Blizzard sent me an email with the list of bad words that caused Nexus Word Wars to be banned. Apparently, there was more offensive words on my dictionary, such as "jesus."
I have a personal friend that swore by your map, its all he played when he logged onto bnet (he loved being the fastest typer) I hope you get this taken care of and re-uploaded.
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I just sent a nice email to Blizzard explaining the situation and the fact that I had no control over the database. I didn't read the 32,000 words. Also, I asked them nicely if they could be more specific and tell me all the bad words.
Simple. Its your fault for not checking all the words. Its a lot of work, but yeah, you have to. Germany's version of Wolfenstein still had a swastika on one texture. It was small, but it was there. Its banned here for games. They had to remove all their games from the stores.
In this case ... Blizz is the State/Law and you didn't watch out. Sucks, but that's how it works :\ And by now you should know how it works Rodrigo, I don't know one person on BNet that's so obsessed with Popularity and Map banning! D:
Simple. Its your fault for not checking all the words. Its a lot of
work, but yeah, you have to.
The map is connected to a DICTIONARY! Do you want me to read the whole dictionary? English isn't my first language, and I don't know what words Blizzard might consider offensive. You know, with all those bad words in the campaign...
Funny how they can ban you for an incidental word usage but not ban the people blatantly copying other maps. I'm looking at you Special Forces Extreme Pro Madness XXXXXXXXXXTREME!!!!11!!!!!
If it were just for the word dyke this would be silly but that was just the example they gave, so it sounds like there were lots of inappropriate words and some people complained about it. Anyway, while it sucks it's not exactly an secret policy that you can't publish maps with certain words in them, and the fact that you pulled them algorithmically from a dictionary instead of writing them yourself doesn't change that. Intent doesn't really matter in this situation.
Now whether the rules are good ones is another matter entirely and personally I think they're fucking stupid, and I do sympathize with you.
and I don't know what words Blizzard might consider offensive. You know, with all those bad words in the campaign...
Nobody knows that for certain, I still believe it's someone rolling a /random. But you could've guessed what would happen if you link it to a dictionary without proof-reading. I guess there might be a lot more inappropriate stuff inside, if you look around. The Campaigns worst word might be "hell" or "ass", as far as I can remember. Oh, well. 12 year old can play SC2, what would we expect to happen?
All in all: Rework the word list, take your time to proof-read what you put inside and they will probably allow NWW again, if you crawl a little and play the obedient consumer.
Ask them for a list of banned words that appear in the map, or a global banned words list. One of three things will happen:
1. They reply and give it to you - great. Once you removed those words, follow up with them and tell them you removed them, and request an unban (with popularity if possible). Also post the list here for everyone's benefit.
2. They reply and don't give it to you - not as great. Tell them you removed the word "dyke", but give the perfectly reasonable argument that without them providing such a list you can't expect to check 32,000 words and it is possible someone will complain about some word again. Mention that you yourself did not know what "dyke" meant. Post their reply to the followup here.
3. They don't reply - terrible. I really hope this doesn't happen, because then you (and everyone who liked the map, and makers of any dictionary-dependent map) are really out of luck.
Heya Rodrigo - I remember someone else getting banned a couple months ago - if you lookup "banned" on this site and/or b.net forums - you might find out what happened to the other guy long term. Also - as far as I know Blizzard only looks into maps when a few people click "Report Map - Offensive". Blizzard likely will not be capable of sending you a list of every word that they consider to be offensive - and even if they could, it would probably be considered poor taste - so they wouldn't anyway. (It's not very professional is what I mean.)
Also - I read a Blizz post a long time ago on the b.net forums that said something very similar to "The words we can use in our game and the words custom mappers can use are not the same."
The only explanation I can come up with to explain why Blizzard would be allowed to use some words like "ass" and "crap" etc etc and we can't is because at a certain point the game's T for Teen rating in America (or any rating in other countries that isn't already the equivalent of M for Mature) would be required to be bumped up to M (18+) and they could be breaking ESRB rules by allowing more of these curse words into custom maps.
I wish you luck - and if I remember correctly the guy who had his map banned ended up getting all his mapping privileges back but was warned that if he messed up again there would be more serious consequences.
I think Blizzard is a pretty understanding company for the most part and will sympathize with you for the most part - but at the same time you have to have the utmost maturity and professionalism with them. The part of the letter you made to them saying "I had no control over this." (the dictionary) sounds, unfortunately, like someone who doesn't want to take responsibility. As far as I know - any content posted by you to battle.net is completely under your control and no one elses. To say that you had no control over what -you- published is what sounds childish. BTW - I'm not saying this to be disrespectful to you Rodrigo, I'm just explaining how I interpret what you're saying to Blizzard so that you can improve your chances of a successful outcome with them.
The way I would have written a letter about this to Blizzard would have gone something like this.
Dear Blizzard -
My map had access to a dictionary of 32,000 words. While I made sure that it did not contain common curse words - English is not my first language and I am not familiar with anywhere near this much vocabulary. Obviously there were words that some users found offensive and I apologize for this. If given the opportunity to repost my map I will do the following to remedy this problem.
1.Temporarily discontinue use of this dictionary and only use words that I know are not offensive.
2.Have people who are very well spoken in the english language remove any possibly offensive words from the 32,000 word database before using it again.
Thank you for your time regarding this matter and again, I am very sorry for this.
- Sincerely
Rodrigo
Stuff I've worked on: Carbot's StarCrafts Mod (2014-present) StarCraft 2 Hotkey Trainer (2010) | Mineralz Evolution (2011+) | Dungeon Legacy (2013+) | Phoenix TLMC 4 Entry (2014) Assisted: City of Tempest (2012) | BarCraft (2013) | Poker Defense (2014) and a few more.
It always funny to see things getting banned fro swastika also.
"The word swastika is derived from the Sanskrit word svastika (in Devanagari स्वस्तिक), meaning any lucky or auspicious object, and in particular a mark made on persons and things to denote good luck"
So if I lets say take, Christ on cross a necklace (as my lucky charm) and try to conquer the world it would represent evil mark. lol
"The word swastika is derived from the Sanskrit word svastika (in Devanagari स्वस्तिक), meaning any lucky or auspicious object, and in particular a mark made on persons and things to denote good luck"
It's not about the origin or anything, but about what people link to that. The swastika world-widely is known to be the logo of the evil germenz dudes some 70 years ago.
This means that, unless you explicitely use it in it's original context, it'll be remembered as the Nazi's swastika and thus become offensive.
Same is when I say "You're gay". Everyone will regard "gay" as meaning "homosexual" and thus it's an insult/offense (unless I'm right lol). But gay also means "funny/strange".
So everytime I call someone gay I could just say that my intention was to call him a funny person. But that's nothing more than trying to get my head out of the sling.
Just remember the simple rule:
If it is widely considered offensive then it IS offensive, no matter how much you're trying to talk around the meaning.
Weeell, actually yea. You're responsible for what your map contains, so you should've checked the words previously.
Sure, it's a lot of work, especially if you're not natively english (or if your vocabulary of swear words isn't as developed), but sadly it's your duty to do so.
Well, I hope that Blizzard will understand the mistake and allow you to filter out all bad words in order to upload it again.
PS: You can try to ask around for help. Post the list of all words somewhere and ask a couple of native English-speakers to take a look at it and find questionable words for you. No need to do it all by yourself.
Y, I really hope Blizz will try to send a notice BEFORE banning the map, giving like, 24 days notice.
But I wont bother suggesting that on their forums...
But well eh, nothing to do here. That wont be changed, I mean their rule. They HAVE to removed that kind of content or its on their asses. They will be sued and shit...
Nexus Word Wars was banned from Battle.net, and I can't publish it again.
Blizzard just sent me an email explaining why:
Offense: Inappropriate Map published under this account was found to have contained:* Inappropriate words above some mobs (ex: dyke)
I didn't know what "dyke" means. I had to look up on the dictionary (It's when a woman loves another woman).
I can't publish again, what should I do?!? All my work is gone :(
I opened a thread about it on Battle.net forums: http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/832103874
Edit:
Blizzard sent me an email with the list of bad words that caused Nexus Word Wars to be banned. Apparently, there was more offensive words on my dictionary, such as "jesus."
You can see the full list on the link below:
http://forums.sc2mapster.com/general/general-chat/13745-blizzards-letter-about-nexus-word-wars/
Good luck on getting /B to be your personal army and proof read your 32000 word database.
by /B, I was talking about Blizzard of course ;P.
That sucks bro, I liked that map :(
I have a personal friend that swore by your map, its all he played when he logged onto bnet (he loved being the fastest typer) I hope you get this taken care of and re-uploaded.
I just sent a nice email to Blizzard explaining the situation and the fact that I had no control over the database. I didn't read the 32,000 words. Also, I asked them nicely if they could be more specific and tell me all the bad words.
@RodrigoAlves: Go
It is kinda shady that they didn't warn you first... have you checked your email that's attached to your blizzard account?
Pretty lame if they are insta banning for words that they don't have a list of.
World English Dictionary
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/dyke
dyke or dike 1 (daɪk)
— n
[C13: modification of Old English dic ditch; compare Old Norse dīki ditch]
dike or dike 1
— n
— vb
[C13: modification of Old English dic ditch; compare Old Norse dīki ditch]
Simple. Its your fault for not checking all the words. Its a lot of work, but yeah, you have to. Germany's version of Wolfenstein still had a swastika on one texture. It was small, but it was there. Its banned here for games. They had to remove all their games from the stores.
In this case ... Blizz is the State/Law and you didn't watch out. Sucks, but that's how it works :\ And by now you should know how it works Rodrigo, I don't know one person on BNet that's so obsessed with Popularity and Map banning! D:
nevermind
I would have read over the word list and made sure, but you didn't ask.. DX
The map is connected to a DICTIONARY! Do you want me to read the whole dictionary? English isn't my first language, and I don't know what words Blizzard might consider offensive. You know, with all those bad words in the campaign...
Funny how they can ban you for an incidental word usage but not ban the people blatantly copying other maps. I'm looking at you Special Forces Extreme Pro Madness XXXXXXXXXXTREME!!!!11!!!!!
No that map doesn't exist yet. I give it a week.
If it were just for the word dyke this would be silly but that was just the example they gave, so it sounds like there were lots of inappropriate words and some people complained about it. Anyway, while it sucks it's not exactly an secret policy that you can't publish maps with certain words in them, and the fact that you pulled them algorithmically from a dictionary instead of writing them yourself doesn't change that. Intent doesn't really matter in this situation.
Now whether the rules are good ones is another matter entirely and personally I think they're fucking stupid, and I do sympathize with you.
Yes, because you can't complain about Blizz behavior, if you don't take care yourself first. Its your fault, not Blizzards.
Neither is it mine, but that's what you got google for. Urban Dict, Leo, etc. Or you could've just asked a native ;D
Nobody knows that for certain, I still believe it's someone rolling a /random. But you could've guessed what would happen if you link it to a dictionary without proof-reading. I guess there might be a lot more inappropriate stuff inside, if you look around. The Campaigns worst word might be "hell" or "ass", as far as I can remember. Oh, well. 12 year old can play SC2, what would we expect to happen?
All in all: Rework the word list, take your time to proof-read what you put inside and they will probably allow NWW again, if you crawl a little and play the obedient consumer.
@RodrigoAlves: Go
A possible plan of action:
Ask them for a list of banned words that appear in the map, or a global banned words list. One of three things will happen:
1. They reply and give it to you - great. Once you removed those words, follow up with them and tell them you removed them, and request an unban (with popularity if possible). Also post the list here for everyone's benefit.
2. They reply and don't give it to you - not as great. Tell them you removed the word "dyke", but give the perfectly reasonable argument that without them providing such a list you can't expect to check 32,000 words and it is possible someone will complain about some word again. Mention that you yourself did not know what "dyke" meant. Post their reply to the followup here.
3. They don't reply - terrible. I really hope this doesn't happen, because then you (and everyone who liked the map, and makers of any dictionary-dependent map) are really out of luck.
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ModeratorsHeya Rodrigo - I remember someone else getting banned a couple months ago - if you lookup "banned" on this site and/or b.net forums - you might find out what happened to the other guy long term. Also - as far as I know Blizzard only looks into maps when a few people click "Report Map - Offensive". Blizzard likely will not be capable of sending you a list of every word that they consider to be offensive - and even if they could, it would probably be considered poor taste - so they wouldn't anyway. (It's not very professional is what I mean.)
Also - I read a Blizz post a long time ago on the b.net forums that said something very similar to "The words we can use in our game and the words custom mappers can use are not the same."
The only explanation I can come up with to explain why Blizzard would be allowed to use some words like "ass" and "crap" etc etc and we can't is because at a certain point the game's T for Teen rating in America (or any rating in other countries that isn't already the equivalent of M for Mature) would be required to be bumped up to M (18+) and they could be breaking ESRB rules by allowing more of these curse words into custom maps.
I wish you luck - and if I remember correctly the guy who had his map banned ended up getting all his mapping privileges back but was warned that if he messed up again there would be more serious consequences.
I think Blizzard is a pretty understanding company for the most part and will sympathize with you for the most part - but at the same time you have to have the utmost maturity and professionalism with them. The part of the letter you made to them saying "I had no control over this." (the dictionary) sounds, unfortunately, like someone who doesn't want to take responsibility. As far as I know - any content posted by you to battle.net is completely under your control and no one elses. To say that you had no control over what -you- published is what sounds childish. BTW - I'm not saying this to be disrespectful to you Rodrigo, I'm just explaining how I interpret what you're saying to Blizzard so that you can improve your chances of a successful outcome with them.
The way I would have written a letter about this to Blizzard would have gone something like this.
Dear Blizzard - My map had access to a dictionary of 32,000 words. While I made sure that it did not contain common curse words - English is not my first language and I am not familiar with anywhere near this much vocabulary. Obviously there were words that some users found offensive and I apologize for this. If given the opportunity to repost my map I will do the following to remedy this problem. 1.Temporarily discontinue use of this dictionary and only use words that I know are not offensive. 2.Have people who are very well spoken in the english language remove any possibly offensive words from the 32,000 word database before using it again. Thank you for your time regarding this matter and again, I am very sorry for this. - Sincerely Rodrigo
Hope this helps.
Stuff I've worked on:
Carbot's StarCrafts Mod (2014-present) StarCraft 2 Hotkey Trainer (2010) | Mineralz Evolution (2011+) | Dungeon Legacy (2013+) | Phoenix TLMC 4 Entry (2014) Assisted: City of Tempest (2012) | BarCraft (2013) | Poker Defense (2014) and a few more.
lol
I can only laugh on things like this.
It always funny to see things getting banned fro swastika also.
"The word swastika is derived from the Sanskrit word svastika (in Devanagari स्वस्तिक), meaning any lucky or auspicious object, and in particular a mark made on persons and things to denote good luck"
So if I lets say take, Christ on cross a necklace (as my lucky charm) and try to conquer the world it would represent evil mark. lol
Boring! Make it a pink Unicorn! Now THAT would strike terror in the hearts of your enemies! :)
It's not about the origin or anything, but about what people link to that. The swastika world-widely is known to be the logo of the evil germenz dudes some 70 years ago.
This means that, unless you explicitely use it in it's original context, it'll be remembered as the Nazi's swastika and thus become offensive.
Same is when I say "You're gay". Everyone will regard "gay" as meaning "homosexual" and thus it's an insult/offense (unless I'm right lol). But gay also means "funny/strange".
So everytime I call someone gay I could just say that my intention was to call him a funny person. But that's nothing more than trying to get my head out of the sling.
Just remember the simple rule:
If it is widely considered offensive then it IS offensive, no matter how much you're trying to talk around the meaning.
@RodrigoAlves: Go
Weeell, actually yea. You're responsible for what your map contains, so you should've checked the words previously.
Sure, it's a lot of work, especially if you're not natively english (or if your vocabulary of swear words isn't as developed), but sadly it's your duty to do so.
Well, I hope that Blizzard will understand the mistake and allow you to filter out all bad words in order to upload it again.
PS: You can try to ask around for help. Post the list of all words somewhere and ask a couple of native English-speakers to take a look at it and find questionable words for you. No need to do it all by yourself.
You got the point there. Also, funky avatar lol.
Y, I really hope Blizz will try to send a notice BEFORE banning the map, giving like, 24 days notice.
But I wont bother suggesting that on their forums...
But well eh, nothing to do here. That wont be changed, I mean their rule. They HAVE to removed that kind of content or its on their asses. They will be sued and shit...