It's not like I pick-pocketed a scroll of fireball and used it to kill Lord Brittish in the final days of beta testing for Ultima Online but at 1 am Friday morning my time I did something quite surprising.
The remarkable feat is that I managed to get my Soul Taker's account temporarily banned for typing his very own name in Bartz Hero chat.
I've been playing with the nature of my main characters name [Censored] for well over a year, screaming some very 'interesting' battle cries in shout at sieges and generally talking nonsense whilst amusing myself and others with my inventiveness and sometimes gutter humour for my chosen name [Censored].
Feel free to disagree with me when I say that game makers who make games with rules for responsible conduct create a natural challenge for imaginative players to want to push and somehow circumvent these rules. New language is created and adopted and despite the good intentions of the game makers, the players generally do whatever makes them happy and L2 is a conflict based game.
I completely agree that what I wrote to get myself banned was obscene. But in my defense the monsters in L2 do try an eat me, Raid Bosses usually eat me because I gloom them and Ernesto's Dark Panther summon (aka Kitty) likes to eat me (the now Hero formerly known as [Censored] ) and I still 100% believe that he should really get that seen too imo. This was an old joke that went too far when it was so casually typed in Hero chat.
What is not amusing for me now, after the long hours I put into building my Soul taker, is that LineageII support staff for all but 1 e-mail have been unresponsive. The 1 brief e-mail confirms that [Censored] account was indeed banned for typing the word [Censored] and offered me the option of renaming my character.
I promtly responded to this e-mail with my 3 name choices and would truly like my name to be changed before the ban on my account is lifted in 24 hrs time. It would also be nice if some of the other questions and concerns I have fired at the support recieve quality answers so as this won't happen again.
To be fair NC does say they have the right to censor obscene names, unfortunately there are too many for them to catch them all in the begining. Kinda sucks for you though.
From my gut feeling, they have to put in these rules to move from a mature to a teen rating and are fully aware that it makes no sense to censor words like "buttcheek" (I miss C1) in a game with dark elven females.
It really sucks for you, but on the other hand, it might have been good to choose a normal name in the first place.
Feel free to disagree with me when I say that game makers who make games with rules for responsible conduct create a natural challenge for imaginative players to want to push and somehow circumvent these rules.
There's a study in human behavior right there. I would say that it it creates a natural challenge for imaginative players who are predisposed to getting around rules and guidlines.
Not everyone thinks this way.
But at least you are taking it well and you have my respect for that. ;)
Oh, you mean like when I wish to mention to someone I'm feeling rather gay, I'll have to use the American English version to inform my surroundings of my jolly mood. Or talking about music, and having a certain spelling of an instrument get censored because children have made it into a disparaging term for a group with differing preferences to their own.
It's all rather ridiculous, really.. Although I myself find the context these terms are used in rather juvenile and indeed boresome, I also find the censorship covering the terms to be prudist. If not censoring language only kids or people with less-developed psyche uses would make the rating of the game go from teen to mature, I'm all for dropping the censorship. Maybe then we'd have less of these "tough guys" running around "pwning" everyone.
Feel free to disagree with me when I say that game makers who make games with rules for responsible conduct create a natural challenge for imaginative players to want to push and somehow circumvent these rules.
If the same people would put the same effort into inventions and labor, we would have colonies out of the solar system by now.
I got absolutely no pity for such people, who actively try to get around the spirit of the rules by following the word to the letter and by actively searching for every possible loophole.
Feel free to disagree with me, but if I were the responsible Gamemaster, your account would not only be temporarily banned. With your name you already showed, that you got absolutely no respect for the rules.
Since you are a "hero" in the game and you have exclusive rights to certain broadcast channels, you should have been more aware of the responsibilites of what you were saying. Sure you may have gone unnoticed as a regular player but once you became a hero and "known", I'm sure the spotlight was right on top of you. People who have power should learn the weight of responsibility that comes with it. Isnt that what spiderman said? heh
Example 1
!Sperm> I am the ultimate zergling .... 1 more time into the breech my brothers
Example 2
%Sperm> I am the Soul Taker Hero .... I will steal your soul and impregnate it with love and carebearness
The 2nd example whilst being highly offensive to many a l33t 17 year old NA male is in fact, like most things I say, completely harmless. I have played L2 for near on 3 years now and this is the 1st and only time I have been banned for any wrong doing. Sperm being a silent killer in pvp. Imo silence being significantly more devastating to some opponents than typing the standard idiotic "PWND!" after a 7v1 gank.
As for choosing a normal name, the name iilliilliilliill is considered a logical and therefore very normal and acceptable name to the 'win at all cost' pvp orientated players of L2. The suggestion that people should endeavour to be normal in a computer game must be a joke right?
I enjoy Ghandi's ideas on rules which involve peaceful civil disobedence. And as for following the lineageII chat rules well they are like all rules arbitrary and could well be considered in direct conflict with the spirit of the bartz game.
Bartz being an anarchist world where if you don't like someone you can stroll over and kill them. Without this element of danger and chaos I would contend that most bartz people wouldn't play. In L2 you can be quite legitamately scammed or KOS'd out the game entirely. And what passes for acceptable player conduct is to a point 100% determined by the dominant clan/alliance of the time and is an ever evolving political struggle of competing interests. Currently it is considered acceptable to endeavour to get your rivals banned through reporting every possible chat violation.
It hasn't always been like this but it seems the more opportunistic players will adapt any rule system if it can be used to hurt the competition. Some disreputable enemies will even orchistrate situations to enrage specific high emotion players in hopes that they might say something they might get banned for. This happened to a high level clan mate of mine when a 1v1 outside of Aden quickly turned into 7v1 when it became clear who was losing. In 1 fight the player not only lost xp but gained the added frustration of being banned for 3 days.
UPDATE
Just to add to the confusion it seems I won't get a name change afterall. My request to change the name I was banned for typing has been denied even the name change was strongly suggested to me in the only real person e-mail I have received >.>
Maybe someone who manages this board can give me more than a 2 sentence insight as where I stand with the Soul Taker I dubiously named Sperm. The ground seems very shakey now that the GM gods have finally censored me.
99% of Bartz population is happy about this ban. Stupid hero chat spammer.
Ah hero chat ... the question is what is it to be used for?
No one actually has to read the nonsense I type so I don't really understand why peeps get so worked up about.
example 1
%Sperm teh evilest villian in the world of L2 is one that can never be defeated.
%Sperm BEWARE TEH VILE LAG MONSTER!
The dominant alliance have openly imposed the idea that it should only be used as Hero buy/sell, group finding and Mammon locations.
But having been gifted the Soul Taker Hero by the very same dominant alliance through their malicious workings of the olympiad system I am not inclined to obey.
My closest rival and friend attempted to compete in the Olympiad when it was only he and 5 members of the dominant alliance signed up to compete. Only 1 of the 5 would fight the Soul Taker Noblese and being on Team Speak together the other 4 would immediately log out whenever the count down started and it was not 1 of their own.
Through this flaw in the Olympiad system any alliance with a large number of noblese can effectively keep all their allotted Hero points in house, feeding them to whomever they please, making the grand Olympiad competition a silly game of just working the numbers.
Consequently my friend and rival Soul Taker got wrecked and demoralised 5 times straight by 1 of the most feared hero's on bartz. And had I not qualified to fight in the final weekends olympiad he would have achieved Hero because he did win 1 fight.
I later fought him twice and defeated him both times but even if he had won the result of who was to become hero was already determined.
NEW UPDATE
The character formerly known as Sperm wil now be known as Spowned. The world is safe once again and I feel better for it.
Then I find the farmer clan on Lionna named ***zi to be offensive, and I want them forced to change thier name. Or better yet, banned. What about the toon a clannie has named RedSnapper? There was a DE female running around named DrippingSlit. And my favorite, fuxxx, the giran shop seller. Policy enforcement should never be this spotty. This is a darn shame.
Still a stupid name. You had the chance to change it and that's the best you could come up with?
No it wasn't the best. It's just what you might say is appropriate in the circumstances. And atleast now there is no confusion about me qualifying for the Special Olympiad.
I'm a bit of a nonconformist myself that have recently been shackled by society's rules both written an implied. I'm sure somewhere down the road someone will take offense to my name but before that happens here's my pre-emptive strike: please look at the new sig ;)
People who try to find ways around the rules are otherwise known as exploiters. They are the worst of society. If people would just stop trying to cheat their way to the top (thus hurting others in the process), the world would be an immensely better place, and EVERYONE would be better off. Not just the top 3% (most of whom were willing to lie, cheat, and steal to get there).
If this were true, we would see a jump in unemployed therapists.
However, as I've said before, the words that are capable of doing such damage can not be filtered by a mechanical filter. They can often be politely dressed up.
If this were true, we would see a jump in unemployed therapists.
However, as I've said before, the words that are capable of doing such damage can not be filtered by a mechanical filter. They can often be politely dressed up.
I'm gonna have disagree. Words cannot hurt people unless they let them. Words themselves are not what hurt, it's the way they are applied to themselves. So it is actually a person merely hurting themselves. If a person cannot relize that they have only themselves to blame.
And yes I know there is alot more to it than this, however, If I am offended by certain words, whose fault is it? In the 1700's the word "Thigh" was offensive, and people purposefully avoided the use of it in any context. Look how far we have come since then.