Guild Wars 2

Recently I attempted to log into one of my characters and was greeted with a little pop-up box informing me I had to rename that character before logging in.

I wasn’t happy about it as I liked the name – but what really annoyed me was I hadn’t received an email, an in-game message or whisper. Nobody had bothered to communicate with me at all. I was just told I had to rename the character in a tiny box, with no reason why.

Asking around, it emerged that some people find the term offensive (in my country it’s not at all offensive) so I thought “okay, well if I’ve offended someone, fine.” I intended just to let it slide and continue playing the character with a new name.

Tonight I discovered that another of my characters had received a “forced rename”. This time I can’t think of a single thing anybody would find offensive about the name. It’s not an offensive name.

What’s more concerning for me is that both of these chearacters are rarely played – one I use for dungeons a few times a month, the other is a new-ish character that hasn’t been out in the world much yet. Now, given the amount of abuse, harassment and hatred I and my guild have had from certain elements of the community, I’m beginning to wonder if people have been reporting my names for the sake of it. That may sound paranoid – but I’ve been informed by several people that I’m being mass-reported by their friends/guild/family/pets for various offences such as defending a keep in Edge of the Mists, or completing an event people wanted to exploit.

Since I wasn’t actually doing anything wrong, these mass-reporters would make up any old reason to report me. I’ve had a few tell me they’d get this name or that name banned (innocent names). Some told me they were reporting me for “botting”.

I’d like to ask ArenaNet three things: firstly, why have you forced me to rename my character “Deranged Killer”? Secondly, why couldn’t you be bothered to contact me about this? Thirdly, have you been swayed by reports? Is it a case of “x amount of people are reporting this player, let’s look into something we can punish him for”?

For the record, the first character I received a forced name change for is around 8 months old. His name was Digital Midget. If that’s so offensive that it needs to be changed, why wasn’t it changed before?

The whole thing is very suspicious to me, and coupled with my friend receiving a suspension on shaky grounds (again with no contact from ArenaNet) I’m wondering – why are players who play the game being punished, and those who exploit, cheat, harass, abuse and insult allowed to continue? I’ve personally reported dozens of players for obscene language, threats and worse, and they’ve been there the next day, and the next week, etc.

I’ve seen names around with racist/homophobic undertones for well over a year that were reported by various players – and yet the name Deranged Killer is offensive? Come on.

The forums would not be the place to contest CS action. This is something best served by submitting a request to the CS Team. Top of Page – Support – Submit a Request.

No amount of reporting will engender action alone, each case is considered by the Team.

Good luck.

I had this happen to one of my characters. This was solved within 3 days by sending in a support ticket. The first one bounced back saying that “Oh yeah, we checked everything and its totally against the naming rules!” So I sent them back a reply asking them which part of the name was inappropriate so I don’t make the mistake of reusing the inappropriate part again, and the second response said there was nothing wrong with the name at all and they reversed the name change.

That is the only advice I can give. Make sure you force them to answer specific questions, or you’ll likely just get an automated response, which I suspect the first reply to my ticket was.

I forgot to add that this happened within a few days of the first forced name change. That’s the thing that raised alarm bells, to be honest.

As for contacting customer support – they haven’t contacted me, so how would I know how to contact them? I haven’t even received an email, which is standard practice in every other MMO I’ve played. For all I know, instigating a conversation on the forums is as likely to gain their attention as emailing them/calling them/sending them a carrier pigeon.

Sorry, but this is a very poor way to treat a customer.

You won’t receive an email. If you wish to dispute this action, you need to submit a request as outlined above. Up to you whether to pursue this, or not.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/legal/guild-wars-2-naming-policy/

Good luck.

If a name isn’t caught by the filter when it’s first created, the only time ANet will look at names is if somebody reports it. So yes, it must mean that at some point down the line, somebody looked at “Digital Midget” and “Deranged Killer” and found them offensive.

The first I can understand, because the word midget is sometimes considered derogatory by people suffering from the condition. I can’t see why the second would be offensive, unless there’s some combination of letters in there that inadvertently means something offensive in another language. (For example, “Sega” is actually a crude word in a European language, Italian I think.)

But in any case, Inculpatus above is correct. You need to contact Support and hash it out with them if you think there’s been a mistake. There have been cases of names being wrongfully flagged as being offensive, after all.

mathras.2450:

I forgot to add that this happened within a few days of the first forced name change. That’s the thing that raised alarm bells, to be honest.

As for contacting customer support – they haven’t contacted me, so how would I know how to contact them? I haven’t even received an email, which is standard practice in every other MMO I’ve played. For all I know, instigating a conversation on the forums is as likely to gain their attention as emailing them/calling them/sending them a carrier pigeon.

Sorry, but this is a very poor way to treat a customer.

They don’t contact people beforehand, they simply force the person to rename. That’s their policy of how they do it.

If you want to contact support to discuss the matter with them then you need to make a ticket.
Top of this page-Support
Top of next page-Submit a request.
(There are 2 buttons with drop down options which must be selected on the ticket page).

Reference names of copyrighted or trademarked characters, materials, or products
Use misspellings or alternative spellings of names that violate any of the above rules

from:

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/legal/guild-wars-2-naming-policy/

Now that statement pretty much renders every known name under the sun an illegal name, ANET please clarify the above statement with examples, the above is too spars.

Have offensive racial, ethnic, national, or cultural connotations
Include hate speech or bigoted slurs
Reference sexual acts or real life violence
Are pornographic
Make inappropriate references to human anatomy or bodily functions
Reference illegal drugs or activities
Reference religious or historical figures
Reference real-life people

The above however makes perfect sense.

OP: You name doesn’t offend me in the slightest, but you need to deploy the tickets to the support team, if you are are unduly being targeted by skritts then something I’m sure will be done, and the sooner you do it the better! who knows who else this might be happening too.

Whenever I hear about a forced name change, I like to search out the individual components to see if there is some part of it that is universally offensive. Interestingly Deranged, Killer, Digital, Midget are all taken by four different people and have not been found offensive. Perhaps just haven’t been reported as such yet?

So then I wonder is it the combination? Is Happy Killer better than Deranged Killer? Is Iron Midget better than Digital Midget?

I also suggest OP contact Anet and find out what has been deemed offensive so that those whom have that portion or combination of a name are better served to not use it in the future.

Digital Midget, at least, is the name of a band.

http://www.last.fm/music/Digital+Midgets

No idea about Deranged Killer. Neither seem offensive to me.

The only thing I can think of is that deranged refers to a mental disorder and the term midget is sometimes used in an offensive sense so they are stretching this rule “Have offensive racial, ethnic, national, or cultural connotations” to cover the names.

It would be the offensive cultural connotations, if my guess is right.

Neither are offensive to me but I saw someone at launch with the name Happy Poppy Pants and didn’t care. All it take is someone to report it and if it’s on the fence they’ll block.

A while back there was a warrior with the name Curbstomper that got blocked due to the reference to real life violence. This is probably what your name Deranged Killer falls under.

• Anet does not notify about name changes other than the log in notification (when you have to change it). This is their policy, if you want to discuss it with Support (and get a canned response), do so.
• Anet only blocks specific words when you make a character. Other name bans are likely due to some other player reporting your name as offensive. Anet has never provided any details of how the reporting / name change process works beyond that point (and likely never will).
• The term “midget”, can be considered offensive to “little people”. I’m guessing the term “killer” is offensive to non-violent types. The argument that both of these “offenses” are beyond the pale in terms of PC-ness is valid, but not up for discussion here (again, take it up with Support).

Brother Grimm.5176:

• Anet does not notify about name changes other than the log in notification (when you have to change it). This is their policy, if you want to discuss it with Support (and get a canned response), do so.
• Anet only blocks specific words when you make a character. Other name bans are likely due to some other player reporting your name as offensive. Anet has never provided any details of how the reporting / name change process works beyond that point (and likely never will).
• The term “midget”, can be considered offensive to “little people”. I’m guessing the term “killer” is offensive to non-violent types. The argument that both of these “offenses” are beyond the pale in terms of PC-ness is valid, but not up for discussion here (again, take it up with Support).

If you’re going to find words like “killer” offensive, what are you doing playing a game which involves killing thousands upon thousands of innocent creatures? The point of this thread is that I’ve received no justification for the name changes. They were just changed for no apparent reason.

mathras.2450:

Brother Grimm.5176:

• Anet does not notify about name changes other than the log in notification (when you have to change it). This is their policy, if you want to discuss it with Support (and get a canned response), do so.
• Anet only blocks specific words when you make a character. Other name bans are likely due to some other player reporting your name as offensive. Anet has never provided any details of how the reporting / name change process works beyond that point (and likely never will).
• The term “midget”, can be considered offensive to “little people”. I’m guessing the term “killer” is offensive to non-violent types. The argument that both of these “offenses” are beyond the pale in terms of PC-ness is valid, but not up for discussion here (again, take it up with Support).

If you’re going to find words like “killer” offensive, what are you doing playing a game which involves killing thousands upon thousands of innocent creatures? The point of this thread is that I’ve received no justification for the name changes. They were just changed for no apparent reason.

And the only way you will get the exact reason is to put in a ticket. We on the forums can only give possible reasons. We also aren’t saying that we find it offensive, just that we think that might be something others find offensive.

FWIW I suspect the issue is with ‘Deranged’, not ‘Killer’. It’s a pretty harmful stereotype against mentally ill people, who are often associated with violence and the committing thereof when they’re in fact more likely to be victims of it, in part due to said stereotype.

jackaljag.8637:

FWIW I suspect the issue is with ‘Deranged’, not ‘Killer’. It’s a pretty harmful stereotype against mentally ill people, who are often associated with violence and the committing thereof when they’re in fact more likely to be victims of it, in part due to said stereotype.

That is certainly a reasonable assumption and mine may be incorrect. As stated above, OP will only be able to find out by asking Support via a ticket.

I in no WAY implied I was offended by any of the names mentioned nor intended to justify the name change actions.

I see a lot of players refer to “not being offended” in their posts. In issues like these I don’t think it’s an issue about being offended. If the company decides the names violate their rules then that’s just what it is. For example, we have an HOA in my community that enforces homeowner rules. A lot of the things they enforce don’t even register on the care-meter for most of us, but they’re in the contract so it is what it is. Every time the HOA fines a homeowner for something, that homeowner often complains to the other homeowners about it. But in the end, most of us choose to just comply with our contracts and not get the fines.

Anet does not monitor names of already generated characters, so any request to change an existing character name is almost surely due to someone reporting the name in game.

I think that DOES constitute someone, “being offended”, by it. (Or just being vindictive toward the particular player if the name is “potentially” offensive).

Brother Grimm.5176:

Anet does not monitor names of already generated characters, so any request to change an existing character name is almost surely due to someone reporting the name in game.

I think that DOES constitute someone, “being offended”, by it. (Or just being vindictive toward the particular player if the name is “potentially” offensive).

Well, it is possible that an employee was playing and saw something that violated the naming rules as well. They don’t always have their ANet tag on.