Guild Wars 2

As the title says; I was in a dungeon earlier with my sister. Things were going fine until one of the party members starting calling her racist & sexist slurs out of the blue. I reported & blocked them, went to kick them & the rest of the party did nothing saying they supported ‘free speech’ & they laughed it off. We both left the party right after.

it was incredibly offensive & unfair, I dont mean to sound like a child but I’ve been wondering what is done to people like that? are reports of ‘verbal abuse’ even reviewed?
or is it a matter of ‘free speech/ block & move on’ ?

thank you for taking the time to read this, it may come off as a rant & that isn’t my intention.

Reports of verbal abuse are reviewed by staff. If the person reported was found in violation of ToS they will get suspended. You did all you needed to do by reporting and blocking.

Its the internet. People will be kittennozzles because they can get away with it here. Sadly.

People will be jerks sometimes just for “funsies”, and this is especially true on the internet where people can hide be hind a computer screen.

Yes, reports of verbal abuse are indeed reviewed. In the meantime, just block them and try to move past it.

Chasind.3128:

or is it a matter of ‘free speech/ block & move on’ ?

As JT mentioned, Report them and it gets seen by a human. Also, free speech doesn’t apply in a private company. The ToS clearly states that any form of hate speech in chats won’t be tolerated. And don’t worry you didn’t come across as a rant

Pockets.3201:

Its the internet. People will be kittennozzles because they can get away with it here. Sadly.

They can’t and won’t get away with it, and things do get done about it. I know a few people over the past 2.5 years who have been given a time out – as they’ve later complained about ‘free speech’ violations in map chat after their 3 day sitting in the naughty corner.

What I find interesting, is the way some people will defend stuff like this behaviour, which is totally unacceptable in most civilised people’s opinions (and is even illegal in the UK) as “free speech”.

Whereas, if you dare to say anything less than glowing about the game, many people (often the same people) won’t accept it.

Seems the real social taboo, in these games, is honesty about the drug of choice.

That, to me, is pretty sad.

Chasind.3128:

As the title says; I was in a dungeon earlier with my sister. Things were going fine until one of the party members starting calling her racist & sexist slurs out of the blue. I reported & blocked them, went to kick them & the rest of the party did nothing saying they supported ‘free speech’ & they laughed it off. We both left the party right after.

it was incredibly offensive & unfair, I dont mean to sound like a child but I’ve been wondering what is done to people like that? are reports of ‘verbal abuse’ even reviewed?
or is it a matter of ‘free speech/ block & move on’ ?

thank you for taking the time to read this, it may come off as a rant & that isn’t my intention.

As others have said, ‘verbal abuse’ (which broadly includes any form of inappropriate language, harassment, bullying, insults, etc) is against the ToS. Moderators review all reports and will ban offenders. You won’t hear anything about this, though, so from your perspective ‘block and move on’ is kind of what you have to do. Anet will take care of the rest.

However… you can’t force the other people in your party to support a kick vote. And, in not supporting the kick, they haven’t actually done anything wrong. So a situation like this can spoil your dungeon run.

Olvendred.3027:

However… you can’t force the other people in your party to support a kick vote. And, in not supporting the kick, they haven’t actually done anything wrong.

Well, they kind of have, though, haven’t they?

Supporting completely unnecessary hate speech, as supposed “freedom of speech”, is doing something wrong.

Maybe they’re not breaking the rules, as such, but morally speaking it’s still wrong.

The very reason people, like the person who said this stuff, think they can get away with it, is because other players do nothing to try to stop them and even, in some cases (like this one), support them.

Maintaining freedom of speech is vital, when it comes to things like civil liberties, political and economic matters, human rights issues etc. (and even personal opinions about things like games!); but it is completely unnecessary and totally undesirable, when it comes to something like hurling, completely unconstructive, prejudiced personal insults around.

Tigaseye.2047:

The very reason people, like the person who said this stuff, think they can get away with it, is because other players do nothing to try to stop them and even, in some cases (like this one), support them.

They support it often because they fear the consequences of having it fall onto them. It’s much easier for them to do that than to challenge someone who is using powerful language in a violent manner – yet even on these somewhat more civilised forums, you’ll have people claiming categorically that words can’t hurt anyone.

Hiding under a banner of free speech does not mean people get to escape the consequences of their actions. They don’t get to say there’s no counter because freedom of speech. Frankly, it’s highly illogical to do so.

Words have great power, like it or not. And, as the ineffable Stan Lee taught us, “with great power comes great responsibility” (I paraphrase). Thus, everyone has a responsibility when interacting with each other to not be a kitten. The internet is not an excuse for being a kitten. There is no excuse to be a kitten, unless you are an actual feline, in which case, you should get back to the black hole carved out just for you on YouTube.

I still, perhaps rather naively, think Bill & Ted said it best: “Be excellent to each other.”

As for you and your sister, OP, there is no excuse for how you were treated. None. But all you need do is what you have done – report, block and the offender will be dealt with. Even block the ones who supported the main offender, as they clearly aren’t worth your time.

world is changing…

people have to start adapting too

gotta learn that mere words shouldn’t be able to hurt

In the US (and ArenaNet is a US company), “free speech” only applies to the government. The government cannot restrict what you say, within reason (ie hate speech inciting violence, yelling fire in a theatre without cause).

Since GW2 is considered a company’s space, they have full control over what people can say, so the perpetrators have absolutely no defense.

Zackie.8923:

world is changing…

people have to start adapting too

gotta learn that mere words shouldn’t be able to hurt

This is not and never will be true, sorry. Some people can shrug off words, but verbal abuse is a thing and trying to brush it off like that undermines all those who have been affected by it.

To the OP: Block and report its the best you can do, as others have already said.

Zackie.8923:

world is changing…

people have to start adapting too

gotta learn that mere words shouldn’t be able to hurt

Nonsense. Anti-Semitism has become socially-acceptable in recent years again across Europe because of this kind of laissez-faire attitude. At what point are people expected stop ignoring the verbal abuse? When it becomes physical abuse? When the death camps reopen again?

People bleat on about their “rights” and their “freedom of expression”, but it seems the responsibilities are dumped on the victims, not the anonymous cowards dishing it out from behind their keyboards.

uknortherner.2670:

Zackie.8923:

world is changing…

people have to start adapting too

gotta learn that mere words shouldn’t be able to hurt

Nonsense. Anti-Semitism has become socially-acceptable in recent years again across Europe because of this kind of laissez-faire attitude. At what point are people expected stop ignoring the verbal abuse? When it becomes physical abuse? When the death camps reopen again?

People bleat on about their “rights” and their “freedom of expression”, but it seems the responsibilities are dumped on the victims, not the anonymous cowards dishing it out from behind their keyboards.

I think this depends greatly on were you come from.
While I’ve seen people critising the politic of Government of the State Israel and some are rude with it, but I have yet to meet someone that was openly antisemitic, even the people of muslimic religion, that have a big problem with how Isreal handles the conflict with Palestine, usually are more speaking against the country than the religion.

Back to topic: I haven’t notice much racist comments in the chat. Sure there were people making fun of other languages, but it seemed to be relatively friendly joking and the other people answered respectively jokingly.
(i.e.: a german guy telling an Austrian guy that they don’t speak a language, it’s more like “incomprehensible grunting” and the Austrian guy answering that they atleast have some kind of “character in their language and don’t speak like Golems”.)