The desire for oppression and censorship appears to be some sort of disease that British people have. I used to think it was funny and something to be ignored but the spread of real government censorship of the internet in first world countries has turned this into a real issue. I have decided to just unload on anyone who suggests that communication should be universally monitored.
To be clear, she's right - creep Bear is in the game. But it's about as offensive as Chris Hansen, Admiral Ackbar or a Catholic priest. Really, yaranaika is much worse. Actually a Catholic priest is probably in the same category as yaranaika.
I searched her name and found the picture on facebook. It's not guaranteed to be her but it is suitably British and handicapped looking so it probably is.
 | Subject: Regarding an avatar face of a bear called 'creep Bear'
Hi, im writing to you out of concern for the safety of my son and other children who play your game. Today, my son told me about a bears face that has been put on your game and when it is attached to an avatar and played in a server, the name comes up as 'creep Bear'. My son, who is only 9 years old, typed this into a search engine, as he has no idea of what the word means or just how dangerous it can be.
I really think you ought to remove this bear and all associated material from your site. It is irresponsible, and not to mention dangerous, for children who play your game and the parents who pay for it in good faith.
I'm sure that as a business in the gaming industry, this is not the sort of material or publicity you want for your game.
I look forward to hearing from you very soon.
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 | If you are worried about your son being exposed to dangerous new words like "creep", I recommend you disable the chat entirely
To disable the chat:
* Start the game
* Click "options"
* Select the "Advanced" tab
* Scroll down until you see the value for "Chat line time (Milliseconds)" under Gui Options
* Set this value to 0
* Click "Done"
However this does not remove the names that appear over players. Players choose their own name and they are not built into the game. Perhaps you should not let your son search for words he does not know unsupervised.
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| the name does not appear in chat, it hovers over the head of the avatar face that has been placed on your site by another user. I suggest if you make a game aimed at children you at least regulate who uses it and what names are being used for the avatars that are put on there for other players to use. Perhaps you shouldn't let other users use such offensive names. If offensive words can be regulated in-game, then so can names. If your attitude to such things is so ignorant, then i have no choice but to inform others to not buy ur game or allow their children to use it. I will inform the police that you are allowing such offensive material to be used in your game and you are not willing to do anything about it. Im sure both they and the media will be interested, as your game is supposedly aimed at children.
I do not allow my son to search for anything unsupervised, this one time he did, he did it out of complete innocence, looking for a picture of the bear that is being used in your game. Im just grateful for parental controls, who knows what damage such material can do to a child, with words like that.
My son will not be playing your game again and i will certainly not be recommending it.
It is disturbing when such things are allowed on a site that should be for children.
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| >the name does not appear in chat
It will appear in the chat if the person types something.
>it hovers over the head of the avatar face
Your name appears over your avatar so that you can be clearly identified. It is not possible to have text floating over your head that is anything other than your username. That is how the game works.
>regulate who uses it
How would I do that exactly? Require photo ID? Are you going to send me a copy of your son's birth certificate so I can approve his heritage?
>If offensive words can be regulated in-game, then so can names.
I'm glad you phrased it this way because offensive words can't be regulated. There are just too many spelling permutations and alternate interpretations of words. It's not technologically possible to determine if a phrase is offensive. The only thing that is possible is exact word matching of the most common permutations to placate the hyper sensitive.
>If your attitude to such things is so ignorant, then i have no choice but to inform others to not buy ur game or allow their children to use it.
Quite the opposite of ignorant, my opinion is informed by over a decade of internet use and running a community of over 10,000 users for several years now. You on the otherhand have problems with basic technology vocabulary, have no concept what kind of filtering is and is not possible, and have no sense of perspective as to what is truly offensive and worth complaining about.
>I will inform the police that you are allowing such offensive material to be used in your game and you are not willing to do anything about it.
This statement is ridiculous.
>I do not allow my son to search for anything unsupervised, this one time he did
Right, so you don't let him, except for when you do. Got it. It must be my fault.
Your entire complaint seems to be that the word "creep" was communicated via the game. Exactly what sort of Orwellian nightmare state do you envision where this is made completely impossible? Just give me a hypothetical explanation of how the system would work.
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| well im sorry but if a massive gaming business like Blizzard can regulate 12 million users in 1 of its mmorpg, then im pretty sure you can do it with 10,000!! why not give them a ring and ask them for some tips
you are ignorant if you dont accept that in this day and age, a simple word can't cause problems.
and my own opinion is also from informed use of computers and the internet for over 12 years
i really do think it's in the best interst of yourself and the users of your game to take into account concerns about such things, maybe by not allowing the use of such names in the first place.
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| >well im sorry but if a massive gaming business like Blizzard can regulate 12 million users in 1 of its mmorpg, then im pretty sure you can do it with 10,000!!
World of Warcraft costs $60 + $15 / mo + $40 expansion every year. A year of warcraft costs $280. Blizzard makes over a billion dollars a year. You paid $20 for Blockland. Comparing us doesn't even make sense - but I'm pretty sure you can type "creep" into the World of Warcraft chat just the same.
>you are ignorant if you dont accept that in this day and age, a simple word can't cause problems.
If a single word causes you major disruption then that is your problem. People are allowed to say what they want. You need to learn how to deal with this without appealing to the government for censorship.
>my own opinion is also from informed use of computers and the internet for over 12 years
And yet, you don't know the difference between a website and a program, the difference between user names and text built into a program, how chat works in a multiplayer game (pro tip: it is not centralized and cannot be moderated), or how to use a browser that has built-in spell check. I guess you haven't been using computers the same way I have.
>maybe by not allowing the use of such names in the first place.
You're dodging the question here. How would I detect that the name was offensive? Filter for "creep"? What about "p e d o" or "ped-o" or "P3DO" or "ped0"? Can you produce a list of all offensive words for me so I can filter them? Give it a try.
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Note: There have been several fake complaints since I posted the last one. I considered that this might be a troll but it's pretty convincing, if it's a troll - congrats. In the future I'll probably ask for confirmation of game ownership immediately.
