Blizzard naming policy too harsh?

[Deleted]

Hey everyone!

One of my guildies was recently contacted by a GM about a character name "Pollon". Apparently it's in violation of the Naming Policy, because in Spanish slang it means "big dick". The "owner" of the character is an Italian person on an English speaking realm. Furthermore, the name was taken from a 30 year old cartoon for kids (it's even doubtful whether it constitutes pop culture at this point).

The GM handling the case showed zero flexibility, and in fact in two very cold messages made it clear that the decision will not be overturned, regardless of all the evidence supporting my guildie's case. It's probably worth mentioning there are well over 100 characters on EU and US realms with the same name.

The person has been a customer for the past 9 years, which is how long the character in question existed. In that time no one was bothered by the name. It was pointed out that name reporting might have been a retaliatory action by someone seeking vengeance for something that might have happened in PvP (which is a relatively new activity for the person).

What do you guys think? Did the GM drop the ball in this case? Was the decision to force rename justified?

Thanks for your feedback!

W

[Zvinny]

Hey everyone!

One of my guildies was recently contacted by a GM about a character name "Pollon". Apparently it's in violation of the Naming Policy, because in Spanish slang it means "big dick". The "owner" of the character is an Italian person on an English speaking realm. Furthermore, the name was taken from a 30 year old cartoon for kids (it's even doubtful whether it constitutes pop culture at this point).

The GM handling the case showed zero flexibility, and in fact in two very cold messages made it clear that the decision will not be overturned, regardless of all the evidence supporting my guildie's case. It's probably worth mentioning there are well over 100 characters on EU and US realms with the same name.

The person has been a customer for the past 9 years, which is how long the character in question existed. In that time no one was bothered by the name. It was pointed out that name reporting might have been a retaliatory action by someone seeking vengeance for something that might have happened in PvP (which is a relatively new activity for the person).

What do you guys think? Did the GM drop the ball in this case? Was the decision to force rename justified?

Thanks for your feedback!

W

The naming restrictions can be stupid in many cases. I had a human warrior named Garrosh, who I made in Vanilla, before anyone had ever heard of Garrosh Hellscream. Yet in Cataclysm I was forced to change it, since I "copied" it from an NPC.

[Jaspias]

ive had PLENTY of garroshs in my groups. so many different spellings and symbols...

[Belize]

ive had PLENTY of garroshs in my groups. so many different spellings and symbols...

XxArthasDKxX.

[Deleted]

If it wasn't a spanish server, the guy had no case.

You should contact customer support.

[talann]

If they let the name Pollon slide, what else should they let slide. If I wanted my character to be named weirdlordbonerhitler would that be acceptable?

Personally, I think Blizzard could alleviate the name change problem if they would allow spaces. If my character could have a first and last name, I would be a lot happier person.

[Redpanda]

XxArthasDKxX.

nah its all about sepHiRothXOlol. i unno blizz's naming policies are weird. reticket it and see

[Deleted]

I think you are exaggerating there Talann. There are several thousand languages in the world, and for all you know your own name (for example) could mean just about anything.

I would agree with you if it was an obvious case such as you mentioned, for example, but it isn't.

[Denkou]

Don't most forced name changes come about because a player has reported your name as offensive or whatever?

Mostly, yeah. If no one reports your name, Blizzard likely will never care or notice.

[Asiel]

Forced renames are based on reports directed at that character. Someone found it offensive and reported your friend. Whether that friend was aware of the meaning in another language or not (honesty is not the internet's strong suit, by the way), it violated the naming policy - which really isn't that bad in the first place and is WORSE on RP servers where an immersion-breaking name such as Xxreaperxx can be reported and force-changed.

The GM was doing his job and did it correctly. It isn't any sort of decision on his part so don't blame him. Or her.

[Deleted]

Don't most forced name changes come about because a player has reported your name as offensive or whatever?

As I said, in Spanish slang it means "big dick".

Interesting that even some Spanish people who chimed in weren't aware of the meaning. Could be due to the fact that it's spelled differently.

[Blueshield]

I post it also here, as I did on the Blizzard Forums


As guild master of Prelude, the guild Pollon is a valuable officer and beloved member, I would like to add my thoughts.

As of early 2007 there are 6,912 known living human languages according to wikipedia. Ideally any word potentially have a "rather inappropriate" meaning in a random language in the world.

For instance a char named "CinCin" would be kinda inappropriate in Japan, Lumia (the nokia phone) means Bi##h in spanish, Siri (the iPhone digital assistant) means D##k in Georgian... I think one could go on forever.

With such a policy (or better, with this blind/strict interpretation of the policies) how are we, as Blizzard customers, supposed to choose our char name being sure it will not be considered inappropriate ?

As manager in my (real life) company, I fully understand the importance of having policies and being strict on them.
Policies are needed, among other things, in order to make sure everyone will have a fair and equal treatment and that for everyone is crystal clear what is allowed and what is not.

What Blizzard is actually making happens with the current case is:

- Customers will never be able to know in advance if a name is allowed or not (since nobody is supposed to know 6,912 known living human languages)

- Customers which will have their char reported for name, will be forced to change it while customers which will not receive a report for the same name will still be able to use it (as it shows the > 120 chars named Pollon on the armory)

which is exactly the opposite of what policies are meant to be.

[madmanx]

...so this is where my 15 bucks a month goes.

[wych]

As I said, in Spanish slang it means "big dick".

Interesting that even some Spanish people who chimed in weren't aware of the meaning. Could be due to the fact that it's spelled differently.

That's just crazy.


There's so many different slangs, dialects and languages in the world that you could probably find a very large number of names could be offensive.


Sad that GMs are spending their time doing this bullshit whilst people wait long times for genuine issues.

[Zka]

Quite the opposite. It's not harsh enough and it's not enforced well. I mean when someone gets forced to namechange his Copkiller, all characters with such name (at least on all english servers) should be forced too, and the name should land on a banned name list that is enforced during char creation/renaming.

[wych]

Quite the opposite. It's not harsh enough and it's not enforced well. I mean when someone gets forced to namechange his Copkiller, all characters with such name (at least on all english servers) should be forced too, and the name should land on a banned name list that is enforced during char creation/renaming.

Right, and what if in Swahili Zka was slang for "penis" or "rape" and the next 10 names you chosen as well were offensive dialect in other random places. It's just a stupid rule

[Hyve]

I've had a fair few of my names reported in the past for stupid reasons, and normally if you contact a Game Master and explain they're quite accommodating. If it's reported and they think it's blatantly abusive, or an attempt to bypass the naming rules, that's one thing, but otherwise they might be able to help.

My old guild name was Nutz on a RPPvP Server and one of the guilds who hated us mass reported the name as it was against RP Naming Rules. We got renamed to Guild of Aimil (Guild Masters name), and we obviously were not happy with that! We open tickets, wanting an explanation and gave them information that made it clear the other guild had played the Game Masters for fools ...

A few days later, logged on and we're back to Nutz. Just make a decent case for your name, and explain the situation.

[Slavemaker]

I had Slavemaker since BC until near the end of wrath and it got reported because I did something stupid that broke other rules, but that got it reported and changed..

It upset me because I had that forever and that's who I was, I'm a different identity now I suppose but yeah, technically it WAS against the rules because I named it after the Nerubian Slavemaker (which was removed from the game in BC) but I loved that crossbow.

So it was within reason... but I doubt that's what it was reported for, I still feel it was a very fitting name for the Warcraft lore, despite it being a Shaman but still, oh well.

[talann]

I think you are exaggerating there Talann. There are several thousand languages in the world, and for all you know your own name (for example) could mean just about anything.

I would agree with you if it was an obvious case such as you mentioned, for example, but it isn't.

To you it is not an obvious case. But the OP brought up the name, did the research (or the research was done for them) to find out that in a language it was offensive. So even though it may have been his go to name, he is going to have to change it.
I don't agree that he should have to change his name, But I can see why it was flagged given the circumstance. Because the game is T for teen and not M for mature, Blizzard has more power in this situation. They tend to side with the victim rather than the offender because it is typically easier to resolve the situation than to try to explain to the flagged person why they are an idiot for flagging his name (which they never would in the first place).

[Zka]

Right, and what if in Swahili Zka was slang for "penis" or "rape" and the next 10 names you chosen as well were offensive dialect in other random places. It's just a stupid rule

The rule is okay, false reports are not okay. This is a heroic fantasy game, some names just don't match the setting and ruin the immersion. It's fairly subjective, but there is no reason to allow 150 Copkillers to exist while another 20 have been forced to change name one by one, through tickets. That's just a waste of work.