I’m making this forum thread because today my heart nearly broke. I want to talk about something very dear to me and as a Role Play server I would assume it would be very dear to you as well.
Most of us on this server Role Play and we take pride in the uniforms and colors and connect this all to a story within the lore. Many of us have spent years dedicating ourselves to our craft because it’s what we love.
I am in a guild named ‘The Scarlet Crusade’. This guild was formed in 2014. Over the years it enjoyed times of Role Play activity and others it was dormant. Lately, a new found love for the guild emerged. And with it’s emergence arose countless possibilities for enjoyment and immersion for our Role Players.
Friends we’ve made over ten years ago resubbed and came together becaues of the friendships made. They know the love the organizers of this guild pour in for their enjoyment.
Today my heart was broken when I logged into the game to find that our guild name was force changed. Now, I read some where back that Blizzard has some ToS about naming your guild after a faction.
I once tried to make the guild ‘The Black Hand’ years ago and it was blocked. I didn’t understand why so I created a ticket and spoke to a kind GM about it. Yet this really worried me since the majority of the guilds on Argent Dawn that Role Play have some form of this too.
If our guild name can be force changed then so can yours. I wouldn’t want to see your heart broken over something like this either.
I hope with this thread we can show our support to one another as Role Players and come together over something good for once instead of tearing at each other.
Not too shocked really, I had this same issue as a kid back in Wotlk when I briefly made a Silver Hand guild, logged in like a week later to see that the name had been voided or w/e due to breaking the rule talking like 12 years ago or something now, its just one of those things, if your gunna have a lore faction guild you just gotta slightly tweek the name from the “official” name of that lore faction.
This is unfortunately a tale as old as Argent Dawn itself, and its genuinely difficult to understand Blizzards stance on it; they create this beautiful, amazing story and world for us to build our characters in, but punish us for making guilds too closely related to those stories. It’s lunacy. Here’s hoping that some sense can be seen.
Even in tweaking it would seem it still is breaking ToS. From what I know the ToS refers to naming a guild after things in the Lore. But every guild I see when I walk around in Stormwind is carrying a guild tag relevant to the Lore. How many Stormwind guard guilds are there in their guild name? Or Argents? Even your example with the Silver Hand those guilds would be at risk too then.
Technically, if you have a guild name with any Lore attached to it you can be mass flagged and forced to change it.
Same goes for any guild name for that matter if the Blizzard response is automated.
If you love your guild name because it’s a reflection of you then I guess you should be prepared to lose it at any moment.
Yeah its bizarre that anyone would report it anyway but you do get some insanely jealous/petty people about, better off just not investing yourself into a specific lore faction guild tag, you can be a scarlet crusade guild without being called “The Scarlet Crusade”, its just one of those things we have to live with really.
Is anyone actually surprised by this? That rule has been around for years! On Steamwheedle Cartel, there used to be a guild called The Argent Crusade, and in WOTLK, it was force name changed to Argent Battalion for obvious reasons.
Naming your guild “The Scarlet Crusade” is just begging for someone to notice and force a name change.
Not having “The Scarlet Crusade” as your guild name isn’t going to stop you playing Scarlet Crusaders, and feeling ‘heartbroken’ over a name change from a name that you know blatantly copies the name of a faction in-game is hilarious.
This extends to player characters, too — if you call your character after an existing lore character, you can be prompted to name change in a similar fashion.
IIRC, the ruling only refers to direct copy-pastes of existing names like “The Argent Crusade”, “The Scarlet Crusade” and so on.
I think a little compassion wouldn’t hurt; it seems pretty clear to me that Dorn grew attached to the guild name and if he was unaware of Blizzard’s rulings then I can understand it’s a bit of a bummer to log in and suddenly be asked to change your guild’s name
Just to touch on this. Blizzard handles things reactionary.
Naming a character or guild directly the same thing as something in the lore has always been against the ToS. But they rely on reports.
So just because it lasted from 2014 until now, it doesn’t mean it was never a problem so to speak. It was always against the ToS, but you didn’t get actioned for it until now. Most likely because nobody reported it before.
Alas, it is petty. The rule is of course there for a reason. Instead, they should react by keeping the RP naming rules for Argent Dawn, instead of striking down less offensive names. But, it is of course not the end of the world.
Reading alot of these comments and it’s so cynical it feels like people forget the years of passion and investment people have put into the game and continue to put into the game. Hell some are here despite the troubles blizzard have gone through after years exactly because the game means that much more to them. I don’t get (understand) the need to play it all down to being nothing and absolutely s**t on those players.
Yes there’s being civil and an adult and mature, good stuff.
But we all had/ have hobbies we were/are passionate about just like someone collect stickers like the old days even now. Some compassion wouldn’t be too uncalled for.
Or are people that disillusioned these days, devoid of hopes and dreams?
No-one is shocked by this, this thread is about how inane these rules are in the first place from where I’m standing. That’s what these guys are questioning. It doesn’t make sense for a group of role-players, role-playing as members of the Argent Crusade to have that guild name taken away from them, and it doesn’t make sense in this case either. If Blizzard aren’t okay with faction-based guild names, then they should take far better care with blacklisting them from being made in the first place.
Honestly, it’s just corporate soullessness at work. They can’t have you make a Scarlet Crusade guild, make a fansite/forum/art for said guild and let you give any remote indication that you have any ownership whatsoever of their as of yet not copyrighted Scarlet Crusade.
Games Workshop is similarly tumour laden with obsessive name policing just for maximized profits.
Blizzard never openly reach out and pull your name out of thin air, that’s a myth.
Names do expire though, after 4 expansions I believe?
Jerks abusing the automated report system is the reason. Make a ticket and they’ll get banned and restore your guild tag/character name if you get a good GM.