In light of the other thread which discusses whether things should be censored, I am making this its own thread as I believe it to be its own discussion.
Filters in games are a delicate thing, and failing to implement them properly just encourages people to find ways to work around them. Therefore, the best filter is one which encourages players to use the filter over going around it.
The game Town of Salem uses a filter which blocks the “especially bad” words but replaces more common swear words and insults with 19th century insults and words which come across as being more comedic then anything. This filter has actually encouraged players to work within and play with the filter in a happy, and fun way.
This is the ideal filter for a game. One which blocks the very bad words, but encourages players to use the filter for a good time. It works wonders for Town of Salem, and I have no doubt that it would work wonders for WoW.
Censorship is bad! I should be allowed to say whatever I want, whenever I want, to whomever I want! We live in a free country where we’re allowed to do whatever we want without fear of repercussions!
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to yell “Movie!” in a fire house…
Mature filter, Report and Ignore. If these tools are not enough to defend ones sensibilities then the rest of the internet and life in general is going to be an incredibly rough time.
Self moderation wasn’t good enough, apparently a company has to take the moral high ground to be acceptable in todays society, by moderating us like we are children.
Or folks could learn to use the ignore feature. It works wonders. Being proactive about your personal experience in the game isn’t a bad thing, more people need to stop depending on Blizzard to moderate and take charge of their own personal experience.
Filters exist as a layer of protection, preventing you from seeing curse words and other offensive things (like racial slurs). But let’s be clear about something, filter or no filter, it’s never been okay to use those words in game. Ever.
It’s always been reportable and you have always been able to be silenced for saying them. Folks who have the filter on can still report you even if they don’t see what you say.
Rather than Blizzard making adjustments to the filter and making curse words and slurs turn into ‘more acceptable curse words and slurs’ people should honestly just stop using the words in the first place. Which is what this change aims to do by blocking the most egregious words from even being able to be sent out to various channels.
I am an adult, 34 to be exact, been playing this game since I was 18, so I don’t see how ad homiem is going to help you.
End of the day, these are the rules Blizzard has set down. Those rules have not changed. Those words have never been acceptable, that’s it, end of story. And while you are right that it’s common place in society to say those words, it’s a different matter entirely to type them. Saying them can be spur of the moment. It can slip out even if you don’t mean to say it. Typing it however is a concious decision. One that you didn’t have to do, you chose to do it and that choice does come with consequences if you’re reported.
Just because you want something to be the case, doesn’t make it so. In reality, you have no say in what other people find offensive. And there’s no hope of that ever changing.
See also: “Words only mean what you intend them to mean”. That’s simply not the case. If it were, you could go around shouting racial slurs and pretend that’s just how you greet people.
Oh, and absolutely no one except nobodies are suggesting there’s no difference between racial slurs and swearing. I only support the censoring of the former personally.
In overwatch it’s generally frowned on to say ggez after a match. If you’re unaware it means “Good game, easy” meaning you were easily beaten. So Blizz changed it to say some silly message when you typed ggez
Player response? ezgg or gg (on one line) ez on the next. I still just report everyone for it
or gg (on one line) ez on the next. I still just report everyone for it 
