I'll keep this factual because the facts are wild enough on their own.
My guild leader has played GW2 for over ten years. His account name is Terd Ferguson — yes, the SNL reference. Every character he owns carries some version of that name. In ten years: zero moderation actions, zero flags, played alongside ANet staff multiple times without incident.
Last Friday during WvW reset, our small guild was fighting against the btd Battletoads alliance — a significantly larger group. We made a tactical call to break off and cap a smaller objective. In the process, our GL captured a tower that had been held by an ANet developer, who we were told was running on the map with Battletoads that evening.
Within a short window after that: 3-day ban, ultimatum to rename every character before he can return.
He filed a formal appeal. ANet has not responded.
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Here's where it gets interesting.
ANet's naming policy prohibits names that infringe on trademarks and copyrighted IP. Battletoads is a registered Microsoft/Rare franchise. It's trademarked. That alliance name appears to be a direct violation of the exact policy being used to ban my guild leader.
So the current situation is:
- A 10-year-old SNL reference gets actioned after a mass report during a heated WvW fight
- The alliance that filed those reports is running under a Microsoft-owned trademark
- A formal appeal has been filed and ignored
- ANet's own dialogue writers have used stronger language than "Terd" in official voiced content (looking at you, End of Dragons)
I've posted on the official forums as well if you want the full breakdown: [link to your forum post here]
He's ready to quit a game he's loved for a decade. I'm not ready to let that happen without at least making sure people know what occurred.
Has anyone successfully navigated a coordinated mass report situation with ANet? And can someone explain to me how "Terd Ferguson" violates naming policy while "Battletoads" doesn't?