ArenaNet Suspends Players For Lack Of Common Decency

[Thorin]

ArenaNet, the makers of Guild Wars 1 and 2, have said in the past that they want people to conduct themselves with some decency - both in choosing a character name and in text entered in chats.  Well, GW2 had a pre-release and they've been banning people.  Of course, people then started to make all kinds of wild claims about their bans, so ArenaNet took to Reddit to offer people who thought they were banned unfairly the chance to find out what they were banned for.  Some have had their accounts hacked by gold farmers already.  A few actually gave their in-game names and had the details posted publicly.  Not surprisingly, many of the "public outcriers" havent' bothered to put their name in and ask for the suspension reason, knowing full well what they did that got them banned.

http://kotaku.com/5938485/reasons-you-may-be-suspended-from-guild-wars-2-holocaust-jokes-racist-insults-etc

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

Good on ArenaNet for pushing back for common decency.  I'm sure they'll do fine in sales, especially as female players and parents of underage players start hearing about ArenaNets pursuit of decency in chat.

[Mr. Analog]

Yeah, but where does it end? When do they start putting people on the @%&# list for mentioning competitors or other things that the company doesn't like (such as client mods). I know it's their playground and all that but jeez.

[Tom]

Yeah, but where does it end? When do they start putting people on the @%&# list for mentioning competitors or other things that the company doesn't like (such as client mods). I know it's their playground and all that but jeez.

That would go against their Common Decency ideals. If they were to start doing that, they'd likely lose business.

[Mr. Analog]

It depends on how draconian it is I guess, personally speaking I like it when devs just let gamers figure it out on their own. If you hit pub servers for some games it can range anywhere from being a filth-stained wasteland to a polite and fun amusement park, but sometimes you want the former and not the latter EVERY TIME (and vice versa). If things are particularly bad you see gamers get together and create communities with their own rules and morals and way about themselves, this is where the real community nature of online gaming comes from, actually banding together because of common goals / play styles.

[Tom]

I dunno. I don't think there's any excuse to be a complete dick head like some of the gamers. I really don't have any problem with racist sexist ass-hats being banned from any game.

[Thorin]

I 'unno, I read some of the Reddit thread and in all instances of statements-caused-suspensions, I completely agree.  I also actively avoid online games because the high prevalence of bigotry, racism, and misogyny that is to be found in them.  People act completely different behind a screen than they would face-to-face.

Hell, I tried out TF2 on the Xbox a long while back; I was clearly on my first day of playing, yet some idiot felt the need to message me not only about how he pwned me (sure, good for him), but also about how I was the scrotum of a black man who engaged in homosexual intercourse with a white jewish man.  At this point I'd placed for 45 minutes, so it's not like we'd been arch-enemies for weeks or something.

Anyway, I think we'll see Guild Wars win out on the decency front, and because of it have a long life as customers will be more loyal.

[Mr. Analog]

This is exactly what I'm saying though, you don't want to play pub servers with all the BS find a group, it's better for you and it's better for the game community (i.e. it actually forms a game community).

Regardless, most MMOs have moderation systems that prevent names using slurs and spamming crap in global chat, but I really have to wonder what's going on in the pre-release that's causing so much of a stir. If it's THIS much noise before the game has even dropped for the majority of its userbase imagine what it's going to be like in a week or so from now.

[Tom]

This is exactly what I'm saying though, you don't want to play pub servers with all the BS find a group, it's better for you and it's better for the game community (i.e. it actually forms a game community).

Regardless, most MMOs have moderation systems that prevent names using slurs and spamming crap in global chat, but I really have to wonder what's going on in the pre-release that's causing so much of a stir. If it's THIS much noise before the game has even dropped for the majority of its userbase imagine what it's going to be like in a week or so from now.

Maybe they'll get their own site like: http://whywasibanned.com/


append:

I don't really think it should be up to the decent players to put up with the ass-hats. Essentially the decent people get punished just for playing, rather than the ass-hats getting punished for being ass-hats.

[Mr. Analog]

The reality is that asshats exist and as good a mod system you can build, the universe will build better asshats. It's far better to discourage bad behaviour by using peer pressure than legally binding mandate, at least in my experience.

[Tom]

The reality is that asshats exist and as good a mod system you can build, the universe will build better asshats. It's far better to discourage bad behaviour by using peer pressure than legally binding mandate, at least in my experience.

Eh. Some people actually will stop being ass hats if they have a reason not to be. But the true ass hats will never stop being ass hats. Those are the ones that need to be kicked.

[Mr. Analog]

From personal experience I have to disagree, I've seen people get ostracised for being jerks on servers for bad behaviour by other players over global chat, the other players will just outright ignore them and either they go away or they start playing properly. Way better than getting a moderator involved, plus you make them feel like crap for being idiots, no waiting for "mommy" to show up and "do something".

[Darren Dirt]

Yeah, but where does it end? When do they start putting people on the @%&# list for mentioning competitors or other things that the company doesn't like (such as client mods). I know it's their playground and all that but jeez.

"common" decency has become uncommon. Truly we live in an age where "indecent? you'll know it when you see it!" is actually a pretty good guideline, cuz some stuff so totally crosses the line d'obvious.

[Tom]

From personal experience I have to disagree, I've seen people get ostracised for being jerks on servers for bad behaviour by other players over global chat, the other players will just outright ignore them and either they go away or they start playing properly. Way better than getting a moderator involved, plus you make them feel like crap for being idiots, no waiting for "mommy" to show up and "do something".

Common Trolls will often go away if you ignore them. But some will keep on keepin on no matter what you do.

[Mr. Analog]

There is no such thing as common decency as it turns out that everyone is an individual.

I guess what I'm kind of getting at is people online who have much more direct and constant influx of a wildly extreme spectrum of content learn to tolerate and use self discretion rather than fear things they don't understand.

Then again there are odd ducks that wander the internet with the Sword of Righteousness^TM trying to "clean up all this horrible freedom", but who are they, and what gives them this right?

Common Trolls will often go away if you ignore them. But some will keep on keepin on no matter what you do.

Bullying is for sure something that is a problem but ISN'T solved by banning accounts (new account, continued bullying).

[Tom]

There is no such thing as common decency as it turns out that everyone is an individual.

I guess what I'm kind of getting at is people online who have much more direct and constant influx of a wildly extreme spectrum of content learn to tolerate and use self discretion rather than fear things they don't understand.

Then again there are odd ducks that wander the internet with the Sword of Righteousness^TM trying to "clean up all this horrible freedom", but who are they, and what gives them this right?

They own the servers?

Common Trolls will often go away if you ignore them. But some will keep on keepin on no matter what you do.

Bullying is for sure something that is a problem but ISN'T solved by banning accounts (new account, continued bullying).

I dunno. I just hate having to put up with ass-hats these days. I used to think it was better to just put up with them. But fsck that. I have better things to do. As to the new account thing, they would have to re-buy the game. How often do you think they would buy another copy just to be a dick to someone? And do it over and over as they continue to get banned?