Guild Wars 2

Here’s my Norn Warrior, Fenwurz. Mainly wearing a mishmash of Tier 1 and 2 cultural armour, with some of the Heavy karma set thrown in as well. The hammer is the pirate skin from the jumping puzzle in Lion’s Arch.

Yay my first (unintentional) video debut! That bay defense last night was cracking good fun, well, wiping you all off the battlements anyway. Lots of good fights last night. I’m a wee bit new to serious WvW, but after the siege-tastic weekend I’m starting to enjoy this matchup.

(Gandara member)

@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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

She has to sleep at some point.

I have a similar question to Umaxer’s above. I was banned for having an unacceptable name. At the time of creation I thought it was a funny name, not offensive to anyone and kind of fitting with the character. (The character was a hyperactive looking Asura with huge eyes called Cracky Joe.) However, looking through the Rules of Conduct more thoroughly I can see that it was technically in violation.
Obviously I have opened a ticket to hopefully resolve the issue. How quickly are tickets normally addressed/are the staff who deal with tickets working today? (That’s not meant as a snarky comment, I’m just wondering if it’s worth checking on my ticket periodically or if it’s a waste of time as there’s no one to deal with it today.)

I can’t say for sure because I’ve never tried to create a character with a truly offensive name, but if there isn’t a filter stopping people accidently creating ‘offensive’ character names, why not, as I think it’s a bit harsh to ban someone for 72 hours with no prior warning for a character name that they didn’t necessarily realise was in violation of the Rules of Conduct. Obviously they would still need to change the character name, I just think a blanket ban of 72 hours is a bit steep.