Banned from Guild Wars 2? ArenaNet tells you why

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When Michelle isn't saving the world from Galactus' insatiable appetite, she likes to while away the hours writing about e-readers, video games, apps and films for CNET Australia.

Guild Wars 2 (GW2) hasn't even been out for 48 hours yet, but the bans are already coming in. Developer ArenaNet has taken to Reddit to explain to users that their racism and homophobia will not be tolerated.

(Credit: CBSi)

If you've been banned from Guild Wars 2 and want to know why, ArenaNet is here to clear it up. In a thread posted to the Guild Wars 2 subreddit, it has offered users a chance to hear an explanation.

User ArenaNetSupportTeam said in the post:

We want to clear up some of the confusion about GW2 name and behaviour suspensions. To keep Guild Wars 2 a pleasant place to be, we take action against racist names, hate speech and other unacceptable behaviour. We have suspended some accounts involved in the use of offensive character names or inappropriate chat. The number of account blocks is miniscule: less than .001 per cent of our total player base.

Users only have to post their character name or a chat, and the team offers an explanation as to why their ban occurred — and boy howdy, are some of them doozies of awfulness.

One user, by the character name of "lol", was told, "Name: OK. Chat — Not Ok: 'This isn't Africa, you don't adopt black kids'."

Another, "Chat: Not OK — Neurologic: 'the worm IS f**king hard if you're a f**king mentalpatient no we f**king dont you can take a keep with 5 people if you're not a f**king d**khead'."

Another, "Chat: Not ok — 'leave faggots the griffin is mine fa ggots'."

Another, "Chat: Not ok — 'i AM A DOG YOU NIGGER'."

For minority gamers, it's a thing of beauty, and absolutely encouraging that a game's administration is taking definitive steps towards making its environment comfortable and inclusive. We can only applaud ArenaNet for its policies — and for actually enforcing them in an effective manner.

Interestingly, though, many of the bans are through no fault of the player — already, gold sellers are hacking into accounts and ArenaNet is shutting them down quickly, in order to minimise the damage. If you think you may have been hacked, you can contact Guild Wars 2 support here for help.

Thanks, Chris!

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Rolloxan posted a comment   
Australia

I love Guild Wars (2) and the ArenaNet staff. In my experience the only players using language like that are young kids trolling for the lawlz. There's no point their account stay open anyway. Anonymity of a character avatar doesn't give you free license to be a douche bag.

 

LindseyT posted a comment   

Who is this guy? He doesn't even know what phishing is

 

LindseyT posted a comment   

since when is it not a player's fault when their account gets hacked? Learn some damn security measures.

 

EdmundusV posted a comment   

another reason to not play guild wars 2. no freedom of speech! if a user is offended by something else another user said, then just block them! simple enough.

 

jjjjohnny posted a reply   
Australia

Why should a private company let you make bigoted, offensive statements on their space?

Freedom of speech states that the government shall not infringe on your right to say what you want, it does not say that any private company needs to give you the forum to do so.

 

SotaroS posted a reply   

I agree. Not to mention if the company _didn't_ act on users making racist or otherwise discriminatory statements on their game servers, the company could be placed in an actionable position.

 

ThomasM3 posted a reply   

Freedom of speech is no reason to get on like a simple minded bigot. It is unacceptable in real life so why would it be acceptable in a game.

 

RobertJ1 posted a reply   

Your "Freedom" ends when it damages someone else's freedom so many free-speech advocates completely fail to grasp that concept.




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