Guild Wars 2

I made a few distasteful jokes yesterday(no one thought they were offensive but I guess someone must have) and was blocked from my account for three days. I can’t help but think that this punishment is over the top for the most minor offense you can commit in this game; it’s simply unnecessary.

There should be a less harsh way of giving the very first warning for foul language, such as what I put in the topic title. If I’m muted then I still get to play the game, I would get the point that what I said was wrong, and I wouldn’t be able to offend anyone else for the duration of the mute. I would be very unlikely to repeat my actions, as would most other people who got blocked from their account for foul language.

Being temporarily banned from the game should be more of a second or third offense punishment, and should be distributed to those who actually deserve it. I’d much rather be muted from chat as a first offense than being completely removed from the entire game.

I think the 2nd offense is a week. Is the 3rd a month? That’s quite a lot for a mere swear word or something minor. But, I don’t make the rules, but I can try to avoid breaking them as a user. Just hope nothing I say gets interpreted badly. Kinda makes you only want to talk to friends out of game.

So you are basicly asking Arenanet to program a new mechanic into the game cause you have trouble restraining yourself from wrong behaviour??

Muting people is a new mechanic? Funny.

mercury ranique.2170:

So you are basicly asking Arenanet to program a new mechanic into the game cause you have trouble restraining yourself from wrong behaviour??

No. This is my first offense across 5 months of having this game, I don’t have any trouble restraining myself from anything. If I thought I was going to get banned for what I said then I would not have said it. It simply came as a surprise that I got banned from the game for 3 days on my first minor offense. I don’t think it’s too much to ask for a simple mute feature. Isn’t the goal of an MMO to keep players in the game?

Needless to say, I’m going to be extra careful on what I say in chat from now on.

Maybe they consider a 3 day ban to be the right medicine, especially since a lot of people these days consider nothing wrong at all with using colorful language. People fear losing important things when they are taken away, after all, people appreciate things the most when they are gone.

Loli Ruri.8307:

Maybe they consider a 3 day ban to be the right medicine, especially since a lot of people these days consider nothing wrong at all with using colorful language. People fear losing important things when they are taken away, after all, people appreciate things the most when they are gone.

While that may be true in a lot of cases, I think the majority of the playerbase is rational and would cease any foul language if they got muted from all ingame chat with perhaps an ingame mail letting them know.

Why not get a third party voice chat system where you can say what you want without fear of being banned? Pay for it yourself and you’ll have full admin access and nobody can ban you from voice chat no matter what you say. Problem solved.

Or you can just control your behaviour to only amongst close friends.

gassy.8975:

Why not get a third party voice chat system where you can say what you want without fear of being banned? Pay for it yourself and you’ll have full admin access and nobody can ban you from voice chat no matter what you say. Problem solved.

I use Skype for this all the time actually, but I don’t let that restrict me from talking to more players on the map chat, it’s easy to get into conversations.

Then if you choose to use map chat, you will have to choose to control what you type. If not, you choose to face the consequences.

It’s always a choice (except when they goof and mistakenly suspend/ban people).

gassy.8975:

Then if you choose to use map chat, you will have to choose to control what you type. If not, you choose to face the consequences.

It’s always a choice (except when they goof and mistakenly suspend/ban people).

The consequences are what the discussion is about, not what I can do to prevent them(I’m quite aware of that now). Do you really feel that a player should get removed from the game for a minor foul language offense, rather than simply being muted from ingame chat?

When you signed up for the game you agreed to the terms of service. Most people don’t read them, and I’m guessing you’re one of the “most”. That’s fine, but you did agree to the rules when you signed up for your account.

I have no problem whatsoever with them suspending people for a few days for saying inappropriate things in chat. It very often takes complete removal from a game for a player to actually learn to control himself. Too often games don’t take this stance and players fill up chat with blatantly obscene comments without fear of any punitive action.

I think what ArenaNet is doing is wonderful, and it’s one of the many reason I and my friends keep playing.

They usually don’t remove people for a ‘minor’ foul language issue. When all comes to light, more often than not, it isn’t minor, at all, but something else, entirely. The thing is, what you might find humorous, might be insulting or hurtful to others. You were warned before you played the game, after all. You can always spend this little ‘vacation’ catching up on other enjoyable activities. =)

gassy.8975:

When you signed up for the game you agreed to the terms of service. Most people don’t read them, and I’m guessing you’re one of the “most”. That’s fine, but you did agree to the rules when you signed up for your account.

I have no problem whatsoever with them suspending people for a few days for saying inappropriate things in chat. It very often takes complete removal from a game for a player to actually learn to control himself. Too often games don’t take this stance and players fill up chat with blatantly obscene comments without fear of any punitive action.

I think what ArenaNet is doing is wonderful, and it’s one of the many reason I and my friends keep playing.

I’m not sure why you brought up the ToS, my goal with this thread is only to suggest a better method of distributing a first warning. This is the only "rule’ I have ever broke, so to suggest I’m not aware of what a ToS agreement includes is ridiculous in itself.

Nobody would rule the chat without fear of action because the second warning would be, you guessed it, a temporary ban.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

They usually don’t remove people for a ‘minor’ foul language issue. When all comes to light, more often than not, it isn’t minor, at all, but something else, entirely. The thing is, what you might find humorous, might be insulting or hurtful to others. You were warned before you played the game, after all. You can always spend this little ‘vacation’ catching up on other enjoyable activities. =)

By minor I mean the lowest possible reason for getting action taken upon your account.

agauos.8794:

for a minor foul language offense

This is my main issue with your whole ‘suggestion’.

You judge your own mistake as a minor offense. This means in my point of view the 3 day ban isnt helping at all and you should have been punished actually more. There is no such thing as a minor offense and as the one who did make the offense you should be the last in the world to say it was minor. You where wrong in the eyes of several people (Anet usually doesnt suspend you over one report, but several) and the GM that reviewed it didnt see it as a minor issue, but one that is big enough to suspend you.

So yes specially after that last thing you said I totally think you deserved a timeout of 3 days, unfortunally I don’t see that you actually understand the message that what you did isn’t tolerated.

So no to muting when its clearly a three day ban isnt enough to let you understand that you did something wrong.

I agree completely with mercury and couldn’t have said it better myself. Think of it this way…. the 3 day suspension gives you time to think of things you can say that won’t earn you a second suspension.

mercury ranique.2170:

agauos.8794:

for a minor foul language offense

This is my main issue with your whole ‘suggestion’.

You judge your own mistake as a minor offense. This means in my point of view the 3 day ban isnt helping at all and you should have been punished actually more. There is no such thing as a minor offense and as the one who did make the offense you should be the last in the world to say it was minor. You where wrong in the eyes of several people (Anet usually doesnt suspend you over one report, but several) and the GM that reviewed it didnt see it as a minor issue, but one that is big enough to suspend you.

So yes specially after that last thing you said I totally think you deserved a timeout of 3 days, unfortunally I don’t see that you actually understand the message that what you did isn’t tolerated.

So no to muting when its clearly a three day ban isnt enough to let you understand that you did something wrong.

I’m sorry I made you this angry, that was not my intention.

I’m quite aware what I did was wrong, I’m also aware that I offended people, and that’s why I suggested a better alternative punishment for myself and other first offenders that would keep us in the game. Remember, I’m only suggesting this for offense number one. If I remove the word “minor” from all of my posts, the message I’m trying to get across would be pretty much the same. The only difference between getting muted from chat and getting blocked from the game is playing the game. That’s it.

If a player is using bad language, but not effecting the actual gameplay negatively for others, then remove that player’s ability to use bad language. Problem solved!

This is all just an alternative punishment.

agauos.8794:

I made a few distasteful jokes yesterday(no one thought they were offensive but I guess someone must have).

IMO, the average person will NOT tell you they are offended by your behavior and they shouldn’t have to. People are trying to enjoy themselves, they’re not interested in turning your problem into their problem. ArenaNet pays a staff to handle those messy philosophical debates and they can be real honeybadgers about it.

Would you go into a public place such as a nice restaurant and stand in the middle of the room and say your distasteful jokes out loud? Probably not. People wouldn’t want to hear them in a restaurant, just as they don’t want to read them in game chat.

gassy.8975:

Would you go into a public place such as a nice restaurant and stand in the middle of the room and say your distasteful jokes out loud? Probably not. People wouldn’t want to hear them in a restaurant, just as they don’t want to read them in game chat.

Where are you going with your posts? I’m not defending my actions in any way.

Well, since the thing that ‘stings’ is being removed from the game, and not being removed from chat, it seems ArenaNet made a good decision in what they deemed appropriate punishment. I am sorry you can’t play, but you took the chance, being fully cognizant of the consequences, and now must pay the price.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Well, since the thing that ‘stings’ is being removed from the game, and not being removed from chat, it seems ArenaNet made a good decision in what they deemed appropriate punishment. I am sorry you can’t play, but you took the chance, being fully cognizant of the consequences, and now must pay the price.

This thread is a suggestion, not a wall of defense around what I did.

Then, sadly, it is in the wrong sub-forum, and will probably be moved.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Then, sadly, it is in the wrong sub-forum, and will probably be moved.

Oh well.

Then you should make a post in the suggestions forum saying that you don’t think people should be suspended for saying offensive things in chat. Of course you should expect the same reactions there that you received here.

I totally agree. I was banned and got no evidence of it (makes 0 sense to me that you give someone a 3 day ban and don’t provide the evidence), I think they should spend less time worrying about a few little swear words and try to fix the broken state of the game.

You all should be thankful. Reading previous posts from a few moths ago it appears that the result wasn’t a 72 hr suspension but a full out ban that you had to plead your case to support to be reinstated.

Say bad things someone takes offense to go sit in the corner and think about it. Makes sense to me. If people don’t want to be treated like kindergarteners then don’t act like one. I really enjoy this game and would be ticked to see my chat filter block out every conversation. Yes i use it because some if the words the block are hysterical and want to see if i can figure out why in the odd case.

Issues.5789:

I totally agree. I was banned and got no evidence of it (makes 0 sense to me that you give someone a 3 day ban and don’t provide the evidence), I think they should spend less time worrying about a few little swear words and try to fix the broken state of the game.

False dichotomy, mate. Moderators are not (necessarily) programmers. It’s never a question of one or the other; people have different jobs to do at the same time.

If you’ve seen some of the ridiculous arguments people put up about why their name choice doesn’t violate the rules, you can probably figure out why they don’t waste their time telling people “you were banned for saying X, Y, and Z”. Probably 90% of the people getting that message would say “Well but X really stood for this totally innocent thing and therefore you’re wrong!” I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve had this conversation on various games:

Random person: asdhfgdfgakshdfk (repeat 50 times flooding the chat)
Me: Please don’t spam, it’s against the rules.
Random person: I’m not spamming because (insert long stupid reason here) and ur not a mod!11!

I’m just telling them the rule and they want to argue about it. Like I’m the one that needs to be convinced.

On another note, I have played a game that allows players to chat-mute other players temporarily. The way it worked was this: you had to have an account of a certain age (I think 3 months), and you had to be a certain rank in a guild of a certain standing and age. This was to prevent players from making a new account (FTP game) and spamming shuns on other people. If one player shunned you, you’d be muted for two minutes. If multiple people shunned you, the time would increase. If you shunned anyone for ANY reason other than a chat violation in a public space, you would lose the privilege, and your entire guild could also lose the ability to shun.

This was a much smaller game than GW2. I’m not sure the same model would be workable without making a whole lot more work for GMs, but I’m not opposed to the idea in principle.

bluestocking.6148:

On another note, I have played a game that allows players to chat-mute other players temporarily. The way it worked was this: you had to have an account of a certain age (I think 3 months), and you had to be a certain rank in a guild of a certain standing and age. This was to prevent players from making a new account (FTP game) and spamming shuns on other people. If one player shunned you, you’d be muted for two minutes. If multiple people shunned you, the time would increase. If you shunned anyone for ANY reason other than a chat violation in a public space, you would lose the privilege, and your entire guild could also lose the ability to shun.

This was a much smaller game than GW2. I’m not sure the same model would be workable without making a whole lot more work for GMs, but I’m not opposed to the idea in principle.

Whatever works. I just want to be able to play the game, even with a muzzle.

FangedTerror.3852:

You all should be thankful. Reading previous posts from a few moths ago it appears that the result wasn’t a 72 hr suspension but a full out ban that you had to plead your case to support to be reinstated.

Say bad things someone takes offense to go sit in the corner and think about it. Makes sense to me. If people don’t want to be treated like kindergarteners then don’t act like one. I really enjoy this game and would be ticked to see my chat filter block out every conversation. Yes i use it because some if the words the block are hysterical and want to see if i can figure out why in the odd case.

I am thankful for that, although I would no doubt end up buying another copy of this game if that happened because I love it.

I hope you weren’t including me in that last part because I never mentioned a chat filter. What I had in mind was on your first verbal offense the chat box would be disabled completely(greyed out maybe) but you could still see others talk. I believe that’s completely fair, especially for people in my situation who simply didn’t think about what might happen beforehand. Of course it doesn’t help if the people you offend are silent, but that’s all too debatable to discuss rationally.

It shouldn’t be necessary for people to report others for offenses. Players should use common sense and be respectful of others in the first place and not do things that are offensive. Then there’d be no suspensions and therefore no complaints from people saying they were “unjustly” suspended or removed, and threads like this one wouldn’t exist.

I am thinking this 3-day suspension you earned isn’t having the effect ArenaNet intended it to have.

@agauos

Hat filter comment wasn’t directed at anyone. Just a personal preference so i can see ingame words that are filtered... Oh CM story so naughty. But seeing people go off with swearing just ruins the mood for everyone.

gassy.8975:

It shouldn’t be necessary for people to report others for offenses. Players should use common sense and be respectful of others in the first place and not do things that are offensive. Then there’d be no suspensions and therefore no complaints from people saying they were “unjustly” suspended or removed, and threads like this one wouldn’t exist.

I am thinking this 3-day suspension you earned isn’t having the effect ArenaNet intended it to have.

What a perfect world you’re imagining, too bad it doesn’t exist and never will.

I don’t think you have read any of my posts, or you’re not quite all there. I have stated multiple times that I’m aware I messed up, and I do deserve a punishment. That means that I understand what I did wrong, and I understand what not to do in the future.
Common sense dictates that yes, the ban has indeed had the desired effect on me.

I’ll repeat the point of this thread for you one more time: I’m simply suggesting an alternative for first time foul language offenders(this is the lowest possible reason for getting action taken on your account). All it does is remove their ability to use the ingame chat, effectively cutting off the problem at its source. I don’t think that is even slightly too much to ask of an MMO this big.

On another note, you haven’t added a single insightful post in this thread, if you continue to post nonsense I’m going to ignore you completely.

agauos.8794:

gassy.8975:

It shouldn’t be necessary for people to report others for offenses. Players should use common sense and be respectful of others in the first place and not do things that are offensive. Then there’d be no suspensions and therefore no complaints from people saying they were “unjustly” suspended or removed, and threads like this one wouldn’t exist.

I am thinking this 3-day suspension you earned isn’t having the effect ArenaNet intended it to have.

What a perfect world you’re imagining, too bad it doesn’t exist and never will.

I don’t think you have read any of my posts, or you’re not quite all there. I have stated multiple times that I’m aware I messed up, and I do deserve a punishment. That means that I understand what I did wrong, and I understand what not to do in the future.
Common sense dictates that yes, the ban has indeed had the desired effect on me.

I’ll repeat the point of this thread for you one more time: I’m simply an alternative for first time foul language offenders(this is the lowest possible reason for getting action taken on your account). All it does is remove their ability to use the ingame chat, effectively cutting off the problem at its source. I don’t think that is even slightly too much to ask of an MMO this big.

On another note, you haven’t added a single insightful post in this thread, if you continue to post nonsense I’m going to ignore you completely.

Well said, I remember in another MMO I played that they just banned you from typing for 1 day as a primary warning, then it went to 3 days, and then it was a 24 hour ban from the game. I totally agree with the concept that they should apply different bans/restrictions before banning you for 3 days.

Issues.5789:

agauos.8794:

gassy.8975:

It shouldn’t be necessary for people to report others for offenses. Players should use common sense and be respectful of others in the first place and not do things that are offensive. Then there’d be no suspensions and therefore no complaints from people saying they were “unjustly” suspended or removed, and threads like this one wouldn’t exist.

I am thinking this 3-day suspension you earned isn’t having the effect ArenaNet intended it to have.

What a perfect world you’re imagining, too bad it doesn’t exist and never will.

I don’t think you have read any of my posts, or you’re not quite all there. I have stated multiple times that I’m aware I messed up, and I do deserve a punishment. That means that I understand what I did wrong, and I understand what not to do in the future.
Common sense dictates that yes, the ban has indeed had the desired effect on me.

I’ll repeat the point of this thread for you one more time: I’m simply an alternative for first time foul language offenders(this is the lowest possible reason for getting action taken on your account). All it does is remove their ability to use the ingame chat, effectively cutting off the problem at its source. I don’t think that is even slightly too much to ask of an MMO this big.

On another note, you haven’t added a single insightful post in this thread, if you continue to post nonsense I’m going to ignore you completely.

Well said, I remember in another MMO I played that they just banned you from typing for 1 day as a primary warning, then it went to 3 days, and then it was a 24 hour ban from the game. I totally agree with the concept that they should apply different bans/restrictions before banning you for 3 days.

That system is wonderful. Most rational people would understand that they did something wrong after the first punishment and would be unlikely to repeat their offense. The people who would ignore these punishments would have to be doing it on purpose, and thus would be the ones deserving of being removed entirely from the game.