As winter sets in, my wife and I like to find things to do indoors. Considering we have two computers, we often times play games together. A week ago, I purchased a game called "Guild Wars: Nightfall" at $50 for my computer, and for hers, at a total of $100. Recently before that, we bought the prequel, "Guild Wars: Factions". It was the same price for this product as well, amassing to a total of $200 for the two of us to enjoy this product.
And I might say, it is indeed a fun and artistic game. I have great respect for the product.
The customer service, however, deserves another look. Having just recently paid another $100 dollars to this company for their product, I was playing in this "online" game. As you can see, considering it's online, you interact with other people. It is what is often referred to as "the gaming community" and it's seldom a reasonable group of people.
I usually keep to myself, but on one particular day I logged on and saw a very heated political discussion. To quell the situation, I said that arguing over the internet was not a hearty way to spend your time. Then, to make further jest of it, I said "Hail Hitler, King of the Luxons." Luxons being a group of people within the game, and not real people.
Some Jewish player told me that I had offended him/her and that I would be reported. When I tried to ask why, I was blocked out and my only venue of seeking explanation was in a public free for all in which many people started after this person. They were less than cordial, but I, myself, made no insults nor derogatory remarks. However, I did sustain a couple. Of this I have proof.
I will supply a link to images depicting the entire conversation if need be.
The next day, Guild Wars support suspended my account for 72 hours on account of racial slurs. They took no initiative to contact me on what had happened, nor did they research the allegations. To ease their burden, they simply penalized the accused party and left it at that. Be aware that so many marks eventually leads to a full-on ban and denial of service. Permanently.
Through their support system, I made a handful of attempts to clarify what had happened, even supplying the very screenshots that I can provide you. Their responses were automated and simply stated "You have violated our rules of conduct."
Here is a copy of their rules of conduct.
"In addition to these rules of conduct, explicit rules affecting your account may be found in the Guild Wars User Agreement.
1. While playing Guild Wars, you must respect the rights of others and their rights to play and enjoy the game. To this end, you may not defraud, harass, threaten, or cause distress and/or unwanted attention to other players.
2. You may not post or communicate any player's real world information (name, address, account name, etc.) through the Guild Wars game or on the official Guild Wars website.
3. You may not use sexually explicit, harmful, threatening, abusive, defamatory, obscene, hateful, or racially or ethnically offensive language.
4. You may not post or link to any sexually explicit, harmful, threatening, abusive, defamatory, obscene, hateful, or racially or ethnically offensive imagery or content.
5. When communicating in Guild Wars using Global Chat (including, without limitation, server wide chat and use of the whisper command), you may not spam, flood, or make duplicate posts. For more information, please see the User Agreement section 4 (j).
6. You may not impersonate any employee of ArenaNet Inc., NC Interactive, Inc., NCsoft Corporation or their affiliates.
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 Guild Wars game or on the official Guild Wars websites.
9. You may not modify any part of the Guild Wars Client, Server, or any part of the official Guild Wars websites.
10. You may not advertise the intent to or commit the act of buying, selling, trading, sharing, or transferring access to any Guild Wars account for real-world cash or for in-game gold or items.
11. You may not advertise the intent to or commit the act of buying or selling gold or items for cash.
12. You may not offer in-game services for real-world cash.
13. You may not arrange for the exchange or transfer of any pirated or illegal software while using the Guild Wars game or website.
14. You will follow the instructions of authorized personnel while in Guild Wars or on the official Guild Wars website.
15. You may not organize nor be a member of any pledges or groups within Guild Wars that are based on or espouse any racist, sexist, anti-religious, anti-ethnic, anti-gay, or other hate mongering philosophies.
16. You may not provide false information or intentionally hide any information when registering for your Guild Wars account.
17. You may not upload or transmit on Guild Wars or the official Guild Wars websites any copyrighted or trademarked content to which you do not own all rights without the express written permission of the author or the copyright or trademark holder.
18. You will not attempt to interfere with, hack into, or decipher any transmissions to or from the servers running Guild Wars.
19. You will not exploit any bug in Guild Wars and you will not communicate the existence of any such exploitable bug (bugs that grant the user unnatural or unintended benefits) either directly or through public posting, to any other user of Guild Wars. Bugs should be promptly reported via "Ask a Question" at http://support. Guildwars.com.
20. You will not attempt to play Guild Wars on any server that is not controlled or authorized by NC Interactive or its designees.
21. You will not create, use, or provide any server emulator or other site where Guild Wars may be played, and you will not post or distribute any utilities, emulators or other software tools related to Guild Wars without the express written permission of NC Interactive, NCsoft Europe, or NCsoft Corporation.
22. You may not use any third-party program (such as a "bot") in order to automate gameplay functions, including playing, chatting, interacting, or gathering gold or items within Guild Wars."
Unless the very name of a historical figure is considered "Ethnically offensive", they are just avoiding the issue and letting their current system slide.
Parents, be aware, this game is fun and it is enticing. But know that the rules of conduct are not structured nor is the customer service, and you will likely be throwing your money away in that your child can be within reasonable behavior parameters and still be "suspended" or "banned".
All it takes is for one person to report him whether on realistic terms or false.
As for the adults, you can only play this game on the pretense that you do not talk to anyone. Period. Even then, you're at risk.
Until I am issued a formal apology, refund, or other means of compensation, I stand by my statement that Arena Net is not a company that you should be handing your money to. Once you purchase, they have what they want. You are no longer an asset beyond that point.
Again, request a link to images and I will provide them. Otherwise, just heed my warning.
Now if you'll excuse me, I need to get some sun and shine my Star Trek collector set.
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