Guild Wars 2

With all the talk of people getting banned for language (which I think is totally redicilous of ArenaNet), I am wondering if it applies to all chat.

For example, if my girlfriend and I are flirting with each other, or my buddy and I are going at each other in private chat, is it A) monitored and saved by ArenaNet? B ) a bannable offense?

What is the policy regarding role-playing? My girlfriend and I enjoy the role playing aspect, and have convinced her old group of RPGers to join, if part of the character is to use mild language between ourselves, will we see bans?

In private chat – meaning whispers, party chat, guild chat – you’re fine. Say bad things in /say /map /team etc, yeah you’ll get in trouble.

They do have a profanity filter for those who want to block the occasional bad words.

And by the way I’m 99% sure any bans were due to people raging in /team chat in WvW. I’m sure you can roleplay away in /say where the casual passer-by isn’t even going to notice you telling your girlfriend that her Charr derriere is sexy.

I guess private is ok,

Private message is a communication between 2 players, therefore ANet should keep it private. In case the target player don’t like all the swearing, they can just turn on the filter.

From what I’ve read, private is ok, as long as the other party doesn’t report you. So, in your example, you and your girlfriend should be ok… just hope you don’t end up mistelling something really dirty to a random guy that whispered you earlier…

ANet have already stated that they won’t ban you for simply dropping a curse word, even in regular chat. It’s when you go overboard/harass/use hate speech.

They also don’t monitor private chats but if you offend someone with the above and they report you, you can be punished.

I very much doubt Anet snoop through private conversations unless you report the person whispering you.

Just don’t type the bad words in chat. Why is that so difficult?

ReginaBuenaobra.6953:

The same applies to guild chat. If you’re talking in your guild and a guild member reports you, there would be consequences if you’re found to be in breach of the Rules of Conduct.

I hope this is monitored on a case by case basis. I can see why a racist outburst or lengthy outburst of sweary insults could result in action against an account. But surely you wouldn’t action the odd swear here or there, be it directed at someone lightheartedily or just frustration vented because you can’t complete your story quest

ReginaBuenaobra.6953:

If you are chatting privately with a player and that player reports you, and you are found to be in violation of the Rules of Conduct, then that investigation and the results will take place in accordance with our policies.

So in the example given of someone having a private discussion with their girlfriend: if their girlfriend reports them to Customer Support, then yes—there would be consequences if the person is found to be in breach of the Rules of Conduct.

The same applies to guild chat. If you’re talking in your guild and a guild member reports you, there would be consequences if you’re found to be in breach of the Rules of Conduct.

So, in order to get suspended for using any sort of profanity in Guild Chat, Party Chat or Whisper – someone else in that Guild Chat, Party Chat or Whisper would have to report you? There is absolutely no automated monitoring system for those chat channels?

I ask because my guildmate just spent 9 days being banned for a completely unknown reason (never got ANY insight as to why) but the only possible reason (aside from a 100% glitch) is that he said something wrong in Guild Chat. However, him and I are the only 2 members of the guild and I certainly didn’t report him. So his account was banned for 9 days for either No Reason or because there is an automated monitor in the Guild Chat.

InstantIdiocy.8126:

ReginaBuenaobra.6953:

If you are chatting privately with a player and that player reports you, and you are found to be in violation of the Rules of Conduct, then that investigation and the results will take place in accordance with our policies.

So in the example given of someone having a private discussion with their girlfriend: if their girlfriend reports them to Customer Support, then yes—there would be consequences if the person is found to be in breach of the Rules of Conduct.

The same applies to guild chat. If you’re talking in your guild and a guild member reports you, there would be consequences if you’re found to be in breach of the Rules of Conduct.

So, in order to get suspended for using any sort of profanity in Guild Chat, Party Chat or Whisper – someone else in that Guild Chat, Party Chat or Whisper would have to report you? There is absolutely no automated monitoring system for those chat channels?

I ask because my guildmate just spent 9 days being banned for a completely unknown reason (never got ANY insight as to why) but the only possible reason (aside from a 100% glitch) is that he said something wrong in Guild Chat. However, him and I are the only 2 members of the guild and I certainly didn’t report him. So his account was banned for 9 days for either No Reason or because there is an automated monitor in the Guild Chat.

considering what they did with other people, if you get him to post here and ask why he’s banned, I’m sure they will explain

Nate.3927:

considering what they did with other people, if you get him to post here and ask why he’s banned, I’m sure they will explain

He just got unbanned today (without an explanation as to why he was banned to begin with lol) but mostly we just want to see if there’s anything extra we need to be doing to avoid anything like this in the future.

Do we need to monitor ourselves in guild/party/whisper if we’re all comfortable with eachother’s vocabulary?

It’s super simple. Don’t say anything potentially offensive to people you don’t know who will take it well. You know your best friend, relative, GF, spouse so on. But guilds usually have members that you don’t know. Be wary, make sure you know the guild rules about language. Sure you can still get banned if your guild allows offensive language, but upon talking to your Guild Leader and others you might be able to find the person who is making the reports and kicking them or telling them to stop.

@InstantIdiocy, I was under the impression that bans always came with an reason (although sometimes vague).

@Jestahr, I would imagine that consideration for circumstance would not be a viable reason for breaching the games rules. If I swore in guildchat and someone took offence and reported me, the report would simply be looked at for any breach and if found the appropriate bans would follow. It wouldn’t (Shouldn’t) matter if the breach was because you were frustrated or just spewing abuse for no real reason. In short hope you trust your guildmates.

InstantIdiocy.8126:

I ask because my guildmate just spent 9 days being banned for a completely unknown reason (never got ANY insight as to why) but the only possible reason (aside from a 100% glitch) is that he said something wrong in Guild Chat. However, him and I are the only 2 members of the guild and I certainly didn’t report him. So his account was banned for 9 days for either No Reason or because there is an automated monitor in the Guild Chat.

9 days? Holy kitty! If that’s what ArenaNet considers a “brief suspension,” how long is the “lengthy suspension,” 4 years?

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

“Players who err only occasionally will find that the system is designed to handle infractions in a fair and reasonable manner. The first account mark results in a relatively brief suspension, and only persistent bad behavior results in a lengthy suspension or an account termination.”

ReginaBuenaobra.6953:

If you are chatting privately with a player and that player reports you, and you are found to be in violation of the Rules of Conduct, then that investigation and the results will take place in accordance with our policies.

So in the example given of someone having a private discussion with their girlfriend: if their girlfriend reports them to Customer Support, then yes—there would be consequences if the person is found to be in breach of the Rules of Conduct.

The same applies to guild chat. If you’re talking in your guild and a guild member reports you, there would be consequences if you’re found to be in breach of the Rules of Conduct.

Wow that’s kind of overboard with guild chat. I’m pretty sure leaders of guilds are capable of handling this on their own

Crazylegsmurphy.6430:

With all the talk of people getting banned for language (which I think is totally redicilous of ArenaNet), I am wondering if it applies to all chat.

For example, if my girlfriend and I are flirting with each other, or my buddy and I are going at each other in private chat, is it A) monitored and saved by ArenaNet? B ) a bannable offense?

What is the policy regarding role-playing? My girlfriend and I enjoy the role playing aspect, and have convinced her old group of RPGers to join, if part of the character is to use mild language between ourselves, will we see bans?

I wouldn’t trust any chat in game. I was 3 day banned for mentioning a flesh light in a joke. Literally the only thing I said. I wasn’t arguing with anyone, harassing or any of the above. I simply made a short quip about a flesh light and was almost instantly banned.

I would assume this.

You work in a large corp with a very strict HR department. There is a girl at work taht you’re not attracted to but you enjoy talking with her occasionally. One day you can tell she got a new haircut and you say “Hey, I really like your haircut” She smiles and says “thanks!” The next day you are called into the office with no explanation and fired on the spot.

Just imagine if you and your girlfriend break up and she’s resentful……..there goes your 1000 hour account. They will ban you for things way way less vulgar than swearing. It is probably best to avoid using chat entirely.

jayderyu.3751:

It’s super simple. Don’t say anything potentially offensive to people you don’t know who will take it well. You know your best friend, relative, GF, spouse so on. But guilds usually have members that you don’t know. Be wary, make sure you know the guild rules about language. Sure you can still get banned if your guild allows offensive language, but upon talking to your Guild Leader and others you might be able to find the person who is making the reports and kicking them or telling them to stop.

This is simply not true. Guilds always have personality conflicts among some members. If you ever say anything in private tells or guild chat you’re opening yourself up to a ban.

And remember, you’re not going to find out who’s reporting you or exactly what you said to get banned. You’re simply going to have your account blocked, period end of account.

RoRo.8270:

ReginaBuenaobra.6953:

If you are chatting privately with a player and that player reports you, and you are found to be in violation of the Rules of Conduct, then that investigation and the results will take place in accordance with our policies.

So in the example given of someone having a private discussion with their girlfriend: if their girlfriend reports them to Customer Support, then yes—there would be consequences if the person is found to be in breach of the Rules of Conduct.

The same applies to guild chat. If you’re talking in your guild and a guild member reports you, there would be consequences if you’re found to be in breach of the Rules of Conduct.

Wow that’s kind of overboard with guild chat. I’m pretty sure leaders of guilds are capable of handling this on their own

Obviously Anet does not agree that guild leaders can handle their own guilds.

jayderyu.3751:

It’s super simple. Don’t say anything potentially offensive to people you don’t know who will take it well. You know your best friend, relative, GF, spouse so on. But guilds usually have members that you don’t know. Be wary, make sure you know the guild rules about language. Sure you can still get banned if your guild allows offensive language, but upon talking to your Guild Leader and others you might be able to find the person who is making the reports and kicking them or telling them to stop.

That much is obvious. There’s nobody to kick from the guild as there are only the two of us =D. So we want to know if the guild chat is monitored by an automated system because we won’t be reporting each other.
——

@InstantIdiocy, I was under the impression that bans always came with an reason (although sometimes vague).

Just the generic “Permanently banned for violating the blah blah” message. After much asking, he was never able to figure out what he did (if anything). He just received a message telling him his account was unbanned.
——
I think many of us would like the assurance that you can’t be suspended/banned for Guild/Party/Whisper chat channels unless somebody clicks the report button on you. When we’re talking to only people who we know won’t report us, are we free to speak as we like or will we get banned by an automated system regardless?

InstantIdiocy.8126:

jayderyu.3751:

It’s super simple. Don’t say anything potentially offensive to people you don’t know who will take it well. You know your best friend, relative, GF, spouse so on. But guilds usually have members that you don’t know. Be wary, make sure you know the guild rules about language. Sure you can still get banned if your guild allows offensive language, but upon talking to your Guild Leader and others you might be able to find the person who is making the reports and kicking them or telling them to stop.

That much is obvious. There’s nobody to kick from the guild as there are only the two of us =D. So we want to know if the guild chat is monitored by an automated system because we won’t be reporting each other.

Jakula.1072:

@InstantIdiocy, I was under the impression that bans always came with an reason (although sometimes vague).

Just the generic “Permanently banned for violating the blah blah” message. After much asking, he was never able to figure out what he did (if anything). He just received a message telling him his account was unbanned.

A little statistic for you that is relevant. At least half of all marijuana growing busts are turned in by their girlfriends after a break up or fight. Something to think about. I think we all know the safe answer on this.

Godmoney.2048:

A little statistic for you that is relevant. At least half of all marijuana growing busts are turned in by their girlfriends after a break up or fight. Something to think about. I think we all know the safe answer on this.

Yes, we all know the “safe” answer but we would like the “official” answer =D. I will take my chances and use my own judgement with my friends.

Godmoney.2048:

I wouldn’t trust any chat in game. I was 3 day banned for mentioning a flesh light in a joke. Literally the only thing I said. I wasn’t arguing with anyone, harassing or any of the above. I simply made a short quip about a flesh light and was almost instantly banned.

I would assume this.

You work in a large corp with a very strict HR department. There is a girl at work taht you’re not attracted to but you enjoy talking with her occasionally. One day you can tell she got a new haircut and you say “Hey, I really like your haircut” She smiles and says “thanks!” The next day you are called into the office with no explanation and fired on the spot.

Just imagine if you and your girlfriend break up and she’s resentful……..there goes your 1000 hour account. They will ban you for things way way less vulgar than swearing. It is probably best to avoid using chat entirely.

This is exactly why I’m asking this question. Swearing and questionable language is very subjective. Where you’re from, what your background, or religious affiliation is, can all shape to what degree someone takes offense to something.

Because it seems like the policy seems to be to hand out bans based on someone else’s reporting, I am very concerned about how easily this can be abused. While I understand that ANet employees must review the claim, I’m not convinced they always have the time or interest to know the whole story.

It’s kind of an guilty until proven innocent approach. I’m very concerned that people with varying degrees of tolerance, have the power to have my account banned.

Personally, I think the reporting system should work via a threshhold system. If someone is doing something truely bad, they’ll get reported quite frequently. The odd fight, disagreement, or issue can easily be solved by using the block, or profanity filter options.

Only when a player has had multiple hits against them are they investigated. The player should have the right to plead thier case before facing a ban. If they’re found guilty the, sure, hand out suspensions.

I dunno, all I know is that this report/review/ban system seems way too open to misinterpretations, revenge, and/or tolerance levels. I think the penalty is much to harsh, and it scares me to hear of people getting banned for simple jokes, not meant to harm, or troll.

Crazylegsmurphy.6430:

This is exactly why I’m asking this question. Swearing and questionable language is very subjective. Where you’re from, what your background, or religious affiliation is, can all shape to what degree someone takes offense to something.

As Australians my guild is accustomed to verbally abusing each other, in good fun of course. So I can see what your saying here, different people from different backgrounds will take offense to different things.

My guild doens’t have much issue with swearing as we all use Mumble and abuse each other there. I guess we just have to be careful when switching to written chat.

Just don’t say bad words

LittleBigAsura.6071:

Just don’t say bad words

amen.

you’re not getting banned for swearing at your keyboard. you’re getting banned for swearing with it. i personally think most people type in their post-loss screamos only because they somehow think it’s cool.

i’ve yet to meet a genuine george carlin in any mmo, though.

LittleBigAsura.6071:

Just don’t say bad words

This jsut simply isn’t true. Go read the the user agreement again. It is completely open to interpretation. Cussing is one of the least offensive things you can say. Wanna know what I got a 3 day ban for.

Here it is. “I used to own a flashlight, but it filled up.” replace the a in flash light with a E.

I’m 36, I’m a liberal as they come. I’ve never said the N word except one time when I was 18 to a friend who about killed me. I’ve never argued with anyone in game. I said that little stupid joke and that was it. I was locked out 3 minutes later.

I dare any Anet employee to post my entire chat history from headstart on.

I’m only telling you this because I have never seen a company be so ban happy before in my 15 years as a pc gamer.

You’re safest just not using in game chat at all. You let yourself slip one time with something that can be interpretative as sexual, harassment, condescending, etc you are risking your account. We all know how easily someone can take offense to any random thing.

I don’t really want chat to turn into wow chat. Anyone that has played for 5 mins will know what I’m talking about. But to ban people left, right and centre come on?

That is going kinda crazy.

So I can’t say “someone called me crazy, and because I’m depressed I’m offended! Now you must ban everyone!”

If the above is true I want a refund. I want off this crazy game. I swore in games before and never have I been banned etc.. I guess this is gonna be a silent mmo, just like swtor, but that’s because no one plays.

I wonder if I am the only one that feels like this finger pointing, tattletale, crybaby, he hurt my feelings… “Stuff” is out of control…

maybe instead of a profanity filter there should be a sarcasm filter implemented?
Or perhaps censor random words and let others’ imaginations fill in the blanks…
ex. “I used to [censored] my wife’s [censored] every night. Eventually she [censored] me, and told me I was [censored] too hard to make her [censored].”

Uncensored…

“I used to compliment my wife’s appearance every night. Eventually she stopped me, and told me I was trying too hard to make her happy.”

I played Guild Wars for 5 years, and my guild chat was full of some pretty profane stuff. I never received a strike for language, and as far as I know, nobody in any of my guilds did either. It’s really simple: keep in clean in public chats. I don’t mean FCC clean, I mean that you should be a respectful and helpful member of the community. If you can’t figure out how to be nice to other players, then yes, please refrain from using chat.

The wildly flailing ban-hammer is a result of a massive number of players in the early life of a game that are used to other online communities. Examples are being made to let these new members of the GW family know that the ANet staff are serious about maintaining a safe, friendly, and welcoming environment.

And no, InstantIdiocy, they don’t have automated chat monitoring, so your friend must have let his tongue loose in some other public chat.

I really don’t understand why so many people seem to have a problem with this.

ArenaNet’s rules seem like common sense, and private chat is a perfectly viable option for people who can’t control their tongues. All I know is, I’ve only blocked two users so far, whereas with WoW, the perpetual issue was filling up the block list and running into yet another troll, racist, bully and/or person too immature to realize some kids might be playing alongside them. And the game is far from silent. Chat is quite chatty, at least on my server. There are a lot of straw-man arguments and rebellions without a cause here.

I got a surprise for some of you: I have sworn in map chat on more than one occasion. So there is no automatic monitoring system waiting to drop the banhammer on you. It’s more than likely people who received the banhammer were reported by other players, which means it was probably more than just a slip of the tongue and was offensive enough that another player reported it.

All I can say is be mindful if you’re speaking in a public channel, what seems fine to you may not be taken so kindly by others. I’m inclined to believe during conversation a few slips here and there of the less flagrant words that are not directed at other players will go unreported, and I would expect 99% of all guild chat and private conversations to go unreported as well, unless you royally ticked someone off.

I wouldn’t use sarcasm in chat at all. Sarcasm is just asking to be reported.

Godmoney.2048:

I wouldn’t trust any chat in game. I was 3 day banned for mentioning a flesh light in a joke. Literally the only thing I said. I wasn’t arguing with anyone, harassing or any of the above. I simply made a short quip about a flesh light and was almost instantly banned.

I would assume this.

You work in a large corp with a very strict HR department. There is a girl at work taht you’re not attracted to but you enjoy talking with her occasionally. One day you can tell she got a new haircut and you say “Hey, I really like your haircut” She smiles and says “thanks!” The next day you are called into the office with no explanation and fired on the spot.

Just imagine if you and your girlfriend break up and she’s resentful……..there goes your 1000 hour account. They will ban you for things way way less vulgar than swearing. It is probably best to avoid using chat entirely.

This is pretty much what my thoughts are. I’m of the same mind as Marilyn Manson when it comes to this stuff (look up the interview with Bill O’Reily). Most people intentionally use words to get a certain reaction or express something in a specific way and they can only get said reaction through use of profanity.

I also compare it to slang. Some people use it a lot and/or don’t even notice anymore. Slang makes a person sound uneducated and sometimes vulgar (imo) as well but we don’t filter it. “Profanity” makes a person sound crass (in their opinion) but yet we do have a filter for that. It’s just a style of talking and not everyone uses the same style. I could say I’m offended by the fact that people who use a lot of slang tell me I’m being rude and disrespectful to them because I use words they’re unfamiliar with, but I don’t. It’s pointless and a circular argument. I ignore them and move on.

Lisa Brown from Michigan comes to mind. She used a word that was neither slang nor a curse word and was penalized for it. She used the word “kitten” during a state senate debate regarding a certain aspect of women’s health and was barred from later debate because she used an “inappropriate” word.

There’s a profanity filter with a couple intensity settings for a reason. People who do not wish to see “offensive” language should be able to block it and can. It should also have a feature to add words to the list of blocked terms if a person is overly sensitive past default settings. So in the end it should be up to the sensitive people to protect themselves. It isn’t something that just sneaks up on a person. You run the risk of being hit by someone each time you drive so you buckle up as a precaution. Use the filter if you are at risk of being offended.

If they’re going to be extra hard on people for things as dumb as this, I’ll just stick to talking in vent only. It’ll cut back on social interaction and finding more people and making friends like me, but it’s what I’ll have to do to keep playing. I don’t trust calling/typing anything into chat during pvp or anything else at this point either. You never know what someone will find offensive and it’s best to just not take a chance. I’d like to keep my Elementalist and if I have to be paranoid every time I log in just to be able to keep her, then I will. I’m not one that falls into their category of “occasionally” swears so I won’t run the risk of typing into any public channels.

Sorry for the rant, this topic really irritates me. It’s the only thing that will always be a black mark on Anet for me. I hate feeling like someone is trying to re-raise fully grown adults that don’t have the same views as them. I have thoroughly enjoyed the game otherwise.

TL;DR If people are so sensitive to simple things like words, show them where the profanity filter is. If they can pay their bills, they can take care of themselves. Nobody should have to get banned because someone couldn’t click a check-box.

Edit/Post Script: Wow. Upon looking at this a couple hours later, they censored THAT word here too (the one that the female politician used). It’s proper terminology people!! Think female reproductive organ. Jeebus you’d think we were 3 year olds who don’t know about the “birds and the bees.” This is a huge insult to my intelligence, maturity, and gender. This is actually offending me that people want to refuse to acknowledge that I have one of these and the fact that I don’t want to use the term “hoo-hoo.” Ugh I’m actually mad enough I’m not going to bother with any extreme loyalty anymore. Man the rage right now… I can’t even describe it. I am what I am and I have what I have. GET OVER IT!

Godmoney.2048:

LittleBigAsura.6071:

Just don’t say bad words

This jsut simply isn’t true. Go read the the user agreement again. It is completely open to interpretation. Cussing is one of the least offensive things you can say. Wanna know what I got a 3 day ban for.

Here it is. “I used to own a flashlight, but it filled up.” replace the a in flash light with a E.

I’m 36, I’m a liberal as they come. I’ve never said the N word except one time when I was 18 to a friend who about killed me. I’ve never argued with anyone in game. I said that little stupid joke and that was it. I was locked out 3 minutes later.

I dare any Anet employee to post my entire chat history from headstart on.

I’m only telling you this because I have never seen a company be so ban happy before in my 15 years as a pc gamer.

You’re safest just not using in game chat at all. You let yourself slip one time with something that can be interpretative as sexual, harassment, condescending, etc you are risking your account. We all know how easily someone can take offense to any random thing.

I keep reading down this page and it seems every time I see a post by you, I completely agree with it. Whether people curse all the time or not, it seems they’re at risk of being made an example of. My main focus is usually curse words because they’re easier to pinpoint and most often the main focus when talking about offensive language. I didn’t know you could get in trouble for a fleshlight joke. My friends make those jokes all the time and it’s a ban I never would have seen coming. One of them had a pink Moa pet named Fleshlight at one point too.

Only thing I have to say is that MMOs are popular because you interact with other people just like you do in real life. In real life at say a mall, you can walk down the hall and you hear what everyone is saying in “General Chat.” You have no right to go over with a role of duct-tape and cover people’s mouths if you don’t like what they have to say. What you CAN do is stop listening. The equivalent of that in an MMO is the profanity filter and block lists. Simple.

I’ll stop posting on this, I get pretty long. Basically anytime you post, add a ditto mark from me. >.>

I don’t understand why you can get banned for language in the first place – the profanity filter is there for a reason.

InstantIdiocy.8126:

Nate.3927:

considering what they did with other people, if you get him to post here and ask why he’s banned, I’m sure they will explain

He just got unbanned today (without an explanation as to why he was banned to begin with lol) but mostly we just want to see if there’s anything extra we need to be doing to avoid anything like this in the future.

Do we need to monitor ourselves in guild/party/whisper if we’re all comfortable with eachother’s vocabulary?

If he really doesn’t know why he was banned I’d really suggest him to post in one of the threads about it (or in the reddit thread) so that it can be looked into and answered for why exactly he was banned. I don’t really know you or your friend, so I can’t really say anything about whether it was justified or not (it strikes me odd that it was 9 days when usually people got 3), but I tend to be a little sceptic after so many posts on the reddit thread of people claiming they’ve never said anything wrong and the response was something that justified the banning said on public chat.

That said, I’d repeat that it would be the best to try to use one of those to find out why he was banned (maybe it wasn’t bad words but a character name, or he used an exploit without knowing or something like that), so you don’t end up repeating it in the future.

Its not simply a matter of " he said/she said ". All conversations are logged and can be reviewed. I suspect the guy who was supposedly banned for 9 days knows exactly what he said…guess what? Arena Net does too.

Its really simple…if you want to talk like that , get a voice server and then you can say whatever you want.

Raf

What’s the point of a profanity filter then if you get banned for swearing? I can understand the issue of circumventing the filter, but the be outright banned for swearing doesn’t make any sense when there is a filter in place.

Orchis.6087:

What’s the point of a profanity filter then if you get banned for swearing? I can understand the issue of circumventing the filter, but the be outright banned for swearing doesn’t make any sense when there is a filter in place.

Well, at least if the reddit thread is an indication, people weren’t really banned for saying things like “kitten!!! that boss killed me!!!” (yes, I did type kitten, replace it with the other word.. ), but instead for saying things like “ARE YOU KITTENING KITTEN!!!! KITTEN YOU KITTEN ALL YOUR FAMILY HOPE YOU DIE IN A FIRE!!!!111ONEONEONEELEVEN!!!”

BTW, of course I’m exagerating but you get the idea..
BTW2: kitten..

Fallon.4253:

Godmoney.2048:

I wouldn’t trust any chat in game. I was 3 day banned for mentioning a flesh light in a joke. Literally the only thing I said. I wasn’t arguing with anyone, harassing or any of the above. I simply made a short quip about a flesh light and was almost instantly banned.

I would assume this.

You work in a large corp with a very strict HR department. There is a girl at work taht you’re not attracted to but you enjoy talking with her occasionally. One day you can tell she got a new haircut and you say “Hey, I really like your haircut” She smiles and says “thanks!” The next day you are called into the office with no explanation and fired on the spot.

Just imagine if you and your girlfriend break up and she’s resentful……..there goes your 1000 hour account. They will ban you for things way way less vulgar than swearing. It is probably best to avoid using chat entirely.

This is pretty much what my thoughts are. I’m of the same mind as Marilyn Manson when it comes to this stuff (look up the interview with Bill O’Reily). Most people intentionally use words to get a certain reaction or express something in a specific way and they can only get said reaction through use of profanity.

I also compare it to slang. Some people use it a lot and/or don’t even notice anymore. Slang makes a person sound uneducated and sometimes vulgar (imo) as well but we don’t filter it. “Profanity” makes a person sound crass (in their opinion) but yet we do have a filter for that. It’s just a style of talking and not everyone uses the same style. I could say I’m offended by the fact that people who use a lot of slang tell me I’m being rude and disrespectful to them because I use words they’re unfamiliar with, but I don’t. It’s pointless and a circular argument. I ignore them and move on.

Lisa Brown from Michigan comes to mind. She used a word that was neither slang nor a curse word and was penalized for it. She used the word “kitten” during a state senate debate regarding a certain aspect of women’s health and was barred from later debate because she used an “inappropriate” word.

There’s a profanity filter with a couple intensity settings for a reason. People who do not wish to see “offensive” language should be able to block it and can. It should also have a feature to add words to the list of blocked terms if a person is overly sensitive past default settings. So in the end it should be up to the sensitive people to protect themselves. It isn’t something that just sneaks up on a person. You run the risk of being hit by someone each time you drive so you buckle up as a precaution. Use the filter if you are at risk of being offended.

If they’re going to be extra hard on people for things as dumb as this, I’ll just stick to talking in vent only. It’ll cut back on social interaction and finding more people and making friends like me, but it’s what I’ll have to do to keep playing. I don’t trust calling/typing anything into chat during pvp or anything else at this point either. You never know what someone will find offensive and it’s best to just not take a chance. I’d like to keep my Elementalist and if I have to be paranoid every time I log in just to be able to keep her, then I will. I’m not one that falls into their category of “occasionally” swears so I won’t run the risk of typing into any public channels.

Sorry for the rant, this topic really irritates me. It’s the only thing that will always be a black mark on Anet for me. I hate feeling like someone is trying to re-raise fully grown adults that don’t have the same views as them. I have thoroughly enjoyed the game otherwise.

TL;DR If people are so sensitive to simple things like words, show them where the profanity filter is. If they can pay their bills, they can take care of themselves. Nobody should have to get banned because someone couldn’t click a check-box.

That Lisa Brown is a great example. All she said was the technical term for her female organs and bam….she was punished for it even though I can watch TV every night with more sec and violence than a congressional hearing.

For those of you who argue that Anet won’t ban you for simple things let me quote the TOS…..

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.

I do find it amusing people think because there is a profanity filter it gives them carte blanche to talk like Howard Stern in local chat.

Embarrassing someone IS a bannable offense.

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.

I think you bolded the wrong part.

ituhata.6830:

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.

I think you bolded the wrong part.

Um, no. I bolded the correct part that I wanted hilighted. It points out how open to interpretation the policy is.

I’m not criticizing it necessarily as much as pointing out the reality is that you can get banned for anything that is offensive emotionally in any way.

Anet is welcome to run their company in any way they see fit. I’m not telling anyone how to run their business. I am however pointing out the reality is that GW2 is more likely to ban you than any other game you’ve ever played before. Take that how you choose to.

I think I will, as I already pointed out, I have already sworn on more than one occasion in local chat and I’m still running around, so I’m inclined to believe that anet isn’t running around banning people for the slightest slip-ups. I’m more inclined to believe when people get banned, they said something to directly offend someone, who in turn reported it, anet reviewed it, sided with the person who reported the player in question.

Why Anet would allow for /guild to be bannable conversations: Because even within every “adult” guild I’ve ever been in there’s always been a clear distinction made between allowing players freedom to swear and make crude comments and players who wish to be bigots, racists, and sexual predators. Anet can’t simply close the door on this and say “well, it was in guild chat and your guild allows vulgar speach so there’s nothing we can do”.

Why Anet would allow for /party or /whisper to be bannable conversations: Because being flirtatious and playful with another player doesn’t mean they are consenting to full-on explicit commentary and what I would loosely describe as “Goldshire” activity. Again, Anet has to reserve their right to act upon such instances where players stop being playful and become harassing and/or unwarrantedly obscene.

My over-arching hope in all this is that Anet’s investigations in each report they receive takes into account the actions of all parties involved. So the example of the jilted girlfriend I would think it quite obvious based upon previous chat that BOTH players were equal participants. Hence why Anet also leaves open their right to punish false and/or malicious accusors as well.

In short, there’s perfectly legitimate reasons why Anet can’t simply allow /guild, /party or even /whisper to be “anything goes” chat options.

ituhata.6830:

I do find it amusing people think because there is a profanity filter it gives them carte blanche to talk like Howard Stern in local chat.

Yeah, I find that amusing, too. The best part is that ArenaNet (you know, those people who created the profanity filter) has stated that the reason for it is NOT to give people free reign for swearing in chat. I can’t speak very highly of someone who believes that it’s entrapment.

Why not get a VOIP like Team Speak, Ventrilo, Raidcall, or Mumble?
You can say whatever the bleep you want in there!