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How to report an MMORPG?
Cyraneternal
Member Posts: 5
I know this might not be the right place but felt like trying anyhow.
So I recently started playing DDO. Just a few days ago I paid to upgrade it to VIP ($15.00) and earlier in general chat I said the s word amongst other words that are considered of lesser severity. Without warning I'm slapped with a 7 day ban.
Now, I left them an email and they have yet to respond but if they don't either refund me the money or unban me I'm wondering what measures could be taken. I AM paying for this so I'd like to be able to play the game
I would also like that moderators learned some common sense. You have a profanity filter there for a reason. I dealt with this before from WoW where I got banned for 2 days for saying stfu because the f stood for a curse word and it was harassing someone (I said it in response to someone spamming hoodeeeeneeee over and over) but again, why profanity is banned when it's OPTIONAL to look at is beyond me. and seriously, 7 days ban?
Comments
Don't cuss. It's always innapropriate. You can use the next 7 days to think of more intelligent and creative ways to express your anger, or learn some new words.
Also you can't "report" a MMO because they banned you. I suppose you could go get a lawyer to laugh at you?
Well, to answer your question, you really can't report it. I can almost guarantee it states in their Terms of Use (One of those big blocks of texts you "agree" to at the beginning of a game) that profanity is not allowed in the game, and you may be banned from the game for cursing.
Seven days does seem quite harsh, and I completely support your emailing them and trying to get that reduced. The reality of the situation, though, is that they have every right to ban you for breaking their Terms of Use Policy, without refund. They should want to keep your business, and might give you a break in order to keep it, but all in all, it's up to them.
Gotta agree here, in the old days we'd kick people out of communities for continued rude behavior, as players not GMs. Maybe the 7 days is a bit much but when WoW is handing down 2 day bans for possibly having a key logger on your system DDO may be trying to make a point. As far as reporting an MMO, as always the only power we hold over these companies is our wallet, walk if it bothers you that much but I wouldn't expect a lot of veteran players, parents, aunts or uncles feeling sorry for you.
Played in some form:
UO til tram, AC, EQ, AO, WW2O, PS, SB, CoH, AC2, Hor, LoTRO, DDO, AoC, Aion, CO, STO
Playing: WoW (for gf), WAR
Waiting For: SWTOR, FFXVI
Hoping For: DCUO, Secret World, Earthrise
-S- (UO Sonoma)
Check your terms of use, friend. An MMO can, more or less, ban you for any reason they please. It sucks, but hey, you agreed to it.
when I said it it wasn't in anger. No it does not say in its ToS that cussing is against the rules. In fact it has profanity filters. what's the point of having profanity filters if it isn't allowed? Then you'd just ban all profanity to begin with.
However using it to offend someone such as using racial slurs and sexual harassment is. . the s word is not.
as far as banning for everything, they shouldn't be allowed to if we're PAYING them. you know what happens if you pay someone to babysit for you and they don't do it? You get the money back, you don't pay them for something they didn't do so why should I be paying them for a game I can't play?
and as far as report I didn't mean like take them to some business ethics corporation I just meant if people know of how you report it to higher ups instead of just those email people cause that's all that happens.
Best burn of 2009!!!!!! Thank you. I lol'ed and am now off to bed.
1. While participating in Dungeons & Dragons Online, you must respect the rights of others to play and enjoy the game world as intended by Turbine, Inc.
2. You may not communicate any player’s real-world information through the use of the official game Web portal, game client or any other means.
3. You may not use or distribute sexually explicit, harmful, threatening, abusive, defamatory, obscene, hateful, racially or ethnically offensive language (including, by way of example, but not limited to, ethnic slurs and religious epithets), content, character names, titles, descriptions, or in-game labels (including, by way of example, but not limited to, offensive or inappropriate guild names, pet names and inscriptions). You may not distribute or spotlight sexually explicit, harmful, threatening, abusive, defamatory, obscene, hateful, racially or ethnically offensive content.
4. While playing the game or participating in the Dungeons & Dragons Online service, you may not exhibit or partake in generally disruptive behavior causing grief or alarm to other players or degrade the Dungeons & Dragons Online service performance or other players’ client software (for example, deliberately using game bugs or loopholes to disrupt the game).
5. You may not spam or flood with multiple posts the game chat or the official Web features.
6. You may not impersonate any Dungeons & Dragons Online Support Staff member or other Turbine, Inc. employee, past or present.
7. You may not violate any local, state, national, or international laws or regulations.
8. You may not market, promote, advertise, or solicit within the Dungeons & Dragons Online game or Web.
9. You may not modify the game client, server or any part of the official Dungeons & Dragons Online Web.
10. You may not advertise the intent to, or commit the act of, unauthorized selling, buying, transferring or sharing access to any Dungeons & Dragons Online game account.
11. You may not advertise the intent to, or commit the act of, unauthorized selling or buying of game items for real-world monetary values.
12. While participating in the Dungeons & Dragons Online service, both in-game and through the official Web, you will follow the instructions of authorized personnel at all times.
13. You may not form or participate in groups whose ideology is based upon or resembles anti-religious, anti-ethnic, anti-sexual orientation, racist or sexist philosophies.
14. You may not intentionally hide or falsify personal information that is deemed necessary for Dungeons & Dragons Online account creation.
15. You may not upload or transmit copyrighted material to any aspect of the Dungeons & Dragons Online service without the express consent of the copyright holder.
16. You will not attempt to interfere with, hack into, or decipher any transmissions to or from the Dungeons & Dragons Online service.
17. You will not exploit, distribute or publicly communicate any game error, miscue or bug which gives an unintended advantage within the Dungeons & Dragons Online game world. Bugs should be reported via the Ingame Bug Reporting Form.
18. You may not create, post or distribute any u til ities, emulators or other third party software tools without the express written permission of Turbine.
19. You may not harass other players or Turbine staff, including by way of example, but not limited to, threats, stalking or abuse of others.
20. You may not post Web links or URLs in the game that point to content deemed by Turbine to be inappropriate, including, without limitation, any Web links or URLs directed to other commercial products or services. You may not post Web links or URLs to any materials (including software and other information) that could harm (or is designed to harm) other players’ computers or would allow others to inappropriately access software or websites. Turbine does not allow the posting of destructive software, use of computer programs that contain destructive features, or access to any content such as viruses, worms, Trojan horses, or bots for the use of scrolling, showing multiple screens, and other activities that can be disruptive to online communication.
21. You may not use the Dungeons & Dragons Online game and/or services for illegal activities. Turbine is not responsible for anything you say in-game or on our chat rooms or forums, or for any consequences that arise from what you say. If you break the law, you alone will be responsible for the consequences.
nothing about profanity
I guess it's included in #3, cussing is usually referred to as obscene language.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
3. You may not use or distribute sexually explicit, harmful, threatening, abusive, defamatory, obscene, hateful, racially or ethnically offensive language (including, by way of example, but not limited to, ethnic slurs and religious epithets), content, character names, titles, descriptions, or in-game labels (including, by way of example, but not limited to, offensive or inappropriate guild names, pet names and inscriptions). You may not distribute or spotlight sexually explicit, harmful, threatening, abusive, defamatory, obscene, hateful, racially or ethnically offensive content.
--Didn't you understand that?
If you have been banned in two different games that says something about your behaviour in-game, please take a moment to think about that.
Bans are there mainly to protect the other gamers' gaming experience. And they also play for the game. Profanity filters or not, rules are rules - and read better that ToS and you will surely find that rule in there.
Edit: as seen in the previous posts, it was not that hard to find the rule...
Thanks for posting, here's what you are missing.
3. You may not use or distribute sexually explicit, harmful, threatening, abusive, defamatory, obscene, hateful, racially or ethnically offensive language (including, by way of example, but not limited to, ethnic slurs and religious epithets), content, character names, titles, descriptions, or in-game labels (including, by way of example, but not limited to, offensive or inappropriate guild names, pet names and inscriptions). You may not distribute or spotlight sexually explicit, harmful, threatening, abusive, defamatory, obscene, hateful, racially or ethnically offensive content.
See, that's where you went wrong. I realize now days the "S" word is popping up everywhere, even on network Television but there's still a segment of the population that views this word as obscene.
Ask yourself this, would you say the word in front of your pastor, your boss, your grandmother, or to the President of the US? if the answer is no, then the word is obscene. More importantly, even if you would say it in front of these folks, is it generally accepteable to the bulk of the general population. Again, if not, then its probably obscene and you should refrain.
Obscentity filters are an odd duck, but since they can be circumvented most games take the position of asking players to control their language.
It really isn't that hard btw.
edit:: whoops, forgot your orginal question. No, you can't report them anywhere, all you can do is refuse to pay them for another month.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
sexually explicit - only if it's scat
, harmful- only after eating a lot of mexican food
, threatening- dunno when it is,
abusive- I don't think I can make it abusive
, defamatory- unless someone's name is the same, but that'd be really bad and still not associated
obscene- if saying "I don't want that ___" is too obscene I'm sorry. There's still a PROFANITY FILTER. If you're not allowed to say any cuss words why is it THERE? Trying to bait us to break the rules? Besides Obscene is opinionative. now if I had chosen to be descriptive about the nature of the word as its literal object meaning rather than metaphor then yeah, that could be obscene. This is the closest rule to it, but does NOT limit its use.
hateful- errr, it can be, but it wasn't
racially or ethnically offensive language- Errrr, unless we breed a new race then I don't know how it's inferred to this category.
You may not distribute or spotlight sexually explicit, harmful, threatening, abusive, defamatory, obscene, hateful, racially or ethnically offensive content.- If wer'e talking about websites or describing situations we've seen it still wasn't done.
actually the reason I was banned the first time was cause in the report someone said I was spamming STFU to them on different characters. They banned me for two days to review as they said the claim said ____ bag said. Once they found out I didn't do what was claimed they refunded me the time off, and then later I ended up getting the other guy the temporary ban.
(since a lot of people like reading stories, why after I got the guy banned is cause he did the exact same thing he claimed I did to me. Except he didn't just spam hoodeeenee on each character I blocked but also claimed that I sucked at the game so much that any of his characters could beat me, etc. real e-hotshot threats ya know? So I reported it after getting the 10th character change from him.
Rules are rules, sometimes you have to accept things you find acceptable others do not.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
Soon after I moved to EQ from UO there was a point where I realized the biggest difference between the two was not the graphic style but the GMs style. UO GMs were there to help us build our game in what was essentially their world, EQ GMs were there to make sure we played their game in their world and this has been how most companies continue today. Bottom line you are paying to be allowed to play in their world as are other paying customers of an unknown age. If your babysitter brought in a friend who taught your kids things you would never want them to know when they are of that age then you would not pay the babysitter, you are the friend, the GMs are the babysitters. This is not new.
Played in some form:
UO til tram, AC, EQ, AO, WW2O, PS, SB, CoH, AC2, Hor, LoTRO, DDO, AoC, Aion, CO, STO
Playing: WoW (for gf), WAR
Waiting For: SWTOR, FFXVI
Hoping For: DCUO, Secret World, Earthrise
-S- (UO Sonoma)
It's hard to tell what has happened. I can't imagine that you got banned for using one word. What was the rest of the conversation like?
Besides that. Dunno that you can do much besides trying to contact customer support and try discuss matters again. Or just wait that 7 days.
Stop whining and take your ban like a man. Act a little more like a mature person and it won't happen again. Enjoy your 7 days of R&R.
You keep asking why there is a profanity filter. It's because the company knows they have outlawed profanity, and they also know that people are still going to use it. So they make a filter so people don't have to see it, and they ban those who continue to use it.
To answer your question you can report them to the BBB (Better Business Bureau) if they did something serious or shady (and are based in the US or Canada); however you did violate the TOS. You only paid $15 and got a 7 day ban, frankly it's not that big a deal. Choke it up and watch your language next time. If you see someone spamming the chat and it's really bothering you, you should report them. I agree bans can be unreasonable at times and difficult to dispute. I know someone who got banned for a day for saying the word "Jew" in a non-derogatory sentence and apparently someone decided to report him as a joke.
You're 21 and you really believe what you just typed?
I mean, I would understand this stance from a 12-year old, but... 21?
- RPG Quiz - can you get all 25 right?
- FPS Quiz - how well do you know your shooters?
Yup, you're boned.
MMOs can basically ban anyone they want, whenever they want, with no comeback.
You have two realistic choices; accept the punishment and continue to play the game after the suspension expires, or cancel your subscription in protest. And a word of advice; don't use the "but I pay you MONEY" argument.
As someone who has worked in customer service; it won't help ya one bit.
Playing: EVE, Final Fantasy 13, Uncharted 2, Need for Speed: Shift
You broke the profanity rule and thats that, its there game so they have every right to decide an apropriate punishment for you offensive word [which by the way i also find offensive. Also the profanity filter is there to ensure others dont have to see what interesting words you type, the fact no one else but you and any GM's who can bypass the spam filter is irrelivent as the filter is just a way of protecting customers [which will also include younger teeneagers and maybee even the odd pre-teen].
All in all my advice is just to take your punishment like a man and learn from your mistakes.
Another great example of Moore's Law. Give people access to that much space (developers and users alike) and they'll find uses for it that you can never imagine. "640K ought to be enough for anybody" - Bill Gates 1981
You're kidding right.
You do realize that profanity is considered obscene language and generally unacceptable in unfamiliar company?
I would recommend that you use your time off to read a dictionary and become familiar with some of the words in the ToS you agree to.
Letting an obscene word slip when speaking, I can excuse. Using profanity when you have to think about it and physically type it out on your keyboard = lame.
Einherjar_LC says: WTB the true successor to UO or Asheron's Call pst!