User:Haggard

Haggard Deathdealer [DVDF]

This user is a Warrior by nature.

I'm a 16 year old player of GW from Manchester in the UK, and have played since August 2005. My real life basically involves sitting around all day watching TV, playing GW, playing Guitar Hero, eating and sleeping. But due to my incredible metabolism I can do all these and more without putting on an ounce of weight!

Haggard in game

Much of the (almost) 2 years I've played is a blur. I can barely even remember my first few guilds, and was in them for at least 4 months each. I was basically introduced to the game by a bunch of schoolfriends, and in my over-eagerness to catch up with them, I ended up overtaking them and generally cheeseing them off. My early RL friends in game were Tom (Ranger Tomjy), Ben (Ranger Benjy - can you spot the pattern here?) and Danny (Noodle Pots.. if you play Day of Defeat you've probably been headshotted by him.)

I continued to play with people I knew in real life for about a year, for example my loveable friend DD (Athrun Sidz), Sam (Luna Hawke) who was obsessed with Jeppe On Neppe and nearly had a heart attack when he got into the same vent channel as him, and a bit earlier than that Harry (Hazer Moore) but he ended up putting down GW for our exams then forgetting to pick it up again when they finished.

With Sam and DD, and my very close in game friends Lahna (Libby Heals) and Tommy (Emma The Protector), we ended up forming a small guild called "The Phallic Strawberries [nam]", which at its high point had an incredible 20 members, and was a member of the Mantle Assassins [MA] alliance, where I met many good friends whom I promptly forgot about when we left.

By this stage, Nightfall hadn't been released so boredom was setting in. DD just left the game because he had other things to do, while Tommy got into PvP, and Sam tried to but his computer a-sploded (literally).

So Lahna and I decided to go and join DVDF. I PMed Shan on Guru, and was redirected to Gwen Starlight, who had just started up a new branch of DVDF, 'Greener Pastures'. Despite my overconfidence and supersized ego, I did manage to help a few people and made officer after a month or two.

I've since settled in and become an annoying but hopefully loveable presence on DVDF alliance chat, as well as scraping 700 posts on our private forum, at least half of which were probably pointless.

Nowadays, I basically just run around collecting titles and getting my chars through the game. I enjoy playing Warrior, Ranger and Paragon, the latter mainly because of "There's Nothing to Fear!". Haggard Deathdealer, my warrior, currently has 17 maxed titles and I'm the not very proud owner of 2 sets of Obsidian armor.

Guild

As previously mentioned, I was an officer of Greener Pastures [DVDF], although with the onset of school I've reteated to officership, in a strange guild formed as a splinter of Angel Sharks and Dvd Forums by Gwen Starlight and Britney Redworm, among others.

As the DVDF alliance has flourished, we're no longer the smallest guild, and have become a guild of equalled greatness to the rest of the place *green power!*

Previous Guilds

The Glory of Power [Owel]

Formed by Ben, whose catchphrase was "O well!!", hence the tag. Was where I met Goth Minister, who went on to become a high level, crack-addicted PvPer (yes, he really was on crack!). Went very nicely until I went emo and quit. Can't really remember who I joined after that, might have been:

Soul of Destruction [SoD]

Apart from obvious lolages at the tag, I knew 2 sinister norwegian women who were officers of this guild, so decided to join while I was being emo at Tom and Ben. Goth came along with me. Was in for a good week or two, and in their 15k armors (OMGWTF?!) they helped us complete the game for my first time and Goth's second (on mine and Goth's monks).

Return of the Legends [OWEL]

After I'd finished being all angry and such, Ben reformed Owel and for a time it was good. The he decided to go play WoW and made Goth leader. Then I think I went emo again and quit. History sure does repeat itself, eh?

The Mighty Pwnzors [Pwnz]

By now my RL friend Jake had got the game and was thirsty for power! So he made this guild, with all his highest-char-was-level-17 majesty. Lasted for quite a while, I think I ended up leader, although it's still all a hazy blur. Then I went emo at Tom again, and quit.

Weetabix Pwns You [HAHA]

Sam had decided to start up his own guild now that everyone had left Pwnz. By now I'd met Tommy, so he came along too. This guild was quite fun, and got me some recognition in game because people remembered the name off my Guru posts. Mainly from Warlock of StP though. For a while I thought I had 3 fans, until I noticed they were all his different characters.

Sam and Tommy decided to go PvP, Sam joined some random guild I cannae remember, whilst Tommy went and joined Goth and some ex-[Then] people.

This one survived a bit longer, before Tommy and I went and joined:

Shadows of Tyria [SHoT]

Led by Sep, a raggedly charming scotsman with a penchant for screaming at me to heal him over vent, while he was halfway across the map. Did a bunch of GvGs with this lot, until Sep decided to go join Frenzy Heal Sig [FhS] and the guild kind of collapsed. It was here that I met Lahna, who had heard Sep and Blood talking about me and Tommy, and introduced herself to me in the hall, by on-purposely sending a 'wrong channel' message in local chat. I replied "lolage" and a wonderful friendship was born.

Phallic Strawberries [nam]

Formed and led by me, with some folks we nabbed from SHoT after it split up, along with Sam, Tommy and Lahna, my super-cool posse of friends.

Again, lasted quite a while until Sam and Tommy went off to PvP, and so me and Lahna decided to apply for DVDF, which we'd heard were uber.

Characters

I have far too many characters to list here, since I don't play several of them *cough, cough, sin and mesmer*

This user plays in the European territory.

Haggard Deathdealer - my fatass warrior who collects titles and has a sinister love of pink. He's got Pink Primeval for running, but turquoise Ancient (with stonefists for hammer and dwarven headbutt), and white Obsidian, so that he can pretend to be a badly drawn Stormtrooper. He's got 10.6 million xp and all the cheap/free PvE titles except vanquisher, which I'm working on. Usually wears either his I'm Very Important, or r7 kurzick title. Generally wields a Long Sword, Fellblade, or Gothic Dual Axe, along with a Zodiac or Sun and Moon Shield.

Haggard Trueshot - my abused ranger wears 15k druids, which was the first 15k armor I ever bought, and she was also the first char I ever made. Has 3 mill xp, mainly from being the ranger in 3 man FoW and urgoz runs. Generally fires a collector flatbow.

Holy Haggard - My super duper mohecan and goatee'd monk, along with his penchant for upper body nudity, generally used for spirit bond tanking, bonding, or ZB protting.

The Haggard Element - Tried to be clever making this name, like.. you know.. Haggard was some sort of element.. and it's undiscovered... and.. nvm.

Oo Scary Hag - The first of the characters with short forms of Haggard. Now all the ones from the last year have been Hag or Haggy. Is a necro who MM's because I'm boring, and wears FoW - with MINOR VIGOR!! Take that, logic!

Spirit Seepage Hag - Was going to be clad in fissure, until I realised that I'm lazy. Oh well, prices are coming down, she may yet see the teapot hat. Is a rit who does a bit of everything, just like rits do. I really love playing her, mainly so that i can show that restoration can be just as good as healing. Used to be obsessed with ritual lording until the nerf. Channeling's also an occasional treat, but STILL haven't got round to trying that Sprit's Strength build.

Scythe Sweepage Hag - harhar, get it.. Spirit Seepage, Scythe Sweepage? Anywho, this one's basically a mule for deathbane weapons now, I had grand plans for doing FoW solo on this cat until shards fell lower than a monkey's backside. Plus the skales keep killing me.

Frobagger Hagger - the "Frobag" is a rude word which I invented myself, hence why I haven't been banned yet. Frobagger (lol) likes to shout at people all day just like me, so that must be why I enjoy playing her so much. I also like running Stunning Spear builds, although it lacks a lot of the versatility of BHA.

A New Deathbane, Deathbane Strikes Bck, Return of Deathbane - Look very closely and you might see the Star Wars reference. These are the chars I use to store Deathbanes upon, a strange hobby which started about 8 months ago. Now whenever anyone in the DVDF alliance gets a deathbane, they automatically scream "is hag on?" over AC in order to feed my addiction.

Rocky George - A monk on my secondary account named for the prodigally talented afro-american lead guitarist of Suicidal Tendencies, a band I got extremely into for about three weeks then lost nearly all interest in. Ironically he was created about two days before I was given a 72-hour ban for (alleged) racist slurs, for which I have a sound explanation. Yet NCSoft Europe don't seem to see it that way. Now I sound like Bernard Manning, I'd better have some kind of additional section to explain myself. If only there was some kind of.. heading.. or something to denote a new one. Wait.. what's this?!

72-hour ridiculous and unjust ban for Racial Slurs and its impact on the FTSE index of late-May; a cultural and economic exposé by Professor H.A. Ggard

At this point I was an officer and unofficial head of recruitment for GP. A player whom was introduced to me by Steve wanted to join but did admit to being 17. He seemed nice and so I had a few conversations to see what he would have to do to get in. In the end he was not accepted and probably rightly so, as he decided to call Shan (see Dvd Forums) a n****r - as some kind of non-connotated insult, I guess. Steve was afk in the hall, so I told him that the 17 year old had called Shan the N word. Except I spelled it out, without thinking. It was just me and Steve in that hall. I did however say it on local chat.

But I had chosen a bad weekend to do so. Anet seemed to be testing some sort of word filter, and 'accidentally' set it to observe all forms of chat, everywhere in the game. Several people were banned for cybering. After hearing my story, one person said the N word to himself on his guild chat.. in a 1-man guild. He was also banned. Naturally I was quite shocked and annoyed. I go out of my way to ensure I am not racist and find people who think it's funny utterly deplorable. A slave to PC, or a frontline freedom fighter? You choose.

Anywho, I wrote to PlayNC assuming that I'd receive some kind of early end for the ban. I was wrong. Indeed, it took them about six hours after the ban ended to even get a response from the right department. Here's the back and forth:

08/03/2007 11:48 PM Outgoing

Considering that I am not a racist, I was quite suprised to see that I had been banned for use of Racial Slurs. Thinking about it, I think the only time I have used a racial slur ingame was last night - and not at all in an offensive context; I didn't even realise that I was breaking the rules. It could be argued that any use of a racist term is offensive, but allow me to explain the situation.

In DVDF, we are highly selective of applicants. One such applicant fell under our recruitment age limit of 18+ only, and so demanded to speak to Shanaeri Rynale, an alliance leader. When Shan attempted to explain why he could not join, the recruit became very offensive and called Shan 'the N word' before putting him on his ignore list. Screenshotted evidence of this may be seen in the attached picture file.

The potential recruit had been recommended by somebody (Healin Finatic) in my branch of the DVDF alliance, Greener Pastures. As Healin was Away in the guild hall - I left him a message in local chat about why the applicant had been turned down, and about his attitude to Shanaeri. At this point I did inform Healin Finatic that the applicant had called Shanaeri the N word - and unwisely, it seems, wrote it in its proper form (as opposed to "the N word").

As I have said, I am not a racist person, nor do I even see the need to continue this temporary account suspension. What 'lesson' can I possibly come away with from this experience, apart from to censor everything I say, including when using the words of other people. I am hoping we can settle this matter without a permanent 'mark' being placed upon my account, and I would of course welcome further questioning about the incident.

Yours Faithfully, Jack Roscoe

08/04/2007 01:44 PM Incoming

Dear Jack,

Thank you for contacting us.

Your request has reached the Billing and Accounts department; therefore we are transferring your ticket to our in-game/technical support staff who will make contact as soon as possible.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Kind regards GM Tony NCsoft Europe Customer Support Team http://eu.plaync.com

08/07/2007 11:44 AM Incoming

Hello Jack,

Thank you very much for contacting the Guild Wars Customer Support Team.

After reviewing the logfiles and our documentation on your case, we can confirm that your account has rightfully been blocked for:

- Using racial slurs

Please keep in mind that Guild Wars is a global game with hundreds of thousands of players. This means that standards of behaviour must be upheld. For your convenience, you can obtain more information in our "Rules of Conduct" and "Conduct Breaches & Outcomes" pages, which are listed below.

- Rules of Conduct: http://eu.guildwars.com/support/article/guild_wars_rules_of_conduct/ - Conduct Breaches & Outcomes: http://eu.guildwars.com/support/article/conduct_breaches_and_outcomes/

We hope that you will understand why the account block was necessary.

Regards, GM Raoul

Guild Wars Customer Support NCsoft Europe http://eu.guildwars.com

08/07/2007 02:55 PM Outgoing

Frankly no, I do not understand. As I have said, I was telling a guildie that someone who wanted to join had called an Alliance Leader the N word. Now at this point I did not realise that Anet had scanners which picked up this word, monitering every channel of communication, as this forum thread would seem to suggest: http://guildwars.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=459598

Had I known that saying this word, out of context, to 2 other people whom I know well was a 72 hour offense, then I wouldn't have said it. But I didn't. Because Arenanet never told us.

It's also interesting to note that nobody from Arenanet has posted on the forum thread linked to above, considering that it has 350+ posts now. To be frank, look through the chat logs AGAIN, except this time hire someone who actually has a brain to check the context.

Yours Sincerely, Jack Roscoe.

08/08/2007 03:27 PM Incoming

Hello Jack,

Thank you very much for contacting the Guild Wars Customer Support Team.

We are sorry if you feel this suspension was unfair, however after once again reviewing your case we will not be reversing the suspension placed on your account.

Please feel free to contact us again if you have any other problems.

Regards, GM Raoul

Guild Wars Customer Support NCsoft Europe http://www.guildwars.com

08/10/2007 12:25 AM Outgoing

Would it be possible for me to see the section of the chat logs which 'incriminates' me, and have an explanation of why what I did warranted a suspension?

It's hard to have faith in you when I've explained myself twice, and simply been told that what I did was very naughty.

Jack

08/14/2007 04:22 PM Incoming

Hello Jack,

Thank you very much for contacting the Guild Wars Customer Support Team.

Unfortunately we are not at liberty to provide chat logs to customers. We apologise for any frustration this may cause.

Please feel free to contact us again if you have any other problems.

Regards, GM Raoul

Guild Wars Customer Support NCsoft Europe http://www.guildwars.com

Conclusion

It was at this point that I lost any faith that perhaps there had been a mix up or a misunderstanding. No, I WAS racist. I was racist because I used a word, not aimed at anyone, which carries racist connotations in any other situation. It's not enough that I was repeating what somebody else had said to demonstrate his stupidity. Yes, I am guilty of "using" a racial slur. But there is something seriously wrong if in this instance that is a crime. Perhaps we should make talking about the Mafia a crime. Because anybody who says 'Tommy Gun' must by default have used one to gun down rival gangsters. There is no such thing as context in the eyes of PlayNC. There is simply a list of words that mean the user is bad. If you say N****r, you are bad.

To be fair, most of the time it's used, it is bad. But the clear cut BAD WORD status of it is infuriating - how can a single word indicate the political, social and racial views of the user? If a man asks a chicken farmer "How are your cocks doing?" over Guild Wars, he is being sexually explicit, because there is no such thing as context. So my message to you, NCSoft and your conglomerated subsidiaries, is to continue stamping down on racism. But perhaps it might make sense to check that you are stamping on actual racists before you drop that boot of yours.

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