Guild Wars 2

This is my first time posting in the forums because something that made me very upset and disgusted happened today. While I was waiting for the Fire Elemental to spawn, I was kicked out of the Guild Wars 2 client and I reopened it to find that I had to change my guardian’s name. His name was formerly Logan Thackarey and I have had him for over 9 months, since the day I created him, with this name. I have never impersonated the NPC, tried to scam people, nor do anything to break any sort of policy.

I was not impersonating anyone. I simply admire the character Logan Thackeray and made a character based on him. I go out my way to help people in the Guild Wars 2 community whether it’s in dungeons or a simple question in map chat. While I do these things, I never act like the NPC. It is very clear that I am an actual player like everyone else.

People actually find my character interesting and like the fact that they see the name or have “Logan” in a dungeon run with them. They also like to approach my character and have fun and make little jokes. I do not see how any of my actions of creating my version of Logan has hurt anyone or violated any sort of policies. I am honestly thinking about quitting the game at this point because of it. I worked kitten him just as any other player would their characters and I have not done anything wrong. I literally just returned to the game three days ago and then this happens. I’m just a girl who admires the Logan Thackeray character and made my own version because he is my favorite Guild Wars 2 NPC. All I want is the name that I enjoyed so very much for the past nine or so months to be given back to me. I am very upset and find this all so sudden and unfair.

Thank you for your time and I hope that everything can just go back to the way it was.

It may not be likely that a report would engender action so quickly, but possible. I’m not sure someone complimenting you on your name is basis for accusing them of reporting you. /shrug

If you feel the action taken was in error, contact CS and plead your case.

https://help.guildwars2.com/home – Submit a Request

Good luck.

I doubt it was that person who whispered you. Support receives literally 1000s of tickets and reports each day. Each one has to be read and researched by someone and then a decision made. So it was probably reported several days previous to the forced name change. It certainly wasn’t 10 minutes before.

You can certainly appeal to support however the name is probably too close Logan’s. It’s possible they copywrited his name.

Selianna.8263:

Reference names of copyrighted or trademarked characters, materials, or products
Use misspellings or alternative spellings of names that violate any of the above rules
Impersonating an ArenaNet, LLC., NC Interactive, Inc. or NCSOFT employee or customer support representative is against the Guild Wars 2 User Agreement, so we do not allow characters to take the real name or handles of employees or variations of their names or handles that may cause confusion."

Please read the parts that I highlighted. You’re not allowed to use the name of ANY in game character or NPC. It could be Logan Thackary, Logen Thackary. Logan Thackery, etc. All will generate a forced rename once someone reports you.

Astral Projections.7320:

I doubt it was that person who whispered you. Support receives literally 1000s of tickets and reports each day. Each one has to be read and researched by someone and then a decision made. So it was probably reported several days previous to the forced name change. It certainly wasn’t 10 minutes before.

You can certainly appeal to support however the name is probably too close Logan’s. It’s possible they copywrited his name.

I understand this, but I’ve had Logan for so long now and I’ve been around mods and everything in the game, yet I haven’t had an issue for a whole 9 or so months. Also, I don’t see how having a character close to one that is literally in the game is hurting Anet at all. It’s not like I was running around as the Hulk or Sephiroth or something. They can’t be sued for a character close to their own and I’m certainly not claiming the NPC to be my own.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

It may not be likely that a report would engender action so quickly, but possible. I’m not sure someone complimenting you on your name is basis for accusing them of reporting you. /shrug

If you feel the action taken was in error, contact CS and plead your case.

https://help.guildwars2.com/home – Submit a Request

Good luck.

Yeah, you do have a point. I’m just upset over all this happening. I will surely submit a request and thank you.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Selianna.8263:

Reference names of copyrighted or trademarked characters, materials, or products
Use misspellings or alternative spellings of names that violate any of the above rules
Impersonating an ArenaNet, LLC., NC Interactive, Inc. or NCSOFT employee or customer support representative is against the Guild Wars 2 User Agreement, so we do not allow characters to take the real name or handles of employees or variations of their names or handles that may cause confusion."

Please read the parts that I highlighted. You’re not allowed to use the name of ANY in game character or NPC. It could be Logan Thackary, Logen Thackary. Logan Thackery, etc. All will generate a forced rename once someone reports you.

Having a character close to one that Anet has in their game anyway should not be an issue. I’ve seen Sephiroths, Harry Potter references, etc and then after having Logan’s name like that for months it gets snatched away. It’s not like they can be sued or anything for having a character similar to one that exists in the game anyway can hurt them. Mmos usually say that because they don’t want to get punished for having other company’s copyrighted character names running around and then they take the fall for it. In this case, taking the name was unneccessary.

Most every game I’ve ever played has had a policy that you can’t use variations on the names of major NPCs. As with any other violation of the naming rules, it doesn’t matter how long you’ve had it. They investigate when someone reports it and/or an ArenaNet employee sees it.

Selianna.8263:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Selianna.8263:

Reference names of copyrighted or trademarked characters, materials, or products
Use misspellings or alternative spellings of names that violate any of the above rules
Impersonating an ArenaNet, LLC., NC Interactive, Inc. or NCSOFT employee or customer support representative is against the Guild Wars 2 User Agreement, so we do not allow characters to take the real name or handles of employees or variations of their names or handles that may cause confusion."

All it takes is enough reports sent in to trigger someone to look at the name and even the Sephiroths and Harry Potters would have to change.

You likely ran into a group of way too by the book players who reported your name. Either that or you angered a group of players and they reported you out of spite and hoped the mods would find an infraction and ban you and the mods noticed the name.

Please read the parts that I highlighted. You’re not allowed to use the name of ANY in game character or NPC. It could be Logan Thackary, Logen Thackary. Logan Thackery, etc. All will generate a forced rename once someone reports you.

Having a character close to one that Anet has in their game anyway should not be an issue. I’ve seen Sephiroths, Harry Potter references, etc and then after having Logan’s name like that for months it gets snatched away. It’s not like they can be sued or anything for having a character similar to one that exists in the game anyway can hurt them. Mmos usually say that because they don’t want to get punished for having other company’s copyrighted character names running around and then they take the fall for it. In this case, taking the name was unneccessary.

You likely got reported by people too caught up in the rules or that you got angry.

Because the Sephiroths and Harry Potters would have to change if there were enough reports done.

I’m VERY surprised that name was either not taken or on ANet’s “can’t use that” list….

It being unusable is understandable and it DOES violate the naming rules (copyrighted material use).

I get the OPs POed (mostly because it took 9 months to get disqualified, I’m guessing), but I seriously can’t believe NOBODY in game has mentioned the fact that the name is likely “illegal”. OP MUST have known this was possibly inevitable.

All the examples being listed (close to other popular copyrighted characters) are ALSO in violation of the naming rules and could be taken away at any moment. Their existence in game does not automatically invalid the listed naming rules.

Brother Grimm.5176:

I’m VERY surprised that name was either not taken or on ANet’s “can’t use that” list….

It being unusable is understandable and it DOES violate the naming rules (copyrighted material use).

I get the OPs POed (mostly because it took 9 months to get disqualified, I’m guessing), but I seriously can’t believe NOBODY in game has mentioned the fact that the name is likely “illegal”. OP MUST have known this was possibly inevitable.

All the examples being listed (close to other popular copyrighted characters) are ALSO in violation of the naming rules and could be taken away at any moment. Their existence in game does not automatically invalid the listed naming rules.

No I did not know that the name was illegal. If it were in fact illegal, why was I able to have it in the first place? In addition to this, my character’s name is not violating any sort of copyright rules. I am not claiming that the npc is mine, I’m not gaining any sort of money for it and I am certainly not selling anything. Also, if you had read what I said before in response to the previous comments, me having that name does not hurt Anet or anyone else so I don’t see where the problem comes in it. Believe all that you want to, but as I’ve said, the name was not an issue before so it should not be one now. Besides, how would you feel if your favorite Guild Wars 2 character that you’ve had for over nine months suddenly got their name snatched away?

They can’t monitor every single name that’s made. They can’t possibly make a blocklist of every possible variant spelling of every disallowed name. How many ways could you come up with to spell “Trahearne”? I can think of dozens! People come up with disallowed names that make it past the filter all the time; just read this forum for a few weeks and you’ll see some VERY interesting variations.

And they can disallow any name they want. It’s their rules. If they want to say "no characters can use the word “Banana”, they can do that. The rule they’ve made is that they don’t want characters named after major NPCs – just like a dozen other MMORPGs I’ve played.

What they CAN and DO do is get reports on names already in-game and then enforce the rule. It doesn’t matter how long you “got away” with it. It matters that someone brought it to ArenaNet’s attention and now they’re saying “nope, sorry”. For all you know an actual employee saw it. They don’t have to play with their ArenaNet tag on, you know.

bluestocking.6148:

They can’t monitor every single name that’s made. They can’t possibly make a blocklist of every possible variant spelling of every disallowed name. How many ways could you come up with to spell “Trahearne”? I can think of dozens! People come up with disallowed names that make it past the filter all the time; just read this forum for a few weeks and you’ll see some VERY interesting variations.

And they can disallow any name they want. It’s their rules. If they want to say "no characters can use the word “Banana”, they can do that. The rule they’ve made is that they don’t want characters named after major NPCs – just like a dozen other MMORPGs I’ve played.

What they CAN and DO do is get reports on names already in-game and then enforce the rule. It doesn’t matter how long you “got away” with it. It matters that someone brought it to ArenaNet’s attention and now they’re saying “nope, sorry”. For all you know an actual employee saw it. They don’t have to play with their ArenaNet tag on, you know.

In all of this you failed to answer the last question I asked you. I am not here to argue with players that have no effect on my name being changed. I am done with this conversation as I’m not going to make myself more heated about this than I already am. Thanks for stopping by.

Your last question was “how would I feel?” right? I’d feel annoyed with myself for making a name that violated the rules. But – not to sound rude – our feelings aren’t really relevant to the issue. Everyone who’s named their character something ridiculously obscene has been upset about it too. Everyone who’s been banned for using a mod has been upset about that.

You’re right though. No players have an effect on your name being changed, only ArenaNet does. And they seem to have made the decision already. There’s not really any “argument” here, just people trying to explain the issue and you refusing to recognize it.

Selianna.8263:

In all of this you failed to answer the last question I asked you. I am not here to argue with players that have no effect on my name being changed. I am done with this conversation as I’m not going to make myself more heated about this than I already am. Thanks for stopping by.

This conversation was over before it began. Because you did not understand the terms of the User Agreement, does not justify you the right to use a copyrighted name in game. You even posted the exact part of the rules you broke (which I highlighted in the previous post).

I’m sorry you suffered due to your lack of understanding. Please realize that rules are rules, and any type of misspelling or alternate spelling of a copyrighted name will result in a rename and/or suspension (if multiple infractions happen). The characters with names like Harry Potter will be changed too once Anet get the in-game reports.