Guild Wars 2

I just received a 72 hour ban for inappropriate language in /Say chat which wasn’t even directed at another player. Meanwhile everyone in map chat is continuously using profanity at each other, but I get singled out for something not even directed at anyone? Sometimes when I get killed in WvW I like to type in /say like the enemy players can read it, but I know very well they can’t. When I am playing with my friends and we are on teamspeak, we laugh about it to each other. We know they can’t read it and that is what makes it funny. We do it in /say chat so we can see it and the rest of the players can’t.

If people within the vicinity see it and are offended, shouldn’t they have their filters on? I can understand if I had directed it at another player (who could actually see it) or said it in /map chat where the entire battleground could see it, but to suspend someone for using undirected profanity in a tiny vicinity like say chat seems really overboard and unfair. Shouldn’t it have been a warning first? I mean, what purpose does it serve to punish someone who was not even harassing another player? It was more like I was talking to myself, if anything.

Meanwhile, there are players using profanity directed at each other in places like map chat which everyone can see. This is something that deserved a warning like “Hey, stop mumbling profanity to yourself, since there might be people offended by profanity who purposely have their profanity filter turned off so they can report you for it and laugh.”

Which is exactly what happened there. It was someone troll-reporting me just because they could. I guarantee you they were not offended since me mumbling to myself while dead on the ground is not even nearly as bad as what most of the players are screaming at each other in map chat. 99% of the time my entire team is a million miles away while I’m dead on the ground, so seriously who is going to be offended? Surely not the enemy players who can’t even read it. :-/

Sadly, for you, the rules prohibit using vulgar language in chat. If you feel you were suspended in error, do contact Customer Support and plead your case. The existence of a chat filter gives no one the right to use profanity. The fact that others break the rules is really not a good excuse. Best of luck to you with Support.

support.guildwars2.com
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Perhaps, but suspending someone without warning for talking to themselves in say is really overboard. Any company’s customer service who treats all instances as either black or white is not a good one. Situations like this should be treated as gray and communicated to the customer so an understanding is reached. Especially when I am a customer who has bought over $500 dollars in gems in just the past month. If my business really means so little to them that they’d ban me for using undirected profanity in a tiny vicinity like say chat, then they have their priorities mixed up and I’ll take my money elsewhere.

And we all know money is every company’s main priority, so the customers who spend the most at least deserve the courtesy of a warning. Yes, treating your customers who spend more than other customers is completely okay. Go to any bar/restaurant in town and drop a load of dough then come back the next week and see how much better they treat you. Now if I explode in a slur of nasty/vulgar/harassing insults to another player in map chat, then by all means suspend me. But don’t do it because I mumble to myself in say chat as a joke between my friends and I.

Segundus.2984:

Perhaps, but suspending someone without warning for talking to themselves in say is really overboard…

…Especially when I am a customer who has bought over $500 dollars in gems in just the past month. If my business really means so little to them that they’d ban me for using undirected profanity in a tiny vicinity like say chat, then they have their priorities mixed up and I’ll take my money elsewhere.

…the customers who spend the most at least deserve the courtesy of a warning. Yes, treating your customers who spend more than other customers is completely okay. Go to any bar/restaurant in town and drop a load of dough then come back the next week and see how much better they treat you….

Look at it this way…have you ever walked out of a restaurant because they DIDN’T do something about an “entitled” customer? Maybe one who cursed, talked loudly, or smoked? A lot of people do walk out and and never return…and it costs more money than it makes.

A lot of people stick with GW2 specifically because they enforce their TOS. They’ve been famous for it since day one and a lot of players cheer every time somebody makes a forum post about getting suspended for language. It’s like hearing a bug zapper.

And I guarantee you every one of those players were screaming it at the top of their lungs in channels that everyone could see, and directing it at everyone they could.

Big difference between that and a guy pretty much talking to himself in say chat. You even said so yourself when you made the analogy about a loud customer. If I was being loud in the sense of using mapchat or directing it at other players than I would understand the immediate suspension.

However, in my case I was being very quiet since I was talking in /say to an enemy who can’t even read it. Therefore I at least deserved a warning first. If I am nice enough to give them a ton of money, they can be nice enough to give me a warning.

It’s not too much to ask, no matter what anyone outside of the situation says. Do you think you would deserve a ban if you let a curse word slip out in say chat? No, of course wouldn’t. A warning perhaps, but not a ban. But if it did happen to you then you’d suddenly see things my way instead of insisting I am in the wrong. It’s always easier to insist everything is either black or white when it doesn’t affect you.

Most people on internet forums aren’t interested in right or wrong really. They just side with whichever side causes the other person the most grief. And those are the type of people who really need a ban. Which is exactly the type of person who reported me. You and I both know that person was not offended. They were just reporting me because they knew it was an opportunity to grief me. They saw me break a rule and they jumped at the chance to report me because they get satisfaction out of griefing others.

And it’s really sad that the anonymity of the internet will make some people jump at the chance to cause another person grief. Are people’s lives really so sad and pathetic that they resort to this type of thing? If the report function told that person that you were the one who reported them, I guarantee you these trolls and cowards would think twice before using it.

Good thing I have three accounts though, so their attempt to grief me really doesn’t work out like they planned.

They don’t give warnings because they tried that and found it doesn’t work. The TOS is considered your warning that using profanity in any game chat can result in a suspension. They don’t care which chat it was in.

If the internet allows anyone to grief others, why give them the opportunity to do so by breaking the rules? If I thought that others were just waiting for the chance to grief me, I wouldn’t give them the ammo. But, that is just me. I hope once Support responds to your grievance, the outcome will be satisfactory. Good luck. =)

First you say it’s not directed at anyone, and then you say it’s directed at the opposing team (who can’t see it). Also, talking to yourself doesn’t require typing.

And finally, people have listed numerous reasons that the chat filter is off besides “I like to report people”. I only just realized yesterday that mine has been off all along, and I don’t recall ever turning it off.

bluestocking.6148:

First you say it’s not directed at anyone, and then you say it’s directed at the opposing team (who can’t see it). Also, talking to yourself doesn’t require typing.

And finally, people have listed numerous reasons that the chat filter is off besides “I like to report people”. I only just realized yesterday that mine has been off all along, and I don’t recall ever turning it off.

You know, mine was off too and I normally leave it on. Maybe the last patch did something.

Oh, that makes sense. Because I didn’t think “off” was the default, and I normally leave my filters on because they amuse me.

You are taking this personal, as if they know your intent, your normal way of playing, and how much gems you spend. This is impersonal and based on the TOS that everyone agrees to. They can’t speak individually with a million different people and discuss with them their normal way of playing and problem solve what they should and should not do.

They have said before that sending a warning just results in a back and forth arguing about how the individual believes that they are right and the terms of service are wrong or just shouldn’t apply to them.

I’m sure they value you as a customer. We just all have to abide by the ToS. I had to change my necro’s name because it was offensive to some. She was called Luci Furr. I self reported and asked was it one that was not allowed after having read on the forums about many getting in trouble with names similar to that. It turns out it was not allowed and then I had to change it to something unoffensive. Personally, I don’t think it is offensive but I abide by the rules just as everyone else is required to do.

This thread on reddit might be useful reading. Or in some cases, might just be hilarious reading.

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

It’s like sexual harassment. It doesn’t matter who was offended, as long as someone was.

And some of us turned our filters off because we got tired of seeing things like “Kes*** Hills” (Original filter for the game and the forums, especially the forums, was… using a nuke to blow up a small building, say.)

If you have to do it this way, use a fake emote, like “/screwyou” or something. The game will not recognize it, but at least you’ll get your frustration out.

Whether you had your response directed at another player or not is irrelevent. Nobody else that was able to see your comment, nor the ArenaNet Support people reviewing the reports, would have had any way of determining that you were just talking out loud to yourself and not directing the comment at someone else. It is not a justification for being able to use inappropriate language in public channels. I would suggest that in the future, you limit your comments to channels that are not public or on voice comms to your friends.

Why do you need to swear for?
You have alternatives to express frustrations.

If you have swearing issues and require people to hear them without getting into trouble, I would suggest using something like teamspeak or something, as arenanet is unable to moderate actual vocalized swearing.

Bear in mind you will have to convince people to use the voice program of your choice, however.

Can’t you just swear out loud and upset your dog? Why did you feel the need to type it out?