entering this thread. How does its existence hurt you? If you don’t want to participate in the discussion or read what others have to say, do not feel the need to return to the thread.

The thread creator’s OP was responded to by a dev in which the thread creator was asked a question by said dev. As the thread creator has since responded to that dev’s question, I believe they will receive a response on the matter from that dev during regular business hours tomorrow when they return to the office. It is likely that the dev will then state that they will look into the viability of implementing the changes to the ignore/block function requested by the thread creator, consider the request made by the thread creator to have been met, and they will then close the thread if there is nothing further for the dev and the thread creator to discuss.

Regina Buenaobra.6193:

Secondly, thank you for providing feedback about the in-game ignore functionality. If I understand your post correctly, what you’re looking for is to have the ignore function include map and team chat. Is there any other functionality you feel “Ignore” should have or that you feel is not working properly?

Blocking a person should block all their output, in all chat channels.

In addition, I’ll leave this here:
https://www.google.de/search?q=site%3Aforum-en.guildwars2.com+block+emote

A loose collection of threads that have been created in the past about the block functionality and emote spam.

Thanks.

I was going to make a big multi-quote post, but I think the majority of players here handled it.

• Ignore does work
• Reporting to Anet will get people banned

Redscope.6215:

• Ignore does work

Uh… no, it doesn’t.