Rp policy misconceptions
I see them and want to correct them. Because I can. This is kinda a work in progress since it involves reading lots of words.
I saw a non-Rp name reported the other day and reported it, BUT ITS STILL THERE! BLIZZARD ARE DOING NOTHING!!!
Not necessarily.
What constitutes a non-Rp name is not necessarily what the playerbase would like it to be. Things more suited to nicknames consisting of two words or surnames can pass within the policy. Hell, I was told by a GM that Lightsword fits because 'it suits their role' (Character was a paladin). And whilst it does make for a good Sin'dorei surname, the same logic could be applied to naming a mechanic Metalspanner. Do I like the idea of a gnome engineer casually referred to by friends as Metalspanner? Nah, but it's within the rules.
A lot of the names that bother people actually break the usual naming rules as well as the roleplaying ones. You can have a look at them here.
Highly Inappropriate
Names which fall under the following categories are deemed to be highly inappropriate. Clarification on what constitutes each category can be found by clicking on the links below.
This category includes both clear and masked names which:
Moderately Inappropriate
Names which fall under the following categories are deemed to be mildly inappropriate. Clarification on what constitutes each category can be found by clicking on the links below. This category includes both clear and masked names which:
Obviously blatantly ooc names are a no.
If the name falls under any of the above, it is not supposed to be on any sort of realm. Pretty much common sense, but then we get onto the Rp naming policy.
Only applied on the Roleplaying Servers
Names which fall under the following categories are deemed to be mildly inappropriate but only on the Roleplay servers of World of Warcraft. Clarification on what constitutes each category can be found by clicking on the links below.
This category includes:
Now let's see what they define as Immersion-breaking. For them, not us.
Titles
Fantasy titles should be earned through the mechanics of the game (Stuff like 'the Hallowed' and 'Crusader' you can get by PvE'ing a lot), and should not be recreated through character naming. This category includes names which:
So, what does this mean?
And if it breaks the basic naming rules by referencing sexual things, being named after a well-known person irl, nationality, something "obscene and vulgar" (Like going to the bathroom or swearing), racial/ethnicity or violence then its not supposed to be on any kind of realm.
The name doesn't necessarily have to be fitting the naming conventions of the character's race. Their name can be a surname, possibly referencing their race and class if it respects the rules above, possibly in the adjective-noun fashion so that names like Darkhorn for tauren and Lightsword for elves are okay.
Gregory the tauren, Bloodsun the Sin'dorei, Stumpysam the human, that Blood elf with the annoying Japanese-ish name (Though it may conflict with the Have any national connotations rule if you're lucky), Potato the worgen and others aren't really breaking the ToS and reporting them will just be taking up time that can be used on other tickets.
I reported a name that totally broke all of those rules BUT ITS STILL THERE! BLIZZARD ARE DOING NOTHING!
When a character's name is reported the player is given an option to change it, I know this from having a character's name reported before. However, most silly people take this as a reason to go 'Huh, that's odd. Ah well, I'll just change it back to whatever it was before'. If you keep seeing this happening (And if the player came online. See below) then report again, and perhaps note that it was changed back previously by the player. You can suggest that the name be changed permanently to prevent more naming violations by the player, though this is likely up to the GM. Worked for me anyways.
There is also the fact that until that player comes online, unless the GM permanently changed it the name will stay there until they come on to have an option to change it themselves. So try not to get too ticket-happy if you find that name still on your friend's list and the player has been offline since The Burning Crusade.
I reported a griefer and made sure to yell and swear at them in brackets! BLIZZARD ARE DOING NOTHING!
Woooaah there. Engaging in what could be called ' mutual combat' (Link is from a former Blizzard employee and is on a possibly triggering post) can either get you hit for harassment as well or make it so that the GM ignores the situation because you were both as bad as eachother.
Ooc in /say and /yell is still ooc in /say and /yell, regardless of if you use brackets or not it is still against the policy. Also the cool kids look down on it. Don't do it.
The thing about reporting Rp griefing is that you have to ask the offending person to stop griefing first. Its daft but if you don't then the report will be ignored.
If you find another player acting in a manner that contradicts the spirit of the guidelines detailed below, you must first verbally request the offending player to discontinue his/her behavior. If the actions continue after this request, only then should a Game Master (GM) be contacted.
You can find the quote in the third paragraph.
A GM I spoke to says this is not the case and that asking them to stop is merely encouraged, though I would go with 'ask them to stop' just in case. Maybe different GMs could interpret the text differently.
I reported a griefer that ruined my PvP event by ganking everyone! BLIZZARD ARE DOING NOTHING!
Ganking and corpse-camping, whilst a pain in the butt for many, isn't breaking the policy since PvP is a part of the game. However if they are exploiting glitches to do such then you may have some wiggle-room for reporting it.
If you are going to make a PvP Rp event then do not post the date and time it is due for on the forums. Griefers or PvPers sometimes like to use these to their advantage for either easy honour points or annoying people in flimsy Rp gear. Keep it to yourself and those organising it in-game and don't announce the date on the forums. Bring up the date and time with your guests last-minute if possible.
You can try asking them nicely to stop (They aren't obliged to stop however) and if you get an aggressive response, you could always report that or try to chat with an officer in their guild about it by doing a /who search of their guild name when logged on the other faction (Or you can search for the guild on the forums and see who the higher ranks are). It is possible they may not approve of guild members ganking since they could perceive it as reflecting badly on the guild but don't hold your breath.
I reported an explicit Mrp/FlagRSP/other addon and its still there! BLIZZARD ARE DOING NOTHING!
Blizzard have stated they won't be policing addon content (Apart from raking around your RAM files every now and then to check for things such as altering files such as character models). Whilst it would be nice, its something that would be slightly tricky and impractical to do. They can't really see it unless they install the addon (Which may not even work), roll an alt and proceed to run up to the individual and look them over. Perhaps possible, but it would be odd at the least. Either way, its something that is just left to the players using and/or making the addons unless they're altering installation files or something like that. Blizzard didn't make 'em, they don't own them, so they don't do much at the end of the day unless its affecting the things that they made.
But be sure to warn your friends of that violent/gross/Erp alt description anyways.
I saw a non-Rp name reported the other day and reported it, BUT ITS STILL THERE! BLIZZARD ARE DOING NOTHING!!!
Not necessarily.
What constitutes a non-Rp name is not necessarily what the playerbase would like it to be. Things more suited to nicknames consisting of two words or surnames can pass within the policy. Hell, I was told by a GM that Lightsword fits because 'it suits their role' (Character was a paladin). And whilst it does make for a good Sin'dorei surname, the same logic could be applied to naming a mechanic Metalspanner. Do I like the idea of a gnome engineer casually referred to by friends as Metalspanner? Nah, but it's within the rules.
A lot of the names that bother people actually break the usual naming rules as well as the roleplaying ones. You can have a look at them here.
Highly Inappropriate
Names which fall under the following categories are deemed to be highly inappropriate. Clarification on what constitutes each category can be found by clicking on the links below.
This category includes both clear and masked names which:
- Have any racial/ethnic connotations
- Have any national connotations
- Refer to any aspect of sexual orientation pertaining to themselves or other players
Moderately Inappropriate
Names which fall under the following categories are deemed to be mildly inappropriate. Clarification on what constitutes each category can be found by clicking on the links below. This category includes both clear and masked names which:
- Are mildly inappropriate references to human anatomy or bodily functions
- Are otherwise considered objectionable
- Are illness/disease names (Cancer, Tetanus, etc)
- Insultingly refer to other characters, players, Blizzard employees, or groups of people, be they in the game or external
- Any non-beneficial, non-WoW related businesses, organizations, or websites
- Trademarks (Does not apply to locations and regions within World of Warcraft for Guild Names).
- Are trademarked/licensed by a company or an individual
- Are trademarked/licensed by Blizzard Entertainment (does not apply to Guild names when it refers to locations and regions within World of Warcraft)
- Include names of World of Warcraft realms or names of major characters or factions from Warcraft lore (does not apply to Guild names when it refers to locations and regions within World of Warcraft)
- Pure Gibberish (Does not apply to Guild Names)
- Titles (Does not apply to Guild or Pet Names)
Obviously blatantly ooc names are a no.
If the name falls under any of the above, it is not supposed to be on any sort of realm. Pretty much common sense, but then we get onto the Rp naming policy.
Only applied on the Roleplaying Servers
Names which fall under the following categories are deemed to be mildly inappropriate but only on the Roleplay servers of World of Warcraft. Clarification on what constitutes each category can be found by clicking on the links below.
- Partial or Complete Sentences (Does not apply to Guild Names)
- Real World References
- Contain "Leet" or "Dudespeak"
- Immersion breaking titles
This category includes:
- Any Non-Medieval or Non-Fantasy names (i.e. Microwave, Nuclearotron, Softwareman)
- All normal naming rules and the specific Roleplay naming rules.
Now let's see what they define as Immersion-breaking. For them, not us.
Titles
Fantasy titles should be earned through the mechanics of the game (Stuff like 'the Hallowed' and 'Crusader' you can get by PvE'ing a lot), and should not be recreated through character naming. This category includes names which:
- Consist of any title prefix or suffix attached to a character's name be it fantasy-based or not (i.e. Privatemike, Centurionsanchez, Knightpopatoe)
- Break the game immersion on the Roleplay servers (i.e. Masteroftheworld
So, what does this mean?
- You can't stick their occupation or title (Such as Lady, Lord, King, Master, Squirrelslayer, Hand of A'dal, Guard etc) in their name.
- Nor can it be a sentence or a partial one.
- Your character's name cannot be making dubious claims to be the most powerful person ever or have ownership over something.
- It cannot reference something from offline.
- You also cannot mash their surname and first name together since that likely conflicts with Consist of any title prefix or suffix attached to a character's name be it fantasy-based or not.
- You cannot name them something that is copyrighted to Blizzard, such as a place within WoW, a realm name, a faction name or a major lore character name (Elwynn, Thrall, Worldofwarcraft, Argentdawn).
- They cannot name themselves after an irl piece of technology/science (Nuclear, robots).
- They can't have a non-medieval or non-fantasy name (Whatever that means).
And if it breaks the basic naming rules by referencing sexual things, being named after a well-known person irl, nationality, something "obscene and vulgar" (Like going to the bathroom or swearing), racial/ethnicity or violence then its not supposed to be on any kind of realm.
The name doesn't necessarily have to be fitting the naming conventions of the character's race. Their name can be a surname, possibly referencing their race and class if it respects the rules above, possibly in the adjective-noun fashion so that names like Darkhorn for tauren and Lightsword for elves are okay.
Gregory the tauren, Bloodsun the Sin'dorei, Stumpysam the human, that Blood elf with the annoying Japanese-ish name (Though it may conflict with the Have any national connotations rule if you're lucky), Potato the worgen and others aren't really breaking the ToS and reporting them will just be taking up time that can be used on other tickets.
I reported a name that totally broke all of those rules BUT ITS STILL THERE! BLIZZARD ARE DOING NOTHING!
When a character's name is reported the player is given an option to change it, I know this from having a character's name reported before. However, most silly people take this as a reason to go 'Huh, that's odd. Ah well, I'll just change it back to whatever it was before'. If you keep seeing this happening (And if the player came online. See below) then report again, and perhaps note that it was changed back previously by the player. You can suggest that the name be changed permanently to prevent more naming violations by the player, though this is likely up to the GM. Worked for me anyways.
There is also the fact that until that player comes online, unless the GM permanently changed it the name will stay there until they come on to have an option to change it themselves. So try not to get too ticket-happy if you find that name still on your friend's list and the player has been offline since The Burning Crusade.
I reported a griefer and made sure to yell and swear at them in brackets! BLIZZARD ARE DOING NOTHING!
Woooaah there. Engaging in what could be called ' mutual combat' (Link is from a former Blizzard employee and is on a possibly triggering post) can either get you hit for harassment as well or make it so that the GM ignores the situation because you were both as bad as eachother.
Ooc in /say and /yell is still ooc in /say and /yell, regardless of if you use brackets or not it is still against the policy. Also the cool kids look down on it. Don't do it.
The thing about reporting Rp griefing is that you have to ask the offending person to stop griefing first. Its daft but if you don't then the report will be ignored.
If you find another player acting in a manner that contradicts the spirit of the guidelines detailed below, you must first verbally request the offending player to discontinue his/her behavior. If the actions continue after this request, only then should a Game Master (GM) be contacted.
You can find the quote in the third paragraph.
A GM I spoke to says this is not the case and that asking them to stop is merely encouraged, though I would go with 'ask them to stop' just in case. Maybe different GMs could interpret the text differently.
I reported a griefer that ruined my PvP event by ganking everyone! BLIZZARD ARE DOING NOTHING!
Ganking and corpse-camping, whilst a pain in the butt for many, isn't breaking the policy since PvP is a part of the game. However if they are exploiting glitches to do such then you may have some wiggle-room for reporting it.
If you are going to make a PvP Rp event then do not post the date and time it is due for on the forums. Griefers or PvPers sometimes like to use these to their advantage for either easy honour points or annoying people in flimsy Rp gear. Keep it to yourself and those organising it in-game and don't announce the date on the forums. Bring up the date and time with your guests last-minute if possible.
You can try asking them nicely to stop (They aren't obliged to stop however) and if you get an aggressive response, you could always report that or try to chat with an officer in their guild about it by doing a /who search of their guild name when logged on the other faction (Or you can search for the guild on the forums and see who the higher ranks are). It is possible they may not approve of guild members ganking since they could perceive it as reflecting badly on the guild but don't hold your breath.
I reported an explicit Mrp/FlagRSP/other addon and its still there! BLIZZARD ARE DOING NOTHING!
Blizzard have stated they won't be policing addon content (Apart from raking around your RAM files every now and then to check for things such as altering files such as character models). Whilst it would be nice, its something that would be slightly tricky and impractical to do. They can't really see it unless they install the addon (Which may not even work), roll an alt and proceed to run up to the individual and look them over. Perhaps possible, but it would be odd at the least. Either way, its something that is just left to the players using and/or making the addons unless they're altering installation files or something like that. Blizzard didn't make 'em, they don't own them, so they don't do much at the end of the day unless its affecting the things that they made.
But be sure to warn your friends of that violent/gross/Erp alt description anyways.