Guild Wars 2

I was banned on Christmas for an inappropriate character name, and have been spending my time on the forums as I wait for my ban to pass. However, having done so, my feelings of excitement and joy at being let back into the game have been replaced by apprehension and disquiet.

Basically, I’m looking for some clarification of certain issues and concerns that I now have.

I have seen numerous posts from people claiming to have been banned simply for using swear words in map chat. (The truthfulness of these posts is moot, it’s still making me worry.) I am now worried that once I return to the game I will have to watch my language for fear of being instantly banned. I understand that excessive swearing is inappropriate, but my understanding is that by putting a profanity filter in a game, people who turn it off are accepting that there will be a certain level of profanity in their chat. However, I have seen Gaile posting saying that the profanity filter is not a ‘license to swear’.
My genuine question then is this, if it isn’t a ‘license to swear’, what’s the point of having it in the game at all? I understand banning people for using abusive or racist language, but for swearing in conversation?
I am also worried as my brother and I are intending to play the game together, and we swear at each other quite often, in that brotherly way. Am I likely to be banned for swearing in a private message?

Also, why is there no filter at character creation stopping people from making offensive names? Obviously your mind is the filter for truly offensive names, but I created a character, typed in a name with the thought process of ‘it may be deemed offensive as it references drugs in a vague way, but if it’s unacceptable, the game will stop me’, wasn’t stopped and therefore assumed that the name was fine. I found out later that this wasn’t the case when I was banned for 72 hours. If it’s so easy for someone to accidently break the rules of conduct at character creation, why is the ban so harsh?

Overall I am thoroughly enjoying the game, but due to this flood of people posting claiming unfair suspensions (be they truthful or not) I am now going to be playing the game with a cloud over my head, scared of other players for fear of being reported, banned with what seems to be little investigation, and then run the risk of losing my account, as I already have one mark on my account.

To clarify:
1: How likely am I to be banned for casually swearing in conversation? (Not aimed at anyone, something along the lines of ‘Oh, I hate this situation’ ‘Aye, it is a bit blank.’) If I am able to be banned for casual swearing, what then is the point of the profanity filter?

2: It seems people are being banned almost instantly after being reported, whether or not they have actually broken the RoC. If this is actually happening, can you alleviate my fears that interaction with other players has now become a sort of roulette and I spend the entire time dreading interaction for fear of saying/doing something another player disagrees with and being reported/banned?

3: Why is there no offensive character name filter at character creation?

4: Why is the ban for first time offenses so harsh?

I am making this post with the hope of some sort of official response at least acknowledging that these are issues that you’re aware of, and better yet, what you’re doing, if anything, to combat these issues. Hopefully this will help alleviate my fears and apprehension at returning to the game.

Many thanks for such a fantastic game,
Sogz

EDITED: To clarify the points I was trying to make.

You will never know the answer, my tickets asking for any response about my case which is similar to yours are just being ignored, cannot explain it any different. next day my question tickets are ‘UPDATED’ by support staff that they checked the incident and it says that i can see the reply below which is never there, just blank space.

Monkines.5829:

It is very direspectful and with “dictatorship” behaviors. Never seen that in another game… NEVER…

That line just gave me a giggle.
They are the judge, not you, nor us.
Disrespectful? Is it cause they don’t compensate for false positives? That I do have to agree is irritating. But it’s not like they promised to compensate us. I do believe that this needs work on. Players lose time due to error, and also the anger and dissatisfaction of being accused of something they hate themselves.

I also agree that some of these policies are being enforced too strongly. Relax! It’s just a game….

False positives occur even with prior investigation… but clearly the system as it is seems out of control. What is the “acceptable” proportion of false positives ?
For me it seems there are too much messages in these forums (quickly closed ones) regardind these issues to be just some sporadic false positives.

Injustice is what makes some people not relax at all.

It saddens me that none of the CC will reply to this post. They are all over simple issues, but one with a real repercussion and overly sensitive issues will never be replied to. This is something that needs to be addressed broadly and given definitive boundaries. Tell us what we can or cant do. Dont case by case punish us with OVERLY excessive penalties. Give us guidelines other than read the COC.
why is there a profanity filter if profanity is not allowed?

@sogz: you new your name was borderline at best. And you still continued with doing it? You really want to know why it happened?
Anet employees have stated several times that no action is taken, when there is no report. So you can swear in private messages or guild chat, if nobody reports it. But why take a chance? I don’t see a necessity to swear.

@Monkines: Do you really ask yourself why Anet employees are deleting insulting posts? Those get reported as well.

@Cover girl: This forums are for the players. Sometimes Anet people are joining. But mostly it is done to moderate the forums not to answer questions. If you have serious questions, you have to ask them to support.
The profanity filter is not perfect. It cannot be perfect. Not with the game being played all over the world with several dozen languages spoken by its players. Therefor the additional rules. It is up to Anet people to decide once a report came in. They check, they decide. And we have to abide. And if anything runs its way, the GW2 world is a lot better than that behaviour in other MMOs and areas. I don’t regret it is that way. I support it Anet-style.

Michael, I wasn’t trying to argue I shouldn’t have been banned for the name, just that I felt the penalty was a bit harsh considering the character creator does nothing to warn you.
I respect that you don’t see a necessity to swear, but some people, myself included, just do it as a turn of phrase/it’s just part of how I speak. I don’t feel it’s fair that I have to go out of my way to moderate my speech when there is already a profanity filter in the game. My personal feelings are that if you have the profanity filter turned off, you should expect some profanity in chat, and aren’t really justified in reporting people for casually swearing in conversation. If someone swears directly at you in an abusive or racially abusive way, crack on, report them, because that is unacceptable behaviour. Saying ‘oh blank’ in surprise, or ‘blank, that boss was a bit of a blank, weren’t he?’ shouldn’t get you reported/banned.

ArenaNet support on questions 2 & 4: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/account/Patone-SoS-EB-Commander-ban/1091429

I don’t think you’ll find an answer on #1 because that’s the sort of thing that’s really hard to know without specific details. What one person calls “casual swearing” may be another person’s “offensive swearing”. I’d say your best bet is to pretend there is no profanity filter when you’re in public chat spaces and act accordingly. If you know your swearing isn’t offensive to your group or guild, you don’t need to self-moderate there. If you think they might report you, moderate yourself there, too.

On question #3 – even if there was a filter, it could never be perfect. It’s always possible to construct a name that is offensive but will pass a filter. The existence of a name filter wouldn’t give you permission to use an offensive name any more than the chat filter gives you permission to use offensive language.

Editing to add: ArenaNet on why the chat filter exists given it isn’t “a license to swear”: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/account/Complaints-about-Suspensions-merged/1084783

>OP

There’s no possible way for Anet to create a database that’s full of every single possible offensive name or letter combination. Each case is review separately, and according to Galie, it’s looked at by more than one person before the penalty is put in place.

As for your swearing in game, it probably doesn’t catch Anet’s attention unless someone reports you (or if there’s an Anet employee in game). So if you argue with your brother in PMs, and he reports you, something might happen. Perhaps leave the swearing to voice chat or over the phone?

One comment…seriously? We are having this discussion. Flat out if the name is offensive, common sense says don’t use it. If you want to say an offensive word, don’t. It may get you banned.

Slight update: Having gotten back into the game, it turns out I was banned for two character names that I genuinely do not understand how they could have broken the RoC in any way. I won’t post them here as someone somewhere evidently finds them offensive, but I’m genuinely confused now as to what the issue with these names were. Turns out the one I thought I’d been banned for was completely fine. Obviously I’ve opened a ticket for some clarification, so fingers crossed they actually get back to me this time.

Either way, the name isn’t the reason I started this discussion. I was banned, I waited it out, boo hoo I got on with my life. The reason I asked these questions is that I have an issue with the possibility of being banned for swearing in conversation when there is aleady a profanity filter in game.

They don’t ban you only if you profanity per say. As long as someone report you and there is ‘some’ evidence that your language is inappropriate, you’ll be banned. “you suck S” doesn’t save you. “Shut up” is ok but “shut the fark up” is not. “Get lost” is border line, “Get your pathetikittentle asura out of my face” is not. So basically yeah, if people want to grief you they just need to report you. Simple as that. Because anything, I mean anything can be deemed inappropriate. /emote shows you his fingers. Is that inappropriate? What’s wrong with showing you his fingers? Well, the moral police jumps to conclusion you are showing the middle finger. It’s pretty dumb but yeah you can entrap players you don’t like and get them suspended.

I can understand you getting banned if you swear directly at someone and they take offense and report you. If I got banned for that (not that I intend to) I wouldn’t argue as that is breaking the RoC. Aye, if it was a slip of an otherwise cool demeanor it would be a bit of a pain, but them’s the breaks.

What I was talking about was just swearing in conversation. However, from the replies here it seems that being banned for that is highly unlikely.
Many thanks for helping alleviate my fears.

Sogz.1459:

I can understand you getting banned if you swear directly at someone and they take offense and report you. If I got banned for that (not that I intend to) I wouldn’t argue as that is breaking the RoC. Aye, if it was a slip of an otherwise cool demeanor it would be a bit of a pain, but them’s the breaks.

What I was talking about was just swearing in conversation. However, from the replies here it seems that being banned for that is highly unlikely.
Many thanks for helping alleviate my fears.

You can. The most important thing is whether anyone report you. If you swear with your mate in your private message chat and he is fine with it, then you’re fine. But if he wants to report you just to say maybe test how crude Anet handles profanity then you’ll get banned. Likewise, if you are in the guild chat and you start swearing to your friends in guild but if there is someone in the guild chat who doesn’t like what you type, he report you and Anet investigate by reading the chat log (without any understanding or whatsoever of the context) you’re banned. Never mind that you guys were joking on TS and the other guy didn’t have a mike so he typed in guild chat. That’s a ban. It’s ridiculous yes.

@Sogz: As a father I have learned 2 things:
First, keep your mouth shut – so not to get into trouble.
Second, accept some borderline things coming from the kids – just be a bit tolerant.
That were some big lessons for me and I learned them well. So I get upset sometimes and I’m glad there is no voice chat when I fall to death from a jumping puzzle for the 100th time. At the same time I’m not off to report any “bad” language, but only if it is over the edge. I don’t accept bullying of any kind.

We can tell something clearly without using foul language. Even if we don’t like what is going on.

@Michael : Aye, I agree with pretty much everything you’ve said there. I think I gave the wrong impression of being some sort of obscenity screaming maniac, which isn’t the case at all. I was just worried about being banned for the occasional swear slipping through the net.
I don’t go out of my way to report people either, unless it’s properly bullying/abusing someone, as I don’t see how getting someone banned for something that doesn’t really affect me helps me in any way. Let them play and have a good time.
Abusing other people though, like yourself, I cannot abide.
Having said that, I am yet to see anything even remotely close to that kind of atmosphere or behaviour in the game so far, and I don’t expect to, as this community seems to me to be one of the most tolerant/friendly ones out there.

Pretend you’re playing with little kids. Would you still swear if you were surrounded by 6 year olds?