Naming Rules

03/29/2011 11:53 AMPosted by Renekton

Anyone else feel that if there is an item called that but I can't be named Kickassness might be silly?

No, the difference is players are governed by the Terms of Use, the game is governed by the rating it has which is determined by the ESRB.

03/29/2011 11:54 AMPosted by Qonker

blizzard does not play by the rules...they made them...they can break them.

We do, rules are entirely different between content in the game and the guidelines players must follow. Content, which must adhere to a specific rating system can only contain specific levels of "violence, suggestive themes, crude humor, minimal blood, simulated gambling, and/or infrequent use of strong language. "

http://www.esrb.org/ratings/ratings_guide.jsp

This is something that we control and maintain in order to retain our Teen rating.

03/29/2011 12:11 PMPosted by Roija

My friends rogue, was named 'Tony'.

I have to call shenanigans on that one, Roija. Mind giving me the character name and realm of your friend? I'd be happy to look into the validity of that story.

And why should the Terms be different governing then what the ESRB rating allows? While I understand the difference, it does seem kinda wrong to sit there and basically be saying "do as I say, not as I do." Just my opinion and I am leaving it at that.

As I said, the rating this game holds allows a certain amount of : "violence, suggestive themes, crude humor, minimal blood, simulated gambling, and/or infrequent use of strong language. "

This allows our Developers to create characters and dialog that are more real. Quests and quest content that has an element of humour to it.

While this is something that our Developers can control from the content side we are unable to place those same limitations on players. How would you put a limit on the number of times a certain would can be used within a given period of time by players?

Think of it this way, in movies and TV shows there is dialog as well as a number of activities that are permitted while still maintaining their PG-13 rating. Those same actions and words though, would likely not be permitted by that 13-17 year old's parents.

He means he doesn't think that the name "Tony" really was reported and forced to get a name change. In other words, he thinks Roija's story never happened.

Exactly, or that it did not happen in the way that Roija was told. :)

The point is not that Blizzard hates strong language. If they hated it, they wouldn't use it from time to time. The point is that their rating only allows a certain amount of it. Now, when they are creating things, they can keep track of how often something is used, and make sure it stays under the line drawn up by the ESRB. They can NOT do so with player interaction. To avoid a 'double standard', they would have to say that you can use strong language, but only X amount of times per day/week/month. Do you realistically think that would work? Can you tell me the exact number of times you used a strong word in the past month?

Dealing with a large player base demands clearly visible lines, the more gray areas there are the more problems you have with people disputing the shades. The visible line they've drawn for you is that you can not do it. The only other clear visible line would be that you can do it unrestricted, and that line would violate their ESRB rating.

Beautifully said, Lynarii, and I think we'll leave it with this. <3