(Disclaimer: This post deals with player inappropriateness and the very uncomfortable subject of bigotry in all forms, and will contain more than a few offensive terms and words in regards to things I have witnessed in game. Please understand that I am against bigotry, but in the interest of clarifications, these terms will not be censored.)
I know a lot of us have had this problem in some form or another. You’re puttering around Stormwind or Orgrimmar going about your business when you happen to see something on your screen that makes you do a double take. Something someone said in General or Trade Chat made you wonder just what was going on, or maybe you spotted the name of a character or hunter pet that made you slow down and say, “Hold on a second, here. Did I just see what I thought I saw?” So you turn to check again, and sure enough, there sits a Worgen Hunter with a wolf pet named Jewbiter. Or a Dwarf Paladin named Mikehunt (if you’re confused about this one, say it out loud really fast). I’m not making these up – these are people I’ve actually reported before.
In days past, you would be able to click the trusty red question mark in your UI, open up a ticket, and file it with the GMs so that it would be looked at. You’d receive a nice little in-game message that showed that it was responded to and being investigated. In the case of Mikehunt, I added him to my friends list to make sure that the name was changed, and if not, I could report him again later (I had to report him several more times for other versions of the same name, until he finally received a final warning, I suspect, and changed his name to something more appropriate). With Jewbiter, however, you just had to make your report and hope that it would be resolved. Not the greatest option, but for me, it was enough. The in-game mail response at least indicated that it was being investigated, and in my experience, turnaround time on these issues was typically within a day or two.
The new system doesn’t work in the same way, and in some cases, it’s a little bit better and more user-friendly. The option for making a report on bad player names, bad pet names, bad guild names, or unacceptable language in chat is now reduced to a click-to-report option. Right-click the character portrait or character name in chat, choose “report player,” and the UI comes up. Now, the UI for this feature is great. You can choose one of four radio buttons: Bad Player Name, Bad Guild Name, Language, and Cheating ; add in a short description of the incident in the provided text box, and that’s that. Report finished.
On paper, it looks like the perfect way to manage these reports. No more having to remember what a character name is, or figuring out just what alt code you need to get that umlauted u. I don’t get updates from Blizzard anymore to say, “Hey, we got your report and we’re gonna look into it. In the meantime, have a Pudding Pop,” but when this feature was first released, I could live with it. They’ve done right by me in the past, so no big deal.
Then something went wrong.
Back on Azgalor-US, I was running through Stormwind one day on my hunter. I happened to run by the blacksmith’s area and ran past a Worgen Warrior rocking the DS5 instance plate armor. That armor looked pretty good! So, like any fledgling transmogger (damn you Rades and Rhuan) wanting to check it out and see what it would look like on a Draenei, I clicked his name and did a double take.
Ibitanegar.
I was shocked. That’s not even skirting the line of racism, that’s taking the running long jump right into I-dare-you-to-ban-me-ville. So I brought it up in guild chat. Encouraged everyone to report him, and filed a player name report myself. Added him to the friends list to keep an eye on the name change, and went about my day. In my heart I knew it would get handled; Blizzard would bring down the hammer.
The next day, I logged in and saw no change. No big deal, I thought, it’s probably backed up in the system, but I filed another report anyway. The day after that, no change. No big deal, I thought again, it’s probably backed up in the system. I filed another report anyway. I was away from my computer for a few days after that, working on my D&D/novel project, so I wasn’t able to check in to see if there was a change. However, I’m sure you can imagine my surprise and confusion when, a week after my initial report, I logged in to find that Ibitanegar was still on my friends list. I reported him again. I encouraged others to do the same. I mentioned it in guild chat. Standard operating procedure, right?
A week later, after reporting daily, Ibitanegar was still on my friends list. Alright, follow standard operating procedure. Report, encourage. Report. Encourage. Report. Encourage. It was then that some people in my guild mentioned that they couldn’t report him without being able to click him or his name. So, after forming a group with everyone who wanted to report him but couldn’t because they weren’t in Stormwind, I used HGWT to bring them to his position (and I’m sure if he was at his computer, he was confused as to why half a dozen people just teleported in on him, but I digress). Reports were made, and I went on about my business.
On one occasion, I decided to see what would happen if I were to use the old way of reporting. Choosing the “report a player” option simply gave instructions on the click-to-report procedure, but what about another method? I sent in a complaint through the original system, indicating that my numerous reports on the new system had gone unanswered, and that this player name was something that should be addressed. I received a wonderfully copy-pasted response detailing that all player reports must use the new click-to-report procedure, and no escalation option. Glorious. (Note at this time that I didn’t use any of the reporting options on Battle.net. Why? Because until the time of this writing and discussions with Rades, I forgot they even existed.)
More than a month after my initial report, Ibitanegar was still unchanged. I was absolutely baffled. I could not understand why a racial slur of this magnitude was allowed or just glossed over.
Some time later on Twitter, Blizzard posted this:
And I responded:
A few hours went by without a response, and I logged off for the day. I got up the next morning to see an update in my twitter feed, a response from Blizzard:
My jaw dropped. Are you KIDDING me? “The atmosphere on a realm is determined by its population.” My problem with this response is two-fold. In the first place, it doesn’t explain WHY they would allow a name such as this to persist, and second, does this mean they’re okay with a racial slur as a name so long as everyone else on the server is fine with it? I responded to this utter ridiculousness, only partially addressing the requirement of having to click to report:
Now, I’ve seen @BlizzardCS respond to tweets they’ve received about people having problems and questions on tickets and so on. Not once did I ever receive a follow-up from them on this for more clarification, and I’ve been grinding my teeth about this whole event since it happened. It’s been almost two months since my initial reporting, and Ibitanegar is still playing his happy little racist heart out on Azgalor-US, but I’m no longer there to continue reporting him.
This ties in neatly with the post made by Stubborn  where their letter to Blizzard about votekicking says:
“I understand your secretive punitive measures that are to “protect customer’s privacy.”  Fine.  Those of us who are actually trying to maintain some semblance of civil community are constantly frustrated by it because one job of a justice system is deterrence, which can’t happen if justice takes place in secret, but fine.  Okay.  However, when the one tool we’re given where we can see swift and cold justice happen is gimped in such a way as to make it unusable, it calls into question your own stand on bad player behavior.”
My problem with the reporting feature is the SAME THING, but on a much more potentially damaging scale. Blizzard has given us a tool in order to help “police the community,” as Stubborn indicates, but barring one tweet from @BlizzardCS which is removed from the original issue, I’ve seen no results. On top of that, it feels to me as though that the customer service department is suggesting that if I’m the only person who has reported it (I know that I’m not), then it’s not important enough for them to investigate. Maybe I’m reading too much into that, but I’m not sure what else I’m supposed to take away from “The atmosphere on a realm is determined by its population” other than a casual dismissal.
Clearly, this isn’t working. So how do we fix the system? Honestly, click-to-report is a great feature. What’s not great is that it is the ONLY way to report. You might be able to get around distance restrictions by doing some fancy target-of-target work, but if you’re reporting in Stormwind and your guildmates are in Felwood, that’s just not possible. This requires the person in Felwood to come all the way back to Stormwind to report cases like this, and why in the HELL are the ones who are following the rules the ones who have to be inconvenienced in order to police their own community? I know that Blizzard doesn’t make public how many people they have in their GM system, so I know that some of the issue has to be with the sheer ratio of reports to personnel, but there HAS to be a better way.
Changes that I think would make this system run a little better:
- More options than click-to-report, OR make it so that you can /who [name] and click to report from the /who window. Being half a world away unable to report something your friend or guildmate mentions automatically forces you into a silent majority. I know Blizzard wants us all to use their shiny system, but if part of the system is broken, responding to “it doesn’t work” with “use it anyway” is flawed.
- Reports about bad character/guild names must be treated with the same level of concern as you would over someone reporting a hate crime. It might be something that severe, anyway.
- Reports about language must be treated with a high level of concern, though honestly, I’m less worried about someone saying “fuck” where a kid might see it than I am about them being exposed to racist views. I’ve personally witnessed other players talking about the “gook delivery driver” that just brought them take-out in general chat, or that some “goddamned Jew” ripped them off in trade. Put the four-letter words (or others like them) on the back burner, and address the racism first. I’m not saying the language is any less valid a complaint, but as a personal opinion, I think racism is much more damaging to the community than a rampant swear word.
- Implement and maintain a zero tolerance policy for racism. I’m sorry, but if I were on Blizzard’s GM squad, I’d be pushing for automatic perma-bans on anyone spouting off racist remarks or offensive names. I know there’s a bottom line to consider here, but what would you prefer? Banning one racist and scaring another ten into line, or letting one racist run rampant and losing ten paying player accounts because you’re not heading this behavior off at the pass?
- More escalation options in-game. It’s too easy to forget that there are other reporting options outside of the game world (I have a pretty good memory, and *I* forgot). Also, getting an automated response from a filter-based servicebot with no way to actually talk to a human being doesn’t contribute to the betterment of the community.
In closing, I’d like to point out that I’m not some raving censor out to quell every little thing that people do wrong. If someone swears in a public channel, I’ll let it go. I swear to express frustration or disbelief, and I’m not about to tell someone they can’t get a word in for emphasis if they really need to. However, if they’re on a major rant-bender where every other word requires an eye-covering of any nearby child, then I warrant it necessary to report it.
But this isn’t the 1800s anymore. It’s not even the 1900s. Any racism, even casual racism, confuses and upsets me a great deal. I just can’t wrap my brain around a blanket hatred of a group of people because of the color of their skin or a stereotype. Beyond that, though, I think what I’m shocked at most was how this whole situation was handled. Not once was I contacted for further information; not from in-game chat, not from in-game mail, not from @BlizzardCS after a half-hearted “show some server solidarity – power to the people” response. After two months, it makes me feel like my concerns for keeping up a good community were just swept under the rug.
Dear Pix Ex,
Yes, it’s become clear to me that Blizzard really doesn’t give a hoot, and to be frank, that is either a reflection of the players, or the players have come to reflect that attitude. In the post I put on the forums, about 66% of responses indicated that I was the problem, not the system; that I was somehow abusing other players with my vote to kick powers because I wouldn’t tolerate their bad behavior.
The community has been long-suffering, to be honest, and I think probably this “every-man-for-himself” /ignore culture is a result of it. When you never see any good done by the authority, you eventually either become apathetic towards the way things are or become a part of the problem so as to fit in. Consider what you see in every post-apocalyptic or dystopian story. You have a single unlikely hero struggling against the unfair autocracy, bandits of some kind, and the apathy of others. It’s a pretty close comparison, actually, now that I put it like that.
Anyway, keep fighting the good fight. I’m sure we’re probably just bashing our heads against the wall, but at least I can sleep at night.
Sincerely,
Stubborn
The only possible reason I can see that this wouldn’t be followed through with is that after a quick search is that “negar” is the Persian (feminine) word/name for Sweetheart.
Sadly no one has yet invented a method to detect intent through the internet (or the account owners race etc) there is no reasonable way to determine if they mean “I bit a sweetheart” or “I bit a niger”.
To be clear, I despise racism. Because you know, it looks like I’m defending it here a bit. Which I’m not. This likely case is that it is racist, but can we jump to that conclusion?
What if the person behind the screen is a Persian? 9 times out of 10 when you find a name like this it won’t be, but that 1 time out of 10 you’ve just told someone that they can’t use a Persian word, which could be considered racist in itself?
(This doesn’t even get onto the modern day use of the word “niger” by african americans, and the social and political ramifications of that, is it a word they use to demean themselves? Is it a word they have taken, owned, and reworked (thus not racist) or what? Intent is a tricky thing) (not to mention, should we really be using fear of bans to “control” racists? I’d much rather prefer to take a educative approach, but this is side tracing into the philosophical side of this)
Anyway, this comment is getting away from me, so I’ll end it now. What I wanted to get accross can probably be summed up in one sentence.
This could be innocent, so can blizzards GMs act on a “It probably is racism”?
@Stubborn – It makes me wonder how this game would have turned out if the communications were more like EverQuest. In that game, the community WAS the driving force and sorted out all asshattery without having to drag the company into it. Suffice to say, when servers were just servers (and not the interlaced amalgamation they all are now), it was a lot easier to make others on the server aware of bad activities, and those responsible for committing said acts either shaped up or quickly found themselves without groups/guilds.
@Velidra – I will agree that an educative approach would be a better line to take. I also agree that there is a measure of racism in forcing a name change when the name involves a word from a foreign language, but in the sense of greater community impact, there has to be some kind of line drawn as to what can and can’t be allowed to occur. I would certainly sympathize with the Persian player who wants to use their language in a character name, but would suggest instead that they use something that isn’t going to spark an issue like this.
In a less-severe example, let’s say that I’m playing in a German MMO, and I happen to be playing a race that is something akin to a golem. I’m an American, and a bit of a rock nut, and I opt to name my character Schist. To me, it’s an innocuous name. To the German, it’s pretty close to a swear word. While not worthy of a ban (and if Ibitanegar’s name is derived from Persian as you suggest, neither is theirs), it still warrants an encounter with a GM who can ask for the origins of the name, and then instruct them that it could be deemed offensive, and warrants a name change.
I won’t go into my views on your final example re: african americans here, since it’s not really related to the post, but would like to get your opinion on my views with such things. I believe we’re connected on Twitter – I’ll follow up with you there.
Thanks for the comments, you two.
To tell you the truth I didn’t quite get the name at first because I didn’t have the pronunciation right. After I did I was a bit shocked it wasn’t banned – lesser names get banned than that.
I also abhor racism and if Velidra was right, then maybe it wasn’t a racial slur… which is why it hadn’t been banned, then perhaps that would explain it.
And by the way, those fanpics of the draenei DK is amazing.
Well, as it turns out, the name WAS finally changed. Nevertheless, it was intact for a few weeks before the player went offline for over a month, at which point I assume they returned to find a forced namechange waiting for them.
Still, that was way too long.
Glad you like the art! The work was done by Baenhoof (aka Karnokoto on DeviantArt), and features my warrior, Lelissa, in all her badassery. ^_^
Baen *did* do bust art of my Death Knight, Malyss – if you’re interested in seeing that sometime, let me know.
@Velidra: I think this is a non-issue, though I definitely see what you’re implying. The fact is, it’s a US English server and this is the metric used when they judge the banning of ANY other name choice. Negar, in this case, is no different. Their policies are based on US English and all cultural references there of.
I’ve never trusted their reporting system, though you seem to have had some confidence in it before this incident. The first time I reported something (it was very, very long ago and I havent the slightest what it was) and I got the response of “we’re handling it” I was severely disappointed. I didn’t see justice happen. I saw a company placate me, and I thought it was highly likely they did the same for the accused. I always say, when money’s involved the benefactor’s sole interest is the money. In this case, I suspect most reporting goes unanswered, ignored, or unprosecuted.
I think Stubborn has some good points, though. The kind of community the game has been breeding in recent years is a direct product of company policy and game design. Which is to say, I feel sure these kinds of things aren’t considered a serious problem. Theres a kind of apathy about the entire system. Just look at the flippant and “you’re stupid, but …” responses the many CMs and designers give to players on the forums — despite some probable good intent. They have the community they deserve and it’s really chased off those who would have continued to bring positivity to it.
Which brings me to my final comment on this: community policing. The problem with WoW and all other MMOs in this regard is that policing is, as a company policy, up to the support. That is, support doesn’t want players solving problems, they prefer players just report it. This contributes to apathy. If the company is telling the player they have no responsibility in governing their community, thus calling for an investment in it’s quality, it breeds apathy. The player isn’t encouraged to do anything *but* report. This also has the unfortunate effect of bad behavior getting an exclusive spotlight, because there are no community mechanisms to highlight good behavior. And this is due in large part to the players being asked to participate only as reporters as their communities quality gets decided by a team of CS reps.