Obunnywan
06-01-2005, 12:56 PM
I'm posting this because I am outraged and offended at the fact that I have not only been accused of being a nazi by arena net, but I have recieved no form of apology, nor have any of my guild mates, one of which is jewish!
***They banned us first. So I sent them an email inquiring as to why.***
Hello, I am an officer in our guild Merceneries Totenkopf. Recently our tag was changed from [SS] to [ban] with no notification as to why. Also our guild rank is now set as N/A. We have no idea why this has occurred, if it is a bug, or if we have done something wrong and our guild has been banned. Could you please look into this for us and let us know? Thank you for your help in advance.
***These are the reasons we were given.***
1) the Nazi's special task force was named the SS
http://www.feldgrau.com/ss.html
2) The SS emblem was the silver skull (the back of our cape)
3) Our Name has the German word for dead in it (Totenkopf = Dead
Head)
***So I responded with this***
So the reason why our guild was banned was because it is too closely related to the "Nazi's". Sorry but I'm going to be quite frank. That's horseshit.
I've been in this guild for a while now and not once have I seen anyone treat any member of the guild in any way, shape, or form, like a nazi.
The Founder is hispanic and his gf is black. We welcome all races, genders, and religions. We are not prejudice. We are not racist. We are just a fun guild. The tag stood for Super Sexy. How is that related to nazi?
The skull on the back of the cape just looked cool, it had nothing to do with nazi's and if you guys have a problem with people using the emblem that YOU put in the game, why is it even there?
I am extremely outraged and offended by this news. To just up and remove our guilds like this with no notice, no warning, no consulting, no investigation. It's wrong and it lowers my image of your company severely.
***They escalated our issue to a senior GM and this was their reply***
Hello,
Your Guild Wars account was discovered to have a GUILD TAG "SS" that was deemed inappropriate and against the Rules of Conduct and Terms of Service. Please be aware that violations of the Rules of Conduct and Terms of Service are treated very seriously in order to maintain an enjoyable gaming environment for all customers to experience. In order to prevent possible future infractions and penalties please review the RoC and ToS which can be found here: http://www.guildwars.com/legal/default.html. After reviewing the incident the original ruling of the inappropriate GUILD TAG will remain in effect. This decision is final and your guild will need to be disbanded and reformed under a different name so that you can continue to participate in all aspects of guild interactions. In order to completely dissolve a guild, the guild leader needs to remove all guild members and then use the guild tool icon to complete the disbanding of the guild.
Regards,
The Guild Wars Support Team
***So, I put it in terms they can relate to.***
Let me put this in terms you can relate to then.
How would you feel if you went in to work tomorrow and found the government parked outside, and the facility shut down. No notice, it just happened. Then when you ask why they tell you its because the staff is full of pedophiles. So then, shocked and offended, you ask how they came to that conclusion, and their reply is because a number of the staff has beards and long hair and 9 out of 10 child molesters match that description.
I see this as no different. The fact that you have pretty much accused us of being nazis because we had a tag [SS], which stood for super sexy btw, is obsurd. I am extremely offended by this. I demand a more reasonable resolution. We've invested a lot into building and managing this guild to just have it stripped away because you deem SS as being too closely related to NAZI!
***Their response to this was***
Hello,
After further review of the information that you have provided we have decided not to overturn the decision to ban the guild name "Mercinaries Totenkopf" with the guild tag "SS". The guild was deemed inappropriate due to a combination of things; one of which was "SS" tag. This coupled with the phrase "Totenkopf" which is highly linked to several organizations during World War 2 era. In a global based game like Guild Wars these similarities cannot be overlooked and your statement that "SS" stood for "super sexy" is not adequate enough defense to overturn our decision.
Regards,
The Guild Wars Support Team
***End of Emails***
It seems to me that in Arena.net's rampage to ban all guilds that are even slightly connected to anything that could be taken even remotely offensive, they commited a hipocracy. One they refuse to apologize for, or seek out a better solution. So this is my solution to the problem. I'm making it public.
P.S. Totenkopf is also another name for a Grateful Dead fan, aka Dead head.
***They banned us first. So I sent them an email inquiring as to why.***
Hello, I am an officer in our guild Merceneries Totenkopf. Recently our tag was changed from [SS] to [ban] with no notification as to why. Also our guild rank is now set as N/A. We have no idea why this has occurred, if it is a bug, or if we have done something wrong and our guild has been banned. Could you please look into this for us and let us know? Thank you for your help in advance.
***These are the reasons we were given.***
1) the Nazi's special task force was named the SS
http://www.feldgrau.com/ss.html
2) The SS emblem was the silver skull (the back of our cape)
3) Our Name has the German word for dead in it (Totenkopf = Dead
Head)
***So I responded with this***
So the reason why our guild was banned was because it is too closely related to the "Nazi's". Sorry but I'm going to be quite frank. That's horseshit.
I've been in this guild for a while now and not once have I seen anyone treat any member of the guild in any way, shape, or form, like a nazi.
The Founder is hispanic and his gf is black. We welcome all races, genders, and religions. We are not prejudice. We are not racist. We are just a fun guild. The tag stood for Super Sexy. How is that related to nazi?
The skull on the back of the cape just looked cool, it had nothing to do with nazi's and if you guys have a problem with people using the emblem that YOU put in the game, why is it even there?
I am extremely outraged and offended by this news. To just up and remove our guilds like this with no notice, no warning, no consulting, no investigation. It's wrong and it lowers my image of your company severely.
***They escalated our issue to a senior GM and this was their reply***
Hello,
Your Guild Wars account was discovered to have a GUILD TAG "SS" that was deemed inappropriate and against the Rules of Conduct and Terms of Service. Please be aware that violations of the Rules of Conduct and Terms of Service are treated very seriously in order to maintain an enjoyable gaming environment for all customers to experience. In order to prevent possible future infractions and penalties please review the RoC and ToS which can be found here: http://www.guildwars.com/legal/default.html. After reviewing the incident the original ruling of the inappropriate GUILD TAG will remain in effect. This decision is final and your guild will need to be disbanded and reformed under a different name so that you can continue to participate in all aspects of guild interactions. In order to completely dissolve a guild, the guild leader needs to remove all guild members and then use the guild tool icon to complete the disbanding of the guild.
Regards,
The Guild Wars Support Team
***So, I put it in terms they can relate to.***
Let me put this in terms you can relate to then.
How would you feel if you went in to work tomorrow and found the government parked outside, and the facility shut down. No notice, it just happened. Then when you ask why they tell you its because the staff is full of pedophiles. So then, shocked and offended, you ask how they came to that conclusion, and their reply is because a number of the staff has beards and long hair and 9 out of 10 child molesters match that description.
I see this as no different. The fact that you have pretty much accused us of being nazis because we had a tag [SS], which stood for super sexy btw, is obsurd. I am extremely offended by this. I demand a more reasonable resolution. We've invested a lot into building and managing this guild to just have it stripped away because you deem SS as being too closely related to NAZI!
***Their response to this was***
Hello,
After further review of the information that you have provided we have decided not to overturn the decision to ban the guild name "Mercinaries Totenkopf" with the guild tag "SS". The guild was deemed inappropriate due to a combination of things; one of which was "SS" tag. This coupled with the phrase "Totenkopf" which is highly linked to several organizations during World War 2 era. In a global based game like Guild Wars these similarities cannot be overlooked and your statement that "SS" stood for "super sexy" is not adequate enough defense to overturn our decision.
Regards,
The Guild Wars Support Team
***End of Emails***
It seems to me that in Arena.net's rampage to ban all guilds that are even slightly connected to anything that could be taken even remotely offensive, they commited a hipocracy. One they refuse to apologize for, or seek out a better solution. So this is my solution to the problem. I'm making it public.
P.S. Totenkopf is also another name for a Grateful Dead fan, aka Dead head.