Guild Wars 2

I happily abide the rules of conduct in this game. There is no sense in using profanity. Swearing is definitely not needed to get a point across. The amount of negativity that comes with profanity is significant and can turn away proper players.

This has nothing to do with being a prude or anything, it has to do with good community etiquette. If a commander or guild member is mouthing off to others in the same server it can ruin morale.

I don’t care how much another player next to you is messing up it is senseless to cuss him/her out. It is more helpful to calmly tell them what they are doing wrong.

If profanity and verbal harassment keeps up in Guild Wars 2 it could turn into another League of Legends or any DotA style game for that matter where mouthing off at your own teammates is common.

Guild Wars 2 is a game and games are there for fun. If you are swearing your head off you couldn’t possibly be having fun IMO. By all means play to win.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. Profanity should not be bannable just because it is “dirty words”.

Words are just words.

However, if someone uses profanity to harass someone else, I believe that is already a bannable offense if the victim reports it.

You do realize there is a profanity filter right?

Dude, people are already temporarily banned for profanity or saying anything remotely suggestive. You get banned for saying things like ‘up your S’ without actually typing the word if someone reports you they will ban you regardless of the word, they look at the intent. Even if you say ‘This is not africa, we don’t adopt black kids’ is bannable. Look up reddit forum 4 months back when Anet was giving out the phrase for which players were suspended/banned for languages. Someone said ‘shut the kitten up with the non-english geez >.<’ bam ban. So yeah, start reporting the player that you dont like in LA. You can troll players and the first to suggest anything stupid or ask you to ‘shut up’ u can get him banned.

I agree that profanity can perpetuate aggressive behavior. However there is a profanity filter. I don’t think we should ban people for swearing. If you’re in a group that you feel isn’t going the direction that you want to go in, then leave the group.

you should just not read it.

wow what?

turn on profanity filter. if you have it on and they are avoiding it by changing the layout of words then can be banned, but otherwise it’s all on your end.

raenen.5807:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Arenanet is not congress. They do what they want.

Outside of racial slurs, just turn on the filter if it’s an issue.

raenen.5807:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

This game is a private entity, and that does not apply. To make you understand here’s an example:

If you invited to me to your residence for dinner and I started insulting your family with vitriol, you have the right to kick me out of your house for my speech. You can indeed ban cursing in your house all together.

…so many ppl don’t understand the 1st Amendment.

You know those big blocks of text that every game asks you to read when you install them? Or every forum asks you to read when you register? I know they’re really boring and they’re filled with Legal hoop-lah, but they go to a lot of effort to make sure that you’ve read and understood what you’re agreeing to. Usually making you click a box confirming you’ve read it, or sometimes even having a little pop-up window to ask kindly if you’re not fibbing.

These are formally called ‘Terms of Service’, and they’re the terms each and every one of you have agreed to. And I know you’ve agreed to them because you’re registered forum users, and to be a registered forum user, you have to agree to them or you can’t post. Do you see where I’m going with this?

You all agreed that you would abide by the rules concerning language and etiquette that ANet outlined in their terms of service. If you didn’t like them, why did you agree to them? You probably didn’t even read it did you?

That is the crux of this. You are using a service provided by ANet, part of that service involves following the rules they’ve created. In agreeing to the rules, you are supporting them. In blindly agreeing to the rules without reading them, you are still supporting them. If you do not support these rules, you should not have agreed. Instead you should have e-mailed them, along with everyone else who shares these concerns, before agreeing to them to bring this issue to light.

You are all 4 months too late on this issue. Do yourselves a favour, and start reading Terms of Service before you agree to them.

Ratphink.4751:

You know those big blocks of text that every game asks you to read when you install them? Or every forum asks you to read when you register? I know they’re really boring and they’re filled with Legal hoop-lah, but they go to a lot of effort to make sure that you’ve read and understood what you’re agreeing to. Usually making you click a box confirming you’ve read it, or sometimes even having a little pop-up window to ask kindly if you’re not fibbing.

These are formally called ‘Terms of Service’, and they’re the terms each and every one of you have agreed to. And I know you’ve agreed to them because you’re registered forum users, and to be a registered forum user, you have to agree to them or you can’t post. Do you see where I’m going with this?

You all agreed that you would abide by the rules concerning language and etiquette that ANet outlined in their terms of service. If you didn’t like them, why did you agree to them? You probably didn’t even read it did you?

That is the crux of this. You are using a service provided by ANet, part of that service involves following the rules they’ve created. In agreeing to the rules, you are supporting them. In blindly agreeing to the rules without reading them, you are still supporting them. If you do not support these rules, you should not have agreed. Instead you should have e-mailed them, along with everyone else who shares these concerns, before agreeing to them to bring this issue to light.

You are all 4 months too late on this issue. Do yourselves a favour, and start reading Terms of Service before you agree to them.

For most ppl it’s officially called the tl;dr, it seems.

To the OP, I do agree with you. We have become a society with no class, morals, politeness or consideration for others. Many parents do not teach these things to their children anymore.

I’m retired military, so I’m no saint. But I do know there is a time and place for everything. Also, I try to live by the “Golden Rule”. I wonder how many kids now a days know what that is?

Its not the word kitten that will get you banned, its saying kitten you that will get you banned.

The profanity is not the issue, the issue is the personal attack. Freedom of Speech does not give you the right to threaten people.

ANet is in its full right to ban anyone they see breaking the ToS. However, they could do something to eliminate people’s needs to even say these things. As mind boggling as it sounds, there is currently no way of solving an argument about religion or politics in PvE. In the real world, if a conflict can’t be solved diplomatically, there is war. In PvP, there is fighting. What can you do in PvE to prove that your opinion is right? Compare titles? That doesn’t work. PvE needs dueling, bad.

Personally, profanity doesn’t bother me. Outside of a few words that no human being should ever speak to another, most of the generic ones can barely be considered offensive anymore. As a writer, I will sometimes use profanity if the character I’m writing for has a need to be crass. etc.

That said, I only report for verbal abuse when it’s verbal abuse, not because somebody uses a profane word. As others have said, that’s what the filter is for. Calling me (unmentionable word here) will get a /report from me. Saying Oh &#!%$!! that Champion just knocked my &%@!! out isn’t report-worthy IMO.

As someone who doesn’t swear in game or in the real world, I have no problem with swearing.

set the game change the words to kitten as in the forums. i love kitten.

Aevic.9675:

You do realize there is a profanity filter right?

He must do because it’s turned on once you start.

Profanity Filter was added for a reason i suggest you re enable it, for your peace of mind.

This makes me think of the thread on /reddit when the devs answered questions on why people were banned for offensive names and inappropriate behavior.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/yxx3m/suspensions_for_offensive_names_and_inappropriate/

’Tis quite amusing

Dante.1508:

Profanity Filter was added for a reason i suggest you re enable it, for your peace of mind.

Even though it is on it doesn’t stop your mind from filling in the blanks. Also leaving the Chat altogether works. turning off the chat by unchecking those boxes does wonders.

“Swearing is a really important part of one’s life. It would be impossible to imagine going through life without swearing and without enjoying swearing… There used to be mad, silly, prissy people who used to say swearing was a sign of a poor vocabulary -such utter nonsense. The people I know who swear the most tend to have the widest vocabularies and the kind of person who says swearing is a sign of a poor vocabulary usually have a pretty poor vocabulary themselves… The sort of twee person who thinks swearing is in any way a sign of a lack of education or a lack of verbal interest or -is just a kittening lunatic… I haven’t met anybody who’s truly shocked at swearing, really, they’re only shocked on behalf of other people. Well, you know, that’s preposterous… or they say ’it’s not necessary’. As if that should stop one doing it! It’s not necessary to have coloured socks, it’s not necessary for this cushion to be here, but is anyone going to write in and say ‘I was shocked to see that cushion there, it really wasn’t necessary’? No, things not being necessary is what makes life interesting -the little extras in life.”

~Stephen Fry

Who gives a kitten? Really? If you care about what people say on games or the internet then lol

If you choose to turn off the profanity filter (enabled by default) then why should the other player be banned? o.O

However, in the case where things that aren’t things normally blocked by the filter but are just very “inappropriate”… or when some one goes out of their way to avoid the filter… those instances I understand and agree with giving a temp. ban for.

There’s a huge culture of using shock in online communities to be overcome, and I’d say ArenaNet is daring to take a stand. I assume that the punishments are steep because they want the change to be steep.
I’m very likely going to get a temporary ban someday because of the way I can edge some of these rules, but I’ll learn to see what is acceptable in this community and change my behaviour for it. I won’t be happy with the consequences, of losing game time, but I’ll respect that the consequences were a result of MY actions. These philosophies aren’t something I necessarily hold when it comes to more serious forms of justice (civil law, criminal law, etc), but for an online game for I’m willing to accept this and I believe in both the intent and method.

Only in GW2, it’s okay to say ‘shut up’ but not ok to say ‘shut the fark up’.

It’s ANET’s game. They can make whatever rules they want. You agreed to that when you signed the EULA. They don’t want us talking like sailors in the pirate city of Lion’s Arch.

The profanity filter isnt an excuse to swear. Personally I dont care much, but ANET does.

I have a tendency to slip up from time to time and use some colorful language (usually in WvW) so any punishment for doing so would hit me in my special place. Please don’t hit me in my special place.

I can only imagine how funny some of my comments look when filtered. Someone get some milk, that’s a lot of kittens.

raenen.5807:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Free speech is not protected here or in this game. Just like you cant come into my house and say anything you like something that I may disagree with or find offensive (offensive being anything I disagree with) in which case I can throw your kitten out with a swift kick in the said kitten

People reported for profanity are banned, that’s a fact.
If you need to swear, do it in “real life”, verbally, no need to pollute the in game public chat with your written rudeness.

I usually ignore the occasional “F” word and similar stuff, but if someone gets into personal attacks and direct insults, or worse, racism or similar crap, I will report him for the greater good of the community and enjoy my game time without him polluting the public chat.

Freedom of speech is not an excuse to behave like a rude brat… or if you believe that, be my guest and put your actions where your mouth is, go to your local bar, or library, or even better, police station, and start insulting the people there… I’m not responsible of what is going to happen to you though.

The concept of swearing is an old religious idea of morals within a certain belief system. Prior to the widespreading of this system, so called swearing was just everyday language. When the influence of this religion became greater, swearing turned into something bad, connected to sinning and work of the dark one.

This has later on become everyday morals for most people, even those that dont follow that belief system.

Personally I couldnt care less about what words someone else use, it doesnt hurt me, it doesnt look like they are uneducated, it just looks like they speak their mind.

There is a profanity filter for those that dont want to see profanity, use it.

Profanity filter doesn’t give you the right to swear. It’s there so when people who think they don’t have to follow the rules they agreed to when they first logged into the game decide to swear they don’t have to see it.

You can swear if you want, no one is denying you that. Just be prepared to accept the consequences when you do, especially if it’s in a public channel. Pretty simple really.

Chewablesleeptablet.3185:

I happily abide the rules of conduct in this game. There is no sense in using profanity. Swearing is definitely not needed to get a point across. The amount of negativity that comes with profanity is significant and can turn away proper players.

This has nothing to do with being a prude or anything, it has to do with good community etiquette. If a commander or guild member is mouthing off to others in the same server it can ruin morale.

I don’t care how much another player next to you is messing up it is senseless to cuss him/her out. It is more helpful to calmly tell them what they are doing wrong.

If profanity and verbal harassment keeps up in Guild Wars 2 it could turn into another League of Legends or any DotA style game for that matter where mouthing off at your own teammates is common.

Guild Wars 2 is a game and games are there for fun. If you are swearing your head off you couldn’t possibly be having fun IMO. By all means play to win.

As long as ANet keeps getting their money, don’t expect much...

Nuage.5230:

raenen.5807:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

This game is a private entity, and that does not apply. To make you understand here’s an example:

If you invited to me to your residence for dinner and I started insulting your family with vitriol, you have the right to kick me out of your house for my speech. You can indeed ban cursing in your house all together.

…so many ppl don’t understand the 1st Amendment.

this…

and there is more to the world than USA too, congress says blah blah blah…. i don’t care what congress says, they can’t tell me what to do unless i’m in or accessing a country where their laws apply.

you guys should respect A-nets laws while in their virtual land. like i would be expected to abide by english law in england, usa law in usa, spanish law in spain, french law in france, african law in africa…. this is anets law in anetland. end of.

A charr telling you he’s gonna “Rip your kitten head off!” sounds fine, if anything it’s more fitting in RP terms, and I can’t really picture a human warrior getting smashed on their head and going “Oh dash it all, that smarts!”… It just doesn’t fit into a medieval/dungeons and dragons setting. mental image of a Charr skipping through the trees collecting flowers …Nope, isn’t working!
Drunk Norns? Bound to fight, cuss & drink all night (welcome to Scotland!).
It’s only the other 2 races that it doesn’t fit into imo, the treehuggers are to nice and only want harmony, and the asura would most likely have 200 different large words for “kitten!”.

There’s a profanity filter but there’s also the chance to turn off the profanity filter, which kind of suggests that atleast a mild form of swearing is accepted. Otherwise the filter would apply to everybody.

Obviously when you start making personal threats, it’s time to take a little time off the game. A short ban will just do good in that case.

mavet.3047:

WickThePriest.9304:

kitten that.

As long as I’m not circumventing the language filter I shouldn’t need to censor myself. If you don’t like what I have to say put me on block.

I’m a grown kitten man and play games the way I kitten well please.

k i t t e n :-p

I agree. For a supposed “free” society, they seem to like to place the censor on a lot of things ppl do. I believe the Nazis were famous for that. I had family in the camps, so I know all about censorship and ppl who are given a wee bit of power, to compensate for other shortcomings…

Except for GW2 isn’t a “free” society. It’s owned and operated by Arena Net. Not the US or any other country so freedom of speech does not apply.

So if you turn off the profanity filter… and see profanity… knowing that you might be offended by the profanity… which you just purposefully exposed yourself to… shouldn’t you take some personal responsibility for that? o.O

Aberrant.6749:

So if you turn off the profanity filter… and see profanity… knowing that you might be offended by the profanity… which you just purposefully exposed yourself to… shouldn’t you take some personal responsibility for that? o.O

Anyone who turns the filter off probably doesn’t care. The filter is there so people don’t have to see it if they don’t want to. It’s presence does not mean you get the green light from Anet to say whatever you want.

It’s there because anet can’t control what people say. Simple as that.

If someone just swears, fine, whatever.

If someone swears at me or someone else, then it’s getting reported.

Arena net isn’t going to ban people for occasionally saying the f word, but they will ban you for verbally abusing someone. That’s the difference.

fellyn.5083:

Aberrant.6749:

So if you turn off the profanity filter… and see profanity… knowing that you might be offended by the profanity… which you just purposefully exposed yourself to… shouldn’t you take some personal responsibility for that? o.O

Anyone who turns the filter off probably doesn’t care. The filter is there for those that don’t want to see it don’t have to. It’s presence does not mean you get the green light from Anet to say whatever you want.

No but its presence should deter fine upstanding gentlemen and ladies from sweating and trying to find the report button everytime someone drops the F bomb.

If someone is using racial slurs or actively harassing someone, sure. But if you get worked up over someone using an occasional expletive when you have the filter at your disposal you really need to harden up.

suspension is ok, tolerable. but if they put DR on you for perpetuity, that really is evil.

fellyn.5083:

Aberrant.6749:

So if you turn off the profanity filter… and see profanity… knowing that you might be offended by the profanity… which you just purposefully exposed yourself to… shouldn’t you take some personal responsibility for that? o.O

Anyone who turns the filter off probably doesn’t care. The filter is there so people don’t have to see it if they don’t want to. It’s presence does not mean you get the green light from Anet to say whatever you want.

It’s there because anet can’t control what people say. Simple as that.

This sort of thing just leads to abuse by people who want to get some one banned. They’ll try to make some one mad hoping to provoke profanity and then report them for it. I’ve seen it done several times.

If this profanity is such a big deal to A-net then they should put in a filter which you can’t turn off. Many games have this. Then if you go around that filter on purpose you’ll get a warning or a ban.

Giving the people the ability to turn it off and then still report others for it and ban them for things the filter would have caught is just silly and easily abused.

Aberrant.6749:

So if you turn off the profanity filter… and see profanity… knowing that you might be offended by the profanity… which you just purposefully exposed yourself to… shouldn’t you take some personal responsibility for that? o.O

The profanity filter is not there so other people can just constantly swear. You say take personal responsibility well people that curse should take some first in my opinion. You are not alone with friends or family you are with strangers. It’s called acting civilized.

Aberrant.6749:

fellyn.5083:

Aberrant.6749:

So if you turn off the profanity filter… and see profanity… knowing that you might be offended by the profanity… which you just purposefully exposed yourself to… shouldn’t you take some personal responsibility for that? o.O

Anyone who turns the filter off probably doesn’t care. The filter is there so people don’t have to see it if they don’t want to. It’s presence does not mean you get the green light from Anet to say whatever you want.

It’s there because anet can’t control what people say. Simple as that.

This sort of thing just leads to abuse by people who want to get some one banned. They’ll try to make some one mad hoping to provoke profanity and then report them for it. I’ve seen it done several times.

If this profanity is such a big deal to A-net then they should put in a filter which you can’t turn off. Many games have this. Then if you go around that filter on purpose you’ll get a warning or a ban.

Giving the people the ability to turn it off and then still report others for it and ban them for it is just silly and easily abused.

I’m not really getting your point. Ignore the presence of the swear filter for just a second. There is still a code of conduct you agreed to when you first started playing the game.

You break the code of conduct you get punished. Swear filter or not. Yeah it sucks that people are trolls and try to get people in trouble but anet can’t control what people do. All they can do is enforce the rules we all agreed to.

And I don’t think anyone has gotten outright banned just for dropping a random f-bomb in /m. The most I’ve heard of is people being suspended from the game for 3 days for that. When people are reported for swearing Anet checks chat logs. If some one gets banned outright they probably deserve it.

Turn the kitten profanity filter on if you are so bothered by cussing. Seriously dude, it’s there for a reason.

Anyways it always made me wonder why such filter exists in most of the games, yet cussing always end up in ban or at least a warning.

Arenanet doesn’t seem interested in banning people who cuss and swear now and then. It’s when you are cussing and swearing at a person when they have a problem with it.

I probably drop the F-bomb once a day in chat, as well as other ’colorful language’ before I realize it. I haven’t been banned once, or even warned. I think the big thing that is keeping me from getting a ban is that I keep the personal attacks and language out of arguments.

And it’s not like I don’t argue very often, I’m always disagreeing with some of our commanders. I just state and explain my reasoning. I don’t start saying kitten like "You are a kittening kitten quot;.

I’m pretty sure ANet has stated before that they are gamers too. They are NOT out to ban the stray cuss in conversation, they are after the personal attacks, and excessive use.